Life Among the 1% ...a letter from Michael Moore #occupy

Life Among the 1% ...a letter from Michael Moore

October 27th, 2011

Friends,

Twenty-two years ago this coming Tuesday, I stood with a group of factory workers, students and the unemployed in the middle of the downtown of my birthplace, Flint, Michigan, to announce that the Hollywood studio, Warner Bros., had purchased the world rights to distribute my first movie, 'Roger & Me.' A reporter asked me, "How much did you sell it for?"

"Three million dollars!" I proudly exclaimed. A cheer went up from the union guys surrounding me. It was absolutely unheard of for one of us in the working class of Flint (or anywhere) to receive such a sum of money unless one of us had either robbed a bank or, by luck, won the Michigan lottery. On that sunny November day in 1989, it was like I had won the lottery -- and the people I had lived and struggled with in Michigan were thrilled with my success. It was like, one of us had made it, one of us finally had good fortune smile upon us. The day was filled with high-fives and "Way-ta-go Mike!"s. When you are from the working class you root for each other, and when one of you does well, the others are beaming with pride -- not just for that one person's success, but for the fact that the team had somehow won, beating the system that was brutal and unforgiving and which ran a game that was rigged against us. We knew the rules, and those rules said that we factory town rats do not get to make movies or be on TV talk shows or have our voice heard on any national stage. We were to shut up, keep our heads down, and get back to work. If by some miracle one of us escaped and commandeered a mass audience and some loot to boot -- well, holy mother of God, watch out! A bully pulpit and enough cash to raise a ruckus -- that was an incendiary combination, and it only spelled trouble for those at the top.

Until that point I had been barely getting by on unemployment, collecting $98 a week. Welfare. The dole. My car had died back in April so I had gone seven months with no vehicle. Friends would take me out to dinner, always coming up with an excuse to celebrate or commemorate something and then picking up the check so I would not have to feel the shame of not being able to afford it.

And now, all of a sudden, I had three million bucks! What would I do with it? There were men in suits making many suggestions to me, and I could see how those without a strong moral sense of social responsibility could be easily lead down the "ME" path and quickly forget about the "WE."

So I made some easy decisions back in 1989:

1. I would first pay all my taxes. I told the guy who did my 1040 not to declare any deductions other than the mortgage and to pay the full federal, state and city tax rate. I proudly contributed nearly 1 million dollars for the privilege of being a citizen of this great country.

2. Of the remaining $2 million, I decided to divide it up the way I once heard the folksinger/activist Harry Chapin tell me how he lived: "One for me, one for the other guy." So I took half the money -- $1 million -- and established a foundation to give it all away.

3. The remaining million went like this: I paid off all my debts, paid off the debts of some friends and family members, bought my parents a new refrigerator, set up college funds for our nieces and nephews, helped rebuild a black church that had been burned down in Flint, gave out a thousand turkeys at Thanksgiving, bought filmmaking equipment to send to the Vietnamese (my own personal reparations for a country we had ravaged), annually bought 10,000 toys to give to Toys for Tots at Christmas, got myself a new American-made Honda, and took out a mortgage on an apartment above a Baby Gap in New York City.

4. What remained went into a simple, low-interest savings account. I made the decision that I would never buy a share of stock (I didn't understand the casino known as the New York Stock Exchange and I did not believe in investing in a system I did not agree with).

5. Finally, I believed the concept of making money off your money had created a greedy, lazy class who didn't produce any product, just misery and fear among the populace. They invented ways to buy out companies and then shut them down. They dreamed up schemes to play with people's pension funds as if it were their own money. They demanded companies keep posting record profits (which was accomplished by firing thousands and eliminating health benefits for those who remained). I made the decision that if I was going to earn a living, it would be done from my own sweat and ideas and creativity. I would produce something tangible, something others could own or be entertained by or learn from. My work would create employment for others, good employment with middle class wages and full health benefits.

I went on to make more movies, produce TV series and write books. I never started a project with the thought, "I wonder how much money I can make at this?" And by never letting money be the motivating force for anything, I simply did exactly what I wanted to do. That attitude kept the work honest and unflinching -- and that, in turn I believe, resulted in millions of people buying tickets to these films, tuning in to my TV shows, and buying my books.

Which is exactly what has driven the Right crazy when it comes to me. How did someone from the left get such a wide mainstream audience?! This just isn't supposed to happen (Noam Chomsky, sadly, will not be booked on The View today, and Howard Zinn, shockingly, didn't make the New York Times bestseller list until after he died). That's how the media machine is rigged -- you are not supposed to hear from those who would completely change the system to something much better. Only wimpy liberals who urge caution and compromise and mild reforms get to have their say on the op-ed pages or Sunday morning chat shows.

Somehow, I found a crack through the wall and made it through. I feel very blessed that I have this life -- and I take none of it for granted. I believe in the lessons I was taught back in Catholic school -- that if you end up doing well, you have an even greater responsibility to those who don't fare the same. "The last shall be first and the first shall be last." Kinda commie, I know, but the idea was that the human family was supposed to divide up the earth's riches in a fair manner so that all of God's children would have a life with less suffering.

I do very well -- and for a documentary filmmaker, I do extremely well. That, too, drives conservatives bonkers. "You're rich because of capitalism!" they scream at me. Um, no. Didn't you take Econ 101? Capitalism is a system, a pyramid scheme of sorts, that exploits the vast majority so that the few at the top can enrich themselves more. I make my money the old school, honest way by making things. Some years I earn a boatload of cash. Other years, like last year, I don't have a job (no movie, no book) and so I make a lot less. "How can you claim to be for the poor when you are the opposite of poor?!" It's like asking: "You've never had sex with another man -- how can you be for gay marriage?!" I guess the same way that an all-male Congress voted to give women the vote, or scores of white people marched with Martin Luther Ling, Jr. (I can hear these righties yelling back through history: "Hey! You're not black! You're not being lynched! Why are you with the blacks?!"). It is precisely this disconnect that prevents Republicans from understanding why anyone would give of their time or money to help out those less fortunate. It is simply something their brain cannot process. "Kanye West makes millions! What's he doing at Occupy Wall Street?!" Exactly -- he's down there demanding that his taxes be raised. That, to a right-winger, is the definition of insanity. To everyone else, we are grateful that people like him stand up, even if and especially because it is against his own personal financial interest. It is specifically what that Bible those conservatives wave around demands of those who are well off.

Back on that November day in 1989 when I sold my first film, a good friend of mine said this to me: "They have made a huge mistake giving someone like you a big check. This will make you a very dangerous man. And it proves that old saying right: 'The capitalist will sell you the rope to hang himself with if he thinks he can make a buck off it.'"

