OWS: “We are the proletariat!”
Here is more video from the #S17 protest on the anniversary of the start of Occupy Wall St a year ago September 17.
This group of marchers was made up of mostly Hispanic self-identified Maoists. One was was wearing a pro-Palestinian scarf with little Che buttons on it. He noted that most of the pro-Palestinian people with whom he was familiar were also pro-communist.
Although it is not always reported on, many in Occupy are pro-Palestinian, anti-US involvement in the Middle East.
As they chanted, they seemed oblivious to the concept that most Americans would have no idea what they were talking about, and would in fact step back from such classist terminology. It is not clear that these people, at best in their twenties, really understood what happened the last time marching groups waved around that little red book, the flags and millions died.
Video by Billy O’Keefe @DefendWallSt
The continuing saga of Occupy’s Nkrumah Tinsley
In the following video, shot at the RNC, you can see Occupiers assailing delegates who are walking by, slinging verbal insults at them and giving them the finger.
There is also the following exchange ~:44.
One occupier screams, “We are the coming insurrection,” as he bounces up and down.
“Prepare for the civil war, jacka**es,” screams another who was seen giving obscene gestures earlier in the video.
“I’ll be going in your houses,” he adds. Then having a moment of recognition that what he said might be a problem, he turns to the cameraman and says, “Don’t put that on camera”.
Followers may recognize the person threatening civil war and “going in your houses”. It is Nkrumah Tinsley, also known as “Joseph”, who was arrested for threatening to “burn NYC to the m–f–in’ ground” in November. He also was reportedly arrested in October 2011 for assault on a police officer. See more here. At last report, the terrroristic threat case was still open against Tinsley, pending a psychiatric review.
Tinsley was at the NATO protests in May and at both the RNC and DNC protests. He was at the anniversary celebration yesterday.
One wonders how he continues to be able to get to all these protests, how he continues to make threats and if the NYPD are aware of his actions elsewhere.
Pictures of OWS Anniversary
Birthday cake.
- Pro Palestinian Marxist
Credit @blulaces
- Credit @DefendWallSt
Tourists checking out the spectacle.
- Om circle at Zuccotti
Credit @heatherb
- Baby in Che shirt
- Credit @DefendWallSt
Unoccupy Palestine
Anarchy clowns
Bain Capital Monster
Occupier arrested in rape, attempted murder of fellow Occupier, also charged in rape of 14 year old girl
Occupier Jackie Barcliff, 44, was arrested Friday, after turning himself in, after being sought in a brutal rape this past week.
The 56-year-old female victim was forced to go with her attacker to a section of the Pier 15 park overlooking the East River, raped and then thrown over a 20 foot high second-story railing. She suffered a broken pelvis and other serious injuries. She was found about 2 a.m. Monday morning. Her pants and underwear had been removed,
Platform from which the woman was thrown to the concrete below
After he turned himself in, Barcliff was also charged with raping a 14 year old girl on August 12 after offering her a place to stay for the night. He now faces two charges of first degree rape and an attempted murder charge.
According to ABC local news, an Occupy press spokesperson says it’s a terrible incident that should be investigated thoroughly and handled fairly.
According to a lengthy police statement, quoted in the Village Voice, Barcliff, who has been a regular fixture at OWS protests, was previously arrested in December 2011 at Zuccotti Park for assault, resisting arrest and trying to escape. He got sentenced to 200 days in jail, a district attorney spokesperson said. Barcliff was held on Rikers Island four times over the past two years, including 120 days on the resisting arrest conviction starting on Feb. 24. He was released on June 25.
In the following video, taken in November 2011, you can see Barcliff around 2:30 engaging and goading police, ultimately getting arrested at around10:30. Occupiers shout “Shame, Shame” at police for arresting him. One protester yells, “This isn’t Hitler, this isn’t Germany.” Then, people start yelling, “The whole world is watching.”
Occupier allegedly raped at South Street Seaport
- Platform area from which the woman fell.
A 45 year old Occupy Member was raped and thrown off of a 20 foot railing near the South Street Seaport on Monday.
Egyptian radicals waving Al Qaeda flags, storm outside of US Embassy on anniversary of 9/11, Guy Fawkes masks on the wall (Updated)
Egyptians storming walls, taking down and burning flag. Guy Fawkes mask, the symbol of Anonymous and Occupy on the wall.
“Bin Laden” written on embassy sign, militants flying Iraqi flags. Twitpic from “Anonymous” Mad Darsh
Today, Egyptian protesters climbed the walls of the US Embassy in Cairo, pulled down the American flag, ripping it to shreds, then subsequently burning it. The American flag was replaced with an Al Qaeda flag.
On the wall you can see Guy Fawkes masks the symbol of Anonymous and the Occupy movement. Anonymous was involved in some aspects of the Arab Spring. Occupiers were also involved in organizing in Egypt. You can also see “A-C-A-B” which is a common radical/Occupy chant meaning “All cops are bastards” and underneath that is “USA”, seemingly a reference to the United States being regarded as a “policeman” in the region. The bottom right corner of the black flags have “AQ”, presumably for Al Qaeda.
