Posted 12 years ago on May 13, 2012, 7:02 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Yesterday, hundreds of thousands of people in Spain took the streets and camped in public squares in defiance of a curfew on protesters. The government swept in late at night as riot police evicted the peaceful protesters. Across the world, people in over 50 countries demonstrated in solidarity. (See here for more on what happened.) Now, the indignad@s in Spain are returning to the plazas for assemblies, discussions, and festivities. Follow live: #AlasPlazas13M, @takethesquare, @acampadabcn_int, or @democraciareal.
Outside Spain, indignad@s and Occupiers are also still holding encampments in London, Rome, Frankfurt, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and many other cities. Get ready to JOIN US on Tuesday May 15th for the next Global Day of Action. In New York, we will be gathering at Times Square at 6pm for a mass assembly. See here for more.
Join Occupy Wall St & a broad affiliation of local Economic & Social Justice Organizations as we answer the call sent out from the Indignados for a Global Spring. This will be a Mass Rally in Solidarity with the Global Movement Against Austerity & for Economic Justice World Wide.
This action will focus on the Banks and their role in the Global Economic Crisis.
This will be the culmination of a week of action encompassing many issues facing people in the world, from Health Care, Environment, Food Justice, Education, War, Police Brutality, Immigration Rights, Mass Incarceration, Debt, Jobs & Housing, it's time to stand up and show our solidarity with people across the Globe, the country and our own City.
Come to Bryant Park at 4pm where we will be leading Financial Crimes Walking Tours, where groups of people will be brought to some of the worst offenders doorsteps for teach-ins about their misdeeds & how they have contributed to the current global crisis.
We will then converge at 6pm at Times Square, the capital of capitalism and consumerism for a sit down strike & People's Assembly.
2am (5/13): After a quick march by Liberty Square, around 50 Occupiers in NYC have established a #sleepfulprotest in front of City Hall in solidarity with the indignadxs. Reports that police raided the Occupy San Francisco occupation at 101 Market, 2 arrests, blankets and sleeping bags taken. Also, check out this video of the Yes Men disrupting the TPP gala in Dallas earlier!
12midnight: Police are harassing Occupiers at the Northwest clinic occupation in Chicago; took tables, food, and water. Police in Kuala Lumpur have also raided #OccupyDataran. Protesters promise to stay despite tents being taken.
11pm: Between 3-5am, as most of Europe slept, police throughout Spain raided squares and evicted the indignadxs. Around 8 arrests reported at Puerta del Sol, but protesters remained peaceful and have vowed to return to plazas across the country at 5pm (local time) tomorrow. In Madrid, after police brutally evicted the square and began writing down IDs, the protesters peacefully took to the streets, singing, dancing, and chanting: ¨!No Nos Representan!¨ (They don´t represent us!) You cannot evict an idea. #volvemosalas5 #wecomebackat5
6pm: Minute of silence as tens of thousands mark midnight at Puerta del Sol in Madrid. The silence is broken with chants of "Sí se puede." and ¨"el pueblo unido jamas sera vincido.¨ #12Mnonosvamos
5:40pm: Final plenary is starting at the Chicago Peoples Summit. Watch here.
Solidarity protesters in Portland now gathering at Colonel Sumners Park, SE 20th / Belmon. Police moved in on the Occupy LA Assembly, tried to take a banner, but then left. Police have also left Occupy London to jubilant cheers, stopping before arresting all Occupiers. via @OccupyLondon: The police have left the scene. Section 14 has been lifted. There is still a presence at the Royal Exchange. #12mlondon #OCCUPY #OWS
5:00pm: It is now one hour past the governments deadline and hundreds of thousands are still assembled in squares across Spain. Assemblies in Barcelona, Valencia, and elsewhere have announced plans to hold the square through the night, in violation of the ban on camping in effect. Police are nearby but have so far not attacked. See Madrid from a helicopter. Occupiers in London are also staying put.
4:25pm: 20 people still occupying steps in London, encircled by riot cops. Most of the 40 arrestees taken to Bishops Gate police station. For background, see here. In Addison, Texas, large crowds are gathering to protest around the hotel where delegates for the Trans-Pacific Partnership meeting are staying. The march just surged over the barricades onto hotel property. Now being held back by cop line. (via @OccupyAustin).
4:15pm: Anti-capitalist Assembly and Really, Really Free Market begin in Los Angeles at Pershing Square. Watch on livestream here. NYPD harassing peaceful demo including doctors, children, etc at Wyckoff Hospital. More workshops have started at the Chicago Peoples Summit. Reports of at least 10 arrests in Tel Aviv as police attack march; protesters are now blocking intersections.
4:00pm: - Crowds continue to swell as night falls across Europe. 10pm protest curfew passes, indignad@s stand their ground. via @acampadasol: ¨Son más de las 22h, ya estamos desobedeciendo oficialmente.¨ (It is after 10pm, we are officially disobedient.)
3:45pm: - Barcelona police confirm crowd of 245,000. Assembly reading Manifestos. 25-50,000 in Valencia. Madrid still too large to count.
3pm: In NYC, march to save Wyckoff Hospital from austerity leaving now. Watch on livestream here. Assembly beginning in Barcelona. Police still trying to clear Occupy London.