Yours,

Michael Moore
MMFlint@MichaelMoore.com
@MMFlint
MichaelMoore.com

P.S. I will go to Oakland tomorrow afternoon to stand with Occupy Oakland against the out-of-control police.

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Why Are The Young People Revolting? | #NewMatilda #occupy

Protest

14 Oct 2011

Why Are The Young People Revolting?

By James Arvanitakis and Juan Salazar

Tags:

• student protest
• occupy wall st
• los indignados
• london riots
• juan salazar
• james arvanitakis

Youth protests are erupting in major cities around the world - and this weekend, there are protests planned across Australia. James Arvanitakis and Juan Salazar on why they're taking to the streets

August 2011 marked the end of the United Nations’ first International Year of Youth (IYY). The IYY aimed to put young people at the very centre of international debates and to encourage their participation in global development efforts and decision-making at local, national and global levels.

As the events of Egypt, the UK, Chile, Greece, New York and Spain, and more recently Italy and Colombia, show, the timing of the IYY was opportune. These protests have one important thread: a growing youth discontent and disillusion. This has been expressed both through acts of hostility as highlighted by the UK riots, as well creativity as we have seen in Chile and Spain. These events that are united around a moment, with no single leader or call for action. Rather, what has emerged is a multitude of events brought on by a growing sense of frustration.

This is a generation of young people who are struggling to be heard in a time of uncertainty, hyper-commodification, the withdrawal of the nation state and political processes that seem further and further removed from their lived experience. According to social scientist Engin Isin, such issues have led to intense "struggles over citizenship" that are associated with "global movements and flows of capital, labour and people".

In Spain, the 15-M movement , also known as "los Indignados" (or the outraged), is a citizen movement that took to camp on the streets and plazas of Madrid and other cities on 15 May 2011. Epitomised by the camp at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid, this burst in civil unrest had been developing for years in Spain in light of the decaying Spanish economy. The demonstrators showed their anger at corruption, precarious work practices and the influence of financial institutions by painting over 200 statements on walls around the city.

Many of these sentiments resonate strongly in the New York outraged camping outside Wall Street.

The contagion has also spread to Italy where on October 7 over 100,000 students and people marched in over 100 cities against the Berlusconi reforms to education, echoing similar protests that took place in Italy in late 2010.

The same day, one million Chileans voted in a four-question student-organised citizen plebiscite including several thousand Chileans voting online from over 25 countries. Over 90 per cent of the votes supported the student demands.

The ongoing wave of massive protests and mobilisations in Chile started in Santiago and Valparaiso in May 2011 at the same time as the 15-M in Madrid. Some demonstrations, like the June 16 protest, gathered around 200,000 protesters, among the largest since the return to democracy in 1990. These demonstrations must be seen as a continuum of student unrest in Chile that began with massive protests in early 2006 in what was known as the "penguin revolution". The movement is lead by the tertiary student federations and actually is comprised by a network of self-organised groups. There are still over 600 public schools and 25 public universities "en toma" (in lock down). The resurgence of the student movement has also coincided with a climate of uncertainty and massive protests on environmental issues in response to plans to build mega dams in Patagonia.

These events are part of a larger social movement that is demanding substantial reforms of Chile’s economic and political model. This economic model, established in the 1980s through profound neoliberal reforms during the military regime, has been sustained and expanded after 20 years of democratic rule. Today Chile is the OECD country with highest levels of social inequality.

Violence, looting and general destruction became the focus of the London riots — again ignoring the recent history of frustration with austerity measures throughout the United Kingdom .

A brick through the window is not equivalent to the decision to avoid the ballot box on election day, but there is an increasing disconnection between young people and formal politics that is dramatically altering the nature of citizenship.

The concept of the citizenship has always been fraught with polarities that account for permanent tensions, argues philosopher Etienne Balibar. These tensions include the notion of rights as opposed to duties, membership and exclusion, participation and representation or entitlements and responsibilities. When the state is experiencing crisis, these constitutive tensions can become genuine antinomies which confront individuals and collectives with radical choices.

As these highlight, what we are witnessing in many countries is a general feeling amongst young people that traditional political processes are neither appealing or nor accessible.

Danish thinker Henrik Bang , argues that this frustration and disillusion has led to a dramatic change in political engagement. Rather than joining a political party, Bang argues there is a focus driven by a specific political outcome or "project" that allows people to come together around shared values. In the case of the Chilean student movement this is clearly exemplified by the performative nature of the student protests where massive public performances have been staged. For example, the thousand-strong "kissathon" of students kissing each other "for the love of education", or the several thousand that performed Michael Jackson’s Thriller in front of La Moneda presidential palace last June to convey how students feel like zombies, ‘killed’ and left in limbo by the current education system. Or the performance of superheroes, another massive public demonstration of creativity and the fact that citizenship is constructed by how individuals and collectives construct their political subjectivity on a daily basis.

This entails a more diverse citizenry whose attitudes towards civic institutions are complex. This complexity is driven by a number of factors including changing migration patterns and the "non-citizen citizen" that includes migrant workers and refugees, privatisation, the withdrawal of the modern state form service delivery to citizens, technological changes and so on. Such changes mean that we must understand citizenship as something that is both complex and constantly re-negotiated.

Unsurprisingly, conservative commentators have been frothing at the mouth in their attacks on such protests. Miranda Devine blamed lesbian couples for the London riots while Charlie Lynn, a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council, claimed it was only a matter of time before society fell apart as "organised ethnic gangs run drug-syndicates and money laundering operations with little fear of prosecution" and "in the west lawless teenage gangs roam the streets with menace at night." Writing for the Punch, Sophia Mirabella dismissed the Occupy Movement as a glib and childish fantasy.

What they miss, however, is the growing sense of frustration that real people are being ignored at the expense of established interests. No one really knows where all these different protests will end up, but what must change is the blind adherence to a market ideology that has led to such feelings. Things may seem stable at the moment, but unless young people buy back into our democratic processes, then the very foundations of our society could be threatened.

  

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GocomSys

Posted Friday, 14 October 11 at 11:42AM

“There is a growing sense of frustration that real people are being ignored at the expense of established interests”. Agree.

However let’s give credit to any government trying to get complex issues resolved. It is not easy to do and often compromises have to be made.
Let’s condemn any political parties devoid of policies of their own who for purely political expediency are risking damaging a countries economy and reputation. In other words expose and get rid of “dumb” self serving politicians.
Let’s expose and condemn the trash media and the profiteers who’s ONLY aim is to improve their financial bottom line.

Two good political outcomes in OZ :
1. The implementation of an infrastructure and pricing mechanism to put a cost on pollution. Finally!
2. The hope of a better more humane way of processing asylum seekers.
 Finally!

Note: I really don’t give a damn what the press armchair critics have to say.
I really don’t give a toss what some of the usual obnoxious simple minded posters here and everywhere else come up with.

