Godaddy pulls support of Stop Online Piracy Act

IDG News Service – Giant domain name registrar GoDaddy.com has pulled its support from the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act after owners of several websites announced they would take their business elsewhere.

Negative feedback about SOPA from a number of customers forced GoDaddy to take a second look at the legislation, said Warren Adelman, Go Daddy’s newly appointed CEO. Go Daddy has concerns about the free speech and Internet security implications of the legislation, but until now, has worked with lawmakers to address those issues, he said.

“It’s clear to us the bill’s not ready in its current form,” Adelman said Friday. “Looking at this over the last 20 hours, we’re not seeing consensus in the Internet community, we’re hearing the feedback from our customers.”

On Thursday, Reddit user selfprodigy said he was pulling 51 domain names from GoDaddy because of the registrar’s support of SOPA. The same day, Ben Huh, CEO of the Cheezburger family of humor websites said said his company would move its 1,000-plus domains off Go Daddy unless it dropped its support for the bill, known as SOPA.

On Friday, Wikipedia cofounder Jimmy Wales also threatened to move from Go Daddy. “Their position on SOPA is unacceptable to us,” Wales said in a tweet.

Feedback from customers was a huge reason GoDaddy switched its position, said Adelman, formerly president and COO at the registrar. “As a company, one of our core values is listening and taking care of our customers,” he said.

The Wikimedia Foundation was “really glad” to hear of GoDaddy’s reversal on SOPA, said Jay Walsh, communications director there. “SOPA is an attack on the free and open Web,” he said. Projects like Wikipedia need an open and free Web to thrive and function.”

Still, the foundation will be reviewing its hosting service providers in 2012, Walsh said. “Jimmy’s statement is still correct — we are looking at new providers,” he added.

In April, GoDaddy General Counsel Christine Jones told lawmakers that the company would support efforts that required DNS blocking as a way to strike at foreign websites that infringe U.S. copyrights. As of Friday, Jones has removed posts at GoDaddy.com describing the company’s support of provisions in SOPA.

Also this week, conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, normally a strong supporter of copyright enforcement, voiced opposition to SOPA. The think tank has “serious and legitimate concerns” about SOPA’s impact on Web security and freedom of speech, wrote James Gattuso, senior research follow in regulatory policy at Heritage.

SOPA, in allowing court orders to block the resolution of IP addresses by servers in the U.S., could entice Web users to “use less secure servers elsewhere to continue accessing blocked sites,” he added.

Occupy Albany site dismantled, protesters marching

 

By BRYAN FITZGERALD and CASEY SEILER, Staff writers

Albany workers dismantle the Occupy Albany site in Academy Park. (Casey Seiler/Times Union ) / AL

Albany workers dismantle the Occupy Albany site in Academy Park. (Casey Seiler/Times Union )

ALBANY — Protesters from Occupy Albany on Thursday evening left their dismantled tent site in Academy Park and marched through the streets, holding aloft their final structure.

Members of the Albany Police Department mounted patrol walked their horses about 100 feet ahead of the marchers.

The protest, which looped from city hall to State and Lark streets to Washington Avenue and back down to Academy Park, snarled rush-hour traffic.

The spur-of-the-moment march included protesters knocking on doors to ask residents to join their movement.

Earlier in the afternoon, workers from the city’s Department of General Services dismantled the site. They were accompanied by about 10 police officers.

Members of the Occupy movement had formed a chain surrounding the large information tents along the Washington Avenue side of the park in front of City Hall. However, when city workers moved in to take down the final tent, a standoff between protesters and police began. Protesters then pulled up the tent themselves and began marching up Washington Avenue carrying the tent aloft.

Attorney Mark Mishler, a member of Occupy Albany’s legal team, said the city went around the protesters’ backs to get a court order from state Supreme Court Justice Joseph Teresi.

“We’ve been legally ambushed,” Mishler said. “The city lawyers went to a judge this morning to get this order. Even though we’ve been in constant dialogue with the city over the past weeks, they didn’t give us the courtesy and respect we deserved.”

Mishler said he asked to meet with Teresi to see if he would reconsider the immediate action but the judge said the city would not modify its order.

Stephen Rehfuss, an attorney who often represents the city on civil rights matters, explained that it obtained the injunction after weeks of negotiation and in response to “health and safety concerns.”

“There have been three assaults in the last three to four days,” Rehfuss said, explaining several of the actions involved homeless people. He said protesters were “not regulating safety.”

Some of the protesters said the city’s action was an ambush, and that it went back on the weeks-long collaborative dialogue. The encampment first formed on October 21.

Rehfuss said it was “not necessarily a change in tactics.”

“Of course they’re going to say that. We’ve been meeting with them on a weekly basis … they’ve been well aware of this.”

After signing the order, Teresi held a conference with Rehfuss and Mishler, both men confirmed. He sought to modify the order but was unsuccessful; a formal, written, legal response is required by Dec. 28.

Rehfuss said the order did nothing to restrict access to the park. It simply mandates the removal of any tents or signs stuck into the ground.

The workers put tents and belongings into blue bins and loaded them in the back of DGS trucks.

The protesters initially yelled, but later calmed down and started chanting such slogans as “Show me what democracy looks like” and “All day! All week! Occupy! Albany!”

There have been no arrests. Protesters wrote the phone number of their legal team on their arms in preparation for possible arrest.

One member reminded fellow protesters, “It’s best if you have your ID on you.”

“You guys are ruining people’s Christmas” and “You used to be the 99 percent, I’m not sure what you are anymore,” protesters said to the 15 to 20 DGS workers, dressed in jeans, boots, work gloves and yellow DGS jackets.

The protesters said they would stay for Thursday evening’s planned “Keep the Park” festivities, including a potluck, rally and march.

On Wednesday, representatives of the leaderless protest movement met with city officials and proposed they be allowed to remain overnight in the city park with a “small, winterized presence” of 10 tents past Thursday’s deadline, when their permit to camp there expired.

But city officials, who have been adamant that overnight camping there end in order to ensure the protesters’ safety during the winter months, would not say Wednesday whether they were inclined to accept to proposal.

The encampment sprang up Oct. 21 in solidarity with other Occupy protests taking root around the country, opposing the influence of money in politics and the disparity in wealth among Americans.

The occupiers remained there 24 hours a day in defiance of the park’s nightly curfew until Dec. 7, when the city formally blessed the protest with a temporary permit in exchange for the protesters’ consent to downsize to no more than 30 tents and remedy 15 code violations that fire officials labeled safety hazards.

That permit, however, expired at 7 a.m. Thursday, the first day of winter.

Bill of Rights, day–December 15th

Today is Bill of Rights Day. To Americans, the Bill of Rights are key amendments to the U.S. Constitution, that protect our individual rights.

On March 4, 1789, the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified by the (former)13 colonies, and went into effect. States and individuals were concerned that the Constitution did not properly cover and protect a number of rights of individuals. The Constitution was signed by the original 13 states with the requirement, or understanding, that a Bill of Rights would be created, amending the new U.S. Constitution.

On September 25, 1789, the First Congress of the United States proposed to the state legislatures 12 amendments to the Constitution. 10 of these amendments were added to the Constitution on December 15, 1791.

The Bill of Rights includes these Amendments:

Amendment 1- Freedom of speech, press and religion

Amendment 2 – The right to bear arms

Amendment 3- Protection of homeowners from quartering troops, except during war.

Amendment 4 – Rights and protections against unreasonable search and seizure

Amendment 5 – Rights of due process of law, protection against double jeopardy, self incrimination

Amendment 6 – Rights of a speedy trial by jury of peers and rights of accused

Amendment 7 – Rights to trial by jury in civil cases

Amendment 8 – Protection from cruel and unusual punishment, excessive bail

Amendment 9 – Protection of rights not specified in the Bill of Rights

Amendment 10 – States rights, power of the states

Of the 12 original amendments, which ones were not approved? Amendments # 1 and 2. These dealt with the number of representative to congress, and compensation to representatives.

On Bill of Rights Day, we hope you celebrate you American Citizenship, and spend a few minutes reflecting upon the freedoms that you enjoy. These freedoms do not exist in many countries of the world.

Defend the Bill of Rights for All of Us.

 

Dec. 15, 2011, 2 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

On Bill of Rights Day, Thursday, Dec 15 there will be a Press Conference on Federal Court Steps, 40 Centre St., Manhattan, 11am. A coffin of the Bill of Rights will be brought to Federal Court Foley Square, NY, NY

The Bill of rights was ratified 220 years ago, on December 15, 1791. It is shameful that today, in the United States, we are forced to come together in defense of the Bill of Rights and our civil liberties, as the representatives of the 1% who rule this country continue to take our rights away.

Congress is attempting to bury the Bill of Rights. The National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA) includes language proposed by Democratic Sen. Carl Levin and Republican Sen. John McCain that allows for the arrest and indefinite detention of U.S. citizens by the military, on U.S. soil and without the right of trial. This is an egregious violation of our first amendment rights and comes at a time when we are witnessing unprecedented attacks on our civil liberties.

