H.R. 347, State Trooper Love, and Over-Thinking Occupy Boston’s Overnight Eviction From Camp Charlie
Tuesday, even as new developments unfolded in the transit funding quagmire, that message was silenced in the place where it needs to be heard the loudest – Beacon Hill. As for the kind and benevolent troopers – I’m sure they handled things the best they could. But it’s unlikely that their vehicles will be available to help out once bus and train fares go up and service gets slashed. (Boston Phoenix)
Gates Foundation cuts support for ALEX
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation > said it will end its financial support for the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
As Reuters reports, the Seattle foundation’s support of ALEC will end after the remainder of a $376,000 grant involving education budgeting and teacher effectiveness has been completed.
45 Signs That America Will Soon Be A Nation With A Very Tiny Elite And The Rest Of Us Will Be Poor
The middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence in the United States today. America is a nation with a very tiny elite that is rapidly becoming increasingly wealthy while everyone else is becoming poorer. So why is this happening? Well, it is actually very simple.
Our institutions are designed to concentrate wealth in the hands of a very limited number of people. Throughout human history, almost all societies that have had a big centralized government have also had a very high concentration of wealth in the hands of the elite. Throughout human history, almost all societies that have allowed big business or big corporations to dominate the economy have also had a very high concentration of wealth in the hands of the elite.
Well, the United States has allowed both big government and big corporations to grow wildly out of control. Those were huge mistakes. Our founding fathers attempted to establish a nation where the federal government would be greatly limited and where corporations would be greatly restricted. Unfortunately, we have turned our backs on those principles and now we are paying the price.
http://tinyurl.com/6rhz5dk
How the world economic crisis occurred – Why is the U.S. F’ed Up? 8 Lectures from Occupy Harvard Teach-In Provide Answers
(video)
http://tinyurl.com/c94vrfo
D.C. community blocks bank eviction
On April 2, JP Morgan Chase directed U.S. Marshals to evict tenant Dawn Butler from her Washington, D.C., home, because her landlord was in foreclosure. To their surprise, over 40 Occupy activists and community members blocked the eviction. A court immediately ordered a stay of eviction based on a D.C. tenant rights law.
“Why should I move? I have not done anything wrong,” said Butler. She warned the marshals that if they return, “You are going to see us fighting back.”
In the aftermath of the 2007/2008 economic collapse, banks went into a frenzy, seizing as many homes as possible to recoup losses. Since 2007, banks have seized 9 million homes. Another 9 million are on the verge of default.
http://tinyurl.com/bneqfej
Woman’s home accidentally put on auction list
Gloria Takla received confirmation Sunday that her house would be sold at auction the following day. The problem? It shouldn’t have been on the auction list to begin with. Uhh … happy Easter
http://tinyurl.com/bnsgo2z
Occupy D.C. unification in doubt
The planned unification of the District’s two Occupy camps seemed in doubt Wednesday, as the two sides struggled to agree on the terms of the merger.
Occupiers in Freedom Plaza had hoped to make the move to McPherson Square beginning this week, transferring their protest permit from the National Park Service to the new location.
But Occupiers in McPherson Square– typically seen as the younger, more rebellious cohort — emphatically voted down the plan to transfer the permit Tuesday night. McPherson Square protesters have never had a permit and don’t want one now, they say.
Scathing Pepper Spray Report Calls UC Davis PD “Dysfunctional”
Lack of communication from UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, and lack of planning by the campus police department are to blame for last November’s infamous pepper spraying of students, a long-awaited investigative report found Wednesday.
The report, chaired by former state Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso, is scathing in its criticism of the campus response on November 18, 2011.
KSTP Photographer Requests Investigation Into Occupy Incident
A KSTP news photographer who was pushed by a Minneapolis police officer while doing his job, officially requested an internal police investigation Wednesday.
Chad Nelson was covering the arrests of occupy protestors in downtown Minneapolis Saturday when a Minneapolis police officer pushed him, causing him to drop his camera. Nelson was not injured.
http://tinyurl.com/852d65j
Occupy Detroit planning to build ‘tent city’ in Detroit’s Brightmoor neighborhood
Months after a weeks-long camp at Grand Circus Park, organizers from Occupy Detroit will be staging another demonstration in the city’s Brightmoor neighborhood.
On Friday, the group will build a “tent city” at the corner of Westfield and Appoline streets. Organizers are hoping to draw attention to foreclosures, unemployment, ex-cons unable to find jobs and veterans unable to get mortgages.