Let’s hope the largely somnambulist public finally wakes up!

This user is a New Matilda supporter.

David Grayling

Posted Friday, 14 October 11 at 11:46AM

I would remind the authors of this article that it is not only young people who are revolting.

Look at any photograph of protests around the world and you will see many ages represented there (my blog has some and if you visit www.desertpeace.wordpress.com you’ll find more).

Many in our world are fed up with the status quo. Greed and endless war and inequality reign supreme.

It’s time to chart a new course, one based upon equality and cooperation and sharing!

www.dangerouscreation.com

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Another view on #occupyaus | The Punch

This Saturday the self-described “organic” Occupy Wall Street movement will be coming to a capital city near you.

An insightful call for reform. Pic: Paul Toohey

They boldly claim “we are the 99 per cent” - it’s their official catchcry - so unless you consider yourself among the uber rich and powerful, these folks are your new voice.  So they’ll be speaking for you when they wave their glib and nebulous placards declaring “people not profits” and “be the solution”.  (I am not making these up – this is the print-ready poster artwork available on their website.)

Their initial beef was apparently with the financial sector – hence the occupation of Wall Street in protest.  But their list of demands goes beyond the remit of the corporate fat cats and includes free education and a type of Utopian redistribution of wealth.

And those are only the easily decipherable claims. 

The truth is this organic protest movement seems to be a magnet for every disaffected, anti-capitalist, left-wing professional protestor on the planet.  And - ironically, given its origins - a whole lot of anti-American sentiment too.

Hence Australia gets “occupied” despite the fact that our major financial institutions have not gone under and our stock market is comparatively stable.

Of course, many families are doing it tough. Making ends meet is a challenge when the cost of living keeps rising and will it will continue to rise under Labor’s carbon tax. 

Government failure, mismanagement and growing debt is more to blame than the inherent failure of capitalism. 

Protest against a policy, protest against a corrupt Government if you want – but protesting against democracy and capitalism just seems so… well… laughable, pointless and politically adolescent.

Superficially the “greed is over” message is one that resonates.  It is one of the seven deadly sins after all, and Gordon Gecko is so mired in the 1980s despite his best efforts in last year’s sequel.

But there’s a strange dichotomy about this movement.  These “occupiers” want other people to earn less, while presumably they are supported by the Government or benevolent families so they can spend their days creating sanitation problems in the street rather than earning a living themselves.

They want other people to pay for their “free” college education.  They want to hold others to account for the way they believe the world has failed them.  There is an underlying sense of entitlement that just jars with the “other people are greedy bastards” protest.

The real bottom line is that “Greed is over” is not a policy.  It’s not going to create one job, it’s not going to provide the funds needed to build hospitals or schools, and despite the hokey sentiment it’s not going to build local communities.

It is just a catchcry.  So is “be the solution” and “people not profits”.  Easily said, easily read on a placard.  But not a blueprint for any meaningful reform.

And that’s where this “occupation movement” falls down.  It’s called reality.

Not surprisingly the organiser of the “Occupy Melbourne” event is a former Greens candidate.  The Greens tend to have a bit of a problem with reality, as an examination of their policy manifesto reveals.

Interestingly, the Greens were faring much better with the Australian public when their unrealistic catchcry policy platform was just a wishful glint in Bob Brown’s eye. 

Now they’re Labor’s partner in Government, people are less comfortable with some of the reality-defying concepts the Greens hold dear.

Never mind.  I’m sure this Saturday’s “occupation” will give those professional protesters and Greens voters a chance to voice their anger at some nebulous, greedy “machine” rather than hold to account the Government they helped elect. 

via thepunch.com.au

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Labour’s show of solidarity #OccupyWallStreet | En Passant

The mood was jubilant as organized labor and thousands of workers crowded the streets of lower Manhattan to march in the largest and most diverse demonstration to date of the Occupy Wall Street movement, reports Danny Lucia in Socialist Worker.

October 6, 2011

FOR MORE than a year, politicians and the press have pitted private-sector workers against those in the public sector, young people against their elders receiving Social Security, native-born against immigrants, and on and on. But yesterday, over 20,000 people from all walks of life–workers, students and the unemployed–marched through downtown Manhattan with the response that has struck a nerve across the country: “We are the 99 percent!”

The demonstration, originally called by a coalition of New York City unions and community organizations, was the largest and most diverse action to date for the Occupy Wall Street movement.

“You can see such a great cross section of society,” said investigative journalist and Blackwater author Jeremy Scahill. “From students to steelworkers to plumbers to transit workers to independent journalists–some elected officials, though not enough–all coming out together shows that momentum is starting to shift to the side of the people.”

There was a palpable sense of excitement among many of the protesters, particularly those who have struggled through difficult years in the labor movement.

“I’ve been waiting for this movement for a long time,” said Mike Hellstrom, principal officer of Laborers Local 1108. “This is the kind of movement needed in America today. The Occupy Wall Street movement has proven in the short term that it’s sustainable, it’s not a flash in the pan. The labor movement can bring these issues back to centerstage again.”

From the front of the rally, Bob Master of the Communications Workers of America told the crowd: “Look around you. This is what democracy looks like. Occupy Wall Street captures the spirit of our time. This is Madison. This is Cairo. This is Tunisia. Occupy Wall Street has started a movement that we are all part of around the world.”

This protest was very different from most labor demonstrations. For one thing, workers from different unions were intermingled throughout the crowd, indicating that most of them had come to the protest on their own rather than being mobilized by their unions. (The exception was the hundreds of members of National Nurses United who came from as far away as Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia.)

And though most labor protests end promptly with people rushing home, nobody wanted to leave when this march reached the Occupy Wall Street encampment. Hundreds of union members hung around the encampment, listening to filmmaker Michael Moore address the crowd near Broadway, checking out the books donated to the “people’s library” near Liberty Street, or heading down towards Church Street for the drum circle.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

BUT UNION members only made up a portion of the crowd. Several thousand students from New York University, Columbia and the New School formed a feeder march from Washington Square Park. And there were many unemployed folks and nonunion workers–people like Nelson, who came straight from his job at nonunion FedEx, still wearing his uniform.

“They’re always trying to pile more work on us,” he said. “You do 40 stops, and they want 50. You do 50, they want 60.” When Nelson marched with Occupy Wall Street earlier this week, it was his first protest. “I had never seen one before that was for me.”

“There have been so many attempts to marginalize and dismiss what’s been going on in the plaza,” said journalist and Shock Doctrine author Naomi Klein. “This just completely explodes the claim that it’s just a bunch of hippy kids–not that there’s anything wrong with the kids in the park because there’s amazing creativity in the way that they’re organizing. What we’re seeing today is that their courage has inspired and excited the whole city. People seem to have been waiting for someone to invite them.”