Some of these attacks include:

Massive spying on the Muslim community, including the recent revelations of the spying by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and the CIA on mosques, Muslim businesses, and Muslim student groups;

The continuation of the policy of sending agents into mosques with phony plots designed to entrap Muslims for so called “preemptive prosecution”;

The recent raids on homes of antiwar activists by federal agents, who have carted away personal computers, cell phones, books, and other possessions and handed the activists subpoenas to appear before federal grand juries;

The recent, often violent evictions of anti-Wall Street occupations around the country; The refusal of the Chicago city government and the federal government to allow for peaceful protests when NATO and the G8 countries come to Chicago in May, 2012 to hold summit meetings.

The potential impact of the NDAA’s provisions to expand military detention without trial could render the other issues we all address seemingly trivial; any activist stands at risk of designation as a potential terrorist, especially if their interests include either foreign policy or enterprises that impact the environment.

On December 15, Bill of Rights Day actions and press conferences are planned in New York City, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, San Francisco and other areas of the country. Several national coalitions — including the Muslim Peace Coalition, United National Antiwar Coalition, Bill of Rights Defense Committee, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Committee to Stop FBI Repression and others are co-promoting this call to action.

In New York, representatives from civil liberties, religious, social justice, and peace organizations will come together to voice opposition to the National Defense Authorization Act and other recent attacks on our civil liberties. We will discuss our plans to fight for the rights of all people and to defeat this repressive legislation.

For information on actions around the country, go to: http://bordc.org/.

Initial list of participants in NYC (List in formation)

The Muslim Peace Coalition
Bill of Rights Defense Committee
Center for Constitutional Rights – CCR,
Islamic Leadership Council of Metro NY
Islamic Circle of North America – ICNA
United National Antiwar Coalition – UNAC,
Council on American Islamic Relations – CAIR-NY
International Action Center – IAC
BAYAN USA Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines,
National Alliance for Philippine Concerns,
Pakistan USA Freedom Forum
Activists of Occupy Wall Street – OWS
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
Muslim Ummah of North America –MUNA
Islamic Center of Long Island

Occupy the Web: Hackers join worldwide protest

 

Meghan Kelly

Matt Ewing, founder of green tech company Rewire Labs, decided on that the Occupy Wall Street movement needed a technology boost. So he held a San Francisco Hackathon , aptly named “Occupy the Web, hacking for the 99 percent.”

Occupy movements targeting corporate corruption have spread outside of the its Occupy Wall Street origins. Indeed, the day of Ewing’s hackathon over 4,000 people marched in San Francisco under the same Occupy flag. Many have accused the protesters of having no core vales, no unity, but the developers that gathered Friday night disagreed.

“We’re used to seeing manufactured politics — you have the RNC [Republican National Convention] saying, ‘Okay we’re going to have rallies with a clearly defined structure,’” said Ewing in an interview with VentureBeat. “That’s not really what movements look like. Movements are organic.”

For Ewing, technology is both the roadblock and the savior of protesters in today’s age. It engages people, helps people to connect, but is used off of the front-lines and can present a less than banded-together exterior.

“[Protesters] can move faster [because of technology], but they can easily look disjointed. This is what a 21st century movement is like,” he said.

Instead of disjointed, Ewing likes to call the movement “distributed,” which turned out to be true of the hackathon as well. After coordinating his event on social networks, Ewing found not only was San Francisco thinking along the hacking lines, but New York and Washington DC were holding their own hackathons. The three decided to band together for “Occupy the Web” with two goals in mind: To support local “occupations” and to expand the movement.

In San Francisco, hackers gathered at The Hub, a temporary workspace, after responding to an Eventbright invitation Ewing sent out on Tuesday. By Friday, the start of the event, 65 people had already signed up. 24-hours later, at 6pm on Saturday evening, six groups presented their hacks. The hackers chose their projects based on a poll presented to those involved in Occupy movements across the web. It addressed what was the protesters needed most from technology.

Here are a few of our favorites:

Occupy the Hub

The developers behind Occupy the Hub were focused on support. “You need to see and you need to feel the support, even if you can’t be in these physical locations,” said Kyle Kesterson, co-founder of games company Giant Thinkwell Inc.

Today, support comes in more forms than just a chin chuck or a pat on the back. For occupiers, it can be a tweet, a Facebook like, or a video coming through Livestream. Kesterson and his team put the three together on one website, which will act as a “hub” for supportive content. The bottom of the site shows a number of avatars, which hold signs that populate with real-time tweets. Visitors can tweet directly from the page, with your local Occupy hashtag pre-populated, watch Livestream videos which appear in the middle of the page and soon the team will add a Facebook like button. The hope is as people like the page, an avatar for them will appear at the bottom of the screen and will hold signs for their tweets associated with Occupy.

OccupySMS

Alex Levinson, a security engineer with a popular gaming startup, participated in some of the smaller protests outside of the big cities and realized what we often forget: not everyone has a smartphone or access to a laptop. Dumb phones need love too, and so he created OccupySMS, which allows you to join a group chat executed over text messaging.

“I envisioned it being important for people who don’t know each others’ phone numbers to get in communication easily,” said Levinson.

He used Twilio to allow users to remain anonymous and currently hosts it on his own server. Because Twilio costs one cent per text, OccupySMS will allow you to fund the effort through SMS, in the future. Levinson hopes in the future people will be able to create satellite group chats for specific locations and efforts.

OccupyDesign

OccupyDesignPhotos of people holding up cardboard signs with various messages for the Occupy protests are concerning for many protesters.  For the media, it’s an opportunity to show what many people believe: these people are not organized.

“Our basic goal was to create a common visual language for the protest,” said Jake, who presented the idea.

To take on this challenge, the OccupyDesign team created a website for people to print out and tape together unified and graphical images represented the core mission of this protest. The idea is to not just say “Wall Street is screwing me,” but to show data conveying said screwing. Designers on the street can upload their own ideas as well, which may continue the trend of a disconnected message, but it’s also a channel for people to download signage with the same visual appeal.

Jake said it best, “This is the first protest that has had Adobe Illustrator and Flash..why aren’t we using these tools?”

OccupyAds

Similarly to OccupyDesign, the OccupyAds team feels there is a unified message from within the Occupy movement, but admits the media has not yet grasped it. Indeed, many are wondering where the protests will go from here. Stirring propaganda is needed to empower and educate not only potential protestors, but the protestors already involved.

Following along the recent trend to “crowdsource” content, OccupyAds created a website where people can upload videos to be set as creative commons, or allowing anyone to use and edit that content. Then, those with video editing skills can use the built-in YouTube editor to splice 30 and 60 second advertisements of the movement. From there, viewers can pledge money to see the video as an actual advertisement. Once the pledges reach $1000, the ad is sent to GoogleTV and pushed out to various ad networks.

Ewing explained the inspiration for his hackathon was a poignant tweet by writer Clay Shirky. It read, “The message of [Occupy Wall Street] is not “Here’s is our 9-point plan.” The message of [Occupy Wall Street] is “This is not a livable compromise.”

How Occupiers are using live streaming and Skype for a cohesive voice

Occupiers

Technology was once a luxury. Today, technology is a part of everyday life, and indeed it even touches the 99 percent. Protesters are now both live streaming events and using Skype as a megaphone, sometimes literally.

According to The New York Times, live streaming website Ustream has over 700 channels dedicated to the Occupy movement. (also Livestream and JustinTV)  The point of live streaming is to bring people from anywhere to your event, so they can be involved even if they can’t physically travel there. Occupiers are using the live stream for exactly that, streaming general assemblies, marches, speeches and other pivotal moments of the protest as a means to connect.

This is one of technology’s main roles in a protest such as this one. Occupiers have been accused of having a disjointed message, and no core leaders. Some call the Occupy movement Occupy Anywhere given the mass scale of Occupy camps around the world. There’s Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Oakland, Occupy Denver, Occupy San Francisco even Occupy individual schools, and maybe hundreds more. Given how spread out so many of these protesters are, technology and social media must be used to connect the message.

Live streaming has played an important role showing how “on the go” these camps are. Many of them are being torn down, and thus Internet access isn’t guaranteed. Ustream has seen roughly 70 percent of Occupy live streams come from mobile phones, with 89 percent being viewed on mobile phones. In order to really take part in these, however, you need a smartphone, which many still do call a luxury. Walking through an Occupy camp, you’re sure to see a few iPhones and Androids, but not enough for everyone to whip out a device and stream their thoughts.

The People's Mic

That’s where The People’s Skype comes in, taking communication to a personal level. The People’s Skype was created by Jonathan Baldwin to aid in “mic check.” Mic check is when the occupiers come together and listen to people with an inspiring message or important news, otherwise known as a General Assembly. The tent cities, as Occupy camps have come to be called, can be very large, with several thousand gathering at the biggest camps. In order to make sure voices are heard, Occupiers use “The People’s Mic,” where one person yells out a sentence, and others repeat the sentence in concentric circles out to the back of the crowd. Kind of like a loud game of telephone.

