Articles tagged charlotte
Posted 12 years ago on Sept. 4, 2012, 3:56 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags:
occupation,
donate,
charlotte,
dnc
via Occupy Wall Street South:
Appeal for food and other donations from the activists who came from across the county to protest during the Democratic National Convention. Currently 50-100 people are camping out at Marshall Park located at 800 East Third Street in Charlotte, NC.
This is a message from Thomas Bolaños, one of the activist at Marshall Park:
- best time to drop off donations is between 10-11am and 6-8pm in the kitchen area
- the most urgently needed items are: tarps, feminine hygiene products, food (especially fruits and veggies, bread), prepared foods, eating utensils, water, tents and tarps
- also need an off site food prep location(s)
- to arrange a donation or for more info, call Thomas at 706-280-0916
Please help support the occupation by dropping off these or any other items at the park, and circulate this appeal among your networks. Thanks!
Posted 12 years ago on Sept. 4, 2012, 2:36 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags:
students,
immigrants rights,
labor,
anti-war,
dnc,
foreclosure defense,
wall street south,
charlotte
(more images below)
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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Posted 12 years ago on Aug. 29, 2012, 8:40 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags:
students,
immigrants rights,
labor,
anti-war,
dnc,
foreclosure defense,
wall street south,
charlotte
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
Posted 12 years ago on Aug. 11, 2012, 2:10 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags:
call to action,
charlotte,
keystone xl,
dnc
via Occupy Charlotte
Calling on all Occupiers and friends of the Occupy Movement –
At the beginning of September, Charlotte, NC will host the 2012 Democratic National Convention. The Democratic Party has chosen this “Wall Street of the South” as its rallying city despite North Carolina being one of the most anti-union states in the country and despite Charlotte being the home of several corporate criminals, most notably Bank of America, one of the mega-banks most responsible for the 2008 economic meltdown. Charlotte holds the second largest concentration of finance capital in the United States, the East Coast headquarters of Wells Fargo, the new home of human-rights offender Chiquita, and the home of Duke Energy, which recently merged with Progress Energy, making Duke the largest energy monopoly in the country.
These corporate targets alone are reason enough to OCCUPY WALL STREET SOUTH. But early September will also provide the opportunity to OCCUPY THE DNC, to demonstrate to the country and the world that we know corporations own our politicians and ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE.
Both the Democratic and Republican Parties are controlled by moneyed interests and the 1%, and the Occupy Movement will hold both Parties accountable at the RNC in Tampa in August and at the DNC in Charlotte in September. We cannot allow this two-party system and its corporate puppeteers to determine our country’s destiny. While we recognize the historical significance of President Obama’s election, we will not sit idly by as the Administration favors corporations and the 1%, tramples civil liberties, and wages tragic wars.
We will continue to hold President Obama’s Administration accountable for refusing to close Guantanamo Bay, for not insisting on true universal healthcare, for deporting our immigrant brothers and sisters in record numbers, for working to expedite approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, for signing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), for utilizing secret kill lists, for continuing to wage perpetual warfare, for failing to bring to justice those responsible for the economic crisis, and for its documented systematic effort to quash Occupations throughout the country.
We will continue to hold the Democratic Party accountable for pandering to corporate interests, including the military industrial complex which has caused the deaths of millions around the world; for inadequately funding social programs, education, health care, and infrastructure; for encouraging financial fraud by granting amnesties and bailout money and by rehiring financial criminals to the Administration’s Cabinet and to the Treasury Department; for promoting worldwide distrust of and animosity towards the United States through a dangerously expanding imperialistic war economy; and for colluding with the Republican Party to thwart ballot-access to third-party and independent candidates.
We will continue to hold Charlotte’s Democrat-controlled City Council accountable for passing repressive and unconstitutional permanent changes to the Charlotte City Code which restrict free speech and assembly, open wide the door for profiling protesters and the homeless, and evicted the peaceful protest taking place on The People’s Lawn of Old City Hall.
And we will continue to hold WALL STREET SOUTH accountable for abusing and profiting off of the hard work and perseverance of ordinary people — the 99% — and giving nothing in return but layoffs, foreclosures, and demands for corporate welfare.
We want a true democracy. A country by and for the People. Not a country by and for the corporations and the 1%.
We the People of Occupy Charlotte call on all People willing and able to join us here in Charlotte for an OCCUPATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION from September 1st – 6th. There will be many opportunities to take action before and during the Convention. THE MARCH ON WALL STREET SOUTH will take place on Sunday, September 2nd.
If you cannot be with us here in Charlotte, take action in your own community on September 6th when President Obama accepts the nomination. Find the closest Democratic Party campaign office and protest the misdeeds of the Administration, the Democratic Party and the two-party system, and the corporations who control currently control our electoral process and buy our representatives.
When you arrive in Charlotte, please be mindful that Occupy Charlotte is a nonviolent movement. Other Occupations have experienced violent police repression. However, the majority of officers within the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department have treated Occupy Charlotte with respect and vice versa. We hope that this respectful relationship will continue well past the Democratic National Convention, and we appreciate any efforts visitors can make to help us maintain this relationship.
Interested in being involved with the planning, making a donation, or finding out more about Charlotte? Please visit occupyclt.net and occupythednc.us.
OCCUPY THE DNC!
OCCUPY WALL STREET SOUTH!
OCCUPY CHARLOTTE!
[editor's note: Other actions going on during the DNC can be found at the Coalition to March on Wall Street South. See also: The autonomous Occupy the Military Industrial Complex DemCon 2012 Peace Camp and the "Occupy to Free Pfc. Manning & Reclaim Charlotte Streets" Dance Party.]
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