VICTORY IN OAKLAND
The sixth week of the international occupation movement closed with a decisive victory for economic justice in Oakland, California. After enduring several days of brutal police assaults that left the 24-year-old Scott Olsen–a former member of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines and a veteran of two tours in Iraq—hospitalized with brain swelling and a fractured skull, Occupy Oakland retook their camp with an overwhelming show of nonviolent resistance. Following the demonstrations, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan was forced to declare that protesters could stay indefinitely and would face “minimal police presence” in the future. This abrupt reversal of position came after the mayor declined to wait in line to speak at Occupy Oakland’s General Assembly.
The threat of violence remains constant. Occupations in Nashville (29 arrests last night), Chicago, Providence, and elsewhere are currently under threat of a police crackdown; Occupy Wall Street had all its generators stolen by the New York Police Department early Friday morning. Nor has the repression been limited to physical violence: When Goldman Sachs—recipient of a $10 billion taxpayer loan—found out that the Lower East Side Peoples Federal Credit Union was hosting Occupy Wall Street’s bank account, it demanded the return of a five-thousand dollar donation. This is roughly 1% of the average Goldman salary and less than one ten-thousandth of CEO Lloyd Blankfein’s record haul of $68 million in 2007.
In response to these escalating attacks by the few on a nonviolent movement of the many, Occupy Oakland has called for a general strike on November 2, and solidarity marches are planned for Saturday in cities across the nation. Occupy Boston will rally Saturday at 12 pm in Dewey Square for a 1 pm march before returning to camp to host award-winning Salon.com columnist Glen Greenwald at 4 pm. Please join us as we continue to peacefully seek economic justice, the removal of corporate interests from our democracy, and a better future for our world.
We are the 99%, and we are no longer silent.
UPDATE: October 27, 2:15 pm
An ally points out that “there is good reason to believe that that $5,000 is a necessary payment from Goldman Sachs to Lower East Side Peoples Federal Credit Union as part of the bailout Goldman received.”
Consider the following transcript from Democracy Now, linked above:
GREG PALAST: OK, commercial bank is the types where you put in your savings, and we, the taxpayers, and the government guarantees the profits, or guarantees the solvency of that bank. So, for Goldman to get into the $10 billion—to get their $10 billion check for bailout, they had to become—go from a gambling house, an investment bank, into a nice commercial bank. But they had to agree that they would then be subject to what’s called the Community Reinvestment Act and return some of that money, a chunk of it—most banks put in a billion dollars—return a chunk of it back into low-income communities. Well, Goldman doesn’t have any branches, so they gave money to the designated low-income bank of New York, Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union, and—but they’ve been giving out the money in eyedroppers, like this $5,000. Now remember, it’s not a donation. It’s a required payment under the law that they got in return for our $10 billion, OK? So it’s not a donation. This is mischaracterized. It’s a payment required by law, with an eyedropper.
###
Occupy Boston is the beginning of an ongoing discussion about reforming Wall Street, removing special interests from government, and much more. The continuing occupation of Dewey Square—located outside of South Station in the heart of Boston’s Financial District—is just one of more than 500 separate Occupy encampments in cities across the world and a symbol for “Occupiers” everywhere who support real and lasting change.