The People's Skype

The People’s Skype tries to put speed and clarity in this process by having anyone with a mobile device – smart and feature phone agnostic – call into a Skype line. The crowd is, in essence, on a one-way conference call. People in the area can gather around a phone and listen in individual groups, or perform the out loud repetition depending on the size of the crowd. Conference holders can post polls through Skype, which users can participate in by entering a passcode and a 1 or 2 for yes and no responses.

It’s a pretty simple solution to an otherwise inefficient way of communicating. This isn’t the first “hack” we’ve seen for the Occupy movement either. In October, Matt Ewing, founder of green tech company Rewire Labs, created Occupy the Web, where developers came together for a 24 hour hackathon. Communication was also a theme here, acknowledging the need to connect Occupiers of all walks of technology savvy.

 

How Occupiers are using live streaming and Skype for a cohesive voice December 12, 2011 | Meghan Kelly Add a Comment inShare Occupiers Technology was once a luxury. Today, technology is a part of everyday life, and indeed it even touches the 99 percent. Protesters are now both live streaming events and using Skype as a megaphone, sometimes literally. According to The New York Times, live streaming website Ustream has over 700 channels dedicated to the Occupy movement. The point of live streaming is to bring people from anywhere to your event, so they can be involved even if they can’t physically travel there. Occupiers are using the live stream for exactly that, streaming general assemblies, marches, speeches and other pivotal moments of the protest as a means to connect. This is one of technology’s main roles in a protest such as this one. Occupiers have been accused of having a disjointed message, and no core leaders. Some call the Occupy movement Occupy Anywhere given the mass scale of Occupy camps around the world. There’s Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Oakland, Occupy Denver, Occupy San Francisco even Occupy individual schools, and maybe hundreds more. Given how spread out so many of these protesters are, technology and social media must be used to connect the message. Live streaming has played an important role showing how “on the go” these camps are. Many of them are being torn down, and thus Internet access isn’t guaranteed. Ustream has seen roughly 70 percent of Occupy live streams come from mobile phones, with 89 percent being viewed on mobile phones. In order to really take part in these, however, you need a smartphone, which many still do call a luxury. Walking through an Occupy camp, you’re sure to see a few iPhones and Androids, but not enough for everyone to whip out a device and stream their thoughts. The People’s MicThat’s where The People’s Skype comes in, taking communication to a personal level. The People’s Skype was created by Jonathan Baldwin to aid in “mic check.” Mic check is when the occupiers come together and listen to people with an inspiring message or important news, otherwise known as a General Assembly. The tent cities, as Occupy camps have come to be called, can be very large, with several thousand gathering at the biggest camps. In order to make sure voices are heard, Occupiers use “The People’s Mic,” where one person yells out a sentence, and others repeat the sentence in concentric circles out to the back of the crowd. Kind of like a loud game of telephone. The People’s SkypeThe People’s Skype tries to put speed and clarity in this process by having anyone with a mobile device – smart and feature phone agnostic – call into a Skype line. The crowd is, in essence, on a one-way conference call. People in the area can gather around a phone and listen in individual groups, or perform the out loud repetition depending on the size of the crowd. Conference holders can post polls through Skype, which users can participate in by entering a passcode and a 1 or 2 for yes and no responses. It’s a pretty simple solution to an otherwise inefficient way of communicating. This isn’t the first “hack” we’ve seen for the Occupy movement either. In October, Matt Ewing, founder of green tech company Rewire Labs, created Occupy the Web, where developers came together for a 24 hour hackathon. Communication was also a theme here, acknowledging the need to connect Occupiers of all walks of technology savvy.

Occupy protesters blocking gates at West Coast ports, halt operations at some

 


By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, December 12, 2:31 PM

OAKLAND, Calif. — Hundreds of Wall Street protesters blocked gates at some of the West Coast’s busiest ports on Monday, causing the partial shutdown of several in a day of demonstrations they hope will cut into the profits of the corporations that run the docks.

The closures affected some of the terminals at the ports in Oakland, Calif., Portland, Ore., and Longview, Wash., though it was not immediately clear the how much the shutdowns would affect operations and what the economic loss would be.

West Coast Ports and Law Enforcement are preparing for possible disruptions, as Occupy protesters plan to blockade ports from San Diego to Anchorage. Demonstrators briefly closed down the port of Oakland in November. (Dec. 12)

West Coast Ports and Law Enforcement are preparing for possible disruptions, as Occupy protesters plan to blockade ports from San Diego to Anchorage. Demonstrators briefly closed down the port of Oakland in November. (Dec. 12)

From California to as far away as Vancouver, British Columbia, protesters picketed gates at the ports, causing longer wait times for trucks. There were no major clashes with police.

In Oakland, shipping companies and the longshoremen’s union agreed to send home about 150 workers, essentially halting operations at two terminals. In Portland, authorities shuttered two terminals after arresting two people who were carrying weapons.

And in Longview, Wash., workers were sent home out of concerns for their “health and safety.”

The movement, which sprang up this fall against what it sees as corporate greed and economic inequality, is targeting “Wall Street on the waterfront” in its most dramatic gesture since police raids sent most remaining Occupy tent camps scattering last month.

It was unclear whether demonstrators could amass in sufficient numbers to significantly disrupt or force more port closures as they did last month during an overnight shift at the Port of Oakland. The union that represents longshoremen says it doesn’t support the shutdowns.

Protesters are most upset by two West Coast companies: port operator SSA Marine and grain exporter EGT. The bank, Goldman Sachs, owns a major stake in SSA Marine and has been a frequent target of protesters.

They say they are standing up for workers against the port companies, which have had high-profile clashes with union workers lately. Longshoremen at the Port of Longview, for example, have had a longstanding dispute with EGT.

In Oakland, officials urged protesters to consider the impact on workers. Port workers and truck drivers say the protests will hurt them.

Several hundred people picketed at the port before dawn and blocked some trucks from going through at least two entrances. A long line of big rigs sat outside one of the entrances, unable to drive into the port.

“This is joke. What are they protesting?” said Christian Vega, 32, who sat in his truck carrying a load of recycled paper from Pittsburgh on Monday morning. He said the delay was costing him $600.

“It only hurts me and the other drivers. We have jobs and families to support and feed. Most of them don’t,” Vega said.

Police in riot gear monitored the scene as protesters marched in an oval and carried signs with messages such as “Shutdown Wall St. on the Waterfront.” No major clashes were reported.

The port has appealed to city residents not to join the blockade, which they said could hurt the port’s standing among customers and cost local jobs.

Organized labor appears divided over the port shutdown effort.

Occupy protesters rally at ports

Published: Dec. 12, 2011 at 12:17 PM

PORTLAND, Ore., Dec. 12 — Occupy Portland protesters rallied at the Port of Portland in Oregon Monday, potentially disrupting arriving and departing ships, a port spokesman said.

The rally, part of a coordinated West Coast effort, could also impact trains and hundreds of trucks that move through the port each day, spokesman Josh Thomas told The (Portland) Oregonian.

The protesters, however, have not won dockworker labor support, a union chief said.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union said it generally supports the Occupy movement but opposes the blockade because the movement appears to be trying to appropriate union issues.

“Support is one thing, organization from outside groups attempting to co-opt our struggle in order to advance a broader agenda is quite another,” ILWU President Robert McEllrath wrote in a letter to local union branches.

ILWU locals in San Diego; Los Angeles; Oakland, Calif.; Portland, Ore.; Seattle; Tacoma, Wash.; Vancouver, British Columbia, and Anchorage, Alaska, said they would not support the protest.

But the ILWU leadership in Honolulu, Hilo and Maui, Hawaii, said late Sunday its union members would not cross Occupy picket lines, the westcoastportshutdown.org Web site said.

Under ILWU contract terms, West Coast longshoremen may not support the shutdown by walking off the job as a group, but individual union members may exercise their First Amendment rights and not show up to work.

The Port of Los Angeles adjoins the separate Port of Long Beach and is the busiest U.S. container port. Long Beach is the second busiest. Together they are responsible for more than twice as much shipping-container traffic as any other U.S. port, handling nearly $300 billion in trade.

Occupy LA protesters said they’re targeting the shipping terminal of cargo terminal operator SSA Marine Inc., which is partly owned by the Carrix Inc. investment fund managed by the Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Law enforcement officials braced for a large crowd.

Thousands of protesters shut down the Port of Oakland Nov. 2 after marching through downtown Oakland in a general strike.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review said two dozen Occupy Pittsburgh supporters Monday served a mock eviction notice at BNY Mellon headquarters.

The newspaper said the banking giant responded by filing an injunction in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court asking a judge for permission to remove the protesters from the bank’s Mellon Green park.

BNY Mellon had ordered the protesters to leave the park by noon Saturday. Protesters, however, refused to budge.

