OWS Documentary: "History of an Occupation"

March 30 2012

Race, Gender, and Occupy
By Sweta Vohra and Jordan Flaherty, Fault Lines
A version of this article originally appeared on the Al Jazeera website

At a recent panel discussion on the Occupy movement, a left-leaning professor from New York University speculated that identity politics – the prioritizing of issues of race and gender in movements for justice – could be a plot funded by the CIA to undermine activism. While most commentators do not go this far, the idea that activists who focus on these issues are “undermining the struggle” has a long history within progressive organizing. And in Occupy Wall Street encampments around the country these debates have often exploded into public view.

For the past six months, we have been following the Occupy movement for a two-part documentary on Occupy for Fault Lines. We have spent weeks in conversation with activists as they have planned actions and struggled to keep their movement relevant through a cold winter. And organizers have told us repeatedly that they feel these discussions around race and gender, far from weakening the movement, have lent it strength and made organizing more accountable to the communities most affected by the economic crisis.

The process of challenging structural oppression has been difficult. We spoke to many women and people of color who felt pushed out of Occupy. Some activists, already bruised by dismissive media coverage, tried not to let these conflicts show. When internal conflicts would arise they tried to not let it happen on camera. But what we did observe are many fiercely intelligent activists dedicated to waging these struggles within Occupy and strengthening the movement with their work.

The 99 per cent

When people gathered in Zuccotti Park on September 17, the anger at corporate greed was a unifying call. This was a protest that in large part was about shifting power from the wealthy to the many. It was a mostly white crowd, but it sought to incorporate a wide range of voices.

The economic crisis in the US had made the white middle class question their future. Soaring unemployment rates, suffocating student loan debt, and thousands of foreclosures began to close in. This reality propelled the Occupy movement forward. And many feel that the presence of so many relatively privileged white people brought increased media attention and public sympathy.

Organizers told us they immediately saw the next step as needing to raise awareness among the many young people new to activism that came flocking to occupations. “It’s the job of the social justice movement to continue that conversation,” says Max Rameau, a co-founder of Take Back the Land, who has advised many of the Occupies.

He told us that occupiers need to “make sure this isn’t just a movement of the way white people have gone from being able to every day shop at particular malls, and now they have to shop at reduced, discount stores … this has to do, really, about inequality and long-term inequality, including communities who have suffered for years, not just because of the recent economic downturn.”

Many women reported harassment in the camp, and even assault – especially those that stayed overnight. “I think there were some (Occupy camps) that allowed homophobia and sexism to thrive in a really significant way,” says Rameau. “I think homophobia and sexism in society exist everywhere, but were allowed to thrive in some of these areas.”

Manissa Maharawal, a PhD student and Occupy activist, said: “I love the discourse of the 99 per cent. I think it’s great, I think it’s been really unifying. But I would like it to go along with saying something like: ‘We are the 99 per cent, but the way that we experience the 99 per cent can be very different’.”

Jack Bryson, a 49-year-old Black public service worker, became an activist after his sons witnessed the killing of their friend Oscar Grant at the hands of transit police in Oakland. When he heard that Occupy Oakland had named their camp Oscar Grant Plaza, he came to check it out. He was excited by what he found, but also thought many young white activists he met had a lot to learn about poverty and repression. “The black community, for 400 years, [have] always been the 99 per cent,” Bryson said. “Welcome to our world.”

Bryson was one of many who told us that Occupy activists needed to understand the ways in which communities of color experience the criminal justice system. He noted that Occupy Oakland had faced intense police repression. But, he told us, what many failed to realize was that police brutality is a daily fact of life in many communities. “Black, young men … would love to come out here. But what happens here, with the police? It happens on Saturday nights to Black young men leaving a nightclub, or a black young man going into a gas station and being followed by the police.”

Boots Riley, a hip-hop artist and Occupy Oakland organizer, told us that he hopes the Occupy movement can challenge the ways that people have viewed policing. “I think that what happens normally is the media has most of white America looking at people of color as deficient, savage, and when they see something happen to them by police they believe that it was somehow their fault,” says Riley. “Our ideas and views about the police are very tied in to our ideas and views about why people are poor.”

If OWS wanted to be a movement that was going to shift power in the US, these organizers felt it had to come to terms with the fundamental differences in the ways that communities of color experienced racism, how women experienced patriarchy, and how queer and transgender communities experienced homophobia and gender bias. If Occupy Wall Street wanted to talk about envisioning an alternative community, activists would first have to face their own privilege.

That awareness has involved active engagement by white anti-racists, as well as the activists of color who committed deeply to the movement, despite often facing attacks for bringing up issues of race and gender.

“I was totally impressed by the leadership that was coming from young people of color, young women of color,” activist and scholar Angela Davis told us in a conversation about Occupy camps she visited on the East coast.

“I think it’s good that there’s some white men getting involved, but they also have to recognize that, in order to be involved in this campaign of the 99 per cent against the one per cent, we have to recognize that the 99 per cent is hierarchically developed by itself.”

Davis told us that Occupy was indebted to a long history of direct action led by women and by people of color. She specifically noted the legacy of resistance in prisons, led by those behind bars. “Let’s recognize that we’re not artificially imposing these issues on the Occupy movement,” added Davis. “The Occupy movement has organically risen from those movements.”

For Lisa Fithian, one of many white activists who seeks to challenge race and gender bias in the movement, this consciousness raising is a crucial part of struggling for justice.”What I teach is that those with more privileges whether because your color of your skin, your gender, your education, whatever, how do you use those privileges strategically to raise those of all?”

“We have to take our privileges, become conscious and use them to actively change the social relationships, and access, and availability of resources,” she added.

Blocking the process

Manissa Maharawal, a South Asian woman, has been one of Occupy Wall Street’s most eloquent and passionate defenders. But she almost walked out of the movement on one of her very first visits to Zuccotti Park. When she, along with several people of color, stood up in front of hundreds of people to block a proposal at a very early Occupy Wall Street assembly, she felt anger and hostility from many of those present. She says it’s “still one of the more intimidating things that I’ve had to do in my life”. The proposal was for a document called the Declaration of the Occupation, and she felt language in the document erased oppression faced by people of color.

She did not want to have to block the proposal and face the angry stares of hundreds of people. However, says Maharawal, it’s something she had to do. “What struck me then was that if I want Occupy to be something that’s around for a long time in my life … it needs from the very beginning to be a movement that’s taking these things on,” she explained. “And that is thinking about not just corporate greed and financial institutions, but is thinking about how these things are connected to racism, to patriarchy, to oppression generally.”

Ultimately, Maharawal and others who agreed with her succeeded in changing the language of the declaration. Nearly two months later, one of the white male activists who had expressed his frustration with her came up to her to thank her for her intervention. “I’m really glad you did that, I learned a lot right then,” he told her.

“Making these connections is difficult, it’s been like constant work in this movement,” says Maharawal. But, she adds, “this stuff doesn’t feel like minutia, it feels fundamental to me”. She says this movement is about creating a real alternative to our current system, and, for her, that means fighting these systemic issues. “Why are we going to create a system that just re-creates all these oppressions? That recreates racism, that recreates oppression, that recreates gender hierarchy. Why would I want to be a part of that?”

Sweta Vohra and Jordan Flaherty are producers of Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines. Fault Lines presents two special programs on the Occupy movement premiering March 20 & 27.

Occupy Wall Street's March Against Police Brutality

Πηγή: Gothamist
By Christopher Robbins
March 25 2012

Fourteen demonstrators were arrested yesterday in a meandering march from Zuccotti Park to Union Square to protest NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly and his department. A majority of the arrests were for disorderly conduct, though the NYPD did not choose to enforce a rule in Union Square which requires demonstrations larger than 20 people to obtain a permit.

Councilmembers Jumaane Williams and Ydanis Rodriguez, who have been supporters of the Occupy movement and fierce critics of the NYPD's stop-and-frisk practices, marched and acted as observers. "My primary job is to make sure everybody's rights are protected and nobody is harmed," Williams told the Guardian's Ryan Devereaux. "I think we're seeing the frustration and anger raised on both sides, the protesters and the police and I blame that squarely on the mayor and the commissioner."

Williams added that Commissioner Kelly (who makes a mean meatball) and Mayor Bloomberg "refuse to acknowledge there's a problem with the culture within the NYPD."

