Posted 12 years ago on July 21, 2012, 9:48 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
August 23rd to 26th, 2012 the Occupy The Midwest Conference will be taking place in Detroit, Michigan, hosted by Occupy Detroit. The summer conference will be the second gathering of Occupiers from around the Midwest, following the widely acclaimed success of the previous conference held during the spring in St. Louis, MO.
Occupiers from around the Midwest region will be meeting in Detroit for organizational meetings aimed at connecting Occupy movements for future projects, innovative "teach-ins" and workshops, fellowship, and entertainment. The theme for the summer conference is “Another World Is Possible”, highlighting a wide range of ideas from the Occupy movement aimed at improving the world through better local communities, while inspiring initiatives from citizens internationally. The failure of our current outdated systems has led to a demand for new and improved methods that meet the needs of all citizens, independent of a corrupt economic and social structure that benefits only a few at the expense of the many.
Regardless of someone's current level of involvement in the Occupy movement or activism in general, anyone concerned with social and economic justice is encouraged to attend the conference to exchange their ideas and visions for a better world. Topics like developing regional and local strategies, launching innovative DIY projects, urban communal living techniques, cooperative community building, and many others will be addressed. This conference will serve as an opportunity for everyone to gain skills that will immediately benefit our communities and promote self-reliance free from the limited corporate owned products and services that exist today.
Detroit was selected for the second Occupy The Midwest Conference because it serves as an unfortunate example of our failed economic system. Detroit was once a proud and iconic American city that represented the effort, pride, and character of the working class, serving as the epicenter of the American auto industry, while also acting as a major force in the entertainment industry. Today Detroit ranks amongst the highest rates in unemployment, empty housing, and crime, following the collapse of the auto industry and subsequent housing market collapse. No city in America better represents the harmful effects of corporate greed and political corruption than Detroit.
Occupy The Midwest is proud to meet in Detroit this August, not only to reinvigorate its citizens and communities, but also occupiers from around the country, providing unique opportunities to collaborate on projects that will have a direct impact in improving the lives of all people, regardless of economic status. While strengthening the relationships established at the spring conference, and building new relationships, Occupy The Midwest's summer conference will mark the beginning of a new phase of the Occupy movement, creating ideas and momentum that will evolve into an unstoppable community involving everyone who is passionate and truly believes that Another World Is Possible.
Occupy The Midwest is a coalition of Occupy movements from cities around the Midwest region, uniting in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy people's movement worldwide.
Posted 12 years ago on July 20, 2012, 2:21 p.m. EST by anonymous
When: Sunday, July 22, 2012 11:10am until 7:00pm Where: Travers Park - 78th St. Play Street, Jackson Heights, Queens, NY More info:Occupy Queens | RSVP on Facebook | @OccupyTownSq
Schedule of Events
11am-3pm Occupy the Square:
Organizations' Information Tables • Open Community Speakout • Live Music • Folkloric Dance • Art Exhibition - Story Telling • Face Painting • Composting • Occupy Free Market (Swap) • Silk Screening • Political Discussions & Teach-ins:
3-3:15pm Puppets Show 3:20-3:40pm Tax Dodgers 1% Base Ball Team vs. the 99% (https://www.facebook.com/events/134495150025001/) 3:40-4pm Ecuadorian Dance 4-4:45pm Community Speak-out 4:45-5:30pm Special GA 5:30-7 Issa Cabrera & Trio (Latin Jazz - Sponsored by Jackson Heights Beautification Group) 7pm Casseroles march to the 37th Road Plaza (https://www.facebook.com/events/464373573575892/) Bring a pot and a wooden spoon as we make some noise over the crisis in education and student debt.
Occupy the SEC is pleased to see that the CFTC has acted upon Barclays’ extensive and long-term practice of fraudulent pricing of LIBOR and EURIBOR. The CFTC’s $200 million dollar settlement with Barclays, the Department of Justice’s penalty of $160 million and the United Kingdom’s FSA settlement of £59.5 million are significant enforcement achievements. Barclays’ mispricing of reference rates has affected entire economies throughout the globe, given that businesses of all sizes routinely borrow on reference rates tied to LIBOR and Euribor. This arbitrary and self-serving rate settings affected corporate customers, floating rate lenders, derivative counterparties and ultimately any entity or person doing business with companies borrowing at LIBOR. There is a strong argument to be made that while $452 million of total settlements that Barclays agreed to is not an insignificant amount, it pales in comparison to the damages caused by incorrect pricing on HUNDREDS of TRILLIONS of dollars of financial contracts. More recent developments have made clear that criminal manipulation of LIBOR has extended well beyond just Barclays.
Many of the banks involved in LIBOR and Euribor pricing were borrowing at prices typically significantly higher than their LIBOR and Euribor quotes during the period in question, and we have strong reason to believe that mispricing of these reference rates was rampant throughout the industry. Accordingly, we hope the CFTC and other bank regulators do not limit their investigations to Barclays, and instead scrutinize the activities of all of the banks that participated in the setting of these reference rates.
