Showing posts with label Occupy Wall Street. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Occupy Wall Street. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Occupy No. 9 - "Unscrew the locks from the doors!"

by Jack Brummet

Thanks to Walt Whitman for the quote. See the footnote [1] (a/k/a what Ed Sanders coined a "satellite data cluster") for details on the images on the poster.

[1]  Notes on the images:  a sign on Wall St. itself; a stealth banner on Ballard's Market Street (Ballard is Jack's neighborhood in Seattle) that was removed after one day; Giotto's painting of Jesus rousting the moneychangers outside the temple; the New York Stock Exchange Building, photographer unknown; a scene from from the film "Frankenstein" (the source of the ever-popular torches and pitchforks meme...before memes had that name); an engraving of the "Storming of the Bastille"; "take out the trash is a reference to one of the best episodes of "The West Wing."
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Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Monday, November 21, 2011

The Founding Fathers Get Pepper-sprayed

A friend of ATIT—Teresa Thiessen—found this images on Google+.  It seems to have been created by misanthropologist Sean Bonner.


click to enlarge
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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Tomorrow and the Occupy Uprising

It will be fascinating to see what happens tomorrow with the Occupy Uprising, following a week of police actions and broken up encampments in Oakland, Portland, and NYC, along with many other cities.


From the Occupywallst.org web site:

Posted 18 hours ago on Nov. 15, 2011, 8:40 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement Persevere

The feeling here at Liberty Square tonight is the feeling of a movement that is rising, building, and making headway.

Following the 1am eviction of Liberty Square early this morning and a long day of legal wrangling, the park was reoccupied late this afternoon. This evening, just after 7pm, the first General Assembly at the reoccupied park began. Using our 'people's mic', we declared together:

"They showed us their power. And we're showing them ours."

We are here because we believe a better world is possible. We are willing to endure mistreatment, if by doing so we can help re-enfranchise the 99% and reclaim our democracy from the stranglehold of Wall Street and the top one percent.

We will push back against billionaire Michael Bloomberg and any politician who wantonly tramples on proud American freedoms: freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and the freedom of Americans to peaceably assemble and petition for change.

We will overcome the obstacles placed before us. We will not be deterred. We will persevere. Our message is resonating across America, and our cause is shared by millions around the world. We are the 99%, and we want to live in a world that is for all of us — not just for those who have amassed great wealth and power.

You cannot evict an idea whose time has come.

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Sunday, November 13, 2011

Sometimes it feels like #OccupyWallStreet is moving onto Main Street (I just saw a great banner on Ballard's Market Street)

By Jack Brummet, OWS Editor

I'm starting to see more and more signs that some of the messages and aims of Occupy Wall Street are sinking in.  Sarah Palin makes speeches that include some of the foundation planks of OWS; Republicans in the debates admit--somewhat begrudgingly--that, well, yeah, maybe things are not as equitable as they should be.  I've seen the mainstream press slowly begin to acknowledge that whatever's happening in the hundreds of OWS encampments across the country (and in over 100 other countries) may be real, and may just change the 2012 elections.  Even Fox News at times acknowledges "there's something happening here; what it is ain't exactly clear..."

Today, as I was walking along Market Street in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood, I stumbled on this banner, hung below a sign for the Nordic Heritage Museum's annual YuleFest (Nordic cuisine, crafts and gifts, Santa, entertainment, brats and beer).  It's a nice juxtaposition, whoever did it--crafts and gifts and Santa and then thunk! "GIVE BACK THE BONUSES."

click to enlarge
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Thursday, November 03, 2011

A great piece by Beverly Gage, in Slate, on the Occupy Uprising, and what comes next

By Jack Brummet, Occupy Uprising Editor


A great article by Beverly Gage, a Yale history professor, on the Occupy Uprising, and what may be in store in the future, based on the fate of earlier movements that attempted to provoke and force social and economic change.  Thanks to Neil McIlvaine for passing this one along.

"As they sort out what to do next, the Occupiers might take a page from the history of American labor, the only social movement that has ever made a real dent in the nation’s extremes of wealth and poverty."

You can read the slate article here.

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Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Hello! Why do I occupy?

Occupytogether.org put out this name tag template for you to use.  Click and save the top to use as a template in Photoshop, or print it out and do it by hand. . .



