occupyallstreets: Wall Street Occupation Shifts From Parks To Sidewalks Near Stock Exchange For the past four nights, protesters affiliated with Occupy Wall Street have camped out on sidewalks near the New York Stock Exchange, sleeping outside banks and handing out literature to financial district workers by day. Why hasn’t the NYPD swept in and crushed this dangerous nonviolent political demonstration? It seems Bloomberg’s army may be stymied (for now, at least) by a 2000 court ruling upholding protesters’ right to sleep on the sidewalk for political purposes, provided they don’t take up more than half the sidewalk. Justin Wedes, a spokesperson for Occupy Wall Street, tells us, “We are bringing the truth about inequity in this country to the belly of the beast, so that the 1%—and the many 99%’ers—who live and work on Wall Street can see what Wall Street’s agenda of greed and corruption has done to Main Street.” Last night, according to a new @SleepOnWallSt Twitter feed, over 80 demonstrators spent the night on the sidewalk on Wall Street and Nassau Street. In a video interview, one demonstrator explained further: What we’re doing here is kind of a complete return to what we originally planned on doing [at Zuccotti Park]. Union Square was kind of a healing process because we were beaten up and sick of Wall Street. We’re still sick of Wall Street. We can handle it in small doses, but now we’re back on Wall Street. This time we’re not committing any form of civil disobedience, we’re in full compliance with the law, we’re not disorderly in any way, we’re just providing silent messages. And it’s a really interesting phenomenon. We’ll eventually spread out to all of Wall Street. I kind of think of it like we’re a tumor and we’re going to keep growing and growing, in a cancerous sense… Of course, capitalism’s the real cancer. As the “Sleep on Wall Street” cancer spreads to the surrounding area in the Spring weather, it will be interesting to see how Bloomberg and NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly react. After all, the NYPD has no problem acting extra-judicially to stifle dissent and dealing with the fallout in court later. If they lose, the City can always just cut a check to settle any pesky lawsuits! But down in DC, Occupy protesters camping outside banks have already been dragged off in handcuffs for engaging in “sleepful protest.” Source
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occupyallstreets:

Wall Street Occupation Shifts From Parks To Sidewalks Near Stock Exchange

For the past four nights, protesters affiliated with Occupy Wall Street have camped out on sidewalks near the New York Stock Exchange, sleeping outside banks and handing out literature to financial district workers by day. Why hasn’t the NYPD swept in and crushed this dangerous nonviolent political demonstration? It seems Bloomberg’s army may be stymied (for now, at least) by a 2000 court ruling upholding protesters’ right to sleep on the sidewalk for political purposes, provided they don’t take up more than half the sidewalk.

Justin Wedes, a spokesperson for Occupy Wall Street, tells us, “We are bringing the truth about inequity in this country to the belly of the beast, so that the 1%—and the many 99%’ers—who live and work on Wall Street can see what Wall Street’s agenda of greed and corruption has done to Main Street.” Last night, according to a new @SleepOnWallSt Twitter feed, over 80 demonstrators spent the night on the sidewalk on Wall Street and Nassau Street. In a video interview, one demonstrator explained further:

What we’re doing here is kind of a complete return to what we originally planned on doing [at Zuccotti Park]. Union Square was kind of a healing process because we were beaten up and sick of Wall Street. We’re still sick of Wall Street. We can handle it in small doses, but now we’re back on Wall Street. This time we’re not committing any form of civil disobedience, we’re in full compliance with the law, we’re not disorderly in any way, we’re just providing silent messages. And it’s a really interesting phenomenon. We’ll eventually spread out to all of Wall Street. I kind of think of it like we’re a tumor and we’re going to keep growing and growing, in a cancerous sense… Of course, capitalism’s the real cancer.

As the “Sleep on Wall Street” cancer spreads to the surrounding area in the Spring weather, it will be interesting to see how Bloomberg and NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly react. After all, the NYPD has no problem acting extra-judicially to stifle dissent and dealing with the fallout in court later. If they lose, the City can always just cut a check to settle any pesky lawsuits! But down in DC, Occupy protesters camping outside banks have already been dragged off in handcuffs for engaging in “sleepful protest.”