There are some reports this started because of a movie viewed as anti-Muslim was produced in the United States. It is not clear what prompted this particular outcry, although today is September 11. The embassy was given some sort of a warning ahead of time, so personnel was told to stay home.
“Our days, O worshipers of the cross … We are all bin Laden”. Credit Anonymous Mad Darsh. HT @Aim22High
“Bin Laden” on the embassy sign. Also says “United states of Muslim”
“oh Obama all of us are grandsons of Osama”. Small protest chanting “iIam a terrorist”. Credit Betsy Hiel, Pittsburgh Tribune REview
USembassy Cairo wall: “khaibar khaibar oh Jews the army of Muhammed is coming”. Credit Betsy Hiel, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Updated with vivid video of abuse of American flag.
Video of raising of Al Qaeda flag, HT Betsy Hiel, Pittsburgh Tribune Review
watch?v=8gBWz6CPGzs&feature=player_embedded
It is unbelievable but in the face of this, the US Embassy released the following statement:
U.S. Embassy Condemns Religious Incitement
September 11, 2012
The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims – as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others
Update:
The White House is disavowing this statement, claiming it was “not cleared” with them. However, the statement of Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State, presumably officially “cleared” starts with almost as much of a disavowal of denigration of religion.
____
Here is screenshot of Anonymous “Mad Darsh” who took the picture at the Embassy:
Here is an old picture of Occupy protest with ACAB sign, HT Laura Walker
Occupy Cleveland bomb suspects’ supporters attend court wearing “anarchy” flag pins
Yesterday, three men, Connor Stevens, Brandon Baxter and Douglas Wright, who had been part of Occupy Cleveland, plead guilty in the plot to blow up the Ohio 82 bridge in Cleveland as part of the May 1 actions in Cleveland. One man, Anthony Hayne, previously cut a deal and plead guilty in July. One, Joshua Stafford, is still awaiting trial.
In the following picture, one can see Gail Stevens, mother of suspect Connor Stevens speaking with WKYC news. Notice the pins that the people behind her are wearing.
Gail Stevens, mother of bomb suspect Connor Stevens. Credit Wkyc
A red/black flag with a 4. The “4″ is for the suspects(except for the one who cut the deal) and the red and black flag is generally understood to represent anarcho-communism(or socialism). The people supporting the suspects at the courthouse included members of Occupy Cleveland.
3 Occupy Cleveland bomb suspects plead guilty
Three men who were part of Occupy Cleveland and who were described by authorities as domestic terrorists, pleaded guilty Wednesday to trying to blow up the Ohio 82 bridge that spans the Cuyahoga River Valley in April.
Brandon Baxter, 20, of Lakewood, Connor Stevens, 20, of Berea, and Douglas Wright, 26, of Indianapolis entered their pleas and will be sentenced Nov. 5 and 6. Prosecutors said Wednesday that they will ask for life terms in prison. Defense lawyers will ask for five years.
They had been scheduled to go to trial Sept. 18 before U.S. District Judge David Dowd in Akron. The pleas mean the suspects will drop their intended defenses of entrapment. Their attorneys had claimed that an FBI informant walked them through the crime.
A fourth suspect, Anthony Hayne, 35, of Cleveland, pleaded guilty earlier in July and he cooperated with prosecutors against his compatriots. A fifth suspect, Joshua Stafford, 23, of Cleveland, is undergoing psychiatric evaluation.
The five men, self-proclaimed anarchists according to the authorities, were charged with planting what they believed were actual bombs at the Ohio 82 bridge that spans the national park between Brecksville and Sagamore Hills Township.
FBI agents reported that they foiled the plot with the help of an informant by supplying the men with fake plastic explosives and arresting the five on April 30 as they tried to detonate the explosives with a cellphone. The defense is claiming that the informant “cultivated” the defendants by buying them marijuana and alcohol and “nutured” the men into the plot, according to Terry Gilbert, attorney for Connor Stevens. The attorneys for Wright and Baxter echoed this sentiment. John Pyle, the attorney for Baxter, said the “men couldn’t blow their own noses, let alone blow up a bridge”.
Authorities dismissed this claim, noting the suspects selected the site to attack, bought what they believed were explosives in a hotel room and dug holes at the foot of the bridge to place the devices. He also said they went to a restaurant and tried to set off the bomb with a cellphone.
Authorities said the public was never in danger because the alleged “explosives” were inoperable and controlled by an undercover agent.
Supporters of the men, including some members of Occupy Cleveland were in attendance outside the courthouse. Some supporters wore shirts that said “Expose Entrapment”. Stevens’ brother, Colin, read a statement in supporting the suspects. He called the case “a complex and deeply disturbing picture of political oppression by the state.”
