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Democracy Now interviews Boston Occupier Mark Provost about his confrontation with Mitt Romney
MARK PROVOST: I asked him-you know, because the corporate profits have reached record highs, directly at the expense of wages, and I cited a JPMorgan report, and, you know, his response was that corporations are people. And I think he had two statements of fact in that three-minute ramble. And one of them was that buildings don’t pay taxes, which I was already aware of-I think most people are. And the second was that corporations don’t pay taxes, but the people in them do. The corporations are actually supposed to pay taxes, but they’re-you know, corporate taxes as a percentage of federal revenue and as a percentage of GDP are both at, you know, 50-year lows. http://tinyurl.com/83d2hzr OPINION: How Occupy is changing the world by building a better one
Occupy has qualities of both a desperate and deliberate action: It is direct and calculated, unpredictable and long-term. While I can’t honestly say that the movement is applying itself flawlessly, it is less vulnerable to the two most common tactics used against progressive movements: the law and simple patience. Legal action against the movement generally takes the form of evicting the camps. After Boston police cleared Dewey Square, small occupations popped up all over the suburbs, scattered but as strong as ever. As for patience…well, the tents were pretty comfortable. http://tinyurl.com/74qpuuu National Fire Protection Association: For fire officials, concern and frustration over the Occupy sites On a chilly, rainy December afternoon, a member of Occupy Boston led a reporter on a tour of the site’s fire safety features. The Occupier, a young man named Seth M. – he declined to give his last name – sporting a thin beard and a Red Sox cap, pointed to the white buckets, designated as cigarette receptacles, that dotted the site’s perimeter. Numerous signs were posted to remind Occupiers that heating sources were prohibited. Seth talked about the nearly $400 worth of fire extinguishers that were purchased by the group and placed “methodically” throughout the site. He also noted that a retired firefighter donated 50 smoke alarms that were placed in the tents that housed nearly 250 residents. The unrelenting rain didn’t seem to dampen the activity in Dewey Square, a small plot of green space across the street from the Federal Reserve building in the city’s financial district. As Seth conducted his tour along the site’s makeshift walkways, passers-by approached the Occupy Boston information booth and slid money into a donation box, or handed over food items and other goods. Protesters in rain gear and bulky coats walked among the dozens of tightly packed tents that had occupied the site since late September. http://tinyurl.com/7bnfaf7
Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum was aggressively heckled Friday at a campaign stop in the parking lot of a Manchester restaurant, with the barbs appearing to come from a combination of gay rights activists, Ron Paul supporters and Occupy Wall Street protesters. Romney ‘mic-checked’ in New Hampshire Supporters of Occupy Wall Street say they “mic checked” Mitt Romney in New Hampshire on Friday over the Republican frontrunner’s tenure at private equity firm Bain Capital. During a spaghetti dinner that Romney was hosting at the Tilton School in Tilton, N.H., protestors used the “human microphone,” a call-and-response tactic originally designed to get around New York’s ban on use of amplification equipment without a permit. As Rose Bookbinder, 28, addressed the former Massachusetts governor, her every phrase was echoed by her fellow protestors. ‘Occupy’ Protesters in New Hampshire Seek Visibility Ahead of Primary “We have events planned to inform, enlighten and engage – not to obstruct,” said Michael Grosse, a 27-year-old multimedia producer from Newmarket, N.H., who has worked with Occupy New Hampshire since last fall. “It gets a lot of people wanting to get involved, rather than when they see people getting arrested.” But peaceful does not necessarily mean subtle. Earlier this week, Mark Provost, one of the protesters, made headlines when he asked Mitt Romney about his comments equating corporations with people. The group plans to continue questioning candidates at campaign events. http://tinyurl.com/85gspt9 Occupy Is a Movement To Be Taken Seriously Marie Antoinette, hearing that the French peasants don’t have bread, reportedly said: “Let them eat brioche.” Now, hearing that the occupiers are sleeping in tents in the likes of Zuccotti Park in hundreds of cities, wealthy American might respond: “Let them sleep in hotels.” Marie missed the point then, as are the wealthy and some in the political establishment are missing the point now. Those who dismiss the movement as small and insignificant should be reminded that the march to the Bastille started with 200 people, World War I began with one gunshot and the Tunisian Democratic Revolution started when a young fruit seller set himself on fire in protest to oppressive government. http://tinyurl.com/7a6kd3t Elections anger: NDAA – ‘The Patriot Act on Steroids’ A new issue is creeping into the election that riles tea-party groups, the Occupy Wall Street movement, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Ron Paul campaign and more than a few supporters of President Barack Obama. It’s the National Defense Authorization Act, which Mr. Obama signed on New Year’s Eve and which includes a provision giving the government the power to indefinitely detain any terror suspect captured on U.S. or foreign soil, even if that person is a U.S. citizen. Mr. Obama signed the bill “with serious reservations” and pledged not to detain U.S. citizens without trial. Austerity