The United States is in need of change, now more than ever, and that change must come from the people. We can no longer rely on politicians to save us. Politicians are bought and sold by the very interests that are destroying our society, and our president Barack Obama is no different. After coming into office under the guise of hope and change, we have seen more of the same policies and actions that brought us to our current situation. Now more than ever it is time for a real change.

With the upcoming presidential election, we are going to be given two sides of the same corporate coin. Without question, we reject the idea that Mitt Romney, the man behind Bain Capital, can do anything other than gut what remains of the public sector, destroy what remains of our social services, and empower corporations to further take over our country.

Barack Obama's agenda is not so different from that of Mitt Romney's. If Obama is elected we will continue to see more human rights abuses, the rolling back of our constitutional rights, and a continuation of the silent coup that corporate America is executing on what remains of our sham of a democracy.

Beginning today, Occupy Chicago will join with activists around Chicago and take a stand. We will highlight the contradictions between President Obama's promise of “hope and change” and his actual policy decisions during a four day occupation of his campaign headquarters. Each day will feature actions, teach-ins, and opportunities to share in community and grow our movement. Join us!

RSVP on Facebook

September 4: 5PM Central, Jackson&Lasalle: Reject President 1%: End Obama's War On the World's 99%

September 5: Protest Mortgage Debt/Foreclosures at at Fannie Mae's Midwest Regional Offices

September 6: Democracy

More below.

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via Occupy Wall Street South:

Braving extreme heat, more than 2,500 people from throughout the South and across the U.S. filled the streets of Charlotte on Sun., Sept. 2 for the March on Wall Street South. The demonstration confronted the banks and corporations headquartered in Charlotte that are wreaking havoc on communities throughout the country, and raised a people’s agenda for jobs and justice as the Democratic National Convention convenes here.

Participants came from cities throughout North Carolina, including Winston-Salem, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, Rocky Mount, Greenville, Asheville, Fayetteville, Greensboro, and Wilmington. Many traveled hours from cities such as Baltimore, MD; Atlanta, GA; Greenville, MS; Washington, DC; Tampa, FL; Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, PA and New York, NY. A bus of more than 40 people, many of whom being foreclosed on by Bank of America and who are unemployed, spent 15 hours traveling from Detroit, MI.

The No Papers No Fear bus, which left Phoenix, AZ on July 29 with more than 40 undocumented people to arrive in Charlotte for the DNC, also joined the march with a spirited contingent against the deportations and criminalization of immigrant communities.

Also on the march were an unemployed workers contingent, a Southern labor contingent, a contingent against U.S. wars being waged at home and abroad, a no war no warming contingent, an LGBTQ contingent, and more.

“This was an historic demonstration that built an unprecedented level of unity between so many different groups and struggles on a grassroots level,” said Yen Alcala, an organizer with the Coalition to March on Wall Street South and Occupy Charlotte. “The March on Wall Street South showed what is possible when we unite, and pointed the finger at those who are responsible for the injustices being experienced by the 99% – the banks and corporations, and a political system that is controlled by the 1%. Building people’s power from the bottom up is the only solution to win jobs and justice for poor and working people.”

Along the march, demonstrators stopped in front of the Bank of America’s world headquarters and Duke Energy’s headquarters. At each stop, people who have been directly impacted by the practices of these banks and corporations –whose homes are being foreclosed on, who have massive amounts of student loan debt, and whose communities are being devastated by coal mining and energy rate hikes — spoke out and exposed these profit gauging institutions.

“The March on Wall Street South was a tremendous success,” said Elena Everett, another Coalition organizer. “Our message for jobs and justice was heard loud and clear by the bankers and the politicians of both parties. But this is just the beginning. We know that the only way that real change has ever been won is when people come together, get organized, and build social movements to raise demands to the powers that be. And that’s exactly what we’re doing — building a movement for jobs, education, healthcare, the environment, housing, and against wars, racism and bigotry, deportations, and jails.”

Throughout the remainder of the week, the MOWSS coalition will be supporting actions and events being developed by other groups, including the Undocubus and the Southern Workers Assembly on Sept. 3 at Wedgewood Baptist Church. The Coalition will also be mobilizing support for the reoccupation of Marshall Park being led by Occupy Charlotte.

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There’s just a few days left until the March on Wall Street South mobilization kicks off! See below for a schedule of events and many other updates. You can also find transportation leaving from your area to bring folks to Charlotte!

Schedule of Events

Saturday, September 1: Festivaliberación begins the mobilization! There are many great workshops being planned, and an amazing concert at night featuring local artists, Jasiri X, and Rebel Diaz. Check out this great video Jasiri X just recorded to help get the word out!

And we’ve got some exciting news: the Undocubus will also be arriving at the festival in the evening and joining us for the march the next day! You won’t want to miss this!

