Call to Action via Women Organized to Resist and Defend. Occupiers across the country are organizing in solidarity; we encourage everyone who can to attend! In NYC, we will gather at 47th St & 6th Ave at 1pm.

On Women’s Equality Day, August 26 – on the eve of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, which will be immediately followed by the Democratic National Convention - women and their allies will take to the streets of Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, Chicago and other cities across the country in defense of women's rights.

August 26th - Women’s Equality Day - commemorates the 1920 passage of the 19th amendment, giving women the right to vote. Winning the right to vote was an important victory, but the struggle for full equality continues. Celebrate Women’s Equality Day by taking to the streets and demanding full equality now. Honor the women who fought for the rights we’ve won and continue the struggle for full equality.

Many women voted for President Obama believing he would stand up for women’s rights. But he has compromised with the anti-choice forces on many occasions. When Republicans opposed a 2009 provision for family planning, he dropped it. In 2011, the White House took the unprecedented step of overruling the FDA in order to keep Plan B out of the reach of women under 18. While President Obama is not a right-wing pro-lifer, we cannot count on him or any politician to defend our rights. In fact, in order to reach a budget compromise with Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner in July 2011, President Obama said, "I'll give you abortion in D.C." Meaning, low-income women in the District of Columbia would be prevented from receiving Medicaid assistance offered by the D.C. government for abortion procedures.

Women’s reproductive rights continue to be slashed at the state level. Legal restrictions on abortions tripled from 2010 to 2011. 92 new abortion restrictions were enacted in 2011. In 2011, there were 114 reported violent attacks against abortion providers. Clinics that provide vital services for millions of working-class women are under siege. More than 55 percent of reproductive age women now live in states that are “hostile” to abortion rights. (Guttenmacher Institute)

So while they’re convening and concocting new ways to attack our rights and our lives, let’s come together in the streets to stand up and fight back!

There will be mass demonstrations in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities around the country. We will mobilize thousands in the streets to show the world that there is a new women’s movement rising and we will not go back.

We believe that access to reproductive choice – the basic right of women to control our own bodies – is a fundamental right and must be defended. We believe in equality. We support working women. We are tired of the right wing trying to turn back the clock and take our hard-won rights away. All people who support equality and choice should organize with us and help these actions grow.

If you can’t make it to protest in Tampa and Charlotte, join or organize a protest in your community. There is a long, proud tradition of women in the United States mobilizing and fighting to win equality and respect. Let’s continue this legacy this summer!

The Republican National Convention is taking place in Tampa starting August 27th. The Coalition to March on the RNC encourages you to join us and stand in solidarity as we march at the RNC to fight back against the political elite and the 1% agenda.

As of now, we are a Coalition uniting groups from around the country to say NO to this political system that only works for the 1% and therefore are marching at the Republican National Convention to let our voices be heard. Together we stand to march for good jobs, healthcare, affordable education, equality and peace. On top of this, we stand against all parties of the 1% and have also endorsed the March on Wall St. South, who will protest the DNC in Charlotte, NC. For too long people have suffered while the rich got richer. We say money for human needs, not on wars overseas and corporate greed. Together, we are planning a 5000 strong march at the first day of the convention on Aug 27th. We have hundreds of national and local organizations such as Code Pink, Veterans for Peace, Get EQUAL, Dream defenders, United National Antiwar Coalition, Occupy Tampa, Occupy USF, Occupy Pensacola, Occupy Tallahassee and more (See here for full list) endorsing us and we would love for all Occupy Assemblies to come down to Tampa to join and/or endorse our coalition. Only through unity is there strength.

We will be encouraging people to sleep at Occupy Tampa's Voice of Freedom park or at these parks that allow camping for a nominal fee [Editor's note: Please be aware that a tropical storm system, potentially a hurricane, is expected to effect Tampa during the Convention. The RNC isn't telling people not to go to Florida, so neither are we. But you should check with organizers about alternatives in case of flooding.] We will be rallying at Perry Harvey Sr. Park, located at 1200 N. Orange Ave Tampa, FL, at 10 am and will be marching from the park through the streets of Tampa to "Protest RNC Square" at around noon. See here for the parade route.

Thanks and please e-mail us at marchonthernc@gmail.com with any questions or concerns.

