Greetings from Occupied Wall Street,
Posted 13 years ago on Sept. 30, 2011, 5:06 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Occupy Wall Street has recently come into the media spotlight, not because of our political message, but because certain high-ranking members of the NYPD punched, threw, and stepped on peaceful marchers. Arrestees were handcuffed so tight their hands turned blue. Many of these people have yet to regain feeling in their extremities. A senior police officer infamously forced women into pens and maced them at point-blank range. While we vehemently condemn these abuses of power, we urge all who read this to remain focused on our intended message. Abuse of power is abuse of power. Whether perpetrated by Wall Street bankers or members of the NYPD, it is the duty of all citizens to oppose injustice. We condemn the actions of unprofessional police who used excessive force in subduing a peaceful march. But we are foremost here to oppose the growing power of the ruling class.
Let us also be clear that, when approached as individuals, members of the NYPD have expressed solidarity with our cause. It has been inspiring to receive this support. Over these thirteen days, we have learned that no one supports corporations’ disproportionate influence in the political sphere. We have learned that no one is in favor of evicting struggling families to the street while banks continue to profit. No one, that is, except the corporations and banks. We urge members of the NYPD to remain in solidarity with our cause. These men and women could lose their pensions and benefits during the next round of budget cuts. We ask that members of the NYPD treat all peaceful human beings with respect and care. This will be a great step towards reclaiming power for the working class. Those who profit off the suffering of others will held accountable. We are the 99%, and we are too big to fail.
Tonight we march to One Police Plaza.
this must go global!! then we might have a chance!
It is going global :) http://occupytogether.org
Join your local occupation!
For #S17 note how OWS inspired many, incl.Occupy London, from whom:
https://issuu.com/occupylondon/docs/occupy_little_book_of_ideas
& NB: https://twitter.com/Adbusters/status/1438716472671363078
Also see this ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0NDF5DelH8
et fiat lux!
Happy birthday Occupy Wall Street and st.org!
https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/occupywallst.org
This website ranks # 36,858 in the U.S. and # 134,948 in the world, a remarkable accomplishment, especially if you consider that there are 1.8 billion active websites in the world.
For Occupy's original website to rank that high shows that the ideas created by this movement still have relevance. People are still visiting this website.
Why "David Graeber’s Archive Should Continue to Uphold the Ideas He Championed in Life"
"His work should continue to encourage cooperation." + TY very much for your heartening link, bw.
et per ardua ad astra ...
It's global already.
OWS, Congratulations on your decision to march to One Police Plaza, Tactically Freaking Brilliant, and right on time.
Raise taxes on the top 1%. Warren Buffet admitted that the super-rich has been coddled. He goes on to say in an article that back in 1992 the top 400 highest earning Americans paid 29.2% in taxes. In 2008 the top 400 earners paid 21.5% while the rest of us paid more. Buffet claims he paid 17.4% income tax in 2010 while his employees paid an average 36% income tax. Buffet recommends an immediate tax increase on those who make over $1 million (including dividend and capital gains) and additional taxes for those earning $10 million or more. We need to apply the “Buffet Rule” and increase the taxes on the top 1%.
Occupy Wall Street is getting a lot of media attention. The purpose needs to effect change. And what better way than to pass a tax plan that’s already on the table and waiting for Congress to vote it in. Raise taxes on the top 1%. Congress won’t pass it because they are in that 1%. Instead people are listening to Cain, Perry, and Romney talk about proposed tax plans that may or may not increase jobs but definitely increase taxes to the poor and middle income. It’s a Red Herring, they’re trying to detract the public from taxing the rich. If we tax the top 1% we can use that money and create the jobs.
Read what Buffet says about the top 1% in The New York Times, “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich” by Warren Buffet dated Aug. 14 2011. We are all inter-dependent.
I am posting this as a reply because your posting system is all messed up. My new post is somewhere in the middle so it can't be found but things like the post above are at the top and is 25 days old.
I support your movement and am glad to see a group of people finally stand up and be counted. We the people are supposed to be running this country not the rich.
There is only one way to fix where we are and that is not to distribute the wealth. Socialism is not the answer.
The answer is to remove our current politians and quit electing career politians to represent us. They have never lived a normal life. They were raised and educated to be politians.
Being elected President or into any other political job should not be a paid position. They should do it because they want to help the people, not help themselves.
If our elected representatives do not represent our views, they should be removed from office immediately.
There should be no lobbyist with deep pockets. Politians who accept money or other perks from lobbyist should be removed from office immediately as this should be seen as a conflict of OUR interest.
We should not be paying our politians to serve. The founding fathers viewed it as an honor to serve the people not as a paying job.
On education, everyone is entitled to an education. I do not feel that this is a privilege but a right. We are far behind other countries educationally because so many of our people can not afford higher educations for themselves and their children. Higher education should be free for all or should the cost should be charged proportionate to income.
We should stop trading with foreign countries. If we are going to trade with foreign countries, then it should be even on both sides. Foreign trade should only be for goods and services that we can not produce in this country.
All off shore, outsourced jobs should be brought back into this country. There are plenty of people to do these jobs here. We would not have this out of proportion jobless rate if those jobs were brought back into our country.
Welfare and other subsidies should have caps on the amount of time these assistances can be drawn.
Federal taxes should be abolished or lowered to cover only the cost of federal programs.
I do not begrudge people who have worked hard to make their money, the right to have that money. It was our parents and their parents dream for us, that we could work hard and make a decent living.
Smaller government
No more career politians
No pay or nominal pay for politians
No lobbyist or accepting of money and perks from lobbyist
Reduce taxes to cover only the program and not the people who administer it
Fair trade or no foreign trade
Bring all outsourced, off shore jobs back to the US
Make higher education affordable
Put caps on the amount of time that someone can receive welfare and other assistance
Stay out of other countries politics
Quit sending money to other counries, we have plenty of poor and downtrodden here we can help
No more federal bailouts of banks and other institutions. If they fail, they fail. It is the way of business and of life.
The 99% needs a message, a consistant message. Not a message that says give me this or give me that but a message that will unite the people and the country and provide a viable option to what we have now. If we do not provide an alternative that makes sense, we will not be taken seriously no matter how many protests are held, no matter how many areas we occupy.
These are the things that I propose.
yeah, I agree It`s a real chance that we can go to the global then we can live fairly
get a job and then you can pay your own way in life - thats called living fairly
Its global but we have to reach a big % of the 99%
Everyone simply has to wake up!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNElKmNNVe4
Please send money so I may join you. Some of mine would be fine. Get a llife and quit whining.
Get a job lazy fool
In my job, I travel all over the world, and the universal opinion is that Americans are fat, dumb, lazy, and have their heads stuck where the sun don't shine. And it is people like you that make it impossible for me to prove that they are wrong.
Oh, and, by the way, I have a job, and I am in the 1%. That doesn't mean that I am blind to what is happening in our country.
Clearly that's exactly what it means.
Good answer to all dumb and low class from 99%, Krankie! Looks like you are putting your patriotism, intelligence and reputation as american, higher than your money! I think it is stupid to do opposite like geepers does. Because if we loose our country or economy, what then our money good for? To pay chinese with it to learn their language so you can ask chinese boss for a job? Ha-ha!
Demands
Capitalism for Everyone (Tee Hee, watch Conservatives argue against that one!) We want our hard earned capital back. Only the top 10% have ownership. A 1:1 relationship is not necessary. People need enough income to meet cost of living plus 30% minimum. The top 10% need no more than 30% of capital.
Tax the top 10%, we must have the revenue to grow our economy, support the poor and unemployed and pay on our national debt. Tax major large corporations including their foreign accounts. Do this with a price freeze and labor freeze (no lay offs); they can only lower pay for top execs or lower investment payouts. This is a stipulation, not a wish.
Send your demands to the Wall St. reform committee and the budget committee.
Get Bernie Sanders or Dennis Kucinich to speak for you in congress and read out your demands.
Everything is possible. Everything is necessary. Specific demands play their part by transformimg frustration into positive, measurable realities that people can be held accountable to.
Go For It!!!! One Love, Kore
Number 1 on your list is what's called "wealth redistribution."
You don't really need to go much farther than that. The essential point to realize is that any kind of wealth redistribution already requires a revolution in power structures -- and, moreover, any kind of consciousness of wealth distribution requires a revolution in awareness. Note that neither media nor politicians ever discuss wealth inequality (only income equality); it's totally outside the consciousness of Americans.
With the revolution necessary to accomplish wealth redistribution accomplished, it should not be difficult to come up with various other policies to manage this new revolutionary regime.
very well thought out, I agree.
This is a list from "The Venus Project" about the world they vision and what they feel should be demanded, look "The Venus Project" up:
Recognizing the world's resources as the common heritage of all Earth's people.
Transcending the artificial boundaries that separate people.
Evolving from money-based, nationalistic economies to a resource-based world economy.
Assisting in stabilizing the world's population through education and voluntary birth control in order to conform to the carrying capacity of Earth's resources.
Reclaiming and restoring the natural environment to the best of our ability.
Redesigning our cities, transportation systems, agricultural industries, and industrial plants so that they are energy efficient, clean, and able to conveniently serve the needs of all people.
Sharing and applying new technologies for the benefit of all nations.
Developing and using clean and renewable energy sources.
Manufacturing the highest quality products for the benefit of the world's people.
Requiring environmental impact studies prior to construction of any mega projects.
Encouraging the widest range of creativity and incentive toward constructive endeavor.
Outgrowing nationalism, bigotry, and prejudice through education.
Outgrowing any type of elitism, technical or otherwise.
Arriving at methodologies through careful research, rather than from mere opinions.
Enhancing communication in schools so that our language corresponds to the actual physical nature of the world.
Providing not only the necessities of life, but also offering challenges that stimulate the mind while emphasizing individuality over uniformity.
Finally, preparing people intellectually and emotionally for the changes and challenges that lie ahead.
Did you just watch Zeitgeist Moving Forward too?
Tottaly agree with Eric , dont be bothered if you have different views how to solve problems . The formula will emerge in process. Keep in mind to make visionary step you have to move to unexpirienced , nothing before can give you a clue how to desing tommoorow . People of other part of world is watching you. America was founder of democracy in time of absolute monarchies. Now world need that sleepy spirit of your nation to awake and lead us again. You are the avant guarde . Free people , not politicians.
newbie on the internet please correct spelling and translate, no more time available for me now to carry on ,will try and contribute,further in future ,if I am still free!and alive! have been working my whole flippin life only to be in deeper financial trouble ,without having spent any on luxuries,but it is not only for me, reality is we :normal citizens in many parts of the world are having a really tough time,find solutions ,be proactive,be constructive ,be realistic,be humble ,but don't be a sheep,get those blinds off yer eyes ...right get a job --where ? start your own ,and have it all stolen,over and over ,and burnt down have your family property devalued become poor ! right who is the lazy fool now ? see fellow citizens starve and kill each other dirty politics are failing yipeeeee
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Sr1koMsgt0JA0dbbpPRw18UfnxIXa8b9kSeYJsWOhis/edit
Exactly, the whole world is watching and waiting for the "left wing" and the "right wing" to at least momentarily declare a truce and focus on their common enemy, we are waiting for a "forward wing", a third position to emerge in the US. After the banksters are done with, if you want, keep going at it.
The right wing is the problem! They are brainwashed by the wealthy, and they are uneducated! Nothing will ever progress with the human race until we deal with the right wing peasants! They elected George W. Bush twice. They support the wars of the rich.They are either rich themselves, or they are working class, redneck morons,or religious nuts, who buy into the propaganda of the ruling class!They keep drugs illegal, because the wealthy tell them that drugs are immoral, so that the lawyers, judges, and private prison systems can make money. Ronald Reagan made it legal for employers to test people for drugs in 1988, which was part of the war against the left. Sorry folks but left wing intellectuals smoke grass!So much talent is being wasted in this country due to this. Socialism can only work when we achieve zero population growth, or else the rich will always have slaves for their factories, and cannon fodder, and hired murderers to ensure their domination of the natural resources(oil, natural gas, etc.)of the world. When the Saudi Royals are destroyed ,then the people of this planet will come after the oil despots of this country!
they made legal to test for drugs so you can filter through drug addicts, this whole site is full of rhetoric, such famous quotes "we are the 99% and we are too rich to fail"
if you have half a brain you can figure out how to do business in this country easier than most countries in this world.
. You want to talk about slaves? How about this one from the left, I work hard I earn a paycheck, i pay for my insurance through this job i have, I don't own a house, i rent. Now I also pay all of my taxes. The same left would like to raise my taxes and "redistribute" that to people who aren't working, may have even have given up on looking for a job. Here's my point you guys on the left (to be clear I'm a moderate I disagree with MANY things on the right as well) DOESN'T THAT MAKE ME A SLAVE FOR THOSE PEOPLE?
Why are you guys always pushing socialism? WE HAVE A SOCIALIST STRUCTURE NOW AND ITS NOT WORKING. My evidence is
How many of you with these 100,000 dollar education debts have degrees in ARTS, HISTORY, ENGLISH, are out there complaining that you can't find a job and can't pay off these loans and want the government to pay for your debts? TO THOSE OF YOU WHO FIT THIS DESCRIPTION:
ALSO for the money money part why don't you try running for office and get crap done if you think that your movement is doing anything then get people elected, f enough people are behind you then it shouldn't be a problem
DON'T expect everyone else to have to go with what this movement is doing not all of us agree with it. So what are you gonna do when people disagree with you do you think it's all about you or everyone in this country. You guys might be screaming "we will be heard" but please remember that doesn't mean your the only voice or the only voice that's right
. with respect thank you PS. I do believe that things can change but I challenge your movement to find people that won't be swayed by the money that are complaining of. I remember how everyone was going with the rhetoric of Obama. I hope you all remember that things don't change over night. I also think that you guys should get out of wall street and go straight to washington to get change. People still need to do business and your business is better handled at the capital of our great nation MANY OF THE CHANGES YOU PROPOSE ARE GOOD ONES; BUT I ALSO THINK YOU GUYS NEED TO WORK ON YOUR APPROACH WITH THE PUBLIC, YOU GUYS USE WHAT SOUNDS LIKE TO MOST PEOPLE JUST RHETORIC AND BTW A PEACEFUL PROTEST ALSO INVOLVE DOING AS THE POLICE SAY, GET ARRESTED LET THEM TAKE YOU. IF YOU RESIST THEM THEY ARE IN EVERY RIGHT TO GET YOU TO GET BACK EVERY VIDEO I'VE SEEN OF YOU GUYS HAD THE PERSON WHO GOT PULLED IN OR HIT OR SPRAYED BY THE COPS MOVING INTO THERE LINE. THEY ARE THERE TO STOP A RIOT WHICH AN UGLY MOB CAN EASILY TURN INTO TO.
THAT IS YOUR BIGGEST PROBLEM YOU GUYS APPEAR TO BE NOTHING MORE THAN A MOB AND THAT CAN GET UGLY REALLY FAST
You are a slave to the rich who pay a lower percentage of their income in taxes than you do. BTW I'm going to school to be a programmer because it is an in demand skill. You are right about the police and the rhetoric. But you are wrong about the socialist structure. Its failing cause the 1% don't pay the same % as you do in taxes. Its also failing because our wages are so low compared to a REAL socialist country. $7.25 404= $1200 a month gross. most minimum wage jobs don't give you forty hours. ALL minimum wage jobs are hard and demeaning. Welfare is a less than that, but you aren't made to work when you're sick, or on most all holidays. I the UK minimum wage is twice ours, so they have less people on welfare. they also FORCE employers to give sick days. Did you know that ALL restaurants unoffically enforce working when sick to the point of termination?
where did you get the termination quote from? show me the evidence
yes thats why UK is so strong right now so the numbers are higher in pay so is their tax rate and their rent. If you're gonna look at the numbers look at the percentage as well
UK unemployment rose by 114,000 between June and August to 2.57 million - a 17-year high, according to official figures.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the unemployment rate also increased to 8.1%.
The unemployment total for 16-24 year olds hit a record high of 991,000 in the quarter, a jobless rate of 21.3%."http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10604117
most jobs from UK get shipped to india they're cheaper
in the US it's 9.1% overall and in the youth is at, "The youth unemployment rate declined by 1.0 percentage point over the year to 18.1 percent in July 2011"
so they aren't coin much better.
taxes in UK: " Income Tax Rates top of page
2011 - 12 Starting rate for savings 10% £0 - £2,560 Basic tax rate 20% £0 - 35,000 Higher tax rate 40% Over £35,000 Additional rate 50% Over £150,000"
http://www.scopulus.co.uk/taxsheets/
do your homework its not better over there
i still get to choose my job with this structure the communist one i'm sure would be quick to tell me which one
i'd rather work for the rich they pay better than you guys
i will be amazed if i get a good reply on this
Why exactly do you want socialism, it is the downfall of the American Republic. And taking into account the left wingers smoking weed, I am no longer surprised at the thought lacking ideas those turds think of
Because all people deserve to be fed, educated and given a minimum of health care.If we don't do that, we really should practice euthanasia to keep the population down
Yet the beginning of the American Democracy. How anyone can be opposed to giving healthcare to everyone (yes maybe it will go to someone undeserving but in general it will go to people who do deserve it). Maybe we should get rid of firemen unless you can afford them??
imagination is responsible for most inventions get with it newbie on the internet please correct spelling and translate, no more time available for me now to carry on ,will try and contribute,further in future ,if I am still free!and alive! have been working my whole flippin life only to be in deeper financial trouble ,without having spent any on luxuries,but it is not only for me, reality is we :normal citizens in many parts of the world are having a really tough time,find solutions ,be proactive,be constructive ,be realistic,be humble ,but don't be a sheep,get those blinds off yer eyes ...right get a job --where ? start your own ,and have it all stolen,over and over ,and burnt down have your family property devalued become poor ! right who is the lazy fool now ? see fellow citizens starve and kill each other dirty politics are failing yipeeeee,see your own family members ,yep .... all because of political mental poisoning.Perceptions can drive us apart,the case of the Iraqi baby that was adopted grew up in America, did not know ,who did this person hate ,it wasn't the Americans,get a wake up !
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Sr1koMsgt0JA0dbbpPRw18UfnxIXa8b9kSeYJsWOhis/edit
Fools there is no right wing no left wing! There is only the 99 % and the world banksters! As long as you fight among yourselves and think the elections are real this will continue! It is a big puppet show and you are the fluoridated masses that just keep saying the same stupid stuff. WAKE UP read the constitution, Understand the Common Law, inform your self about fractional reserve banking, Know the difference between a Constitutional Republic and a communist fascist socialist democracy! Unconstitutional ABC bureaucracies that suppress us all and keep us in slavery to the banking elite! WOW wake up learn the real truth and that truth will set you free!
