Catch the spirit– how Wall Street occupiers averted eviction

by on October 15, 2011 15
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I'm posting this because it is the best NYC Occupy Wall Street video I've seen thus far.

About Annie Robbins

Annie Robbins is Writer at Large for Mondoweiss, a mother, a human rights activist and a ceramic artist. She lives in the SF bay area.
Posted in Israel/Palestine

{ 15 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. annie says:
    October 15, 2011 at 11:14 am

    today is a big day October 15th International Day of Action. here is an OWS user map for the US. there are over 650 cities globally taking action today according to International Commission of Sol, in Madrid.

    • annie says:
      October 15, 2011 at 11:28 am

      whoops, i better amend that. according to nbcny there are 951 cities in 82 countries participating.

      The Occupy Wall Street movement begins its fourth week in Zuccotti Park Saturday, as protests are set to begin around the world in what the organizers call an international day of solidarity.

      Calling it a global “call to action” day, protests are planned in over 951 cities in 82 countries

      ….

      The movement comes days after a showdown at their park headquarters Friday, where more than a dozen people were arrested — including one person bloodied — as hundreds of broom-wielding protesters marched toward Wall Street shortly after the city announced the postponement of a cleanup that would’ve forced Occupy Wall Street members to leaver their territory, at least temporarily.

      The chaos began shortly after 7 a.m. when Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway said his office received an e-mail from Brookfield Properties, the owners of Zuccotti Park, where protesters have been camped out since Sept. 17, that the day-long, multi-phased cleanup would be postponed.

      Protesters had learned Thursday they would not be allowed to bring their sleeping bags or tarps back into the park when they were permitted to return, fueling skepticism that the cleanup was a pretext for eviction.

      They vowed to clean the park themselves and resist police efforts to remove them Friday morning, raising concerns about an imminent showdown between the thousand-plus protesters gathered in the park and police.

      Brookfield initially asked the NYPD to assist with removing the protesters so the park, which they said was unsanitary, could be cleaned. On Thursday night, the company’s CEO wrote in an e-mail to Holloway that Brookfield would defer the cleaning a few days as it tried to reach an agreement with protesters that would keep the area safe, clean and available to the public.

      After the announcement, boisterous cheers floated up from the crowds and hundreds of protesters began marching, chanting, “The people will never be defeated” and waving their brooms in the air.

      • Shmuel says:
        October 15, 2011 at 1:36 pm

        Rome was huge, but went sour. All that will be talked about is the violence and vandalism of the “black bloc” (whoever the hell they are) – which will be instrumentalised to discredit and curtail further protest.

        • Antidote says:
          October 15, 2011 at 3:35 pm

          Just what happened at the last G 20 protests in Toronto.

        • Shmuel says:
          October 15, 2011 at 4:25 pm

          And the G8 in Genoa in 2001, and a couple of the student protests in Rome last year. Former Italian president Francesco Cossiga also admitted that it had been government policy to plant such provocateurs in left-wing demonstrations in his time, and suggested that Premier Berlusconi adopt similar tactics (judging by some of the evidence from last years demos, he took Cossiga’s advice).

          It’s hard to say who the thugs at today’s protest were (dressed mostly in black, helmeted, gloved, faces covered, carrying clubs and other goodies), and there certainly have been violent factions on the Italian left, but there has also been a history of government use of agents provacateurs of various kinds. Today’s spectacle certainly plays into the hands of the government. The thugs were contested by many of the demonstrators, who shouted “get out of here, bastards”.

        • VR says:
          October 16, 2011 at 3:39 am

          Historically there has never been a successful movement that did not have a mix of methodologies, and those being more controversial (at least in today’s pathetic atmosphere). How one avoids being infiltrated by provocateurs is by holding close the mix so that you know who is genuine and who is not, not by isolating and ostracizing them – many times the force of the direct action has caused the oppressors to turn to the more so-called “reasonable element” out of fear, it is the job of those called upon not to become the tools of the oppressor and just continue the same exploitative process.

          Without the mix, in this instance the so-called black bloc, what do you expect to accomplish? Change by chant, movement by marching, fire by candlelight? The forces you are up against cannot be reasoned or shamed into change, the only language they understand is force – you can tel by how often the asses in power apply it. Just some food for thought, if anyone wishes to do any profitable thinking and get some substantive results.

        • Shmuel says:
          October 16, 2011 at 3:51 am

          VR,

          I’m all for “profitable thinking”, and do not object to the use of violence per se. In this case however, the violence really would seem to be extraneous to a movement that is, for all intents and purposes, still in diapers and easily set back. A different “mix” (if and when the movement matures a little) might make the use of provocateurs less effective or attractive, but provocateurs can always escalate violence in quantity and quality, damaging the credibility of a movement and general sympathy with its goals. Modern Italian history offers many lessons in this regard.

