Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2011 2:11 pm Post subject: Wall St - The Occupy protests
US protesters rally to occupy Wall Street Protesters gather in New York's financial hub for demonstration against what organisers call corporate dominance.
September 17th 2011
aljazeera.com
Building on the momentum of the Arab Spring movements, protesters in the US are gathering in New York City's financial district in a bid to show mass resistance against the dominance of the country's financial system. What started as an online campaign has translated into action on the ground, with protest organisers calling for thousands of people to "occupy Wall Street" on Saturday.
"On the 17th of September, we want to see 20,000 people flood into lower Manhattan, set up beds, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months," organisers wrote on the www.occupywallst.org website. "Like our brothers and sisters in Egypt, Greece, Spain, and Iceland, we plan to use the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic of mass occupation to restore democracy in America. We also encourage the use of nonviolence to achieve our ends and maximize the safety of all participants."
The leaderless movement includes hacktivist group Anonymous among the protesters. The group released a video online calling on people to take to the streets on September 17. Similar to the structure of the hacktivist group itself there is no defined central authority, but Twitter accounts like @AnonOps are hubs of information for those attending the protests in person and virtually.
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Good on them - there's no coverage on the main news networks. We can't have Americans thinking there's any kind of political movement going on, oh no...
Why 'Occupy Wall Street' makes sense Banks are sitting on cash hoards and corporate profits are riding high – yet ordinary US taxpayers face joblessness and cuts
Protesters at the 'Occupy Wall Street' rally at Bowling Green Plaza, New York City, on 17 September; the demonstrations continue this week.
If 2,000 Tea Party activists descended on Wall Street, you would probably have an equal number of reporters there covering them. Yet 2,000 people did occupy Wall Street last Saturday. They weren't carrying the banner of the Tea Party, the Gadsden flag with its coiled snake and the threat "Don't Tread on Me". Yet their message was clear: "We are the 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%." They were there, mostly young, protesting the virtually unregulated speculation of Wall Street that caused the global financial meltdown.
One of New York's better-known billionaires, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, commented on the protests: "You have a lot of kids graduating college, can't find jobs. That's what happened in Cairo. That's what happened in Madrid. You don't want those kinds of riots here."
Riots? Is that really what the Arab Spring and the European protests are about?
Perhaps to the chagrin of Mayor Bloomberg, that is exactly what inspired many who occupied Wall Street. In its most recent communique, the Wall Street protest umbrella group said:
"On Saturday we held a general assembly, two thousand strong. … By 8pm on Monday we still held the plaza, despite constant police presence. … We are building the world that we want to see, based on human need and sustainability, not corporate greed."
Speaking of the Tea Party, Texas Governor Rick Perry has caused a continuous fracas in the Republican presidential debates with his declaration that the US's revered social security system is a "Ponzi scheme" Charles Ponzi was the con artist who swindled thousands in 1920 with a fraudulent promise for high returns on investments. A typical Ponzi scheme involves taking money from investors, then paying them off with money taken from new investors, rather than paying them from actual earnings. Social security is actually solvent, with a trust fund of more than $2.6tn. The real Ponzi scheme threatening the US public is the voracious greed of Wall Street banks.
I interviewed one of the "Occupy Wall Street" protest organisers. David Graeber teaches at Goldsmiths, University of London, and has authored several books – most recently, Debt: The First 5,000 Years. Graeber points out that, in the midst of the financial crash of 2008, enormous debts between banks were renegotiated. Yet only a fraction of troubled mortgages have gotten the same treatment. He said:
"Debts between the very wealthy or between governments can always be renegotiated and always have been throughout world history. … It's when you have debts owed by the poor to the rich that suddenly debts become a sacred obligation, more important than anything else. The idea of renegotiating them becomes unthinkable."
President Barack Obama has proposed a jobs plan and further efforts to reduce the deficit. One is a so-called millionaire's tax, endorsed by billionaire Obama supporter Warren Buffett. The Republicans call the proposed tax "class warfare". Graeber commented:
"For the last 30 years, we've seen a political battle being waged by the super-rich against everyone else, and this is the latest move in the shadow dance, which is completely dysfunctional economically and politically. It's the reason why young people have just abandoned any thought of appealing to politicians. We all know what's going to happen. The tax proposals are a sort of mock populist gesture, which everyone knows will be shot down. What will actually probably happen would be more cuts to social services."