Political Tyranny of the Few and the Mankind

Πηγή: International.to World News
By Mahboob A. Khawaja

Dec 21 2011

The people’s revolution in America, Europe and across the globe called “Occupy Movement” has articulated inspiration from the struggle of the Egyptian people against the authoritarian tyranny at Tahrir Square to emerge as a force of courage and imagination for New Thinking and Change uniting the humanity as ONE against the tyranny of the few bankers, corporate warlords, billionaires, politicians and blood sucking draculas of the so called democracy who have never known homelessness, nor experienced poverty, unemployment and being outcastes in an overwhelming man-made class system of the few.

(On the US politicians) “A gregarious type who has a big ego; who speaks with a hypocritical forked-tongue to different audiences; who can deceive other people while looking them in the eye; a narcissistic who yet is so insecure or greedy that they can be bought-off by lobbyists and dance as their puppet while appearing to show leadership…” James A. Marples (“Any wheat in this political field?”)

America is a land of opportunities but its politics is primitive, egoistic and an obstruction to the innovative and creative thinking of the American masses. So much so, the common folks appear to have lost interest in the dull and non-productive politics of the 21st century US governance. If the CNN and Wolf Blitzer are to be believed of today’s reporting, American masses give only 16% approval grading and 83% disapprove the role and working of the present politically divided Congress. This outcomes of the assessment makes the legitimacy of the US politics irrelevant and in dire NEED of change and adaptability to the futuristic demands of a new age - a new generation so reasonably antagonistic to the traditional establishments kept disconnected with the people and operated solely by the lobbyists and corporate interests.

Strangely enough, President Obama was elected on the distinct premise of change and the political slogan “Yes we can.” Once in the powerhouse, he turned out to be dysfunctional as far as logic and intellectual needs of the people of the United States are concerned. Form the Audacity of Hope to “Yes we Can”, he defied all the implications of REASON and responsibility and preferred complacency and continuation of the bogus War on Terrorism, political killings of innocent people across the globe and reversing publicly made legal commitments to close the infamous Guantanobay Terror Prison, and to normalize relations with the Muslim world. Take a cool breathe, don’t be shocked, we are not at the end of history, all politicians are outcome of self-centered interests, egomaniac ideals and individualistic absolutism. They simply use the symbols of democracy and publicly funded apparatus to get votes and then imagine their own game plan to count people as digits, numbers and databank to enhance their own political agendas. Indeed, democracy now can be described as off the people, buy the people, and far the people.

In his letter James A. Marples (“Any wheat in this political field?” The Topeks Capital Journal: CJonline.com, USA, 11/26/2011) shares few interesting perspectives on the American politicians: “A gregarious type who has a big ego; who speaks with a hypocritical forked-tongue to different audiences; who can deceive other people while looking them in the eye; a narcissistic who yet is so insecure or greedy that they can be bought-off by lobbyists and dance as their puppet while appearing to show leadership…..Many good people capable of running for elected office can’t or won’t put themselves into the political arena. The campaign season is too lengthy and the political gauntlet is plagued by reporters who are part paparazzi and part-cockroaches.”

Across the globe, the people’s movements in some 82 or more countries called “Occupy the Wall Street” and the sitting-in protests of the left over 99% mankind - the voices of reason against the systematic economic, social and political cruelty of the 1% - a revulsion against the greedy norms of billionaires and economically generated nobles of the 21st century. The corporate sponsored media has carved up myths against the 99% living mankind, not knowing and understanding the pains and anguish of the deprived citizens of the same republic while asking for defined agendas and listing of demands as if it was a court drama of argumentation. Long time ago, Shakespeare must have sensed the play of human deceits and paradoxes to put into a proper context. While the rich indulged in conspiracy and corruption, “the destiny of people coincided with the destiny of their monarch and nobles.

The 99% people of the human kind occupying the civic centers across the globe, question the criterion of insane satisfaction implied in the so called zones of economic prosperity and maintaining higher standards of living – an economic fantasy of the human illumination. All man-made systematic notions of life, be it the former Communism or the current work in progress under the Capitalism aim at exclusion of the fullest human values: moral, social, economic, political, intellectual and spiritual, the planners see what they want to implement as suitable to the genius of the few controlling agents of influence- bankers, military-industrial complexes and owners of free market stuff. They cite religion as primitive and irrelevant to the modern age but throughout history man’s fullest skills, aspiration and success has flourished through the nature and scope of the system of belief- Divine Religions. Unlike economic forecasts and speculative reasoning, Divine revelations have helped the mankind to rediscover their sense of moral, social and spiritual originality and values and to frame a dynamic outlook of life harmonizing material and spiritual dimensions leading to peace, moral and intellectual freedom, new ideas and ideals for the future and a universal context to the besieged humanity. Thus facilitating the scattered mankind a focused forum to organize a universal character of unity – “WE THE PEOPLE” the beginning of the American Declaration of Independence, The UNO Charter, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and so many other global manifestos and statements - all have one way or other violated the very essence of the written covenants and victimized the large segment of mankind of which they were intended to be defending the cause. The 99% occupying protesters and victims of police brutalities - we the people could not gain what was promised to them by the solid covenants via the democratic system of governance - a clear travesty of moral, social and economic justice. Imagine what rational foundation is there for the democracy to be operational as a system of people’s governance.

James A. Marples (“Any wheat in this political field?” The Topeks Capital Journal: CJonline.com, USA, 11/26/2011) reminds the mankind:

“All of us are human. We are all sinners who have some portion of our past that would embarrass. Candidates should acknowledge shortcomings, not cover them up. Big money and established names dominate the field…..Out of a nation of more than 300 million souls why can’t we find some new, fresh faces? I’d rather see a motivated person of good character who might have little experience run for office than a dubious character with a long resume and fake Hollywood looks…….

I’d like to see lobbyists barred from personally wining and dining candidates or officials. And the ultimate term limit, one term for any state or federal office, should be imposed. Then, an elected official would be barred from government service of lobbying for three years, after which he or she could seek election or appointment of another state or federal position. Officials would be more apt to work for the peoples’ interests rather than their own. We need to separate the wheat from the chaff.”

Paul Craig Roberts (“Western Democracy: A Farce And A Sham”, 11/03/2011) points out that: “If you need more evidence of this mythical creature called “Western democracy,” consider that Western governments are no longer accountable to law…..In America the only thing that can ruin a politician is his interest in sex. A politician, for example, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, B. Obama, cannot be ruined by violating United States and international law or by treating the US Constitution as a “mere scrap of paper.” Bush and Cheney can take America to wars based entirely on lies and orchestrated deceptions. They can commit war crimes, murdering large numbers of civilians in the cause of “the war on terror,” itself a hoax. They can violate US and international laws against torture simply “because the president said so.” They can throw away habeas corpus, the constitutional requirement that a person cannot be imprisoned without evidence presented to a court. They can deny the right to an attorney. They can violate the law and spy on Americans without obtaining warrants. They can send due process to hell. In fact, they can do whatever they want just like Hitler’s Gestapo and Stalin’s secret police. But if they show undue interest in a woman or proposition a woman, they are dead meat.”

Gordon Duff Staff Writer and Senior Editor of Veterans Today (“DIPLOMAT, DRUG MULE OR TERRORIST?” 02/18/2011) spotlights the episode of Raymond Davis who killed two Pakistani national in cold blood murder at Lahore. President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called him a “diplomat”, in reality he was a CIA operative contractor involved in subversive and illegal activities across that land of the poor and deprived, managed by the US aid dollars including the Pakistani government – the PPP –Zardari’s thug operative governance and the army Generals on regular US payroll. We now call it diplomacy explains Gordon Duff and the thugs are “diplomats.”

“We can only imagine what they do. We have seen their parties, gay sex orgies in Kabul. We have seen the photos from Abu Ghraib. We have seen the bodies, children, women, the aged, anyone unable to duck gunfire from the window of a Humvee or black Chevy Tahoe…. What is Raymond Davis? ….. Raymond Davis has supplied the answer. His training? Davis is “black ops.”…..“Black ops” is the friendly term for terrorism, usually reserved for our enemies. ….. What Davis is accused of isn’t new. Americans have been arrested for driving around Afghanistan, shooting people at random, throwing hand grenades into crowds. Americans haven’t been arrested for breaking into homes, dozens of them, murdering entire families “by mistake.” Americans haven’t been arrested for drone attacks that seem to leave rows of corpses, always so many children among them, burned and dismembered, just like the photos of the “precision attacks” on Gaza….Is America telling Pakistan that Davis and his friends were on “official business?” Have they explained exactly what that business is? I can’t wait to hear this one.