        • VR says:
          October 16, 2011 at 4:05 am

          At the risk of being accused of being repetitive I will post a link I have used a number of times in the past –

          pacifying resistance

        • VR says:
          October 16, 2011 at 5:14 am

          Apparently Shmuel many do not realize the direction they are heading in, these fellows (global wrecking crew, capitalist cadre, whatever you wish to call them) are playing for keeps – they are not going to stop till we re-enter the ranks of feudalism, I don’t think people who think they “have something” realize this fact. We are not talking about a reform issue here, not some slight adjustment, but revolution (or at least i am).

          The infacy of the movement is going to be taken over by the reality that there is no intention of substantive change coming around the corner. You might think I am not being realistic and only time will tell, we will wait for the next crash that will make the last one look like a party, then let’s see what happens. You are always going to face the prospect of provocateurs, soon it will not matter who is one or not. Why don’t you take a tour of my site, look specifically at the dates when the posts were written and compare what I wrote with what eventually happened, or follow the archives here – see how many times I have been wrong in my judgement calls (I am not saying I am infallible, just that I know the nature of the beast).

        • Shmuel says:
          October 16, 2011 at 7:48 am

          You don’t have to convince me, VR.

        • annie says:
          October 17, 2011 at 3:21 pm

          shmuel, this reminds me of what happened in seattle during the highly publicized ’99 WTO conference there. i attended the march and speeches earlier in the day. there were thousands of people attending and 99.9% were peaceful demonstrators.

  2. DICKERSON3870 says:
    October 15, 2011 at 6:18 pm

    RE: “Catch the spirit– how Wall Street occupiers averted eviction” ~ Annie

    MY COMMENT: Adam Klugman’s radio program today is mostly about the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement.
    You can listen to “Mad as Hell in America” with Adam Klugman on AM 620 KPOJ (Portland, OR), Satudays from 3:00-6:00 pm PDST [6:00-9:00 pm EDST]
    TO LISTEN LIVE - link to 620kpoj.com
    ARCHIVED PODCASTS – link to madashellinamerica.com

  3. DICKERSON3870 says:
    October 15, 2011 at 6:39 pm

    RE: “Catch the spirit– how Wall Street occupiers averted eviction” ~ Annie

    SOMEWHAT RELATED: The Merkel Doctrine: Tank Exports to Saudi Arabians Signal German Policy Shift ~ By Holger Stark, Spiegel Online, 10/14/11

    (excerpts)…Berlin has said nothing about the reasons behind its decision to reverse decades of carefully considered foreign policy and export up to 270 modern tanks to Saudi Arabia. The sale has baffled many given the country’s longstanding tradition of not selling arms to crisis regions. It may be only the be the beginning…
    …The debate that broke out after the deal came to light was an unusually passionate one, with the opposition condemning the deal and many conservatives reacting with dismay as well…
    …Perhaps there are good reasons for exporting German military equipment to Saudi Arabia — but the public still hasn’t been informed of them, even months after the decision leaked. One thing is certain, though: There are good reasons not to endorse the deal. In a truly democratic process, arguments on both sides would be weighed in order to then pursue the best path…

    Part 2: Tanks Well Suited for Putting Down Revolutions

    In early 2011, before the request officially reached the Federal Security Council, the German government sounded out Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s opinion on the matter in conversations at various levels, approaching Israel’s Foreign Ministry as well as Uzi Arad, then Netanyahu’s national security advisor.
    Israel had no objections at that point. Contacts between Jerusalem and Riyadh had improved in the preceding years, with Saudi Arabia becoming one of Israel’s most important allies in combating Iran’s nuclear program. The United States government also signaled its approval…

    German Leopards Could Roll Through Arab World

    The German Leopard 2 tanks would also be well suited to putting down revolutions. They have an attachable “obstacle clearance blade” that can move protesters out of the way and seem as if they were made to modernize Saudi Arabia as a tank-driving military force. The lesson learned from Bahrain is that, next time, it could be German Leopards rolling through the Arab world…

    ENTIRE THREE-PART ARTICLE – link to spiegel.de
    P.S. This is real journalism (as opposed to what you usually see in the NYT, WaPo, etc.!

  4. maggielorraine says:
    October 16, 2011 at 2:11 am

    This: link to youtube.com
    is the best video I’ve seen on OWS. It is a MUST WATCH.

  5. Justice Please says:
    October 16, 2011 at 5:23 pm

    10.000 protesters in Berlin, Germany on Saturday. 6.000 in the Germany’s banking capital, Frankfurt.

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