OCCUPY WALL STREET

[ruffryder]

Jay-Z on paying more taxes and the Occupy movement

http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2011...cupy.cnnmoney/

Do you think a lot of people feel the same way Jay-Z does? Wouldn't it be nice to know what the tax money goes towards?
As Obama asks those that make more money to pay more taxes, congress debates and fights this thought. Their debate is that those that make more money will have the jobs and they deserve a break.
What do you think?

[ruffryder]

[atomiczombie]

By STEPHEN GANDEL Thursday, Dec. 08, 2011

In a society in which we're used to taking direction from Presidents and CEOs, captains and quarterbacks, Occupy Wall Street's leaderless structure seems like a formula for chaos. And yet nearly a month after protesters were evicted from the movement's birthplace in Zuccotti Park in downtown Manhattan the exercise in organized anarchy is still going strong. On Tuesday, Occupy Wall Streeters in 20 cities across the country marched in neighborhoods that have been hardest hit by foreclosures. In East New York, Brooklyn, about 400 protesters broke into a foreclosed vacant property and moved in a family that was homeless after losing their house to a bank.
Since the Nov. 15 eviction, much of New York Occupy Wall Street group's day-to-day activities have moved inside. Occupy Wall Streeters have moved in to a donated small office space in downtown Manhattan, with desks for about 50 workers. Crowds have dwindled, particularly at Zuccotti Park, where protesters are allowed to gather, but no longer sleep. Organizers say a smaller but more dedicated group is now doing much of the work of planning marches and deciding Occupy Wall Street's next moves.

(See pictures of the Occupy Wall Street movement.)

Nonetheless, as it has been since the beginning of the movement, the leaderless structure appears to be working. Crowds come together on cue. Messages go out to the media. Lawsuits are filed. Funds are raised (more than $500,000 by the end of November). And the silliest ideas, like building an igloo city in Central Park, get voted down. "There have been challenges, but generally the group has been effective," says Marina Sitrin, a sociologist who has written a book on leaderless movements and is an active member of Occupy Wall Street. "The lack of leadership has been able to get more people engaged in the process, which I think shows how effective it has been."
So how does Occupy Wall Street make all this happen with no titles and no corner offices? By organizing as a network of dozens of working groups, Occupy Wall Street keeps its participants focused on particular tasks they can perform with autonomy and attention to detail. A look at the division of labor:

Idea Generation

The only power at first was the power of suggestion. Kalle Lasn, editor of the Canadian anticonsumerist magazine Adbusters, coined the name Occupy Wall Street and called for protesters to fill the streets of lower Manhattan. Catchy idea, but how to organize this? In August 2011, about 100people showed up in lower Manhattan to talk about it, on the same day that Washington faced a government shutdown deadline because of gridlock over the federal budget deficit. Activists gave windy speeches calling for a list of demands, like a massive jobs program. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, David Graeber, an anarchist and influential activist, didn't like what he heard. He and a few others broke off from the group, formed a circle and started organizing the Sept. 17 march on Wall Street. Graeber proposed the slogan "We Are the 99%."

(See a video from Occupy Wall Street's "Day of Action.")

By the end of the afternoon, nearly everyone had abandoned the original rally for Graeber's less formal discussion group, which became the model for Occupy's governing system. Meanwhile, untitled leader Lasn maintained the flow of ideas from up north. In early November, Lasn told a Canadian radio program that it would be a good idea for the Occupiers to leave the park before frustration and violence erupted. "Now that winter is approaching, I can see this first wild, messy, crazy Occupation phase kind of slowly winding down." He was right about the Occupation phase ending, but not slowly.

The People's Congress

Occupy Wall Street makes its decisions by consensus at what started as a nightly meeting called the general assembly. The group now holds general assembly meetings every other day, which are sometimes in Zuccotti Park or in an indoor public space on Wall Street. Attendance, though, has significantly shrunk to around 100 people a night, from as many as 1,500 before the police cleared the park. Facilitators run the meetings, but anyone is allowed to sign up to make proposals. Crowd members show approval by holding their hands up and wiggling their fingers. Downward wiggling fingers means you don't approve. Anyone can raise a finger to make a point. Rolling fingers means it's time to wrap it up. Since no bullhorns are allowed, the crowd repeats everything every speaker says, a technique dubbed the "people's mic," which has become a signature of the movement.