Outside in the cold Tuesday morning, the demonstrators continued their fourth day of the protest with a march amidst a heavy police presence and the ringing of an opening bell at 9.30am for a "people's exchange", just as the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange is rung. While the bankers remained secure in their bailed-out banks, outside, the police began arresting protesters. In a just world, with a just economy, we have to wonder: who would be out in the cold? Who would be getting arrested?
80 arrested at 'Occupy Wall Street' protest
The Associated Press
Sep. 25, 2011
NEW YORK — About 80 people were arrested Saturday as demonstrators who were camped out near the New York Stock Exchange marched through lower Manhattan, police said. The "Occupy Wall Street" protest is entering its second week. Demonstrators said Saturday they were protesting against bank bailouts and the mortgage crisis; some also held signs decrying Georgia's execution of Troy Davis, who was put to death Wednesday for the 1989 slaying of an off-duty Savannah police officer.
At Manhattan's Union Square, police tried to corral the demonstrators using orange plastic netting. Some of the arrests were filmed and activists posted the videos online. One video appears to show officers using pepper spray on women who already were cordoned off; another shows officers handcuffing a man after pulling him up off the ground, blood trickling down his face.
Police say the arrests were mostly for blocking traffic. Charges include disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. But one demonstrator was charged with assaulting a police officer. Police say the officer involved suffered a shoulder injury. Protest spokesman Patrick Bruner criticized the police response as "exceedingly violent" and said the demonstrators sought to remain peaceful. A police spokesman had no comment about the videos or the arrests.
well, it's official, after two weeks, hundreds of arrests, all sorts of state brutality, I just heard a two minute "report" on "news for and from useful idiots". Ie radio 4's today program.
"The bailed-out Wall Street megabank JPMorgan Chase gave a tax-deductible $4.6 million donation to the New York City Police Foundation, which has protesters asking: Who is the NYPD paid to protect, the public or the corporations?"
Occupy America: protests against Wall Street and inequality hit 70 cities
<fox-news>anti-american, anti-capitalist, socialist/communist/anarchist, terrorist loving, freedom hating rioter out to cause trouble with his battering ram</fox-news>
The Wall Street protests against economic inequality and corporate greed that targeted the nerve centre of American capitalism are no longer merely a New York phenomenon. This weekend, from Seattle and Los Angeles on the west coast to Providence, Rhode Island, and Tampa, Florida, on the east, as many as 70 major cities and more than 600 communities have joined the swelling wave of civil dissent. The slogan "Occupy Wall Street" has been suitably abbreviated to a single word: "Occupy"
"This could be the tipping point," said Dick Steinkamp, 63, a retired Silicon Valley executive at the Occupy Seattle protest being held in the heart of the city's shopping and restaurant district . He and his wife had driven two hours from their home in Bellingham, north of Seattle, specifically to join the rally and give it support from more conventional professionals.
"I marched against the Vietnam war before I was drafted into the army and this movement is now getting towards that critical mass," he said.
One of the favourite messages of the protesters is that almost 40% of US wealth is held in the hands of 1% of the population, who are taxed more lightly than the majority of Americans. Steinkamp was holding a sign saying "I am the 99%". And there is widespread anger that ordinary people have born the brunt of the financial crisis with dire job losses and house repossessions.
"I came here because I wanted to show it wasn't just young anarchists," said Deb Steinkamp, also 63 and a retired marriage counsellor, wearing a green cagoule and sensible shoes against the damp, chilly Seattle weather.
Protests broke out last week in Chicago, Boston, Memphis, New Orleans, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Austin, Louisville, Atlanta and dozens of other cities. Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Calgary are set to add themselves to the ranks next weekend.
Motorists honked their support as they passed the Seattle demonstration, which was around 500 strong on Friday and likely to swell as the weekend progressed. Earlier in the week the police forced protestors to clear away tents that had been multiplying across the square. Seattle's liberal mayor Mike McGinn supports the protesters – but drew the line once they started camping in the middle of downtown.
In New York more than 700 people have been arrested while marching on the stock exchange and over the Brooklyn Bridge in the name of Occupy Wall Street and 20,000 marched in lower Manhattan last Wednesday.
The sheer proliferation of the rallies across 45 states has drawn attention. "It expresses the frustrations the American people feel about the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression," President Obama said. "There has been huge collateral damage all across 'Main Street' [from the financial crisis] and some of the same folks who acted irresponsibly are now trying to fight a crackdown on the abusive practices that got us into this in the first place," he added.
In Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa handed out rain ponchos to demonstrators when there was a downpour. A thousand people gathered outside the city government offices for Occupy Austin, as well as similar crowds in Dallas and Houston.