DNC delegate allegedly defects to Occupy
A DNC delegate allegedly defected from DNC after the debacle over the “God/Israel” in the platform vote.
Occupy Oakland- the cult at the door
A couple of weeks ago, Citizen Journalist reported on Occupy and affiliated groups storming Obama campaign headquarters in Oakland, California, getting in a scuffle with staff there and having to be tossed out by the police. Six people were arrested.
CJ has seen more video on the event and it is amazing that more were not arrested.
Here is a short video. To set the moment, they were there allegedly protesting on behalf of Bradley Manning, the private who leaked classified information, and who is awaiting trial. The police have ushered most out of the office and are trying to close the doors to prevent any others entering. They refuse to let go of the door claiming, “we are on the sidewalk, it is our free speech right”. The purpose? Goad police into hurting them so they can claim assault. Police with infinite patience, talk, cajole, handle with delicacy. Police apparently try to arrest/corral one person at one point; Occupiers “de-arrest” him.
Finally the police as gently as they could under the circumstances, remove Occupiers hands from the door. One cries, “I got that on tape at the end”.
There was no way they were getting in, yet they chant the whole time “Free Bradley Manning”, cult-like and unreasoning, not seeing that there was no real point to what they were doing, that it would never go their way.
A window into the behavior of the cultist.
Anti-capitalist Occupy anarchists cause havoc against banks in Oakland (updated)
A group that included Occupy Oakland members, radical gay activists and other anarchists created havoc in Oakland after a march yesterday.
The march was organized after they found out that Oakland had a fee to enter the gay pride event held on Sunday. The rioters apparently wanted to “take action against the commercialization of their life struggle”, according to one local participant account.
The group utilized black bloc tactics, dressing alike in black to make it harder to identify them and smashed windows and ATMs in the financial district.
According to PFailBlog, a local anarchist blog:
The targeted property destruction, seen in the video above, is inspired by the violence perpetrated on a daily basis by capitalism & it’s banks. The main target seemed to be Bank of America, as it sustained substantial damage to it’s front windows and ATMs. All machines were left unusable, sending a firm message to the institution that the people are rising up and fighting back.
There were further unconfirmed reports of anarchists taking down a fence, struggling with police to keep fellow members from being arrested and attacking a police car. Those reports cannot be confirmed at this time.
No arrests or injuries occurred and marchers dispersed about an hour after the start of the action.
Update with more details from Mercury News:
According to the Mercury News, about 50 to 60 marchers, several of whom covered their faces with pink bandannas, amassed at Snow Park at 5:30 p.m. and tried unsuccessfully to crash the gate at the Pride Festival, which was taking place in Oakland’s Uptown District. Around the same time, police said several agitators smashed windows and ATMs at the nearby Bank of America branch at 300 Lakeside Drive.
The marchers continued to move through city streets for the next hour, tagging several buildings and spray painting an anarchist symbol on a police vehicle. They dispersed about 6:30 p.m., police said. No arrests were made.
Much of the graffiti vandalism was still visible Monday morning.
The Sears at Broadway and 20th Street was tagged with red spray paint that read “Destroy Capitalism” and “Queer Riots Now.” A vacant building on the corner of 19th and Broadway was tagged with “Queer Revolt.”
Less than a block down on Broadway, the Community Bank of the Bay was tagged with an anarchy symbol and the words, “Queers: Burn Banks.”
Gesturing at police. Credit anarchist at PFailBlog
Final words and pictures from protest at RNC
Citizen Journalist has already noted the Occupy’s disappointment with their time at the RNC.
But we had a few more words and photos for you.
1. Small number of protesters at RNC
There were under 200 protesters there from multiple groups, only about 60 from Occupy. This was not just a function of the hurricane. This is a function and evidence of the dwindling onto death of any real numbers on the street for Occupy events. 60-after busing people in and advertising for months. Most of the rest of the 200 or so folks were the “professional activists” that attend all such events-Veterans for Peace, Code Pink, and various other anarchist, leftist and union groups.
Of the 200, there was also the unusual appearance of Scientologists, pushing Way to Happiness brochures and trying to evangelize to the protesters. I’m willing to guess that they were not received particularly well. Scientology has a big base nearby in Clearwater, and apparently couldn’t resist the temptation of groups of people anticipated.
2. Nature of protests
In Tampa as in many of the Occupy groups, the remaining people in the groups tend to be the “professional activist”, the white upper/middle class student playing at living in the park, and the mentally ill/homeless/drug addict contingent. The media tends to ignore these aspects of Occupy, particularly the latter contingent. Yet it is this makeup that is one of the reasons for constant friction and failure to get anything done.
Media tends to push the impression of the high minded protester focused on bailouts and money in politics. But that is not a clear picture of Occupy now, if it ever was.