(See "On Scene: The Night the Police Cleared Occupy Wall Street.")
While the general assembly gets decisions made, a by-product is recruitment. At a time when many people believe government isn't working, the general assembly gives a sense of true democracy. A bit too much, in fact, as the group grew larger, the meetings began to drag on and become more about fund distribution than what the movement was about. "General assemblies need to go back to what they first were, which was a movement-building body," says Chris Longenecker, an original member. "They get people excited." In October 2011, when the general assemblies were pared back to every other night, a smaller spokescouncil was created to make some of the group's decisions.

Getting the Word Out

The revolution has not only been televised; it has also been tweeted, Tumblred and streamed. The Occupiers, mostly in their 20s, have been heavy users of social media to get their message to friends and the rest of the world. By November the group's Twitter account had more than 125,000 followers. Occupy Wall Street has two main websites: one that makes official statements, and another devoted to the group's meetings and day-to-day activities. The latter features a calendar of events and a list of Occupy's dozens of working groups, along with chat boards. According to that website in November, the media working group had 310 members and the Internet group 365.

In a send-up of old media, Priscilla Grim, a former corporate social-media director, launched the Occupy Wall Street Journal, published as a newspaper by a volunteer staff of about 25, many of them working under assumed names to protect their day jobs. On the Tumblr microblogging service, the We Are the 99% site has thousands of pictures of people holding cards explaining whey they're part of that cohort.

Keeping It Legal (Mostly)

Even a group inspired by anarchists needs lawyers — a lot of them. By November, more than 1,200 protesters had been arrested in New York City alone. Early on, the National Lawyers Guild, a liberal advocacy organization, started a working group of lawyers to deal specifically with Occupy Wall Street. The guild has sent lawyers, identified by the special green hats they wear, to marches and rallies to witness arrests and take down names of those who go to jail. The guild runs a hot line that family members can call to get information. Guild lawyers have also represented many of the protesters in court, the vast majority of whom have decided to take their cases to trial rather than plea.

(See TIME's dispatch from Occupy Wall Street's "Day of Action.")

Some of Occupy's most basic needs have produced legal battles, notably the necessity for portable toilets at Zuccotti Park. When police refused to allow them, lawyer Christopher Dunn of the New York Civil Liberties Union advised the group that it had to apply for a permit from the city agency that regulates street fairs. After much legal wrangling, the city finally agreed to a plan. Dunn acknowledges that representing a leaderless group has been a challenge. "It's not like you know for sure what they are going to do," said Dunn. "It makes it hard to negotiate with the other side."

Mobilizing the Marches

Occupy Wall Streeters may have no leaders, but from the beginning, the direct-action committee has had more sway over the group than others. In the argot of Occupy Wall Street, a march or protest is called a direct action. Unlike most other decisions that go to the general assembly, the direct-action committee has the power to pick and plan its event. Among the preparations the committee makes for marches is holding training sessions to teach members how to avoid violent confrontations with police and citizens.

(See "Taking It to the Streets.")

Longenecker, who has been on the direct-action committee since the protest began, admits that Occupy has made mistakes. In the first Brooklyn Bridge march, Longenecker says, he and others who planned the march wanted to give some of the protesters the ability to block the roadway and ultimately get arrested, if that was what they chose. A group of many hundreds went onto the roadway, many of them perhaps unsuspecting of their likely fate. At least 700, possibly more, were arrested that day, many more than planned. "We learned from it," says Longenecker. "But that march, our mistake, also put us on the map."

Creating a Culture

When planning a protest to denounce the growing economic divide between the richest Americans and the rest of us, you might not expect an arts and culture committee to be high on your list of priorities. But it was for Occupy Wall Street, which has roots in art. A group of artists called 16Beaver, named for the address of a downtown studio where they regularly meet, had long discussed occupying a public space as a form of performance art and were some of the first people to sign on to the movement. Since then, cultural creativity has seemed to spring naturally from Occupy Wall Street: regular poetry readings in Zuccotti Park, giant Halloween puppets of the Statue of liberty and Wall Street's Charging Bull.

(See Occupy Wall Street's unofficial demands.)