Source

(via socialuprooting)

DHS Monitoring OWS: The FOIA Docs

The first in a long series of Freedom of Information Act Requests (FOIA) was responded to by the Department of Homeland Security. Truthout was the first news organization to receive and post the information it received.

From DHS Turns Over Occupy Wall Street Documents to Truthout:

Click here to go to the documents.

This report has been updated with new information gleaned from the cache of documents.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) closely monitored the Occupy Wall Street movement, providing agency officials with threat assessments, regular updates about protests taking place throughout the country, responding to internal requests for intelligence on the group and mining Twitter and other social media for information about Occupy’s activities, according to hundreds of pages of internal documents DHS released to Truthout in response to our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

Eric Neuschaefer, a DHS FOIA program specialist, said the agency expects to release a second set of OWS-related documents to Truthout, the first news organization to file a FOIA request with DHS for OWS records, sometime in mid-April. He added that DHS will release files on a “rolling” basis once they are processed and cleared by DHS component offices.

More information

Homeland Security Monitored OWS, Denies Coordinating Evictions, Gothamist

DHS Turns Over Occupy Wall Street Documents to Truthout, Scoop.co.nz

FOIA Request Shows Feds Were Gathering Intel On Occupy Wall Street BEFORE The First Tent Went Up!, Democratic Underground

SUV Burning Spurred Internal Debate at DHS on Its Role Regarding Occupy, First Amendment Activity, truthout

Documents Show NYPD Spied on Liberal Political Groups, In These Times

March 16 & 17, 2012 Global Actions: #OccupyMonsanto

Today and tomorrow 30 actions in the US, and many more around the world!

Shut Down Monsanto and the Anti-Monsanto Project called for global days of action to shut down Monsanto on Friday and Saturday March 16 & 17.

Global Call to Action

Here’s the current list of actions:

Find a Monsanto location near you.

If you can’t make it to the protests in March, stay tuned for Occupy Monsanto, September 17, 2012.

#OccupyTheMachine - Engage! - #DGR #OWS #A99 #OpESR #ch34 #Revolution

h4x0r3d:

Occupy the Machine – Stop the 1%, Literally

Our Bodies Will Be Our Demand


Photo Credit: Not a DGR Action. Earth First and Rising Tide blockaded a gas-fired power plant construction site in Palm Beach County, Florida in 2008. http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2008/02/19/blockade-shuts-down-south-florida-power-plant-construction-27-arrested/

Click here to download this document as a pamphlet to distribute anywhere.

Occupy the Machine is an ad hoc umbrella group using serious, sustained direct action campaigns to shut down major targets that destroy the land and exploit humans, permanently.

Subscribe to this website to be notified when the target is announced. And, pass it on…Occupy the Machine has started.

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The Occupy Movement is beautiful. We support it and though we are small, we are participating all over the country. We invite all occupiers to read, give feedback, and if you feel moved to do so to present this at a General Assembly or committee meeting near you.

We invite you to imagine, as many of you already probably have, if thousands of people occupied local refineries, roads, ports, oil and mining extraction sites, etc. – in other words, imagine if people occupied the locations where the 1% destroy the land and exploit humans, all for profit.

Imagine their stock prices falling, their cash flow being interrupted, their ability to get loans and/or expand “production” – a euphemism for converting living beings into dead products – finished.

Imagine if we were able to stop them, stop the 1%. Literally. Not symbolically.
We think it can be done if we all do it together. We think it can be done if we all figure out how to do it and if we are willing to make the necessary sacrifices, together.

Here’s one way we could start:

Though we are all part of the 99%, not all of us are impacted the same way.

First and foremost we recognize that nonindigenous people in the US are occupying stolen land in an ongoing genocide that has lasted for centuries.

We affirm our responsibility to stand with indigenous communities who want support, to risk our lives, and give everything we can to protect the land without which none of us have anything.

We also recognize and stand in solidarity with communities of people of color who are also disproportionately impacted by environmental racism, capitalism, and a system of white supremacy.

We recognize that women combat a system of sexism and patriarchy, and we commit to supporting the struggle for gender equality, which is the basis of equality for all.

Our focus will be to stand in solidarity with local indigenous communities, people of color communities, and women in struggle—ask if they would like support and what that support would look like, and share some version of this overall strategy.

