World Public sector cuts Newswire Archive

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It remains to be seen whether the internal contradictions within the Occupy movement-the limits of the 99% as a framework understanding for race, class, and police in America will be overcome by its significant contributions to the renewal of revolutionary potentials-its defiance of authority, its willingness to operate outside of dead-ended political channels, and its ability to arouse a sense of possiblity in thousands previously hopeless.

Occupy the London Stock Exchange
15th October
12pm
St Paul’s Cathedral

A quote well-known among activists, variously attributed to Gandhi or US labor leader Nicholas Klein, says that “first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” In the space of just the past several weeks, it’s possible to discern the first three steps of this progression in the response of the US political, economic, and media elite to the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement. This fact should be a great source of encouragement for all those brave and dedicated individuals who have helped build this movement.

We just got back from the opening march for Occupy Portland, and were even more disappointed by how liberal, reformist, and nonthreatening it was than we had expected. The website for Occupy Portland had promised that "proper actions" would be taken against "instigators" of any "illegal activity (property destruction etc.)," which we can only interpret as a threat to snitch to the cops, so we went with low expectations, but this was by all means a massive disappointment even taking into account our pessimism from the get-go.

We attended the opening march for Occupy Portland because we are some angry-ass proles who really hate capitalism. Although Occupy Wall Street (and the various off-shoot occupations) have few official defined goals or positions, there is a general opposition to "corporate greed" and "corrupt politics". As anarchists, we seek to expose and destroy the roots of these problems - as long as capitalism and the state exist, there will be greedy corporations and corrupt politicians. Capitalism and the state cannot be reformed into something kinder, gentler, or more humane, it is exploitative by nature. We wished to push the discourse at Occupy Portland in a more radical, explicitly anti-capitalist and anti-state direction. So we attended the Occupy Portland opening march in full team colors with a big banner that read "NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP (A) NEVER GONNA LET YOU DOWN." Hey, we do have a sense of humor.

OccupyLA Day Seven. The encampment at City Hall continues to grow. The camp now numbers close to 100 tents with at least two occupants per tent. Rain on Wednesday failed to discourage the occupiers, and the encampment is now larger and more organized than ever. Tomorrow the camp will have completed its first full week. It has been an action packed week and has drawn much media attention even competing with the Jackson murder trial just down the street.

While the slant of corporate media coverage of the Wall Street Occupation has focused on the general motivations behind the movement, often missed are the variety of personal perspectives, backgrounds and desires that brought this protest-city together. Here are some of the many voices that have combined their efforts to bring New York City the Wall Street live-in protest.

For anyone who is not familiar with this movement or the events taking place all over the world, we would like to try and provide an introduction….

Here are a number of reasons why one might feel compelled to get involved in the Occupy Britain movement.

In 2008 the global recession was felt worldwide, and although the media reported ‘recovery’ there has not actually been one, in fact, what has held off the, what appears to be an inevitable global financial collapse thus far, is a process called ‘quantitive easing’ and the selling off of national institutions, such as the NHS, with job losses, redundancies, cuts to vital services, school closures, unreasonable welfare reforms, increase in the cost of living, banking institutions requiring bail outs, and the tax payer footing the bill and paying for the mistakes of others.

People are now recognising that there is a split in fairness and equality, we see bankers bonuses increasing, media tycoons controlling and withholding information that they should be reporting, in the public interest, systemic corruption of our police force, politicians and quite possibly our prime ministers, the introduction of, an ever increasing amount of legislation and statutes to further restrict our ability to speak out against them.

The entrapment and arrest of 700 peaceful Occupy Wall Street (OWS) activists on the Brooklyn Bridge has created a huge wave of support for their movement. The number of daytime occupants in Liberty Plaza doubled or tripled from 100 the week prior to 200-300 this past Monday and Tuesday. These people are the core who maintain the occupation of the plaza, making it possible for several hundreds and sometimes thousands to hold rallies in the late afternoon and participate in the open mic speakouts and General Assembly meetings in the evening.

