This is a call to unemployed and precarious people, workers, retired, students, undocumented migrants, homeless… Let us all demonstrate together on the same day all over Europe against poverty-inducing policies in order to build transnational solidarity and to move forward in the convergence of our various movements.
In the wake of the European general strike on November 14, Agora99, a European conference of social movements meeting in Madrid in November (http://99agora.net/) calls for a European day of action against precariousness on December 1 as well as to the drafting of a new charter of social rights.
What new chart can we imagine and how to defend our rights together? On December 1 let us organize public debates, popular assemblies, cacerolas, marches, direct actions, occupations, etc.
Thousands of people protested across Greece on Thursday against the next round of spending cuts, required in return for another bailout installment.
The 24-hour strike is the country's 20th national stoppage since the debt crisis erupted two years ago and comes as EU leaders met in Brussels.
Taxi drivers, doctors, teachers and air traffic controllers were among those taking part in the rallies.
Athens police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators throwing petrol bombs.
Syntagma Square was temporarily shut down but has since reopened to traffic; it was quite a small protest as Greek protests go and remained mainly peaceful,
Protesters threw petrol bombs and stones at police blocking off parts of the capital's main square before parliament. Officers responded with tear gas and stun grenades.
A 65-year-old man suffered a fatal heart attack during the demonstration, which was said not to be linked to the protests.
To the financial institutions of the world, we have only one thing to say: we owe you NOTHING!
To our friends, families, our communities, to humanity and to the natural world that makes our lives possible, we owe you everything.
To the people of the world, we say: join the resistance, you have nothing to lose but your debts.
On O13, in the larger context of the worlwide "globalnoise" mobilisation, and within the Global Week of Action against Debt, we will mobilise against debt in several cities of the world: Barcelona, Madrid, Mexico, Paris, New York, Rome…
The governments' response to the financial and economic crisis is the same everywhere: cuts in expenditure and austerity measures under the pretext of reducing deficits and the repayment of a public debt which is the direct outcome of decades of neoliberal policies. The same neoliberal policies that have plundered economic and natural resources and exploited human lifes in Latin America, Asia and Africa for decades, are now also being imposed on the people of Europe and North America.
Governments in the service of finance are using this pretext to further reduce social spending, lower wages and pensions, privatize public utility and goods, dismantle social benefits and deregulate labour laws, and increase taxes on the majority, while social and tax giveaways are generalized for the big companies and the highest income households, the rich, the 1%.
"Occupy the Bay" chronicles the Oakland incarnation of the Occupy Movement and focuses on events in the Bay Area and their impact. From Occupy Oakland's port shutdowns and controversial decision to embrace a "diversity of tactics," to police brutality that has attracted attention nationally and worldwide, this movie deals with the unique factors that have made the story of the Occupy Movement in the San Francisco Bay Area what it is today.
Occupy the Bay is a not-for profit documentary video project directed by Jonathan Riley and produced by Kevin Pina/Long Memory Productions.
Filmmaker Bianca Smith captures Occupy Los Angeles as they come from the north, south, east and west to converge into a Workers' Day celebration. "We are babysitters, nannies, we're gardeners, janitors, security guards," a woman shouts at a union rally. "We're all kinds of workers, and we demand respect!"
Marchers also share their visions of a more just world. "My version of a perfect society would be someplace where everyone has an equal opportunity to live up to their potential," a young man says. "I think that's the ideal place to live in."
Smith explains, "We had been anticipating for the May 1 General Strike (M1GS) for several weeks. Once the date got closer we held a couple meetings to talk about how we could cover all bases throughout the day. We knew that M1GS planned to flood the city in four "winds" (north, south, east, west) until the marches and caravans converged in Downtown LA. We created a camera team for each wind, composed solely of film students from The Los Angeles Film School, and we interviewed the likes of every culture and walk of life we could. Los Angeles is a city full of diversity and we wanted to capture that. There are a multitude of different types of people with a multitude of issues at hand to be dealt with. We wanted to convey the spirit of people, and I think we're all very happy with the results. This is a beautiful movement with real momentum, and I believe the medium of film and internet can play a very important role in that.
Filmmaker Rodrigo Dorfman adds another short film to his Occupy the Imagination series, this time setting May Day's triumphant New York City march to music by Horacio Salinas and slowing it down "so we can get lost in the sea of faces."
[Caution: Most if not all of the videos in this post contain strong adult language that may not be suitable for work.]
Occupy Seattle attacked and pepper sprayed by the Police
May 1st: Occupy Seattle protestors were at the city's Terminal 18 port when, according to many witnesses, the cops formed a line with horses and bikes and started hitting the crowd to push us them off of the road. One of the cops took out his canister of pepper spray and started spraying people.
May Day Mayhem in Seattle
Anarchists damaged the old federal courthouse in Seattle near Sixth Avenue and Madison Street.
Occupy San Francisco, May 1st 2012
Filmed outside 1 Montgomery Street at Market Street.
San Francisco PD push protesters into street, later drive motorcycles through group without warning.
Filmed on May 1st, 2012 at Occupy San Francisco's General Strike.
[Caution: Videos in this post may contain language not suitable for work.]
Police teargas Oakland protesters at May Day general strike
Around 400 protesters have been confronted by police who used tear gas, causing hundreds to scatter on May 1. Some activists blocked streets throughout the day and vandalized two banks, a news van and police vehicle. Nine people were taken into custody in Oakland, California, after hundreds of people took to the streets. Police reportedly used Taser against at least one of them. Officers ordered protesters out of the street after firing the tear gas and "flash-bang" grenades. RT's correspondent Madina Kochenova has the latest from Los Angeles.
Occupy Oakland May 1st 2012
Flash grenades, riot police and a smashed channel 5 news van.
Anarchists Storm Bank of the West in Oakland 5-1-2012
A group of Black Bloc anarchists go on a rampage inside a branch office of a Bank of the West. Aside from the bad publicity this gives to the Occupy movement, the anarchists run off and blend in with the large crowds outside and innocent peaceful activists could be mistaken for one of them and be not only arrested, but possibly injured by violent police actions. Yet somehow, they continue to believe this sort of vandalism is "okay."
Snatch and Grab, Arrests, and Tear Gas at Occupy Oakland 5-1-2012
In the beginning of the video, police are seen pulling an individual off of her bike onto the ground, and arresting her.
Occupy Detroit Marches for May Day
Occupy Detroit protesters march to recognize the international holiday that originated in the US called May Day. They began the hike at Patton Park and ended at Grand Circus Park with brief rallies a locations on the way including the abandoned Michigan Central Train Depot. As it's Detroit, there was dancing and rap music, naturally.
Protests marking May Day were held worldwide on Tuesday, including at least 100 Occupy protests across the U.S. Marches in some areas turned violent. In Oakland, protesters banged on bank windows and went head-to-head with a police line. In Seattle, protesters smashed windows and police resorted to pepper spraying some of the crowds. 1,000 Occupy protesters gathered at New York City’s Bryant Park, before marching up Fifth Avenue. One co-organizer said, “We're trying to find new, positive community-building ways to engage and protest and be a part of the burgeoning civil dialogue about what this country should be doing.”
Most in the media still referring to May Day as a "return" or "resurgence" of Occupy apparently don't yet realize that Occupy didn't go away during the Winter weather. There were many foreclosure actions, not to mention all of the planning it took to create Tuesday's activities for May Day.