As Tina Trent noted in Front Page, what did they do at their camp at Voice of Freedom Park?
they turned the site into a self-important summer camp for their own adolescent preoccupations and hobbies: beer-brewing, puppet-making, endless general assemblies, craft sessions for making furniture out of trash, clown lessons, a scavenger hunt, lectures on things like “Voudou and the Haitian Revolution,” and, most jarringly, a screening of the French art-film, The Gleaners and I, which celebrates the insights of well-off dropouts who choose to dumpster dive in order to express anarchic fellowship with actually poor people who dumpster dive in order to eat.
Not that the Occupiers are dumpster diving. They are relentlessly demanding donations to subsidize their camps and complaining that people aren’t giving them enough money to support their cause.
It is difficult to imagine more offensively self-referential or narcissistic behavior. Occupiers and Food Not Bombers in peasant skirts sit cross-legged decorating bits of scrap metal with poster paint, while homeless men sit on stoops outside boarded-up businesses watching them. In the end, city sanitation workers will clean up after the aging children, and real homeless people will reclaim the park.
3. Occupy Tampa -days are numbered
Now that the convention is over, Occupy Tampa will be booted out of Voice of Freedom Park. They had been allowed to stay by the park’s owner Joe Rednor, but had caused such consternation and trouble to the neighborhood, that Rednor, a strip club owner, finally agreed to kick them out after the convention.
4. Use of children
There is a policy of putting children or other attention getting people up front of a march or on the lines in a potential conflict situation with these groups. Veterans, old people, pregnant women, disabled people, kids. This is done deliberately for PR effect. If something happens, it is not the fault of the protesters, it is the fault of the evil police that would attack a veteran or elderly woman. This policy was repeated in Tampa, with kids that were clearly being used.
As we start the DNC, we can see this being repeated there as well.
When there have been so many confrontations at such events, it beggars the imagination that parents would go along with this. But time and again, we have seen they do.
The Daily Caller has some good, but disturbing coverage of children participating:
In full swing, chants were rattled off and gentle faces mutated into anger. Jostled and shoved as tension grew thicker, the marchers slowed to a crawl.
People shouted. And the children began to take on a starring role in the protest. Ahead of the crowd, as the leaders droned on about lineage and generational awareness,
the two children we had met were being led to the front of the march, walking through a rainstorm and the threat of police violence.
There were other kids too: We spotted another little boy holding a miniature bullhorn and shouting along with the crowd, stopping every so often to adjust his glasses:
Kids were pushed, boxed in by their group. One of their mothers flew off the handle.
Some occupiers harassed the police, but the uniformed cohort held their position. Chants of “we are the proletariat” and “a… anti… anti-capitalista” rang out and fueled the mob.
We lost sight of the children. We didn’t see them again.
Daily Caller video editor Grae Stafford managed to grab a shot of the children being led away. One of them was sobbing as an organizer snatched him up from the fray.
As the rain picked up, a lone child — seemingly without parents nearby — biked by us and shouted, “Fuck this shit — I’m not homeless.”
We saw so much yesterday. We spoke to Occupiers, we spoke to security forces, we understood the tension. But seeing children placed in front of conflict-seeking adults as they marched toward possible armed conflict rattled us to the core.
Ditto.
Photos by Zach Gorelick of the Daily Caller, except for last photo by Grae Stafford.
Occupy the RNC disappointed
Somber occupy member at the end of the RNC. Credit the Daily Caller.
As Republicans wrapped their time at the Republican National Convention, protesters, including Occupy, also were ending their time in Tampa. Protesters seemed sad and disappointed at the small turnout, blaming it in part on the fears of Hurricane Issac. “I think the rain really discouraged a lot of people. We lost sixteen buses that were going to come down here”, one occupier named Mike remarked. ”I think we’ll have a lot more people in Charlotte.”
They also claimed to be upset that they were unable to have any dialogue with leaders at the RNC. One protester named Lash said, “I love that we have an anarchist forum here, and I really love us, but I hate that our forum can’t even talk with their conservative forum,” he said. “The police just silence us, the Republicans just silence us. We are just getting silenced everywhere we go. It’s like no one wants to even hear what we have to say.”
“Dance for that Anarchy!”. Credit Citizen Journalist
Occupiers had several marches over the time in Tampa, although they seemed mainly rambling and lacking in direction. At one point, on Monday, as they got stuck in the rain, they had an “Anarchy Dance”.
Occupiers interviewed by Al Jazeera. Credit Citizen Journalist.
Occupiers blocking an intersection. Credit Citizen Journalist
There were other protesters there as well, including the Dancing Vaginas of Code Pink and Vermin Supreme. Supreme, who is commonly dressed with a rubber boot on his head, runs for President every four years and has promised every voter a pony.
