In the fall of 2011, New York's Zuccotti Park grabbed the world's attention as the hub of Occupy Wall Street, a movement that set off a chain of rage against the country's financial and political elite.

Even in the face of police repression and media ridicule, the movement mobilized thousands of people fed up with the deep economic divide in the US. And within two months hundreds of Occupy Wall Street camps swept across the country changing the political discourse in the US.

"People were upset about the economy, people were upset about the foreclosure crisis, people were upset about the bailouts, and about the fact that it looked like elected officials were working for big business rather than for the people who they're supposed to be working for," says activist Max Rameau from Take Back the Land.

This Al Jazeera documentary tells the definitive history of Occupy Wall Street from its early days through the movement's rapid spread up to the brutal crackdown by state authorities.

For many of those born in the 1980s and 1990s, the first time they heard Russell C. Means' voice was probably in Disney's 1995 animated film "Pocahontas." His character portrayed Pochahontas' father, and chief of the Indian tribe. Means voiced the most powerful scene in the film. "From this day forward, if there is to be more killing, it will not start with me."

Russell Means died at age 72 at his home in Porcupine, S.D., his family announced on his website. Means became internationally renowned as one of the leaders of the famed 71-day armed occupation of Wounded Knee in his home state in 1973, he helped thrust the plight of Native Americans into the national spotlight. He's one of the "best-known American Indians since Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse". After launching his acting career in the 1990s, most notably in the film The Last of the Mohicans, he remained outspoken as a former leader of the American Indian Movement. But he excoriated the mainstream media and instead voiced his opinions via YouTube videos and on his personal website.

I was thrilled to get to talk with two of the organizers of the October 2011 Freedom Plaza occupation. They also helped organize Occupy The Debates and have stood up for justice in many places in many ways. Most recently they've been fighting against the Transpacific Partnership. I guarantee you will learn something from this interview.

Keep fighting,

-Lee

At least three Occupy Austin members were arrested as the group tried to begin a new occupation in the northern part of the city.

About 50 protesters gathered at 5 p.m. Saturday at Highland Park Mall, where they were met by Austin police, who swept toward them saying they were on private property.

Two members were arrested. The group then marched to a former Home Depot and planned to pitch a tent city, but police kept them away. A third member was arrested there, protesters say that person was only video taping the group.

Those arrested were released on Sunday, and were greeted by fellow protesters who gathered to wait for their friends.

One Occupy member, Peter Cooper, explained that getting arrested is not the goal of their group, but they aren't afraid of it, either. "The oppression just isn't going to work. We'll be back," said Cooper.

Occupy Austin plans to attempt to establish a tent city again on Wednesday, October 10, 2012, which is also "World Homeless Day."

The group first set up camp at city hall from Oct. 6, 2011, to Feb. 3, 2012 when police forcibly evicted them.

At the weekly demonstration in Nabi Salih, two Palestinian women stand their ground in the face of the infamous "skunk truck." The skunk truck is a mounted water cannon that sprays a foul smelling liquid at high pressures.

The village of Nabi Salih, home to over 500 Palestinians, holds weekly demonstrations protesting the illegal confiscation of their lands by Israelis in the settlement Halamish. The Israeli Occupation Forces respond frequently with excesses of force, as the video here demonstrates.

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"Shouts in the Sky" is a documentary film about the civil movement born in May, 2011, in Barcelona, Spain. Through an occupation of the main square, Plaça de Catalunya, which remained occupied for months to demand direct democracy and rethinking of economical and political structures, the movement created a new space that challenged the passivity of society. As the uprising grew, the state and the media used many ways to try to discredit and stop the movement violently - sound familiar? - but the movement was determined to peacefully resist, despite being fired upon by police brandishing rubber bullets.

"In the film we follow many dialogues between people, police, ideologies, political and economical forces and the state," the filmmakers said.

Occupy. Still Here. Still Free. March 17th marks six months of American occupation and raising of social consciousness. Tents are a medium of expression, nodes for social services. We have so much yet to communicate, so much yet to give. When you're ready, we'll still be here; we'll still be free.

99%, take a chance.

After the busy "Day of Action" on Friday in San Francisco, the final total arrests of occupiers is 23, most for trespassing. Four arrested during the occupation of the Cathedral Hill Hotel allegedly threw Bibles at police from the roof, it's not clear what those charges were.