After joining Occupy Wall Street, alongside a group of university professors, Obama's former head of blog campaigns Sam Graham-Felsen pointed out that the movement was maturing. He said that although it would not have started without radical idealists taking to the streets it has gone to the next level with the inclusion of "seasoned organisers and pragmatists".
Asher McCord, 31, a shopworker in Seattle, was at the protests before starting his shift at a department store, and was wearing a neat woollen blazer and designer jeans. "There is that saying, 'Dissent is patriotic,' and I agree with that. I was unemployed for a while. I just started my new job and I think lower income people are taking all the pain and the anxiety in this recession," he said.
Protesters are complaining about tax breaks for oil companies, excessive lobbying in Washington, astronomical pay and bonuses for financiers, and the bailout of the banking sector.
The movement was sparked in part by Vancouver-based Adbusters Media Foundation, an anti-consumerism organ with a magazine, which urged people to occupy Wall Street to protest inherent inequalities in the economic system. There is no central organisation or formal co-ordination between cities but instigators use web tools such as Twitter and Facebook to pass information and now hope that the demonstrations will build towards the G20 economic summit in Cannes next month.
Detractors have mocked protesters for using social media, when those brands are increasingly corporatised. But hospital nurse Angela Silling, 41, who was staffing the first aid post in Seattle's Westlake Park, said: "The Arab Spring demonstrators used social media very successfully and no one has criticised those rebels."
House of Representative majority leader Eric Cantor dismissed the protesters as "mobs" who were prompting "Americans to fight Americans". That prompted a storm of criticism, because he has praised the Tea Party as a legitimate expression of conservative grassroots anger.
Seattle demonstrator Ted Lang, 26, who has just qualified as an English teacher and is considering moving abroad, said the Occupy demonstrators had much in common with the libertarians who first started the Tea Party movement. "But it got hijacked by right-wing religious conservatives," he said.
Who would he not want to see the Occupy movement hijacked by?
American Spectator Editor Admits to Being Agent Provocateur at D.C. Museum
Charlie Grapski
October 9, 2011
It appears that one of the two in the confrontation with the security officer is Patrick Howley, Assistant Editor of The American Spectator. [See the following photograph in which Howley's Facebook Profile Photo is side-by-side with the person pictured at the Air and Space Museum]
Immediately after the incident began hitting the newswires Howley published a “Breaking News” story with The American Spectator online in which he reveals that he had consciously infiltrated the group on Friday with the intent to discredit the movement. He states that “as far as anyone knew I was part of this cause — a cause that I had infiltrated the day before in order to mock and undermine in the pages of The American Spectator — and I wasn’t giving up before I had my story.”
According to Howley’s story he joined the group in its march toward the Air and Space Museum but the protesters on the march were unwilling to be confrontational. He states “they lack the nerve to confront authority. From estimates within the protest, only ten people were pepper-sprayed, and as far as I could tell I was the only one who got inside.”
He claims that upon arrival at the Museum the group of approximately one hundred protesters split into two factions with the smaller of the two “rushing the doors,” the majority “staying behind.” Howley then admits in his piece that he snuck past the guard at the first entrance in order to “infiltrate” the building and then confronted another guard. He then “sprinted toward the door” at which time he was first hit with pepper-spray. As he describes his next actions “I forced myself into the doors and sprinted blindly across the floor of the Air and Space Museum, drawing the attention of hundreds of stunned khaki-clad tourists (some of whom began snapping off disposable-camera portraits of me).”
Fully inside, despite the orders of the security guards that the Museum was closed to the public, Howley made his way upstairs – to the location where a banner was unfurled protesting the Museum’s exhibit of unmanned drone weapons. “I strained to glance behind me at the dozens of protesters I was sure were backing me up, and then I got hit again, this time with a cold realization: I was the only one who had made it through the doors. As two guards pointed at me and started running, I dodged a circle of gawking old housewives and bolted upstairs.”
He then found himself “stumbling around aircraft displays with just enough vision to keep tabs on my uniformed pursuers. “The museum is now closed!” screamed one of the guards as alarms sounded. “Everyone make your way to the exits immediately!” Using my jacket to cover my face — which I could feel swelling to Elephant Man proportions — I ducked through the confused tourists and raced out the exit. “Hey, you!” shouted a female guard reaching for my arm. “Get back here!” But I was already down the steps and out of sight.”