The one source of frustration during the otherwise celebratory march came once again from the police, who only allowed the march to use one lane of traffic, which considerably slowed the pace and provided a constant reminder of the police repression of Occupy Wall Street protesters the previous two weekends.

At the end of the march at Liberty Park, about 300 protesters broke off for an unpermitted march down to Wall Street. Police encircled them with orange mesh and conducted mass arrests. As this article went to press, videos of police use of pepper spray and physical assaults were popping up on the Internet, and even Fox News reporters got maced and beaten.

Doug Singsen, an Occupy Wall Street activist and member of the International Socialist Organization, summed up the significance of the day:

Occupy Wall Street continues to pull in more people: workers, students, unemployed, everyone. If unions link up with occupations in other cities then this whole movement will deepen a great deal. [In New York] we have another labor rally a week from today that has the potential to be even bigger. And then there’s an antiwar rally next weekend. So this shows no signs of stopping.

via enpassant.com.au

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Occupy Together | The Site #occupywallstreet

Welcome to OCCUPY TOGETHER, an unofficial hub for all of the events springing up across the country in solidarity with Occupy Wall St. As we have followed the news on facebook, twitter, and the various live feeds across the internet, we felt compelled to build a site that would help spread the word as more protests organize across the world. We hope to provide people with information about events that are organizing, ongoing, and building across the U.S. as we, the 99%, take action against the greed and corruption of the 1%.

We will only grow stronger in our solidarity and we will be heard, not just in New York, but in echoes across the world.

For more information about us, the movement, and answers to questions, please check out our FAQ.

Important note: Occupy Together will never ask for any monetary donations. We suggest that, if you want to donate monetarily, that you visit this site to help those who currently Occupy Wall St.

via occupytogether.org

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AFL-CIO UNION president visits Wall Street protesters #occupywallstreet

via online.wsj.com

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OccupyWallSt hits our shores, but do we need it? | Crikey

The fledgling ‘Occupy Wall St’ movement looks set to spawn a local chapter as grassroots protesters prepare to occupy key capital city landmarks to strike back against “corporate greed”.

Occupations will kick off in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide on October 15, with organisers hoping to ape the success of the protests that have commandeered Liberty Plaza in Downtown Manhattan and are rapidly metastasising across the US.

A Facebook event page for the Melbourne arm, created by former Greens candidate Nick Carson, boasted 649 attendees as Crikey’s deadline approached this morning. An organising meeting was attended by about 30 people on Sunday, with minutes revealing that the nascent grouping “was not so much ‘anti-capitalism’ but [about] the fact that capitalism has gone wrong.”

One idea floated was that instead of being “‘anti-’ anything”, the group would be “pro-freedom/pro-humanity’” to keep “negativity away from the movement.”

In Melbourne, protesters plan to camp out in Swanston Street’s City Square indefinitely in solidarity with their US colleagues. On Sunday, New York police arrested 700 occupiers when they attempted to block traffic on Brooklyn Bridge. Celebrities including Susan Sarandon, Salman Rushdie and filmmaker Michael Moore have previously lent their support.

Hundreds of New York students and activists, many battle hardened after 2009’s New School occupation, were inspired to join the ruckus after Arab Spring uprisings across the Middle East. The fluid agglomeration claims to broadly represent the “99%” of the world’s population shafted by the global institutional infatuation with monetarist economics. Yesterday, they celebrated “zombie day”.

Melbourne occupation co-organiser Alex Gard, a seafarer, told Crikey this morning that the Australian arm had “no direct ties to anyone.”

“There’s such a huge range of people from all sides of the fence,” he said.

Gard said was personally drawn to the movement after reading reports on the US upsurge.

“I think it was fantastic that it spread virally. There was also the peaceful nature of it…we’re not going in there and just rioting. We’re inspiring solidarity by bringing  together common people on a global scale.”

The US protests, which have stretched to the Mid-West and are rapidly gaining ground in California, are widely perceived as a reaction to a failed Congress and growing disillusionment over jobs in an economy teetering at the edge of a recession. The movement preaches non-violent civil disobedience in the mould of 60s radicals Students for a Democratic Society whose Port Huron statement remains a popular touchstone.

Gard said that while conditions were better in Australia, there was still a pressing need to take action.

“Things are definitely better for us over here…but in saying that there is large number of people that are living below the poverty line or are in some sort of oppressive environment. Just because things are better here doesn’t mean that it’s going to stay this way forever,” he said.

While official endorsements are thin on the ground, locally there are strong ties to the grab bag of organisations loosely aligned with the Greens and the grassroots left. Carson ran for the lower house seat of Doncaster in last year’s Victorian state election and is active in a number of green-tinged groups including the Australian Youth Climate Coalition.

Veteran orthodox Left sources contacted by Crikey this morning found it difficult to place many of the named organisers. And Socialist Alternative, a red flag-wielding campus-based Trotskyite organisation, is expected to be preoccupied on October 15 with their ongoing boycott of the Israeli-owned chocolate shop Max Brenner (although collaboration has been mooted).

Gard was reluctant to about talk specific solutions to the current malady confronting the global commons. A rigid ideological program appeared to be off the table, with normative considerations employed instead as a basis for future debate.

“We’ll address heaps of different issues” and “provide a platform for people who don’t or can’t get their voices heard,” he said.

“The thing that has brought everyone together in the world at the moment is the fact that we are being dictated to by a small amount of people with only really a financial interest in the future of mankind.”

Sometimes the decentralised nature of the movement can lead to logistical issues. Last week, the Wall Street participants were awaiting a planned acoustic concert by British rockers Radiohead but their attendance was later revealed to be a hoax. Organisers have also had to cop a stream of abuse from Col Allan’s New York Post.

via crikey.com.au

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En Passant » Turning up the heat on #occupywallstreet

Turning up the heat on Wall Street

Posted by John, October 3rd, 2011 - under Fighting back, Resistance.

Danny Lucia reports from New York City for Socialist Worker on the latest stage of the Occupy Wall Street movement after the mass arrest of protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge.

October 3, 2011

THE STAKES went up for the Occupy Wall Street protest movement this weekend after police escalated their repression with the arrest of over 700 peaceful protesters during a march across the Brooklyn Bridge on October 1.

But the arrests couldn’t stop the growing enthusiasm for the movement. On the contrary, similar occupations continued to spread to other cities around the U.S., and the movement in New York City received more endorsements and pledges of support from labor and community organizations, ahead of a major union rally planned for this Wednesday.