Then, based on this information and in collaboration with local communities if all agree, each Occupy General Assembly would decide what they want to target. Or they would call on people to form local affinity groups and those groups would decide the local targets on which they would focus.

Many local affinity groups could conceivably attempt to occupy multiple targets. Strategically, however, it will likely be more successful if occupiers focus on one or two major targets – such as Tar Sands refineries, fracking, coal plants etc. The idea is that if we can successfully shut down a few major targets all over the country, one or two targets per region, people more broadly will see the power they all have and then more targets can be taken on.

To be clear, what we’re envisioning here would mean a massive escalation. It would mean hundreds of thousands of people all over the country leaving behind school, jobs, family, and comfort, to really go for it. To not settle for less than victory. To leave behind symbolic action for good.

One obstacle to making this happen, however, is that as soon as we announce where we would occupy, they would come and would likely remove us immediately, especially if we don’t have enough people there. They won’t want the 1% to lose a damn penny. So, we don’t tell them where we’re going ahead of time. But if we don’t say where we’re going ahead of time, then we can’t get people out by the thousands – and we’re gonna need thousands of people to make this work.

So, here’s an idea: We announce, big time, that some of us are planning on occupying the sites of direct exploitation and destruction. And we say that we’ll need as many of the people who love the Occupy Movement and who are sick and tired of being sick and tired, to come out decisively and to not plan on going home for as long as it takes.

We’d ask all those people to start preparing right away, have their stuff packed, tents, food, money, and a plan for how they can participate and be able to stay for as long as it takes (we’d encourage people to ask their community to support them so they could go for as long it takes) so that as soon as the local Occupy groups would announce targets, perhaps through text messages and other means, those people would be ready to go to the targets at a moment’s notice. This kind of tactic has been used successfully in the past to get lots of people to a location for a blockade while keeping the cops on the run and always one step behind. If we can get enough people to the different locations before the state gets there, we have a chance at holding it until even more people can come.

If there are enough of us who are willing to make the necessary commitment and sacrifice, we believe we need nothing more than our bodies, community support, and the will to keep going to:

Occupy the Machine – Stop the 1%, Literally

Here are some other points that could be helpful:

1) Start Together – The key as we see it would be to start on the same day so that they’re overwhelmed with people going to different locations. They may seem all-powerful sometimes, but they can’t be everywhere at once.

2) Sustained Blockades – this would mean doing what Occupy does so well, stay, day after day after day after day… as long as we can go. For every person they drag away to jail, we must bring ten more to replace them every day. We will cost them as much money as we can with our bodies and our determination. Blockaders will blockade both inside and outside of targets when possible. And they will blockade roads and ports to stop supply lines.

3) Demonstrators/Community Encampments – for those who cannot blockade, the role of the community will be crucial. Demonstrators encamped on the target’s land or nearby will provide support to the blockaders and will be crucial to success.

4) Building Communities of Nonviolent Resistance – For those involved in this who lack a strong, unified community, we must very deliberately build the concrete infrastructure for a community of resistance to support these struggles. This is already happening in many ways. But a systematic approach to creating networks of people who are devoted to supporting occupiers could be the key to success. This will mean legal defense funds and a network of lawyers who will work pro bono or for a reduced fee. This will also mean arranging transition housing – places for people to stay after they are released if they are jailed for long periods of time. It will mean relentless fundraising so that those who lose their jobs, take significant time off from work, or who go to prison for long periods will have funds to support themselves and provide for their families. It will mean creating free medical care networks so that people in the movement will have access to health care. It will mean creating food networks to provide food for those who are protesting day after day, and for families of those who are imprisoned or lose their jobs. It will mean creating networks of childcare. It will mean creating a transportation network, including carpools, donations of frequent flyer miles, movement cars and vans, caravans, and buses, to be available for the kind of sustained civil disobedience actions we will need. And last and most important it will mean simple companionship – the incalculable gift of camaraderie and friendship, the healing nature of laughter and hugs, the deliberate creation of a network of communities of love spread far and wide – healers, body workers, artists, musicians, actors, facilitators, counselors, those called by spirit, nonviolent communicators, restorative justice facilitators – all of us will be needed – to see us all through the hard times that will come if we do this kind of sustained direct action.