Plans Are Based on the Wrong Diagnosis of the Wrong Problem — And May Plunge Europe into Depression Even if European politicians ‘get their acts together,’ the eurozone crisis will not be solved by a new ‘Fiscal Compact’ obsessed with austerity, i.e. tight rules for all member states on their spending. The agreement, which is intended to save the single currency, is not a “fiscal” anything, since that word usually refers to government spending. The plan is really an Austerity Compact – an attempt address economic malaise based on upside-down thinking. And it won’t work. Because as John Maynard Keynes revealed, the worst thing that a government can do during a recession is to lower spending. And yes, all of Europe is in a recession, and probably a depression soon. http://tinyurl.com/75q5jdd America Beyond Capitalism: Is It Possible? Thousands of co-ops, worker-owned businesses, land trusts, and municipal enterprises are quietly beginning to democratize the deep substructure of the American economic system. http://tinyurl.com/7k8dgox Homeland Security monitors journalists Freedom of speech might allow journalists to get away with a lot in America, but the Department of Homeland Security is on the ready to make sure that the government is keeping dibs on who is saying what. Under the National Operations Center (NOC)’s Media Monitoring Initiative that came out of DHS headquarters in November, Washington has the written permission to retain data on users of social media and online networking platforms. http://tinyurl.com/83bem4q Occupy Wall Street Goes to Bloomberg’s House to Protest Press Arrests Occupy Wall Street protesters staged their second public action of the year this afternoon, returning to Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s Upper East Side townhouse to protest the NYPD’s treatment of journalists covering the movement. http://tinyurl.com/6lnbv4o Oakland Tribune threatens Occupy spinoff with legal action to stop using its likeness [Trib owner Dean Singleton is an anti-American-jobs innovator among newspaper publishers, who has exhorted his colleagues to ‘offshore’ news desk operations at newspapers. He also broke the union at the Oakland Tribune. He is the chairman and CEO of the Associated Press.] The publisher of Occupied Oakland Tribune, Scott Johnson, faces legal action if his newsletter and blog do not stop using the name and logo, which emulate the newspaper down to the historic Tribune tower and red-and-black Old English font. Johnson also used the image of his newsletter to raise money on www.kickstarter.com for a third and fourth edition of the newsletter. But he’ll face a lawsuit if he keeps using the same name and design to raise money, or if he publishes another Occupied Oakland Tribune, according to the cease-and-desist order. He also has to turn over the domain name www.occupiedoaklandtrib.com to the Oakland Tribune, or block access to it and the “infringing content.” http://tinyurl.com/7dvyg3h If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em: Karl Rove PAC stages ‘Occupy’ rallies in Baltimore [against the gas tax] Americans for Prosperity plans to hold “Occupy the Gas Tax” rallies at three Baltimore County intersections today to protest Governor Martin O’Malley’s proposed 15 cent a gallon increase in the gas tax. Occupy Darien [CT] organizer says police have singled her out for harassment after second arrest Rague, who organized a two-day Occupy Darien protest that was sparsely attended shortly before Christmas, was also arrested earlier in December for breaching the peace, disorderly conduct and other charges. She was due to return to court on those charges early next week. Earlier this week, Rague took to the Occupy Darien Facebook page to vent about what she called her second “false arrest” by the Darien Police, blaming her Occupy Darien involvement. “Imagine this, no arrest by the Darien Police for 23 years, where I have peacefully resided in this town. I organize Occupy Darien and they arrest me twice,” she wrote. http://tinyurl.com/7al5uhu As ‘Right to Work’ Law Looms, Indiana Occupiers Brace Limestone Strikers An unexpected alliance is blooming seven weeks into a hard winter strike by 50 Millworkers at the Indiana Limestone Company: The participants of Occupy Bloomington in that nearby college town are rallying to their cause. Occupy Kamloops [Can] launches website, prepares for visit from Vancouver peers Occupy Kamloops launched a website on Friday, marking a significant step forward in the group’s plan to continue the Occupy movement. The site aims to “become the main source of information traffic and online communication between citizens of Kamloops and beyond.” http://tinyurl.com/7raqkty Occupy Nigeria unites Christians and Muslims in protest In Kano, the metropolis of the predominately Muslim North, the protest was accompanied by a reported accord between Christians and Muslims. There are news photos of Christians providing protection while Muslim protestors pray, and Muslims returning the favor-this in a city that has been a byword for religious hatred and Islamic radicalism. The Kano protestors are demanding restoration of the fuel subsidy and the firing of Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the governor of the central bank (a Muslim from the North), Lamido Sanusi. The powerful Nigeria Bar Association and the National Medical Association are supporting organized labor’s call for a general strike next week. It remains to be seen whether unions in the oil industry will participate. If they do, they have the capacity to shut-down Nigeria’s oil production. In Lagos, apparently some of the police, who are widely hated, joined the protests. I have seen no evidence thus far that they have been joined by soldiers. Is this the long-awaited Nigerian Spring? http://tinyurl.com/7lwczp5 |