Two officers were also allegedly injured during the hotel incident, one who was hit in the chest with a brick and another suffered a hand injury.

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[Video from Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story' - Flint Sit-Down Strike]

This email note was in my inbox this morning from Michael Moore:

On this day, December 30th, in 1936 -- 75 years ago today -- hundreds of workers at the General Motors factories in Flint, Michigan, took over the facilities and occupied them for 44 days. My uncle was one of them.

The workers couldn't take the abuse from the corporation any longer. Their working conditions, the slave wages, no vacation, no health care, no overtime -- it was do as you're told or get tossed onto the curb.

So on the day before New Year's Eve, emboldened by the recent re-election of Franklin Roosevelt, they sat down on the job and refused to leave.

They began their Occupation in the dead of winter. GM cut off the heat and water to the buildings. The police tried to raid the factories several times, to no avail. Even the National Guard was called in.

But the workers held their ground, and after 44 days, the corporation gave in and recognized the UAW as the representative of the workers. It was a monumental historical moment as no other major company had ever been brought to its knees by their employees. Workers were given a raise to a dollar an hour -- and successful strikes and occupations spread like wildfire across the country. Finally, the working class would be able to do things like own their own homes, send their children to college, have time off and see a doctor without having to worry about paying. In Flint, Michigan, on this day in 1936, the middle class was born.

But 75 years later, the owners and elites have regained all power and control. I can think of no better way for us to honor the original Occupiers than by all of us participating in the Occupy Wall Street movement in whatever form that takes in each of our towns. We need direct action all winter long if we are to prevail. You can start your own Occupy group in your neighborhood or school or with just your friends. Speak out against economic injustice at every chance you get. Stop the bank from evicting the family down the block. Move your checking and credit card to a community bank or credit union. Place a sign in your yard -- and get your neighbors to do it also -- that says, "WE ARE THE 99%." (You can download signs here and here.)

Do something, anything, but don't remain silent. Not now. This is the moment. It won't come again.

75 years ago today, in Flint, Michigan, the people said they'd had enough and occupied the factories until they won. What is stopping us now? The rich have one plan: bleed everyone dry. Can anyone, in good conscience, be a bystander to this?

My uncle wasn't, and because of what he and others did, I got to grow up without having to worry about a roof over my head or medical bills or a decent life. And all that was provided by my dad who built spark plugs on a GM assembly line.

Let's each of us double our efforts to raise a ruckus, Occupy Everywhere, and get creative as we throw a major nonviolent wrench into this system of Greed. Let's make the politicians running for office in 2012 quake in their boots if they refuse to tax the rich, regulate Wall Street and do whatever we the people tell them to do.

Happy 75th!

"We Are The Many" by Hawaiian artist Makana is not only written specifically as a song for the Occupy movement, it has the distinction of being a surprise act for the World Leaders Dinner at APEC when Makana pulled open his jacket and shirt to reveal an undershirt with “Occupy with Aloha” handwritten on it.“I found it odd,” he says, “that I was afraid to [sing “We Are the Many”] at first. I found it disturbing. I didn’t like the idea of being afraid of singing a song that I had created in front of any group of people.”

I knew the power in the words that I had written. And, in a world that was free of punishment for being yourself… I would have sung it at the top of my lungs. But I also didn’t want to do it out of disrespect. I did it because there was really no other option at that point. I had to do it. I had to forget about what could happen to me. I was guided by something bigger… I don’t know what it is… I can’t put a name to it… The whole thing was providence.
...

Makana seems to have gotten the job done, spelling out protesters’ frustrations with corporations, market capitalists, lobbyists, political leaders, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the bank bailout, while naming the refusal of party politics and the embrace of social media that makes “occupation” a much bigger ideological and practical strategy than trampling tents at Zuccotti Park or in downtown Oakland even begins to understand. And then, so not for nothing, he manages to sum it up with a catchy refrain (played, he says, some fifty times at the APEC dinner):

We’ll occupy the streets
We’ll occupy the courts
We’ll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
We are the many
You are the few

Since Makana's performance during APEC, he has become a giant among ki artists, and a growing luminary on the world music scene, earning Grammy nominations, and opportunities to play with rock legends like Santana and Sting.