Also visit:
http://www.marchonthernc.com
https://twitter.com/marchonthernc
http://marchonthernc.tumblr.com/

In solidarity, -Coalition to March on the RNC-

For more info about the RNC and the Occupy movement's plans, see also: Occupy Tampa's Official Statement Regarding the RNC

#S17: 3 Days of Education, Celebration & Resistance

Will you stand with the 99% this September? Our one year anniversary is coming up soon.

The best way to follow what’s happening is to register for updates and let us know what you’re interested in. There will be something for everyone!

Occupy these Actions and Assemblies

Stop the Spectra Pipeline: There are daily actions happening at the construction site for the pipeline that will bring fracked gas through residential neighborhoods in Lower Manhattan and the Rockaways.. You can learn more about the issues, find actions that suit your schedule and interests more at: http://occupythepipeline.blogspot.com/

Thursday, August 23th, 6:00pm
Tech Ops Tools for Activists
33 Flatbush Avenue
Join us for an Occupy Tech Training in WordPress & S17NYC.org. If this is your first Occupy event, please introduce yourself by email before attending the meeting (tech@nycga.net). Feel free bring food and/or beverages.

Friday, August 24th, 8:00pm
S17 Affinity Group Spokes
Tompkins Square Park, under the Hare Krishna Tree
Let's celebrate the death of Wall Street and the Birth of an alternative. An affinity group shares trust and a political or tactical goal. If you don't have an affinity group you should come to learn and meet people. We will be offering an affinity group training at 5pm before the meeting begins.

Friday, August 24th, 8:00pm
Pub Crawls for the 99%
Location changes every week: check the link for more info
Join our roving outreach party as we hit a new neighborhood every week. We’ve got music, flyers, games, wanted posters and more. Bring wigs, colorful costumes, flyers and talk trash about Wall Street.

Saturday, August 25th, 2:00pm
S17 Convergence Meeting
The Garibaldi Statue at Washington Square Park, 1 Washington Square
Join us for our third meeting for planning convergence components for September 17th and the preceding weekend (September 15-16).

Saturday, August 25th, 2:00pm
Occupy the Pen: Panel Discussion
Governors Island, New York, NY
Four writers will read from their work about Occupy Wall Street and discuss their experiences writing on, as well as participating in, the Occupy movement.

Saturday, August 25, 3:00pm
Debt Burn Inferno
Location TBA
We are coming together to refuse this system of inherited debt. Together, we refuse a life of servitude. We burn our debt.

Saturday, August 25th, 12:00pm
Occupy Town Square 9: Sunset Park
Sunset Park, Brooklyn, NY
Come to Sunset Park for the 9th of the Occupy Town Square series of pop-up occupations. Our Hall of Fame Tax Dodgers baseball team will be playing a game, as well as musicians, workshops, immigration lawyers, face painting for kids, food, kite making, banner making, t-shirt stenciling, and then teach ins on sustainable food, politics, and police brutality. We will also be celebrating with the Rent Strikers of 46th Street who recently got their abusive slum lord's 'super' evicted from their building...Come one come all!!

Saturday, August 25th, 7:00pm
Ballet at the Barricades
The Wall Street Bull
Occupy Dance presents a peaceful protest on Wall St., inviting all to join us twice a week in a full ballet warm up and creative practice. Help absorb the police barricades into our action, celebrate the iconic image of the ballerina on the bull, exercise our freedom of expression, and ground us in solidarity with the 99%.

Sunday, August 26th, 12:00pm-4:00pm
S17 Work Session
33 Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn
Got some work to do for S17? Join teams from across OWS as we work on all the exciting stuff that needs doing for S17: websites, volunteer coordination, calendar updates, prep for the Monday Spokes meeting and anything else.

Monday, August 27th, 5:00pm-6:30pm
S17 Mobilization Training
220 E. 23rd Street, Manhattan
Interested in building for S17? Do you want to get more people involved in OWS Anniversary weekend events? Come learn the basics of how to do effective outreach, recruitment and mobilization for September 17th and the weekend before.

Monday, August 27th, 6:00pm-10:00pm
S17 Planning/Spokes Meeting
220 E. 23rd Street, Manhattan
Come and bring your creative juices to help with activities for the weekend leading up to Occupy’s one-year-anniversary on September 17th.

