No to austerity! Yes to reclaiming our communities!
Occupy Portland and Portland Action Lab invite all people to participate in a national call to action to say No to Austerity and Yes to building our collective power. On November 2nd and 3rd (N3) we will mobilize and march, voting with our feet by taking direct action to interrupt the normal course of business. Our power is in our neighborhoods, building alternatives, and taking to the streets! Business and our governments hoard wealth, privatize our communities, and burden us with enormous debt – This is AUSTERITY and we say Enough is Enough!
We call on all participants in the Occupy movement, rank-and-file union members, students, our elders and people-at-large to organize creatively and return to our public spaces with this message on the weekend before the election. Our communities will make our own decisions and control our own resources, no matter who is elected. We are not alone; austerity is a consequence of a failed economic system and people around the world are rising up. We act in solidarity and take inspiration from the peoples of Greece, South Africa, Quebec, Chile, and beyond who are fighting austerity and the destruction of their communities.
The first full-length known documentary on the bioregional movement happening in Cascadia is making its Portland premier this Sunday, October 7th at 7PM at Clinton Street Theater. If you’ve wondered what those blue, white and green flags are at various Occupy Portland events, wonder no more.
Exploring the emerging understanding of bioregionalism within the lands and waters of the Northeast Pacific Rim, the filmmakers interweave intimate landscape portraits with human voices both ideological and indigenous. Stories from the land contrast critique of dominant culture, while an embrace of the radical unknown informs a re-birthed and growing culture of resistance. Filming began during the outset of the populist “Occupy” movement, and finished by joining the voices seeking to re-contextualize popular revolt within our life-world as a movement to decolonize, un-occupy, and re-inhabit the living Earth through deep understanding and identification with our specific bioregions (literally “Life-Place”).
Film will be shown at 7PM with a Q&A period with the directors afterwards. For more information, contact cascadianmycelium (AT) gmail.com
Clinton Street Theater – 2522 Clinton St. Portland, OR, Cascadia
Cost: $6 general admission, $5 student admission with ID, no one turned away for lack of funds. All money goes to continue showing this film and facilitating discussions with communities across Cascadia.
Twenty-eight arrests have been confirmed Sunday night during the ongoing Occupy National Gathering in Philadelphia, after a small, impromptu march followed the closing of Franklin Square where most of the gathering's activities have been centered. Two of the people arrested were livestreamers, Jesse Hadden of Occupy Portland and “Cowboy Mike” of Occupy Philly. Two of the people arrested were also medics.
Many tweets claim Philly police on bicycle patrol kettled those participating in the march, and then violently began to arrest them, possibly looking to target as many livestreamers as possible. Many also noted that the police far outnumbered the Occupiers. Journalist and livestreamer Tim Pool noted that the Homeland Security Department tactical vehicle was following close behind. Several tweets stated that there was a similar tactical unit at the last “mass arrest” in Philadelphia.
Pool reported, according to a Philadelphia police captain, arrests were for “obstructing a highway.” All would be issued summary citations and then would be released in about 2 hours. All were held at police headquarters -- known as "The Roundhouse" -- where other Occupy members gathered to wait in support for their release.
This second video is marked Part Two of the arrests:
On May 24th, Occupy Portland along with local Union supporters, ex-postal workers, and community members rallied at Terry Schrunk Plaza and marched to the University Station Post Office where 10 activists Occupied inside up to and after closing in protest of cuts. Police arrested the 10 peaceably.
Judge dismisses charges against 30 members of Occupy Philly including freelance journalist and photographer Dustin Slaughter, charges of obstruction of a highway, failure to disperse and conspiracy stemming from a Nov. 30 protest sparked when police forced the Occupiers from their 56-day encampment outside City Hall on Dilworth Plaza.
Jonathan Zook of OCCUPY PORTLAND found not guilty on three of four charges, and guilty only on the nebulous charge of "interfering" with a police officer.
The infamous superlobby/moneyed conservative front group ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) counts hundreds of corporations among its membership, including UPS, Wal-Mart, Time Warner Cable, United Healthcare and Monsanto, among many others. On February 29, dubbed Shut Down the Corporations day, Occupy Portland was determined to haunt them all. Watch this video and slip into the May Day mindset.