RHETORIC is all you have written here sir no real information
If you're waiting for the right to do that, you've got a long wait!
How about putting pressure on the Southern Poverty Law Center, which ostensibly monitors hate groups, to declare the NYPD a hate group?
No one can do what they have done without an authoritarian ideology in place to dispel feelings of guilt. These cops are no better than Skinheads.
The media keeps asking what the message is, or reporting that the message is vague. We need to nudge and encourage the media to do some of their own reading, investigating, and evaluating instead of just looking to repeat what protesters or representatives might say (the way they currently tend to simply repeat what a spokesperson, lobbyist, politician, and so forth say on the air, in print, or in public).
Those in the media are part of the 99%, as are their viewers, so they owe it to the viewers to figure out what part of the protesters' message has merit and substance, and choose what they believe to be is the most important story. Everyone that talks to the media needs to repeat this every time they are given a chance to speak. Look up the demands as they are listed across all the Occupy websites, examine them, investigate them, and report!
We need a strong middle class. That is what made us strong in the first place. Without a powerful strong middle class, the 1% will always take over. The older America gets, the more history repeats itself and corruption sets in. We can make a difference the old fashion way. Through grass roots, we can grow a strong movement just like the middle east is doing. Power to the middle class!!!
Keeping on subject, Cornell U published a paper ( http://arxiv.org/abs/1107.5728 ) that zeros in on the 147 greediest companies in the world that dominate all world markets. There is now empirical evidence that the 99% are correctly protesting something that is definable and can be controlled by democratic governments. The 99% must, through democratic peaceful action regain control of our government from these 147 entities and establish a more humanitarian, peaceful world. The 99% can no longer tolerate greed being the dominant force in the world.
Here is the abstract: The structure of the control network of transnational corporations affects global market competition and financial stability. So far, only small national samples were studied and there was no appropriate methodology to assess control globally. We present the first investigation of the architecture of the international ownership network, along with the computation of the control held by each global player. We find that transnational corporations form a giant bow-tie structure and that a large portion of control flows to a small tightly-knit core of financial institutions. This core can be seen as an economic “super-entity” that raises new important issues both for researchers and policy makers.
While wealth disparity is real, the bottom 99% still have varying degrees of economic experience. People want something tangible and practicable and while demonstrations are key, it is not sustainable because it is a monoculture in and of itself. The message has to be broader, more inclusive, and appeal to people outside of the major metropolitan areas who are also struggling badly.
As I understand it, most of the big banks are not on Wall Street anymore and that there is limited visibility of the protestors therefore. While it is unfortunate that the cops are reacting with brutality and totally uncalled for, it is also unfortunate that this is the major thing that the demonstration is being recognized for the police brutality. If there is a thing worth demanding and opening people's minds up to, it's a Guaranteed Basic Income, so that people have access to the money they need to survive and can do work in the communities that need help, with teaching, agriculture, infrastructure repair. There is so much weightless talk about jobs creation when if a fraction of what we are spending on wars was offered to people in their own communities, people would have a viable means of not only surviving, but thriving and helping their communities to thrive.
why target local police when your stated target is finance/political corruption? you should be sending the cops that performed their duties a thank you note without that confrontation there wasn't too much attention. PEACEFUL PROTEST MARCHES TO BELOW WOULD BE MORE APPROPRIATE. You are diluting your message focusing on One Police Plaza:
Goldman Sachs http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=200+West+Street,+29th+Floor&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x89c25a1b940ac987:0x4c3ca37c6872f351,200+West+St,+New+York,+NY+10282&gl=us&ei=LseFTty5JMnw0gGZuNUM&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CB0Q8gEwAA
Federal Reserve Bank o fNew York http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&gs_upl=5755l9080l0l9437l10l10l0l0l0l0l472l2083l2.5.1.0.2l10l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=729&bih=337&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=0,0,17893458340984734295&fb=1&hq=FEDERAL+RESERVE+NY+OFFICE&hnear=0x89c24fa5d33f083b:0xc80b8f06e177fe62,New+York,+NY&gl=us&daddr=33+Liberty+Street,+New+York,+NY+10045-0001&geocode=17529691480307023506,40.708304,-74.008940&ei=7MeFTvGeD8fs0gGtmojiDw&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=directions-to&resnum=1&ved=0CB8QngIwAA
JP Morgan Chase http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=270+park+avenue+nyc&gs_sm=c&gs_upl=32945l32945l0l35050l1l1l0l0l0l0l79l79l1l1l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=729&bih=337&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl
good luck
WRONG! when your brothers and sisters get arrested you are obligated to go and make sure they are treated well. The crowd went to get King and Malcolm X brought a crowd to get one of his "boys" out. That's the protection of the non-violent movement.
No, Police are a tactical target to flip to our side, OWS is doing good, imagine a police force that pretends to work, that sabotages the counter-protest actions, imagine a police group joining OWS.
Once Police is on our side, the yes, Golman Sachs sounds viable.
I agree!!!
Those links destroyed the layout of the entire discussion in my browser... [EDIT: and now it's fixed, good job, whoever did that, however you did it!]
Today this news made me weep. I will be there tomorrow.
Shame is a revolutionary feeling, en economist said.
Have a look around. Everywhere, you guys have brought about very passionate discussions about what needs to be done, what doesn't... very few agree and it is beautiful. You guys have initiated a worldwide debate that will never "end" but will bring about so much change and it hasn't even really started yet.
The world thanks you for it, whether they know it yet or not. I know it and words fail me to express how deep this all goes, how far reaching impacts it will have (as it already is) and all that will be accomplished in the coming days, weeks, months, years. You are making, right this moment, an indelible impact on the history of humanity.
It was beautiful watching you, from afar, come together and overcome what you had to so far. It is beautiful watching you keep it going and it is remarkable to see it grow so much.
I will keep watching, but won't be able to as much as I will have to do my part locally. We will take to the streets in my city on October 15th, along with so many across the globe, both in support of you and in support of us all. We will all rise and come together as a united front, created by and for the people, and don't you silly americans ever forget that some little park in NYC's financial district was the spark that ignited us all. This isn't the "American Spring"... the "Arab Spring" was only the very beginning of the Freedom Years.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for what you have done for me, my daughter and all of us 99 percenters.
This has been a long time coming... there's no turning back now and this is too big to fail.
Thank you, Eric
Thank you for participating in the forum.
This website ranks # 36,858 in the U.S. and # 134,948 in the world, a remarkable accomplishment, especially if you consider that there are 1.8 billion active websites in the world.
Many thanks to Micah White for maintaining it and JART for creating it.
For Occupy's original website to rank that high shows that the ideas created by this movement still have relevance. People are still visiting this website.
Happy birthday Occupy Wall Street and st.org!
https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/occupywallst.org
The legacy of Occupy has never been clearer.
"Occupy Wall Street Changed Everything Ten years later, the legacy of Zuccotti Park has never been clearer."
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/09/occupy-wall-street-changed-everything.html
"Ten years later, the significance of Occupy Wall Street is undeniable. Occupy inaugurated a new era of defiant protest and was an early expression of the populist wave that continues to surge across the American political scene. It helped revitalize a moribund left, ushering in a social-movement renaissance across a range of issues, including racial justice, climate change, debt cancellation, and organized labor. And Occupy offered a crash course in collective action for a generation of organizers now in ascendance. Surprisingly, an uprising deeply suspicious of structure and power imparted critical lessons about the importance of building institutions and cultivating strategic discipline. Imbued with an explicitly anarchist spirit, the movement was hostile to electoral politics, and yet its most concrete legacy is the insurgent energy it unleashed to transform the Democratic Party, pushing it to be more responsive to ordinary people."
Yep, Bernie Sanders' presidential run a mere 5 years after Occupy. He nearly won. He really won!
There is an unfortunate paywall on that New Yorker article but if you are patient enough to scroll through the small window they give, you can read it.
Paywalls, where only the wealthy get to read the news, hence why we post here.
"Occupy Wall Street Changed Everything Ten years later, the legacy of Zuccotti Park has never been clearer." by Astra Taylor and Jonathan Smucker:
On August 10, 2011, the late David Graeber sent Astra an email that read, in part: “by the way, you should join us in our general assemblies leading up to the Wall Street actions. We have a genuine horizontal structure up and running and it’s really fun (for geeks like me anyway).” Graeber, an anthropologist by trade, was part of a loose group of a few dozen people meeting regularly that summer in response to a call, issued by a Canadian countercultural magazine called Adbusters, for 20,000 demonstrators to descend on Wall Street on September 17. (The date was rather arbitrary: It was the birthday of the mother of one of the magazine’s editors.) The announcement instructed people to bring tents and stay “for a few months.”
Astra never joined those early assemblies, but she showed up on the first day of what was billed as Occupy Wall Street. A few hundred protesters marched on Manhattan’s Financial District. With much of the area under police lockdown, they moved north from the iconic Charging Bull statue to Zuccotti Park, a sloping square with granite benches and planters. It was small and tucked away yet highly visible, its east side facing Broadway. Occupiers slept in the open air those first few days, marching every morning and evening, timed to the trading floor bell and rush-hour traffic. Bankers passing by would shout at us to “get a job,” seemingly oblivious to the fact that their industry was responsible for the mass unemployment that helped spark the protest in the first place.
“I thought the most likely scenario is that we’d all get beat up and put in jail,” Graeber confessed in a later interview. The planners surprised themselves by making it through the first night. Within a few weeks this gang of anarchists, students, activists, and online rabble-rousers — Graeber’s “geeks” — had captured the attention of the world, armed only with tents, cardboard signs, and an obstinate demand to be seen and heard.
An estimated 900 sister occupations sprang up across the United States and around the globe, some of which would outlast the original encampment by weeks or even months. Millions of people immediately recognized themselves as part of Occupy’s “99 percent,” the supermajority of working and indebted people exploited by the wealthy and powerful “one percent” — rhetoric so intuitively powerful that it has since become embedded in the popular imagination. Overnight, the protest forced a long-overdue national conversation about inequality, capitalism, and class, one that political elites had studiously avoided despite overseeing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
By the time billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg sent police two months later, on November 15, to expel sleeping protesters under the pretext of “cleaning” the park, Occupy had burst into mainstream political awareness. But its legacy was immediately cast in doubt. What, after all, had we accomplished? While Occupy had channeled the frustrations of people from all walks of life, its methods were derided as chaotic, amateurish, naïve. Prominent liberal institutions found the gathering uncouth. “Count us as deeply skeptical,” opined 'The New Republic'.
The night we were ousted from Zuccotti, Occupy’s public-relations working group sent out a press release, drafted by Jonathan, that ended with the slogan, “You cannot evict an idea whose time has come” (a play on Victor Hugo’s “Nothing is stronger than an idea whose time has come”). But as we stood by helplessly as the encampment was literally shoveled into garbage trucks, we couldn’t be sure this strange experiment would wind up meaning anything at all.
Ten years later, the significance of Occupy Wall Street is undeniable. Occupy inaugurated a new era of defiant protest and was an early expression of the populist wave that continues to surge across the American political scene. It helped revitalize a moribund left, ushering in a social-movement renaissance across a range of issues, including racial justice, climate change, debt cancellation, and organized labor. And Occupy offered a crash course in collective action for a generation of organizers now in ascendance. Surprisingly, an uprising deeply suspicious of structure and power imparted critical lessons about the importance of building institutions and cultivating strategic discipline. Imbued with an explicitly anarchist spirit, the movement was hostile to electoral politics, and yet its most concrete legacy is the insurgent energy it unleashed to transform the Democratic Party, pushing it to be more responsive to ordinary people.
Occupy was ever contradictory, and in hindsight, it’s clear the movement’s greatest strengths were also its weaknesses. Its ideological openness attracted a diverse array of people and viewpoints, but also led to incoherence and conflict. The lack of centralization fostered autonomy and creativity, but also engendered tactical confusion. The camp in some respects represented (or “prefigured,” in movement parlance) the utopian world Occupy wanted to build, but that very utopia became a liability when the camp manifested all the real world’s myriad problems. The true legacy of Occupy will be the extent to which organizers in the future can navigate those contradictions. The stakes, now as then, couldn’t be higher: to democratically reshape society and ward off a looming authoritarian threat.
Today, Occupy’s insights about extreme inequality and political corruption sound commonplace. At the time, they were a revelation. Occupy cut through the stifling ideological fog that had governed economic policy-making since the Reagan era by acknowledging reality: The system is rigged. Though labor productivity up to that point had long been rising, most Americans’ wages had remained stagnant for decades as the cost of living skyrocketed and vital social services were slashed. This was not the result of “natural processes,” but of government interventions that structured the economy to benefit the people at the top.
Nearly three years into the Great Recession, Occupy was arguably late to the game. But by 2011 the public was primed for revolt. Wall Street greed had evaporated trillions of dollars of wealth overnight and caused millions of families to lose their homes, savings, and jobs — with Black and Latino families losing more than half their collective wealth. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama, purveyor of “hope and change,” left millions of underwater homeowners in the lurch and refused to hold bankers accountable, instead tasking men like Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers with fixing a crisis that, as negligent government regulators of both Republican and Democratic administrations past, they had helped cause.
There was simply no political outlet at that time for those appalled by the bipartisan consensus surrounding issues related to finance and the market economy. This was the backdrop that informed the radical outlook of the original Occupiers. Upon arriving at Zuccotti Park, participants were encouraged to form small assemblies to discuss why they had come and what, if anything, they wanted the movement to achieve. “It was kind of nice to be at a protest and, instead of marching and shouting, to be talking about ideas,” Astra wrote in a message to friends encouraging them to join. “It felt like the script had changed.”
At the end of the first day, the decision was made to demand nothing — on the grounds that demands of the state only legitimized a corrupt system, one in which our ostensible representatives do the bidding of deep-pocketed donors and call it “democracy.” The movement’s adoption of open assemblies was a reaction against the existing order and an homage to dissenters in other countries who had created similar forums. Participants deliberated and made decisions directly, using a system of “modified consensus,” meaning proposals had to reach a threshold of 90 percent unanimity to pass.
The assemblies proved untenable for many reasons (for example, people could contribute to decisions they had no obligation or intention to help follow through on). But many found the experience moving and transformative. “The direct democracy aspect of [Occupy’s] structure in the very beginning was really exciting for me,” recalled Evan Weber, then a Wesleyan undergraduate and a future co-founder of the Sunrise Movement. “As things went on, the complete consensus for groups of thousands just became extremely impractical. But at the beginning, being able to really feel like everyone there had value and that we were making decisions that we were all bought into was pretty exhilarating.”
One of the first lessons Occupy imparted was that improbable things were possible. As dusk fell on the first day, Astra slipped away, convinced the cops would soon disperse the crowd. She had spent years being shunted into the “Free Speech zones” that defined protest against the War on Terror during the George W. Bush era. But the people gathered in the park — most of them in their early 20s; some were teenagers — were thinking of the Arab Spring and the European “indignados,” the rebels in Tunisia, Egypt, Spain, and Greece who held public space for weeks on end. The young occupiers had also watched in awe that spring as demonstrators took over Wisconsin’s Capitol for days. Why couldn’t they set up a camp in a park and make their voices heard too?
In his book Thank You, Anarchy, Nathan Schneider, one of the movement’s most eloquent participant-chroniclers, writes that people “came for a protest and arrived at a school.” People from all over the country descended on the park in those first weeks; at one point, Weber led two school buses full of fellow Wesleyan students to Zuccotti. Jonathan made his way from Providence, Rhode Island, and got to work training occupiers to talk to reporters in ad hoc workshops in a corner of the park.
CONTINUED BELOW:
Zuccotti Park quickly became a veritable tent city, with a food station, a sanitation crew, a well-stocked library, multiple newspapers, upward of 100 working groups, and an incessant drum circle that quickly grew notorious. Young people, old people, crusty punks, college students, and tourists mingled, ringed by a perimeter of cops. Simple cardboard signs scrawled in marker — “The World Has Enough for Everyone’s NEED But Not for Everyone’s GREED”; “Shit Is Fucked Up and Bullshit”; “I Lost My Job But I Found an Occupation” — came to be hallmarks of the protest, while some attendees dressed up in outlandish costumes to make a political point, donning Guy Fawkes masks (associated with the online hacktivist subculture Anonymous) or strolling about with their mouths muzzled by dollar bills.
Occupy got a boost from wanton police violence. The mainstream media began to take serious notice a week into the protests, thanks to a viral video of two young women being pepper-sprayed at close range by an NYPD deputy inspector named Anthony Bologna. Then police arrested over 700 protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge, and sympathy for the protesters only increased when JPMorgan Chase announced that it had donated an “unprecedented” $4.6 million to the NYPD “to strengthen security in the Big Apple.” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly wrote to JPMorgan chairman Jamie Dimon expressing his “profound gratitude.”
Popular opinion was on our side, as evidenced in not only polls but the mountains of pizzas, clothes and blankets, and cash donations that flowed in from far-flung sympathizers. “We had just lived through one of the most insane highway robberies of everyday people, through collusion by bankers and the one percent and our government,” as Weber put it. “It was the right thing to be screaming about.” The encampment was a giant middle finger on Wall Street’s doorstep, and that defiance touched a nerve.
It also unsettled the Establishment that was supposed to hold the powerful accountable: the press. The journalists who flocked to Zuccotti often reported in bad faith, mocking protesters for using cellphones and computers (products of capitalism) and marveling at seemingly strange rituals, including the human microphone (since traditional amplification was illegal, the crowd had to repeat what speakers said so that everyone could hear) and “sparkle fingers” (hand movements to silently signal agreement or disapproval during discussions).
Actually, the encampment’s eccentric aspects were part of its appeal — and its power. “It looks like a pirate ship wrecked in the Financial District and set up a civilization,” a friend who lived a few blocks away said at the time. Befuddled pundits criticized the movement for its lack of clearly enumerated demands. But in fact it was the mandarins in the press who displayed a startling naïvete about how politics work, not the motley and mostly inexperienced group that gathered at Zuccotti Park. Social change, sadly, is not as simple as citizens respectfully presenting well-conceived proposals to the people in charge.
As it turned out, the lack of demands became one of Occupy’s greatest assets, enabling a wide range of people to see themselves in the same struggle. Popularizing a broad critique of inequality was far more important, politically, than writing out detailed policy prescriptions. And the overwhelming spectacle belied an underlying seriousness about the movement’s strategic approach. While Occupy’s anarchistic tendency was highly visible, many Occupiers advocated for collective discipline, coalition-building, and strategic engagement with the broader political system — as a disruptive protest movement applying pressure from the outside, to be sure.