Howley refers to the Museum as “the scene of my crime.” In light of his detailed description of his activities today the fact that they clearly document the commission of the crime of trespassing on federal property, if not the intent to incite a riot there, these admissions should not be taken lightly or ignored. As a result of Howley’s activities a large number of people were subjected to pepper-spray attacks including journalists and tourists who had nothing to do with the protest. Given the negative light that the press is attempting to spin this incident with regard to the ongoing occupations, from Wall Street and D.C. and now spreading to Main Streets across the country, the presence and admitted activities of this self-proclaimed agent provacateur should be brought to the attention of federal law enforcement officials.
It is highly likely that the events that occurred would not have taken the turn they did if it were not for Howley’s admitted adventure in an effort to discredit the Occupy movement. So before the public, the media, and officials turn their attention negatively towards the protests and the protesters there needs to be a critical eye turned on the role of the American Spectator and the role played in these events by its editorial staff. If arrests were made at this incident, and even if none were, the admissions of Howley published brazenly in the pages of his Conservative magazine and bragged about on his Facebook page should lead to an official investigation into his role and that of his employer in the events in Washington D.C. today and should be seen as at least part of the causal nexus that led to the inappropriate use of force that along with Howley negatively affected many who were innocent of any crime other than being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Ironically Howley concludes the story of his adventure mocking the lack of courage of the protesters, who he admitted did not seek – as he did – to confront the authorities, by praising the courage of the guards who twice pepper-sprayed him.
“As I scrambled away from the scene of my crime, a police officer outside the museum gates pointed at my eyes, puffed out of his chest, and shouted: “Yeah, that’s right. That’s right.” He was proud that I had been pepper-sprayed, and, oddly, so was I. I deserved to get a face full of high-grade pepper, and the guards who sprayed me acted with more courage than I saw from any of the protesters. If you’re looking for something to commend these days in America, start with those guards.”
The admissions of Patrick Howley, published in The American Spectator for all to see, require those across the country, both the public and its officials, to take a closer and more critical look at today’s event’s in the Nation’s capital. Who was really to blame for the chaos and disruption of a Federal Museum? Who should be held responsible for those who were harmed in the melee that took place after Howley admits he defied the orders of the legal authorities and stormed into the building? And how should the story of today’s events unfold in the Nation’s media over the next several days?
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This isn't about the Wall St protests, but it shows the sort of risks that daring to speak out brings.
Protesters plan to 'occupy' London Stock Exchange Protest spreads from Wall Street with demonstrations planned in London and other cities worldwide
Peter Walker and Shiv Malik
guardian.co.uk,
14 October 2011
After four weeks of focus on Wall Street, the campaign against the global banking industry is coming to the UK this weekend, with the biggest event aiming to "occupy" the London Stock Exchange. The protests have been organised on Facebook and Twitter pages that between them have picked up more than 15,000 followers. Campaigners are to gather outside St Paul's Cathedral at midday on Saturday before marching the short distance to Paternoster Square, home of the Stock Exchange, as well as the London head office of investment bank Goldman Sachs. It is one of a series of events planned around the UK as part of a global day of action, with 800-plus protests promised so far worldwide.
It remains to be seen how many of the online supporters will turn up in London, with estimates ranging from a few hundred to a couple of thousand. It is also unclear whether the City police, the small force that operates in London's financial district, will permit activists to mimic the Wall Street protests by pitching tents. Paternoster Square is a private development, giving police more powers to remove activists. Among its tenants are a number of upmarket shops and restaurants that may take a dim view of a semi-permanent encampment. The force refused to discuss whether protesters would be moved on, saying only that "appropriate policing preparations are in place". The Stock Exchange and Goldman Sachs declined to comment.
The current protests – which combine anger at the bailout of the financial sector with disquiet at the faltering global economy and increased inequality – have their roots in mass marches earlier this year in Spain. They have attracted global attention with the camp in Manhattan's Zuccotti Park, which was scheduled to be cleared by authorities on Friday.
The first UK event took place in Manchester this month, timed to coincide with the Conservative party conference in the city. Up to 30 people remain in tents in the city's Peace Gardens in St Peter's Square. About a dozen other events are planned for Saturday around the UK, including Birmingham, Leeds, Bristol, Norwich, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Among events in other countries, 1,300 people have pledged via Facebook to occupy a central plaza in Sydney, with similar events planned for Saturday in Melbourne, Taipei, Seoul and Hong Kong. The global movement has issued a manifesto, endorsed by Naomi Klein and Noam Chomsky, among others, calling for a democratisation of the global finance system and mentioning the Arab spring as an inspiration for mass action.
