News Archive
Posted 11 years ago on May 31, 2013, 6:34 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags:
direct action,
liberty square,
reoccupy
Wall Street's power has gone unchallenged for too long!
Starting Saturday June 1st, 2013, Occupy will be holding a homecoming celebration in Zuccotti Park, NYC to occupy the space where our movement began. By day we will celebrate and reconnect with old friends to plan the future of this movement, and by night we will take a militant stand against the NYPD to assert our right to exist in public spaces (nonviolently of course).
If you have questions or need help, please call: +1 (516) 708-4777
Schedule
Saturday, June 1st
9AM: Convergence Begins! Bring your signs, your opinions, your children – bring your willingness to support your fellow human beings and speak truth to power! Bring your books, to rebuild the People’s Library… and your willingness to read and share, to compare facts and help identify where things went wrong so we can put things right together!
Noon: Protest In Solidarity with Istanbul Gezi Parki Occupiers. A peaceful international solidarity event, with the goal to direct public attention to Istanbul Gezi Parki protests and consequent police brutality of AKP/Erdogan government! For more information, see the facebook event.
6PM: People’s Assembly! Come be a part of political dissent and talk to others in a non-oppressive, horizontal assembly. We invite performers, musicians, puppeteers and artists to come perform at the assembly. We will be fluid and will respond to the needs of the community in stewarding the assembly. Simply raising your voice in public and saying “Enough!” can be a radically transformative act, and our voice shared together is a mighty thing to behold! For more information on The People’s Assembly, visit this facebook event page.
Sleeping on the sidewalk as an act of protest is completely legal.
8PM: Sleep Cell Convergence! Occupy Wall Street changed the conversation by putting our bodies on the line in protest to the corruption we see eroding the very world around us, and while a mass re-occupation effort at Liberty Square will end only with police violence and put us in harm’s way in the attempt, smaller groups acting on a temporary basis with greater mobility can succeed far more effectively at spreading our message and challenging the worldview that is tearing us apart.
When the sun sets on Saturday, all who are willing to take hard ground and take a stand will converge together to decide their targets and their tactics autonomously without central direction – a process that can’t be predicted and prepared against by the NYPD. No experience necessary – we will be spreading legal training and our experience in what has worked (and what has not worked) in past efforts by mixing NYC sleep-cell activists in each group as-needed, so that locals and visitors, new activists and experienced Sleepful Protestors can work together keeping each other safe and achieving the objective. We also encourage you to read the zine Basic Blockading by Delia Smith.
Sunday, June 2nd
9AM: Convergence Begins Again! Each and every day, we will meet in Liberty Plaza to reclaim the public forum and work together to change the world!
2PM: Planning Meeting for Monday, June 3rd Direct Action. We are seeking to re-commit to a weekly direct action in the Financial District, to make our voices echo against the walls of power and overcome them by overcoming the culture that allows them to be in the first place! Join us in determining how together we will stand up to Wall Street and their captured politicians in Washington!
8PM: Sleep Cell Convergence! Liberty Plaza is the home of Occupy Wall Street, but we express our power by direct action, and sleep on the streets as a political action to expose the corrosion that is corrupting our world. Our targets may consistently change, but we can always be found here first as we choose our actions of resistance on a nightly basis!
Monday, June 3rd
9AM: Convergence For Direct Action! While the details of this action are still being planned and will not be finalized before we as a wider whole have come together to agree upon how we are going to work together in resistance on Sunday, we will be meeting at Liberty Plaza at 9AM no matter which target is selected and what the nature of the action is – our resistance effort will be in the heart of the Financial District, and we will meet at Liberty Plaza and march together from there.
8PM: Sleep Cell Convergence! Liberty Plaza is the home of Occupy Wall Street, but we express our power by direct action, and sleep on the streets as a political action to expose the corrosion that is corrupting our world. Our targets may consistently change, but we can always be found here first as we choose our actions of resistance on a nightly basis!
For more information visit the organizing website.
Posted 11 years ago on May 24, 2013, 2:41 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags:
capitalism,
wall street,
citigroup
In the most damning piece of recent evidence that Occupy Wall Street was right that it's Wall Street who runs things, not the government, the NYTimes today reports that Citigroup lobbyists wrote several bills that recently passed the House Financial Services Committee:
Bank lobbyists are not leaving it to lawmakers to draft
legislation that softens financial regulations. Instead, the
lobbyists are helping to write it themselves.
One bill that sailed through the House Financial Services
Committee this month — over the objections of the Treasury
Department — was essentially Citigroup’s, according to
e-mails reviewed by The New York Times. The bill would
exempt broad swathes of trades from new regulation.
In a sign of Wall Street’s resurgent influence in Washington,
Citigroup’s recommendations were reflected in more than 70
lines of the House committee’s 85-line bill. Two crucial
paragraphs, prepared by Citigroup in conjunction with other
Wall Street banks, were copied nearly word for word.
(Lawmakers changed two words to make them plural.)"
As we previously reported, on May 7th, nine deregulatory bills sailed through the House Financial Services Committee. We wrote about one of them, HR 992, and this particular bill garnered only SIX "nay" votes, out of SIXTY-ONE total representatives on the Committee.