As it turned out, the lack of demands became one of Occupy’s greatest assets, enabling a wide range of people to see themselves in the same struggle. Popularizing a broad critique of inequality was far more important, politically, than writing out detailed policy prescriptions. And the overwhelming spectacle belied an underlying seriousness about the movement’s strategic approach. While Occupy’s anarchistic tendency was highly visible, many Occupiers advocated for collective discipline, coalition-building, and strategic engagement with the broader political system — as a disruptive protest movement applying pressure from the outside, to be sure.
Underlying heated debates about structure, leadership, and strategy was the question of power, something Occupy was deeply ambivalent about. Tensions were palpable from the start. On that first afternoon in Zuccotti, someone pointed out that any demands needed to be backed up by some kind of leverage; power would be required to get results. Occupy’s emphasis on direct democracy, however, prioritized means over ends, process over outcomes. Though it was far from evident at the time, Occupy would be the apotheosis of the horizontalist ethos.
The limits of that ethos, however, were evident to many of the movement’s dedicated participants. Michelle Crentsil, who was part of the People of Color working group, recalls a “clash of cultures” at Occupy. “The people who put together the [POC] working group, including myself, had come from organizing traditions where we don’t balk at structure and leadership,” she told us. “We like leaders. We think there are leaders and people can develop and be good leaders.”
Crentsil noted the disjunction between Occupy’s stated ideals and the reality. “There were leaders: they’re standing up in the middle of the park and telling us what we’re going to do next,” she said. “I think it’s better to be explicit about it, because then you can hold people accountable.” In this sense, the People of Color working group foreshadowed the common refrain within the Black Lives Matter movement that it was not leaderless but leaderful.
Instead of spontaneously spawning local assemblies across the country, as some of Occupy’s original planners predicted, the uprising helped usher a new kind of left into being.
CONTINUED BELOW #2:
Guido Girgenti was 19 years old and a sophomore at Occidental College when he joined Occupy Los Angeles and helped organize the Occupy Colleges network. In the decade since, Girgenti helped co-found the Sunrise Movement and is now the media director for Justice Democrats, an organization that recruits and supports progressive insurgents running for Congress, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, and Jamaal Bowman. “People forget how deeply anarchist and deeply, in my opinion, dysfunctional Occupy was internally,” he told us. “In retrospect, so much of Occupy felt like the last spasms of a Left that had been totally marginalized from mainstream politics.”
Girgenti sees Occupy as a “bridge” between the late-20th-century left, which was small, fragmented, and ineffectual, and a 21st-century left that aims to build a majoritarian, multiracial, class-conscious movement that operates both inside and outside the political system to materially improve people’s lives.
The writer Adriana Camarena described Occupy San Francisco as “a teeter-tottering training ground for the uninitiated activist.” The same was true across the country. When the tents were gone, people tried to apply what they had learned to a variety of new efforts — and they were determined not to repeat Occupy’s mistakes. “A lot of us really took inspiration from what Occupy did to breathe life back into movements in 21st-century America,” Weber reflected, while adding that he and his collaborators “wanted to make an explicit rejection of” Occupy’s extreme decentralization. After encampments across the country were cleared, many veterans of Occupy were ready to contest for real power.
Occupy sprouted scores of offshoots. There was no clear guidebook, after all, for revitalizing a decimated and demoralized left. After the evictions, some people tried, and failed, to establish new camps (an ambition that mistook the tactic of occupation for a political goal). Less literal efforts to sustain the Occupy spirit were more successful. Occupiers went on to prevent foreclosures, ally with the homeless, agitate on campuses and in workplaces, and start cooperative businesses. They won enormous goodwill in New York — even praise from the Department of Homeland Security — for mobilizing an astonishing 60,000 volunteers to help with relief efforts after Superstorm Sandy pummeled the city in 2012.
They also kept up the focus on finance. A group called Occupy the SEC garnered headlines and helped shape policy by penning a 325-page letter of criticisms and recommendations pertaining to arcane financial-sector regulations known as the Volcker Rule. Astra (recruited, once again, by David Graeber) joined a working group focused on debt that eventually developed into a lasting organization, the Debt Collective, that has moved the call for debt cancellation from the margins to the political mainstream. Through different tactics, including a student-debt strike, they pushed all the leading 2020 Democratic presidential-primary candidates to campaign on varying degrees of student-loan cancellation. As a result of their work, the Biden administration has eliminated nearly $10 billion of student debt in 2021 alone.
In the wake of Occupy, a social-movement revival swept the United States, with record-breaking numbers of people taking to the streets against racism and police violence, Trump’s Muslim ban, patriarchy, the gun lobby, and more. Nelini Stamp, a Zuccotti regular who now serves as director of strategy and partnerships for the Working Families Party, has been at the forefront of many of these uprisings, and she believes Occupy was pivotal. “The ruling class taught us that our democracy was broken so that we do not get involved and we do not try to fix it,” Stamp reflected. In Stamp’s view, Occupy challenged this complacency while also changing how people protested, connecting local actions to larger movements by normalizing the use of livestreams and social media.
The Sunrise Movement, which helped transform climate politics by mobilizing around the demand for a Green New Deal, was profoundly influenced by Occupy. “After Occupy I became obsessed with the idea and power of social movements, and with figuring out how we could do a similar thing — spark a similar sort of moral crisis on the issue of climate change, which we thought, similar to the financial crisis, was a sleeping giant,” Weber told us. “In the planning for and creation of Sunrise, we drew a lot from both Occupy’s successes and failures.” Where Occupy had no long-term plan, Sunrise aimed to “create Occupy-style trigger moments” — such as their sit-in at Nancy Pelosi’s office just days after the 2018 midterm election, which was joined by Congresswoman-elect Ocasio-Cortez — while recruiting people into a multiphase, multiyear strategy.
The rise of the Democratic Socialists of America is another example of how Occupy changed the left. “We absorbed a lot of energy coming out of Occupy,” Maria Svart, national director of DSA, told us. DSA has dramatically expanded in recent years, now boasting over 95,000 dues-paying members (including both of us) and 300 chapters across the country. “Members are themselves empowered to choose the campaigns to develop,” Svart said, “and they’re talking about the class struggle, and they’re knocking on their neighbors’ doors, and they’re talking to their coworkers.”
In contrast to Occupy, electoral engagement is a big part of the equation for DSA, Sunrise, and others. What had seemed like a chasm between protest movements and electoral campaigns appears to have vanished. “Occupy set the ground for people to electoralize social movements without co-opting them,” Stamp told us. Many Occupiers were hypervigilant about preventing politicians from stealing the movement’s thunder, reserving special ire for Democrats who were seen as invoking progressive talking points while selling out to corporate interests. But since then many Occupy participants have been part of insurgent electoral campaigns to challenge the Democratic Party’s old-guard leadership and upend its status quo.
Occupy’s legacy was most visible in Bernie Sanders’s two presidential runs — which in turn inspired more insurgents, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other members of the Squad, to seek office. Sanders may have been shouting Occupy’s talking points since before most Occupiers were born, but the movement of the 99 percent created conditions for his campaign to catch fire, shifting the balance of power in the Democratic Party to the point that Sanders is now one of the chief players in ongoing negotiations over Biden’s legislative agenda.
This July, Sandy Nurse, a prominent member of Zuccotti Park’s Direct Action working group, won her primary campaign to represent Brooklyn’s 37th District in City Hall (which, in a heavily Democratic district, means she’s the presumed victor). She knows that just having good elected officials in office is not enough. Social movements create the “wind that pushes us forward,” she told us, meaning the inside and outside have to work in tandem. She also credits Occupy, with its focus on money in politics, with helping popularize the idea of financing campaigns with small-dollar donations. Toward the end of her race Nurse says she was asking people for $20, and while it was a lot more work than getting one fat check from the real-estate lobby, that’s the price of independence and public trust.
With the threat of racist, authoritarian, minority rule hanging over us, the left has to work on all fronts. As WFP’s Stamp put it, we can’t afford to cede terrain, electoral or otherwise. “My viewpoint has changed since Occupy,” she said. “I’m here about building power.”
CONTINUED BELOW #3
In 2011, the world was wracked by calamity. But by the standards of 2021, it appears a simple time. There was no pandemic. The authoritarian right was far less powerful. And climate catastrophe was less palpably present.
Occupy was the writing on the wall — or rather, on a cardboard sign — that democracy was in profound crisis. It was not the protesters who failed, but the political elites who ignored Occupy’s prescient warnings.
While Democrats worked to stymie and denigrate the populist politics of the left, a right-wing insurgency exploded on the scene, backed by deep-pocketed donors and cable-news promoters. Launched in 2009, the Tea Party merged populist rage with racist resentment, blaming the economic meltdown on “Big Government” and Black mortgage holders, the latter being the very people who had been most harmed by the recession. This reactionary movement succeeded spectacularly, capturing the Republican Party and, with the election of Donald Trump, the presidency.
What we desperately need now is a powerful progressive alternative to the Trumpian right — one that taps into deep dissatisfaction with the status quo but channels it into a popular struggle to create a more caring, more equal society. In Occupy Wall Street, people found the class cleavage — and the willingness to name culprits at the top — that Obama had shied away from. But in response, as Michelle Crentsil noted, the Democratic Party “got scared,” treating the politics of “the 99 percent versus the one percent” with disdain. Sunrise’s Weber has seen this process up close, with figures like Nancy Pelosi dismissing the Green New Deal as “the green dream or whatever.” In the absence of a progressive answer to Trump, Weber fears that “right-wing authoritarianism will win and that what we experienced over the last four years with Trump will pale in comparison.”
Maria Svart shares these concerns: “It’s more important than ever that we build a larger, more organized, more engaged multiracial working-class mass left with millions of people — as soon as possible.”
Ten years later, this is something we can learn from Occupy. At the core of the protest, there was a deep optimism and an openness to welcoming all people. Despite being revolutionary in orientation, Occupy wasn’t more radical than thou. Svart put it this way: “Ordinary people — not just the ‘organized political people,’ but random people — could go down to their local encampment and could see that they could do something.”
The whole point of the phrase “We are the 99 percent!” was its capaciousness. It functioned as an invitation. The curious didn’t have to pass a political litmus test; they could show up and ask questions. If they stayed long enough, they’d see how their hardships aligned with the hardships of others.
Of course, as countless critics have noted, Occupy’s demography never reflected the country’s diversity (though it is important not to erase all the people of color who participated and played key roles). Movements since have thankfully focused on some of the issues where Occupy fell short, particularly in regard to race and gender. But movement veteran Stamp, for one, also wondered if we have perhaps overcorrected. “We’re so siloed,” Stamp said. “And I think that our orientation is not toward the masses.” Chloe Cockburn, who was active in multiple Occupy working groups and has long worked on criminal-punishment reform, noted that as the left has become more prominent, it runs the risk of becoming more exclusive — a clubhouse for those who already have the right analysis and vocabulary instead of a popular vehicle that can “unleash our full power.”
Will we develop sufficient strategic wherewithal to navigate the multiple unfolding crises we face? Can we build popular movements robust enough not only to shift the direction of the Democratic Party but to redistribute power and wealth in our society? Can we foster the solidarity required to overcome the politics of divide-and-conquer and redress all forms of racism? Will we be able to mitigate the climate crisis and ensure a livable planet? Can we muster the political will and the strength to show that, actually, there is an alternative to capitalism and the profound injustice we have inherited?
When future historians look back on the movements catalyzed by Occupy, those are likely to be some of the questions and criteria used to assess their impact. But today we should remember: Occupiers were just regular people — young and old, students and teachers, unemployed and overworked, insecure and indebted. They were not some special category of human being who have a duty to save the world, yet they took the risk of trying to bring about something new. They were the 99 percent, which means they were, and are, us. The question of whether Occupy will succeed or fail is ultimately a question we must ask of ourselves.
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Astra Taylor is a co-founder of the Debt Collective, a union for debtors. Her books include Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone and Remake the World: Essays, Reflections, Rebellions.
Jonathan Smucker has worked for 25 years as a political organizer, campaigner, and strategist. He is the co-founder of Lancaster Stands Up, Pennsylvania Stands Up, and Beyond the Choir, and the author of Hegemony How-To: A Roadmap for Radicals.
THIS^IS THE ENTIRE "NY MAG 'INTELLIGENCER' ARTICLE - SHARED HERE UNDER 'FAIR USE' !
Viva OWS!
WA Post "Occupy Won the Future"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/18/occupy-wall-street-won-future/
Yes it did. And, the future is ours, and it's infinite....
Has "Occupy Wall Street Won The Future"?! (by Helaine Olen) - Not Yet!! The Struggle is NOT over!!!
But "the future is ours, and it's infinite ..."
In the immediate aftermath of Occupy Wall Street, pundits on both the left and the right pronounced it a failure. The thousands of people in attendance were angry at Wall Street, but they couldn’t say what, exactly, they wanted the government to do about it. There was no leadership and no list of demands.
But this week, the 10th anniversary of the start of the protest, we can dismiss these critiques as in-the-moment hot takes that did not account for how Occupy Wall Street would resonate over the following decade. The two-month protest ultimately altered what is expected from politics and politicians and what is demanded from our government in times of needIn the immediate aftermath of Occupy Wall Street, pundits on both the left and the right pronounced it a failure. The thousands of people in attendance were angry at Wall Street, but they couldn’t say what, exactly, they wanted the government to do about it. There was no leadership and no list of demands.
But this week, the 10th anniversary of the start of the protest, we can dismiss these critiques as in-the-moment hot takes that did not account for how Occupy Wall Street would resonate over the following decade. The two-month protest ultimately altered what is expected from politics and politicians and what is demanded from our government in times of need.
No small amount of the credit for Occupy’s reach and resonance needs to go to movement’s slogan, usually attributed to the late activist and anthropologist David Graeber: “We are the 99 percent.” The phrase combined pithiness with descriptiveness. The line was able to burst past many of the usual class divides in American life because (sometimes rare for the left) it unified instead of divided. “It made space for people,” says documentary filmmaker and activist Astra Taylor, who took part in the protest. “The 99 percent was inclusive and it was welcoming.”
Prior to Occupy, many people — even politically engaged people — didn’t seem to realize the extent to which the wealthiest Americans accrued almost all the financial gains of the past several decades. Yes, there was anger — lots of it — regarding Wall Street players whose actions had led to both the housing crash and the Great Recession. But in our self-help society, we often blamed ourselves — and each other — for the all-too-many personal financial failures and crack-ups. A reminder: The first political response to the housing crash and the resulting government bailout of banks and some homeowners was the hyper-conservative tea party. “How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor’s mortgage?” CNBC anchor Rick Santelli sneered on television in 2009, igniting a right-wing movement.
It was Occupy that popularized the notion that something more systemic must be at fault than millions of bad individual financial decisions. What Occupy made clear to the general public was not just how common indebtedness in American society is, but also how much of it was acquired in an effort to get ahead. Occupy made common cause between those with housing debt, medical debt and student loan debt.
And that energy didn’t dissipate after the police moved in and removed the Occupy protesters from Zuccotti Park in November 2011. Many participants stayed active in movements for social change. People on the ground at Occupy Wall Street went on to play a role in Black Lives Matter and the Sunrise Movement. The group now known as the Debt Collective brought attention to medical debt and helped seed the current push for student debt forgiveness.
All that makes it more than a trifle ironic that Occupy’s greatest failure is in the area it initially focused on. Occupy Wall Street contributed to the climate in which, say, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) could wear a dress with the words “Tax the Rich” emblazoned on it to a $35,000-a-ticket gala. But expressing the sentiment can’t actually make it happen. American politics remains captured by wealthy and corporate special interests, and they are now mounting what looks increasingly like a successful campaign to kibosh tax increases that could make a significant dent in their financial position.
In fact, Wall Street and the wealthy are doing better now than ever before. The stock market is in record territory, a bonanza for the 1 percent, who own the largest share of equities. The impact of the pandemic saw even further gains; according to one study, American billionaires increased their overall worth by 55 percent between March 2020 and April 2021.
But social movements are not discrete events. Their impact plays out over time. By bringing the topic of wealth and income inequality into the mainstream, Occupy can reasonably claim credit for everything from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s credible campaigns for president to the public’s embrace of the Fight for $15 movement. It shifted the conversation, the way we think about success and failure in American life, and how we should think about helping people who need financial assistance from the government. If that’s not a political win, I don’t know what is.
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THIS ^ IS THE ENTIRE WASHINGTON POST ARTICLE & IT'S SHARED HERE UNDER "FAIR USE".
et fiat lux...
"Ten Years After "Occupy" - Same Fight, Smaller Crowd." ... by Joseph Gedeon:
Which ends with ... "Although some demonstrators are discouraged by how little seems to have changed over the past ten years, many agree the protests fostered a new generation of socially-conscious activists ready to continue their efforts."
&: “The rich are still getting richer, especially with the pandemic,” said Sarah Boulos, a 24-year-old computer programmer. “I think one of the biggest things that Occupy Wall Street did was show that when we are talking about economics & about the working class .. that united everyone across the country.”
respice; adspice; prospice ...
https://findmeghanmarohn.com/
As one of our own activists has been missing for more than two weeks .. can we share this ^ link, to help find her and to spread the word about her please?
Anything you can do to HELP #FindMeghanMarohn, teacher, climate activist, missing in Lee MA for over two weeks, would be appreciated by all those who love her. Updates from police are few & time is of the essence ... if Meghan is to be found safe and well.
spero!
FindMeghanMarohn, XR activist & Occupy supporter is missing for over 2 weeks now. She was last seen in Lee, MA.
Retweet https://twitter.com/FindMeghan/status/1513205084263358467
Help her family and friends find her! Spread the word!
Re. https://findmeghanmarohn.com/ - any news?
et spero meliora!
Note: "My sister Meghan Marohn went missing in Lee, MA on March 27th:
"While on a hike near the Longcope Property Park on Church St. in Lee,
and "her car was found in the parking lot of the park, but numerous search efforts by officials as well as myself and volunteers have turned up nothing. Absolutely nothing.
"Meghan is a devoted and passionate high school English teacher, poet, artist, and a concerned environmentalist who displays deep passion in all her endeavors. She is charismatic, witty, and genuinely loving & beautiful person whom I miss dearly & I need to know what happened to her.
Any "Donations received from this campaign, will be applied to the continuing search effort for Meghan, including hiring a private investigator.
Finally "I want to thank the outpouring of support our family has received from everyone; family, friends, neighbors, the Lee community and anyone else I may be forgetting.