Hey, what does it matter. Pakistan is notoriously corrupt. Wait a couple of weeks, slip a few hundred thousand bucks into the right pockets and it will all be forgotten.”

Paul Craig Roberts (“Western Democracy: A Farce and A Sham”, 11/03/2011): sums up the global politics, the specialized generic discipline of the few who at best are the contemporary warlords – the gatekeepers of the global democratic governance – an institutionalized duplicity funded by the people, chosen by the people and works against the people in all its intents and purposes and only for the good of the FEW - the 1% in question by the 99% masses of the planet - that symbolizes the election psyche “democracy at work.”

“In Amerika today, or in the UK and the EU, anyone who tells the truth is a “threat.” Julian Assange of Wikileaks, who made public information leaked to him by US government sources horrified by the criminal actions of the United States government….. Western “civilization” is totally corrupted by American money. There is no integrity anywhere. For a decade Washington has been murdering women, children, village elders, and journalists in the name of the hoax “war on terror…..
The only terrorists Americans will ever experience are those funded by their own tax dollars within their “own” government. A people incapable of perceiving its real peril has no chance of surviving. America might be a military superpower, but it no longer exists as a free country with accountable government and a rule of law.”

The US and West European nations appear bankrupt, not just financially or intellectually but also morally, socially, politically and spiritually too. All can be traced back to their warmongering and passion to dehumanize and kill the mankind looking different in color and taste and ethnicity. Nationalism made them fight against the rest of the humanity. But mankind is alive and progressive, whereas the European nobles, warlords and hegemonic leaders have died in disgrace and humiliating manners. Nobody would remember them as we do Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Should the intelligent ones not learn a lesson from the living history?

(Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja, an academic with special interests in global peace and security and conflict resolution, and comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of numerous publications in global affairs. His latest book includes: Arabia at Crossroads: Arab People Strive for Freedom, Peace and New Leadership. VDM Publishers, Germany, September 2011. Comments are welcome: kmahboob@yahoo.com)

New York, California hitting up millionaires, again

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, right, listens to State Senate Minority Leader John Sampson during a conversation, before a jobs bill signing ceremony held at Medgar Evers College on Friday, Dec. 9, 2011 in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Πηγή: Kyivpost
By AP
Dec 10 2011

Hollywood moguls and Manhattan stock brokers are facing a slap by the Occupy Wall Street movement as California and New York again target high-wage earners to address a continued fiscal crisis in the states.

On Wednesday, with the urging of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New York raised its top tax rate on single filers making $1 million and joint filers making $2 million, a rate just slightly under the 2008 income tax surcharge that expires Dec. 31.

Earlier this month in California, Gov. Jerry Brown said he, too, wants to avoid further cuts to education and social services by proposing a ballot initiative asking voters to increase taxes. That could hit Californians making over $250,000 a year.

"Occupy turned the political conversation on its head," said Richard Brodsky, a senior fellow at the Wagner School at New York University. "Time was austerity and tax cuts were the only acceptable place to be. Now, income inequality and the 99 percent dominate practical politics. OWS paved the way; Cuomo and Brown seized the moment."

There's no evidence of a national groundswell after more than a dozen states tapped their well-heeled residents for temporary income tax hikes from 2006-2009. But while most of those states let their temporary tax increases lapse as scheduled, New York and California this month went back to seeking revenue from the wealthy.

Despite the political rhetoric, there's less need in either state to act to make their tax brackets more fair. California and New York already have more progressive systems than most states, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation based in Washington, D.C.

"California and New York are historically not going to be the most fiscally conservative states," said Mark Robyn, an economist with the Tax Foundation. "To say they reflect the overall country's attitude to taxing the wealthy at a disproportionate rate, that might be tenuous."

California and New York are also among only four states, with Washington state and Missouri, to show deficits in a midyear survey by the National Conference of Legislatures, said the group's Mandy Rafool.

California faces a $3.7 billion shortfall for the current fiscal year and projected $12.8 billion deficit in 2013. New York learned of an unexpected $350 million deficit this year, and a higher projected deficit for the 2012-13 fiscal year of $3.5 billion.

But Rafool said there's no inkling more states will follow California and New York, although tax revenues are growing only slowly in most states.

"It's an election year and we're seeing that revenues are recovering, spending is stable," Rafool said. "This is better than in the last four years. It's still not good, but it's better."

She said she'd be surprised if other states follow New York and California.

Instead, the common thread is that each state's finances are worse than most other states, and their Democratic leadership has felt pressure from the Occupy Wall Street movement and other progressives.

In New York, an Occupy Albany movement has camped outside the state Capitol all fall. At first, Cuomo, a Democrat who ran as a fiscal conservative last year, tried to evict them, only to be stymied by the local Democratic district attorney and mayor. Occupy Albany called Cuomo "Gov. 1 Percent" for opposing a millionaire tax and saying it would drive employers out of state. The Occupy Wall Street movement claims that there is growing inequality between the wealthiest 1 percent of the population and the remaining 99 percent.

Meanwhile the Democratic Party that Cuomo heads and his progressive allies continued to push for a new millionaire tax to avoid more cuts to education and health care.

In November, Cuomo made a hard left and pushed for the millionaire tax increase passed Wednesday that includes a modest, but rare middle class tax break. The package also provided more spending for jobs programs.

"My job as governor is to make the best decision at the time to meet the needs of the state at the time," Cuomo said Wednesday.

"You're seeing it play out on college campuses," said the California state Senate's Democratic leader, Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento. "You're seeing it play out in different communities throughout California. There's a real sense that the pendulum in terms of the way we've had to deal with these budget deficits, has gone too far."

But while there may be an immediate payoff in cash and politics, the long-term wisdom of soaking the rich has long been questioned.

"As many states face increasingly large budget shortfalls that are often related to economic cycles, leaning on high-income earners and small businesses to pick up a disproportionate amount of the bill raises serious equity concerns and is bad for government revenue stability," said Scott Drenkard, an analyst with the Tax Foundation.

He notes many businesses, 94 percent of which file as individuals, and high-income earners have the most volatile income. If the economy continues to slip, they will have less revenue and that could further hurt businesses or prompt them to flee.

New York and California already share another distinction: They have experienced some of the greatest flight of taxpayers from 1999 to 2009 and have tax structures considered among the least attractive to businesses, according to the Tax Foundation.

"It reminds me of the Bob Dylan song, you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing," said Doug Muzzio, a Baruch College politics professor in New York City. He said continuing fiscal crisis and the Occupy Wall Street movement could force the same consideration elsewhere.

"Without any real evidence except for what I've seen here, I would think that the other states almost invariably will have to examine it," he said.

Wall Street Analyst Tries to 'Save The Big Banks From Themselves'

Πηγή: abcnews
By SUSANNA KIM

Dec 3 2011

Mike Mayo says he is on the front lines of Occupy Wall Street's battle, which is unusual coming from a Wall Street analyst.

A widely-followed managing director of brokerage firm CLSA, Mayo, 48, says the "intersection" between Occupy Wall Street protesters and Wall Street analysts is "bigger than anyone realizes."

On the 10th anniversary of Enron's collapse this week, Mayo lamented that three failures that contributed to the Texas energy company's bankruptcy still remain: faulty incentives, accountability and government regulations.

"The abuses in our financial system haven't gone away even after Enron and WorldCom, even after the mortgage crisis," he told ABC News. "The same problems that got us into what were the largest corporate bankruptcies at the time are still in place."

Enron's $65.5 billion bankruptcy in 2001 was the largest before WorldCom surpassed it in 2002 when it was worth over $100 billion, according to Business Insider. But in 2008, the $327.9 billion Chapter 11 bankruptcy of Washington Mutual and nearly $700 billion bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers would dwarf both.

Mayo, based in New York City, is careful about describing how he feels about Occupy Wall Street, which has rallied against what the movement sees as "corporate greed" and a wide range of economic issues.

"My concerns sound like some of the same concerns of Occupy Wall Street," he said.

