Call for Solidarity: Please Support Occupy Media and Direct Action!

from the editors of OccupyWallSt.org: we know times are tough, but if you're able, please click here to contribute. Share everywhere! Love, respect, and solidarity forever! <3

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This campaign is for expanding crucial Occupy media efforts (we represent OccupyWallSt.org, Occupied Wall Street Journal, Occupy Together, @OccupyWallSt, OccupyWallSt Facebook page, etc.) as well as supporting direct action organizing. The people behind these crucial projects have been working on daily basis for nearly a year for little or no pay. Our goal is to help support them with living stipends so they can continue working without having to choose between going hungry or promoting social justice. We also believe that with modest compensation, these people will be able to focus and expand their efforts and help bring Occupy back into the public eye.

For this purpose, we've set up a 501c4 not-for-profit corporation known as The Occupy Solidarity Network, Inc. which is capable of both receiving and disbursing funds in a transparent manner that complies with US laws and regulations. This corporation was founded by day one organizers to avoid paying a fiscal sponsor. All resources raised by this campaign support the following proposal.

THE NEED
May 1st, 2012 had been planned for months, with actions that occurred all over the country. Yet, despite over 20K people on the streets both domestically and abroad, the mainstream news coverage was lackluster at best. However, with the website destinations and social media entities that command very large #occupy audiences (@occupywallst=162.8K followers, @occupytogether=36K followers, OccupyWallSt fan page on Facebook=388K fans, OccupyTogether fan page on Facebook=222K fans) we have been able to keep the attention of the public and bring them to the streets with our reach and our message. Engagement continues to grow, despite media reporting of #occupy being over, people keep coming to the destinations and continue to engage with the material presented for reading, livestreamers to take viewers on the web into on the ground political demonstrations, and forums to communicate with each other.

THE VISION
It is integral to build a culture of political engagement in the United States that ties into the international struggle of false austerity imposed by governments controlled by big business. We see our role as that of classic agitation through the sharing of curated information. We see our role as organizers to bring people into the street. We see this effort, as presented, as lasting between two to five years. We have no intention to institutionalize the conversation that #occupy has started. Our goal is to bring as many people into the street as possible until power bends to the will of the people. This can arrive in the form of reformist policies, a new government, or even a society that doesn't need government. Our job is not to determine the outcome, but to amplify the voices and intentions of the #occupy movement.

THE TEAM
The OWS Media team is comprised of individuals who have been promoting the efforts of the #occupy movement since before September 17th. Many of us are day one organizers who are media or NGO workers, unemployed at the time of the occupation call, and built tools immediately to service the movement. In our team are programmers, writers, photographers, graphic designers, movers and shakers who have created some of the most revered media of #occupy which include the We Are the 99 Percent tumblr blog (selected as “MicroBlog of the Year” at the 2012 Shorty Awards by Tumblr founder David Karp), OccupyWallSt.org (Primary source for information on plugging into #occupy), Occupy Together (partnered with Meetup.com to provide a simple platform for organizing demonstrations and outreach efforts), and The Occupied Wall Street Journal (called the “newspaper of record” for #occupy by The New Yorker).

THE HISTORY
OccupyWallst.org was registered and created in July, 2011 shortly after the call from Adbusters. The founder, Justine Tunney, is also a founding member of the NYCGA Internet Working Group (which later became Tech Ops). Prior to September 17th, Justine and the team at occupywallst.org built a forums area, chat, and mapping features that were integral for people coming to #occupywallstreet from outside of New York City. A phone number was created and staffed by five people to answer all of the press calls that came in as well as answering questions about donations and ways to support from afar. OccupyTogether.org was founded early in the #occupy movement. Within 48 hours the site began to go viral reaching over 18k page "likes" in the first week and 1.77 million post views. since then it has continued to assist in organizing efforts by reaching out to communities outside of NYC. The Occupied Wall Street Journal was published in the first three weeks of the Zuccotti Park occupation. The paper became one of the strongest outreach tools and now provides content for several web outlets, including The Nation among others. These three media destinations have been sharing skills, content, and resources since being founded. Decisions are made democratically and responsibilities are shared.

THE PLAN
We need investment to both compensate the people working on this effort and to make the operation sustainable at least through the next two years. We are seeking funding to maximize the email list that we have been building (by purchasing a database/CRM system), to drive fundraising, engagement, and funding of direct actions. We would like to create a worker cooperative of the team members involved in the three teams. We will continue to market and promote the #occupy movement to people in the United States as well as provide a place for organizing. When the #occupywallstreet movement ends, we will divest the remaining financial resources left into community organizations based in the top five actively engaged communities.

If you would like to send a check you can mail it to:

The Occupy Solidarity Network 237 Flatbush Avenue, #156 Brooklyn, NY 11217

If you would like a different method of payment than PayPal:

WePay: https://www.wepay.com/donate/ows

BitCoin: 1N2Vd3GKcnS4Soaa8NXP4NWhri15fvebFM