Midnight Every Night until September 16th
#YesWeCamp 2.0 #PACAttack
Union Square
Join for a month of tactical #SleepfulProtests starting August 16th and culminating on the eve of Occupy Wall Street’s one-year-anniversary on September 16th. Assemble at #OccupyUnionSq for Eviction Theater to connect with sleeping groups each night at Midnight.

For Text Message alerts on your cellphone about daily events, actions, and important information, sign up for the ComHub SMS blasts by texting @owscom to 23559.

One year ago last September we began an occupation that pinpointed the Villain in the broad nightmare that has become of the American Dream: Wall Street.

To commemorate and build upon our collective call that ‘enough is enough’, join us this September 15 -17 in a mass mobilization of the 99%.

Register for #S17 to plug into actions across the country and stay posted about transportation and housing for the Wall Street convergence.

We will continue to put our bodies on the line to expose how the 1% are controlling our fates; how we are drowning in loans, student debt, fraudulent mortgages. That our democracy itself is being sold to the highest bidder, while our environment is turned into just another toxic asset.

It is an uphill battle, but the very essence of Occupy exhibits how you are not a loan. Or alone. And that together, we are unstoppable.

Find out how you can pitch in on an existing project or register an action you already have in the works now.

They can steal your job, your home, your freedom, your vote. They can’t steal our ability to dream together.

Refuse to live in fear, believe another world is possible. Register and join us for #S17.

– from the ‘Your Inbox: Occupied’ team

Bain Capital represents the epitome of crony capitalism and the corrupting influence of money in politics. Romney worked with Salvadoran oligarchs to initially fund the corporation. These same oligarchs financed right-wing death squads that killed over 35,000 Salvadorans, and politically supported the military dictatorships there. This resulted in the death of over 75,000 people.

Bain Capital recently bought the Sensata plant in Freeport, Illinois. The company was profitable and competitive, but Bain Capital decided to move the plant to China and lay-off all the American workers. To add insult to injury, Bain Capital then brought over Chinese workers and made the soon-to-be-laid-off American workers train their replacements. The American workers had to watch people dismantle their factory and ship it, piece by piece, to China.

Bain Capital bought HCA (Hospital Corporation of America) after HCA settled with various government agencies for over $2 billion dollars due to a massive medicare fraud settlements. HCA seems to have not changed its ways. Recently, whistleblowers have revealed that, under pressure for profits and high returns on investment, HCA doctors misdiagnosed heart conditions and performed unnecessary heart surgeries in order to drive up business at several of its hospitals. After the whistleblowers exposed these dangerous and unnecessary surgeries, HCA fired them.

Earlier this year a Bain Capital subsidiary, OSI (Carabba’s, Outback Steakhouse, Bonefish Grill, Flemmings, and Roy’s), tried to push a bill through the Florida Legislature that would cut server’s pay in half from $4.65 an hour to $2.13 an hour. Bloomin’ Brands (formerly OSI) made millions this year after a successful IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, all the while advocating to reduce worker’s pay.

In 2010, the DeepHorizon oil rig spilled oil over the entire Gulf Coast. Fish, birds, and other dead animals started washing up on shore. BP had hired Bain Capital to give financial advice on how to cut costs and raise profits. Bain advised BP to make major cuts in safety-related expenses. Regulators cited these very cost-cutting measures as the main cause of the disaster.

Mitt Romney co-founded, served as CEO, and continues to own a major stake in Bain Capital. With the corrupting influence of money in politics, does it really surprise anyone that Romney is running for President?

We will peacefully protest Bain Capital on August 30th which is the day that Mitt Romney will give his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, FL. We will use this opportunity to protest and raise awareness about Bain Capital’s business practices. Hopefully this will pressure Bain Capital to behave ethically.

This statement reached consensus by the Occupy Tampa General Assembly on 8/17/2012.

More Info:

Occupy Tampa
ShutDownBainCapital.org
Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (organizers of Romneyville encampment in Tampa)
Facebook Event
FB event for Shut Down Bain action in Chicago

Some Bain Capital Companies:

Outback Steakhouse
Carrabba’s Italian Grill
Bonefish Grill
Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar
Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine
Burlington Coat Factory
Clear Channel Communications
Dunkin’ Donuts
Baskin Robbins
Gymboree
Hospital Corporation of America
Michael’s Craft Store
Toys’R’Us
Staples
The Princeton Review
Work ‘N Gear