But Mayo, who has worked for a total of six banks, never mentions the Occupy Wall Street movement in his book, "Exile on Wall Street: One Analyst's Fight to Save the Big Banks from Themselves," released weeks ago by publisher Wiley. He said he finished his book long before the Occupy Wall Street movement started in September -- at the time of Enron's collapse, when he was fired by one of his previous employers, Credit Suisse.

"This is my story -- written because the problems that I started writing about the time of Enron still exist today," he said. "Hopefully the book brings more visibility to the issues in a way that is accessible to the person on the street."

Mayo's first foray into the world of finance was as a staffer at the Federal Reserve in the late 1980s and early 90s, when Alan Greenspan was chairman. Mayo's "hero," however, is Greenspan's predecessor, Paul Volcker, who is credited with ending the high inflation that plagued the U.S. in the 70s and 80s.

"I respect him most because he never bought into the line—invariably offered by bankers—that regulators should do what's best for the banks because that will do the most good for the country," Mayo writes in his book. "Instead, [the goal of the Fed] is to ensure that the banking industry remains stable and helps our economy thrive."

Mayo says he believes in free markets, but failed incentives, accountability and the role of government in the world of finance is corrupting them.

As a case in point, Mayo writes that the CEOs of SunTrust and KeyCorp each made more than $20 million from 2008 through 2010, while their companies lost hundreds of millions of dollars.

"That's not capitalism; that's entitlement," Mayo writes.

"If we don't get it right in the free markets, there's going to be more regulation," he told ABC News. "The choice has been ours to lose. Allow free markets to operate as they should or have additional regulation and other outsiders determine the course of the conversation."

Critics of financial regulatory agencies such as the Securites and Exchange Commission say they have not acted diligently in investigating scams like Enron. Some victims of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme, the largest in history, blame the S.E.C. for having a blind eye to years of shady dealings. Many say the agencies do not have enough funding and power to regulate all malfeasance.

Mayo, at least, argues that companies should not be allowed to settle charges by the S.E.C. so easily, which he equates to just a slap on the wrist without admitting wrongdoing.

He applauded the dismissal this week by a judge in New York of a $285 million S.E.C. settlement with Citigroup over toxic mortgage securities. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff criticized regulators for hiding details from the public of Citigroup's alleged bets against mortgage investments in 2007, which led to investor losses.

Mayo said the dismissal was validation that settlements are not a deterrent to future wrongdoing.

"It's certainly a milestone but the problem is much bigger than any one decision by a judge about the S.E.C.," Mayo said about the judge's dismissal.

200 arrested as cops raid Occupy LA camp

A protester is arrested as Los Angeles police officers evict protesters from the Occupy Los Angeles encampment outside City Hall in Los Angeles Nov. 30, 2011.

Πηγή: CBS news

Nov 30 2011

LOS ANGELES - More than 1,400 police officers, some in riot gear, cleared the Occupy Los Angeles camp early Wednesday, driving protesters from a park around City Hall and arresting more than 200 who defied orders to leave. Similar raids in Philadelphia led to 52 arrests, but the scene in both cities was relatively peaceful.

Police in Los Angeles and Philadelphia moved in on Occupy Wall Street encampments under darkness in an effort to clear out some of the longest-lasting protest sites since crackdowns ended similar occupations across the country.

The Los Angeles officers staged for hours outside Dodger Stadium before the raid. They were warned that demonstrators might throw everything from concrete and gravel to human feces at them.

"Please put your face masks down and watch each other's back," a supervisor told them. "Now go to work."

The police operation was planned at night because downtown is mostly vacant, with offices closed, fewer pedestrians and less traffic, but a spokesman said it could make officers more vulnerable. "It's more difficult for us to see things, to see booby traps," Lt. Andy Neiman, told pool reporters. "Operating in the dark is never an advantage." Neiman said the force was prepared to deal with demonstrators holed up in the camp or those who had climbed up trees in the small park.

Before police arrived in large numbers in Los Angeles, protesters were upbeat and the mood was almost festive. A protester in a Santa Claus hat danced in the street. A woman showed off the reindeer antlers she had mounted on her gas mask.

Fireworks exploded in the sky at one point. Later, as helicopters hovered above, someone blew "The Star Spangled Banner" on a horn.

Campers planning to defend the camp and hold their ground barricaded entrances to the park with trash cans.

Gia Trimble, member of the Occupy LA media team, said a lot of people committed to the cause would stay and risk arrest. "This is a monumental night for Los Angeles," Trimble said. "We're going to do what we can to protect the camp."

In their anticipation of an eviction, the Los Angeles protesters designated medics designated with red crosses taped on clothing. Some protesters had gas masks.

Organizers at the camp packed up computer and technical equipment from the media tent.

Two men who constructed an elaborate tree house lashed bamboo sticks together with twine to push away any ladder police might use to evict them.

Members of the National Lawyers guild had legal observers on hand for an eviction.

As officers first surrounded the camp, hundreds of protesters chanted, "The people united will never be defeated."

UC Davis Chancellor Katehi’s past: Police repression in Greece, FBI spying in the US

UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi (C) leaves an "Occupy UCD" rally on campus in Davis, California November 21, 2011. More than 1,000 demonstrators rallied on Monday at the University of California at Davis to protest the pepper-praying of student protesters by police, a clash captured in video footage circulated widely on television and the Internet.

Πηγή: WSWS
By Jack Hood 

Nov 28 2011

The pepper spraying of peaceful student protesters at the University of California, Davis has become a focal point for national outrage over the police repression of demonstrations against social inequality.

The police action was ordered by UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, who was acting on behalf of the UC Regents and the Democratic Party-controlled political establishment in California, which is determined to enforce a new round of drastic tuition increases on students. Katehi has spent the past week and a half defending herself against demands for her resignation, while making half-hearted attempts to distance herself from the police violence.

However, Katehi’s claims of innocence in the matter are belied by her past. She has played a major role in developing repressive measures against students protesting austerity measures and is a prime example of the growing nexus between corporate CEOs, academic administrators and the police-intelligence apparatus.

Katehi’s has been involved with police crackdowns in her home country of Greece, is one of 20 administrators involved in a national FBI network aimed at monitoring “anti-U.S.” activities on college campuses, and has overseen an administration-run campus infiltration program.

At a rally of students last Monday, Katehi made a backhanded reference to the suppression of Greek students during an uprising against the military junta in 1973. “There is a plaque out there that speaks about 17 of November in 1973, and I was there. And I don’t want to forget that, so I hope I will have a better opportunity to work with you, to meet you, to get to know you,” Katehi announced.

Aside from its hypocrisy, this reference contains an implicit threat. Katehi, as part of a team of bankers, speculators, and administrators, has worked to bring police back onto Greek university campuses after a nearly 30-year ban on such activity.

Campuses in Greece became an important focus of opposition to the Greek junta in 1973. Throughout the year, students gathered at Athens Polytechnic under the banner of “Bread, Education, Freedom” to protest the forced conscription of any students deemed to be “subversive.” In February of that year, students began a campus occupation. In November, they launched a general strike, which was met with military force on the 17th of the month.

The ultra right-wing dictatorship, with the help of fascist armed thugs, massacred 24 students as they successfully ended the occupation. Several of those killed were run over by tanks.

The brutality contributed to mass opposition that eventually led to the dictatorship’s downfall the following year. In 1982, the Greek parliament passed the Academic Asylum Law, which required police to request permission from a prosecutor before entering a campus.

Recently, however, Chancellor Katehi served on a team of representatives from the European Bank, European Commission, and International Monetary Fund, along with educators and administrators from across the world, to call for an end to these restrictions.

The team, called the “International Committee On Higher Education in Greece,” issued a report earlier this year, which Katehi co-signed, that called for an increase in police presence on campus under the guise of ensuring a “safe” environment.

“University campuses are unsafe,” the report claims. “While the [Greek] Constitution permits the university leadership to protect campuses from elements inciting political instability, Rectors have shown themselves unwilling to exercise these rights and fulfill their responsibilities, and to take the decisions needed in order to guarantee the safety of the faculty, staff, and students. As a result, the university administration and teaching staff have not proven themselves good stewards of the facilities with which society has entrusted them.

“The politicizing of universities – and in particular, of students – represents participation in the political process that exceeds the bounds of logic. This contributes to the rapid deterioration of tertiary education [emphasis added].”