Russian election protests – follow live updates

 

Vladimir Putin faces the biggest show of opposition to his rule as tens of thousands gather in Moscow and other cities to protest against disputed Russian parliamentary elections

Protesters mass in Bolotnaya Square in central Moscow.

Protesters mass in Bolotnaya Square in central Moscow. Photograph: Yuri Kadobnov/AFP/Getty Images

2.01pm: The number of protestors at Pioneer Square in St Petersburg has now reached 10,000 according to organisers.

1.52pm: Russian dissident Boris Berezovsky has been talking to Sky News. He says the numbers protesting are very significant – previous protests have seen fewer than 5,000 on the streets.

1.31pm: Opposition politician Vladimir Ryzhkov, one of the organisers of today’s Moscow rally, has announced there will be another protest on December 24, which he says will be twice as large.

1.26pm: My colleague Luke Harding is at the London demo in support of the Russian protests, which he says is the biggest ever protest against Putin held in the UK.

Luke Harding byline.

This is the biggest ever anti-Putin demo in Britain. These protests usually attract 15-20 people. There are 200-300 people here today. Everyone is saying that they think things are changing [with Russian politics].

There are some amusing banners – “Putin cheats at maths” and “Bastards – they stole my vote”.

12.59pm: My colleague Miriam Elder says all the protesters say they will continue demonstrating until their are fresh and fair elections.

She estimates there around 50,000 people at Bolotnaya Square. Hundreds of people are leaving but hundreds more are still arriving. She is walking over the bridge opposite the Kremlin, which is lined with hundreds of police.

The crowd is chanting, “We will come again”. Nationalists have burned United Russia’s flag.

The overall atmosphere is cheerful despite the snowfall, adds Alexei Belovs. Protesters are handing flowers to police. Some of the slogans on the banners include: “I did not vote for these bastards. I voted for other ones”, “Do not hit me – I am here by an accident”, “Send Putin to Azkaban”

12.42pm: Here’s a link to the Guardian gallery of today’s protest in Moscow.

12.40pm: Here’s a link to the Facebook group for the London demonstration in support of the protests in Russia.

12.31pm: Russian state television channel NTV has described the rally on Bolotnaya Square as “grandiose”, writes Alexei Belovs.

The rally is the main item on its official website. NTV has also reports that one of its journalists, Alexei Pivovarov, refusing to host a news programme if teh channel did not cover the rally.

Here’s a video from the square.

12.17pm: AP has filed a report on the Moscow protest, reporting there are between 25,000 and 40,000 people gathered at Bolotnaya Square.

“The falsifications that authorities are doing today have turned the country into a big theater, with clowns like in a circus,” said Alexander Trofimov, one of the early arrivals for the protest at Bolotnaya Square.

“I don’t think any citizen of the country can say he is very happy with anything. We don’t have an independent judiciary, there is no freedom of expression all this combined creates a situation where people are forced to protest,” said demonstrator Albert Yusupov, who was dressed in civilian clothes but identified himself as a member of the Russian army.

By the time the rally started, the square and adjacent streets were packed shoulder-to-shoulder with protesters braving intermittent wind-blown snow. Police said there were at least 25,000, while protest organisers claimed 40,000.

Here’s another photo from Twitter that shows how packed the square is.

12.04pm: Hardcore Nationalists have set off flares in Bolotnaya Square.

Public figures like detective writer Boris Akunin and journalists Leonid Parfenov and Oleg Kashin are getting more cheers from the crowd than opposition parties representatives, says Alexei Belovs, who is monitoring live feeds of the protest. Parfenov criticized the media and described current television broadcasting as “obscenity with badminton”.

Russian rapper Noize MC has addressed the crowds and demanded re-elections.

Here’s a video report by Russia Today about the protest.

11.54am: Around 2,000 people have gathered at a protest in the city of Penza, 625km (388 miles) south east of Moscow.

Russian media reports that local government officials offered people free zoo tickets and guided tours of the city in a bid to deter them from attending the rally.

11.48am: One person has been arrested at the demonstration in Saint Petersburg, the independent Ridus news website reports [in Russian].

11.47am: My colleague Alexei Belovs says mobile internet access has now been cut off in Bolotnaya Square.

11.38am: My colleague Miriam Elder who is in Bolotnaya Square has just called to say the crowd is now so huge that it is overspilling onto the bridges that lead onto the island.

The crowd is so huge. I’ve never seen anything like it in Moscow. The entire square is filled. On one of the bridges leading to the island someone has hung a banner that says “Crooks and thieves return the elections” [ – a reference to Putin's United Russia party].

People are shouting “Freedom”, and “Clean elections”. It’s mostly a young, middle class crowd, though there are a few hardcore nationalists.

She spoke to one woman who told her she’d travelled an hour by bus to attend the protest. The woman said she had never voted before the disputed election.

The square is festooned with white ribbons and white flowers – symbols of the protest movement.

11.33am: Moscow Police now say around 25,000 people have gathered at Bolotnaya Square.

11.23am: The Russian authorities appear to be restricting internet access at the Moscow demonstration. Wifi access has been shut down, though there is still some mobile internet service.

11.10am: Revolution Square is now empty with all protesters now either at or en route to Bolotnaya Square.

At Bolotnaya, Russian news anchor Leonid Parfyonov has warned the crowd about the increasing control of the media by the sate.

11.06am: The Moscow Times has tweeted what seems to be an attempt by police to deter protesters from joining the Moscow rally.

It says: “@rianru reports police are warning the footbridge to Bolotnaya could collapse.”

10.51am: Moscow Police says there are 15,000 protesters now gathered at Bolotnaya Square, although demonstrators and the media say the number is higher.

Live blog: Twitter

The Moscow Times tweets: “An absolute sea of people cramming Bolotnaya Ploshchad. Difficult to count numbers. @Vedomosti claims 30,000. Its believable.”

Among those to address the crowd is Boris Akunin, a renowned Russian novelist, who is proposing fresh elections with a live video feed from every polling station to prevent fraud.

10.47am: The #10dec tag on Twitter is being flooded with provocative and misleading messages, writes Alexei Belovs.

Live blog: Twitter

Among the false messages being put out are “I have seen people with syringes, be careful everyone!” and “If you wear a white ribbon you support gay self-murderers”.

Alexei is monitoring the Russian media for us today. You can contact him on Twitter @purpl_oranj or email him at alexei.belovs@guardian.co.uk.

10.37am: The protesters marching from Revolution Square to Bolotnaya Square, chanting “Putin is a thief” and “Jail Churov” – referring to Vladimir Churov, the chairman of the Central Election Commission of Russia.

Live blog: Twitter

Miriam Elder has posted a Twitpic of people marching past St Basil’s cathedral.

10.34am: You can find a map of all today’s protests against the disputed Russian elections here.

10.27am: Thousands are now marching from Revolution square to Bolotnaya Square, tweets Miriam Elder.

Live blog: Twitter

She says the police, who are out in force, appear to be in shock at the scale of the demonstration but so far the scene remains peaceful.

One of Putin’s fiercest critics Eduard Limonov is addressing the crowds at the Revolution Square.

US NBC News correspondent Stephanie Gosk tweets: “Moscow there are already so many protesters they have filled the approved location. Police no longer letting them in the square.”

10.19am: You can follow live-streaming video of the Moscow protest here.

10.16am: The Guardian’s Moscow correspondent Miriam Elder, who is covering today’s protest, says human rights activists Oleg Orlov and Lev Ponomaryov are directing protesters to Bolotnaya square.

Live blog: Twitter

Here’s a photo she took at the scene. You can follow Miriam on Twitter @MiriamElder.

Here’s a link to a video she posted earlier of hundred of people joining the march.

Yevgenia Chirikova, an environmental activist turned opposition leader, has also made an appearance at Revolution square. Earlier this week she expressed fears that the Russian authorities would step up their action against protesters.

10.12am: Moscow’s Red Square is blocked by military vehicles as you can see in this photo. Dozens of trucks with riot police line the streets.

Storyful has also collated photos of troops deployed in the capital and videos of earlier demonstrations.

10.01am: Protests have already taken place in cities in Siberia and the far east of Russia.

In Vladivostok, where Putin’s party was beaten by the communists, police looked on about 1,000 protesters called for the election to be annulled and detained activists freed, Reuters reports. Here’s a video of the protest and a link to another video of a protester addressing the rally.

A rally was held at a port where some of Russia’s Pacific Fleet warships are docked, AP reports. Protesters shouted “Putin’s a louse” and some held a banner caricaturing United Russia’s emblem, reading “The rats must go.” Police stayed on the fringes of the demonstration and made no arrests.

The Interfax news agency reported that an unsanctioned flash-mob protest in the Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk was broken up by police, who arrested about half the 60 participants. Some of the protesters had their mouths sealed with tape.

Our Moscow bureau has sent through more information on the number of protesters in the regions.

Around 4,000 people gathered in Novosibirsk, Russia’s third largest city and the largest city in Siberia.

