When, in July, Adbusters called for an occupation of Wall Street starting on September 17, it asked, “What is our one demand?” Online discussions began about what that might be, in the hopes that it could be settled ahead of time, and Adbusters even suggested a few of its own, like calling for a new anti-corruption commission (a la Anna Hazare’s controversial proposal in India) or the revocation of corporate personhood. There has also been talk about a Tobin tax, or the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act, or other wonky policy proposals.
After almost two weeks of occupation in renamed Liberty Plaza, the protesters have yet to settle on any one demand, or even on the idea that they want one. (This doesn’t mean it isn’t rather obvious why a bunch of angry Americans would be making a fuss at the exact center of their country’s concentrated wealth and reckless corruption.) Still, their evening General Assembly meetings—which are devoted to big-picture items like demands—have been busy. The Assembly has so far approved two significant documents about what it stands for, documents that are indicative of what the experience of the occupation is doing to those taking part. Many who came with a particular demand in mind, even, are changing how they think about what politics, and political activism, can look like.
I grew up below the Mason Dixon line. In Baltimore, we have Frederick Douglass High School (named for the escaped slave become statesman and abolitionist) and Robert E. Lee Memorial Park (named for the Confederate General from Virginia). They were not that far away from one another… less than seven miles.
I thought of that strange proximity when I read Wednesday’s New York Times article on how little U.S. students know about the civil rights movement.
All throughout my schooling, February was devoted to memorizing interesting facts about influential and important African Americans. Matthew Henson (explorer), Benjamin Banneker (mathematician, inventor and Baltimore hometown hero who—among other things—made the first American clock), Crispus Attucks (first to die in the American Revolution), Madam C.J. Walker (entrepreneur), George Washington Carver… and of course Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and Malcolm X. But this learning was scattershot and somewhat random—not a comprehensive look at a movement that shaped the city in which I was growing up—a city that could celebrate a former slave and a Southern army general.
The nearly two-week-old occupation at Liberty Plaza near Wall Street has certainly captured people’s attention, especially after viral videos of a violent mass arrest on Saturday spread. The protesters have made their presence felt. But have they really shifted the power dynamic in the United States in any significant way?
In their bruises, arrests, and panic attacks last weekend the protestors scored points the way scholars Maria Stephan and Erica Chenoweth insist nonviolent resistance always works. Namely, protestors contrasted their own nonviolence with the brash violence of the state to draw public sympathy. Although the Egyptian and Tunisian street revolutions happened after the period Chenoweth and Stephan look at in their study (1900 to 2006), they were largely nonviolent. According to the data those nonviolent “campaigns” were able to draw domestic and international support because the nonviolent nature of the protests contrasted so sharply with the thuggishness and lack of mandate of the leaders. At key moments internal desertions took place, as when police and military forces made clear signs they supported the protestors, and when outside governments and institutions previously supportive of the Egyptian and Tunisian regimes withdrew support.
One of the organizers of the event, President of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, Dave Coles, is the first to climb the fence and be arrested. Maude Barlow (far left) was in the first wave over the fence and was led away by police.
Ever feel like you aren’t where you should be? It’s okay, we all do. Yet, sometimes, we feel, without a single doubt, we are in precisely the right place at precisely the right moment.
A meticulously-planned civil disobedience uprising demanding climate justice and the honoring of the rights of indigenous people, felt just like that. Even before the drums.
The right place is a hill which belonged to the Algonquin First Nation for centuries, yet is currently occupied by Canada’s capitol buildings and is known as Parliament Hill.
The right time is the blue sky morning of Monday, September 26th. Clayton Thomas-Muller, of the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation and organizer with the Indigenous Environmental Network, opens a solidarity rally by thanking the Algonquin First Nation for use of their land.
The first thing Wangari Maathai did after being notified that she had won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize was to plant a tree in her backyard. She said she did this whenever she celebrated something.