Sunday, September 2: Thousands will flood the streets of Charlotte for the March on Wall Street South, beginning at 11am in Frazier Park. We’ll march together at 1pm to the big banks, and past the sites where the Democratic National Convention will meet during the week. We say: YES to jobs, housing, healthcare, education, the environment, workers rights and justice, NO to wars, cutbacks, racism and bigotry, and deportations.

The main targets of the march include Bank of America’s world headquarters, Wells Fargo’s eastern headquarters, the Time Warner Cable Arena, and the Bank of America Stadium. Additionally, there will be two stops along the route for a peoples’ tribunal and speak out against these banks and corporations. We’ll stop in front of the international headquarters of Bank of America and hear from people who have been directly impacted by home foreclosures, student debt, and BofA’s bankrolling of the private prison system, war, and environmental destruction. Then, we’ll stop in front of the headquarters of Duke Energy. We’ll hear from folks impacted by Duke’s funding of dirty energy, and how Duke funds the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the right-wing bill mill.

Monday, September 3, 1pm: We’ll join the Labor Day Parade in the morning, and gather in the afternoon for the historic Southern Workers Assembly, starting at 1pm at Wedgewood Baptist Church. More info on the Southern Workers Assembly:

Join Southern unions, workers organizations, civil/human rights groups, immigrant rights groups, unemployed, young workers, faith and community for a workers speak-out that uplifts our on-the-ground actual workers’ rights struggles in the US South.

The Southern working class must encourage our workers and organizations to have an independent presence at the Democratic National Convention as an opportunity to discuss, plan and organize around our own working class needs and struggles for independent political action as we continue to challenge Right-To-Work (for less) & Taft-Hartley laws, low wages, denial of collective bargaining, and workers’ human rights connected with the historical demands against the South’s legacy of Jim Crow laws, anti-immigrant scapegoating and racism.

The Southern region is the least unionized region in the country. NC is the single least unionized state and is home of Wall Street South as headquarters of Bank of America, Wells Fargo Bank East with the largest concentration of finance capital outside NYC. Workers must let the big banks, corporations and both parties know that we as workers will continue building our powerful Southern movement that addresses our needs as workers and not corporate greed! Enough is enough! We will Organize, Unionize and fightback!

Monday, September 3, 6-11pm: Sin Papeles y Sin Miedo: Festival de canto, poesía y arte with the Undocubus at Mexican Restauran Fiesta Jalisco (5317 E. Independence Blvd)

Wednesday, September 5, 6-10pm: UndocuNation in North Carolina, an artist showcase organized by CultureStrike and the Center for New Community at the Neighborhood Theatre (511 E. 36th Street)

September 4 -6: Affinity group and other actions

Convergence Space

The new convergence space is now open at Area 15 (514 E. 15th St, at the corner of North Davidson and 15th Sts)! We’ve been hard at work getting it all set up and ready for all the folks that will be traveling to Charlotte for the March on Wall Street South and the other actions around the DNC. For those coming into town looking to get involved, the convergence space is the place to go to get plugged in and get active.

Make a much-needed contribution to the March on Wall Street South today!

March Contingents

Many groups and organizations have been collaborating to pull together dynamic, struggle-based contingents during the March on Wall Street South. At the march, each contingent will have an identifying banner and signs to find them and march together. Here are the contingents that will be marching with us:

• Unemployed workers
• Organize the South! Workers Rights are Human Rights!
• No Papers No Fear/Sin Papeles y Sin Miedo (Undocumented/Immigrants Rights organized by the Undocubus)
• LGBTQ
• Housing is a Right! Stop Home Foreclosures!
• Youth and Students (including Stop the School to Prison Pipeline section)
• Stop the Wars at Home and Abroad (including No War/No Warming, anti-drone, and Free All Political Prisoners sections)

Program

We have a very exciting program of speakers and cultural performers from across NC, the South, and the U.S. working on a range of struggles. Here’s a few of the freedom fighters who will be joining us at the March:

• Yen Alcala, Occupy Charlotte
• Farm Labor Organizing Committee
• Cindy Foster, President of the Southern Piedmont Central Labor Council
• Jaribu Hill, Mississippi Workers Center
• the Undocubus
• Efia Nwangaza, Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination
• John Heuer, Veterans for Peace
• Monica Embrey, Greenpeace
• Larry Hales, Peoples Power Assembly
• Fernando Figueroa, Coalition to March on the RNC
• Larry Holmes, Peoples Power Assembly
• Clarence Thomas, ILWU 100
• Rev. CD Witherspoon, Southern Christian Leadership Conference
• Victor Toro, May 1 Coalition for Worker and Immigrants Rights
• Sarah Shanks, Charlotte Clinic Defense
• Marilyn Levin, United National Antiwar Coalition
  and more!

See here for more information on volunteering, tabling, public transportation, posters, and lots more!