Elsewhere in Siberia about 1,000 people attended a rally in Barnaul, around 700 gathered in Krasnoyarsk, 200 gathered in Chita and about the same number protested in Ulan-Ude.

9.30am: Good morning and welcome to our coverage of today’s mass protests against the disputed Russian parliamentary elections. This is David Batty – you can follow me on Twitter @David_Batty.

Tens of thousands of Russians are expected to rally in Moscow in the biggest show of opposition yet to Vladimir Putin’s strongman rule since he came to power 12 years ago. More than 35,000 demonstrators indicated via Facebook that they planned to join the protest in Bolotnaya (Swamp) Square, on a large island in the Moskva River. More than 50,000 police and 2,000 interior troops, backed by water cannon, helicopters and reinforced arrest lorries, have been deployed in the city.

Protests are planned for more than 80 Russian cities, in what is likely to prove the largest public show of discontent in the post-Soviet age. In St Petersburg 12,000 have indicated their intention to take part via VKontakte, a Russian social networking site.

Protests attracting between several hundred to more than 1,000 people have already taken place in cities in Siberia and the Far East. A demonstration is also planned in central London.

The opposition are demanding the annulment of the parliamentary elections on December 4, which were marred by fraud, and the holding of new elections.

Opposition groups have been bolstered by the sense that the elections showed Putin and his United Russia party to be vulnerable. The party held an overwhelming two-thirds of the seats in the previous parliament, but its share plunged by around 20% in the recent vote. Protesters say that even its reduced performance was inflated by ballot-box rigging.

Russian election protests – follow live updates

 

Vladimir Putin faces the biggest show of opposition to his rule as tens of thousands gather in Moscow and other cities to protest against disputed Russian parliamentary elections

Protesters mass in Bolotnaya Square in central Moscow.

Protesters mass in Bolotnaya Square in central Moscow. Photograph: Yuri Kadobnov/AFP/Getty Images

2.01pm: The number of protestors at Pioneer Square in St Petersburg has now reached 10,000 according to organisers.

1.52pm: Russian dissident Boris Berezovsky has been talking to Sky News. He says the numbers protesting are very significant – previous protests have seen fewer than 5,000 on the streets.

1.31pm: Opposition politician Vladimir Ryzhkov, one of the organisers of today’s Moscow rally, has announced there will be another protest on December 24, which he says will be twice as large.

1.26pm: My colleague Luke Harding is at the London demo in support of the Russian protests, which he says is the biggest ever protest against Putin held in the UK.

Luke Harding byline.

This is the biggest ever anti-Putin demo in Britain. These protests usually attract 15-20 people. There are 200-300 people here today. Everyone is saying that they think things are changing [with Russian politics].

There are some amusing banners – “Putin cheats at maths” and “Bastards – they stole my vote”.

12.59pm: My colleague Miriam Elder says all the protesters say they will continue demonstrating until their are fresh and fair elections.

She estimates there around 50,000 people at Bolotnaya Square. Hundreds of people are leaving but hundreds more are still arriving. She is walking over the bridge opposite the Kremlin, which is lined with hundreds of police.

The crowd is chanting, “We will come again”. Nationalists have burned United Russia’s flag.

The overall atmosphere is cheerful despite the snowfall, adds Alexei Belovs. Protesters are handing flowers to police. Some of the slogans on the banners include: “I did not vote for these bastards. I voted for other ones”, “Do not hit me – I am here by an accident”, “Send Putin to Azkaban”

12.42pm: Here’s a link to the Guardian gallery of today’s protest in Moscow.

12.40pm: Here’s a link to the Facebook group for the London demonstration in support of the protests in Russia.

12.31pm: Russian state television channel NTV has described the rally on Bolotnaya Square as “grandiose”, writes Alexei Belovs.

The rally is the main item on its official website. NTV has also reports that one of its journalists, Alexei Pivovarov, refusing to host a news programme if teh channel did not cover the rally.

Here’s a video from the square.

12.17pm: AP has filed a report on the Moscow protest, reporting there are between 25,000 and 40,000 people gathered at Bolotnaya Square.

“The falsifications that authorities are doing today have turned the country into a big theater, with clowns like in a circus,” said Alexander Trofimov, one of the early arrivals for the protest at Bolotnaya Square.

“I don’t think any citizen of the country can say he is very happy with anything. We don’t have an independent judiciary, there is no freedom of expression all this combined creates a situation where people are forced to protest,” said demonstrator Albert Yusupov, who was dressed in civilian clothes but identified himself as a member of the Russian army.

By the time the rally started, the square and adjacent streets were packed shoulder-to-shoulder with protesters braving intermittent wind-blown snow. Police said there were at least 25,000, while protest organisers claimed 40,000.

Here’s another photo from Twitter that shows how packed the square is.

12.04pm: Hardcore Nationalists have set off flares in Bolotnaya Square.

Public figures like detective writer Boris Akunin and journalists Leonid Parfenov and Oleg Kashin are getting more cheers from the crowd than opposition parties representatives, says Alexei Belovs, who is monitoring live feeds of the protest. Parfenov criticized the media and described current television broadcasting as “obscenity with badminton”.

Russian rapper Noize MC has addressed the crowds and demanded re-elections.

Here’s a video report by Russia Today about the protest.

11.54am: Around 2,000 people have gathered at a protest in the city of Penza, 625km (388 miles) south east of Moscow.

Russian media reports that local government officials offered people free zoo tickets and guided tours of the city in a bid to deter them from attending the rally.

11.48am: One person has been arrested at the demonstration in Saint Petersburg, the independent Ridus news website reports [in Russian].

11.47am: My colleague Alexei Belovs says mobile internet access has now been cut off in Bolotnaya Square.

11.38am: My colleague Miriam Elder who is in Bolotnaya Square has just called to say the crowd is now so huge that it is overspilling onto the bridges that lead onto the island.

The crowd is so huge. I’ve never seen anything like it in Moscow. The entire square is filled. On one of the bridges leading to the island someone has hung a banner that says “Crooks and thieves return the elections” [ – a reference to Putin's United Russia party].

People are shouting “Freedom”, and “Clean elections”. It’s mostly a young, middle class crowd, though there are a few hardcore nationalists.

She spoke to one woman who told her she’d travelled an hour by bus to attend the protest. The woman said she had never voted before the disputed election.

The square is festooned with white ribbons and white flowers – symbols of the protest movement.

11.33am: Moscow Police now say around 25,000 people have gathered at Bolotnaya Square.

11.23am: The Russian authorities appear to be restricting internet access at the Moscow demonstration. Wifi access has been shut down, though there is still some mobile internet service.

11.10am: Revolution Square is now empty with all protesters now either at or en route to Bolotnaya Square.

At Bolotnaya, Russian news anchor Leonid Parfyonov has warned the crowd about the increasing control of the media by the sate.

11.06am: The Moscow Times has tweeted what seems to be an attempt by police to deter protesters from joining the Moscow rally.

It says: “@rianru reports police are warning the footbridge to Bolotnaya could collapse.”

10.51am: Moscow Police says there are 15,000 protesters now gathered at Bolotnaya Square, although demonstrators and the media say the number is higher.

Live blog: Twitter

The Moscow Times tweets: “An absolute sea of people cramming Bolotnaya Ploshchad. Difficult to count numbers. @Vedomosti claims 30,000. Its believable.”

Among those to address the crowd is Boris Akunin, a renowned Russian novelist, who is proposing fresh elections with a live video feed from every polling station to prevent fraud.

10.47am: The #10dec tag on Twitter is being flooded with provocative and misleading messages, writes Alexei Belovs.

Live blog: Twitter

Among the false messages being put out are “I have seen people with syringes, be careful everyone!” and “If you wear a white ribbon you support gay self-murderers”.

Alexei is monitoring the Russian media for us today. You can contact him on Twitter @purpl_oranj or email him at alexei.belovs@guardian.co.uk.

10.37am: The protesters marching from Revolution Square to Bolotnaya Square, chanting “Putin is a thief” and “Jail Churov” – referring to Vladimir Churov, the chairman of the Central Election Commission of Russia.

Live blog: Twitter

Miriam Elder has posted a Twitpic of people marching past St Basil’s cathedral.

10.34am: You can find a map of all today’s protests against the disputed Russian elections here.

10.27am: Thousands are now marching from Revolution square to Bolotnaya Square, tweets Miriam Elder.

Live blog: Twitter

She says the police, who are out in force, appear to be in shock at the scale of the demonstration but so far the scene remains peaceful.

One of Putin’s fiercest critics Eduard Limonov is addressing the crowds at the Revolution Square.

US NBC News correspondent Stephanie Gosk tweets: “Moscow there are already so many protesters they have filled the approved location. Police no longer letting them in the square.”

10.19am: You can follow live-streaming video of the Moscow protest here.

10.16am: The Guardian’s Moscow correspondent Miriam Elder, who is covering today’s protest, says human rights activists Oleg Orlov and Lev Ponomaryov are directing protesters to Bolotnaya square.