According to the panel, then, peaceful student protesters like the ones who were pepper-sprayed at UC Davis “exceed the bounds of logic” and are helping to bring about the “rapid deterioration” of higher education.

The language used by the committee is strikingly similar to that used by the UC Davis administration to justify the deployment of police against students. On the morning of the police violence, the administration sent a letter to students warning that police action was necessary so that students “could learn and work in a safe, secure environment without disruption.”

In August, Greece’s PASOK government, headed by George Papandreou, approved the repeal of the Academic Asylum Law. Until his resignation on November 11, Papandreou oversaw the imposition of austerity measures dictated by the International Monetary Fund and the European banks, including further attacks on public education.

On November 17, 2011, the 38th anniversary of the massacre at Athens Polytechnic, the new Greek government authorized police entry at a university in Thessaloniki. This was the first time since 1982 that police have been allowed on a university campus.
FBI involvement

In the United States, Chancellor Katehi has participated in a national network of college presidents that works with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to “promote discussion and outreach between research universities and the FBI.”

The network is called the “National Security Higher Education Advisory Board,” and it is responsible for disseminating information regarding any activity by students and faculty that may be considered subversive.

The FBI has confirmed Katehi’s active involvement in the program. “Because of the nature of the material they discuss,” explains UC Davis administrator Andy Fell in a story from the campus faculty newspaper, Dateline, “board members must hold ‘secret’ security clearances.”

In light of this evidence of collusion with the FBI, the true meaning of Katehi’s claim that she wants to “get to know” students becomes clear.

Katehi herself boasted upon her appointment, telling the California Aggie, the UC Davis newspaper, in October 2010: “My participation allows me to visit with like-minded chancellors and presidents of major research institutions, to explore and share best practices that ensure our researchers and our research remain safe and unimpeded.”

That the real target of such activities is the politicization of students is made clear by Katehi’s involvement with the “Student Activism Response Team”—a group of 33 administrators from a variety of student service centers whose responsibility it is to infiltrate peaceful student demonstrations and disseminate information to the UC Davis Police Department. The team, active since at least 2009, is still in existence today.

The results of a Freedom of Information Act filing released last year documents the actions of the infiltration team. One email from an administrator released through the FOIA request, titled “Student Activism Response Protocol” and dated August 18, 2010, explains that administrators were given the responsibility to “receive information from all Student Affairs staff regarding any anticipated student actions, not just those of registered student organizations,” “inform police and request standby support if appropriate” and “notify and maintain communication with news service.”

Katehi’s sordid past and present actions exemplify a political establishment, comprised of both the Democrats and Republicans, that is thoroughly hostile to the interests of students, and ruthlessly determined to enforce the dictates of the corporate and financial elite in the face of growing mass opposition.

LA protesters brace for police raid

Πηγή: AP
By CHRISTINA HOAG and SHAYA TAYEFE MOHAJER

Nov 30 2011

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Los Angeles police began surrounding the Occupy Los Angeles encampment Tuesday night, nearly two days after a deadline passed for protesters to clear out, as demonstrators with the movement in Philadelphia marched through the streets after being evicted from their site.

Los Angeles police in riot gear holding batons stood in the street facing a line of protesters as hundreds chanted, "The people united will never be defeated." Someone played the national anthem on a horn as helicopters circled overhead.

More than 1,000 officers who staged for the operation outside Dodger Stadium were briefed on the potential for violence and the possibility that demonstrators could throw everything from concrete and gravel to human feces.

"Please put your face masks down and watch each other's back," a supervisor told them. "Now go to work."

The officers clad in riot gear with helmets and with white plastic handcuffs hooked to their belts were taken aboard 30 city buses downtown.

Officers plan to declare an unlawful assembly and give protesters a chance to leave. Those who don't depart will be arrested.

The operation was planned at night because downtown is mostly vacant, with offices closed, fewer pedestrians and less traffic. But it could make officers more vulnerable.

"It's more difficult for us to see things, to see booby traps," Lt. Andy Neiman, told pool reporters. "Operating in the dark is never an advantage."

Neiman said the force was prepared to deal with demonstrators barricaded in the camp or holed up in trees in the small park.

About half of some 500 tents remained in Los Angles after a Monday morning eviction deadline and the remaining protesters showed no sign of leaving their weeks-old encampment, which is one of the largest still remaining in the country. Before 11 p.m., Los Angeles police had closed off streets surrounding the protest encampment.

The action in Los Angeles came after police in Philadelphia gave protesters three warning they had to leave and began pulling down tents at about 1:20 a.m. Wednesday. The eviction came more than two days after Philadelphia's deadline for protesters to remove all structures and belongings from Dilworth Plaza.

"This is a symbolic action, but in another sense this has been our home for almost two months and no one wants to see their home taken away from them," 22-year-old protester Bri Barton said while also acknowledging she and other would have to leave the site.

Most protesters participated in the march, but a few watched police take down the tents and chanted, "We are the 99 percent."

Some protesters in Los Angeles shot off fireworks near the camp where Occupy members discussed emergency preparations.

"This is a monumental night for Los Angeles. We're going to do what we can to protect the camp," said Gia Trimble, member of the Occupy LA media team.

She said she thought a lot of people would stay and risk arrest, adding, "We're really committed to this."

Demonstrators and city officials in both Los Angeles and Philadelphia were hoping any confrontation would be nonviolent, unlike evictions at similar camps around the country.

The movement against economic disparity and perceived corporate greed began with Occupy Wall Street in Manhattan two months ago, and police have removed Occupy demonstrators in other cities. Some of those instances involved pepper spray and tear gas.

In their anticipation of an eviction, the Los Angeles protesters designated medics designated with red crosses taped on clothing. Some protesters had gas masks. Broadcast footage showed police officers boarding buses that had lined up near Dodger Stadium at what appeared to be some sort of staging area.

Organizers at the camp packed up computer and technical equipment from the media tent.

Two men who have constructed an elaborate tree house fashioned a ladder pusher out of bamboo sticks tied together with twine. It was intended to push down a ladder that police may erect to get them out of the tree house.

Members of the National Lawyers guild had legal observers on hand for any possible eviction that may occur.

Pam Noles, a member of the camp media team, said the park is legally closed at 10:30 p.m.

Ca. college president vows pepper spraying probe

In this Friday, Nov. 18, 2011, photo University of California, Davis Police Lt. John Pike uses pepper spray to move Occupy UC Davis protesters while blocking their exit from the school's quad Friday in Davis, Calif. Two University of California, Davis police officers involved in pepper spraying seated protesters were placed on administrative leave Sunday, Nov. 20, 2011, as the chancellor of the school accelerates the investigation into the incident.

Πηγή: AP
By JASON DEAREN

Nov 21 2011

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The president of the University of California system said he was "appalled" at images of protesters being doused with pepper spray and plans an assessment of law enforcement procedures on all 10 campuses, as two police officers were placed on administrative leave in the incident that's reverberating around the nation.

"Free speech is part of the DNA of this university, and non-violent protest has long been central to our history," UC President Mark G. Yudof said in a statement Sunday in response to the spraying of students sitting passively at UC Davis. "It is a value we must protect with vigilance."

Yudof said it was not his intention to "micromanage our campus police forces," but he said all 10 chancellors would convene soon for a discussion "about how to ensure proportional law enforcement response to non-violent protest."

Protesters from Occupy Sacramento planned to travel to nearby Davis on Monday for a noon rally in solidarity with the students, the group said in a statement.

UC Davis officials refused to identify the two officers who were place on administrative leave but one was a veteran of many years on the force and the other "fairly new" to the department, the school's Police Chief Annette Spicuzza told The Associated Press. She would not elaborate further because of the pending probe.

Videos posted online of the incident clearly show one riot-gear clad officer dousing the line of protesters with spray as they sit with their arms intertwined. Spicuzza told the AP that the second officer was identified during an intense review of several videos.

"We really wanted to be diligent in our research, and during our viewing of multiple videos we discovered the second officer," Spicuzza said. "This is the right thing to do."

Both officers were trained in the use of pepper spray as department policy dictates, and both had been sprayed with it themselves during training, the chief noted.

Meanwhile, UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi said she has been inundated with reaction from alumni, students and faculty and would speed up an investigation that was to have taken three months.

"I spoke with students this weekend and I feel their outrage," Katehi said in a statement Sunday.