For even more information and other actions going on during the DNC, see also: DNC National Call to Action from Occupy Charlotte

The Republican National Convention is taking place in Tampa starting August 27th. The Coalition to March on the RNC encourages you to join us and stand in solidarity as we march at the RNC to fight back against the political elite and the 1% agenda.

As of now, we are a Coalition uniting groups from around the country to say NO to this political system that only works for the 1% and therefore are marching at the Republican National Convention to let our voices be heard. Together we stand to march for good jobs, healthcare, affordable education, equality and peace. On top of this, we stand against all parties of the 1% and have also endorsed the March on Wall St. South, who will protest the DNC in Charlotte, NC. For too long people have suffered while the rich got richer. We say money for human needs, not on wars overseas and corporate greed. Together, we are planning a 5000 strong march at the first day of the convention on Aug 27th. We have hundreds of national and local organizations such as Code Pink, Veterans for Peace, Get EQUAL, Dream defenders, United National Antiwar Coalition, Occupy Tampa, Occupy USF, Occupy Pensacola, Occupy Tallahassee and more (See here for full list) endorsing us and we would love for all Occupy Assemblies to come down to Tampa to join and/or endorse our coalition. Only through unity is there strength.

We will be encouraging people to sleep at Occupy Tampa's Voice of Freedom park or at these parks that allow camping for a nominal fee [Editor's note: Please be aware that a tropical storm system, potentially a hurricane, is expected to effect Tampa during the Convention. The RNC isn't telling people not to go to Florida, so neither are we. But you should check with organizers about alternatives in case of flooding.] We will be rallying at Perry Harvey Sr. Park, located at 1200 N. Orange Ave Tampa, FL, at 10 am and will be marching from the park through the streets of Tampa to "Protest RNC Square" at around noon. See here for the parade route.

Thanks and please e-mail us at marchonthernc@gmail.com with any questions or concerns.

Also visit:
http://www.marchonthernc.com
https://twitter.com/marchonthernc
http://marchonthernc.tumblr.com/

In solidarity, -Coalition to March on the RNC-

For more info about the RNC and the Occupy movement's plans, see also: Occupy Tampa's Official Statement Regarding the RNC

PORTLAND, OR: FREE PFC. MANNING – END THE DRONE WARS

via Occupy Portland

Cascadians Against War have been organizing a big action that will occur this Thursday, August 16th from 10am to 4pm at an Army Recruiting Station near you. Then at 4:30pm everyone will meet up at the Lloyd Center Recruiting Station for the announcement of a big surprise. Here’s the details:

In a coordinated West Coast action demanding the immediate release of PFC Manning, we will once again be shutting down 5 military recruiting locations throughout Portland, Beaverton and Gresham. We’re also demanding an end to the drone wars. Our drones have killed 4,371 people in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia alone. This DOES NOT include Iraq & Afghanistan…

We’re asking supporters to go to any of the 5 Army recruitment locations to help us shut them down again! Show your support for PFC Manning and demand an END TO THE DRONE WARS! Your location choices are as follows:
Gresham at 830 NW Eastman Parkway
Beaverton at 2660 SW Cedar Hills Blvd
Eastport Plaza at 4200 SE 82nd Ave Ste 1100
Lloyd Center at 1317 NE Broadway
Battalion Headquarters at 6130 NE 78th Ct

We’ll be shutting down at least these locations from 10am-4pm. Then we’ll meet up at the Lloyd Center recruiting location at 4:30pm and go on a short march to watch and support the surprise!

For more information: Event Facebook Page
PDX Bike Swarm: Swarm the Recruiting Centers (Free Manning, End the Drone Wars)
Manning Support Network
Courage to Resist

CHICAGO: OCCUPIED AIR AND WATER SHOW TRAINING

via Occupy Chicago Direct Action Committee -- note: the training is tomorrow (Thursday), the action is Saturday

Every summer Chicago's lakefront is assaulted with a public relations spectacle for the military industrial complex known as the Air and Water Show. While the "Show" brings the sounds of war to Chicago each August, it leaves out one crucial detail: death. That changes this year with an act of symbolism from Occupy Chicago.

The Occupy Chicago Direct Action Committee has put together a piece of political theater to highlight the real purpose of these war machines. There is just one missing ingredient though, YOU.

Meet up at The Horse (Congress and Michigan) on Thursday August 16th to debrief and get ready for Saturdays action. We are asking that all those interested in participating on Saturday join us for this training.

Info on the Air and Water Show protest:

Meetup at the foot of the North Ave. bridge on the WEST side - as early as possible Saturday morning - so we can stake out ground as close as possible to the bridge. (There will also be a contingent as usual staking out the EAST (beach) side. ;-)

Participating groups include:

Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC)
Chicago FOR (Fellowship of Reconciliation)
Chicago World Can't Wait
No Drones Illinois
Occupy Chicago
Pakistan Federation of America Chicago (USA)
Protest Chaplains of Chicago Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