Feed the Hood delivers to JP’s needy
An activist who distributes food to needy Jamaica Plain residents is planning a “legendary” fund-raiser in Roxbury to continue his efforts to feed JP’s hungry.
Organizer Jamarhl Crawford is bringing the Last Poets, a group of poets and musicians originally organized during the 1960s, to Roxbury to raise funds to continue his work with the Feed The Hood and Fill Your Fridge programs.
In Feed the Hood, Crawford and his helpers buy good-quality, healthy food and cook it either at home or at a near-by church. Then they drive around, handing the food to those who need it, mostly the city’s homeless population.
Wall Street CEO pay rises 20 percent in 2011, despite losses in corporate value
In the aftermath of the financial crisis, the subsequent Occupy movement and the protests against the 1 percent, you might think that financial corporations would rein in the multi-million dollar salaries paid to their CEOs.
Instead, compensation to the best-paid CEOs at the largest U.S.-based financial companies collectively rose by an average of 20.4 percent in 2011, according to a new report from Bloomberg Markets magazine. This rise is even more surprising in light of the fact that 33 of the 50 biggest financial companies had negative share returns in their 2011 fiscal years. High-level investment managers maintain that many of the CEOs of companies with underwhelming stock performance are overpaid and warn that the controversy over executive pay in the financial industry will not be resolved until shareholders hold executives fully accountable for their under-performance.
http://tinyurl.com/7eauhfh
Judge Upholds Ban on NDAA Detentions – Rejects Obama Call to ‘Reconsider’ Decision
Judge Katherine Forest has upheld her previous ban on the use of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) provisions that allowed the president to summarily detain “terror suspects” in military custody for indefinite periods of time with no legal oversight.
In her initial ruling, Forest had accepted the arguments from a number of political dissidents, including Noam Chomsky and Daniel Ellsberg, that they had a reasonable fear that they could be disappeared off the street and held in military custody for constitutionally protected political speech. The Administration did not argue that they wouldn’t be detained, but insisted that since they hadn’t been detained yet they had no standing to contest the law.
Citizens United Stamp Campaign Launching
Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream and the Move to Amend campaign are working together to get a constitutional amendment repealing Citizens United.
The Citizens United Supreme Court decision has opened the floodgates to unlimited money in elections from extremely wealthy individuals and corporations.
They and Occupy activists across the country are distributing stamps to be printed on US dollar bills that says: “Corporations are not people,” “Money is not speech;” and “Not to be used for bribing politicians.”
http://tinyurl.com/bqeay88
Occupy Caravan takes off to the National Gathering
The Occupy Caravan is an ever-expanding crew of people getting together for a two-week journey across the US. There are two starting points, Los Angeles and San Francisco- and the San Francisco caravan is taking off June 11. The caravans will stop at Occupy sites along the way for protests, education and entertainment, before arriving in Philadelphia for the June 30 Occupy National Gathering.
http://tinyurl.com/84jkfpj
Battling over Occupy
(video)
Occupy Wall Street’s mass demonstrations are less visible in public. Their message of wealth and inequality, however, continues to ring in mainstream politics.
http://tinyurl.com/d4bvorw
Can Occupy Wall Street survive?
While the movement’s signature triumph has been to draw worldwide attention to income inequality in America and elsewhere, some who are sympathetic say it has nevertheless failed a crucial test of social movements: the ability to adapt and grow through changing tactics.
“Most of the social scientists who are at all like me – unsentimental leftists – … think this movement is over,” said Harvard University professor Theda Skocpol, a liberal academic who wrote a book on the Tea Party.
She and others wonder whether Occupy will ever really thrive without solid footing in the mainstream of American political discourse.
Bill Dobbs of Occupy New York’s press team takes a different view. He compares the OWS struggle to that of America’s civil rights movement – long and uphill, with broad goals to radically alter American society. The first step, he said, has been to re-animate America’s long-dormant spirit of social activism.
http://tinyurl.com/6t57ea7
‘Twilight of the Elites’ explores dissolution of American society
Chris Hayes’ new book, “Twilight of the Elites,” posits twin theories about the state of America. The first is that there is what he calls a “crisis of authority,” where elites have so disgraced themselves that there is a dangerous distrust of all major institutions. The second is that “the meritocracy” – the idea that we get ahead based on nothing but our inherent talent – is largely to blame for this crisis.