Most famous of all were the protest signs. In October, on the night before the mayor first threatened to remove protesters from the park, Jez Bold, Occupy Wall Street's unofficial curator, was busy packing up the signs to protect them. "Some of these are truly beautiful," said Bold. The People's Library, too, was an inspired creation. Situated in a corner of Zuccotti Park, it contained more than 5,000 donated volumes, including books from such leftist authors as Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein, all organized according to ISBN. Said Zachary Loeb, one of a dozen librarians who volunteered to care for the books: "Information matters. We are feeding people's minds." The books were confiscated when police cleared the park in November, and many were lost, but like so much of what happened in the early days, the People's Library is now a permanent part of Occupy's colorful history.

The question is whether Occupy Wall Street, which is likely to become more specifically goal-oriented now that it can no longer count its success in numbers of days in Zuccotti Park and similar spaces around the country, will start developing the kind of organization that it has so emphatically rejected so far. Dedicated office space alone is a sign that the group is becoming more like other traditional activist groups. Already, the emergence of a high-level committee has caused grumbling in the ranks.

Can the movement stay true to its grass roots and still change the country's direction? Sounds like a good topic for a general assembly.

LINK:http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...101802,00.html

[SoNotHer]

From the latest Boldprogressives.org email -

We recently told you about Rep. Tammy Baldwin's (D-Wisconsin) bill opposing the proposed deal that would give Wall Street banks immunity for crimes that haven't been investigated yet. 1,000 phone calls and 55,000 signatures from people like you helped catapult Baldwin's co-sponsors from 27 to 48 members of Congress! This is huge momentum, and we're not done yet.

Our Capitol Hill outreach program, P Street (the progressive alternative to K Street), will continue updating members of Congress about grassroots support while asking them to sign on as co-sponsors. Add your voice today.
Thanks for being a bold progressive.

P.S. More good news: The Massachusetts Attorney General recently announced a lawsuit against 5 big Wall Street banks for illegally foreclosing on homeowners. Progressive activism against Wall Street immunity, coupled with the Occupy Wall Street momentum, has undoubtedly empowered investigations like these. And it's been announced that more are coming in California and Nevada. But a deal with Wall Street banks would make these lawsuits go away, so please add your name as a citizen signer of Baldwin's resolution today

http://act.boldprogressives.org/sign...non/?source=bp

[atomiczombie]

[atomiczombie]

[ruffryder]

12/12 West Coast port shutdown.. from CA to WA.

Protesting “Wall Street on the Waterfront.”

Organizers say the shutdown will focus public attention on how the 1% use the ports, international trade, and even the spirit of Christmas to profit off the 99%.

“One way that the 1% amasses wealth is through the ports.
“Shut Down Wall Street on the Waterfront is a coordinated effort from the occupy movement to target the corporations that contribute to the vast inequality of wealth and power in our economic system.”

“The rank and file of the labor movement not only supports the occupy movement, but are a part of the occupy movement. Organized and unorganized working people are struggling to keep their homes and their jobs, while the 1% reaps record profits,” says Kathryn Cates, one of the organizers, “Because the holiday season has been exploited by the 1% to make money off working people, December is a peak business time for the ports and the wealthiest corporations. On December 12 we will show that the holidays are about family & community not profits and exploitation.”

The longshoreman’s union, representing many port workers, has historically not crossed picket lines, community or otherwise.

As of December 5th, nine West Coast occupations have responded to the call to shut down Wall Street on the Waterfront, including Occupy LA/Long Beach, Occupy San Diego, Occupy Tacoma, Occupy Seattle, Occupy Anchorage and Occupy Oakland.

West Coast Shutdown info can be found at shutdowntheport.com.

This action was approved by the Occupy Portland General Assembly on November 26, 2011

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by SoNotHer

From the latest Boldprogressives.org email -

We recently told you about Rep. Tammy Baldwin's (D-Wisconsin) bill opposing the proposed deal that would give Wall Street banks immunity for crimes that haven't been investigated yet. 1,000 phone calls and 55,000 signatures from people like you helped catapult Baldwin's co-sponsors from 27 to 48 members of Congress! This is huge momentum, and we're not done yet.

Our Capitol Hill outreach program, P Street (the progressive alternative to K Street), will continue updating members of Congress about grassroots support while asking them to sign on as co-sponsors. Add your voice today.
Thanks for being a bold progressive.