Worldwide, May 1st is traditionally a ‘Workers’ day – a day of Labor Solidarity, and a public holiday. It’s a day to celebrate and march in support of im/migrant rights. In protest against the corruption of the worldwide marketplace, which has led to illegal foreclosures, mass unemployment, low wages, high taxes and a penalization of all those who do not own the ‘99%’ of the world’s resources, and in solidarity with the im/migrant movements of May 1st, we decided to declare May 1st, 2012 a People’s General Strike. Instead of calling upon unionized Labor to make a specific demand (illegal under Taft-Hartley), we are calling upon the people of the world to take this day away from school and the workplace, so that their absence makes their displeasure with this corrupt system be known.
On December 19th, 2011, Occupy Los Angeles General Assembly consented upon the following statement:
“Occupy LA supports in principle a General Strike on May 1, 2012, for migrant rights, jobs for all, a moratorium on foreclosures, and peace – and to recognize housing, education and health care as human rights, and calls for the building of a broad coalition to make that a reality.”
Occupations across the world have made similar calls for a General Strike, or day of economic disruption, in direct response to Occupy Los Angeles, or through a synchronicity of thought, a buzzing hive mind that feels the need to express solidarity with movements and people throughout the world who honor May Day and see this years expression of that as our next major step.
How can I participate?
If you are part of unionized labor, and your contract is up for negotiation, you can officially strike on May 1st. If you are not – call in sick. Take a holiday. Don’t show up to school. March with us, or join in one of the many events that will be taking place on May 1st, either in the day or in the evening. Block parties, rallies, protests, marches, family BBQ’s – this is a day when we take a stand against the way the system has enslaved us and burdened us with unmanageable debt, incredibly long working weeks, unfeasibly expensive healthcare — by taking a day for ourselves, being human again, spending time with our families and friends. Our bosses dictate everything to us — but not our holiday. The holiday of the working class, the 99%.
If you can’t participate on #M1GS, you can contribute in other ways. Spread the word. Poster your neighborhood. Help form Strike Committees in the workplace. Agitate. Tweet. Like. Donate here (Occupy Los Angeles) to help us get the word out, for logistics — and for TENTS.
STRIKE for:
IM/MIGRANT RIGHTS
ECONOMIC, SOCIAL & ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE and LABOR RIGHTS
PEACE WITH JUSTICE
CIVIL LIBERTIES — END THE POLICE STATE
HOUSING, EDUCATION AND HEALTH CARE AS HUMAN RIGHTS
This just in from Occupy Portland. This is from February 29th's "Shut Down the Corporations Day and highlights just how Occupy Portland worke to raise awareness of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Great work, Portland!
Today, Wed. Feb. 29th, Occupiers in New York, Oakland, Mexico City, and over 80 other cities will take part in a coordinated National Day of Action to Shut Down the Corporations. Occupations have been preparing a variety of decentralized actions in response to Occupy Portland's call to target the American Legislative Exchange Council:
We specifically call on people to target corporations that are members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). The biggest corporations in America, like ExxonMobil, Bank of America, BP, Monsanto, Pfizer, and Wal-Mart use ALEC to buy off legislators and craft legislation that serves only the interests of corporations and not people. They then duplicate and spread this corporate legislation in Washington, D.C. and in state legislatures across the country. The anti-labor legislation in Wisconsin and the racist bill SB 1070 in Arizona are two recent and destructive examples of what corporations use ALEC to do.
In New York, demonstrations will begin at the Koch Industries building and the Pulitzer Fountain at 9 a.m., a march from Tudor City to Bryant Park at 10 a.m., and a Bank of America "Teach-In" with Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi at 11 a.m. in Bryant Park. At noon, occupiers will attempt to "shut down Bank of America branches, ending at B of A tower," which is right across the street from the park. More details are here and here.
#F29 specifically targets the American Legislative Exchange Council, a 501c3 group that includes legislators and corporations as members so that they can draft legislation together that advances "the Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government, federalism, and individual liberty." The following video about ALEC will answer all your questions.
On February 29th, Occupy Portland calls for a national day of non-violent direct action challenge society's obsession with profit and greed by shutting down the corporations.
We are rejecting a society that does not allow us control of our future. We will reclaim our ability to shape our world in a democratic, cooperative, just and sustainable direction.
We call on people to target corporations that are part of the American Legislative Exchange Council which is a prime example of the way corporations buy off legislators and craft legislation that serves the interests of corporations and not people. They used it to create the anti-labor legislation in Wisconsin and the racist bill SB 1070 in Arizona among so many others. They use ALEC to spread pro big business laws around the country.