Katehi also set a 30-day deadline for her school's task force investigating the incident to issue its report. The task force, comprised of students, staff and faculty, will be chosen this week. She earlier had set a 90-day timetable.

She also plans to meet with demonstrators Monday at their general assembly, said her spokeswoman, Claudia Morain.

The UC Davis faculty association called for Katehi's resignation, saying in a Saturday letter there had been a "gross failure of leadership." Katehi has resisted calls for her to quit.

"I am deeply saddened that this happened on our campus, and as chancellor, I take full responsibility for the incident," Katehi said Sunday. "However, I pledge to take the actions needed to ensure that this does not happen again. I feel very sorry for the harm our students were subjected to and I vow to work tirelessly to make the campus a more welcoming and safe place."

The incident reverberated well beyond the university, with condemnations and defenses of police from elected officials and from the wider public on Facebook and Twitter.

"On its face, this is an outrageous action for police to methodically pepper spray passive demonstrators who were exercising their right to peacefully protest at UC Davis," Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said in a statement Sunday. "Chancellor Katehi needs to immediately investigate, publically explain how this could happen and ensure that those responsible are held accountable."

The protest Friday was held in support of the overall Occupy Wall Street movement and in solidarity with protesters at the University of California, Berkeley who were jabbed by police with batons on Nov. 9.

Nine students hit by pepper spray were treated at the scene, two were taken to hospitals and later released, university officials said. Ten people were arrested.

Meanwhile Sunday, police in San Francisco, about 80 miles south of Davis, arrested six anti-Wall Street protesters and cleared about 12 tents erected in front of the Federal Reserve Bank.

Across the bay in Oakland, police made no arrests after protesters peacefully left a new encampment set up in defiance of city orders.

Revealed: The secret $850,000 plan by lobbyists to undermine Occupy Wall Street

Πηγή: MailOnline
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Nov 20 2011

A Washington lobbying firm with links to the financial industry has proposed an $850,000 plan to take on the Occupy Wall Street protest and the politicians who support it.

The secret proposal has been revealed in a memo obtained by the MSNBC program 'Up with Chris Hayes'.

The proposal was written on the letterhead of the lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford (CLGC) and addressed to one of its clients, the American Bankers Association (ABA), reports MSNBC.



Four page secret memo: Lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford has proposed an $850,000 plan to take on the Occupy Wall Street protest



MEMO: The proposal was written on the letterhead of the lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford and was addressed American Bankers Association

CLGC’s memo proposes that the ABA pay CLGC $850,000 to conduct 'opposition research' on Occupy Wall Street in order to construct 'negative narratives' about the protests and allied politicians.

The memo also states that Democratic victories in 2012 would be detrimental for Wall Street and names specific races in which it says Wall Street would benefit by electing Republicans instead, the report says.

According to the memo, if Democrats embrace OWS, 'This would mean more than just short-term political discomfort for Wall Street.

'It has the potential to have very long-lasting political, policy and financial impacts on the companies in the center of the bullseye.'

The memo also suggests that Democratic victories in 2012 should not be the ABA’s biggest concern. “… (T)he bigger concern,” the memo says, should be that Republicans will no longer defend Wall Street companies.'

Two of the memo’s authors, partners Sam Geduldig and Jay Cranford, previously worked for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

Geduldig joined CLGC before Boehner became speaker; Cranford joined CLGC this year after serving as the speaker’s assistant for policy.

A third partner, Steve Clark, is reportedly close with Boehner, according to a story by Roll Call that CLGC features on its website.

The memo indicates that CLGC would research who has contributed financial backing to OWS, noting that, 'Media reports have speculated about associations with George Soros and others.'

'It will be vital,' the memo says, 'to understand who is funding it and what their backgrounds and motives are. If we can show that they have the same cynical motivation as a political opponent it will undermine their credibility in a profound way.'



AUthor: One of the memo's authors, partner Sam Geduldig previously worked for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.



Secret proposal: Jeff Sigmund, an ABA spokesperson, confirmed that the association received the memo but said they would not act on it

Jeff Sigmund, an ABA spokesperson, confirmed that the association received the memo, MSNBC says.

'Our Government Relations staff did receive the proposal – it was unsolicited and we chose not to act on it in any way,' he said in a statement.

CLGC did not respond to calls from the programme asking for a comment.

Boehner spokesman Michael Steel declined to comment on the memo.

The memo outlines a 60-day plan to conduct surveys and research on OWS and its supporters so that Wall Street companies will be prepared to conduct a media campaign against OWS.




Media campaign: The memo says it will conduct research on Occupy Wall Street to give Wall Street companies ammunition to launch a media campaign against it

Wall Street companies 'likely will not be the best spokespeople for their own cause,' according to the memo.

'A big challenge is to demonstrate that these companies still have political strength and that making them a political target will carry a severe political cost.'

Part of the plan CLGC proposes is to do 'statewide surveys in at least eight states that are shaping up to be the most important of the 2012 cycle.'

Specific races listed in the memo are U.S. Senate races in Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin, Ohio, New Mexico and Nevada as well as the gubernatorial race in North Carolina.

Hundreds arrested marking Occupy Wall Street anniversary

Πηγή: Poconorecord
By KAREN MATTHEWS (AP)

Non 18 2011

NEW YORK — Occupy Wall Street protesters clogged streets and tied up traffic around the U.S. on Thursday to mark two months since the movement's birth and signal they aren't ready to quit, despite the breakup of many of their encampments by police. Hundreds of people were arrested, most of them in New York.

The demonstrations — which took place in cities including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Boston, Washington and Portland, Ore. — were for the most part peaceful. Most of the arrests were for blocking streets, and the traffic disruptions were brief.

Chanting "All day, all week, shut down Wall Street," more than 1,000 protesters gathered near the New York Stock Exchange and sat down in several intersections. Helmeted police officers broke up some of the gatherings, and operations at the stock market were not disrupted.

As darkness fell, a coalition of unions and progressive groups joined Occupy demonstrators in staging rallies at landmark bridges in several U.S. cities to protest joblessness.

Led by union

In New York, a crowd of several thousand people, led by banner-carrying members of the Service Employees International Union, jammed Manhattan's Foley Square and then marched peacefully across the Brooklyn Bridge on a pedestrian promenade.

As they walked, a powerful light projected the slogan "We are the 99 percent" — a reference to the Americans who aren't super-rich — on the side of a nearby skyscraper. Police officers dressed in wind breakers, rather than riot gear, arrested at least two dozen people who walked out onto the bridges' roadway but otherwise let the marchers pass without incident.

The protests came two days after police raided and demolished the encampment at lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park that had served as headquarters of the Occupy movement and as demonstrators and union allies tried to regain their momentum.

"This is a critical moment for the movement given what happened the other night," said demonstrator Paul Knick, a software engineer from Montclair, N.J. "It seems like there's a concerted effort to stop the movement, and I'm here to make sure that doesn't happen."

At least 300 people were arrested in New York. Some were bloodied during the arrests. One man was taken into custody for throwing liquid, possibly vinegar, into the faces of several police officers, authorities said. Many demonstrators were carrying vinegar as an antidote for pepper spray.

Nationwide protests

In Los Angeles, about 500 sympathizers marched downtown between the Bank of America tower and Wells Fargo Plaza, chanting, "Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!" More than two dozen people were arrested.

Police arrested 21 demonstrators in Las Vegas, and 20 were led away in plastic handcuffs in Portland, Ore., for sitting down on a bridge. At least a dozen were arrested in St. Louis in the evening after they sat down cross-legged and locked arms in an attempt to block a bridge over the Mississippi River. More were handcuffed for blocking bridges in Philadelphia and Minneapolis.

Several of the demonstrations coincided with an event planned months earlier by a coalition of unions and liberal groups, including MoveOn.org and the SEIU, in which out-of-work people walked over bridges in several cities to protest high unemployment.

The street demonstrations also marked two months since the Occupy movement sprang to life in New York on Sept. 17. They were planned well before police raided a number of encampments over the past few days but were seen by some activists as a way to demonstrate their resolve in the wake of the crackdown.

Thursday's demonstrations around Wall Street brought taxis and delivery trucks to a halt, but police were largely effective at keeping the protests confined to just a few blocks. Officers allowed Wall Street workers through the barricades, but only after checking their IDs.