One protester planning to take part in London said the campaign, which is not allied to any political party, began with a series of Facebook pages in early September. Once people gathered at the Stock Exchange there would be mass votes to decide the next course of action, said Spyro Van Leemnen, 28.
"All decisions on the occupation, and how we're going to take it forward, will happen then. If people decide they don't want to stay then that's it, we won't stay," he said, adding that he was bringing a tent in the expectation of staying for some time. "The idea is to stay there as long as it takes to see some substantial change. No one said it would be easy," he said. "Since 2008 these ideas have been building up, and I think people realise there will be no governments who will represent their interests against the banks, unless the people themselves raise their voices." Another activist planning to go to St Paul's, Peter Vaughn, 24, said the aim was to set up a "rolling camp" of protesters as a permanent symbol of people's concerns. "When the crisis began I think people were patient. They were told, 'We need to bail out the banks, this is the only way to save our economy.' And now the whole European economy is in crisis, while banks continue to pay bonuses. The situation is untenable." Vaughn said he hoped the police would permit them to remain, but was aware that TV footage of protesters being dragged away could publicise the campaign: "We're not going there for a fight with the police. This is about legitimate concerns that we have."
A history and politics graduate who had worked for two years as a bicycle courier because of a lack of better options, Vaughn said there was also a personal element to his participation: "I feel like graduates were sold a lie. We're not the ones that are suffering the most, but from a personal view, we were told, 'You take on this debt but you'll get a job and pay it off.' I'm still more than £10,000 in debt."
There has been little response so far from the global finance industry, although the US-based chief executive of Citigroup, Vikram Pandit, said this week he would meet the Wall Street occupiers, calling their views "completely understandable". Brian Mairs, of the British Bankers' Association, said he knew of no similar plans in the UK. However, he said his organisation did not rule out engaging with protesters: "If there is a forum to have a sensible discussion, we would be happy to do it."
Anti-capitalist protesters set up tent cities across Germany
17 Oct 2011
thelocal.de
As demonstrations critical of capitalism sweep through Germany, activists have set up tent-cities in Frankfurt and Hamburg, vowing to stay as long as they can. Between 150 and 200 people camped in front of the European Central Bank (ECB) on Sunday night and into Monday morning, according to the organisers of “Occupy Frankfurt,” part of the worldwide Occupy Wall Street movement that started in New York City. In Hamburg about a dozen activists set up camp in front of the HSH Nordbank following a weekend in which tens of thousands of Germans marched in cities throughout the country.
Protests against the global financial system appeared across Europe over the weekend, attracting thousands of protesters in cities from Rome to London, with rare incidents of violence. So far there have been related demonstrations in at least 80 countries. The protests have stayed relatively civil in Germany, though there were isolated clashes in front of the German parliament on Saturday, when police stopped people trying to camp after a march attended by roughly 10,000 people.
In Frankfurt Monday, people outside the ECB pledged not to give up. “We are here for political reasons, not for partying,” said one man who called himself Thomas, but refused to give a last name. He said Frankfurt citizens had been dropping off money, blankets and tents to support the protests. "We're staying as long as we have permits to stay," said Aaron Kraus, 22, who has been there since the protests began on Saturday. "If we have to clear the place, we'll leave peacefully, but we're constantly applying for new permits to stay."
Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said the protestors’ actions reflected a “deep concern and legitimate desire for human justice.” He said Chancellor Angela Merkel had sympathy for their cause, but that it is too simple to just blame banks. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said the government was taking the situation “very seriously,” and warned of a “crisis of the democratic system.” He called for stronger and fairer regulation of the banking sector. Former finance minister Oskar Lafontaine, who later led The Left party, told the Passauer Neue Presse newspaper that he thought this was the start of something bigger. “I hope the protests grow,” he said.
The protests started on New York’s Wall Street in mid-September and have since attracted worldwide attention.
Warsaw protester launches drone to spy on police
By David Edwards
November 17, 2011
rawstory.com
During protests in Warsaw last weekend, one crafty activist deployed a flying drone to spy on riot police. YouTube user latajacakamera — or “flying camera” in Polish — uploaded the amazing video that the drone effortlessly captured as it hovered over teargas-filled streets.
In another video, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) floats in front of a formation of police in riot gear as they rush towards demonstrators. None of them appear to notice. Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson confirmed that the flying machine was built by the Polish company Robokopter.
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