Further, Occupy the SEC expects the regulators to pursue criminal prosecution of the individuals that participated in this fraud. The CFTC’s press release makes clear that it knows the exact identifies of the principal actors behind this criminal activity. Occupy the SEC believes theU.S. has historically had been viewed as the strongest, fairest and most transparent financial market in the world. The entire U.S. economy benefits from this leading position. Yet if our regulators do not prosecute perpetrators, financial institutions will continue to act fraudulently. Regulatory fines will be disregarded as the mere cost of doing business, and will lose their deterrent value. When regulators fail to prosecute, individual perpetrators often walk away scot-free, free to collect their bonuses and continue engaging in similar activities at the same or another institution.
We encourage the regulators, particularly the SEC, to continue to use all the investigative and prosecutorial powers at their disposal to pursue the various securities law violations that have become apparent on an unprecedented scale during the current financial crisis. We are particularly distressed that the SEC has not taken action to prosecute any major CFOs or CEOs for Sarbanes-Oxley violations, and look forward to the day that the SEC takes an active role in enforcing that critical piece of investor protection legislation.
Occupy the SEC is a group of concerned citizens, activists, and financial professionals with decades of collective experience working at many of the largest financial firms in the industry. Occupy the SEC filed a 325-page comment letter on the Volcker Rule NPR, which is available at http://www.occupythesec.org/
Posted 12 years ago on July 20, 2012, 11:08 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Last month, three Occupy Caravans traveled across the country in the three weeks leading up to Occupy National Gathering, bearing activists from San Diego, Salt Lake City, Tuscon, Wichita, Atlanta, Asheville, Boston, New Orleans, D.C., and many other cities. Roughly 1,000 Occupiers attended the gathering’s marches, workshops, visioning processes, and theatrical protest.
Despite many positives, the five-day gathering was rife with contention. Some Occupiers rejected the concept of NatGat outright, feeling that a movement geared towards autonomous action should not be centralizing around a national banner. In this vein, a group of Philadelphia anarchists organized a Radical Convergence the same weekend intended “for those who have felt Occupy in its current form demonizes and excludes radical dialogue, strategy, and action.” [Editor's note: OccupyWallSt.org loves anarchists and condemns the scapegoating of anarchists from within and without the Occupy movement.] Over the five days, these theoretical divides became manifest around issues like “step up, step back,” the goals of the movement, and tactics of confrontation.
The heavy police presence, which included officers from the Philadelphia Police Department, the National Park Service, and the Department of Homeland Security, intensified the divisions around Occupy’s relationship with the police. On June 30, Occupiers were prevented from laying down any “bedding material” at the National Historic Park near Independence Mall. In defiance, a group encircled a tent and locked arms, resulting in a prolonged clash and one arrest for assaulting a federal officer. The aftermath was just as confused — some activists joined hands and hummed “ohm,” while others shouted that the cops were Nazi pigs. An ad-hoc General Assembly to discuss next steps (where they would sleep) fell apart when several Occupiers explained that they did not feel safe discussing strategy while encircled by police.
Veterans for Peace and Occupy Marines obtained a permit to maintain a presence on Independence Mall; that permit was eventually revoked, but the riot police deployed to evict them decided to back down when the veterans held their ground. Other Occupiers spent the night on a lot graciously opened by the Quakers. On July 1, twenty-seven protesters were arrested in a nighttime jail solidarity march, raising tensions and anger further. The mini-documentary attempts to portray the internal conflict over police confrontation at the Occupy National Gathering, particularly as it relates to the future of the movement. Interviews include former Philadelphia Police Captain Ray Lewis, Native American (un)Occupy Albuquerque activist Amalia Montoya, and InterOccupy organizer Tamara Shapiro.
Posted 12 years ago on July 19, 2012, 12:01 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Convergence to block the return to class in Quebec!
Montreal – August 13-17, 2012
via QPIRG Pour lire le texte complet en français, voir ici
Since February, students across Quebec have been on strike against a 75% tuition hikes. These students have maintained picket lines, disrupted classes, blocked bridges, and continually taken the streets in fierce resistance to the neo-liberal agenda of the Charest Liberal government.
In May, the government passed the repressive and draconian Bill 78 (the "special law" or “law 12”), aiming to legislate striking students back to class in August and to criminalize dissent through the imposition of huge fines on individuals and associations seeking to continue the strike. The creation of this law has heralded an explosion of popular resistance of workers, students, and citizens alike, through street demonstrations, direct neighbourhood-based democracy, and other initiatives.
As workers, students, and citizens, we have come together to broaden the struggle into a social strike against neo-liberal capitalism; to bring the fight beyond the universities and CÉGEPs and into our workplaces and neighbourhoods. But there can be no social strike without the student strike, and with the government-mandated return to class looming, we need your support! Throughout the week of August 13-17, striking Cégeps will be forced back to class by the Charest government, despite continued strike mandates voted by democratic student associations.
We know that capitalist austerity touches all of you in your own contexts, as governments the world over seek to whitewash their corruption and greed through the false rhetoric of cutbacks and privatization. We honour your local resistance but also seek your support as comrades in the struggle. The week of August 13-17 in the Montreal-area (where most of the striking Cégeps are located) is a crucial moment for the student strike. Either the strike will be crushed by Charest's "special law", or the strike will continue, with the support of individuals from all over Quebec, Ontario, the Maritimes and the USA converging onto Montreal between August 13-17. Join us in the streets and on the picket lines at CÉGEPs throughout this week. Consult http://bloquonslarentree.com for more details about housing and other useful information for anyone considering coming to Montreal to re-inforce the student strike.
All out against the "special law"! Block the return to classes! Strike back against neoliberalism!