On Saturday, the Occupy Wall St. movement marched on the Brooklyn bridge in New York. Police officers cut the demonstrators off from the exits, entrapping them on the bridge, in the rain, before carting off as many as 700 to jail. In the story below, British journalist Dan Hancox writes about how corralling peaceful protestors, or "kettling," was used by Britain's conservative government to steamroll resistance to their drastic austerity agenda. As the Occupy Wall St. movement spreads to cities all over America, we may see much more of this type of policing of public space to quell protests. (AlterNet Editor's note)

On September 27th Lauren Ellis published an essay in Mother Jones Magazine entitled “Is #OccupyWallStreet Working?”

The essay argues that Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is not working because the movement has no clear message and is not demographically representative of those who are affected most by the current economic problems. While Ellis does raise important points about movement-messaging and political representation, she in no way tries to understand the internal logic and outward expression of OWS.

Ellis’ conclusions center around four main points: that OWS’s “kitchen sink approach” is a form of ineffective messaging; that the media’s focus on the police brutality distracts from OWS’s main message (or lack thereof); that the hacktavist collective Anonymous inhibits the OWS movement; and that the OWS participants are the “usual suspects” of “dreamers.” In what follows, I provide counter-arguments to each of Ellis’ points as an attempt to flesh-out some of the philosophies, practices, and communicative strategies of Occupy Wall Street. I want to note that I am not seeking to attack Lauren Ellis in any way. Instead, I am trying to demonstrate why her arguments—representative of many like-minded skeptics—are insufficiently substantiated.

It began as a call in July 2011 by the magazine Adbusters to hold powerful business interests on Wall Street to account, and drawing on inspiration from the famed 2011 grassroots protests across the Middle East. But the mantle has been taken up by grassroots activists in New York City to forge an ongoing occupation outside of Wall Street and throughout New York City. The effort in its first two weeks has spurred a national movement with sibling efforts in at least 130 other cities, including Chicago.

Occupy Chicago, merely a week old, has already drawn hundreds of grassroots protesters, who "march…each day…After an hour long general assembly meeting, demonstrators headed through the financial district, Millennium Park, the Magnificent Mile and back to base camp to once more spread messages of solidarity, positivity and persistence in the face of a political system that’s left 99% of Americans without a real voice in governance…While it may be young and still trying to get organized, the movement to Occupy America is growing and cohering. And though many went home after Saturday’s march, more than a hundred stayed to continue organizing and evangelizing, with no plans to leave until they feel their job is done."

UPDATE: Occupy Chicago threatened by Chicago police to stop.

Additional Coverage: Lessons Learned from Occupy Wall Street | Five Things that Occupy Wall Street Did Right | Occupy Chicago Entering Day 6 | Protestors Occupy Chicago in Solidarity with Occupy Wall St NY | An American Spring is Possible | Open Letter to Occupy Chicago.

Outside Resources: Think Progress; NY Times' Andrew Ross Sorking Sneers at Occupy Wall Street | Protests Work Better with Specific Demands | Occupy Wall Street Makes Its Own Media.

Social Media Resources: Tumblr | Twitter | Live Video Stream

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#OccupyWallStreet protests are now well into their second week, and they are increasingly capturing the public spotlight. This is because, whatever limitations their occupation has, the protesters have done many things right.

As part of the next National Day of Action Against disability deniers Atos, being held on Friday 30th September, join in the online protest to inform people doing business with Atos exactly where the money’s coming from.

It's time to say enough is enough.

Cities around the UK are mobilising for the next National Day of Action Against Poverty Pimps Atos taking place on Friday 30th September.

This channel will feature live streams from global non violent revolution spreading across the globe, with the first broadcasts from Wall Street Occupation in NYC that will start on Saturday, September 17, 2011. The channel will also feature live stream from solidarity protests and events in Spain, Greece, France, Belgium, Iceland and other places around the gblobe  http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution

Translation of communique issued Sunday September 11 by the school students on hunger strike (some for 50 days now) in Santiago, Chile. Education without profit.

MANILA, Philippines – In a society where women are mostly in-charge of managing the household budget, higher electricity rates mean additional burdens and deeper indebtedness for Filipino women, especially those who already find it hard to make ends meet.