Oakland Obama Office Occupied in Support of Pfc. Manning. Video.
Posted 12 years ago on Aug. 16, 2012, 11:12 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags:
pfc. manning,
veterans,
oakland,
direct action
from Scott Olsen:
I was there. When it came down to it we decided that I would not be arrested. One of the reasons for that was so I could upload and distribute this video I took within minutes of us entering. This is before the march and media made it up here. In the video you will see Obama's staffers push us when we tried to move chairs so we could sit in the middle of the office. I got pushed which made me drop my phone and then a man brandished a chair against me.
8/17, 11:30am: Livestream replaced with video clip recorded last night. Six of the seven people, including veterans, were arrested during the nonviolent sit-in. The office was shut down for the night.
11pm Eastern: Scott Olsen and members of Iraq Veterans Against War are currently sitting in an Obama Campaign Headquarters in Oakland demanding Pfc. Manning's release. Dozens of supprters are also rallying outside; some police are on the scene.
Awesome - will the Obama people stand in the way of protest? Will there be a show of repression of protest or will the Obama people step in to prevent local police from interfering?
Some sort of deadline is being approached right now.
The Obama people could very easily tell the police they grant the protesters permission to be in their office, then the cops wouldn't have an excuse to arrest anyone- and send a strong political message as well.
Did they?
They did not - a fuck-up for the Obama campaign.
Where's Vqkaq2 to see how his Obama handles dissent?
I love you guys!
Bradley Manning and Julian Assange deserve all support.
It's the two all powerful political parties that are corrupting America. They collaborate on threats to their power. It's our two party system with their absolute power that are driving America into the ditch.
I support IVAW 100%. Good going, guys! There's no way for us to vote against these wars of empire, and there's no way for us to vote for Bradley Manning's release. Non-violent acts of civil disobedience like this is all we have left because all the formal mechanisms for change are broken. It's time put our bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels…upon the levers, upon all the apparatus... to make it stop!
Awesome post.
Way to go Occupy Oakland for all of your efforts since the dawn of Occupy!
Bradley is a hero for exposing truth and standing up for what's right!
Bradley exposed the murder seen in this video and this is one of the reasons he is in prison - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogFZlRiTHuw
ALL IT TAKES IS A PARDON
Apologists make excuses about a pardon or downvote this comment... but if obama has time to give awards to Bob Dylan... he has time to FREE BRADLEY MANNING
ALL IT TAKES IS A PARDON
IT REALLY IS THIS SIMPLE
ALL IT TAKES IS A PARDON
FREE BRADLEY MANNING
Is Bradley Manning guilty of illegally invading a soveriegn nation, and murdering almost a million civilians?
No, that would be the military industrial complex, encouraged and enabled by their shareholders, the entire US of A congress and senate.
Of course we all know to expect such a move in an election years is nothing more than a pipe dream.
campaign offices contains loads of ambition and aggression
thanks
Scott's alright?
why dont u link to this video from the action? much better imho -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su9WClWl15w&feature=plcp&list=PLB3684B260CF95619
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Have to give another win to the cops.Who ever is in charge of planing should be let go at once.
Do not want to be a party pooper but is that not private property.I have been under the impression that occupy was about public space.That being said it would be nice to see the young man out of jail at some point in his life.
I'm sorry - but I think this was silly. This was just "a" campaign office not "the" campaign office. The smartest thing for the workers to do would have been to simply ignore them. Then there would not have been any "struggle" footage, no dramatic jail escapades, just a bunch of people sitting in a doorway.
Its pretty unclear to me what this meaningless blablabla of this cameragirl has to do with OCCUPY WALLSTREET. It doesn't support the intention of the movement at all. Ciao, ciao...
I fully support and have been a member of the occupy movement from the very beginning, even willing to risk arrest , but this is the WRONG thing to do ! I thought Occupy was about Peaceful protest not instigating trouble. Why don't they go sit in Romneys Campaign headquarters? What do you expect the campaign workers to do? Fight the Police? Long on Spectacle short on brains.
Romney is just a candidate, Obama holds the leadership, personally likes to select his drone targets each day, happily carrying out the work of his corporate masters. Keep up the work IVAW! There is no lesser of two evils and sorry your beloved President does not fight for women, especially when they are victims of American bombs and drones. No vote will help during this election except maybe if Ron Paul runs and reaches out to Occupy. You might not like him but he is the only candidate who has promised to end the wars and nationalize the Federal Reserve which feeds the corporate cartels. And keep protesting! If that fails and the people don't wake up and keep lying to themselves, then I guess I'll see y'all in Ecuador!
"Why don't they go sit in Romneys Campaign headquarters?" Who says they won't?
Occupy is not a Democrats party base group.
Time to wake up. You guys are dead in the water.
The American people don't even know you're out there any longer. Moreover what does occupying a campaign office (filled with envelope-stuffing volunteers who are just trying to support their candidate in a civic-minded way) accomplish? My father stands up for peace and justice, and he stuffs envelopes too for a local congressman. You going to occupy him? Idiotic.
I said it in the beginning and I'll say it again: without a real leader and a unified message in front of of the public eye, this movement is finished. There's zero vision, zero targeting of appropriate individuals (i.e. find something better than an empty campaign office)., zero effectiveness.
Ultimately the measure of your activity is, what change did it bring? Or, did it just make you and your fellow protesters feel good?
Vanderwaalz
This protest is aimed at the structural role and authority that President Obama has and wields. I will vote for Obama in 2012, but I am under no illusion that he is ultimately on the side of the people. No,he is the lesser of two evils. No representative of the Obama Administration, or of Congress has denied the truth of the files leaked to Wikileaks. None of the civilian murders or diplomatic blackmail has been denied. President Obama has prosecuted more whistle blowers (after encouraging them in his run-up to the Presidency) than all past Presidents combined. He is actively managing the death list of people to be killed by U.S. drones. It is time for a mature political culture in the U.S. This would allow us to support a candidate while at the same time holding him accountable. The main dynamic in this maturing of U.S. political culture is the building of a movement representing civil society and putting its interests before those of the business class or the political class. Since when can a candidates campaign office be considered private? Surely its a public arena, for the simple fact they are running for public office. The attitude that the people can support a candidate but not criticize him is the surest indicator of an immature, infantile political culture. People all over the world know about Bradley Manning.
I share you feelings but I cannot vote for Obama he has no morals. Voting for the lesser of two evils is still evil. And will not produce good. Good cannot come from evil. Both parties are really irrelevant . Wall St will get what it wants. I was in the peace movement in the 60's I think what made it successful was we had one goal "stop the war". OWS should have one goal in my opinion. "Stop the greed" or or something similar.
OWS has many messages, but the one message that summarizes all of them is 'Overthrow the corporate coup that has overthrown our government of the people'.
Well, one shouldn't vote for ANY evil.
What if our choices were, say, Franco and Hitler? Or Romney and Santorum?
Voting doesn't work, direct action works- unless perhaps the non-mainstream parties, that are out of the corruption...so far.
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No, mark my words, we are "not dead in the water." You underestimate this movement. We are here to stay. I urge you to look up the term neoliberalism, and understand the corrosive effects that it has had throughout the world.
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