Blockadia Rising: Voices of the Tar Sands Blockade from Garrett Graham on Vimeo.

"Blockadia Rising: Voices of the Tar Sands Blockade" is an hour-long documentary film written and directed by Garrett Graham in collaboration with the Tar Sands Blockade and features exclusive video footage shot by the blockaders themselves during the course of over six months of sustained resistance.

In 2012, Texas landowners and environmental activists came together to organize resistance against a dangerous pipeline being built by a Canadian corporation to bring tar sands oil from Alberta Canada to refineries near the Gulf of Mexico. This hazardous project continues despite unprecedented opposition from indigenous communities, local farmers and even global environmental movements. From this struggle, a community of resistance was born that has attracted volunteers from around the continent who have successfully defied this multi-million dollar corporation with the power of non-violent direct action.

The film is meant to be both a celebration of the blockades' achievements and a primer for those interested in joining the campaign. It explains the dangers of tar sands extraction and the risks to public health posed by the pipeline as well as the strategy of non-violent direct action that has been delaying the pipeline so far.

The story takes place in the backwoods of East Texas where the pipeline crosses farmlands and homesteads as well as aquifers and old growth forests. You will hear the voices of the blockaders who are risking their lives to stop this pipeline. In the Texas heat, they have locked themselves to heavy machinery, and braved the elements by living in trees. Hear these courageous folks in their own words.

Blockadia Rising is just the opening chapter in this ongoing movement to stop this pipeline and halt the extraction of the Canadian tar sands, but the blockaders see themselves as a part of a larger struggle against the consequences of run-away climate-change caused by unchecked extraction of natural resources by industry at the expense of both human and non-human communities. This film speaks to all movements for environmental and social justice and showcases direct action techniques that have never been attempted before.

Blockadia Rising: Voices from the tar Sands Blockade (2013) was written, edited and narrated by Garrett Graham, an active participant of the Tar Sands Blockade who continues to support their efforts. This film is dedicated to them, and everyone fighting for environmental and social justice.

The Campaign: tarsandsblockade.org
The Filmmaker: garrettgrahamonline.wordpress.com

[Via Garrett Graham]

Episode 06: Tucson from Radical Resistance Tour on Vimeo.

Get a closer look at localized resistance based around ethnic studies, badass kids, border deaths, racist laws and the Derechos Humanos coalition.

The Radical Resistance Tour is an autonomous project by a group of Occupy Wall Street organizers. We're touring the United States and interviewing activists, people participating in direct actions, and people working to create a dual power model. We want to show people who aren't on the ground how people are being directly affected by decisions being made by corporations and governments that put profits over people and the environment. We want to inspire more people to fight back by featuring people who are already fighting back, and hopefully gain some shared wisdom by listening to how others are resisting.

[Via]

Born on Feb. 4, 1913, Monday would have been Rosa Parks’ 100th birthday. On Dec. 1, 1955, Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her act of resistance led to a 13-month boycott of the Montgomery bus system that sparked the Civil Rights Movement.

Parks is famous for this single, albeit enormously significant, action, but at the expense that her lifelong dedication to resistance is often overlooked. Parks was a dedicated civil rights activist involved with the movement long before and after her historic action on the Montgomery bus.

Watch this feature about her life put out Monday by Democracy Now in time for her 100th birthday to learn more about the rich, lifelong history of resistance that defined who Rosa Parks actually was.

Occupied Cascadia Trailer from Cascadia Matters on Vimeo.

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

website: Cascadiamatters.org

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.

These are themed days of action in resistance to the system and in solidarity with the 99%. Individual, autonomous affinity groups welcome to plan whatever inspires them.

10/1 – SHUT DOWN K STREET day of action. Meet at 7 AM at McPherson Square to shut down the street where corporate lobbyists, bankers, and the 1% do their shady dealings with the government. Bring tents, sleeping bags, other items as needed. Individual, autonomous affinity groups welcome to plan whatever inspires them.

10/2 – Bank/economic day of action. Meet 7 AM at Bank of America, Pennsylvania & 15th St NW, to “foreclose” a bank. Meet 1 PM at same location for march to deliver “bailout money” to social services, schools, and the people.

10/3 – Lobbyists day of action. A day to stick it to the notorious lobbyists, one-percenters, and Citizens-United Super PAC campaign donors who are undermining democracy and imperiling our system.

10/4 – 99% solidarity day of action. Visiting our 99% friends in shows of solidarity, and uniting together against the oppression of the 1%.

10/5 – Earth, sustainability, and energy day of action. A day of opposing industrial agriculture, GMOs, hydro-fracking, pollution, oil, coal, and other dirty energy, and working toward a healthy, sustainable planet.

10/6 – OCCUPY DC FREEDOM PLAZA ANNIVERSARY, a day for calling for an end to wars and militarism. The Occupy DC Freedom Plaza location began on the anniversary of our invasion of Afghanistan on October 6, 2001. This October 6, join Occupy DC to oppose war and militarism, and call for US troops out of Afghanistan now!

10/7 – Occupy Democracy day of action. A day for calling for a true democracy, one month prior to Election Day. Meet 5 PM in McPherson Square for a general assembly to display what a real, egalitarian, horizontal democracy might look like!

A year ago, on October 1, 2011, ecstatic that the 99% had begun occupying Wall Street, brave activists here in Washington DC began occupying McPherson Square on K Street, the corridor where corporate lobbyists, bankers, and the 1% come to wield their power. On October 6, more fearless members of the 99% began occupying Freedom Plaza in downtown DC, about ten blocks to the south. Two active camps were established with several hundred occupiers between the two of them. They survived the snow and rain of winter and persecution from the police, until the police violently raided the camps in the second week of February 2012.

