via SaveOaklandSchools.org

The Lakeview Sit-In and People's School Presents:

A Celebration and Convergence for Public Education

featuring Boots Riley, Digital Martyrs, Dregs One, Jabari Shaw, Eni, and many political speakers, including YOU.
This will be a Mass Rally to discuss how to fight the attacks on public education. Lakeview is only the first step... It's Time to Fight!

When: Sunday, July 15th @ 5PM
Where: Splash Pad Park @ Lakeview and Grand, Oakland CA

Join us to celebrate the Lakeview Sit-In, Plan How We Can Move Forward and how YOU can be part of it...

tags: oakland

Anarchopanada, a fixture at the Montreal general strike demonstrations, faces off with the police to defuse tensions in the wake of Quebec's draconian anti-protest legislation

If you live in New York and would like to get involved in the anti-debt struggle and solidarity actions with Quebec, join the Strike Debt Assembly at noon this Sunday in Washington Square Park.

via StopTheHike.ca

For months now, all over Quebec, the streets have vibrated to the rhythm of hundreds of thousands of marching feet. What started out as a movement underground, still stiff with the winter consensus, gathered new strength in the spring and flowed freely, energizing students, parents, grandparents, children, and people with and without jobs. The initial student strike grew into a people’s struggle, while the problem of tuition fees opened the door to a much deeper malaise – we now face a political problem that truly affects us all. To find its remedy and give substance to our vision, let us cast our minds back to the root of the problem.

The way we see it, direct democracy should be experienced, every moment of every day. Our own voices ought to be heard in assemblies in schools, at work, in our neighbourhoods. Our concept of democracy places the people in permanent charge of politics, and by « the people » we mean those of us at the base of the pyramid – the foundation of political legitimacy. This becomes an opportunity for all those who are never heard. It is a time for women to speak up as equals and to raise issues that are too often ignored or simply forgotten about. The democracy we see does not make promises: it goes into action. Our democracy banishes cynicism, instead of fuelling it. As we have shown many times over, our democracy brings people together. Each time we take to the streets and set up picket lines, it is this kind of democracy that at last breathes free. We are talking about shared, participatory democracy.

Democracy, as viewed by the other side, is tagged as « representative » – and we wonder just what it represents. This brand of « democracy » comes up for air once every four years, for a game of musical chairs. While elections come and go, decisions remain unchanged, serving the same interests: those of leaders who prefer the murmurs of lobbyists to the clanging of pots and pans. Each time the people raises its voice in discontent, on comes the answer: emergency laws, with riot sticks, pepper spray, tear gas. When the elite feels threatened, no principle is sacred, not even those principles they preach: for them, democracy works only when we, the people keep our mouths shut.

Our view is that truly democratic decisions arise from a shared space, where men and women are valued. As equals, in these spaces, women and men can work together to build a society that is dedicated to the public good.

Read More...

via The Occupied Times of London

Every morning this week, Occupy activists have been up early, quietly placing stickers on the panels of the ‘Boris bikes’, which are sponsored by Barclays.

The London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) rate fixing scandal is being described as possibly the biggest fraud in history, affecting hundreds of trillions of dollars of financial transactions.

Despite being set in London, the LIBOR is the average interest rate agreed by the world’s largest international banks; it indexes the short and long term interest rates for ten currencies across the world.

Occupy supporter Liz Beech gave her take on the action: “We’ve been taken for a ride by Barclays and the Financial Times is reporting that more banks will be implicated. The apparently mild response by Occupy London – stickering bikes – should not be understood to underestimate the gravity of the revelations about LIBOR. Occupiers are recognising that the corruption is beyond even our imaginings and that all financial services worldwide should be scrutinised and that all wrongdoing must be prosecuted with vigour.”

Another Occupy supporter who wished to remain anonymous said: “The bike stickers are a highly visible way of alerting busy Londoners to the issue. I went out stickering at 5am on Monday morning. I was warned that I could possibly be arrested for criminal damage. Really? I mean, who are the criminals here? Concerned citizens highlighting a huge, international fraud with stickers which don’t exactly render the bicycles useless? Or the banks which are bleeding our communities dry?”

Former Chief Executive of Barclays, Bob Diamond, has been forced to resign and the UK serious fraud squad have launched a criminal investigation into rate fixing.

Barclays urges customers to “let us know straight away if you have fallen victim to fraud”. Victims of LIBOR-rigging may wish to call the Barclays hotline 0845 755 5555.