Occupy Wall Street and its sister actions around the country have become lightning rods, drawing people fed up with every aspect of a world dominated by the greed and power of the “1 percent” on Wall Street and at the top of U.S. society.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

IN NEW York, Friday and Saturday saw the largest marches yet from the Occupy Wall Street encampment at the renamed Liberty Plaza nearby Wall Street. Between 3,000 and 5,000 people participated each day, first in a protest against police brutality at One Police Headquarters on Friday night, and then the march across the bridge on Saturday.

At the Saturday demonstration, marchers left the camp and took both the pedestrian and vehicle lanes when they got to the bridge, halting traffic. Police didn’t block the takeover of the vehicle lanes. Instead, a handful of supervisors lined up before the throng of marchers announced over bullhorns, heard by only to a small number, that those blocking the roadway would be subject to arrest.

Then, as protester Etam Ben-Ami later told the New York Daily News, “it seemed as if they deliberately moved back to allow people onto the roadway.” According to the New York Times, whose reporter Natasha Leonard was among those arrested, “There were no physical barriers…and at one point, the marchers began walking up the roadway with the police commanders in front of them – seeming, from a distance, as if they were leading the way.”

Once protesters were about halfway across the bridge, police suddenly encircled the marchers in the car lanes, blocking both the Brooklyn and Manhattan sides of the bridge. More than 1,000 were trapped for hours in the pouring rain.

Hundred of marchers who hadn’t been caught on the bridge by police gathered on the Manhattan side of the bridge. Some appealed to the cops with chants of “Join us, you’re one of us”–but others angrily chanted, “Protect and serve? That’s a lie!”

After their arrest, protesters were transported to different precincts in Brooklyn and Manhattan, often remaining in handcuffs for many hours before being transferred to jail cells. Many weren’t released until well past midnight–despite the fact that most people were only charged with violations, the equivalent of a parking ticket and not even considered to be a criminal offense.

NYPD spokesperson Paul Browne asserted that the police only arrested those in the front of the march who had heard the warnings not to take the streets, a claim contradicted by numerous eyewitness accounts.

Of course, many New Yorkers had already stopped putting much stock in the words of Browne, who just days earlier had confidently defended the indefensible–the pepper-spraying of peaceful protesters during a march from the Occupy Wall Street site one week earlier.

The police assault in Manhattan’s Union Square on September 24 was the focus of the Friday demonstration, which went from Liberty Plaza to NYPD headquarters. The call of “We are the 99 percent” roared through the cavernous arches of 1 Police Plaza as marchers streamed toward the rally called by activists in the Professional Staff Congress-CUNY (PSC-CUNY), the union of professors at the City University of New York.

“I almost cried when I saw them coming through the arch,” said Christina Morales. “For the first time in years, I felt like I’m not alone, screaming at the TV with my father, seeing other people suffer, losing their jobs, unable to retire.”

Matt, an elementary school teacher who has been involved in Occupy Wall Street since the first general assemblies that planned for the action over the summer, said, “We’re experimenting with new ways of living and interacting with each other. I’m not interested in demands. In that sense, we have already succeeded in that we’ve held this for 14 days.”

Matt’s comment reflects one of the many debates among activists over how the protest movement should organize and what comes next. Many who participate in the acking are asking the question of how to involve wider layers of people in the struggle, including those whose work and family obligations don’t allow them to participate in the all-night occupation at Liberty Plaza.

That discussion took on a new significance last week when Occupy Wall Street was endorsed by the women and men who operate New York’s trains and buses, members of Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100.

A few dozen TWU members turned out to the Friday protest. “They’re trying to destroy our livelihoods, our present and our future,” said a Local 100 vice president, Kevin Harrington. “And they’re trying to take away the future for the young people.”

More endorsements followed the United Steelworkers of America, the National Nurses United coalition, and SEIU 1199, which represents 360,000 service workers and is the largest union local in the US.

The Beyond May 12 coalition–made up of many of the city’s largest labor and community organizations, most notably the United Federation of Teachers and New York Communities for Change (formerly NY ACORN)–announced plans for a solidarity march on Wednesday, October 5, that will go from City Hall to the Occupy Wall Street encampment.

Other unions, led by PSC-CUNY, TWU Local 100 and the health care union 1199SEIU, are planning independently for a rally one week later on October 12 that could be even bigger than the Beyond May 12 march this week.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

MEANWHILE, THE movement is spreading to other cities. Most of the occupations–or planning meetings to organize one–are modest in size, but in Los Angeles, the first day of Occupy LA on October 1 drew more than 1,500 people for a march from Pershing Square to City Hall, where activists plan to set up an encampment. That night, more than 500 demonstrators were still on hand for a general assembly meeting.

As the big marches over the weekend showed, the movement is still growing in New Yrok. This spreading support–and the potential for the rebellious mood at Liberty Plaza to reach further among the city’s working people–may be the reason why New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg hinted on Friday that a crackdown on the encampment might be coming.

“People have a right to protest, but we also have to make sure that people who don’t want to protest can go down the streets unmolested,” Bloomberg declared on his radio show–while not citing any report of pedestrian molestation. The mayor also ludicrously claimed that “the protestors are protesting against people who make $40,000 or $50,000 a year and are struggling to make ends meet.”

Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase, one of the corporate targets of Occupy Wall Street, recently announced it was making a $4.6 million to the New York City Police Foundation.

Whether or not Bloomberg and the police escalate their repression, the mass arrests on Saturday are likely to inspire more people to join in at Occupy Wall Street actions–the same way that the widely seen pepper spray attacks by police one week before focused national and international attention on the occupation.

The size and character of Wednesday’s protest will be a key marker for the movement. The labor-initiated rally and march represents an important opportunity to help raise the confidence and expectations of thousands of city workers, while deepening the links between the Occupy Wall Street action and the labor movement.

Occupy Wall Street has energized growing numbers of people to take a stand against corporate greed and power, and as the movement grows–along with the threats of police repression, as colder weather sets in–so, too, do the questions and possibilities for the struggle to take up.

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Comments

Comment from Ross
Time October 3, 2011 at 10:08 pm

Naomi Wolf’s 10 Easy steps to Fascism.
1/Create a Gulag.eg Guantanamo Bay.There are also over 600 empty FEMA camps in the USA.
2/Invoke a terrifying internal/external enemy.ie The War on Terrorism
3/Develop a thug caste,eg NYPD assaulting Wall St protestors.
4/Set up an internal surveillance system.It is everywhere in cameras and checking our computers.
5/Harrass citizen groups.Is happening in the USA via FBI turning up on protestors doors asking questions about their behaviour.It has happened to me John.
6/Engage in arbitary detention and release.
7/Target key individuals
8/Control the Press.The Banking Military Industrial Complex already does.
9/Dissent equals treason.Have a close look at Howard’s Sedition Laws.
10/Suspend the rule of law.This will happen when the next false flag terrorist attack happens.