Vermin Supreme speaking to police. Credit Citizen Journalist
Citizen Journalist noted one protester there appeared to be Nkrumah Tinsley who seems to be one of the Occupiers making a career of traveling to all the various events in different parts of the country. Tinsley was arrested in NYC in November for threatening to “burn [Macy's] to the ground”. He was charged with a felony terroristic threat. See more on his case here. When asked about Tinsley in November, Occupiers disavowed him. Ed Needham, a spokesman for Occupy, said “We wouldn’t have anything to do with this guy. Certainly everything we do is centered around us being a peaceful and nonviolent movment”. But despite this statement, OWS coughed up $7,500 for his bail. He still seems to be in their company for someone disavowed. Somehow he also manages to have been at at the NATO protest in May.
Since most of the protesters have few funds and are bused in, it would be interesting to find out who is funding the buses and the ability of some of the occupiers to travel.
Nkrumah Tinsley. Credit the Daily Caller
There was no major incident during the event. Prior to the start of the RNC, there had been bricks and pipes found on a roof of a building tagged with an Anonymous and Occupy graffitii. Two people were also arrested on another roof for carrying weapons including a bb gun and a knife. One man was arrested in the event zone for carrying a machete strapped to his leg. One man was arrested during the event for wearing a mask, which is against the law.
Occupy merges with SDS
On August 19, the Students for a Democratic Society formally approved merging with Occupy Colleges. This approval echoed a prior approval for the merger by the “Occupy Colleges National Assembly”.
The present chapters of Occupy Colleges have now all been given an affiliate status within the “National Working Committee of the SDS” and operate as a single organization with shared resources. According to The Nation:
Occupy Colleges co-facilitator Natalia Abrams spoke enthusiastically about the strength of the new collaboration and noted that “it was the dream of Occupy Colleges at our inception to join with SDS in order to strengthen the student movement.” Stephanie Taylor of the SDS National Working Committee added “this merger signifies not an end or a beginning to our respective local movements but rather a burgeoning of our critical, collective, national movement as students and youth. SDS has always stood as the largest multi-issue, multi-tendency progressive student organization in the country and we are excited to have Occupy Colleges officially join us—we know this is a positive advancement for the student movement at large.”
The coordination is not suprising, as the personnel were often the same. SDS had presence amongst the founders of OWS along with other leftist groups. New SDS Marissa Holmes factored in much of the early decision making and structure of operation, for example. Old SDS faces also made their appearance with visits/talks from the likes of Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. Mike Golash, former president of the Amalgamated Transit Worker’s Union, member of the Progressive Labor Party (one of the factions the original SDS broke off into) was the Occupy DC librarian and talks about aims being replacing capitalism with communism here.
What is suprising perhaps is that Occupy has ceased pushing the fiction that they represent all of the political spectrum. They have been and continue to be far left at their organizing core. Because any who may have thought otherwise have now faded away, they are now characterizing themselves more honestly. One can see more evidence of this on their website, Occupy the RNC, where they blatantly state their purpose is to take down capitalism.
The same language and the same people have been promoting all the same ideas of occupation, collectivism, socialism and communism for a very long time. It’s just that the MSM hadn’t been paying any attention to them before, and now has pretty much gone back to ignoring them again.
From the SDS “occupation” of the New School in NYC in 2008:
From the New School SDS chapter (7 pm 12/16/08)
We have just occupied New School University.
We liberate this space for ourselves, and all those who want to join us, for our general autonomous use. We take the university in explicit solidarity with those occupying the universities and streets in Greece, Italy, France and Spain.
This occupation begins as a response to specific conditions at the New School, the corporatization of our education and the impoverishment of education in general. However, it is not just this university but also New York City that is in crisis: in the next several months, thousands of us will be losing our jobs, while housing remains unaffordable and unavailable to many and the cost of living skyrockets.
So we stress that the general nature of these intolerable conditions exists across the spectrum of capitalist existence, in our universities and our cities, in all of our social relations. For this reason, what begins tonight at the New School cannot, and should not, be contained here.
Thus: with this occupation, we inaugurate a wave of occupations in New York City and the United States, a coming wave of occupations, blockades, and strikes in this time of crisis.
Be assured, this is only the beginning,
With solidarity and love from New York to Greece, to Italy, France and Spain,
To the coming insurrection.
The occupied New School
It’s never about the current crisis, whatever that is, always about attacking and bringing down capitalism ultimately.
Occupy Summer Disobedience School
At the beginning of the summer, OWS began the “Summer Disobedience School” which was supposed to be a 12 week series of classes, culminating on September 17, or “graduation day”, the one year anniversary of the start of OWS.
What was the purpose of this “school”? They’ve stopped trying to hide the anti-capitalist nature of what they are about. In their video description, they cite the aim:
What is capitalism? Where is capitalism? Who and what sustains it? How can we starve its roots, which feed off our relations to one another to the detriment of humanity? What alternatives can we create together? These are a few of the questions we will explore in OWS Summer Disobedience School (OWSDS), a twelve-week training program that will empower us to map, target, and disrupt sites of capitalist injustice across the city with a wide range of creative tactics accessible to people will all levels of experience.
They’re desperate for numbers so part of the process requires that occupiers can help indoctrinate others. Can we say cult, people?
