Tag: occupy

Let’s Show Support for “Occupy San Diego” as a Community

Several OB activists (along with some former OBceans) are asking residents of Ocean Beach who plan on attending the Occupy San Diego march and occupation to gather together to form an OB contingent.

The Occupy San Diego march will begin at approximately 4:00 pm from the Children’s Museum Park, First and Island in downtown San Diego. Marchers will move along downtown streets and converge on the Civic Center Plaza around 4:30. There will be a rally at the Plaza and then organizers plan on asking people to march to another location for the initial occupation. This change will only be temporary, and was requested on behalf of San Diego’s Jewish community as they too are holding a celebration at the Civic Center – Yom Kippur.

Editor: Check this post out by Abel Thomas, one of the original organizers of this leader-less movement here in San Diego. .

By Abel Thomas / Occupy San Diego / October 5, 2011

Standing in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street NYC, hundreds of San Diego citizens will peacefully occupy [a site downtown, after rallying at] the Civic Center Plaza in downtown San Diego, starting on October 7, 2011. This nonviolent occupation is in protest of the global financial corruption currently invading politics, media and corporations, exemplified by the recent financial industry meltdown and subsequent recession. The occupation will continue indefinitely until a list of demands in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street NYC are met …

By Mike James / Special to the OB Rag

For the past 6 months I’ve been a subscriber to “The Tea Party Nation” web site to learn more about my fellow citizens. (I have masochistic tendencies.) Below are some outtakes of the Occupy Wall Street related articles and comments that recently appeared on the “The Tea Party Nation” site.

By Tom Engelhardt / AlterNet / October 6, 2011

In some ways, Zuccotti Park, the campsite, the Ground Zero, for the Occupy Wall Street protests couldn’t be more modest. It’s no Tahrir Square, but a postage-stamp-sized plaza at the bottom of Manhattan only blocks from Wall Street.

And if you arrive before noon, you’re greeted not by vast crowds, but by air mattresses, a sea of blue and green tarps, a couple of information tables, some enthusiastic drummers, enough signs with slogans for anything you care to support (“Too big to fail is too big to allow,” “The American Dream: You have to be asleep to believe it,” “There’s no state like no state,” etc.), and small groups of polite, eager, well-organized young people, wandering, cleaning, doling out contributed food, dealing with the press, or sitting in circles on the concrete, backpacks strewn about, discussing. If it were the 1960s, it might easily be a hippie encampment.

I simply don’t have the energy to produce a flowery perspective on what today’s action means to me or to the diverse group of people who make up the 99%. Today I was witness to something that was commonplace in the 60’s and 70’s but had, for the most part, escaped my own eyes through years of activism. Today I was brought to tears by the magnitude of a collective voice; today I was forced to reconcile my practicality with the sheer power of numbers. Today, I believe I witnessed the metamorphosis of a revolution.

Everybody freak out! Occupy Wall Street is now in its eighteenth day and the swelling ranks in Liberty Park and tandem actions that have spread to 148 other cities have not provided the rest of us with their goals/DEMANDS/solutions. By God, they owe us an explanation so that we can decide whether we’re for it or against it. Do they really expect us to watch raw unedited footage on the internet and make up our own minds? Exactly how soon is the blood going to start flowing in the streets- I need to take my car in Friday for an oil change.

The Occupy Wall Street solidarity actions are indeed spreading across America.

As of today (Oct 4th) there are currently Occupy actions being planned – or are in process – in 148 cities across the U.S. Yes, that’s right, 148. Twenty-one are being planned in California alone. That’s 5 more than there was two days ago.

That’s actions in 46 states plus DC!

For every word I write, there are five on my mind. The sadness associated with the failures of a once promising President has at times crippled my faith in the collective will. My enrollment in a public policy program that focuses – rightly so – on analytical and practical approaches to policy change has forced me to question the usefulness of radical activism and political theater as tools of change. We live at a time when young radicals have been stifled by the apathy brought on by overwhelming wealth inequality, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the ridiculous favoritism granted banks and corporate interests, and the efforts of law enforcement and government agencies to quell the movement for change by any means necessary. Consider the murder of Troy Davis the cherry on top of a disenchantment sundae.

Come inside for video of day 16…

Editor: We have just received this Statement of Support by the San Diego Labor Council for the Occupy San Diego movement and its efforts.

From Lorena Gonzalez, the San Diego and Imperial County Labor Council’s Secretary-Treasurer, regarding the “Occupy Wall Street” and “Occupy San Diego” campaigns:

“The San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, AFL-CIO is proud support the “Occupy Wall Street” and associated “Occupy San Diego” efforts. …We will stand with those who seek to bring attention to the real economic problems that regular San Diegans and Americans face.”

The “Occupy Wall Street” movement has definitely spread to San Diego, and local organizers are planning a peaceful occupation of the San Diego Civic Center Plaza this Friday, October 7th. The action – which starts with a march that is to reach the Plaza at 4:30 – will be in solidarity with the Wall Street protesters. (Marchers will gather at First and Harbor at 4pm.) The occupation is viewed as a “protest of the global financial corruption currently invading politics, media and corporations”. They call themselves “the 99%”.

There is so much going on right now all over the country (and world?) about these “Occupy” actions, it’s getting difficult to keep up. So, for right now, I’m posting links to interesting stuff involving these events.

• 700+ Arrested on Brooklyn Bridge – Saturday Oct 1; most were cited and released. The Occupation at Liberty Plaza continues.

This document was accepted by the NYC General Assembly on september 29, 2011

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power.