There are more reasons than ever to occupy -- to dwell in the places where the 1% do their corrupt dealings, and refuse to leave. Join the 99% as we reclaim our democracy, our future, our world.

[Via]

"Here's to the watchdogs, the whistleblowers, the nonviolent resisters. Those who fight for fairness and hustle to keep the planet honest. Theirs is not an easy stroll through the tulips."

As part of the one-year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, New Zealand band Minuit have teamed up with New York photojournalist Nina Berman to produce "Stories For Boys: Occupy Edit," a people-inspired music video. These photos were taken at the height of the New York occupation, from mid-September to mid-November, as well as in Chicago for the NATO conference in May.

Berman, a veteran photographer and associate professor at Columbia University School of Journalism, is no stranger to being amidst chaotic situations with her camera, and her award winning images capture the expressions, purpose and character in people.

Minuit says that’s what drew them to her work and is also the essence of the Occupy movement.

“Here in New Zealand, Maori have a saying: ‘What is the most important thing? It is people, it is people, it is people.’ Nina’s photos over that ominous beat are spine-chilling.”

But for Minuit the video is not only about Occupy: “It’s for the watchdogs, the whistleblowers, the non-violent resisters who fight for fairplay and hustle to keep their communities honest. That is not an easy stroll through the tulips. Hug an activist today!”

The story of the deterioration of Motor City and the most innovative people who refuse to let it burn to the ground.

Detroit's story has encapsulated the iconic narrative of America over the last century— the Great Migration of African Americans escaping Jim Crow; the rise of manufacturing and the middle class; the love affair with automobiles; the flowering of the American dream; and now . . . the collapse of the economy and the fading American mythos. With its vivid, painterly palette and haunting score, Detropia sculpts a dreamlike collage of a grand city teetering on the brink of dissolution. These soulful pragmatists and stalwart philosophers strive to make ends meet and make sense of it all, refusing to abandon hope or resistance. Their grit and pluck embody the spirit of the Motor City as it struggles to survive postindustrial America and begins to envision a radically different future.

You can watch entire film online here.

Narrated by former presidents Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy and activist Mario Savio, along others, "Revolution 2012: It's Time to Rise" explores our rigged system, from the military industrial complex to our bought-and-paid-for elections. But the most poignant sound bite may come from a representative of Iraq Veterans Against the War:

"We are resisting an occupation we once risked our lives for. We swore to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America, but we found out the hard way that the greatest enemies of the Constitution are not to be found in the sands of some far-off land, but rather right here at home. When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. It is time we started meeting oppression with resistance. They cannot stop us. Humanity marches on. The utmost manifestation of love and devotion to America is today, as it always has been, resistance of tyranny."

As clips from iconic past speeches prove, we were warned.

Another awesome video from the folks at anothernyc.org, and the weekend's scheduled events for NYC.

May 10-15: A Week of Actions Against Budget Cuts and Austerity

Tuesday May 15 @ 6 PM: Mass Convergence in Times Square on Global Day of Action

Say no to the system that produces record profits for the 1% by impoverishing the 99% of us; say yes to a fair city and a better world!

Beginning on May 10th and culminating on May 15th in a mass convergence at Times Square, NYC organizations and individuals from all across the city will join together in action around the many issues we face: from cuts in social services, to an austerity agenda that redistributes your tax revenue into private hands, to the financial institutions (that we bailed out) that continue to make record profits at our expense.

As part of a global resistance, as part of the Occupy movement, as a broad movement for social, political, and economic justice, we say enough! We reject Bloomberg's New York, and we demand another city. We reject the notion that there is no alternative, and we demand a better world. Join the week of actions, take to the streets, raise your voice, and come to Times Square on May 15th at 6 PM to stand together as a global movement and declare that another city, and another world, is possible!

MORE INFO

Website: www.anothernyc.org

Facebook Event Page: http://www.facebook.com/events/451664224850611/

Twitter: #AnotherNYC

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (216)

PLAYS: (1427)

Embed

[Caution: Some language may not be suitable for work.]

The big banks have FINALLY been held to account!! ...Never mind, I was thinking of something else.

Many people want to claim the Occupy movement is dead but as Mark Twain said, “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” No matter where Occupy goes from here, it already changed the entire conversation in this country in a matter of months (and many other places around the world). It took a nation that was talking about Herman Cain’s 999 plan and cutting taxes and forced us to talk about gross inequality and the corporate raping and pillaging of the world that we all seem to have accepted like it’s a Black Eyed Peas song. “Well, I guess it’s going to be around for awhile. We might as well pretend like we like it. Resistance is futile.”

Whether people are out there marching with Occupy or not, most of America now believes--or at least ponders the fact--that this society is entirely rigged against them. It doesn’t seem to make any rational sense.

• We can’t fund NASA but we can fund Lloyd Blankfein’s expensive sushi habit?
• We can’t fund education but we can fund executive retreats? We can’t fund health care but we can fund million-dollar missile strikes?
• We can’t arrest those responsible for the crisis that led to millions of people kicked out of their homes, but we can arrest and pepper spray a 19 year-old drawing a peace sign in chalk on a sidewalk?
• We can’t arrest Wall Street titans who make Charlie Sheen’s moral compass look like that of Harriet Tubman but we can arrest people for sitting in a park?

In a matter of months these questions were on everyone’s minds.

Occupy protesters don’t have to be standing in a square for the revolution to continue. This may not be a revolution in the traditional sense, but it’s been a revolution in thought. Americans are tired of greed over good, profitable pollution over people, war for wealth over the welfare of average workers. This is a thought
revolution, and the revolution will not be jeopardized. It will be criticized, ridiculed, misconstrued and misunderstood, but it will push through. Ridicule it all you want but it’s simply too late -- the flood gates are already open.

Continue reading »