For Hayes, the meritocracy has created a class of distant, corrupt, cloistered elites and wildly escalated the levels of inequality in the country.
DREAM Act Protesters Occupy Obama Campaign Office In Denver
Two activists on a hunger strike occupied a Colorado campaign office for President Barack Obama on Thursday to demand that he sign an executive order allowing children of illegal immigrants to enroll in college and the military and pursue U.S. citizenship.
Obama campaign staffers were using a back door to access the Denver field office as the protesters occupied a couch. The office was closed to the public.
Veronica Gomez, 24, of Antioch, Calif., and Javier Hernandez, 23, of Denver, vowed to only drink fluids until Obama implements the DREAM Act, which would allow the children of illegal immigrants to enroll in college or the military as a way to eventually establish citizenship or permanent residency in the U.S.
http://tinyurl.com/6pxth9o
Sarasota protesters plan rally during Gov. Rick Scott’s visit
A group of protesters led by Occupy Sarasota plan to rally against Gov. Rick Scott’s voting purge during his planned visit to Sarasota today.
Scott is scheduled to be the keynote speaker of a legislative wrap-up luncheon sponsored by the Argus Foundation at Longboat Key Club.
Meanwhile, protesters hope to give him an unwelcome greeting at 11 a.m. at New Pass Bridge, which serves as the main connection between Lido and Longboat keys, and the closest demonstrators can likely get to the private club.
http://tinyurl.com/8388388
Arrested Photographer Says Chicago Cops Stole His Film
A photographer who just wanted to snap a photo of Wednesday night’s Occupy protest ended up with handcuffs snapped on him and his film swiped from his camera.
Marc Moran was heading to a party at the InterContinental Hotel on Michigan Avenue when he noticed the protests going on down the street.
“It looked like a photo opportunity,” he said.”So I went to go snap a picture and next thing I know I was being apprehended in cuffs.”
L.A. leaders vote to ban tents in parks in effort to thwart new Occupy protest
Looking to reopen the City Hall lawn without sparking a new and protracted occupation by demonstrators, the Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to bar tents from being set up in more than 400 parks.
Wednesday’s vote also explicitly prohibits using sleeping bags or cots in a park once it closes for the day. The changes were spearheaded by Councilman Richard Alarcon, who supported the Occupy movement that brought encampments to major cities around the nation.
http://tinyurl.com/bs422s3
Fresno County and Occupy protesters reach deal
Fresno County officials and Occupy Wall Street protesters have reached a settlement they say will end their battle over public protests.
The Fresno Bee ( http://bit.ly/KYQtml) reports that as part of the agreement, the county will allow Occupy Fresno to protest overnight for three days during the year, beginning next month.
In exchange, the protesters will drop a lawsuit claiming that the county is violating their rights to free speech.
NY Judge Lets Occupy Lawsuit Proceed Against NYPD
A New York judge is letting a lawsuit proceed against city police officers in the arrest of 700 “Occupy Wall Street” protesters last year as they marched across the the Brooklyn Bridge.
Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan said in a written ruling Thursday that the marchers had adequately backed up their claims that they were not properly warned by officers that they would be arrested on the bridge. During the October 1 march, protesters overflowed onto the roadway and were arrested.
The protesters claimed the police officers entrapped them.
http://tinyurl.com/7bv26lx
The Wisconsin Uprising Lives On
What happened to that grassroots energy that inspired students, faculty, public and private union workers, sometimes in numbers exceeding 100,000, to hold mass demonstrations and occupy the Capitol building in the biggest pro-labor disruption in recent history? Were their efforts simply swallowed up by the big-money behemoth of mainstream electoral politics?