P.S. More good news: The Massachusetts Attorney General recently announced a lawsuit against 5 big Wall Street banks for illegally foreclosing on homeowners. Progressive activism against Wall Street immunity, coupled with the Occupy Wall Street momentum, has undoubtedly empowered investigations like these. And it's been announced that more are coming in California and Nevada. But a deal with Wall Street banks would make these lawsuits go away, so please add your name as a citizen signer of Baldwin's resolution today

http://act.boldprogressives.org/sign...non/?source=bp

Yes, investigations need to proceed! But, under the actual laws/regulations governing Wall Street and the banks during the mega-rip off most of what was done was not illegal. That is why it is so important to get the agencies created and the new regulations they are to enforce going. And the GOP in Congress has done everything including blocking confirmation of directors of consummer agencies that will make those kinds of actions illegal and subject to prosecution in order to protect Wall Street and banking further.

Not one damn thing is going to get done that helps the 98% without changing the composition of both the Senate & House and elect Democrats and Independents that are left of center. This general election is so critical and we need to focus on all of the GOP backed voter suppression activity going on.

[atomiczombie]

Portland Port is CLOSED
Oakland Port is CLOSED
Long Beach partly CLOSED
Longview Port is CLOSED

[turasultana]

CNN reports some disruption to ports, but not closings:


(CNN) -- Protesters chanting, "Whose port? Our port!" protested at West Coast ports on Monday, temporarily shutting down some of the facilities in a protest against what they called corporate greed.

The protesters, affiliated with the nationwide "Occupy" movement, set out in the pre-dawn hours in Oakland, California; Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, to shut down ports in an effort to "disrupt the economic machine that benefits the wealthiest individuals and corporations," according to organizers.

Long Beach police arrested two people during the demonstration there, police Chief Jim McDonnell said. Port operations were not significantly impacted beyond some traffic delays, he said.

A spokesman for the port in Portland, Oregon, said the protests had partially shut down the port there. In Oakland, the port said in a statement that operations were continuing "with sporadic disruptions for truckers trying to enter and exit marine terminal gates."

About 80 protesters demonstrated outside the gate of San Diego's port, but caused no disruption because, port spokesman Ron Powell said.

"They were there at a time when we really didn't have a lot of truck traffic coming in and out," he said.

Four people who sat down in the road were arrested he said. San Diego police did not immediately return a telephone call seeking information on the arrests.

Protesters were planning a second occupation of the Oakland port Monday afternoon. Protesters in Seattle also were preparing to protest at the port there, according to organizing websites and posts on Twitter.

In addition to the West Coast port blockades, protesters also were planning to demonstrate at the port in Houston, while demonstrators in Salt Lake City and Denver were planning to disrupt operations of Walmart distribution facilities. About 40 to 50 people protested at the Denver facility, CNN affiliate KCNC reported.

The demonstrations were part of a nationwide day of protest called in the aftermath of efforts by cities across the country, including New York, Boston and Oakland, to clear demonstrators from encampments they had set up in public parks and other locations.

"We are occupying the ports as part of a day of action, boycott and march for full legalization and good jobs for all to draw attention to and protest the criminal system of concentrated wealth that depends on local and global exploitation of working people, and the denial of workers' rights to organize for decent pay, working conditions and benefits, in disregard for the environment and the health and safety of surrounding communities," organizers said on their website.

The port protesters are focusing on terminals owned by SSA Marine, saying it is owed by the Goldman Sachs investment firm, which they argue exemplifies corporate greed and is anti-union.

SSA Senior Vice President Bob Watters disputed the protesters' claims, saying Goldman Sachs owns less than 3% of an investment fund that has a minority stake in the company. He also said the company is the largest employer of International Longshore and Warehouse Union members on the West Coast.

That union, which represents 15,000 dock workers, has distanced itself from the effort.

In a letter to members sent last month, union president Robert McEllrath said the organization shares Occupy protesters concerns about what they consider corporate abuses, but he said the union was not sanctioning any shutdown.

Protest organizers said on their website that they were acting independent of organized labor only because the unions are "constrained under reactionary, anti-union federal legislation."

Some port workers are also against the planned blockade.

"I'm just barely getting on my feet again after two years, and now I gotta go a day without pay while somebody else has something to say that I'm not really sure is relevant to the cause," trucker Chuck Baca told CNN affiliate KGO.