"With your support we will find Meghan! Thank you and God Bless,"
Peter Naple (Meghan's brother)
from: https://www.gofundme.com/f/findmeghanmarohn-findmeghanmarohncom
and NB https://twitter.com/Torie16/status/1511333329005654024 by her cousin
and https://twitter.com/FindMeghan/status/1512579693983064065 by her sister & also try to note
https://www.reddit.com/r/Albany/comments/u0fgnr/meghan_marohn_missing_celebrated_high_school/
No Words In Latin - Just Find Meghan, MA Police!
What a bunch of fucking idiots. Compete waste of space!!! You people are disgusting trash. A cancer to society. I want to throw-up every time I here the news wasting time on you. Get a life and do something productive. You've caused enough problems. It's time to go away!
It just feels right to put this here lol. These kinds of comments were all over this forum in 2011 and 2012. Thanks Usuk1 for providing us the agon with which and to whom we were able to put down our arguments for a fairer and more just economic system and society.
Actually, 10 years later even the Washington Post admits Occupy Won the Future!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/18/occupy-wall-street-won-future/
Can't read the article because of the paywall and yes, it's an opinion piece but hey it's in the Washington Post and yes, Occupy did win the future. And, there is still more future to come.
Since we payed taxes for this area to exist, how is it we can be evicted from this area? Don
Start from scratch! Don't buy products from over seas! ( Don't allow imports from companies who left us) Start a new America! We have all the things we need here! Start new Wall-marts, G.E.s etc.! We have the people to do these jobs, and recreate America! We don't need the companies that created America and left for slave labor! We have the resources we have always had ! Tare down your tents and start a new America! The word will will wonder what happened to the O.W.S., but they will learn that we started America and plan to Stay America!!!!!
PLEASE PASS THIS ON! Tell friends and family members to use their smartphones, ipads, laptops and computers to sign the Occupy Wall Street Demands List Petition to Congress!
You can sign at: www.OccupyWallStreetDemands.net.
The thing to understand here is that governments are now powerless to do ANYTHING about banks and big business. Banks and Insurance company's and others in NORTH AMERICA and abroad are how organised crime have converted their riches to so called legitimate business. They have more money than government and for people to be allowed in office the must follow THEIR rules, not the other way around. The people are kept taxed and drained of most of their money for a reason, to insure they CANNOT mount an effective opposition to either banks. insurance or their appointed government. The media is also controlled and pound home the idea that government, insurance and banks are somehow there for YOU. They also glorify police who are really there to keep the people down and collect revenue both to add to the coffers of the rich AND keep money out of the hands of ANYONE who may form any sort or resistance. Good luck on trying to fight this now, you are 50 years too late. Nothing short of a full revolution will ever work.
The policy and police is not synonymous , Policy in democracy determined by people , People have two side , One who policy influence get favor of its policy use to work in side the wall to run the policy , Other whose policy not get influence the favor they use to stand outside the wall to continue their influencing their policy and exposing the substances and facts of materials influenced, used by them’ who is working in side the wall ,
All the assets of democratic country meant for all those , either in side or out side the wall , who want to work in policy and want to go for public influence ,desirous to enforce its right of freedom of speech , fundamental basic right to speak without targeting individual privacy .
It is not the police to decide which is rightful policy , The police duty restricted to provide secured , harmonic atmosphere fearless environment and fair opportunity for peaceful policy preacher in all national assets places either who is inside or who is out side rest of the rule to accommodate fairly for placing the all individual policy ,
If police is working for group either of group who is inside the wall and out side the wall both are wrong , and distorting the democracy and its democratic constitution ,
So police must ensure in the case of people working for its policy , then he should maintain they should not physically intercept on each other and allow and facilitate both side to fearlessly demonstrate their policy .
Many are saying that the Occupy Wall Street movement was not spontaneous, but rather instigated by "external forces" namely, the George Soros groups and labor unions. The movement may not have been spontaneous, but let's not forget to include the EXTERNAL FORCES that have devastated our economic system, outsourced millions of American jobs and turned the "American Dream" into a nightmare. The OWS List of Demands is a natural reaction necessary for our survival as a nation. They constitute items necessary for the repair, restoration and protection of our rights as American citizens, and what is needed to reverse the mass injustice done to our economic system and our country, due to corporate greed and corrupt government officials. The list of demands has also been posted at: http://www.OccupyWallStreetDemands.net. The mission, purpose and procedure for working together with our "elected government officials" to solve these national issues can be viewed at: www.AmericasBallotBox.com. Let's work together and get this done using this NEW tool for OWS Protesters! Use your smartphones, ipads and laptops to sign the OWS Demand List Petition to congress at: www.OccupyWallStreetDemands.net. Spread the word!
We essentially have had modern-day bank robbers -- except that they wore gray suits and not masks -- and there's been no accountability for it Every day we see energy speculators, war profiteers, managed health-care providers, media propagandists, and/or financiers of Wall Street given some unfair advantage over the average consumers and taxpayers, and the cumulative effect of the American people watching selfishness prevail over the public interest has been an undermining of the public's trust in government. There's no question the system is rigged against the little guy. The Wall Street interests have a lot more information. They jerry-rig the system so that they always win. Oligarchy is political power based on economic power. And it's the rise of the Wall Street in economic terms, that it'd turn into political power. And Wall Street then feed that back into more deregulation, more opportunities to go out and take reckless risks and-- and capture huge amounts of money. The American democracy was not given to us on a platter. It is not ours for all time, irrespective of our efforts. Either people organize and they find political leadership to take this on, or we are going to be in big trouble. That's absolutely the heart of the problem. I would also say and tell you, and emphasize, these Wall Street people will not come out and debate with us. The heads of Wall Street or their representatives, they will not come out. They're afraid. They don't have the substance. They don't have the arguments. We have the evidence. They have the lobbyists. And that's all they have. Wall Street Corporations don't make anything. They don't produce anything. They gamble and bet and speculate. And when they lose vast sums they raid the U.S. Treasury so they can go back and do it again. Never mind that $50 trillion in global wealth was erased between September 2007 and March 2009, including $7 trillion in the U.S. stock market and $6 trillion in the housing market. Never mind that the total amount of retirement and household wealth trashed was $7.5 trillion or that we saw $2 trillion in 401(k)s and individual retirement accounts evaporate. Never mind the $1.9 trillion in traditional defined-benefit plans and the $2.6 trillion in nonpension assets that went up in smoke. Never mind the job losses, the foreclosures and the 35 percent jump in personal and small-business bankruptcies. There are bundles of new money, taken again from us, to make deals and hand out outrageous bonuses. And when these trillions run out they will come back for more until our currency becomes junk
---Nalliah Thayabharan
We should focus our attension on Goldmans Sachs. They are the kingpin of Wallstreet. Most of our politicians have been bought off. The ones that haven't are powerless to do anything. I am hoping that Germany has the guts to sue them for bringing down Greece. We should short the stock the way they shorted our market in 2008. How many people lost money at the hands of these mega wallstreet firms. Ask anyone who owns a home how they like losing 40% of the equity in the homes they live in. How is it that several trillion dollars have vanished from our 401ks and personal assets and no one has gone to jail. If corporations want to be seen as individuals then they should be held accountable for the inmoral acts that they do. Goldman owns the casino that is Wallstreet.
We should focus our attension on Goldmans Sachs. They are the kingpin of Wallstreet. Most of our politicians have been bought off. The ones that haven't are powerless to do anything. I am hoping that Germany has the guts to sue them for bringing down Greece. We should short the stock the way they shorted our market in 2008. How many people lost money at the hands of these mega wallstreet firms. Ask anyone who owns a home how they like losing 40% of the equity in the homes they live in. How is it that several trillion dollars have vanished from our 401ks and personal assets and no one has gone to jail. If corporations want to be seen as individuals then they should be held accountable for the inmoral acts that they do. Goldman owns the casino that is Wallstreet.
We should focus our attension on Goldmans Sachs. They are the kingpin of Wallstreet. Most of our politicians have been bought off. The ones that haven't are powerless to do anything. I am hoping that Germany has the guts to sue them for bringing down Greece. We should short the stock the way they shorted our market in 2008. How many people lost money at the hands of these mega wallstreet firms. Ask anyone who owns a home how they like losing 40% of the equity in the homes they live in. How is it that several trillion dollars have vanished from our 401ks and personal assets and no one has gone to jail. If corporations want to be seen as individuals then they should be held accountable for the inmoral acts that they do. Goldman owns the casino that is Wallstreet.
We should focus our attension on Goldmans Sachs. They are the kingpin of Wallstreet. Most of our politicians have been bought off. The ones that haven't are powerless to do anything. I am hoping that Germany has the guts to sue them for bringing down Greece. We should short the stock the way they shorted our market in 2008. How many people lost money at the hands of these mega wallstreet firms. Ask anyone who owns a home how they like losing 40% of the equity in the homes they live in. How is it that several trillion dollars have vanished from our 401ks and personal assets and no one has gone to jail. If corporations want to be seen as individuals then they should be held accountable for the inmoral acts that they do. Goldman owns the casino that is Wallstreet.
We should focus our attension on Goldmans Sachs. They are the kingpin of Wallstreet. Most of our politicians have been bought off. The ones that haven't are powerless to do anything. I am hoping that Germany has the guts to sue them for bringing down Greece. We should short the stock the way they shorted our market in 2008. How many people lost money at the hands of these mega wallstreet firms. Ask anyone who owns a home how they like losing 40% of the equity in the homes they live in. How is it that several trillion dollars have vanished from our 401ks and personal assets and no one has gone to jail. If corporations want to be seen as individuals then they should be held accountable for the inmoral acts that they do. Goldman owns the casino that is Wallstreet.
We should focus our attension on Goldmans Sachs. They are the kingpin of Wallstreet. Most of our politicians have been bought off. The ones that haven't are powerless to do anything. I am hoping that Germany has the guts to sue them for bringing down Greece. We should short the stock the way they shorted our market in 2008. How many people lost money at the hands of these mega wallstreet firms. Ask anyone who owns a home how they like losing 40% of the equity in the homes they live in. How is it that several trillion dollars have vanished from our 401ks and personal assets and no one has gone to jail. If corporations want to be seen as individuals then they should be held accountable for the inmoral acts that they do. Goldman owns the casino that is Wallstreet.
We should focus our attension on Goldmans Sachs. They are the kingpin of Wallstreet. Most of our politicians have been bought off. The ones that haven't are powerless to do anything. I am hoping that Germany has the guts to sue them for bringing down Greece. We should short the stock the way they shorted our market in 2008. How many people lost money at the hands of these mega wallstreet firms. Ask anyone who owns a home how they like losing 40% of the equity in the homes they live in. How is it that several trillion dollars have vanished from our 401ks and personal assets and no one has gone to jail. If corporations want to be seen as individuals then they should be held accountable for the inmoral acts that they do. Goldman owns the casino that is Wallstreet.
We should focus our attension on Goldmans Sachs. They are the kingpin of Wallstreet. Most of our politicians have been bought off. The ones that haven't are powerless to do anything. I am hoping that Germany has the guts to sue them for bringing down Greece. We should short the stock the way they shorted our market in 2008. How many people lost money at the hands of these mega wallstreet firms. Ask anyone who owns a home how they like losing 40% of the equity in the homes they live in. How is it that several trillion dollars have vanished from our 401ks and personal assets and no one has gone to jail. If corporations want to be seen as individuals then they should be held accountable for the inmoral acts that they do. Goldman owns the casino that is Wallstreet.
How about we as Americans do something constructive besides picket. Lets take all of our money out of the banks. A run on the banks. The banks would not be able to invest in stock or anything. That would make them lower their rates if they don't go under. There are more poor people than rich so pulling our money out would hurt them. Also how about if for 1 week all of us in America stopped buying gasoline. How much money do you think those crooks who run OPEC would lose? Millions!!!! The problem is Americans don't stick together. Look what the people in Libya did by sticking together. Lets Stick together America and do something that will really get our point across. Standing around hasn't hurt them or changed anything. Just a Thought!!!!!!!
How about we as Americans do something constructive besides picket. Lets take all of our money out of the banks. A run on the banks. The banks would not be able to invest in stock or anything. That would make them lower their rates if they don't go under. There are more poor people than rich so pulling our money out would hurt them. Also how about if for 1 week all of us in America stopped buying gasoline. How much money do you think those crooks who run OPEC would lose? Millions!!!! The problem is Americans don't stick together. Look what the people in Libya did by sticking together. Lets Stick together America and do something that will really get our point across. Standing around hasn't hurt them or changed anything. Just a Thought!!!!!!!
How about we as Americans do something constructive besides picket. Lets take all of our money out of the banks. A run on the banks. The banks would not be able to invest in stock or anything. That would make them lower their rates if they don't go under. There are more poor people than rich so pulling our money out would hurt them. Also how about if for 1 week all of us in America stopped buying gasoline. How much money do you think those crooks who run OPEC would lose? Millions!!!! The problem is Americans don't stick together. Look what the people in Libya did by sticking together. Lets Stick together America and do something that will really get our point across. Standing around hasn't hurt them or changed anything. Just a Thought!!!!!!!
How about we do something constructive instead of standing around and picketing. They surely aren't going to give us stock. Lets have a run on the banks. Let all of us poorer people pull our money out of the banks. The banks will be close to or go under. Then they can't invest our money in wall street or whatever they invest in. Also if we all in America would stop buying gasoline for a week, think of all the money those crooks in OPEC would lose. The problem with america is no one sticks together to accomplish any thing. Look at what Libya accomplished by sticking together. Lets get constructive.!!!!!!!!!!! geenee
How about we do something constructive instead of standing around and picketing. They surely aren't going to give us stock. Lets have a run on the banks. Let all of us poorer people pull our money out of the banks. The banks will be close to or go under. Then they can't invest our money in wall street or whatever they invest in. Also if we all in America would stop buying gasoline for a week, think of all the money those crooks in OPEC would lose. The problem with america is no one sticks together to accomplish any thing. Look at what Libya accomplished by sticking together. Lets get constructive.!!!!!!!!!!! geenee
Greedy bastards,
These wall street guys
Greedy bastards,
They make you cry
They steal your money and
They steal your pride
We have to kick out these
Greedy bastard wall street guys
Where’s the money to pay the loans
Where’s the money to buy a home
These greedy bastards
Have it all
We have to make them
All pay a whole lot more
the middle class people
have disappeared
and all
that are left are the greedy
bastard millionaires
We have to kick out
These wall street guys
We have to have a lot
More jobs
Greedy bastards
These wall street guys
Greedy bastards
They make you cry
SUNG TO THE MELODY OF “Tiny Bubbles”
Greedy bastards,
These wall street guys
Greedy bastards,
They make you cry
They steal your money and
They steal your pride
We have to kick out these
Greedy bastard wall street guys
Where’s the money to pay the loans
Where’s the money to buy a home
These greedy bastards
Have it all
We have to make them
All pay a whole lot more
the middle class people
have disappeared
and all
that are left are the greedy
bastard millionaires
We have to kick out
These wall street guys
We have to have a lot
More jobs
Greedy bastards
These wall street guys
Greedy bastards
They make you cry
SUNG TO THE MELODY OF “Tiny Bubbles”
Greedy bastards,
These wall street guys
Greedy bastards,
They make you cry
They steal your money and
They steal your pride
We have to kick out these
Greedy bastard wall street guys
Where’s the money to pay the loans
Where’s the money to buy a home
These greedy bastards
Have it all
We have to make them
All pay a whole lot more
the middle class people
have disappeared
and all
that are left are the greedy
bastard millionaires
We have to kick out
These wall street guys
We have to have a lot
More jobs
Greedy bastards
These wall street guys
Greedy bastards
They make you cry
SUNG TO THE MELODY OF “Tiny Bubbles”
Greedy bastards,
These wall street guys
Greedy bastards,
They make you cry
They steal your money and
They steal your pride
We have to kick out these
Greedy bastard wall street guys
Where’s the money to pay the loans
Where’s the money to buy a home
These greedy bastards
Have it all
We have to make them
All pay a whole lot more
the middle class people
have disappeared
and all
that are left are the greedy
bastard millionaires
We have to kick out
These wall street guys
We have to have a lot
More jobs
Greedy bastards
These wall street guys
Greedy bastards
They make you cry
SUNG TO THE MELODY OF “Tiny Bubbles”
Greedy bastards,
These wall street guys
Greedy bastards,
They make you cry
They steal your money and
They steal your pride
We have to kick out these
Greedy bastard wall street guys
Where’s the money to pay the loans
Where’s the money to buy a home
These greedy bastards
Have it all
We have to make them
All pay a whole lot more
the middle class people
have disappeared
and all
that are left are the greedy
bastard millionaires
We have to kick out
These wall street guys
We have to have a lot
More jobs
Greedy bastards
These wall street guys
Greedy bastards
They make you cry
SUNG TO THE MELODY OF “Tiny Bubbles”
Greedy bastards these wall street guys greedy bastards they make you cry they steal your mney and they steal your pride we have to kick out these
greedy bastard wall street guys
where's the money to pay the loans where's the money to buy a home these greedy bastards they have it all we have to make them all pay more
the middle class people have disappeared and all that are left are the greedy bastard millionnaires
we have to kick out these wall street guys we have to have a lot more jobs
greedy bastards these wall street guys greedy bastards they make you cry
SUN GO TINY BUBBLES MELODY
I support your movement and am glad to see a group of people finally stand up and be counted. We the people are supposed to be running this country not the rich.
There is only one way to fix where we are and that is not to distribute the wealth. Socialism is not the answer.
The answer is to remove our current politians and quit electing career politians to represent us. They have never lived a normal life. They were raised and educated to be politians.
Being elected President or into any other political job should not be a paid position. They should do it because they want to help the people, not help themselves.
If our elected representatives do not represent our views, they should be removed from office immediately.
There should be no lobbyist with deep pockets. Politians who accept money or other perks from lobbyist should be removed from office immediately as this should be seen as a conflict of OUR interest.
We should not be paying our politians to serve. The founding fathers viewed it as an honor to serve the people not as a paying job.
On education, everyone is entitled to an education. I do not feel that this is a privilege but a right. We are far behind other countries educationally because so many of our people can not afford higher educations for themselves and their children. Higher education should be free for all or should the cost should be charged proportionate to income.
We should stop trading with foreign countries. If we are going to trade with foreign countries, then it should be even on both sides. Foreign trade should only be for goods and services that we can not produce in this country.
All off shore, outsourced jobs should be brought back into this country. There are plenty of people to do these jobs here. We would not have this out of proportion jobless rate if those jobs were brought back into our country.
Welfare and other subsidies should have caps on the amount of time these assistances can be drawn.
Federal taxes should be abolished or lowered to cover only the cost of federal programs.