A key priority in the OWSDS curriculum is the empowerment of new people to step up in planning and executing actions; to this end, OWSDS will involve a mentoring system in which those with more experience can “buddy up” with less experienced individuals to lend moral support and technical guidance. This “training of trainers” process can in turn be replicated and innovated by increasing numbers of people across time and space. Students will be encouraged to develop personal escalation calendars to track their own progress over the course of Summer School in advance of Graduation Day: September 17th, the one-year anniversary of OWS.
They have so few folks left that on September 17, they are asking that everyone come to NYC from across the country to buttress the numbers there, for three days of talks, lectures and direct actions.
So now here is their discussion/ad about the Summer Disobedience School and what they plan for September 17. And yes, that’s really them, and they really did this.
“The More You Know” – Occupy Jail Support
Here are some fun videos from Occupy advertising for more “jail support” for Occupiers.
What is jail support?
It involves going to precincts, waiting and tracking the arrestees through the system, and being there when they get out.
According to the organizers, jail support is about care and clean up, “two kinds of work traditionally labeled women’s work”. The organizers are upset that not enough people are coming out to do this “work” after direct actions. So they said they were going on strike on May 5, only providing limited support and made these videos to get more help.
“The More You Know”
Prostitutes can be warm:
Occupiers need hugs:
Bring something you crave to an occupier. Not sure I even want to go there.
It sucks to get arrested.
Congratulate them for standing up for what they believe in (oh, and don’t post the picture where she punched the cop!).
Finally, what every Occupier needs is for you to sing outside of their jail:
The videos were made using OWS (NYC) members. The last video, which was separate from the prior series, was made apparently while waiting outside of a police precinct for an arrestee.
The Occupier in the second and the last video, Mark Adams, needed some “jail support” of his own after being convicted in NYC in June of attempted criminal mischief and attempted criminal possession of burglar’s tools, and sentenced to 45 days in jail. Adams was seen on surveillance video using what appeared to be bolt cutters to cut open a fence to the Trinity Church lot at Duarte Square on December 17, 2011, helping many occupiers break in.
Occupier former union president calls for communist revolution, overthrow of capitalists
Here is a video taken at an Occupy DC meeting. Kudos to the folks who got into the meeting to take it.
In it is Mike Golash, former President of the Amalgamated Transit Workers Union Local 639. Mike was also Occupy DC’s “librarian”.
Progressive labor is a revolutionary communist organization,” Golash said during an Occupy DC “People’s Assembly” on August 19. “Its objective,” he added, “is to make revolution in the United States, overthrow the capitalist system and build communism.”
The “Progressive Labor” Mr. Golash refers to is the Progressive Labor Party. What is the Progressive Labor Party? According to their website:
Progressive Labor Party (PLP) fights to destroy capitalism and the dictatorship of the capitalist class. We organize workers, soldiers and youth into a revolutionary movement for communism.
What do they believe?
Only the dictatorship of the working class — communism — can provide a lasting solution to the disaster that is today’s world for billions of people. This cannot be done through electoral politics, but requires a revolutionary movement and a mass Red Army led by PLP.
What would that ”lasting solution” look like?
Communism means working collectively to build a worker-run society. We will abolish work for wages, money and profits. Everyone will share in society’s benefits and burdens.
Communism means abolishing nations and nationalism. One international working class, one world, one Party [comment added- ein Reich, ein volk, ein Furhrer!-sorry couldn't resist the add]
Communism means that the minds of millions of workers must become free from religion’s false promises, unscientific thinking and poisonous ideology. Communism will triumph when the masses of workers can use the science of dialectical materialism to understand, analyze and change the world to meet their needs and aspirations.
Communism means the Party leads every aspect of society. For this to work, millions of workers — eventually everyone — must become communist organizers.
Does it strike anyone how much of a cult this sounds like?
Occupiers break into UC Berkeley property again
Occupiers outside the gate of the Gill Tract, with child in “Che” shirt. Credit Daily Californian
Occupiers broke into the Gill Tract area again on Sunday. About 30 people arrived around noon, and according to the Daily Californian, some distracted the security while others broke into the property. Their purpose was to harvest crops that they had planted in April when they first broke into and occupied the land
The Gill Tract is an area of land owned by the University of California at Berkeley. The area in question that was being occupied was being used in part for agricultural research. Occupiers claimed that the University intended to sell the land for development to make a Whole Foods, and that they were breaking in to save it as farmland for sustainable farming. The University disputed this claim, noting that it was another area that was being used for development and that the land in question was for research, with which the Occupiers were interfering.
A standoff ensued when the Occupiers would not leave. Finally, the University had to move in on May 14 and throw them off the land so that the University could ensure that its researchers were able to do their own work. In the meantime, some research work had been damaged by the Occupiers’ presence.
Since being kicked off the land, the Occupy group has continued to trespass on the land, cutting the lock off the gate four times, including the last break in yesterday.