Port officials say shutting down their facilities will only cost workers and their communities wages and tax revenue.

"Protesters wanted to send a message to the 1% but they are impacting the 99%," said Portland port spokesman Josh Thomas. The stoppage is resulting in "lost shifts, lost wages and delays," he said.

Port of San Diego board chairman Scott Peters issued an open letter to the community on Sunday asking that protesters not disrupt work.

"The Port of San Diego is made up of working people with families who serve the public each day by helping to bring in goods that are important to the people of the San Diego region," Peters wrote.

"They are the 99 percent, the gardeners, the maintenance workers, the dock workers, the Harbor Police officers, the office workers, the environmental workers -- all working to improve the quality of life in San Diego Bay and on its surrounding lands," he said. "It is these people who would be hurt by a blockade of our Port."

[atomiczombie]

Originally Posted by atomiczombie

Portland Port is CLOSED
Oakland Port is CLOSED
Long Beach partly CLOSED
Longview Port is CLOSED

This is from an FB post from Occupy St. Louis. Meant to cite it, sorry.

[Cin]

Originally Posted by AtLast

Yes, investigations need to proceed! But, under the actual laws/regulations governing Wall Street and the banks during the mega-rip off most of what was done was not illegal. That is why it is so important to get the agencies created and the new regulations they are to enforce going. And the GOP in Congress has done everything including blocking confirmation of directors of consummer agencies that will make those kinds of actions illegal and subject to prosecution in order to protect Wall Street and banking further.

Yes, many of the unethical and damaging acts of Wall Street were not illegal thanks to the orgy of de-regulation we have seen over the years. But much of what was done by Wall Street was outright fraud. Misrepresenting debt instruments to the public as sound and top-grade while scorning them privately as toxic junk is still very much illegal, criminal acts under existing statutes.

[Cin]

Published on Tuesday, December 13, 2011 by CommonDreams.org
President Obama, Veto the National Defense Authorization Act
by Center for Constitutional Rights

CCR urges President Obama to veto the NDAA. If he doesn’t, he will bear the blame for making indefinite military detention without trial a permanent feature of the U.S. legal system. He will be responsible for signing into law one of the greatest expansions of executive power in our nation’s history, allowing the government to lock up citizens and non-citizens without the right to fair trial. Indefinite detention is contrary to the most fundamental principles of the rule of law.

The NDAA would essentially prevent President Obama from bringing men from Guantánamo to the U.S. for trial and severely curtail his ability to resettle them in third countries. More than half of the men currently detained at Guantánamo – 89 of the 171 – have been unanimously cleared by the CIA, FBI, NSC and Defense Department for transfer or release. Yet no one has been transferred since last January, when Congress created restrictions similar to those in the NDAA. This marks the longest period without a transfer in the prison camp’s entire 10-year history and only underscores the president’s broken promise and failure to close Guantanamo.

As Obama himself, along with President Bush and NDAA co-sponsor Senator John McCain, acknowledged during the presidential campaign, Guantánamo’s very existence makes us less safe. Indeed, Guantánamo, Obama’s forever prison, has become a global symbol of human rights violations by a country that claims to be the world leader of freedom.

Are these the legacies Obama, the one-time professor of constitutional law, wants for his presidency?

[AtLast]

Originally Posted by Miss Tick

Yes, many of the unethical and damaging acts of Wall Street were not illegal thanks to the orgy of de-regulation we have seen over the years. But much of what was done by Wall Street was outright fraud. Misrepresenting debt instruments to the public as sound and top-grade while scorning them privately as toxic junk is still very much illegal, criminal acts under existing statutes.

I agree but worry that time is running out to do anything about the acts of fraud leading to what happened. There was such a confusing wall built (of these securities) to protect Wall Street and the banks and housing financial services industries- they wanted this to be a nightmare to even figure out who the hell really owns properties! All of the lobbying paid off for nearly 30 years to get to this place. Those that profited simply put the cash offshore.

I don't think there will ever be trials against those at the core of all of this. I think that each and every mortgage held in this manner should be declared null and void with re-negotiation at todays market values and that any negative financial "marks" on mortgagees since the collapse of the housing market not be allowed to count in the new mortgage.

That is the other side of this- so many people that had good credit now do not due to job loss and the whole damn mess.