I do not begrudge people who have worked hard to make their money, the right to have that money. It was our parents and their parents dream for us, that we could work hard and make a decent living.
Smaller government
No more career politians
No pay or nominal pay for politians
No lobbyist or accepting of money and perks from lobbyist
Reduce taxes to cover only the program and not the people who administer it
Fair trade or no foreign trade
Bring all outsourced, off shore jobs back to the US
Make higher education affordable
Put caps on the amount of time that someone can receive welfare and other assistance
Stay out of other countries politics
Quit sending money to other counries, we have plenty of poor and downtrodden here we can help
No more federal bailouts of banks and other institutions. If they fail, they fail. It is the way of business and of life.
The 99% needs a message, a consistant message. Not a message that says give me this or give me that but a message that will unite the people and the country and provide a viable option to what we have now. If we do not provide an alternative that makes sense, we will not be taken seriously no matter how many protests are held, no matter how many areas we occupy.
These are the things that I propose.
SPREAD THE WORD! Occupy Wall Street Protesters have a new tool to get their demands heard!!! Protesters can now use their smartphones, ipads, laptops and computers to sign the Occupy Wall Street Demands list petition, direct to congress at: www.OccupyWallStreetDemands.net. Now THAT'S how to get things done!
I want to make a point about the welfare system. It traps women and lets fathers off the hook. Sex too early, baby too early.(society as a whole's proplem for not teaching young about safe sex..abstenace my ass) Daddy leaves cause its hard to pay the bills, and its socially acceptable to do so. Mommy gets stuck with kids and no skills. Gets welfare to feed kids. Gets crappy min wage job since she has no skills. welfare gets cut cause she has a job and can "support herself now", kids go to super, super crappy govn't funded daycare when they need nurturing more than any other time (0-3yrs). Mommy either quits to get back the time with her kids n save them from that crappy daycare because she can't afford any better or the kids are stuck there getting stupider by the day. Either way, the cycle of poverty continues. The problem is not the amount of welfare, but the size of a McDonalds paycheck.
OK--Some civil disobedience is good for the political soul & for national media PR....but... Real Solutions are available & need your energy & support...Now. Are We the 99%Voters ready to take the REAL next step?....Here is the more proactive solution as the Necessary Next Step-- http://www.getmoneyout.com/ --& tell a friend--tell everyone...because this ones gonna be the hardest next step to take. Election Reform Now-- One person ,one vote ,$100 limit to voters only! Also--How many tent-totin' Occupiers are Registered Voters & ready to Organize Re-call Elections, or run for office, or propose local, state or federal referendums, initiatives or propositions? These 99%Voters can & would threaten & shock our current politicians to change their tunes. --Recall just one corporate-suckling congress person in every (or a few) states & see how the rest of elected officials will respond to the Power of the Organized 99%Voters!! Join & support --getmoneyout.com-- Reform Elections first--tax reform will follow... Don't waste time & money on jail-bail. Keep it peaceful, keep it legal, & the 99% wins. Use your American Rights & Freedoms to Organize Votes & Fix America Now. &Read Jeffery Sachs--the "Price of Civilization: Renewing America's Values". or listen to--- http://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/archive/podcast/dr-jeffrey-sachs-101011 ---
I am so proud of you. Everything I hear you say resonates....it is about time America woke up. I am there with you in our little town of Monterey California we occupy Nov. 4th. You are our inspiration! Thank you, Camille Malcolm
Too big to fail, too stupid to succeed! You want to make a difference quit listening to leftist college professors and get a job... anywhere. What you are doing is creating a big mess. Are YOU ging to pay for the clean-up? Are YOU going to pay the over time charges to the police who are protecting you? You are squatters, not "occupiers."
Too big to fail, too stupid to succeed! You want to make a difference quit listening to leftist college professors and get a job... anywhere. What you are doing is creating a big mess. Are YOU ging to pay for the clean-up? Are YOU going to pay the over time charges to the police who are protecting you? You are squatters, not "occupiers."
No use occupying wall street. Deal with the real problem. Problem of foreigners getting jobs with fake resumes (IT), illegal immigrants, temp student workers (Hershey was only a tip of the ice berg), outsourced manufacturing to China, substandard goods dumped in US by superstores like Walmart, Target, Staples etc. Take some practical steps. Ask the Federal government to investigate into these crimes. Move the courts to charge the criminals. I have taken several personal risks through whistle blowing. But the response has been only a deaf ear of the authorities.
Govt borrows all spending money... Why? Borrowing indebts you and me...all income taxes go to pay the national debt! why not print u s notes free from debt? Why let an independent bankstard owned agency,the fed, cvounterfeit dollars and lend them to you and me via treasury printing and selling u s bonds? ???
Very few can imagine america after monetary melt down. Yeah, some barter,some transactions with silver or gold,but, mostly looting, starvation, death
they made legal to test for drugs so you can filter through drug addicts, this whole site is full of rhetoric, such famous quotes "we are the 99% and we are too rich to fail"
if you have half a brain you can figure out how to do business in this country easier than most countries in this world.
. You want to talk about slaves? How about this one from the left, I work hard I earn a paycheck, i pay for my insurance through this job i have, I don't own a house, i rent. Now I also pay all of my taxes. The same left would like to raise my taxes and "redistribute" that to people who aren't working, may have even have given up on looking for a job. Here's my point you guys on the left (to be clear I'm a moderate I disagree with MANY things on the right as well) DOESN'T THAT MAKE ME A SLAVE FOR THOSE PEOPLE?
Why are you guys always pushing socialism? WE HAVE A SOCIALIST STRUCTURE NOW AND ITS NOT WORKING. My evidence is
How many of you with these 100,000 dollar education debts have degrees in ARTS, HISTORY, ENGLISH, are out there complaining that you can't find a job and can't pay off these loans and want the government to pay for your debts? TO THOSE OF YOU WHO FIT THIS DESCRIPTION:
ALSO for the money money part why don't you try running for office and get crap done if you think that your movement is doing anything then get people elected, f enough people are behind you then it shouldn't be a problem
DON'T expect everyone else to have to go with what this movement is doing not all of us agree with it. So what are you gonna do when people disagree with you do you think it's all about you or everyone in this country. You guys might be screaming "we will be heard" but please remember that doesn't mean your the only voice or the only voice that's right
. with respect thank you PS. I do believe that things can change but I challenge your movement to find people that won't be swayed by the money that are complaining of. I remember how everyone was going with the rhetoric of Obama. I hope you all remember that things don't change over night. I also think that you guys should get out of wall street and go straight to washington to get change. People still need to do business and your business is better handled at the capital of our great nation MANY OF THE CHANGES YOU PROPOSE ARE GOOD ONES; BUT I ALSO THINK YOU GUYS NEED TO WORK ON YOUR APPROACH WITH THE PUBLIC, YOU GUYS USE WHAT SOUNDS LIKE TO MOST PEOPLE JUST RHETORIC AND BTW A PEACEFUL PROTEST ALSO INVOLVE DOING AS THE POLICE SAY, GET ARRESTED LET THEM TAKE YOU. IF YOU RESIST THEM THEY ARE IN EVERY RIGHT TO GET YOU TO GET BACK EVERY VIDEO I'VE SEEN OF YOU GUYS HAD THE PERSON WHO GOT PULLED IN OR HIT OR SPRAYED BY THE COPS MOVING INTO THERE LINE. THEY ARE THERE TO STOP A RIOT WHICH AN UGLY MOB CAN EASILY TURN INTO TO.
THAT IS YOUR BIGGEST PROBLEM YOU GUYS APPEAR TO BE NOTHING MORE THAN A MOB AND THAT CAN GET UGLY REALLY FAST
i'm gonna repost this it was a reply i wrote down a little bit but i hope your reading thanks,
they made legal to test for drugs so you can filter through drug addicts, this whole site is full of rhetoric, such famous quotes "we are the 99% and we are too rich to fail"
if you have half a brain you can figure out how to do business in this country easier than most countries in this world.
. You want to talk about slaves? How about this one from the left, I work hard I earn a paycheck, i pay for my insurance through this job i have, I don't own a house, i rent. Now I also pay all of my taxes. The same left would like to raise my taxes and "redistribute" that to people who aren't working, may have even have given up on looking for a job. Here's my point you guys on the left (to be clear I'm a moderate I disagree with MANY things on the right as well) DOESN'T THAT MAKE ME A SLAVE FOR THOSE PEOPLE?
Why are you guys always pushing socialism? WE HAVE A SOCIALIST STRUCTURE NOW AND ITS NOT WORKING. My evidence is
How many of you with these 100,000 dollar education debts have degrees in ARTS, HISTORY, ENGLISH, are out there complaining that you can't find a job and can't pay off these loans and want the government to pay for your debts? TO THOSE OF YOU WHO FIT THIS DESCRIPTION:
ALSO for the money money part why don't you try running for office and get crap done if you think that your movement is doing anything then get people elected, f enough people are behind you then it shouldn't be a problem
DON'T expect everyone else to have to go with what this movement is doing not all of us agree with it. So what are you gonna do when people disagree with you do you think it's all about you or everyone in this country. You guys might be screaming "we will be heard" but please remember that doesn't mean your the only voice or the only voice that's right
. with respect thank you PS. I do believe that things can change but I challenge your movement to find people that won't be swayed by the money that are complaining of. I remember how everyone was going with the rhetoric of Obama. I hope you all remember that things don't change over night. I also think that you guys should get out of wall street and go straight to washington to get change. People still need to do business and your business is better handled at the capital of our great nation MANY OF THE CHANGES YOU PROPOSE ARE GOOD ONES; BUT I ALSO THINK YOU GUYS NEED TO WORK ON YOUR APPROACH WITH THE PUBLIC, YOU GUYS USE WHAT SOUNDS LIKE TO MOST PEOPLE JUST RHETORIC AND BTW A PEACEFUL PROTEST ALSO INVOLVE DOING AS THE POLICE SAY, GET ARRESTED LET THEM TAKE YOU. IF YOU RESIST THEM THEY ARE IN EVERY RIGHT TO GET YOU TO GET BACK EVERY VIDEO I'VE SEEN OF YOU GUYS HAD THE PERSON WHO GOT PULLED IN OR HIT OR SPRAYED BY THE COPS MOVING INTO THERE LINE. THEY ARE THERE TO STOP A RIOT WHICH AN UGLY MOB CAN EASILY TURN INTO TO.
THAT IS YOUR BIGGEST PROBLEM YOU GUYS APPEAR TO BE NOTHING MORE THAN A MOB AND THAT CAN GET UGLY REALLY FAST
Last time I checked, the fat epidemic is in every country wold wide, minus China, oh wait...was watching Reuters and oh, there's some fat Chinese people. I work so the lazy parts out. My head is screwed on tight, check! Well, what's the probllem America? It's called STOP BUYING CHINESE AND START BUYING YOUR OWN STUFF. Best way to fix a 300 million dollar trade deficite!
People need to get educated on the occupation before leaving LAME comments like, "get a job, your lazy, etc..." The following article lays out part of the cause. http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html
And for the 1%, billions of people have ideas to improve life everywhere, but those billions are handed CREDIT and told to USE IT. That is a crutch used by the wealthy to remove one leg from a 3 legged stool. They hit youngsters up before they are educated enough to say NO. So, those billions of ideas can not be realized due to a large blanket the wealthy put on society. I am at work right now, on my lunch break! I am as mad as the next person about inequality in the system. NFL wanting a raise? NBA wanting a raise? CEO's getting 8million a year? What? Rediculous!
People need to get educated on the occupation before leaving LAME comments like, "get a job, your lazy, etc..." The following article lays out part of the cause. http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html
And for the 1%, billions of people have ideas to improve life everywhere, but those billions are handed CREDIT and told to USE IT. That is a crutch used by the wealthy to remove one leg from a 3 legged stool. They hit youngsters up before they are educated enough to say NO. So, those billions of ideas can not be realized due to a large blanket the wealthy put on society. I am at work right now, on my lunch break! I am as mad as the next person about inequality in the system. NFL wanting a raise? NBA wanting a raise? CEO's getting 8million a year? What? Rediculous!
The most difficult thing is that we (the people) have a huge deal of power and influence but are terribly divided. The other problem is the simple fact that some cannot go to the streets due to working 40-80 hour weeks, taking care of our children, worrying about mortgages etc.
Another large issue is that there are SO MANY causes, gay rights, animal rights, woman rights, and about 1,000 more activist groups. I am all for all of the above groups and many others BUT as a people we need to solidify our causes into one cause that will have the tactical and economic resources it needs to bring down the capitalist regime. To bring the world into an age of light instead of dark, not just in America or the UK but also in Africa, Thailand, Russia, South America, etc.
Imagine if we could get everyone in the 99% to not pay their mortgage for one month, and use that money to hire a crack team of lawyers, publicists, commercial airtime and other tools that the corporations and right-wing government use to skew and force their point.
We have to ensure that this continues to grow and that everyone does what they can to help. I am offering free graphic design to anyone who needs it for any Occupy Effort... this is the best I can do as I am a full-time college student.
to all that say that being in debt is a "choice". I am a college student and after three years of being a full time waitress and student I bought myself a brand new car. I am paying the payments just fine and I think my American car helped out the economy. I am in debt, and I will admit I chose to put myself there. But, I did not choose to bail out the banks or have my tax money go to a CEO's Christmas bonus. I work very hard for what I have and I hope to one day make it to the top. The 99% are not fat, lazy, selfish people. We work just as hard as the 1%. We deserve the best but, it is everyones responsibly to get it for themselves. Occupying Wall Street is a great idea. But, in order to "get back" at the 1% we should try to do something a little more than make their walk into work a little uncomfortable. I will not be participating in the protest because I am busy with work and school. I do, however wish everyone well. Oh, one more thing- I hope everyone is cleaning up after themselves.
Please send me some money so I can join your movement. I am sympathetic to your aims and only wish to join you. If you can send some to me I will be there......Oops, I forgot you don't have any money but mine.
First of all, thank you! My suggestions to those who march in this protest: I want to see signs in the group that say "NATIONALIZE THE BANKS". When asked what you want, tell them, "We want government funded elections with all who want to vote being allowed to vote and if an ID card is required, then it is the responsibility of the election officials to see that everyone has everything they need to vote-including a ride. Without the necessity for fund raising, our representatives could then spend their time in the volunteering in hospitals, nursing homes, schools, soup kitchens, etc., since most of them have no idea what life for many Americans is like. I want the politicians in Washington to be REQUIRED to live with their families in the same type housing provided for military families with the same pay. Then lets see how many of the politicians want to "serve their country." When these politicians talk about "people are going to have to tighten their belts", they should have to know what that means by living on the same amount as those who have the least. Say to the politicians who you now have listening...enough, enough, enough of this tearing down of our great country with the arrogance and greed of your politics. Let "them" know that "We the people" have had enough. Power to the people...it still rings true.
There needs to be a clear message what the protestors are wanting. You want to be part of the 1% well how are you going to go about that besides just protesting? What do you want from the 1%? How do you propose in a detailed outline things get resolved. I am supportive of this protest but I would like to see a clear outline of what people want accomplished down on wall street. You can't just protest with no clear objective. The 1% aren't just going to start throwing money your way. I haven't seen one person interviewed that actually stated here's what we want in detailed form. It's only we want a job or we want to be treated equal or we want more share of the money. That is fine how do you propose the 1% starts splitting their share? Do you think these people are just going to start raining money on you from the streets because you are protesting? No you have to have a clear objective if you are going to fight for something and a clear solution. Fight for it but don't be lazy in what you are doing.
AS you see most of protesters there at the ground decided to reelect Obama and conveying their Greetings to Mr. President Obama
This is no longer Occupy Wall Street it has become "lets make some noise and make some news", go home the public dosen't care anymore.
This is no longer Occupy Wall Street it has become "lets make some noise and make some news", go home the public dosen't care anymore.
check out this song for our theme http://youtu.be/J6BuQcemmtM
check out this song for the 99% of us tp://youtu.be/J6BuQcemmtM
Recently heard William Black a UMKC professor of Economics and Law, talk on Democracy Now. "A Great Fraud was committed" His book title is one of my favorite all time jokes: "The Best way to Rob a Bank is to own one" He hits the nail on the head regarding what destroyed the Economy and caused the crash....Those who destroyed the Economy need to be put on trial and jailed.....just released...ok I just became aware of this new information: Senator Bernie Sanders is also another cool person fighting for the people. check this out: http://neweconomicperspectives.blogspot.com/
The overwhelming majority of police are just like you and me - trying to keep their jobs and look after their families. There is an invaluable lesson to be learned from the Spring Uprising in the Middle East - the best investment we can make is to be nice to the police - they are the ones the Establishment are depending on to protect their interests. If we can win the police over to our side, the battle is half won. And just think of how terrified the CEOs will be when their protectors say "no more"!!
What we need to do is to stop feeding them. Stop investing in their banks. Stop using their credit cards. Stop buying their goods. Etcetera..
What we need to do is to stop feeding them. Stop investing in their banks. Stop using their credit cards. Stop buying their goods. Etcetera..
March with David Ferola the "9'step plan"
Step1) Send your TAXES to a trusted congressman or congresswoman which maybe hard to find in your state. Prepare your taxes, made out to the I.R.S check and envelope, and a stamp. Fit it in inside of a bigger envelope, onto which you should write congress address, preferably your state congress.
Washington, DC 203 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Phone Number: (202) 225-2831
Have congress unwrap the envelopes, state you want your taxes to be mailed to the I.R.S If you are asking yourself, what will this achieve first it can be used as a bargain chip however, congress cannot spend it or over take the fed reserve and banks system over night, nonetheless this will indeed give teeth/meat, back to congress. You should include a sign return receipt so as to show proof you paid your taxes.
STEP2) At every rally SHOUT “Send you taxes to Congress now”
Step 3) OWNERSHIP: With meat and teeth congress can demand ownership of the Federal Reserve, as to how much, well a good start would be 45% of course congress should have full control of the fed reserve. However, letting the opposition think you’re a fair man goes a long way.
Occupy Wall st/Dallas/Seattle/houston with David Ferola “9 step plan” at hand
for the rest http://inkrumguardians.webs.com/
For Occupy funny pix http://inkrumguardians.webs.com/apps/blog/
You people are nothing but clowns - we had the same clowns in the 1960's - they were called hippies back then. Go get a job and start contributing to society through your sweat and hard work and then you will be taken seriously
Sounds like an old chant...." all we are saying...is give me a chance"
Tell the people we want:reciprocal trade agreements with China,S.Korea.They tax us 100% on our exports.That is what we should charge them for there imports to our country,THE USA!!! No more career politicians,one term and you are out!!! Get some demands together,protests w/out purposes.demands get nowhere!