This egregious bill, which is named "Swaps Regulatory Improvement Act", but it should be called, "If Banks Get Bailed Out, We'll Get Sold Out. Again," was written in large part by Citigroup. As the NTYimes reports:
"Citigroup and other major banks used a similar approach on
another derivatives bill. Under Dodd-Frank, banks must
push some derivatives trading into separate units that are
not backed by the government’s insurance fund. The goal was
to isolate this risky trading.
The provision exempted many derivatives from the
requirement, but some Republicans proposed striking the
so-called push out provision altogether. After objections
were raised about the Republican plan, Citigroup lobbyists
sent around the bank’s own compromise proposal that
simply exempted a wider array of derivatives. That
recommendation, put forth in late 2011, was largely part of
the bill approved by the House committee on May 7 and is
now pending before both the Senate and the House."
Citigroup was responsible for the death of Glass-Steagall, which led to the free-wheeling and casino-lifestyle that caused the 2008 Financial crisis. Citigroup mismanaged their firm and loaded up to the hilt with toxic mortgage products, requiring a massive taxpayer bailout. And if that weren't enough, they also received a total of $99.5 Billion in secret loans from the Federal Reserve after the crisis to avert their own ruin. And now, they're writing our laws to tear down even the paltry protections put in place post-crisis.
America: Brought to you by Citigroup
Posted 11 years ago on May 23, 2013, 1:57 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags:
gmo,
direct action,
monsanto,
global uprising
Posted 11 years ago on May 21, 2013, 1:29 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags:
capitalism,
exploitation,
worker coops
First of all: there seems to be some kind of misconception among some people, of what capitalism actually is. There are some who believe that where there is a market economy, money and competition, then that’s automatically capitalism. That’s not true. In capitalism there is of course a market economy, but that can exist in other systems as well.
What characterizes capitalism is that there is private ownership of the means of production. That’s when you know you’re dealing with a capitalist system. If this feature is absent, if it’s not the case that some individuals privately own the means of production others are using, then it’s no longer capitalism. If it instead was a system in which, let’s say, the workers themselves controlled and managed the means of production democratically at the place where they worked, and that these institutions were operating in a market system, then that would be some kind of market socialism etc, not capitalism.
And it is this private ownership of the means of production that’s a huge part of the problem. Capitalism is tyrannical, exploitative and dehumanizing; it’s intolerable
A system that allows a few individuals to have undemocratic control and power, not only at the workplace, but in society in general, is unacceptable; a system that allows some individuals to exploit and profit on other people’s misery is unacceptable; a system that allows more and more cash to be shuffled into the pockets of the owners and the wealthy, is unacceptable.
Capitalism IS the problem.
Posted 11 years ago on May 15, 2013, 10:21 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags:
direct action,
foreclosure defense,
occupy homes
May 20th: Day of Action
Homeowners VS. Banking Execs
Showdown at the Department of Justice
Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Jail?
Millions of underwater homeowners have paid the price for Wall Street's crimes. From mortgage fraud to predatory lending, it's time to put bankers in jail.
Join Occupy Homes, dozens of underwater homeowners, and hundreds of allies from across the country as we take action and risk arrest at the Department of Justice.
Bring Justice to Justice Rally:
May 20th @ 1pm
Gather: Freedom Plaza, 14th Street and Pennsylvania Ave NW – March to Department of Justice @ 1:30pm
With Occupy Homes, Home Defenders League, Campaign for a Fair Settlement, and community and faith leaders
Five years after Wall Street crashed the economy, not one banker has been prosecuted for the reckless and fraudulent practices that cost millions of Americans their jobs, threw our cities and schools into crisis, and left families and communities ravaged by a foreclosure crisis and epidemic of underwater mortgages.
Record profits are back at the bailed-out banks. Meanwhile:
Homeowners and communities have lost billions to Wall Street’s foreclosure crisis;
Millions more families face foreclosure in the coming months;
Communities of color have been impacted the most.
This March, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, testifying before a U.S. Senate committee, admitted that big banks and their executives have escaped prosecution simply because they are too wealthy and powerful. "Too big to fail” banks are officially “too big to jail."
The time is now for Congress and the Obama administration to make Wall Street pay us back:
Prosecute Wall Street bankers for stealing our homes, savings and livelihoods;
End the foreclosure crisis;
Reset mortgages to their current value (“principal reduction”);
Restore and rebuild wealth stolen from communities of color hardest hit.
Since the crisis began, Americans from all walks of life have banded together to help each other. Working through community organizations, civil rights groups, the Occupy movement, and community and faith leaders, we have shared our stories, lobbied, petitioned, and even faced arrest for occupying our own homes and demanding justice.
During the Wall Street Accountability Week of Action in Washington, D.C., May 18-23, families on the front line of the foreclosure crisis will travel from around the country to Washington, D.C., to make their voices heard. The week will include community organizing, home-defense training, and non-violence and civil-disobedience training.
On Monday, May 20, at 1:00pm, home defenders, as well as faith and community leaders will rally to Bring Justice to Justice – demanding an end to the “too big to jail” policy, and relief for families and communities devastated by the financial crisis and foreclosure epidemic.
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