“What was going on in Grand Circus Park was an expressed sentiment of what’s widespread,” Writer Bush told MLive. “It is an extension. It’s along the same lines that’s widespread dissatisfaction that’s expressed all of the place.”
Occupy Eugene Planning Zombie Bank Protest
Occupy Eugene once again plans to protest Bank of America. The Zombie Bank Protest aims to show citizens how the government bailed Bank of America out and simply resurrected the bank. The group calls this bad business. Protesters hope their message resonates.
“This is a fun way for us to express our message in a different way how corrupt Bank of America is, and we want to encourage people to move their money out of the bank into local community credit unions,” said Occupy Eugene activist Reid Kimball.
http://tinyurl.com/cgvuzkr
Audience Stars In Occupy Movement Inspired Play
Demos is a verbatim play which presents two examples of working democracy, recorded in minutes taken from the General Assembly for Occupy London Stock Exchange camp at St Paul’s Cathedral, and the Hansard record for Prime Minister’s questions a day later.
With over 50 parts, the audience will play a key role in the performance by reading out lines from the script of Demos, which is available to read and download.
http://tinyurl.com/cnokl6g
Occupy Returns to Its Roots With ‘Sleepful Protests’
When covering what was called the “first real occupation” of 2012 in San Francisco last week, I posed the question: could Occupy Wall Street still be Occupy Wall Street without ongoing occupations? It appears the movement itself is struggling with that same question as OWS ponders various protest tactics.
The newest strategy is called “sleepful protest” (#sleepfulprotest, for Twitter users). Over the weekend, Occupy DC activists established what they hoped would be a permanent, though purely symbolic, camp outside a Bank of America branch near the White House. The “camp” was only one tent, but activists thought its presence was important to remind people of Occupy’s roots.
Riverwest protesters to ask Waukesha County clerk to resign
Milwaukee group identifying itself as Occupy Riverwest says it will protest at the Waukesha County Courthouse and Administration Center from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday to call on Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus to resign immediately.
Because of a record of election night reporting errors, Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas last week called on Nickolaus to either resign or step aside at least for the May and June state recall elections, and she agreed to hand off her election duties to her deputy clerk.
In a news release, the protest organizers said that action does not go far enough to restore faith in Wisconsin’s election system. The protest is being organized through a Facebook page and offers a free bus ride from the Riverwest Public House to the protest site.
http://tinyurl.com/bvop4n4
From Radical Agenda to Radical Practice Chomsky’s Occupy
The latest publication from the new Occupied Media Pamphlet Series brings together several of Chomsky’s intersections with the Occupy movement. There’s a lecture he gave at Occupy Boston in October 2011, an interview in January 2012 with a student about the meaning of Occupy, a conference call with hundreds of Occupiers later that same month, a subsequent speech on “occupying foreign policy” at the University of Maryland, and a brief tribute to his friend and co-agitator Howard Zinn.
Camosun students take over campus radio station to protest cuts
Camosun students have taken over the campus radio station and plan to march on the president’s office today to protest cuts to the college’s applied communication program.
Communication students and alumni are taking turns on air, alternating music with talk breaks to explain the loss of their program and the Village 900 CKMO station, which livestreams online.
Marielle Moodley, who was on the air this morning, said protesters have also put up banners around campus and set up social media sites opposing the cuts, and intend to occupy the radio station overnight Wednesday.
http://tinyurl.com/d9faav2
Anti-cuts ‘street parties’ to rival Queen’s diamond jubilee and Olympics
Anti-cuts campaigners are planning to stage a series of alternative street parties before the Queen’s diamond jubilee celebrations and the Olympics to highlight opposition to the government’s austerity programme.
They are calling on supporters to close roads and occupy public spaces as part of a nationwide anti-cuts campaign this summer.
The group says it has no plans to directly disrupt either the jubilee celebrations in June or the Olympics, which begin on 27 July, but wants supporters to stage “street parties with a twist” on its first day of action on 26 May.
London 2012 Olympics: Anti-BP activists carry out sponsor sacking hoax as protests grow
A group calling themselves the Campaign for a Sustainable Olympics (Camsol) created their own version of the London 2012 site and posted a story claiming Locog had axed the oil company as one of their sustainability partners.
The cyber trick, which follows on from Trenton Oldfield’s disruption of last weekend’s Boat Race, has prompted fresh fears that protest movements are stepping up their campaigns against the Games.
A collection of dissenting groups, organised by the Counter Olympics Network, will meet in central London on Saturday to co-ordinate their strategies.
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