Joyce L. Arnold: Liberal, lesbian, Independent, equality activist, writer. At TaylorMarsh: Liberally Independent, including the Two Parties series, and Queer Talk
When Occupy Wall Street action began, the expectations were for 15,000 to 20,000. When only a few hundred showed up, the initiators just kept going. And now we’re at day 25 in NYC, and on OccupyTogether, as of about 3:30 PM EST, there were 1323 cities with registered meetups and events.
I’ll say again, I’m barely scratching the surface with these updates. A part of this “somethin’s happen’ here” moment is that it’s creating this huge and growing space for conversation. You can watch a livestream of OWS in NYC, and find links to similar streaming and videos to other Occupy locations.
At OWS Press you can find a lot of information and links. One is to Occupy Earth, a Facebook page serving as a “clearing house for information from the World’s ‘occupy’ actions. A quick and cursory scan:
Occupy Australia, Richmond, Winnipeg, Florida, Austria, Portugal, Vancouver, Belfast, Brazil, Tokyo, Saskatoon, Sidney, Newfoundland, Germany, and Occupy from home.
Via the OWS Library, find Occupied Wall Street Journal.
Selected tweets from OWS:
BintHouria RT @nyclu: Metro – Parents for #OccupyWallStreet: Family sleepover http://t.co/02KN3HnT #ows
fididrill @CluckandChip This is not about left vs right but corporate cronyism vs. democracy. All pols corrupted by money. #getmoneyout #ows #teaparty
merelyjim RT @VanJones68: #OWS =anti-capitalist? Under TRUE capitalism, banksters woulda gotten pink slips, not bail-outs. Wall St. would HATE real capitalism #occupy
bloomuse Not the 1st time authorities said occupying a space is unlawful assembly: Sit-ins during Civil Rights Movement: http://t.co/A2SA3Uns #ows
WatchdogJamie #ows, as long as you believe its a political party issue rather than a corruption issue you will lose. You are simply pawns. #tcot #p2
Thanks to lambert at Corrente for this link, 72 Cities That Have Joined The Occupied Movement, a gallery of photos from, at this point, 72 Occupy cities and towns.
Don’t forget Occupy America, a site at flickr, where you can see posts, photos, posters and more, submitted by individuals from around the nation.
Now, to some happenings, some which have occurred, some planned. Today’s big focus is on what happened at Occupy Boston early this morning. From OWS Press:
Occupy Wall Street would like to express our support and solidarity with both the people of Boston and the 100+ arrested at Occupy Boston last night. We commend them for their bravery in standing their ground at great personal cost to assert the right of the people to peaceful assembly in public spaces.
We condemn the Boston Police Department for their brutality in ordering their officers to descend upon the Occupy Boston tent city in full riot gear to assault, mass arrest, and destroy the possessions of these peaceful women and men. We condemn them for ordering this attack in the middle of the night. …
The Boston Police Department made no distinction between protesters, medics, or legal observers, arresting legal observer Urszula Masny-Latos, who serves as the Executive Director for the National Lawyers Guild, as well as four medics attempting to care for the injured …
THIS IS WHAT A POLICE STATE LOOKS LIKE
And we are what democracy looks like. … We call upon the rank-and-file police officers of this country to disobey such orders and remember that they protect and serve the people. You are one of us, the 99% and we’re too big to fail.
A snippet from FDL:
2:13 AM Boston sanitation workers being used to dispose of tents from the camp
2:08 AM Easily more than 100 arrested
1:58 AM Occupy Boston raided by Boston security forces including the bomb squad and riot police. Massachusetts state police come assist Boston security forces in the raid. Protesters dragged and beaten. At least one photographer charged.
1:42 AM Police in riot gear have moved in and are making arrests. Zipties are being put on occupiers. Reports of military veterans who are part of Veterans for Peace being beaten by police.
Via OWS Press: “Occupy Des Moines: Dozens Arrested In Iowa, Including A 14-Year-Old.”
Related but with a separate identity, the October 2011 action in DC is all about “occupying,” too. From October 2011, Stop the Machine:
Freedom Plaza Is Now Ours
And we’re never giving it back. Our permit for Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., expired, we refused to leave, and the Park Police has just proposed to let us stay for four more months.
We’ve agreed. We have not said that when the four months are over … we will leave.
In NYC, OWS Press reported yesterday:
Despite Police threats, Mayor’s office assures no arrests tonight. Can’t say same for tomorrow.
This afternoon, via The Hill “Six protesters arrested at Senate Hart Building.”
Occupy Chicago is a part of a coalition called “Stand up Chicago,” Via Common Dreams which is
planning a protest against economic inequality on Monday at meeting of the Futures Industry Association and the American Mortgage Bankers Association. The coalition, representing a variety of community and worker groups, expects thousands of people marching from five different downtown locations Monday afternoon ‘to reclaim our jobs, our homes and our schools,’ according to its web site.
Among responses to Occupy are, of course, those from the Right. That includes, via WaPo:
Conservative activists have created a Tumblr called ‘We are the 53 percent’ that’s meant to be a counterpunch to the viral ‘We are the 99 percent’ site that’s become a prominent symbol for the Occupy Wall Street movement. The Tumblr is supposed to represent the 53 percent of Americans who pay federal income taxes, and its assumption is that the Wall Street protesters are part of the 46 percent of the country who don’t.
You also might want to check out “Anatomy of a Deception: How a Conservative Magazine Attempted to Discredit the Occupy Movement,” by Charlie Graspski, at OpEdNews.
As far as I can tell, the response from the professional Left includes everything from “Why aren’t they paying attention to me?” to “I understand you’re unhappy and I’m sort of sorry about it but please don’t take that as an endorsement of anything you have, are or will say or do,” to silence. Okay, there are those who actually seem attempting to be supportive, too, though almost always within the confines of electoral politics of the only Two Parties that matter.
Lots of good commentary and analysis out there, too. More on that tomorrow.
( Photo via Occupy Boston )
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