Comment from John
Time October 4, 2011 at 4:06 am

Fascism is a movement of the disillusioned middle class caught between big business and organised labour. In times of economic crisis it becomes a battering ram for capital to smash the organised working class and restore profit rates through driving down working class wages and living standards. That is not happening yet in the US and to suggest it is here now is simply wrong, infantile and politically disastrous. That doesn’t mean there may not be an early process of this going on. It means however to signify capitalist conservatism and power, even reaction, as fascism is the height of stupidity. Couple that with the lunacy of 9/11 being an inside Bush job and you have an analysis more suited for the ‘aliens abducted me’ school of politics than for serious examination.

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Thousands protest against Cameron's cuts #manchester

Under fire ... Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron. Photo: Reuters

About 35,000 people have turned out in Manchester to demonstrate against government budget cuts as Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives opened their annual conference.

The march in the northwest England city was organised by the Trades Union Congress, which billed it as a rally for "the alternative - jobs, growth, justice".

"The TUC is organising a march and rally to show opposition to the coalition government's disastrous policies of pay freezes, cuts and attacks on public services that are producing rising unemployment, cuts in living standards and stagnation," it said.

Advertisement: Story continues below

Having their say ... 35,000 people took to the streets to demonstrate against government budget cuts. Photo: Reuters

Police estimated the crowd at the anti-Tory rally at 35,000, including mainstream public sector workers and left-wing activists, carrying placards saying "Unite and fight".

Mark Serwotka, leader of the the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, told the crowd that the whole country would unite in a mass strike called by several trade unions for November 30.

"If you never fight you lose every time," he said. "Now's the time to fight, now's the time to defeat the government."

Cameron's Conservative Party is the senior partner in the governing coalition formed with the Liberal Democrats following elections in May 2010. They have set a target to balance Britain's budget by 2015.

Police said Sunday's march had been peaceful with no arrests, although about 50 demonstrators staged a sit-down in front of the city's town hall.

A local fire alarm tester Gerry Collier, 64, said: "I'm here to show solidarity, and I'm against the government policy of cuts and attacks on pensions.

"There are thousands of people here, but I doubt the Tories will listen," he said.

Inside the conference, Conservative Foreign Secretary William Hague delivered a message to the demonstrators blaming Britain's economic woes and necessary austerity measures on the legacy of the previous Labour government.

"The money you were promised by the last Labour government never existed. It was never there. And we have been left with the task of telling you that truth," Hague said.

"A government betrays instead of serving its people if it allows them to live on a delusion," he added.

"And above all it is wrong, unfair and irresponsible to leave a massive debt for the next generation to deal with instead of facing up to it now."

Hague also used his speech to accuse the opposition Labour Party chief Ed Miliband of showing weak leadership.

Miliband "is too frightened to tell the unions - who pay for his party - that it is not in the national interest for them to strike".

Earlier in the day, Cameron vowed to keep Britain in the European Union despite growing dissent in the right-wing of his party over the current crisis swamping the eurozone.

"It's not our view that there should be an in/out referendum," Cameron told BBC television.

"I don't want Britain to leave the EU. I think it's the wrong answer for Britain."

Cameron did have some tough words for the 17 European countries that share the euro currency about the urgent need to take action to contain the crisis.

"Frankly, right now the eurozone is a threat not just to itself, but also a threat to the British economy, a threat to the worldwide economy and so we have to deal with this."

The 44-year-old prime minister also apologised for comments made in parliament earlier this year that angered female MPs.

He said he "deeply regretted" telling MP Angela Eagle to "calm down, dear" and remarking that Tory colleague Nadine Dorris was "frustrated" during a debate in April.

"I obviously said some things in the House of Commons that just came out wrong and caused the wrong impression and I deeply regret that," Cameron said.

"It's not what I'm like, that's not who I am."

AFP

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The Battle of Cable Street – they did not pass --> En Passant

Cable Street – they did not pass

Posted by John, October 3rd, 2011 - under Cable Street, Fascism, Fighting back, Resistance.

The Battle of Cable Street, which took place 75 years ago this week, was a key moment in anti-fascist history when mass working class resistance stopped the Blackshirts, argues Patrick Ward in Socialist Worker UK.

IT was 1936 and fascism was spreading across Europe. Adolf Hitler had become chancellor of Germany. Benito Mussolini had seized control in Italy. Franco was on the march in Spain. And the British Union of Fascists (BUF) was trying to do the same in Britain.

The BUF, led by Oswald Mosley, planned to march through the East End of London on 4 October 1936. It wanted to strike fear into the hearts of the thousands of Jewish people living in the area at the time.

Mosley was friends with Hitler and wanted to be his British equivalent. He wanted to march his fascist Blackshirts (see box) through the streets of east London and stamp terror upon the local population.

But they did not pass. Jewish people, Communists, Labour Party members, trade unionists and others stood up to the BUF on that sunny Sunday afternoon.

The arguments on the left about how to stop Mosley’s thugs—and the tactics that were eventually adopted and won—offer rich lessons for the movement today.

Anti-fascists barricaded the streets of east London that day and fought the police to ensure that the Blackshirt march could not take place.

Some 7,000 fascists tried to march through the streets of Whitechapel to a rally in Victoria Park. They had the protection of 10,000 police, some 4,000 of them on horseback.

The BUF assembled at Royal Mint Street in the City of London with the intention of marching east.

But the Communist Party (CP), the Independent Labour Party (ILP), local trade unions and grassroots Jewish organisations had called for resistance at key points along the BUF’s proposed route.

Hundreds of thousands responded to the call and blockaded Aldgate on the outskirts of Whitechapel.

The organised working class came out in droves. Dockers arrived from Limehouse and Poplar. The National Unemployed Workers Movement also mobilised in large numbers.

Miners came from as far away as Wales. They were joined by masses of Irish and Jewish workers.

Reports soon filtered through that the fascists were planning to march down Cable Street as a route into Whitechapel—so the anti-fascist masses flocked there too.

By the early afternoon, anti-fascists assembling at Aldgate reported a crowd so thick that latecomers got nowhere near Cable Street itself.

But the police were determined to forcibly clear a passage for the fascists. They attempted round after round of baton charges on protesters—but to no avail.

Anti-fascists replied to the police charges with a barrage of rocks torn up from the street. People used their own furniture and even upturned trams and trucks to blockade the roads.

Boiling

Cable Street residents opened their windows to throw rotten vegetables, boiling oil and the contents of chamber pots onto the swarms of police below.

Each time the police managed to breach a barricade, they would be confronted by another behind it.

Mounted officers attempted to charge the crowd—but marbles were thrown under the horses’ hooves,

sending them tumbling to the ground.