“We are in a difficult situation and don’t have the resources to monitor the Gill Tract around the clock,” said UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof. “There is a group that seems to care little about property rights or the rule of law. We need to focus on ensuring that the research goes unimpeded and unharmed.”
The University had begun a lawsuit against the Occupiers but dropped it due to costs.
UCPD Lt. Alex Yao said on August 8 that the tract is being monitored by both the community and the UCPD. He also said the participants of the break-ins are videotaped by officers.
According to the Daily Californian,
Protesters said the development project — which was planned for several years and was finally approved by Albany City Council on July 9 — provides no guarantees against the agricultural land being paved away. Furthermore, they said the mega-complex may impact the soil and increase car exhaust in the area, which would cause air pollution and asthma for Albany residents.
“Most importantly, there is no guarantee that in the future the agricultural land will not be developed further,” said Kelly Jewett, a UC Berkeley fifth-year and Occupy the Farm member. “In all reality, there is no explicit intention to develop agricultural land.”
Keep Albany Local, a local organization against the project, has spearheaded a petition that includes over 1,400 signatures calling for a referendum of the city council’s decision. If the petition is approved by the Albany city clerk, a referendum will appear on the November election ballot, giving Albany residents the option to rescind approvals for the development project, said Sally Sommer, an Occupy the Farm member and Berkeley resident
Occupy had been invited to participate in the discussions over the future of the land, but had declined to do so.
Though UCPD officers told protesters not to damage the property, members of the Occupy the Farm said they did not feel like they were trespassing because the Gill Tract is public land.
“(Trespassing) is not really a significant aspect of this,” Jewett said. “Personally, I feel that this is public land. They don’t put a fence up around Sproul Plaza[central hub at the University]”
Occupiers storm Obama campaign headquarters in Oakland and Portland, scuffle with staffers (video)
In a coordinated effort (and we leave how coordinated and with whom to your imagination), Occupy Oakland and Occupy Portland stormed Obama campaign headquarters in their respective cities in Oakland, California and Portland, Oregon. The Occupy group in Oakland was comprised of the far left organizations including Iraq Vets against the War(including Scott Olsen who was injured in October of last year at a protest) and Code Pink. Both groups are active members of Occupy. The headquarters in Oakland still had boarded up windows from Occupy smashing the windows out on August 3.
After members stormed the office in Oakland. they read a formal statement by bullhorn asking President Obama to apologize to Bradley Manning for saying he broke the law, for better treatment and for a pardon for Bradley Manning. Bradley Manning is awaiting trial on charges related to leaking government documents.
Protesters crowd the Oakland office here.
Photos of Code Pink and Iraq Vets Against the War members blocking the doorway in Oakland, Scott Olsen is 4th from the left, with the long blond hair:
After storming the office in Oakland, they got into a scuffle with Obama staffers when Occupiers climbed on top of and over chairs and tried to move further into the working area of the office.
Video taken by Scott Olsen:
Police were called in both locations. See pictures of Portland and in Oakland of police. A hostage negotiator actually had to be called out in Oakland to talk with seven Occupiers, who refused to leave. Police lost patience and moved in to make the arrests in Oakland around 9 pm last night. Scott Olsen was the only one of the seven not arrested, as they were given a last opportunity to leave and he left. Six were arrested in Oakland and five are reported to have been arrested in Portland.
After the arrests in Oakland, other demonstrators marched on the Oakland Police station.
Reports this morning indicate that the people arrested in Oakland have been released already, except for one who will be held over the weekend.
The last time that Obama campaign headquarters faced “occupation” or sit ins was when illegal aliens occupied the offices in some locations in the week prior to President Obama granting amnesty to those who were brought here as children.
Spreading the wealth
What does Obama mean when he talks about “spreading the wealth”?
Well, let’s find out, courtesy of Penn and Teller:
Occupy Oakland seizes building to create “people’s library” (updated: police break up the party)
Around 7 am this morning, Occupy Oakland took over another building, this one at 1449 Miller Avenue in East Oakland, California.
About a dozen people went into the building and claimed to be setting up a library. They brought in books and set up a banner proclaiming it the “Victor Martinez People’s Library”.
photo by @PFailBlog
The building is owned by City of Oakland’s Redevelopment Successor Agency within the Office of Neighborhood Investment. It used to be a library at one point but has been empty for a number of years. In an email Monday, an agency spokesman said the city would issue a dispersal order with a set time to vacate the property.
Some of the squatters said that the goal is to use it for community purposes. ”All we ask is that you consider keeping it out of the hands of a city which will only seal the fence and doors again, turning the space back into an aggregator of the city’s trash and a dark hole in the middle of the community,” according to the group’s news release, aimed at residents of the surrounding neighborhoods.
Books already brought in include such fun and uplifting child oriented reading material such as “The Black Panthers” and “Academic Repression” a collection of essays with an anarchist orientation. Got to start that indoctrination early!