"Most protesters have, in all fairness, acted responsibly," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said after visiting an injured police officer in the hospital.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said officers confiscated metal devices that some demonstrators had apparently planned to use to lock themselves into the entrances to Wall Street businesses.

The demonstration that drew thousands of people to Foley Square in the evening was a rarity in the Occupy movement: Union organizers obtained a permit from the city, and speakers were allowed to use a sound system.

Some onlookers applauded the demonstrators from open windows. Others yelled, "Get a job!"

Gene Williams, a bond trader, joked that he was "one of the bad guys" but said he empathized with the demonstrators: "The fact of the matter is, there is a schism between the rich and the poor, and it's getting wider."

Robert Reich: Crack down strengthens ‘Occupy Wall Street’

Πηγή: rawstory
By Eric W. Dolan

Nov 16 2011

Former U.S. labor secretary and University of California professor Robert Reich said Tuesday that efforts to crack down on the ongoing “Occupy” protests around the country actually helped to strengthen the movement.

Police in riot gear evicted “Occupy Wall Street” protesters from their encampment at New York City’s Zuccotti Park in a surprise pre-dawn raid Tuesday. Spin-off protests in numerous other cities have also recently faced police action. But the protesters inevitably return.

“Every movement that has occurred over the last 75 years of American history… when they are cracked down upon, when there is a violent effort to end them — and also especially when the members of the movement maintain a kind of peacefulness, non-violence, civil disobedience — that strengthens the movement,” Reich said.

“And that is almost inevitably what is going to happen here.”

Watch video, courtesy of MSNBC, below:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Police State Tactics: Signs Point to a Coordinated National Program to Try and Unoccupy Wall Street and Other Cities

Πηγή: This Can't Be Happening
By Dave Lindorff

Nov 15 2011

The ugly hand of the federal government is becoming increasingly suspected behind what appears to be a nationwide attempt to repress and evict the Occupation Movement.

Across the country in recent days, ultimatums have been issues to groups occupying Portland, OR, Chicago, IL, San Francisco, Dallas, TX, Atlanta, GA, and most recently New York, NY, where the Occupation Movement began on September 17. The two most recent eviction efforts, in Oakland and New York, have been the worst.

The police attacks have had a lot in common. They have been “justified” based upon trumped up pre-textural claims that the occupiers are creating a health hazard, or a fire hazard, or a crime problem, generally on little or no evidence, or there has been a digging up of obscure and constitutionally questionable statutes, for example laws outlawing the homeless. Then the police come in, usually in dead of night, dressed in riot gear and heavily armed with mace weapons, batons, plastic cuffs and tear gas, or even assault rifles in some cases and so-called flash-bang stun grenades--all weapons to be used against peaceful demonstrators.

So violent has been the response that some returned veterans have condemned the police for using weapons and tactics that are not even permitted by occupying troops in war-torn countries.

“We definitely feel, especially in a movement like this that has arisen so quickly in a number of cities, that there will be a coordinated national effort to try and shut it down,” says Heidi Bogosian, executive director of the National Lawyers Guild, which has been playing a key role providing legal services to the new movement.

“We see the scapegoating of these movements, the attacks at night, and in general tactics designed to terrorize and to scare protesters away. I can’t see this as anything other than centrally coordinated.”

One indication of that coordination may have been a conference call among 18 city mayors which was confirmed by Oakland Mayor Jean Quan in a radio interview on San Francisco station KALW. Dan Siegel, an Oakland attorney who worked as an advisor to Quan, but who resigned in disgust after Oakland police and law enforcement personnel from a number of surrounding jurisdictions brutally drove occupiers there out of their park using tear gas, supposedly non-lethal ammunition (bean bags and rubber bullets) and flash-bang grenades in a night-time raid in the early hours of November 14, says that phone conference call took place, significantly, while Quan was in Washington, DC.
Remember this image: it's the national police state on the march

Shortly afterwards, on Oct. 25, Quan authorized the first brutal police assault on Occupy Oakland. It led, among other things, to the critical wounding of Scott Olsen, an Iraq War veteran who was among the protesters, and was hit in the forehead by a police tear gas cannister fired at close range.

Who organized that critical conference call? Was it Quan or one of the other mayors, or was it someone in the federal government? Siegel says he doesn’t know, and Quan isn’t saying.

But both Siegel and Boghosian say they strongly suspect federal involvement in the planning of the recent spate of police violence against occupiers. Says Siegel, “It’s only logical to assume that the ‘Fusion Centers’ are involved, especially after the Oakland occupiers shut down the port in Oakland.”

Some 72 Fusion Centers, located around the US and funded by the US at a cost of half a billion dollars, are a post 9-11creation of the new Homeland Security Department. Bringing the FBI together with local law enforcement departments, they both collect and share domestic intelligence, and can serve as command centers to direct local law enforcement in helping implement national law enforcement goals. There are also many Joint Terrorism Task Forces, which directly link the FBI with urban police departments.

Says Boghosian, “What we are seeing here is the Miami model, with various levels of law enforcement, local, state and federal, all at work. It would be shocking if federal law enforcement were not seeing this occupy movement now as a national security threat.”

Mara Veheyden-Hilliard, co-chair of the National Lawyers Guild’s National Mass Defense Committee, based in Washington, agrees. “These crackdowns on the occupation movement certainly appear to be part of a national strategy to crush them,” she says. “We haven’t yet found overt evidence of federal involvement, but the fact that in rapid succession local authorities have taken action raises the specter of coordination.”

She adds, “There is absolutely no legal justification for the involvement of the Joint Terrorism Task Forces in this movement. These demonstrations are not terrorist activities, and police should not be treating them as such, yet all over the country the police are treating the protesters as if they are criminals. The similarity of the response everywhere to the movement makes it appear that there is a coordinated strategy.”

Meanwhile, Siegel, now back in private practice, says that since the riots that followed the killing of Oscar Grant by a BART transit cop, who shot Grant fatally in the head after he had been arrested, subdued and handcuffed for a turnstile jumping violation, federal law enforcement officials have been observed actively involved in police activities in the Oakland area.

Some Oakland residents have reported seeing federal vehicles and possibly also National Guard equipment during the police actions against occupation demonstrators, too, though National Guardsmen can only be legally activated by a governor, and California Gov. Jerry Brown, a former mayor of Oakland, has not publicly issued any such order.

Rick Ellis, a journalist with the Minneapolis office of the news outlet Examiner.com, is reporting that an unidentified US Justice Department official has confirmed what Boghosian, Siegel and Veheyden-Hilliard say they suspect is the case: that each of the recent brutal police evictions and attacks on occupation groups “was coordinated with help from Homeland Security, the FBI and other federal police agencies.”

Ellis writes, “According to this official, in several recent conference calls and briefings, local police agencies were advised to seek a legal reason to evict residents of tent cities, focusing on zoning laws and existing curfew rules. Agencies were also advised to demonstrate a massive show of police force, including large numbers in riot gear. In particular, the FBI reportedly advised on press relations, with one presentation suggesting that any moves to evict protesters be coordinated for a time when the press was the least likely to be present.”

Given how things have played out, it certainly looks like the suspicions were correct, and that Ellis’s source is telling the truth.

President Obama has a lot to answer for. So do the mayors who have been overseeing the repressive operations locally.

Occupy Wall Street Fights Back for Zuccotti Park

Πηγή: The Street
Nov 15 2011

Occupy Wall Street protestors returned to Zuccotti Park on Tuesday morning less than 12 hours after police booted the movement to clean the private park.

NY police clear Occupy Wall Street protest camp

Πηγή: Jerousalem Post
By Reuters
Nov 15 2011

New York mayor: Protesters should "temporarily leave" NYC's Zuccotti Park; move comes as other camps are cleared.
 NEW YORK - Police wearing helmets and carrying shields early on Tuesday began to clear Zuccotti Park in New York City's financial district, where protesters from the OccupyWall Street movement have been camped since September.

The office of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the protesters should "temporarily leave" the park and remove their tents and tarps. The protesters said hundreds of police were mobilizing around the park and that the eviction of the demonstrators was in progress.

Police spokesman Paul Browne said the city and the owners of the park, Brookfield Office Properties, issued fliers to the protesters saying the park would be cleared for cleaning shortly after 1 a.m. (0600 GMT).

Browne said 15 people had been arrested for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

The flier said the city and Brookfield had decided "that the continued occupation of Zuccotti Park posed an increasing health and safety hazard to those camped in the park, the city's first responders and the surrounding community."

