OWS Updates for the Week of December 5
Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 5, 2012, 5:44 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
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nyc,
ows updates
via the ‘Your Inbox: Occupied’ team:
A month after Hurricane Sandy first hit many residents, homeowners and tenants alike are still living without electricity, heat, and working appliances. Black mold is taking hold of walls and other surfaces, and absentee landlords refuse to fix their properties. Temporary housing is desperately needed.
We must act, as we have since day one of this crisis; pledge your support and stay informed.
Far too many think that everything has gone back to normal, just because lower Manhattan has its lights back on. The truth is that this disaster is ongoing, and worsening as the weather gets colder. We have to make sure that the current despair does not become the new normal for tens of thousands of people.
Read Strike Debt’s in-depth public service report criticizing government and NGO relief efforts.
Just as Occupiers were among the first to respond to the crisis, we are also leading the charge in reporting on and acting to solve Sandy’s far-reaching and still-developing consequences.
Join us as we push forward.
Special Request from Occupy Sandy
Occupy Sandy needs a new multi-purpose space to be used similarly to how Jacobi and 520 have been used for the past month. Please use your networks to help us expand our options. The needs are: roll-in/out capability, meeting and intake space, proximity to transit, accessibility to recovery sites, internet access or potential to install, key access, office and communications hub space, bathrooms, positive community relationships, parking/wide streets, clean, safe and healthy. Please respond immediately with any leads about spaces. Contact is: OSSpaces@gmail.com.
#FreeCooperUnion Occupation Begins
Current students of Cooper Union are organizing in response to the unfolding tuition and student debt crisis. Follow them on Twitter at @FreeCooperUnion and on their Facebook page.
Occupy These Actions & Events
Wednesday, December 5th, 6pm
The Necessity of New Forms of Revolutionary Change
Ralph Bunche Institute, CUNY Grad Center: 365 5th Ave (at 34th St)
Please join Carne Ross (Founder and Executive Director, Independent Diplomat) and Todd Gitlin (Columbia University) as we discuss the contemporary crisis in economic and political institutions. Ross argues for a radically different form of political action: direct action by individuals and groups to address political problems themselves; a form of gentle anarchism for the 21st century. RSVP to RBInstitute@gc.cuny.edu.
Wednesday, December 5th, 5:45pm
Occupy Wall Street Radio on WBAI
Free Speech Radio 99.5 FM
This week’s topic is “the meaning of ‘Community as seen through Occupy Sandy. You are welcome to join us as a studio guest to talk about what community means to you and how Hurricane Sandy has brought this out in your world. Please arrive between 5:45 and 6pm for a pre show dialog and prep, and then we will be on the air from 6:30-7. To be on the show contact Tim at weldon.timothy@gmail.com.
Thursday, December 6th, 5pm
Rise Up New York Rally and Direct Actions
Times Square 42nd and 7th ave.
Last week 200 workers at Wendy's, McDonald's, Burger King, Domino's and Taco Bell went on strike and joined workers at Car Washes, Supermarkets, and Airports throughout NYC in demanding better pay working conditions. This week stand with workers as we come together and say that we won't stand policies that prioritize tax cuts for millionaires over funding vital social safety net programs that working families rely on.
Friday, December 7th, 6pm
Recover, Resist, Rebuild: Labor Speaks out after Sandy
Murphy Institute, 25 W. 43rd Street, 18th Floor
Hurricane Sandy wrecked great swaths of public infrastructure in New York and New Jersey. It is crucial that as we begin to work seriously towards rebuilding our communities, and while the storm has exposed the rampant inequalities in the city, it has also given us an opportunity to find new ways of working together. RSVP on Facebook here.
Friday, December 7th, 7pm
Sandy Survivors Benefit Show including CF of Immortal Technique
Amarachi’s Lounge
A Benefit Show to support Occupy Sandy relief work and infrastructure-building in areas that were hit by the Hurricane and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in our communities. Drink specials from 7pm - 10pm, and there will be surprise special guests.
Saturday and Sunday, December 8th and 9th
Volunteer with Occupy Sandy
520 Clinton St., Brooklyn
Join us every day through this weekend to volunteer with Occupy Sandy. New and returning volunteers are welcome to meet at 520 Clinton to be sent to help at recovery sites around the city.
Saturday, December 8th, 12:30pm
Occupy Trinity Conference
Trinity Church, 79 Broadway
Trinity Wall Street is having a conference on Radical Christian Life: Equipping Ourselves for Social Change. Occupy Catholics is bringing the conference out into the streets of NYC by hosting a Free Forum (theological and otherwise) on the topic of "A Radical Christian Response...." to the Debt Crisis caused by Wall Street, Hurricane Sandy, and other community building and mutual aid activities. RSVP on the Facebook event page.
Monday, December 10th, 5pm
Public Forum & Reception with Angela Davis & Harry Belafonte
Martin Luther King Jr Labor Center, 1199SEIU
310 W 43rd St
Join the OWS labor Outreach working group at free public forum with Angela Y. Davis and Harry Belafonte, which starts at 6pm directly following a fundraiser to benefit the Left Labor Project.
Sunday, December 16th, 3pm
Neil Barofsky Visits OWS Alternative Banking
Room 411 of the Columbia University International Affairs Building at 118th and Amsterdam
Neil Barofsky, author of Bailout and former Special Inspector General of Tarp, has agreed to visit the Alternative Banking group of Occupy. He’s joining us at our regular weekly Sunday meeting time up at Columbia. Everyone is welcome, please come with questions for Neil. We will assume the audience has read his book.
Sunday, December 16th, 2pm
A Winter’s Jubilee: Strike Debt Regional Open House and Holiday Festival
Location TBD
Interested in Strike Debt? Want to join up and help build a global debt resistance movement? Just want to learn what a global debt resistance movement might look like? Come to this open house & holiday festival hosted by Strike Debt NYC. We’ll have tables for every Strike Debt project, food, art, music, a children’s area, and more. Our allies will also be present: participants include faith groups, community organizations, Occupy Sandy, Northeast Strike Debt Affiliates. Bring your friends and family, Jubilation is in the air!
For Text Message alerts on your cellphone about daily events, actions, and important information, sign up for the ComHub SMS blasts by texting @owscom to 23559.
Regarding the OccupySandy -- Those of you kids who were there last year should be demonstrating the uses of survival techniques in this context. The people suffering the worse losses by Sandy are traumatized and not used to thinking outside their four traditional walls. Some of the help needed is psychological and spiritual. Occupy was voluntary, many came to demonstrate and expected unusual circumstances. Those afflicted because of a natural disaster are thrown abruptly into improvising and adapting, and realize the four walls did nothing to keep out the world.
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