Police commissioner Sir Phillip Game conceded defeat after several hours of struggle. The local opposition had proved too strong. Sir Phillip declared that people would have been killed had the fascist march gone ahead.

Instead the BUF had to parade through the empty streets of central London into Trafalgar Square, where they were left to scuffle with police.

The fascists were humiliated—and the working class of east London was overjoyed.

The anti-fascist victory did not materialise from thin air. The fascists had been undercut through persistent campaigning, especially by the CP.

Reports from the time suggest that in August, September and October of 1936, there were around 600 anti-fascist meetings a month in east London.

The Jewish People’s Committee collected a petition signed by 100,000 residents to ban the fascist march. The home secretary refused this request.

But the strategy that won on the day was mass mobilisation. And this was the subject of fierce controversy in the run-up to 4 October.

The Communists were the central force in the anti-BUF movement throughout the 1930s.

But there were arguments within the party over what tactics should be used to defeat the fascists.

The Labour Party was deeply hostile to the idea of confronting the Blackshirts on the streets.

Respectable

George Lansbury, Labour’s leader until 1935, wrote in the workers’ Daily Herald newspaper on 1 October, “What I want is to maintain peace and order, and I advise people who are opposed to fascism to keep away from the demonstration.”

The CP national leadership were desperate to appear “respectable” to the Labour bureaucracy. Frank Lefitte, the party’s east London organiser, argued to members, “If Mosley decides to march, let him. Don’t attempt disorder.”

And there was also a warning against protesting from the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

The Jewish Chronicle argued, “Jews who, however innocently, become involved in any possible disorders will be actively helping antisemitism and Jew-baiting. Unless you want to help the Jew-baiters, keep away.”

But these warnings did not wash with most Jews or Communists—or with Labour Party members.

The left wing Independent Labour Party—which had walked out of the Labour Party proper four years earlier—and Jewish groups in east London attracted widespread support for a counter-protest. Many CP members campaigned alongside them.

Housing estates were leafleted. Anti-fascist propaganda was chalked onto the roads leading into factories and other large workplaces.

Cars were driven through neighbourhoods with loudspeakers attached calling on everyone to join the anti-BUF demonstration.

The CP leadership had to catch up—and so resolved to take a compromise position. Their Daily Worker newspaper initially called on workers to assemble in Trafalgar Square for a protest against the rise of Franco’s fascists in Spain.

Workers were then to march to the East End “to show their hatred of Mosley’s support for the fascist attack on democracy in Spain”.

This call had been made on 31 September. But just two days later the leadership shifted under the pressure from the party’s extensive working class roots.

“The London CP and the Young Communist League, reacting to the urgency of the situation… have decided to concentrate all their forces in support of the east London workers on Sunday,” the Daily Worker now reported.

“There is no doubt that from two o’clock onwards the roads will be crowded with people intent on opposing fascism.”

CP members and supporters now threw themselves into mobilising for the demonstration. They stood alongside local workers, fighting the police and blocking the fascists.

It was the full force of the working class movement that won the Battle of Cable Street. It broke the confidence of fascists to attempt such invasions of Jewish areas.

As CP activist Reg Weston would later recall, “Back in Stepney and the East End there was almost unbelievable delight. We had won. The fascists had been defeated and humiliated. The police too… had been proved unable to protect them.”

This was a result that could not have come through a state ban, let alone by telling people to stay at home.

The victory empowered the working class, which had shown that it would not tolerate fascists marching through their streets.

This was not the first nor the final battle against Mosley’s aspiring stormtroopers. But it was a critical event in resisting Blackshirt attempts to spread fascism in Britain.

The Battle of Cable Street holds vital lessons in the fight against fascism today. Revolutionary socialists must organise in the broadest possible way within the working class.

We must also be prepared to physically stop the fascists from gaining control of the streets.

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Comment from Ross
Time October 3, 2011 at 8:14 am

The facsists are in control of the money supply,that’s why 700 have been arrested in Wall St protesting this injustice.

Comment from John
Time October 3, 2011 at 9:41 am

They aren’t fascists.

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Protest against Tory conference in Manchester - as it happens #protest

Issue: 2271 dated: 1 October 2011 News online only
posted: 11.30am Sun 2 Oct 2011 | updated: 1.09pm Sun 2 Oct 2011

Protest against Tory conference in Manchester - as it happens

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The front of the march

Leeds students arrive for the protest

On the march

by our reporters in Manchester

Socialist Worker will provide regular updates to this story throughout the day

1.10pm:

The march has set off.

David Cameron claims the Tories are "firing up the engines of the British economy" by slashing jobs and services.

In reality, things are getting so desperate that record numbers of people can't afford to feed themselves.

FareShare, a leading food charity, says it is feeding 20 percent more people than it was a year ago – from 29,500 to 35,000. Meanwhile, a thinktank has found that more than one in five workers are earning less than a "living wage".

Video of the march setting off.

1pm:

The main march is filling the road all the way from the Hilton hotel tower on Deansgate, back past the Museum of Science and Industry and towards the old Granada studios.

The march is already noisy and packed with union banners and flags – as well as huge Unison, Unite and NUT balloons. Political stalls line the street.

Disability rights activists have joined the demonstration in Manchester. Eleanor from Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) traveled from Coventry to march.

She told Socialist Worker, “It takes a lot to get me out of bed early on a Sunday morning. But I am so angry with the Tories I had to come. They are attacking the rights of disabled people.”

Private sector workers are also on the demo, including Mohammed from Rotherham, south Yorkshire, who was on his first protest. He said, “I don't work in the public sector, I am in the motor parts industry. But it’s important for the private sector to show unity. The cuts affect all of us.”

There is also big delegation of parents and their children fighting to save Sure Start in Manchester. Parent Helen Nicoll said, "We have got to stop them shutting down Sure Start. Its about more than childcare. My partner is recovering from cancer and they helped our whole family through it."

One FE student, Lewis Holden, is a Labour party member and has made his own placard, "I can't believe its not Thatcher". He said, "I didn't want the Tories to feel welcome in Manchester."

12.55pm:

The whole area in front of the posh Hilton hotel is a sea of blue banners and massive balloons of the Unison union section ready to lead off the march.

A big delegation of Unison union members who work in the NHS in Rotherham are filing up behind their banner. Anita Heaton, a Unison steward, told Socialist Worker that the Tories have left workers “with no alternative but to strike”.

She said, “Right across the NHS there is a general feeling of frustration and sadness about what's happening. We are dedicated people. We just want to provide our services to people.

“The Tories don't need the NHS, they can all afford private health care.”

Unison branch chair Alan Daw said workers are organising to win big strike votes among Unison members in the ballots that begin this week.

He said, "We have been cascading leaflets and posters through all our members. Some workers are scattered around in small workplaces so it will be hard work. But we are confident we will win."