Browne said most people had left peacefully, but there was still a small group of people in the middle of the park refusing to leave. He said the protesters can return if they want after the park is cleared but without their tents and belongings.

Authorities set up bright lights at the park and sought to keep people away from the site as police surrounded it.

Protesters set up camp in Zuccotti Park on Sept. 17 to protest a financial system they argue mostly benefits corporations and the wealthy. The Occupy Wall Streetmovement has sparked similar protests against economic inequality across the country, and in some cases have led to violent clashes with police.

Samantha Tuttlebee, 35, from the Brooklyn section of the city, said she was volunteering at the protesters' medical tent at the park when the raid happened. She said she had not been living at the park.

"I'm shocked. They put my arms behind my back. They are really violent," Tuttlebee said. "We were trying to leave and they threw us out."

Police on Monday moved into an encampment by anti-Wall Street protesters in Oakland, California, clearing out occupants and and taking down tents, while in Portland, Oregon, police confronted an estimated 1,000 protesters on Sunday.

The protesters in Wall Street had said they hope on Thursday to shut down Wall Street -- home to the New York Stock Exchange -- by holding a street carnival to mark the two-month anniversary of their campaign against economic inequality.

OWS: Police move in on Portland park, protesters remain

Πηγή: AP
By JONATHAN J. COOPER and TERRENCE PETTY

Nov 14 2011

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Several hundred protesters, some wearing goggles and gas masks, marched past authorities in a downtown street Sunday, hours after riot police forced Occupy Portland demonstrators out of a pair of weeks-old encampments in nearby parks.

Police moved in shortly before noon and drove protesters into the street after dozens remained in the camp in defiance city officials. Mayor Sam Adams had ordered that the camp shut down Saturday at midnight, citing unhealthy conditions and the encampment's attraction of drug users and thieves.

More than 50 protesters were arrested in the police action, but officers did not use tear gas, rubber bullets or other so-called non-lethal weapons, police said.

After the police raid, the number of demonstrators swelled throughout the afternoon. By early evening, dozens of officers brandishing nightsticks stood shoulder-to-shoulder to hold the protesters back. Authorities retreated and protesters broke the standoff by marching through the streets.

Demonstrators regrouped several blocks away, where they broke into small groups to discuss their future. Some advocated occupying foreclosed homes, others wanted to move onto the Portland State University campus or to the shores of the Willamette River.

The Oregonian reported that many spent hours trying to figure out where protesters without homes could stay. The gathering began to thin out around 8 p.m. KATU said that shortly before 10 p.m., about two dozen demonstrators marched back to area of the encampment, but there was no word of any police resistance.

In the hours after the midnight eviction deadline, the anti-Wall Street protesters and their supporters had flooded the park area even as authorities in other cities across the nation stepped up pressure against demonstrators, arresting dozens of people.

At one point overnight, the Portland crowd swelled to thousands. As dawn arrived, riot police had retreated and most of the crowds had gone home, but protesters who have been at the two parks since Oct. 6 were still there, prompting one organizer to declare the night a victory for the movement.

"We stood up to state power," Jim Oliver told The Associated Press.

It didn't last. Police moved in later as demonstrators held a midday "general assembly" meeting to discuss their next moves. An officer on a loudspeaker warned that anyone who resisted risked arrest and "may also be subject to chemical agents and impact weapons." Demonstrators chanted "we are a peaceful protest."

"We were talking about what we were going to do and then they just started hitting people. Seems like a waste of resources to me," protester Mike Swain, 27, told the AP.

One man was taken away on a stretcher; he was alert and talking to paramedics, and raised a peace sign to fellow protesters, who responded with cheers.

Choya Adkison, 30, said police moved in after giving demonstrators a false sense of calm. They thought they had time to rest, relax and regroup, she said

"Camp was completely vulnerable, completely defenseless" when police moved in, she said. "I'm disappointed that they created a sense of trust by walking away and then completely trampled it."

City officials erected temporary chain-link fences with barbed wire at the top around three adjacent downtown parks, choking off access for demonstrators as parks officials cleaned up.

Police Chief Mike Reese told KGW-TV it was his plan to take the parks in a peaceful manner and that's what happened.

"Our officers have performed exceptionally well," he said.

Even ahead of the police raid, the camp was a shadow of what it had been before Saturday. A large segment of campers were homeless people drawn to the free food and shelter offered by Occupy Portland. They are gone, after outreach workers went through the camp to help them find shelter elsewhere.

And as the Saturday midnight eviction deadline neared, protesters themselves began dismantling tents.

Around 4 a.m., dozens of police formed a line across from demonstrators who had poured into the street. Protesters facing them appeared to be in festive spirits with some banging on drums and plastic pails, another clanging a cowbell while others danced in the streets as a man juggled nearby.

On Sunday at an impromptu news conference, the mayor defended his order to clear the park, saying it is his job to enforce the law and keep the peace. "This is not a game," Adams said.

Officials said that one officer suffered minor injuries when he was hit by some kind of projectile in the leg. Police had prepared for a possible clash, warning that dozens of anarchists may be planning a confrontation with authorities. Officers seized pieces of cement blocks Friday, saying they were told some demonstrators had plans to use them as weapons against police. They said they believe some demonstrators were building shields and trying to collect gas masks.

And police seized incendiary devices, gas masks and marijuana on Sunday after stopping three men for speeding on Interstate 5 south of Portland. The men told police they had left Occupy Portland an hour earlier and were carrying the equipment in anticipation of a confrontation with authorities, the Marion County Sheriff's Office said.

Meanwhile in Oakland, Calif., friends confirmed Sunday that Scott Olsen, the Iraq War veteran who suffered a serious head injury during a police raid on the Occupy Oakland encampment, has been released from the hospital. Olsen suffered a skull fracture during tear-gas filled clashes between police and demonstrators on Oct. 25.

Dottie Guy of Iraq Veterans Against the War said Sunday Olsen was released last week. He can now read and write, but still has trouble talking, she added.

"Considering what happened to him he's doing well," Guy said. "He does have a brain injury so there will be some kind of rehab and physical therapy needed."

Occupy Wall Street supporters nationwide have rallied around Olsen's plight.

Also Sunday, for the third time in three days, Oakland city officials warned protesters that they do not have the right to camp in the plaza in front of City Hall and face immediate arrest. Police did not respond to requests for comment on whether officers were preparing to forcibly clear the camp.

The eviction notices come as officials across the country urged an end to similar gatherings in the wake of three deaths in different cities, including two by gunfire. Demands for Oakland protesters to pack up increased after a man was shot and killed Thursday near the encampment site.

Police Sunday night identified the slain man as 25-year-old Kayode Ola Foster of Oakland, saying his family confirmed he had been staying at the plaza.

Police officer Johnna Watson said witnesses have told police that one of two suspects in the shooting had also been a frequent resident at the plaza. The suspects are being sought and their names haven't been released.

Investigators suspect that the shooting resulted from a fight between two groups of men.

Protesters had said earlier that there was no connection between the shooting and the camp.

The shooting occurred the same day a 35-year-old military veteran apparently committed suicide in a tent at a Burlington, Vt., Occupy encampment. Police said a preliminary investigation showed the veteran fatally shot himself in the head. They said the death raised questions about whether the protest would be allowed to continue.

In other cities over the weekend:

- In Salt Lake City, police arrested 19 people Saturday when protesters refused to leave a park a day after a man as found dead inside his tent at the encampment. The arrests came after police moved into the park early in the evening where protesters had been ordered to leave by the end of the day. About 150 people had been living in the camp there for weeks.

- In Albany, N.Y., police arrested 24 Occupy Albany protesters after they defied an 11 p.m. curfew in a state-owned park. State police officials hauled away the protesters after warning them with megaphones that they were breaking the law in Lafayette Park. They were charged with trespassing.

- In Denver, authorities forced protesters to leave a downtown encampment and arrested four people for interfering with officers who removed illegally pitched tents, said police spokesman Sonny Jackson.

- In San Francisco, violence marked the protest Saturday where police said two demonstrators attacked two police officers in separate incidents during a march. Police spokesman Carlos Manfredi said a protester slashed an officer's hand with a pen knife while another protester shoved an officer, causing facial cuts. He said neither officer was seriously hurt, and the assailants couldn't be located.