Not exactly, say the activists that helped start it all. It’s more complicated than that. And even though Walker will remain in the governor’s mansion, the grassroots movement that originally swelled to combat his right-wing policies has not simply withered away into obscurity.
“I do agree that a lot of the energy of the movement and especially the occupation has been co-opted, but not fully,” said Schmidt. “We have maintained … we have networked a lot, a lot of things are happening on the ground.”
SF Occupiers are eager to move takeover charges to full trials, skip deals
Members of Occupy San Francisco facing criminal charges related to the takeover of two vacant buildings are being urged by fellow activists to occupy the court system by rejecting any plea deals from prosecutors.
“We’re advocating for no deals,” said Robb Benson, an active Occupy SF member. He added that the movement must now “occupy the court system” for demonstrators facing charges.
“I think this should go to jury trial,” agreed protester Mike Zint, 45. “Let a jury decide.”
http://tinyurl.com/844oubt
Occupy inspires new feminist activism in Ireland
One offshoot of the current social and economic crisis is an Irish feminist renaissance, with dynamic new activist movements poised to bring about social change. One of these is the Irish Feminist Network. Founded in 2010, it aims to make feminism accessible and particularly speaks to young people thanks to its use of social media. Co-ordinator Clara Fischer explains the IFN’s success partly in terms of disillusionment with traditional political structures: “The politico-financial crisis has eroded people’s confidence in ‘authorities’ – be these bankers, politicians, economists etc – and has led to a questioning of those in positions of power.”
Dublin’s Occupy movement has also inspired fresh feminist initiatives. Activist Gillian Barden, integral to Occupy Dame Street and now a core member of Unlock NAMA, had never seen her gender as a barrier to social participation before Occupy. She says: “I found myself in the predominately male world of activism and politics, wondering ‘where are all the women?’ Being exposed to aggressive gender dynamics was a very upsetting learning curve.” A women’s movement is now blossoming out of Occupy, with social gatherings leading to plans for feminist political activism. Barden warns: “Austerity and poverty are not gender blind and neither should we be.”
The Mexican Student Movement Is Younger & Faster than “Occupy”
Another big march – really, at least 52 marches throughout the country – will occur on Sunday in Mexico City. It will be the second by the nascent “YoSoy132” (“I Am 132”) mobilization by students who oppose the commercial media’s imposition of a presidential candidate in the upcoming July 1 election. Authentic journalist Isadora Bonilla has reported about the march plans on Narco News, and one need only read the guidelines for the march (I’ve translated them to English, here) to see that this is different and more disciplined than previous protests in Mexico and in many parts of the world.
. . .
Thos are the instructions that appear on the March’s Facebook page and, now, for the first time elsewhere on the Internet.
It struck me, reading the guidelines, that it has been decades since I have seen any march of this size include a pledge by participants with that much discipline and awareness that the march is about influencing public opinion (in other words, not about “us” but about everyone). It reminds more of the guidelines from the victorious struggles of Ghandi to win independence from colonial rule in India, the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s and the anti-nuclear movement of the 70s. Impressive that they came up with these in less than a month!
http://tinyurl.com/7dvvngl
Spain Holds a Trump Card in Bank Bailout Negotiations – It’s Too Big to Fail
The bargaining has begun over a deal to rescue Spain’s ailing banks, confronting Europe with urgent choices about whether to try to enforce onerous bailout terms on Madrid as the crisis spreads to the region’s largest economies.
The question has seemingly become one of when, and not if, Spain’s banks will receive assistance from European countries, with investors on Wednesday predicting an imminent rescue and pushing up stocks and bonds on both sides of the Atlantic.
Spain, the euro zone’s fourth-largest economy, is too big to fail and possibly too big to steamroll, changing the balance of power in negotiations over a bailout. Political leaders in Madrid are insisting that emergency aid to their banks avoid the stigma in capital markets that has hobbled countries like Greece, Portugal and Ireland after accepting tough rescue terms. They are also fighting to slow the pace of austerity and economic change that have pushed those smaller countries into deeper recessions.
http://tinyurl.com/7nnwvbf
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