Tell the people we want:reciprocal trade agreements with China,S.Korea.They tax us 100% on our exports.That is what we should charge them for there imports to our country,THE USA!!! No more career politicians,one term and you are out!!! Get some demands together,protests w/out purposes.demands get nowhere!
greetings LOSERS.
Here is reality - this behavior of yours will not result in anything given to you, done for you or of benefit to each and any one of you. It is futile.
Simple, direct and realistic.
You are not going to gain one penny - or any amount of currency whatsoever - in any form.
have a nice day.
Love,
reality
Haha! Luckily it is not for any of them... This is being done strictly to benefit average Americans AND America as a whole. This is so that our country can live up to the ideals of the Founding Fathers, maybe you should read their opionion on Corporations...
Love, Reality and Common Sense (I know it is hard)
I've seen and heard the people and the one thing that bothers me is that no one is quite sure what it is they're pissed off about. But they know they're pissed. So here it is in a nutshell. Get behind it, educate the press, educate yourself and your freinds. The protest is about 'PLUTOCRACY' OR 'PLUTONOMY' whichever you prefer. GOOGLE IT! Then read the second amendment of the constitution.
Talk to a friend. Avoid the fear of others and do something. They expect us to fold like a lawn chair like we have for years. Do not except it. Join your local group. Make a stand. Keep poking the nerve America.
yessssssssssss!!!!!!
yessssssssssss!!!!!!
OWS has to start paying attention to what the banks are now again up to, they are socializing their losses, read the following:link-page removed, so I'll paste from the rollingstone article:"1) Bank of America is shifting a huge collection of Merrill Lynch derivatives contracts onto its own federally-insured balance sheet. This move of risky instruments off the uninsured Merrill balance sheet onto the commercial bank's balance sheet was done to prevent Bank of America's creditors from attacking the firm with collateral calls and other sorties. Essentially, an irresponsible debtor, B of A, is keeping a loan shark from breaking his legs by getting his rich parents to co-sign his loan. The parents in this metaphor would be the FDIC.
The FDIC naturally is not pleased with this development, but the Fed, the supreme banking regulator, is apparently encouraging this move. Here's how Bloomberg characterized this move:
In short, the Fed's priorities seem to lie with protecting the bank-holding company from losses at Merrill, even if that means greater risks for the FDIC's insurance fund.
Again and again, the Fed proves it has no appetite for allowing Wall Street to eat its own pain, and continually encourages banks to stick the government with its losses and bad assets. This move will allow Bank of America to keep a Band-Aid over its disastrous financial situation far longer than it would be able to in a genuinely free market. People should be outraged at this development.
The banks are moving to back trillions of their derivative exposures by their FDIC insured deposit base, so having the taxpayers back their derivative losses. People this outright theft by the banks from the public,this has to be must stopped, please inform yourselves. The Fed is again thinking about buying toxic mortgage backed securities(MBS) from the banks, more quantitative easing, QE3 is about to restart, link :(page removed) http://www.zerohedge.com/news/mbs-monetization-expectations-good-massive-004-plunge-mortgage-spread-sure-unleash-refi-tsunami. The government knows no limits when it comes to saving wallstreet banks, it will bankrupt the nation trying. OWS supporters must also inform themselves more about wallstreet abuses, bank thievery, please read: http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/occupy-wall-street-must-know-facts-about-big-banks. Thanks, john and ron.
OWS has to start paying attention to what the banks are now again up to, they are socializing their losses, read the following: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/occupy-wall-street-washington-still-doesnt-get-it-20111021. The banks are moving to back trillions of their derivative exposures by their FDIC insured deposit base, so having the taxpayers back their derivative losses. People this outright theft by the banks from the public,this has to be must stopped, please inform yourselves. The Fed is again thinking about buying toxic mortgage backed securities(MBS) from the banks, more quantitative easing, QE3 is about to restart, link : http://www.zerohedge.com/news/mbs-monetization-expectations-good-massive-004-plunge-mortgage-spread-sure-unleash-refi-tsunami. The government knows no limits when it comes to saving wallstreet banks, it will bankrupt the nation trying. OWS supporters must also inform themselves more about wallstreet abuses, bank thievery, please read: http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/occupy-wall-street-must-know-facts-about-big-banks. Thanks, john and ron.
The basic problem/issue is that we are failing in our mission as stewards of the earth and its resources. There is enough if WE share. Capitalism as it exists is about ME and my money. Children starve and the earth is savaged as a trillion $ changes hands in a day promoting overconsumption/overcompetition/overindulgence and ultimately overpopulation This is the coherent focus point from which all follows.
Thank you so much everyone who is peacefully supporting this issue. please keep in mind that violence is not going to get us closer to reaching our goal...it will get us farther from it!! take all that energy an exert it on communicating the very point of this organization to those who are not as educated!! spread the word, pay it forward, create positivity and we will reach our goal in no time!! :)
Thank you so much everyone who is peacefully supporting this issue. please keep in mind that violence is not going to get us closer to reaching our goal...it will get us farther from it!! take all that energy an exert it on communicating the very point of this organization to those who are not as educated!! spread the word, pay it forward, create positivity and we will reach our goal in no time!! :)
The Occupy Wall Street program of struggle must continue and must expand, spread and take global shape until the loot by Corporates is completely stopped. The power of the corporates has dismantled every known sane system of people's participation in governance. They buy, form and demolish Govts at their sweet will, control police and other security agencies and have least regard for human beings
http://i935.photobucket.com/albums/ad199/brak512/Occupy_Earth_A.jpg
Ok, the OWS has some legs. But what can you do with such a propaganda machine spewing out clichés at you 24/7. You will soon be rag tag communists criticizing the American way—desecrating the very institutions Americans fought and died for.
Here is how I think you can get out of the line of fire and pull off an American style revolution.
First, no violence. Do a King, Gandhi revolution. The results are exponential and the press releases about the violent commies trying to take over America will have to be burned.
Second, every speech must declare that this movement is for free enterprise and free government. This is the key. The bad guys won’t know what to say if they can’t say you are un-American Commies who want to get something for nothing or do away with our free economy.
Free enterprise is god’s gift to the masses. The problem is sometimes, in its ebb and flow, too much ends up in the hands of too few. Without sensible regulation, this will inevitably happen from time to time. If there isn’t a government regulation to adjust this phenomenon and the people who have the extra money don’t do the responsible thing, we end up with economic and political monopoly. It’s like going into a Monopoly game when a few of the players already have property and hotels before the first roll of the dice.
Should smart people who work hard end up with more than the average Joe? Sure, why not. More than a million average Joes? Enough to control the economy or the Congress? That extreme brings you back to de facto Communism doesn’t it?
This brings me to my point. We need an American hero of American history to combat the pseudo American labeling when you hear from the other side….only one guy can do that--Thomas Jefferson
"The issue today is the same as it has been throughout history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite."
-President Thomas Jefferson
Jeffersonian Democracy, political movement in the United States from the 1790s to the 1820s. The Jeffersonians believed in democracy and equality of political opportunity (for white, property-owning, male citizens), with a priority for the "yeoman farmer" and the Plain Folk. Jefferson believed that his opponents, the Federalists, stood for aristocratic elitism, merchants and manufacturers, and supporters of the British system of government. Above all, the Jeffersonians were devoted to the principles of Republicanism, especially civic duty and opposition to privilege, aristocracy and corruption
There is no better example of an elite 1% acting as Jefferson forecasted than there is today.
Occupy the SEC! They let off Citicorps robbers with a tiny inconvenience fee.
What could have been any better - than, a “Second Bill Of Rights” as proposed by former President, Franklin D. Roosevelt? What could have been any better? And yet, our Society rejected such a noble idea. Yes, “Capitalism: A Love Story” prevail.
What could have been any better - than, a “Second Bill Of Rights” as proposed by former President, Franklin D. Roosevelt? What could have been any better? And yet, our Society rejected such a noble idea. Yes, “Capitalism: A Love Story” prevail.
We are tired of being taxed, fined and fee'd to death. When politicians allow corporations like oil companies, auto insurance companies to charge us whatever they want, they do so to get campaign contributions. Americans have been turned into slaves to pay for the entitlements of the beauracracy. We need to get the crooks out of power. No matter how they take your money it is still a tax. Remember the Boston massacre? What about the boston tea party? We have a right to demonstrate and repulse the wrongdoings of the authority. From a business owner and a loyal AMERICAN. The ones in charge are real COMMUNISTS! They take care of those that belong to the beauracracy!
We are tired of being taxed, fined and fee'd to death. When politicians allow corporations like oil companies, auto insurance companies to charge us whatever they want, they do so to get campaign contributions. Americans have been turned into slaves to pay for the entitlements of the beauracracy. We need to get the crooks out of power. No matter how they take your money it is still a tax. Remember the Boston massacre? What about the boston tea party? We have a right to demonstrate and repulse the wrongdoings of the authority. From a business owner and a loyal AMERICAN. The ones in charge are real COMMUNISTS! They take care of those that belong to the beauracracy!
Why not make a slogan "Bring the jobs back to USA"
Heres my take on the world I would like to live in
I believe if we can outlaw the finanial derivative instruments that caused this economic crisis it would be a good first step. The 1% have made incredible amount of money off derivatives and when these investments failed - the 1% asked the taxpayers to bail them out.
http://i935.photobucket.com/albums/ad199/brak512/Occupy_Earth_B.jpg
Business and products for people and planet, not just for profits!
A specific focus and constructive input is required in order to have any hope of significant impact and positive reform. The Stock Market was initially set up to provide large amounts of capital for R&D, capital expenditures, expansion etc that would otherwise not be be possible. It has now primarily become a VERY high stakes casino for those 'playing the market' and those that operate it and the corporations and banks purely for HUGE profits for a VERY small portion of people and no other social responsibility and purpose including providing positive products to provide for peoples NEEDS. This has led to very rapid unstable and chaotic capitalization for companies and the market to accomplish what this capital is intended for and causes the same catastrophic turmoil in the economy as a whole. Profits are a necessary for Corporations and businesses to be healthy, sustainable social responsible entities to be able to serve, sell and provide required goods & services. But operating solely for the purpose of nothing but huge profits for a very small portion of people involved with amoral, irresponsible greed is NOT! This is primarily what they have become. As long as businesses, including banks and other such financial institutions, operate in this mode with their primary and even sole focus, purpose, existence and goals, unbalanced and unsustainable economics will persist and even accelerate impoverishment and hardship for most of the world and ALL living organisms on it. Sincerely, Doug R Henderson Edmonton, Alberta Canada
Today 3000 people began to occupy Santa Rosa, CA! Great turnout! Power to the people!
Corporate greed is only one of the major problems in the United States. If this country is to achieve it's once prestigeous prosperity, all problems must be addressed in this time when people are listening. Congress is nothing more than an inefficient system run by the elderly whose only goal is to line their pockets with more cash. Cash taken from an American populace already struggling to maintain itself with the minimal jobs and poor security provided by the same government who 'amends' our rights for our own 'safety'. Standing up against corporate greed is a righteous and noble cause, but only a march against the streets of Washington, opposition to the same inefficient government that has lead us so proudly to turmoil, only when we fill the streets with angry American's will our voices be heard. Change does not simply occur... it must be forced.
I am greatly impressed with the productive Dialogue in this forum. I wrote something about this, and would like to humbly post it.
http://owsautumn.blogspot.com/2011/10/recharging-ows-movements-energy.html
I commend your actions and am %100 in support of this important and Historical social movement. I pray that our numbers will grow and be sustained during the coming winter. If anything this will shame the ruling class and they will act accordingly to the measure of their shame. If anything while the mass of poor Americans suffer they will cease to flaunt their greed and ill gotten material wealth so openly. This is the first step. A complete reform that ends in complete social equality is the end goal. May God bless this Revolution. As for myself "I WILL NO PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE UNITED STATES OF US AND THEM" Just as in the days of Abraham Lincoln, the 99% must preserve the Union against the 1%. Finally let it be know that the only power to big to fail is our cause.
Your servant apostle, D.A. CROWE
Congratulations to the financially downtrodden for finally uniting on a global level. End the despotism ... Fuck the ruling rich tyrants --by any means necessary!!!
Congratulations to the financially downtrodden for finally uniting on a global level. End the despotism ... Fuck the ruling rich tyrants --by any means necessary!!!
Tax stock trading! $0.01 cent per trade times an average of 1.2 billion trades a day (3 month NYSE average) = $4.3 billion in increased US tax revenues per year.
That tax is called capitol gains. If a private individual sells an asset purchased less than 12 months prior there is an additional tax.
lol get a job
lol get a job
I would like to see the name of this exciting group reflect the nature and feeling of this Great movement and possibly make it sound less corporate.This movement deserves and could be known by a greater name perhaps"We the People"This could possibly capture the feeling of those of us who are not recognized and under-heard over all the special interests money,lobbyists and all the political noise!!
Why we can
t change our life but Why they can chang thier life with money . Its real funny and strange .Why we can
t change our life but Why they can chang thier life with money . Its real funny and strange .Saw news articles that said you couldn't make hot food b/c no flame allowed: Get crockpots!
Thank you for protesting! :)
Saw news articles that said you couldn't make hot food b/c no flame allowed: Get crockpots!
Thank you for protesting! :)
If you want to win, you must have the desire and willingness to give your life for your idea.
The last time Americans show that they are cowardly and stupid nation. You can not do anything really serious and difficult, than you're used to in his own past life.
You are grown fat and stupefied, half of your population gays and weaklings. You are losers. It's time to payback, morons!
Wall Street by Beecher's Fault
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVOLTrhXhac
all of weblog holders are with you in all over the world http://endofdevil.mihanblog.com/
we are with you firends go on with more power....
we are with you firends go on with more power ok
we are with you firends go on with more power
Police officers should be marching with us!
United we stand!
United we stand!
Power to change can be attained by voting. If we can open voter registration booths at the various protest sites, policy makers will pay attention. You can vote for anyone you want, even Bozo. They WILL pay attention if we vote en mass. otherwise, the will just ignore you. Remember, mayors and police chiefs are elected officials too. VOTE and the will pay attention; they will begin to help the cause.
Here is why I support OWS. Only two years ago, Steve Forbes, CEO of Forbes magazine, declared 2007 "the richest year ever in human history." During eight years of the Bush administration, the 400 richest Americans, who now own more than the bottom 150 million Americans, increased their net worth by $700 billion. In 2005, the top 1 percent claimed 22 percent of the national income, while the top 10 percent took half of the total income, the largest share since 1928.
Corporations systematically created a wealth gap over the last 30 years. In 1955, IRS records indicated the 400 richest people in the country were worth an average $12.6 million, adjusted for inflation.
In 2006, the 400 richest increased their average to $263 million, representing an epochal shift of wealth upward in the U.S.
In 1955, the richest tier paid an average 51.2 percent of their income in taxes under a progressive federal income tax that included loopholes. By 2006, the richest paid only 17.2 percent of their income in taxes. In 1955, the proportion of federal income from corporate taxes was 33 percent; by 2003, it decreased to 7.4 percent. Today, the top taxpayers pay the same percentage of their incomes in taxes as those making $50,000 to $75,000, although they doubled their share of total U.S. income.
"Over the past 30 years, the income of the top 1 percent, adjusted for inflation, doubled: the top one-tenth of 1 percent tripled, and the top one-one-hundredth quadrupled," says Pizzigati. "Meanwhile, the average income of the bottom 90 percent has gone down slightly. This is a stunning transformation."
Meanwhile, wages for most Americans didn't improve from 1979 to 1998, and the median male wage in 2000 was below the 1979 level, despite productivity increases of 44.5 percent. Between 2002 and 2004, inflation-adjusted median household income declined $1,669 a year. To make up for lost income, credit card debt soared 315 percent between 1989 and 2006, representing 138 percent of disposable income in 2007.
According to Pizzigati, the wealth disparity is the result of corporations squeezing more profits from workers.
"In the past corporations laid off workers because business was bad," Pizzigati says. "But over the past few decades, downsizing has been a corporate wealth generating strategy. Today, CEOs don't spend their time trying to make better products: they maneuver to take over other companies, steal their customers and fire their workers."
Progressive taxation used to prevent the rich from capturing a disproportionate share of national compensation, and the labor movement, which represented 35 percent of private sector employees and today represents 8 percent, once served as a political force to limit excessive executive pay. The Reagan backlash cut the top income tax rates, and saw the creation of right-wing think tanks that spent $30 billion over the past 30 years propagandizing for deregulation, privatization, cutting taxes, and wealth worship.
Bubble economies over the past 30 years helped CEOs pump up their income, and efforts to corral their pay are weak and ineffective. CEO pay may fall during these economic hard times, but disparity isn't going away. Without a strong movement for change, the wealth gap will only increase in this downturn.
"There won't be a restructuring of the economy unless we take on executive compensation," concludes Pizzigati. "Outrageously large rewards give executives an incentive to behave outrageously. If we allow these incentives to continue, we will just see more of the reckless behavior that has driven the global economy into the ditch."
Today US firms have $2 trillion in cash that is not being invested as reported by Bloomberg, NYT, WSJ, and Huffington Post.
According to a recent NYT article using the Census figures, the median annual income for a male full-time, year-round worker in 2010 — $47,715 — was virtually unchanged, in 2010 dollars, from its level in 1973, when it was $49,065, said Sheldon Danziger, professor of public policy at the University of Michigan.
Those who do not have college degrees were particularly hard hit, he said. “The median, full-time male worker has made no progress on average,” Mr. Danziger said.
You make some good points. Warren Buffet admitted that the super-rich has been coddled. He goes on to say in an article that back in 1992 the top 400 highest earning Americans paid 29.2% in taxes. In 2008 the top 400 earners paid 21.5% while the rest of us paid more. Buffet claims he paid 17.4% income tax in 2010 while his employees paid an average 36% income tax. Buffet recommends an immediate tax increase on those who make over $1 million (including dividend and capital gains) and additional taxes for those earning $10 million or more. We need to apply the “Buffet Rule” and increase the taxes on the top 1%.
Occupy Wall Street is getting a lot of media attention. The purpose needs to effect change. And what better way than to pass a tax plan that’s already on the table and waiting for Congress to vote it in. Raise taxes on the top 1%. Congress won’t pass it because they are in that 1%. Instead people are listening to Cain, Perry, and Romney talk about proposed tax plans that may or may not increase jobs but definitely increase taxes to the poor and middle income. It’s a Red Herring, they’re trying to detract the public from taxing the rich. If we tax the top 1% we can take the money and create the jobs.
Read what Buffet says about the top 1% in The New York Times, “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich” by Warren Buffet dated Aug. 14 2011. We are all inter-dependent.