2:30pm: 12-3 arrests at Occupy London; 19 people sitting at the Royal Exchange refusing to move. via @OccupyLondon: Report from the scene: "We've formed a chain. Police are punching people." We have observers there, could do with more.
2:15pm: Organizers estimate Barcelona crowds at 250,000+ and growing. 75,000 reporterd in Zaragoza. Outside Spain, thousands also gathered in Moscow, London, Brussels, Rome, Athens, and in hundreds of other cities.
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Posted 12 years ago on May 12, 2012, 1:17 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
OccupyDataran has occupied Merdeka Square in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia since the summer of 2011, before the occupation of Liberty Square in New York. Like many other movements across the world, their occupation of public space was inspired in part by the indignad@s in Spain who took over plazas to protest austerity, government corruption, and economic injustice one year ago today. In recent weeks, the occupiers in Kuala Lumpur have been harassed, raided, and arrested by police. Now, still united in our call for Real Democracy NOW!, #OccupyDataran joins #OccupyWallStreet and occupiers on five continents to take back the square.
For more on the #12M Global Day of Action, see here. To watch actions across the world live, see here.
Posted 12 years ago on May 12, 2012, 1:10 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Protesters in Moscow are occupying Chistye Prudy square under a statue of Kazakh poet Abai. #OccupyAbai is demanding free and fair elections after the third fraudulent election of President Vladimir Putin. On Sunday, the eve of Putin’s inauguration, tens of thousands of people occupied streets in Chinatown and elsewhere in Moscow. In scenes reminiscent of Bahrain or Oakland, police brutally attacked the peaceful demonstrations with batons. Hundreds were arrested, but thousands persisted - taking the streets during the day, and occupying squares at night. Although police have banned tents, the occupiers have adopted mobile tactics using sleeping bags and generators to disperse and re-occupy when evicted by police. Social media covering the protests has been targeted and heavily repressed; last weekend, two of the largest global livestreaming websites (Ustream and Bambuser) went offline due to DDoS attacks on opposition livestreamers in Moscow.
Today, Occupy Abai is marching in solidarity with the indignad@s, Occupy, and allied social movements in the #12M Global Day of Action.
Posted 12 years ago on May 11, 2012, 7:42 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
They bombard us with numbers, and sometimes they almost make us forget that across from the numbers, thousands of lives are hidden. OUR LIVES. Lets show them we are much more than that! 12th of May: Occupy the streets in every city of the world.
May 12 is a Global Day of Action called by the indignad@s, Occupy, and allied social movements around the world. In 2011 we showed another world was possible. Our struggle continues in 2012; together we will rally against corruption, human rights violations, censorship, police brutality and corporate greed. May 12th, 2012 — everywhere. Join us.
Mass demonstrations are planned in Barcelona, Valencia, and over 60 other cities across Spain. In Madrid, the movement will return to Puerta del Sol. From the 12th to 15th of May, protesters will take the square for assemblies, performances, workshops, and discussions on the the alternatives they’ve worked on for the past year. Assemblies and actions are planned to address education, migration, the housing crisis, the economy, the environment, unemployment, civil disobedience, feminism, youth, pensioners, and more. Protesters are also planning to protest at banks responsible for the Spanish and global financial crises. The Spanish government, which recently began a severe crackdown on protest movements, has said they will not allow the protesters to camp in Sol or other squares throughout the country. The government says it will end the protest at 10pm. The major marches are not scheduled to arrive at Sol until around 9pm.
Occupiers in London will return to St. Pauls Cathedral across from the London Stock Exchange and then march through London to ¨Meet the 1%¨ on a tour of different banks and institutions whose greed is responsible for the global financial crisis. Demonstrations are also planned in Ireland, Chile, Portugal, Brazil, Germany, Cuba, Greece, Indonesia, Israel, France, Malaysia, Russia, and at least 384 cities in over 50 countries across the world.
In the U.S., solidarity actions are planned in Portland, St. Louis, and many other cities. Occupy Los Angeles will be hosting a 12M anti-capitalist General Assembly. In Boston, the People of Color Group of Occupy Boston will host a ceremony to preserve the last standing grove of Silver Maple trees that are slated to be cut down for “redevelopment” as luxury apartments for the 1%. Occupy Denver will be protesting and occupying the Downtown Denver Partnership, a business organization behind a law that attacks Occupy and would criminalize the survival act of sleeping by homeless people. Occupy Chicago, labor unions, community groups, anti-war and international solidarity groups and faith based activists will host a Peoples Assembly on Alternatives to War and Poverty to begin a week of actions that will culminate in protests against NATO.
In Brooklyn, as part of a citywide week of action against budget cuts and austerity, Occupy Bushwick, Healthcare for the 99%, and others will fight to save
Wycoff Hospital. Occupiers, unions, immigrant rights groups, students, anti-war activists, environmentalists, and others from across Texas and the country will also gather near Dallas to protest the Trans-Pacific Partnership -- a massive, new international trade and investment pact currently being negotiated behind closed doors between the United States and countries throughout the Pacific Rim and pushed by Wall Street banks and other corporate interests.