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Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Focus in the Occupy Wall Street Uprising

By Jack Brummet, OWS Editor

I'm not sure we're going about Occupy Wall Street the right way.  Should we be focused on Washington, D.C.?


Bankers, let's face it, have never had our interest at heart, and never will.  In fact, quite the contrary.  Their mission is to subtly--and even overtly--bone us every step of the way.  Is anyone really surprised about the excesses and the outrages we've seen take place since Congress cut away the fetters with deregulation?


I'm sure the abuses go back much further, but we know that the one time Jesus actually became angry was when he encountered the money-changers, a/k/a bankers, at the temple. (This is the only account of Jesus using physical force in any of the Gospels). You can find the story at Mark 11:15–19, 11:27–33, Matthew 21:12–17, 21:23–27, Luke 19:45–48, 20:1–8 , and John 2:13–16).


We shouldn't expect much from the bankers.  During the Great Depression, when they were also largely ungoverned, they foreclosed on many millions of people, just as they have in the Great Depression II.  Bankers do what bankers do. . .they chafe under regulation, and go ape when they are periodically set free.  But we should expect more--much much more--from the politicians we pay in the mid-six figures to defend our interests.  Alas, those six figure salaries, franking privileges, fat pensions, platinum insurance, cars, large staffs, air travel, earmarks for the home district that insure re-election, and expense accounts, can't hold a candle to the satchels of cash delivered by special interest groups.  As you know, one of the most pernicious and insidious special interest groups are the banks.  And they are outbidding us every step of the way for the services of the legislators and staff we already pay a pretty penny to secure.


I think OWS is doing the right thing.  And it feels like the uprising is maturing, and growing.  But it would be nice to focus a little more on the politicians, hacks, and functionaries--both the corrupt ones, and the Good Germans, who go along to get along.
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Asked and answered. Geraldo didn't like the answer; he shouldn't have asked the question.

By Jack Brummet, OWS Editor



Gerald Rivera, on Fox News the other night, asked an occupier at Zuccotti Park "So what's your goal?"

The Occuper responded, "My goal here is to occupy everything possible.  I think what you're seeing here, Geraldo, is a large amount of people that have been deeply and profoundly fucked by the system."

Geraldo felt the need to apologize for that answer to his "viewers."
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Monday, October 31, 2011

Risky, hopeful, ambitious, unlikely, fascinating: A General Strike in Oakland

By Jack Brummet, #OWS Editor

On October 26, the following was passed by the Occupy Oakland General Assembly:

"We as fellow occupiers of Oscar Grant Plaza propose that on Wednesday November 2, 2011, we liberate Oakland and shut down the 1%."

"We propose a city wide general strike and we propose we invite all students to walk out of school. Instead of workers going to work and students going to school, the people will converge on downtown Oakland to shut down the city."



"All banks and corporations should close down for the day or we will march on them."

"While we are calling for a general strike, we are also calling for much more. People who organize out of their neighborhoods, schools, community organizations, affinity groups, workplaces and families are encouraged to self organize in a way that allows them to participate in shutting down the city in whatever manner they are comfortable with and capable of."

"The whole world is watching Oakland. Let’s show them what is possible."

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Thursday, October 27, 2011

A.T.I.T Occupy Posters










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Oakland: A disproportionate response

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Editor

Re-occupy Oakland?  Yes, there are Molotov cocktails on the poster. No, we don't advocate violence in OWS. . .but we also know that is where this all leads, if the police, tactical squads, SWAT teams, and God forbid, the National Guard, insist on using violence against peaceful protestors.   Passive resistance, unfortunately, only lasts so long when faced with a disproportionate response like we saw in Oakland yesterday.

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Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Occupy Wall Street Photos from last week - Part 2

By Jack Brummet, Uprisings Editor

For Part 1 of these Occupy Wall Street Photos, go here. 

Click photos to enlarge.












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Occupy Wall Street Photos from last week - Part 1

By Jack Brummet, Uprisings Editor

I spent a couple of hours last week downtown at Zuccotti Park/Occupy Wall Street.  It was fascinating--particularly the hundreds of mainstream, sidestream, and downstream media there attempting to come up with a story, or some unique angle on a story. . .

Click images to enlarge.

















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