UPDATE:
Police came in in the early morning and boarded up the front where the building had been broken into. Occupy Oakland claims not to know how the doors became unlocked and were furious this morning at the police reclaiming the building.
Just a few of the many many opd. To take away books neighborhood kids had donated today. http://t.co/7UMURslu
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Biblioteca Popular (@BibliotecaPopul) August 14, 2012Yes, after Occupy Oakland broke into the building, they brought kids in to work on garden beds in the back of the library. These are some of the books they were bringing in for the kids to read:
Photo by @BibibliotecaPopul
In case you didn’t know-”Matanza” is it is a book on the communist revolt in El Salvador in 1932, “Mexico Profundo” – on indigenous resistance within Mexico, “Harvest of Empire” is, according to Amazon review, a “left leaning” look at Hispanic immigration in the United States.
Occupy Chicago promoting Scientology video
Occupy Chicago promoting Scientology video? It’s more likely than you think.
Occupy Chicago posted an interesting tweet:
Making a Killing: The Untold Story of Psychotropic Drugging – Full Movie (Documentary) 99getsmart.com/?p=2930
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Occupy Chicago (@OccupyChicago) August 12, 2012While many may perhaps legitimately question whether psychiatric drugs are always appropriately used or prescribed, and note that there are often side effects, that is not all that this video is saying. This video buys into the “secret cabal” theory that all psychiatrists are evil and seeking to drug and control the world, that psychiatry is an imagined science. Indeed, truther material at its most rabid.
Sounds a bit like Tom Cruise on an anti-psychiatry rant, doesn’t it? Remember his Matt Lauer rant about Brooke Shields?
There’s a reason that this sounds Tom Cruise-ish.
The video is from the “Citizen’s Commission on Human Rights” or “CCHR”, a Scientology front group. In CCHR -land, 9/11 was a plot by psychiatrists. According to them, Ayman Al Zawahiri, one of the 9/11 masterminds, was a psychiatrist. Of course, he wasn’t, but why quibble over facts? They also blame the Holocaust on psychiatrists.
Here’s Tom Cruise at a CCHR event:
There are reasons that this thought process might have a resonance with some in Occupy.
There has always been a truther element within Occupy, hence the belief that the evil 1% control the world and oppress them all.
Also, in addition to the “professional activist”, another population within Occupy is often the mentally ill/homeless. A population poorly served in general society, some might find the anti-drug, anti psychiatrist rhetoric appealing.
Occupy Chicago is not the only Occupy with an apparent issue with psychiatry. Occupy Toronto apparently also has an issue, with Occupy Psychiatry events, and having a relationship with CAPA, the Coalition Against Psychiatric Abuse. It is not clear if Occupy Toronto’s views are as extreme as those represented in the video posted by Occupy Chicago. Certainly, there is a difference between fighting abuses and demonizing a groups of people or a profession.
What makes this all rather ironic is that it was Anonymous that since January 2008 has been calling out Scientology on its abuses. It is also Anonymous who is one of the founding parts of Occupy; many of the intial boots on the ground were Anonymous.
Of course, what is Anonymous is fluid and undefinable. But someone should tell Occupy Chicago -psst “Scientology”.
White House claims Occupy collusion emails were “mistaken”
In an interview with Victoria Taft on the Victoria Taft show KPAM radio at AM 860 , Judicial Watch spokesperson Tom Fitton announced that the White House had responded to the growing scandal surrounding their decision to ”stand down” from enforcing the law against Occupy lawbreakers.
The scandal was revealed when Judicial Watch, having obtained documents through the FOIA act, discovered emails between the GSA(General Services Administration) and the DHS (Department of Homeland Security). Occupy was illegally camping on federal land administered by the GSA. While camping on the land, and other land in Portland, they created multiple problems, including threatening reporters and vandalizing local banks. Taft also spoke of the “420 tent” that was at the Occupy Portland where people went to get stoned.
The emails revealed GSA Commissioner Robert Beck saying that they had consulted with the WH and were “standing down” from enforcing action against Occupy. See more here.
Now Fitton has said the White House has responded, claiming, despite the emails showing White House collusion, GSA Commissioner Beck was “mistaken” about the White House’s approval for standing down from enforcing the law.
Fitton and Taft expressed incredulity that the White House could be taking that posture, given the emails.
The White House and prominent Democrats, such as Nancy Pelosi, have made various endorsing statements about Occupy since its inception, most famously, Nancy Pelosi’s statement, “God Bless them”. Most of the people who started Occupy have a background in Democratic or leftist causes including with ACORN, SDS, SEIU, the Wobblies, Code Pink and the Democratic Socialists of America.
Occupy has been involved with over 7500 arrests as of the current date, everything from disorderly persons charges up to murder. Nationally, the damages resulting from various Occupy actions exceed 40 million dollars. In LA alone, in a state bordering on bankruptcy, Occupy has cost the city over 4 million dollars.