12.40pm:

At the Tory conference chancellor George Osborne is set to announce a series of measures to slash workers’ rights.

He wants to make it easier for bosses to sack workers by changing employment tribunal legislation. Currently workers can take an employer to an employment tribunal if they’ve worked for the boss for a year. Osborne wants to change this to two years.

Len McCluskey, general secretary of the Unite union, said the move would create a “hire and fire culture where bad employers cannot be challenged”.

The government unveiled its plans in its report One-in, One-out: Second Statement of New Regulation released last week.

It said, “We are increasing the qualifying period for employees to be able to bring a claim for unfair dismissal from one to two years and introducing fees for lodging employment tribunal cases to tackle vexatious claims.”

Disgustingly it said that this would “give business the confidence to take on staff”. Osborne is also to say the government will cut the number of union officers in the civil service.

12.35pm:

Video of students assembling

12.25pm:

A feeder march has joined the main protest from Salford. There were at least three Unison union banners on the 200-strong march, along with Salford and Bolton trades council banners and others.

Martin McLaughlin from Bolton trades council summed up the mood among people when he said, “We’re fed up of cuts.”

Other protesters are arriving from further afield.

Neil Bendelow, a CWU union member, traveled from Cleveland, Teesside, to march against the Tories.

He told Socialist Worker, “I’m here because of what the Tories want to do to the post office. The Tories only value one thing—bankers’ profits.

“There is plenty of money around if they taxed the bankers to the hilt.

“I support the strikes on 30 November. My wife is in Unison. We work for peanuts. You start work on a pension scheme and you don't expect them to change the rules half way through.

“Cutting everything isn't going to fix things. But Cameron and Clegg are too arrogant to see that.”

12.15pm:

Several hundred students assembled outside the University of Manchester for a feeder march onto the main demonstration.

They are making placards, putting up posters and playing instruments.

Union banners from the UCU and Unison are up, and one group has arrived with a large paper mâché vulture with scissors for a head.

Sophie, from Manchester Metropolitan University, was part of the group of students carrying the vulture.

"Cutting the arts means the arts establishment can't do outreach work. It has a detrimental effect," she said.

"This is a symbol of the art and culture that Manchester's proud of," she said. "It's our culture vulture."

The crowd is constantly swelling, and people have many reasons to be here.

"The Tories aren't welcome here," said Amy Taylor, the University of Manchester Students' Union LGBT officer.

"I hate them. They're the class enemy.”

Amy is angry at Tory attacks on minority groups, including LGBT people.

"Cuts to LGBT services affect people. Homelessness and mental health problems are more common for LGBT people, and we're being disproportionately affected.

"The mood among students is getting more and more angry. Today is a build up to mass action to bring them down."

Tom Brooks graduated with a degree in History and Social Sciences earlier this year, but is now looking for work.

"It's difficult finding work, interviews are few and far between," he said. "The only option is bar work, if you can get that.

"It's hard living on £53 a week.

"My mum's about to lose her council job thanks to the cuts.”

But Tom is hopeful about today's demonstration.

"People are fighting and resisting," he said. "And today can build for the 30 November public sector strikes.

"There's some demoralisation, but today can help change people's feelings. It can give them hope."

11.20am:

Thousands of people are heading to Manchester from across Britain to protest against the Tories, who are meeting there for their annual conference.

Protesters on coaches from London ran into Tory Liam Fox at the motorway services at 10am. They chased him off, chanting "They say cutback, we say fightback" and "Tory scum"

In the city itself, activists spent every last minute building for the demonstration. A trade union-sponsored “battle bus” toured Salford and Manchester yesterday, Saturday.

Lee from the PCS union told Socialist Worker “Wherever we stopped we were well received. People kept beeping horns at us as we drove down the road”.

Danielle Leadbeater was one of a group of young mothers who brought their children on the bus. She said, “We’ve been out to raise awareness of the threats to Sure Start. The councillors accuse us of sitting around in our pyjamas all day—but we’ll be marching in our pyjamas on Sunday”.

Sam O’Brien from the Unison union said the bus got “a great reception in Salford and Moss Side”.

“People are clearly very angry about the cuts,” he said. “It was great to see people from the TUC and Labour Party getting involved—we had a Labour councillor on the bus.”

Sean Molloy, a 17-year old unemployed activist, told Socialist Worker “People are really angry, especially young people who have lost their EMA.”

Mark Krantz from the Right to Work campaign organised the bus. Branches of the NUJ, PCS and Unison unions, along with Greater Manchester TUC, funded it.

Tory conference delegates will be greeted by a warm “welcome to

Manchester” on almost every advertising hoarding around the venue.

But the message coming from local people is very different.

© Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original.

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Scary Twitter Censorship Of #OccupyWallStreet | #media #twitter

TrendsMap Proves Scary Twitter Censorship Of #OccupyWallStreet From Trending Topics

  Posted by Alexander Higgins - September 29, 2011 at 10:25 am - Permalink - Source via Alexander Higgins Blog

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A Trends map of trending twitter hashtags shows #OccupyWallStreet tweets surging in nations around the entire world, except in the United States, while Google Trends shows a corporate media blackout.

JP Morgan has invested $400 million dollars into twitter and in return….

OccupyWallStreet Trendsmap

September 29, 2011

So should this be scaring anyone ? Censorship ? #occupywallstreet #OccupyAustin #OccupyAmerica

Yet when the Freedom of Information Act Request is submitted to explain this, we will find the Feds ordered it to be censored due to national security, hence covering up Wall Street bankers commanding twitter to censor the hashtag.

Via: John Cody

And I present an analysis of Google Trends showing a corporate news blackout of Occupy Wall Street coverage.

Google Trends Analysis Of Occupy Wall Street Corporate Media Coverage

As a commentator points out, the hash tag is now visible with the US following this article getting widespread attention.

Occupy Wall Street Magically Reappears in the US

 

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NYPD Now Assaulting, Mass Arresting Crowd Of 6000 #OccupyWallStreet Protestors Spanning Over 1 Mile From Liberty Square All The Way Across The Brooklyn Bridge Watch Live - Occupy Wall Street Protests Happening ...

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Woman outside SF Fed demands Jamie Dimon come out with his hands up #OccupyWallStreet #OccupySF

A woman speaking to a crowd of 1000 Occupy San Francisco protestors outside the Fed demands JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon come outside with his hands up. Show me what ...

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Occupy Boston – Twenty Protesters Arrested For Blockading Entrance To Bank Of America Headquarters

20 members of #OccupyBoston arrested for a civil sit in as the inspired powered national movement called #OccupyWallStreet spreads into over 100 cities. The Daily Bail September 30, 2011 Occupy Boston - Official ...

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