Maathai died of ovarian cancer this past Sunday in Nairobi. This is a moment for mourning but also for celebration of a life lived full on: challenging poverty, empowering women, resisting exploitation, cultivating democracy, and advocating for the integrity and sustainability of the planet.
She tied all these dimensions of her life together through both the simplicity and complexity of planting trees. Since 1977 her Green Belt Movement planted 40 million of them throughout Africa.
Al Jazeera has just a launched a new program called Activiate which anyone interested in nonviolent action will want to keep their eyes on. The show is described as, “Telling the stories of activists around the world as they challenge authority and stand up for what they believe in,” and the first episode looks at Debby Chan and activists with Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM) who are campaigning for better working conditions at Foxconn, one of Apple’s main suppliers based in China.
The documentary follows Chan as she puts herself in harm’s way to collect evidence against Foxconn, and has great footage of protests against the company both in the streets and at its shareholder meeting. Chan also talks with one former employee who is suing Foxconn and travels all the way to Apple headquarters in California to share her findings with company executives.
In addition to halting more than 65 foreclosures in Spain, which Ter Garcia has written about for this site, the May 15 movement is having an impact on many other political, social and economic issues throughout the country. As Inés Benítez writes for Inter Press Service:
15-M has not only blocked evictions but has also successfully lobbied Congress to adopt protective measures for mortgage holders, such as raising the proportion of wages that cannot be garnished to pay off debts.
The movement has also pressed for legal reforms to approve “dacion en pago” – which basically means handing back the keys and the property in exchange for the bank discharging all mortgage debt. This solution, however, was rejected by all of the major parties.
But the protesters have managed to get some banks, like Bankinter, to adopt “dación en pago” on all mortgage loans, while Banco Santander has offered a three-year mortgage payment suspension for clients who have lost their jobs, or families that have seen a 25 percent drop in monthly income.
Postal workers held rallies across the country on Tuesday to back legislation that would repeal a benefit-funding mandate they say lies behind the U.S. Postal Service’s financial woes.
Bahraini clerics staged a protest sit-in on Monday over the recent mass arrests of women and minors by the Khalifa regime.
In California, at least 100 prisoners at Calipatria’s Adminstrative Segregation Unit (ASU) and 50-100 prisoners at Pelican Bay’s Security Housing Unit (SHU) resumed their hunger strike to protest conditions on Monday.
Philippine Airlines suspended all its early flights Tuesday after some of its workers walked out of their jobs to protest the flag carrier’s plan to outsource airport services, catering and call-center operations.
Over the weekend, activists with Anonymous and RevoluSec hacked into and defaced the official websites of every major city in Syria, along with the websites of several Syrian government departments and ministries. The hackers posted caricatures of President Bashar al-Assad on these sites and more importantly gave tips to Syrians about how to avoid detection while online from the Syrian government. As Amira Al Hussaini noted on Global Voices, they also posted on the government websites:
an interactive map of Syria, showing the names, ages and date of deaths of victims of the Syrian regime since the protests started in March.
A more fitting debut could not have been conceived for the new feature documentary “How to Start a Revolution,” given its world premiere on September 18th as part of the 27th annual Boston Film Festival. In attendance were the director, Ruaridh Arrow, as well as a few of the people featured in the film: Robert Helvey, Jamila Raqib, and the man himself, Gene Sharp. At 83 years old and with rather limited mobility, Dr. Sharp rarely makes public appearances these days. But the several hundred who had turned out to see him in Boston were by no means disappointed, responding with at least three standing ovations on the afternoon. For those of us lucky enough to have been there and hear him speak, including a number of his close friends and colleagues, it was impossible not to recognize the deep significance of the moment, with the humble Dr. Sharp visibly moved by the outpouring of support.
The nearly two-week-old occupation at Liberty Plaza near Wall Street has certainly captured people’s attention, especially after 
In addition to halting more than 65 foreclosures in Spain, which Ter Garcia has written about for 