Live blog: Twitter

Here’s a photo she took at the scene. You can follow Miriam on Twitter @MiriamElder.

Here’s a link to a video she posted earlier of hundred of people joining the march.

Yevgenia Chirikova, an environmental activist turned opposition leader, has also made an appearance at Revolution square. Earlier this week she expressed fears that the Russian authorities would step up their action against protesters.

10.12am: Moscow’s Red Square is blocked by military vehicles as you can see in this photo. Dozens of trucks with riot police line the streets.

Storyful has also collated photos of troops deployed in the capital and videos of earlier demonstrations.

10.01am: Protests have already taken place in cities in Siberia and the far east of Russia.

In Vladivostok, where Putin’s party was beaten by the communists, police looked on about 1,000 protesters called for the election to be annulled and detained activists freed, Reuters reports. Here’s a video of the protest and a link to another video of a protester addressing the rally.

A rally was held at a port where some of Russia’s Pacific Fleet warships are docked, AP reports. Protesters shouted “Putin’s a louse” and some held a banner caricaturing United Russia’s emblem, reading “The rats must go.” Police stayed on the fringes of the demonstration and made no arrests.

The Interfax news agency reported that an unsanctioned flash-mob protest in the Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk was broken up by police, who arrested about half the 60 participants. Some of the protesters had their mouths sealed with tape.

Our Moscow bureau has sent through more information on the number of protesters in the regions.

Around 4,000 people gathered in Novosibirsk, Russia’s third largest city and the largest city in Siberia.

Elsewhere in Siberia about 1,000 people attended a rally in Barnaul, around 700 gathered in Krasnoyarsk, 200 gathered in Chita and about the same number protested in Ulan-Ude.

9.30am: Good morning and welcome to our coverage of today’s mass protests against the disputed Russian parliamentary elections. This is David Batty – you can follow me on Twitter @David_Batty.

Tens of thousands of Russians are expected to rally in Moscow in the biggest show of opposition yet to Vladimir Putin’s strongman rule since he came to power 12 years ago. More than 35,000 demonstrators indicated via Facebook that they planned to join the protest in Bolotnaya (Swamp) Square, on a large island in the Moskva River. More than 50,000 police and 2,000 interior troops, backed by water cannon, helicopters and reinforced arrest lorries, have been deployed in the city.

Protests are planned for more than 80 Russian cities, in what is likely to prove the largest public show of discontent in the post-Soviet age. In St Petersburg 12,000 have indicated their intention to take part via VKontakte, a Russian social networking site.

Protests attracting between several hundred to more than 1,000 people have already taken place in cities in Siberia and the Far East. A demonstration is also planned in central London.

The opposition are demanding the annulment of the parliamentary elections on December 4, which were marred by fraud, and the holding of new elections.

Opposition groups have been bolstered by the sense that the elections showed Putin and his United Russia party to be vulnerable. The party held an overwhelming two-thirds of the seats in the previous parliament, but its share plunged by around 20% in the recent vote. Protesters say that even its reduced performance was inflated by ballot-box rigging.

Occupy Protesters shut down Law and Order production

Lucas Brinson, 21, from Davis, Calif, takes on the role of a human microphone, relaying information throughout Zuccotti Parks Occupy Wall Street encampment on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011 in New York. The owner of the private park where Occupy Wall Street protesters have been camped out for nearly a month in lower Manhattan gave notice Thursday that it will begin enforcing regulations that prohibit everything from lying down on benches to storing personal property on the ground. The landlord, Brookfield Properties, handed out a notice to protesters saying they would be allowed back inside after a planned park cleanup on Friday morning if they abide by park regulations.

Lucas Brinson, 21, from Davis, Calif, takes on the role of a human microphone, relaying information throughout Zuccotti Park’s “Occupy Wall Street” encampment on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011 in New York. The owner of the private park where “Occupy Wall Street” protesters have been camped out for nearly a month in lower Manhattan gave notice Thursday that it will begin enforcing regulations that prohibit everything from lying down on benches to storing personal property on the ground. The landlord, Brookfield Properties, handed out a notice to protesters saying they would be allowed back inside after a planned park cleanup on Friday morning if they abide by park regulations. (AP Photo / AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

 

NEW YORK (AP) -December 9, 2011 (WPVI) — A protest by about 100 Occupy Wall Street members in New York City shut down production of an episode of “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.”

The Daily News reported Friday that the protesters arrived around midnight at Foley Square in Lower Manhattan. The show was making an episode with an Occupy theme.

About 100 police officers appeared as the protesters roamed around the park, inspecting tents and signs built by the production company.

A protester from Brooklyn Heights, Drew Hornbein, says the movement is “not part of corporate TV America.”

The newspaper says a police officer with a bullhorn announced that the city had rescinded the film permit, which drew cheers.

Arrests were threatened, but the crowd dispersed and the set was dismantled.

NBC declined to comment.

The Winter of our discontent

And now it is winter. Wall Street rejoices, hoping that the change of seasons will mean a change in our spirit, our commitment to stop them.
They couldn’t be more wrong. Have they not heard of Washington and the troops at Valley Forge? The Great Flint Sit-Down Strike in the winter of 1936-37? The Michigan Wolverines crushing Ohio State in the 1950 Blizzard Bowl? When it comes to winter, it is the time historically when the people persevere and the forces of evil make their retreat!
We are not even 12 weeks old, yet Occupy Wall Street has grown so fast, so big, none of us can keep up with the hundreds of towns who have joined the movement, or the thousands of actions — some of them just simple ones in neighborhoods, schools and organizations — that have happened. The national conversation has been irreversibly changed. Now everyone is talking about how the 1% are getting away with all the money while the 99% struggle to make ends meet. People are no longer paralyzed by despair or apathy. Most know that now is the time to reclaim our country from the bankers, the lobbyists — and their gofers: the members of the United States Congress and the 50 state legislatures.
And they’re crazy if they think that a little climate chaos (otherwise known as winter in the 21st century) that they’ve helped to bring about is going to stop us.
I would like to propose to my Occupying sisters and brothers that there are many ways to keep Occupy Wall Street going through the winter months. There is perhaps no better time to move the movement indoors for a few months — and watch it grow even bigger! (For those who have the stamina to maintain the outdoor occupations, by all means, keep it up — and the rest of us will do our best to help you and keep you warm!)
The winter gives us an amazing opportunity to expand our actions against the captains of capitalism who have occupied our homes with their fraudulent mortgage system which has tossed millions of families out onto the curb; a cruel health care system that has told 50 million Americans “if you can’t afford a doctor, go F yourself”; a student loan system that sends 22-year-olds into an immediate “debtors’ prison” of working lousy jobs for which they didn’t go to school but now have to take because they’re in hock for tens of thousands of dollars for the next two decades; and a jobs market that keeps 25 million Americans un- or under-employed — and much of the rest of the workers forced to accept wage cuts, health care reductions and zero job security.
But we in the Occupy Movement reject this version of the “American Dream.” Instead, I suggest we shift our focus for this winter to the following actions:

OCCUPY THE WINTER

A proposal to the General Assembly of Occupy Wall Street from Michael Moore

1. Occupy Our Homes. Sorry, banks, a roof over one’s head is a human right, and you will no longer occupy our homes through foreclosure and eviction because well, you see, they are our homes, not yours. You may hold the mortgage; youdon’t hold the right to throw us or our neighbors out into the cold. With almost one in three home mortgages currently in foreclosure, nearing foreclosure or “underwater,” the Occupy Movement must form local “Occupy Strike Forces” to create human shields when the banks come to throw people out of their homes. If the foreclosure has already happened, then we must help families move back into their foreclosed homes — literally (see this clip from my last film to watch how a home re-occupation is accomplished). Beginning today, Take Back the Land, plus many other citizens’ organizations nationwide, are kicking off Occupy Our Homes. Numerous actions throughout the day today have already resulted in many families physically taking back their homes. This will continue every day until the banks are forced to stop their fraudulent practices, until homeowners are allowed to change their mortgage so that it reflects the true value of their homes, and until those who can no longer afford a mortgage are allowed to stay in their homes and pay rent. I beseech the news media to cover these actions — they are happening everywhere. Evictions, though rarely covered (you need a Kardashian in your home as you’re being evicted to qualify for news coverage) are not a new story (see this scene I filmed in 1988). Also, please remember the words of Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur of Toledo (in ‘Capitalism: A Love Story’): Do not leave your homes if the bank forecloses on you! Let them take you to court and then YOU ask the judge to make them produce a copy of your mortgage. They can’t. It was chopped up a hundred different ways, bundled with a hundred other mortgages, and sold off to the Chinese. If they can’t produce the mortgage, they can’t evict you.
2. Occupy Your College. In nearly every other democracy on the planet, students go to college for free or almost free. Why do those countries do that? Because they know that for their society to advance, they must have an educated population. Without that, productivity, innovation and an informed electorate is stunted and everyone suffers as a result. Here’s how we do it in the U.S.A.: make education one of our lowest priorities, graduate students who know little about the world or their own government or the economy, and then force them into crushing debt before they even have their first job. That way has really worked well for us, hasn’t it? It’s made us the world leader in … in … well, ok, we’re like 27th or 34th in everything now (except war). This has to end. Students should spend this winter doing what they are already doing on dozens of campuses — holding sit-ins, occupying the student loan office, nonviolently disrupting the university regents meetings, and pitching their tents on the administration’s lawn. Young people — we, the ’60s generation, promised to create a better world for you. We got halfway there — now you have to complete the job. Do not stop until these wars are ended, the Pentagon budget is cut in half, and the rich are forced to pay their taxes. And demand that that money go to your education. We’ll be there with you on all of this! And when we get this fixed and you graduate, instead of being $40,000 in debt, go see the friggin’ world, or tinker around in your garage a la the two Steves, or start a band. Enjoy life, discover, explore, experiment, find your way. Anything but the assistant manager at Taco Bell.
3. Occupy Your Job. Let’s spend the winter organizing workplaces into unions. OR, if you already have a union, demand that your leaders get off their ass and get aggressive like our grandparents did. For chrissakes, surely you know we would not have a middle class if it weren’t for the strikes of the 1930s-1950s?! In three weeks we will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the workers in my hometown of Flint, Michigan taking over and occupying the General Motors factories for 44 days in the dead of winter. Their actions ignited a labor movement that lifted tens of millions out of poverty and into the middle class. It’s time to do it again. (According to the Census Bureau and the New York Times, 100 million Americans either live in or near poverty. Disgraceful. Greed has destroyed the core fabric of our communities. Enough!) Here are two good unions to get your fellow workers to sign up and join: UE and SEIU. The CWA are also good. Here’s how to get a quick primer in organizing your place of employment (don’t forget to be careful while you do this!). If your company is threatening to close down and move the jobs elsewhere, then it’s time to occupy the workplace (again, you can get a lesson in how to successfully occupy your factory from my movie).
4. Occupy Your Bank. This is an easy one. Just leave them. Move your checking and your credit card to a nonprofit credit union. It’s safe and the decisions made there aren’t based on greed. And if a bank tries to evict your neighbor, Occupy the local branch with 20 other people and call the press. Post it on the internet.
5. Occupy the Insurance Man. It’s time to not only stand up for the 50 million without health insurance but to also issue a single, simple demand: The elimination of for-profit, privately-controlled health insurance companies. It is nothing short of barbaric to allow businesses to make a profit off people when they get sick. We don’t allow anyone to make a profit when we need the fire department or the police. Until recently we would never allow a company to make a profit by operating in a public school. The same should be true for when you need to see a doctor or stay in the hospital. So I say it’s long overdue for us to go and Occupy Humana, United Health, Cigna and even the supposed “nonprofit” Blue Crosses. An action on their lawns, in their lobbies, or at the for-profit hospitals — this is what is needed.
So — there are my ideas for the five places we can Occupy this winter. Help the foreclosed-upon to Occupy their homes. Occupy your college campus, especially the student loan office and the regents meetings. Occupy your job by getting everyone to sign a union card — or by refusing to let the CEO ship your job overseas. Occupy your Chase or Citi or Bank of America branch by closing your account and moving it to a credit union. And Occupy the insurance company offices, the pharmaceutical companies’ headquarters and the for-profit hospitals until the White House and Congress pass the true single-payer universal health care bill they failed to pass in 2010.
My friends, the rich are running scared right now. You need no further proof of this than to read this story from last week. The Republicans’ top strategist met privately with them and told them that they had better change their tune or they were going to be crushed by the Occupy Wall Street movement. They didn’t have to change their greedy actions, he assured them — just the way they talk and PR the situation. He told them never to use the word “capitalism” — it has now been made a dirty word by the Occupy movement, he said. Only say “economic freedom” from now on, he cautioned. And don’t criticize the movement — because the majority of Americans either agree with it or are feeling the same way. Just tell the Occupiers and the distressed Americans: “I get it.” Seriously.
Yes, in just 12 short weeks we have killed their most sacred word — Capitalism — and we have them on the run, on the defensive. They should be. Millions are coming after them and our only goal is to remove them from power and replace them with a fair system that is controlled by the 99%. The 1% have been able to get both political parties to do their bidding. Why should only 1% of the population get to have two parties — and the rest of us have none? That, too, is going to change. In my next letter, I will suggest what we can do to Occupy the Electoral Process. But first we must start with those who pull the strings of the puppets in the Congress. That’s why it’s called Occupy Wall Street. Always better to deal with man in charge, don’t you think?
Let’s Occupy the Winter! An #OWS Winter will certainly lead to a very hopeful American Spring.

Wall Street protesters to occupy foreclosed homes

 

As encampment crackdowns continue nationwide, movement joins activist group to refurbish houses for homeless familes

 

Occupy Wall Street healthcare

As police crackdowns on Occupy sites continue, protesters enter ‘new frontier.’ Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images

Thousands of Occupy protesters across the US will occupy foreclosed homes today, in what organisers are describing as a “new frontier” for the movement.

In New York, Occupy Wall Street has teamed up with local activist groups to secretly occupy an empty home, and plan to hand the property over to a homeless family. Similar action is scheduled in more than 20 other cities.

Over the last month many occupations have been evicted from their encampments, as cities cracked down on demonstrations that had lasted for several weeks.

In New York occupiers plan to march to the closely-guarded location of their pre-selected foreclosed home, which organisers told the Guardian had been occupied overnight.

After meeting with a family that was evicted from their own home, protesters will journey through a Brooklyn neighbourhood which they say is “on the front lines of the economic crisis”.

“This action is part of a national kick-off for a new frontier for the occupy movement: the liberation of vacant bank-owned homes for those in need, and the defense of families under threat of foreclosure and eviction,” Occupy Wall Street said in a statement.

Occupy Wall Street said the march will end with “a housewarming block party” for the family, while protesters begin work on renovating the foreclosed property.

“The NYC foreclosure tour and home re-occupation is part of a big national day of action on December 6 that will focus on the foreclosure crisis and protest fraudulent lending practices, corrupt securitisation, and illegal evictions by banks.”

Organizing for Occupation, or o4o, a New York-based activist group which enters abandoned properties and makes them available for homeless familes, is one of a number of organisations which have joined Occupy Wall Street in the action. The others include Picture the Homeless and New York City Communities for Change.

Activists from o4o have already occupied the Brooklyn house which protesters will march to, and were responsible for matching a family to the property.

Co-founded by prominent radical Episcopal priest Frank Morales – a proponent of squatting since the late 1970s – o4o normally moves destitute families into homes “covertly”, with the intention of establishing a long-term residences for them.

A sub-group known simply as “crack” enters and secures vacant properties, before “a lot of people with skills” take over and renovate, Morales said.

Set up in response to the housing crisis, o4o has infiltrated roughly a dozen buildings in the city since June.

Ed Needham, who acts as a media liaison for Occupy Wall Street, said the Occupy Our Homes demonstration represented a new phase for the Occupy movement.

“Across the coutry we’re expecting thousands,” he added. “We expect over 1,000 protesters to take part in events in New York tomorrow, and hundreds to be at the house.”

Needham said he was unsure “how long the family will be able to stay” at the property, given that the action has been widely publicised, however activists are keen for the follow-up to the 6 December march and occupation to be just as important as the event itself, with one o4o activist telling the Guardian he hoped the demonstration would kick off a “mass occupation” of foreclosed homes and vacant properties nationwide.

99% slogan still stands

Most of the biggest Occupy Wall Street camps are gone. But their slogan still stands.

The slogan was projected on a New York building in November.

Whatever the long-term effects of the Occupy movement, protesters have succeeded in implanting “We are the 99 percent,” referring to the vast majority of Americans (and its implied opposite, “You are the one percent” referring to the tiny proportion of Americans with a vastly disproportionate share of wealth), into the cultural and political lexicon.

First chanted and blogged about in mid-September in New York, the slogan become a national shorthand for the income disparity. Easily grasped in its simplicity and Twitter-friendly in its brevity, the slogan has practically dared listeners to pick a side.

“We are getting nothing,” read the Tumblr blog “We Are the 99 Percent” that helped popularize the percentages, “while the other one percent is getting everything.”

Within weeks of the first encampment in Zuccotti Park in New York, politicians seized on the phrase. Democrats in Congress began to invoke the “99 percent” to press for passage of President Obama’s jobs act — but also to pursue action on mine safety, Internet access rules and voter identification laws, among others. Republicans pushed back, accusing protesters and their supporters of class warfare; Newt Gingrich this week called the “concept of the 99 and the one” both divisive and “un-American.”

Perhaps most important for the movement, there was a sevenfold increase in Google searches for the term “99 percent” between September and October and a spike in news stories about income inequality throughout the fall, heaping attention on the issues raised by activists.

“The ‘99 percent,’ and the ‘one percent,’ too, are part of our vocabulary now,” said Judith Stein, a professor of history at the City University of New York.

