Occupy Wall Street actions in United States. (This map is NOT interactive. Go to Occupy Together for theirs.)
UPDATE: Slide Show: Occupy America—Nine Occupied Cities
On September 17, 2011, several thousand New Yorkers took over a small park in lower Manhattan, a block from Wall Street itself. Wall Street itself had been blocked from the demonstrators by New York’s finest.
The protesters took over Zucotti Park, a private space, and set up their encampment – and the Occupy Wall Street movement took off. This past weekend, there were over 100 Occupy actions in this country, and over a thousand around the world. A thousand. Get your mind around that.
Soon after Occupy Wall Street took hold, others followed: Occupy Boston, Occupy Denver, Occupy San Francisco, Los Angeles, and even Occupy San Diego, which had its first over-night “occupation” on Friday, October 7th.
But look at this – in one month, in exactly one month, this movement has changed our world. For how long – it remains to be seen. One month. This is incredible.
In just one month, the Occupy movement has given hope and inspiration to young and old alike, to new-comers to activism and to those who’ve been politically active most of their lives.
Older activists have been asking for quite some time : “Where are the youth? Where are the young people?” Well, wait no longer, for they are here. And look at what they’ve done!
There are now Occupy Wall Street actions in every major American city, in many minor ones, in small towns. It’s also on every continent. And it stems from the single act of taking over Zucotti Park – renamed Liberty Park. In Paris during an occupy event, French trumpeters blew the song “This land is your land.”
Naomi Klein said this about the Occupy movement “Let’s treat this beautiful movement as if it is most important thing in the world. Because it is. It really is.”
Martin Eder, a San Diego veteran of activism, spoke at the Saturday rally in Civic Center Plaza, and said something to this effect:
I have not heard the word “revolution” being said in a mass public event in America in over two decades.
I have not either.
It is true – the youth are calling this the “revolution”, and maybe it is. Some of us called it the “revolution” back in the late Sixties and early Seventies. But whatever it’s called, it’s still going on and it’s still expanding – and it’s only one month old.
And it’s the most important thing in America and it’s the most important thing in the world.
UPDATE:
Slide Show: Occupy America—Nine Occupied Cities
The Nation / October 14, 2011
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
We live in a country no longer represented by the people but by the interests of major corporations and the money they use through lobbying to pay off our elected officials. These politicians no longer voice the opinion of the voters who put them in office but instead speak for the special interests which pay them more and more money to turn a blind eye to the destruction of our environment and the extinction of the middle class. How long will the occupations have to last before a SINGLE government official asks what WE the PEOPLE want changed? Visit my artist’s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/09/occupywallstreet.html to see my art for the movement and also see videos of the protests and police brutality as well as get other sources for coverage of the movement.
And the public opinion polls are are clearly in favor of Occupy as more and more Americans have become aware of the movement.
I never thought I’d live to see it. People are finally embracing the obvious.
Wow. So Cool. Must Share on Face Book!
The thing about “revolution” is it has to be kept going continuously or it stalls. It’s kind of how we got in this latest jam. People got jobs and house payments and kids and struggled along and in the meantime we were being marginalized. Looped into credit card debt,etc. Before you knew it your 401k was only worth half of what you invested. Now it’s all about making it till we get old enough to get SS. It’s a shame! But as alot of boomers now have no jobs and fewer prospects, we can devote some time and effort towards the movement. Try to give these youngsters plenty of encouragement and stress the importantance of getting this B.S. straightened out. People don’t get too many chances in life to do something really big.
As a tired worn-out ol’ ’40s & ’50s & ’60s radical, it’s heartening to see you “Occupy” youngsters finally standing up & saying & doin’ sumpn. Good for you! Go for it!
But you seem to be afflicted with a short-sighted & tunnel-visioned views of things.
The problem in the U.S. has ALWAYS been Big Biz, NOT Big Gov. It’s known as capitalism, an economic system which rewards greed & aggressiveness. No one is ever goin’ to git rid of human greed & aggressiveness, but it shd not be rewarded. Don’t you folks realize that BIG GOV — executive, congressional, judicial branches — ALL are nuthin more or less than the hired lawyers of BIG BIZ????? & they do a great job of seeing to it that the laws they pass inevitably favor BIG BIZ. It has always been thus. If you’re to make a significant impact on this, you hafta quit squabbling over details & go for this fundamental truth — Go after BIG BIZ who are the problem, & forget BIG GOV, who are simply a bunch of lackey lawyers. OK?
Go for it!!!!!
Under the guise of “showing solidarity with New York” and “adopting the New York model,” some people have managed to change Occupy San Diego from a direct democracy to a representative democracy. Their primary motivation seems to be to force Occupy San Diego to adopt the List of Demands for Congress that New York rejected, to ensure that OccupySD works within the existing form of government (owned by Wall Street) rather than working towards direct democracy.
To this end they have already managed to get OccupySD to have a Council of elected committee members, and a GA Process Committee that controls what can and cannot be proposed at General Assembly meetings.
The people doing this are slick and professional liars. When I attempted to propose as part of my Transparency Committee report at General Assembly last night that Transparency Committee members (anyone) be allowed to participate fully and actively in Council meetings, one guy pulled me aside and told me that it isn’t possible because the rule that the Council shall be composed of one member elected by each committee has already been consensed upon.
This same guy later told the General Assembly that people shouldn’t be concerned about blocking things because nothing is set in stone and that just because something is consensed on, doesn’t mean it can’t be brought up again and changed.
But to bring it up again, you have to convince the GA Process committee to discuss it and to allow it to be placed on the GA agenda. There is no slot for non-agenda items and the GA Process Committee does not consider having a slot for non-agenda items to be worthy of discussion, no less suitable for a GA proposal.
Now that OccupySD has adopted a model of representative democracy rather than direct democracy, it is no wonder that numbers are dwindling. The establishment of the Council was a coup against direct democracy, and control of the GA agenda by a committee also makes direct democracy impossible. The new rules about blocking and the 90% rule are designed to ensure that direct democracy doesn’t stand a chance in San Diego and that the old, failed model of Wall Street-owned representative democracy is in full control.
{ 1 trackback }