Here is why I support OWS. Only two years ago, Steve Forbes, CEO of Forbes magazine, declared 2007 "the richest year ever in human history." During eight years of the Bush administration, the 400 richest Americans, who now own more than the bottom 150 million Americans, increased their net worth by $700 billion. In 2005, the top 1 percent claimed 22 percent of the national income, while the top 10 percent took half of the total income, the largest share since 1928.
Corporations systematically created a wealth gap over the last 30 years. In 1955, IRS records indicated the 400 richest people in the country were worth an average $12.6 million, adjusted for inflation.
In 2006, the 400 richest increased their average to $263 million, representing an epochal shift of wealth upward in the U.S.
In 1955, the richest tier paid an average 51.2 percent of their income in taxes under a progressive federal income tax that included loopholes. By 2006, the richest paid only 17.2 percent of their income in taxes. In 1955, the proportion of federal income from corporate taxes was 33 percent; by 2003, it decreased to 7.4 percent. Today, the top taxpayers pay the same percentage of their incomes in taxes as those making $50,000 to $75,000, although they doubled their share of total U.S. income.
"Over the past 30 years, the income of the top 1 percent, adjusted for inflation, doubled: the top one-tenth of 1 percent tripled, and the top one-one-hundredth quadrupled," says Pizzigati. "Meanwhile, the average income of the bottom 90 percent has gone down slightly. This is a stunning transformation."
Meanwhile, wages for most Americans didn't improve from 1979 to 1998, and the median male wage in 2000 was below the 1979 level, despite productivity increases of 44.5 percent. Between 2002 and 2004, inflation-adjusted median household income declined $1,669 a year. To make up for lost income, credit card debt soared 315 percent between 1989 and 2006, representing 138 percent of disposable income in 2007.
According to Pizzigati, the wealth disparity is the result of corporations squeezing more profits from workers.
"In the past corporations laid off workers because business was bad," Pizzigati says. "But over the past few decades, downsizing has been a corporate wealth generating strategy. Today, CEOs don't spend their time trying to make better products: they maneuver to take over other companies, steal their customers and fire their workers."
Progressive taxation used to prevent the rich from capturing a disproportionate share of national compensation, and the labor movement, which represented 35 percent of private sector employees and today represents 8 percent, once served as a political force to limit excessive executive pay. The Reagan backlash cut the top income tax rates, and saw the creation of right-wing think tanks that spent $30 billion over the past 30 years propagandizing for deregulation, privatization, cutting taxes, and wealth worship.
Bubble economies over the past 30 years helped CEOs pump up their income, and efforts to corral their pay are weak and ineffective. CEO pay may fall during these economic hard times, but disparity isn't going away. Without a strong movement for change, the wealth gap will only increase in this downturn.
"There won't be a restructuring of the economy unless we take on executive compensation," concludes Pizzigati. "Outrageously large rewards give executives an incentive to behave outrageously. If we allow these incentives to continue, we will just see more of the reckless behavior that has driven the global economy into the ditch."
Today US firms have $2 trillion in cash that is not being invested as reported by Bloomberg, NYT, WSJ, and Huffington Post.
According to a recent NYT article using the Census figures, the median annual income for a male full-time, year-round worker in 2010 — $47,715 — was virtually unchanged, in 2010 dollars, from its level in 1973, when it was $49,065, said Sheldon Danziger, professor of public policy at the University of Michigan.
Those who do not have college degrees were particularly hard hit, he said. “The median, full-time male worker has made no progress on average,” Mr. Danziger said.
hi love what you are doing
hi love what you are doing
Try this for a goal of the movement
You might want to use this as part of the caause to stop political injustice and dorruption....
You might want to use this as part of the caause to stop political injustice and dorruption....
A solid first step in fixing our economic and political woes is to disqualify any person worth more than two million dollars from holding political office. The rich are too corrupted by greed to be an any benefit to the community generally. Putting the rich in government is like turning over the reins of power to a bunch of felons. The American middle class, the true creator of jobs and wealth, should control the government for the people. I look forward to some politician proposing this amendment before the greed of the already wealthy completely destroys our democratic way of life, economy and values. The foundation of our nation is not capitalism but democracy in the form of a Republic. Capitalism is nowhere even mentioned in the American Constitution. Capitalism is a tool of democracy to generate wealth and prosperity. Democracy should not be the tool of capitalism to generate wealth for a few. Capitalism is a beast that must be harnessed to pull the plow for the well-being of humanity. Now is an historic opportunity for hard-working and creative middle class Americans to assert their majority rights against a corrupt and ineffective elite who have brought the country to the brink of ruin.
I love it when the people wake up...
Let's talk about Gramm Leahy Act that replaced Glass Steagall Act of 1933. Ask the GOP why. Greetings form Seattle
Let's talk about Gramm Leahy Act that replaced Glass Steagall Act of 1933. Ask the GOP why. Greetins form Seattle
Every two years we elect representatives to congress. It's time that we collectively say goodbye to the party structure as it currently exists and move the protests to the offices of every congress member and find out if those members are going to support the movement, and if they are not, replace them. The social media that exists today give us all the method that we need to overcome the gridlock in DC. Once the people control the house, states can then remove Senators that are obstructing the will of the electorate. It's so obvious.
What truly needs to be done is
4 All campaign "donations" are for the public to give, no corporate contributions. Also all contributions would be scrutinized by a committee of non partisan REAL people that have access to all bank records for the politicians and donors. Then if contributions are traced back to a corporation, said corporation SEVERELY fined and the person who signed off charged with intent to commit treason.
Since an election year is coming up how about we get the agenda put on the ballots? That is if the voting can be truly trusted :(
We are Thee 99% movement in L.A. growing!! Stilll not much in local coverage from corporate media. thank You Michael Moore!! need more voices like yours! We Are One! We Are One Voice!! VORWELL
Why protest Wall Street? To get at the root of the problem, one should be protesting, say, in London’s City where central banking originated. Or protesting in front of the Federal Reserve in Washington DC. These are real seats of power.
Why protest Wall Street? To get at the root of the problem, one should be protesting, say, in London’s City where central banking originated. Or protesting in front of the Federal Reserve in Washington DC. These are real seats of power.
Canada is with you too! Mark October 15'th on your calendar and join us in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, and Montreal as per:
http://www.occupyto.ca/
http://www.nowtoronto.com/daily/news/story.cfm?content=182962
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2011/10/04/wall-street-protest-occupy.html
Our banks make far too much profit all the time and should have their taxes raised by 3000% each year and have that money be used for social safety nets instead of being used to build monuments to their execess!
MichaelT
Canada is with you too! Mark October 15'th on your calendar and join us in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, and Montreal as per:
http://www.occupyto.ca/
http://www.nowtoronto.com/daily/news/story.cfm?content=182962
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2011/10/04/wall-street-protest-occupy.html
Our banks make far too much profit all the time and should have their taxes raised by 3000% each year and have that money be used for social safety nets instead of being used to build monuments to their execess!
MichaelT
HOW TO FIGHT WALL STREET http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/oct2011/pers-o04.shtml
ACTIVISTS! PLEASE GO TO TARPLEY.NET AND READ:
An Emergency Program for Anti-Wall Street Protestors: Don’t Let Soros Hijack the Movement by Webster G. Tarpley, Ph.D.
ALSO SUPPORT HIS: EMERGENCY PROGRAM STOP THE DEPRESSION
Dear Government,
America is not a video game, when if you fail, you get another life. We get one life and one life only! It is time to come back to reality and see the world we live in! When was the last time that a congressman, or even the president got out of the office one day and truly saw the poverty in the world. And I'm not talking about major cities, I'm talking about the small towns that are struggling to balance their own budgets without taking all of the people's money.
Life is not a line graph on a computer screen where the line goes up and down depending on how people feel. But it seems to me wall street IS A LINE GRAPH.
This movement is going to leave the government with two choices, and this is the cold hard truth. Option one is to agree to the people's terms and everyone is happy. But the other option is to tighten control over the people, tax the hell out of them and try to scare them. If the government chooses option two, America will be forced to go into another civil war, because the government has become so ignorant of problems in the world.
If it does come to this, then the government will surely lose. Its 99% against 1%, and even a 1st grader knows which is bigger.
~Codename Waldo
http://vimeo.com/29928250
Thanks for reminding everybody that occupywallst has a focus and its not about police brutality. Its unfortunate that the msm has only reported on that issue and not on the greater goal. Brutality must be addressed of course but keep the focus! It wouldn't surprise me if certain individuals and corporations were trying to silence the message (that most Americans already believe) by creating the police brutality issue as a diversion. Don't be diverted!
Can someone that is here in NYC and has experience with the situation briefly discuss the bathroom situation?
Are these comments in any kind of order?
I would like to read them in succession but it seems like they are all mixed up.
Posts with a higher point value appear near the top, the up and down arrows next to the post are used for voting a post up or down. Any reply to a post, regardless of the number of votes it has received appear blow the comment it was a reply to.
It's not my favorite way, but now I get it--which helps. Thanks.
no prob
I wish people here, if they have money in the banks, would take some out and go buy silver 1 ounce Eagles or 10 ounce bars. I am an economist and cannot reveal my name here but believe me when I claim that if millions of people start buying .999 silver products from their local coin and bullion dealers then the banks, JPMorgan in particular will crash.
Are you Alex Jones? haha--maybe
I think some people like me just don't understand how buying coins works and are scared they will pay $1,000 for a $1 worth of silver.
Why is it that new posts get buried within older posts? Why aren't the new posts showing up on top?
Posts with a higher point value appear near the top, the up and down arrows next to the post are used for voting a post up or down.
That's crazy. I'd like to easily be able to find the new posts, since I've already read the older ones.
on the main page https://occupywallst.org/forum/ on the right hand side there is a Recent Comments side bar all comments posted since you last refreshed the page show up there.
Thanks for the info.
no prob, the setup for this forum is not bad once you get the hang of it
make signs like.......we want cops and firemen..not bankers ceo's health care for first responders etc.......get them on your side.....
Make signs.......like........... WE WANT COPS AND FIREMEN....NOT BANKERS AND CEO'S
HEALTH CARE FOR FIRST RESPONDERS...........ETC.
Get them in your corner dude...........
http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution
http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution
This was a clear, honest, and inspiring message. This is exactly what we need to hear. Never loose hope, never give up.
-Terry
Please, Friends, sign our petition to ban heavy industrialization done by hydrofracking! http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/friendsofsustainabletreadwell_franklinnewyork/
"The right to protest is part of our culture," Bloomberg said. "It's also true that there are other societal concerns. You're worried about sanitation and you're worried about lots of different laws on the books."
Sorry Bloomberg but you're wrong - there's no asterisk next to the 1st amendment that says you have a right to protest - but not if things get a little dirty.
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2011/09/protesters-may-not-be-able-to-park-it-forever-mayor-bloomberg-says
Right. There are only a few reasons where government can legally and constitutionally interfere with protests. If a protest is non-violent and isn't breaking any laws or interfering with certain things, then the protest has to be allowed. It can't be stopped just because some cops or legislators or wealthy crooks or mayors don't agree with the protest's message.
Well said! Thank you. Thank all of you for being there and doing this.
The Invisible Committee analyzed how it is possible for a police officer to believe that, somehow, he "doesn't support" evictions, etc. -- even though, of course, no one offers more material support for evictions than a cop.
I quote: What we call existential liberalism is the adherence to a series of evidents marked by a constant propensity of the subject to betrayal. It is evident, for example, that everyone acts in their own interest, and no-one can be accused of infamy for becoming exactly the kind of bastard he would spit on as a young man. We have been taught to function at a lower gear in which we are relieved of the very idea of betrayal. This emotional lower gear is the guarantee we have accepted of our becoming-adult. Along with, for the most zealous, the mirage of an affective self-sufficiency as an insuperable ideal. And yet there is simply too much to betray for those who decide to keep the promises which they have carried since childhood.
[...]
You will never be a better citizen than when you are capable of renouncing a relation or a struggle in order to maintain your place. It will not always be exactly easy going, but that is precisely where existential liberalism is efficient: it even provides the remedies to the discomforts that it generates. The cheque to Amnesty International, the fair trade coffee, the demo against the last war, seeing the last Michael Moore film, are so many non-acts disguised as salvational gestures. Carry on exactly as normal, that is to say go for a walk in the designated spaces and do your shopping, the same as always, but on top of that, additionally, ease your conscience; buy No Logo, boycott Shell, this should be enough to convince you that political action, in fact, does not require much, and that you too are capable of “engaging” yourself.
[End quote]
It is impossible for an NYPD officer to "remain in solidarity" with protesters, unless he refuses his orders, or resigns, or leaks information, or is otherwise derelict of his professional duties. It is important to see through this false "solidarity" and "support" that claims to be compatible with material support for the enemy.
It is no different from the rich banker who says, "oh, it would be nice if the world was fair -- but as long as it's unfair in my advantage, I'm going to do everything I can to keep things the way they are!" It is no different from the nazi collaborator who says, "I don't believe in what the nazis do either -- but I'm not going to risk my neck!" It is not "solidarity" -- it's just being two-faced.
Agreed, agreed, agreed, agreed, but hey, you are saying too many truths at once, we are not ready for that yet.
As Michael Moore said, there are millions upon millions of us; while there are only hundreds of them. We CAN take back the power.
I love Michael Moore Is he a revolutionist ?
That's one way of accounting. But actually, those "hundreds" employ "one million guards" more who are armed, organized, and prepared to protect them against the "millions upon millions"...
the purpose of the second amendment of the constitution is to protect us against oppression and tyranny The Second Amendment (Amendment II) to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights that protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms. It was adopted on December 15, 1791, along with the rest of the Bill of Rights. It was not so we would have the right to go hunting!
We have the right have crappier weapons than they have so we'll be outgunned. We aren't Libya. There is no world police to give the people of the USA guns and air support. Violence and bullets isn't the way forward
See "Guerrilla Warfare".
This is going on right now. Today. People from all across the country are taking to the streets and protesting. Peaceful assembly of the 99%, pushing for the changes to lead to true freedom. Go ahead and be scared, you should be. Not of our message, not of us, but of what this means. This is the change the world has been waiting to see. This is the cure to what the government likes to pretend is nothing more then a scrapped knee when in fact it’s a cancer. A cancer called Corporation and greed. Stand up, fight back. Only this time, we’re not using fists. We are using the power of the word, of the people, and the peaceful assembly.
Hold on Wall ST. The rest of the nation is coming to you aid. This IS now, this IS the revolution. You should have expected us.
Money is now a commodity instead of being a means to purchase a commodity.
Every time you spend a dollar, euro, pound, yen, the speculators make money.
Find ways to procure your goods and services without using money. Barter and exchange for small things.
Without money, they will be poor like us.
Obama Global Supporters Videos!
Occupy Wall Street,
Barack Obama is the M.L.K. of our day & will continue to bring the world together to progress it like never before. In my own way, I want to play a big part in this major place in our history. People need help all around the world. There's one song for everyone & everything! For Obama 2012, I'm inviting you to be in my global video series of celebrities, people of places named after Obama & Obama supporters singing the chorus of Obama For The World (world's Obama tribute song)! ITunes! For Obama's change & America's freedom! 50% of sales go to the finishing of the new World Trade Center, Occupy Wall Street & Obama For America.
http://www.youtube.com/kingdavida
http://mycharitywater.org/p/campaign/?campaign_id=18769
https://donate.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/2012/davidking
http://www.tunecore.com/music/david-king
Yes, if we just elect him as president all this problems will go away, and he will never surround himself by people from the trilateral commission, the council on foreign relations, and wallstreet like all those motherfuckers before him trying to screw the people. Oh no, wait, Im a little misinformed, so Im gonna go get a fucking clue and come back when I know what the fuck I'm talking about.
Yeah, by all means do come back when you do know what-the-fuck you're talking about!
Yeah, I'm not at all happy about Barry hiring back some of the same criminals from Wall Street and taking contributions from Goldman Sachs and the like. He is guilty as well.
Work on the police. Get them on your side. They are just the same as the rest of us but are indoctrinated and institutionalized to be suspicious of civilians, even though are they civilians too.
The state depends on police and army to protect itself. That is fine as long as the institutions of the state are sound and serve the people. As soon as those institutions become corrupt and compromised by money, greed and power, they are no longer valid.
When that happens, it the duty of the police and army to protect the people, not the wealthy.
Police the world over are the same.
agreed see https://occupywallst.org/forum/short-factual-bullet-point-flyers-for-police-about/
Hi everyone, check out the New-> Occupy America Social Network!! http://occupyamerica.ning.com Post blogs, videos and meet like minded individuals!
The Norton security program has blocked your website with a message saying it is a "malicious" website, they have joined the banksters agains us, just like Paypal did with Wikileaks. You are doing a great job, the revolution of the 21st century, first one after the French Revolution was bought by banksters. The American dream is only for 1 % and the American nightmare for the rest. God bless you. Francisco, 67, Spain
Petition condemning police violence:
http://www.change.org/petitions/nyc-mayor-police-chief-stop-brutality-against-wall-st-protesters
The Norton security program has censored your website, and perhaps other security programs too. There is a message saying I am trying to access a "malicious" website. Incredible. I had to use another laptop without the Norton program. Norton is acting like Paypal with Wikileaks, joining banksters against the rest of us.
Delete Norton, install Avast.
Sure, but don't turn down some good media coverage. These stories of these police brutalities are actually p important, moreso since they got that money yesterday, and could easily play into the overall message of the ruling class. I'd run with it and tell everyone so if I were able to be there in person.
I just read a Reuters wire about the terrible effects of cutting $1 trillion in defense spending - the loss of 160,000 jobs, "good, high paying jobs", according to one of the defense contractors. http://news.yahoo.com/fear-cuts-may-hurt-u-defense-industry-051233477.html After all, that's only $6 million in public spending per job, a veritable bargain! (Though the Solyndra project beat this with 1000 jobs for $535 million, they didn't last...)
As I was reading this, it dawned on me: why don't we just pay these people to burn money? For $6 million, 50 weeks a year, 40 hours a week, we can hire someone to burn $2500 each hour ($1 a second, once you figure in lunch, breaks, training, and fire safety seminars) and take home $500 for himself. We can all pass the hat to make sure these people keep a roof over their heads.
Of course, by comparison, the notion of giving all of the poor a few thousand dollars in welfare is just outrageous. The notion of subsidizing ordinary jobs directly, offering a few thousand dollars in outside funding to businesses who arrange to hire a few tens of millions of unemployed Americans - not even worth considering. After all, thousands for millions adds up to billions of dollars, an inconceivable sum.