Soon there were income calculators (“What Percent Are You?” asked The Wall Street Journal), music playlists (an album of Woody Guthrie covers, promoted as a “soundtrack for the 99 percent”) and cheap lawn signs. And, inevitably, there were ads: a storefront near Union Square peddles “Gifts for the 99 percent.” A trailer for a Showtime television series about management consultants, “House of Lies,” describes the lead characters as “the one percent sticking it to the one percent.” A Craigslist ad for a three-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn has the come-on “Live Like the One Percent!” (in this case, in Boerum Hill).

These days, the language of the Occupy movement is being reappropriated in new ways seemingly every day. CBS ran a radio spot last that invited viewers to “occupy your couch.” On Thanksgiving, people joked online about occupying the dinner table. Now, on Facebook, holiday revelers are inviting friends to “one percent parties.”

Slogans have emerged from American protest movements, successful and otherwise, throughout history. The American Revolution furnished the world with “Give me liberty or give me death” and the still-popular “No taxation without representation.” The equal rights movement in the 1960s used the phrase “59 cents” to point out the income disparities between women and men. The civil rights movement embraced the song “We Shall Overcome” as a slogan. During the Vietnam War, protesters called on politicians to “Bring ’em Home” and “Stop the Draft.” More recently, supporters of Mr. Obama shouted “Yes, we can.”

The idea behind the 99 percent catchphrase has its roots in a decade’s worth of reporting about the income gap between the richest Americans and the rest, and more directly in May in a Vanity Fair column by the liberal economist Joseph E. Stiglitz titled “Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%.” The slogan that resulted in September identified both a target, the “one percent,” and a theoretical constituency, everyone else.

Rhetorically, “it was really clever,” said David S. Meyer, a University of California, Irvine, professor who studies social movements. “Deciding whom to blame is a key task of all politics,” he wrote in his blog about the phrase.

“It’s something that kind of puts your opponents on the defensive,” he said in an interview.

In some cases even politicians who have been put on the defensive by the movement have resorted to the same rhetoric. When Philadelphia’s mayor, Michael A. Nutter, announced last week that the protesters there had to make way for a construction project, he emphasized that the project would be “built by the 99 percent, for the 99 percent.”

Xeni Jardin, the editor of the influential blog Boing Boing, which has featured the protests every day since they began, praised the slogan for capturing “a mounting sense of unfairness in America” and distilling it “into something very brief.”

But she also called it “fundamentally unfair” because within the so-called 99 percent that have slept at occupations across the country, there are many well-to-do college students but just as many, if not more, homeless individuals. “There are many shades of gray,” she said.

But attempts to mock or subvert the slogan seem not to have stuck; as Ms. Jardin put it, “How do you make fun of numbers?” A Tumblr blog that was set up to compete with “We Are the 99 Percent,” called “We Are the 53%,” (referring to the estimated percentage of Americans who pay federal income taxes) has not been updated for two weeks.

Ms. Stein at CUNY believes that the 99 percent rallying cry will have limited effect in the future. “I don’t think a good slogan is enough to revivify a movement or our politics,” she said.

But Mr. Meyer said the catchphrase is a useful one in that it gives continuity and coherence to a movement that is losing some of its camps in major cities across the country. “Occupy takes its name from the occupation,” he said. “If Occupy continues without occupations, what provides continuity with those people in Zuccotti Park? The slogan.”

The slogan was chanted again early on Wednesday morning in Los Angeles and Philadelphia as police there cleared out the Occupy campsites in each city. As they lost physical ground for their local movements, protesters told each other online, “You can’t evict an idea.”

200 arrested in LA, 52 in Philadelphia

LOS ANGELES (AP) — More than 1,400 police officers, some in riot gear, cleared the Occupy Los Angeles camp early Wednesday, driving protesters from a park around City Hall and arresting more than 200 who defied orders to leave. Similar raids in Philadelphia led to 52 arrests.

LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 30: An Occupy Los ...

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Police in Los Angeles and Philadelphia moved in on Occupy Wall Street encampments under darkness in an effort to clear out some of the longest-lasting protest sites since crackdowns ended similar occupations across the country.

Beanbags fired from shotguns were used to subdue the final three protesters in a makeshift tree house outside Los Angeles City Hall, police Cmdr. Andrew Smith said, describing it as a minor use of force incident. No serious injuries were reported.

Police Chief Charlie Beck praised the officers and the protesters for their restraint and the peaceful way the eviction was carried out.

Officers flooded down the steps of City Hall just after midnight and started dismantling the two-month-old camp two days after a deadline passed for campers to leave the park. Officers in helmets and wielding batons and guns with rubber bullets converged on the park from all directions with military precision and began making arrests after several orders were given to leave.

There were no injuries and no drugs or weapons were found during a search of the emptied camp, which was strewn with trash after the raid. City workers put up concrete barriers to wall off the park while it is restored. As of 5:10 a.m. PST, the park was clear of protesters, said LAPD officer Cleon Joseph.

The raid in Los Angeles came after demonstrators with the movement in Philadelphia marched through the streets after being evicted from their site. Over 40 protesters were arrested after refusing to clear a street several blocks northeast of City Hall, said Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey. They were lined up in cuffs and loaded on to buses by officers. Six others were arrested earlier after remaining on a street that police tried to clear.

“The police officers who were involved in this operation were hand-picked for this assignment,” Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said. “They’re highly trained and disciplined and showed a tremendous amount of restraint and professionalism in carrying out this morning’s operation.”

Nutter said the eviction had been planned for several weeks and went off without largely without problems.

Ramsey said he would have preferred to evict the protesters without making arrests, but some refused orders to clear the street and had to be taken into custody. Three officers had minor injuries. One protester was injured when a police horse stepped on her foot, Nutter said.

The Philadelphia protesters were ordered to clear their encampment in part because a $50 million renovation project was due to start at the City Hall plaza this fall.

“Dilworth Plaza was designated as a construction site,” Ramsey said. “They had to vacate. They knew that from the very beginning.”

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa raised public safety and health concerns in announcing plans for the eviction last week, while Philadelphia officials said protesters must clear their site to make room for a $50 million renovation project.

By dawn in Los Angeles, trash, flattened tents and the stench of urine were the Occupy LA legacy.
City crews were installing chain link fence and concrete barricades around once-lush lawns that are now patches of dirt strewn with tons of debris, including clothing, tents, bedding shoes, trash and two months of human flotsam. Under a tree was a guitar, a bullhorn, CDs and a black bandanna.

Defiant Los Angeles campers who were chanting slogans as the officers surrounded the park, booed when an unlawful assembly was declared, paving the way for officers to begin arresting those who didn’t leave.

In the first moments of the raid, officers tore down a tent and tackled a tattooed man with a camera on City Hall steps and wrestled him to the ground. Someone yelled “police brutality.”

Teams of four or five officers moved through the crowd making arrests one at a time, cuffing the hands of protesters with white plastic zip-ties. A circle of protesters sat with arms locked, many looking calm and smiling.

Opamago Cascini, 29, said the night had been a blast and he was willing to get arrested.
“It’s easy to talk the talk, but you gotta walk the walk,” Cascini said.

Police used a cherry picker to pluck five men from trees. Two others were in a tree house — one wore a crown and another taunted police with an American flag.

In Philadelphia, police began pulling down tents at about 1:20 a.m. EST after giving demonstrators three warnings that they would have to leave, which nearly all of the protesters followed. Dozens of demonstrators then began marching through the streets and continued through the night.

Ramsey said breaking up the camp in the early-morning hours helped minimize any disruption to businesses and traffic.

“We acknowledge the fact that we are going to have to leave this space …. but in another sense this has been our home for almost two months and no one wants to see their home taken away from them,” Philadelphia protester Bri Barton, 22, said before police began clearing out the camp.

“Whether or not we have this space or work in the city is nowhere near done,” she said.

The eviction overall appeared to have been carried out without any significant scuffles or violence.
Later Wednesday morning, workers used front-end loaders to scoop up tents, trash and other debris and dump it into trucks to be hauled away, while others swept the plaza clean.

Demonstrators and city officials in both Los Angeles and Philadelphia were hoping any confrontation would be nonviolent, unlike evictions at similar camps around the country that sometimes involved pepper spray and tear gas. The movement against economic disparity and perceived corporate greed began with Occupy Wall Street in Manhattan two months ago.

The Los Angeles officers staged for hours outside Dodger Stadium before the raid. They were warned that demonstrators might throw everything from concrete and gravel to human feces at them.

“Please put your face masks down and watch each other’s back,” a supervisor told them. “Now go to work.”

The officers came from a wide range of specialized units within the force, including the bomb squad, and the arson unit. Scores of officers in hazmat suits also were sent in to deal with potentially unsanitary conditions in the park.

Before police arrived in large numbers, protesters were upbeat and the mood was almost festive. A protester in a Santa Claus hat danced in the street. A woman showed off the reindeer antlers she had mounted on her gas mask.

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