5) Jail Solidarity – rather than trying to construct civil disobedience actions so people spend the least amount of time in jail and cooperate with the police and court system to the full extent, we will follow the lead of those who have come before us. Instead, those who can, will use jail solidarity as a tactic. Jail solidarity means that those who get arrested will not bring identification with them, won’t give their name, and will not cooperate while in jail. As more and more people are arrested, the jailers and those they protect will not know what to do. At first they will threaten, try to divide, offer deals, or even beat people or put them in solitary confinement to break their wills. But those who will get arrested will know this going in and will commit to maintaining their solidarity. They can’t jail us all and if we don’t cooperate the system will not work, if there are thousands of us. Their actions will further highlight the illegitimacy and cruelty of this system that lets the CEO of BP walk free but will jail and do worse to those who are only trying to protect life. Jail solidarity combined with more arrests, demonstrations, encampments, community involvement, and a network of communities of nonviolent resistance offering material support are unstoppable.

6) Escalation: A Promise – Too often when we don’t succeed, we don’t escalate. Too often when they escalate their attacks against the planet and all living beings, we don’t escalate. (Have you noticed that all of our victories are temporary and defensive, and all our losses permanent and offensive?) No more. If our actions do not succeed, we promise to escalate. We will regroup, reorganize, and go for more than before, risking more and holding nothing back. We promise they will lose more money and we will get stronger and fight harder.

This is our chance. We can use our energy and love to stop the 1% who are literally killing us, stealing from us, and destroying the only home we have. Our bodies will be our demands. And with our bodies, we will stop the 1% together, permanently.

These are just thoughts. Not a plan. But we hope it’s the start of a conversation about how we can do some version of this. The 1% don’t really own or control anything. They do what they do because they have guns and we allow them to. But that can all change.

With love and resistance,

Occupy the Machine

Find Occupy the Machine on Facebook here

Contact Occupy the Machine via email: occupythemachine[at]riseup[dot]net

What we’re doing …
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What we’re doing …

(via w-a-y-s-e-e-r)

girtabaix:

Message To Humanity: The Time is Now - The Revolution Is Coming! (by tradgedyandhope)

(Please Share) A revolution is coming to America.. Not Just America but the World, people are waking up and finally realising how the world works and that their rights as free human beings are slowly being taken away from them. 
The 99% are rising up!

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies. As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power.

We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known. They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage. They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses. They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.

They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization. They have profited off of the torture, confinement,and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay andsafer working conditions. They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay. They have influenced the courts to achievethe same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.

They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance. They have sold our privacy as a commodity.They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press. They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit. They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce. They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them. They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil. They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit. 

They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media. They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad. They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts. To the people of the world, we, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power. Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.
Join us and make your voices heard!

The statement issued from Zuccotti Park, by the general assembly, at Occupy Wall Street.

Students Support legal action against #Monsanto

February 3rd, 2012 | By Emma Sinai-Yunker

Occupy Grinnell members and allies gathered outside of the local Monsanto Plant with the purpose of a non-violent protest against the large corporation and its effects on organic farming on Tuesday, Jan. 31. The same day, in New York, members of around 60 family farms, seed businesses and organic agricultural organizations were facing Monsanto as plaintiffs. The lawsuit is led by the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA).

“Monsanto has had a huge monopoly for a long time,” said local farmer and Grinnell College library assistant Chris Gaunt, “and it just so happens that there is one in Grinnell. We’re really here today in solidarity with the whole group of organic farmers facing Monsanto in New York.”

“We’re here, and we’ve reached out to other Occupy groups in Iowa to say, ‘Look, we’re here in support of the Organic Seed Growers and Traders,’” added Grinnell alum and Occupy Grinnell front man Aaron Wagner ’99.

The suit tells Monsanto to keep their GMOs out of organic farm areas, so that (largely natural and unintentional) contamination will cease. Monsanto genetically engineers seeds for the most common crops grown in Iowa such as corn and soy. These genetic alterations to the plant’s genome can allow them to be directly sprayed with herbicides and not be affected.

More on Scarlet & Black

Dead Prez @ #OccupyDC HD (by 3AMVideo)