Part of that 1 trillion dollars could be reinvested in education and the displaced workers put to work enriching fellow human beings instead of helping to destroy them.
Agreed. An article went around saying if it wasnt for the police brutality this protest would have died out. I disagree, its because of the corporations brutality that this wont die out. Keep focused on that, dont let the media pin us down. Viva la revolution!
It is Global !!! It takes time....but the quicker people wake up and join the masses that already have been standing up. the quicker we (the 99%) will take back our countries and turn things around so we will all be winners...Just remember it may take years to get the problems unwound, this has been messed up for many years, it should of happened 40 years ago.
THANK YOU for making it clear that the police are not your enemy. I've seen too many young anarchists waving slogans of "F--- Cops" How is this going to solve anything? Think of that the next time you see a cop putting themselves in danger to save someon's life. Please do continue to expose instances of excessive force by some policemen. I would dare to say that most policemen and policewomen are people who chose to become officers because they truly want to "serve and protect" the people. It's very hard to remain calm in a situation like this. Please try to show respect to the police and ask them to protect you. How about signs that say "Police: protect us!" and "Police: we're marching for you" Thank you for your courage.
I agree with u 100% and we must stand up to corporation tyranny!!
THANK YOU for making it clear that the police are not your enemy. I've seen too many young anarchists waving slogans of "F--- Cops" How is this going to solve anything? Think of that the next time you see a cop putting themselves in danger to save someone's life. Please do continue to expose instances of excessive force by some policemen. I would dare to say that most policemen and policewomen are people who chose to become officers because they truly want to "serve and protect" the people. It's very hard to remain calm in a situation like this. Please try to show respect to the police and ask them to protect you. How about signs that say "Police: protect us!" and "Police: we're marching for you" Thank you for your courage
THANK YOU for making it clear that the police are not your enemy. I've seen too many young anarchists waving slogans of "F--- Cops" How is this going to solve anything? Think of that the next time you see a cop putting themselves in danger to save someone's life. Please do continue to expose instances of excessive force by some policemen. I would dare to say that most policemen and policewomen are people who chose to become officers because they truly want to "serve and protect" the people. It's very hard to remain calm in a situation like this. Please try to show respect to the police and ask them to protect you. How about signs that say "Police: protect us!" and "Police: we're marching for you" Thank you for your courage
There's now a song about the movement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuEcO7tmxkw
Guys, I'm all for reform of the way corporates treat employees. Ask for reform of the labor rules in order to bridge the middle class. Not so much an increase in the minimal wage (that would hurt small business) but that each employee hired must make at least minimal wage OR 1% of the gross CEO pay (including benefits)... which ever of the two means more money for the people.
This would make the wealthy spend (or cut employees/ locations opening room for small business to take over).
Imagine if you brought in just 1% of what the CEO made for sweating your ass off while he is playing golf trying to open more locations
I mean really why settle at 1% say 2% or 3%. The average exec makes about 10million a year. Where most of the employees only make 24-30 a year. If you forced them to pay a minimal of 1 percent that would mean each employee would be making 100,000 a year min salary. (that would make flipping burgers at McDs kind of a good job right?)
And when the CEOs say they could never afford it the response would be cut your own salary/ benefits until you can... if they close locations. Open up a small business in its place. There are solutions, we might just have to tighten up our belts a bit more and demand it.
Right. That was Jerry Rubin and he didn't "see the light" he just got scared and sold out.
I'd like to see Bloomberg sit 20 porta johns up in the park. That would be an impressive act on his part.
I have been concerned about people being able to access bathrooms--including myself. I was told by a few over nighters that it's not a problem--but it seems strange--there are hundreds. If it grows (one committee member told me) they will have to find or bring in bathrooms. Any thoughts?
Right. That was Jerry Rubin and he didn't "see the light" he just got scared and sold out.
I'd like to see Bloomberg sit 20 porta johns up in the park. That would be an impressive act on his part.
I have been concerned about people being able to access bathrooms--including myself. I was told by a few over nighters that it's not a problem--but it seems strange--there are hundreds. If it grows (one committee member told me) they will have to find or bring in bathrooms. Any thoughts?
Has anyone in the movement considered using the Van Jones "Contract For The American Dream" as a workable template to frame the #OWS message? What we are asking for as working class Americans is all right there in the contract.
Goodday beautiful people. might i say that there is a lot of footage and talk about the actions from NYPD? Its good to point out where they go wrong, but to still be talking and twittering and what not about the one d*ckhead with the pepperspray take the focus away from our cause. It also makes us look like a bunch of winers. You say they express solidarity. In that case it is a shame we see you on video confronting them, almost provocing them. Shout at the banks, not the boys in blue. Having been in protests like these myself, i can say that what you are facing is nothing really dramatic. It is injust, it is provocative, jes. But there's no hardhats, no sticks, no robocop-armorsuits. no teargas/waterspray tanks. Aks anyone who was in Seattle and such places. When arrested you are let go within a day or two. You know you will be because 99% of these arrests are illegal, and above all they know that every detainee is know by the others, and their actions are recorded. You have to be honest that some are provocative towards police, or make to much of a scene when arrested. Please don't, Keep your dignity. Yelling shameshameshame causes frustration even among the cops on our side. I do understand the frustration on the protesters side, do not underestimate that. But keep avoiding them, give them room, dont provoke, keep regrouping, keep being smarter and keep informing them. White collar too. We are all humans. The time they come with heavy artillery to push you out is when its does get dramatic and you have every right to use 'psychological violence'. until then i would urge you to keep being wiser, friendlier and a good example of how you want your world to be. Nonetheless i am a 100% behind you all, admire your patience and restraint. OneLove from the Netherlands.
Why don't you guys try to hammer home the 50 cent stock trade surcharge that (as Forbes magazine says) would generate 350 billion dollars per year: all of which could go to people who actually need it! People need to know what the protest is about and that would a rallying point for all the people who want to give support but aren't quite sure what they're supporting. Who knows maybe it could end up a 'talking point' in the mainstream!
I can't believe at this point people are still saying "why don't you guys demand this or that". Listen buddy, if the problems around you can be summarized in just one simple demand I don't know what to tell you. You might want to check out everything that's come out in the news and all that hasn't for the past decades?
How can one NOT know what they are fighting for. They are fighting for a future; one which is not ruled by MONEY and more HUMAN one that we may be proud to leave to the generations to come. You don`t need a CAUSE to support what is RIGHT.
Why don't you guys try to hammer home the 50 cent stock trade surcharge that (as Forbes magazine says) would generate 350 billion dollars per year: all of which could go to people who actually need it! People need to know what the protest is about and that would a rallying point for all the people who want to give support but aren't quite sure what they're supporting. Who knows maybe it could end up a 'talking point' in the mainstream!
Socialism or Libertarianism? Doesn't really matter. Both seek to end the corrupt relationship between Government and Banks. Difference of opinion on the solution should not affect camaraderie in fighting the common enemy.
I agree!!!
I like Chomsky's "Libertarian Socialist" view.
By the way, I got tired of answering "Why are the protestors protesting?" questions and made a blog post about it. Feel free to use any of it that you like: http://robertdavis.info/?p=167 There's an interesting piece about Goldman Sachs linked at the bottom of it.
That's a completely different meaning of "libertarian"
Indeed it is. ;9)
Libertarianism would only grant more absolute power to owners of businesses... that's why it gets funded from those who support business power... Sorry but libertarians are the dupes of the owning class.
Just about all of the misconceived ideas that have the worlds economy on its knees and have resulted in the wildly disproportional distribution of wealth in this country were conceived in libertarian think tanks and incorporated into mainstream political thought with a woeful result.
The libertarian mantra is reason, reason my ass!
Also known as a pincer manoeuvre, they dont stand a chance if they are pressured from the "left" and from the "right". More generally, Open Source Warfare.
Exactly. The 99% need to focus on our common goals, not our differences. Unite to work together for what will benefit us all.
The problem with this idea is that many of the 99% believe in political doctrines made up by the 1% in order to support their right to continued power.
We are watching you from all over the world and it is truly a blessing. You know the cause is right and you have an extraordinary atmosphere there. Keep it up, we are with you. With our hearts and minds... We are the 99% and we will not go away!
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Who said anything about communism? Sound like you are misguided by... what? The point is not the job. It is the future. The childeren, the Earth, the dignity of humanity. that you are not bothered by anything is good, i am happy for you. but judging and ridiculing people who see what goes wrong and adress it in a peacefull way is ignorant, and shows you are not very compassionate a person. And that i am sorry for. I wish soemone around you would have dared to tell you how the world really works.
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Asking questions is the first step in the right direction. Telling people to find a job is great advice; the protesters wouldn't mind a society with ready access to employment. But today when one person gets a job, another loses one - there's always someone with plenty of time to march on Wall Street. The unemployment rate is over 9%, the U6 unemployment rate over 17%, and the actual overall workforce participation rate is steadily dropping, now below 64%.
If you want people to have jobs, and stop complaining, consider urging Congress to make some basic reform: such as using an increase in overall corporate taxes or taxes on the wealthy to permit a tax write-off of equal total dollar value for employers per worker they hire. Companies claim that it costs them anywhere from $1500 to $6000 to go through the paperwork and hassle of hiring a new employee - don't just let them write it off but give them a tax credit for the entire amount. Paid for by the myriad companies currently sitting on a huge pile of cash profits but which are unwilling to hire a single U.S. worker. The Republicans keep talking about rewarding "job creators", but that should mean actually rewarding job creation, not just giving away money to the very rich like worshippers bringing sacrifices to a pagan idol.
Can someone please stop maxdugan spamming. He's made his point. To paraphrase my interpretation of that point: "Get back in line and shut up, Peasants!"
Just want to point out that is isn't only citizens who struggle for justice or who are part of this movement.
And here is some more for hard workers and rich: If you think you can buy happiness or eternal life you have to think more...
Good answer to all dumb and low class from 99%, Krankie! Looks like you are putting your patriotism, intelligence and reputation as american, higher than your money! I think it is stupid to do opposite like geepers does. Because if we loose our country or economy, what then our money good for? To pay chinese with it to learn their language so you can ask chinese boss for a job? Ha-ha!
How about a movement called OCCUPY JOB - it is a novel idea where people who are lazy like the "occupy wall street people" grow up and start to contribute to their own welfare and well being. When I was just out of college I worked at Mcdonalds until I got a career oriented job. Nothing wrong with hard work! Now I make a decent living, own my house, and have a decent 401k.
GROW UP FOOLS
... How stupid can someone be? No one here is saying there is anything wrong with hard work. Leaving your family and friends to go and do something grand and important IS hard work. You need to grow up and realize that human beings are part of a species and as a whole need to look out for one another.Travesties committed in the name of big business, dictatorship or any other medium are still travesties and should be opposed by any rational human being.
I work in a restaurant and I work hard 6 days a week. We turn people away in the scores every week.A restaurant job is not something everyone can do,by inclination or SUPPLY!! OCCUPY JOB is something my mother(Master's degree in special ed), father(Master's degree in mathmatics) and wife(years of pest control experience) would love to do. IS THERE A JOB FOR THEM?!? NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There are not enough jobs to go around, not even the restaurant jobs some seem to think are in HUGE supply. The restaurants are like all businesses now...they have less staff to do the same job as they did 10 years ago. There are VERY few jobs to be had. Each opening gets scores, if not hundreds of applicants. It is VERY bad to be looking for a job now. @geepers is anyone you know personally unemployed? chronically unemployed?
newbie on the internet please correct spelling and translate, no more time available for me now to carry on ,will try and contribute,further in future ,if I am still free!and alive! have been working my whole flippin life only to be in deeper financial trouble ,without having spent any on luxuries,but it is not only for me, reality is we :normal citizens in many parts of the world are having a really tough time,find solutions ,be proactive,be constructive ,be realistic,be humble ,but don't be a sheep,get those blinds off yer eyes ...right get a job --where ? start your own ,and have it all stolen,over and over ,and burnt down have your family property devalued become poor ! right who is the lazy fool now ? see fellow citizens starve and kill each other dirty politics are failing yipeeeee
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Sr1koMsgt0JA0dbbpPRw18UfnxIXa8b9kSeYJsWOhis/edit
Geepers... You think you are an example of how the be an adult? A wage slave?No great inventor or achiever of any monumental thing has a work slave mentality. It is innovation and ingenuity that bring new ideas to the playing field. "Rebels" have always been the greater contributor to new ideas, inventions and innovations. You are pathetic to herald yourself as an example of "a grown up".... Get a life that you can be truly proud of... Be original! Give us an independent thought. stop being a "cookie cutter clone" .... it's boring!
So you think that it is perfectly acceptable to use welfare programs, that drain money from everyone, to be a rebel? Maybe if you supported yourself you could be a rebel in your own time, on your own money!
If there were JOBS and OPPORTUNITY we wouldn't need to get welfare or rebellion. BTW, on a restaurant job I still need welfare to support my family. Why? Because I make $13 an hour after eight years. I still go. I go to community college to make it better, while digging a nice debt hole on student loans.
Agreed.
Looks like the trolls are coming out in full force! Tea party?? HA! Misguided hippies? Need to find a job? Looks like some 1 percenters are getting mad... problem? :P
Occupy Wall Street NEEDS to invite the Tea Party to its party and unify this country. It is a great OBVIOUS gaping irony that these two movements, which share a common enemy, that being the corrupt influence of money in our political system, are being portrayed along the fabricated partisan divide, rather than opposite ends of the same spectrum. Occupy Wall Street is going after the banks and the Tea Party is going after the government. Meanwhile the Government, the Banks, through the help of the partisan Media are going to do everything in their power to make these groups into enemies and further divide the country in order to distract from what is really going on.
If the Tea Party is 'against the corrupt influence of money, why are they taking money from the Kock brothers?
You just don't get it, do you?
The big banks were able to do their monkey-business because of deregulation. The Tea Party abhors regulation, they disrupt public meetings, like to make a big deal of arming themselves, don't know the difference between Obama and Hitler and they are atrocious spellers.
There is absolutely not one atom of equivalence between these two movements!
Let's make a petition out of this and unite!!!!
@anonymousvoice...Bravo. Well put! And furthermore, the lines between government and banks are blurred anyway....they are kinda the same thing now, so we are all fighting the same beast with different swords. Although a liberal I have been reaching out somewhat to the TP. I actually devised a debate/group discussion formula to be used in a facilitative forum where Liberals and Neocons are encouraged to participate in a healthy and fair and productive dialogue/debate It can be done.
I agree!!!! Is freedom of speech still protected in United States????
The Tea Party is paid for by the corporations, it would be a conflict of interest. Going after the government is useless, it's obvious who they (and the media) work for at this point. You have to let the ones running the show that we all know it is they who are running things and it is they who bare the brunt of the people frustrations. Get them in line, get them a little scared, their underlings will follow.
we will win. solidarity from someone kicked out of college for an occupation against budget cuts! the lie of austerity ends here! we know that the debt is huge because corporations dodged taxes for the last 40 years. Now they want us to pay for that. Hell no!
You people are misguided idiots. The communists are fanning your irrational fears. Greed is good. Capitalism works. Communisim is a bankrupt philosophy that is always doomed for failure. Ask any Russian. They want CAPITALISM.
Go home and find a job. There are plenty of employers looking for help. For the moment the pay may not be the greatest but its a job and besides, working is good for the soul.
Abbe Hoffman, the great communist of the 1960s, one of the top leaders of Flower Power movement saw the light and pursued a successful career on Wall Street.
Go home to your families and find a job.
Typical Divisive "Rival Football Team" commentary on Socialism VS Capitalism. Why is it that one cannot consider Improving capitalism and addressing its flaws without being called a Socialist? I never understood this. Why cannot one discuss the pitfalls of socialism without being deemed a heartless capitalist either? What if we created a THIRD system based on the best practices ? Would that not be a great challenge? Are some people's brains constructed in such a way that they have to only think in black and white simple terms? I don't get it!
U r so right!!! Nobody wants socialism!!! Everybody deserves a fair opportunity to do business without corporate thugs putting people out of business.
@atheve3, Thanks and BTW...my boyfriend leans to the right and I lean to the left, but we have GREAT conversations and come up with some good solutions for the economy based on the fact that we are different.
I totally agree. I always have said the best system would be a good balance between socialism and capitalism and that just one or the other is not good. The ones in favor of only capitalism and who continue to condemn socialism (and call it communism, mistakenly) are nothing but gluttons.
mixed economies can be found in Scandanavian countries. they do a great job.
Yep.... and there are people here who continue to refute that it works.
"Capitalism works."
Yes, capitalism works quite well when there are a lot of firms competing for business. That is not what we have. We have functional oligopolies in every major industry in America, and they collude with the government and each other to prevent the market from functioning as it should. If you understood basic macroeconomics you would understand this: undue concentration of market power screws up capitalism.
U r so right!!
I have a job. If I was in NYC or if a protest starts up in my neighborhood, I'll be there. Don't be a jackass by accusing all protesters of not having jobs.
"Greed is good". Capitalism works for the greedy.
Maxdugan, tell the CIA you deserve a pay rise. Insults say a lot about the sender, nothing about the recipient.
No matter how far a jackass travels, it won't come back a horse.
Go home troll.
i am curious how the movement plans to deal with maxdugan's. I was thinking of a non-violent, peaceful HEADBUTT.
maxdugan's are easy, its more subtle forms of subversion that are dangerous.
You don't have your facts straight on more than one count. Easily corrected is your comment about Abbie Hoffman. It wasn't Abbie Hoffman who "pursued a successful career on Wall Street". Abbie Hoffman lived as a fugitive from justice for eight years (drug charges). Despite living underground, he became a more lowprofile environmental activist in his local community. After turning himself in in 1980, he resurfaced, served four months in prison & then resumed being a public activist & writing. He was arrested again for demonstrating at Amherst. He continued to work for freedom & justice until his death in the 80s. He also never founded any "Flower Power" movement - he was one of the founders of the Youth International Party (the Yippies) & organized the notorious demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. Any young OWS folk who aren't aware of Abbie Hoffman, may want to use the Google & see what they can learn from the history of Abbie & the Yippies.
Yea, Abbie would´ve rather cut his leg off, than doing any "career" on wall street. greetings from austria. we are marching too on oct. 15th
for maxdugan
idiots? China is is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China. We, Americans, capitalists, are deeply indebted to this communist country. it seems that this communist country is better at capitalism than we are. So, how does your flat, angry, uneducated argument make any sense? You see, the world is much different than you have been led to believe. I advice you to actively questions things. Be skeptical. Seek your own answers and submit only to the authority of your reason.
Note- I will not be responding to your response as I am sure it will stoop down to the level of name calling and stubborn personal jabs