What challenges will a fourth wave of feminism face? What lessons have been learned?

Is a fourth wave of feminism rising from an ocean of unrest? The First Feminist General Assembly taking place in Washington Square Park in New York City the evening of Thursday, May 17, may mark a historical turning point. Emerging out of the Occupy Movement, the event brings together a cross-section of the hundreds of thousands of women already mobilized from a broad progressive spectrum since September 17.

On May Day, women filed into the streets by thousands around the world. Indeed, seen and unseen, woman has been on the front lines throughout the Arab Spring, the uprisings in Russia, in Spain and in London most recently, and within the Occupy movement since September 2011. She’s held countless signs in the marches and protests, walked miles, strategized for hours, written hundreds of emails, facilitated many meetings, moderated many discussions. Now, women are launching the 1st Feminist General Assembly.

http://tinyurl.com/7zfavdo

Pharmacists In Kansas Can Now Deny Women Access To Birth Control 

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) signed a bill yesterday that will allow pharmacists in the state to refuse to fill a prescription they think could be used to induce abortion. But since the “conscience” measure says they cannot be required to provide a drug or devise that they think “may result in the termination of a pregnancy” – but does not define which drug in particular – the law’s opponents say it could allow a pharmacist to interfere with a woman’s health care by refusing to distribute birth control or emergency contraception.

Women who already have difficulty obtaining contraception may face additional hurdles, according to Julie Burkhart, founder of an abortion-rights group in Wichita, Kansas:

Burkhart said the law could create a hardship for women in small towns with a sole pharmacist who may refuse to fill certain prescriptions. In larger cities, women will have to make sure they go to a cooperative pharmacist, she added.

http://tinyurl.com/7c45rn8

Austerity Everywhere: Fiscal Drags Coming Out of Great Recession 

The idea that this is just a problem limited to Europe, without consequences for the United States, has been rendered inoperative by simple math. Jared Bernstein took a look at budget deficits in the US year over year and finds that we’re implementing a significant amount of austerity of our own, despite the fragile economic state:
…what matters in terms of foot-on-the-accelerator is the change in the budget deficit, and the fact is we’ve been letting up right as the economy appears to have a slowed a bit. Add state fiscal drag and the growing unemployment insurance cuts and you get the picture.
On the first point, the figure compares the budget deficit so far this fiscal year with the one from the same months of last FY. Last year’s was $150 billion more negative. Annualized, that’s enough to drive the unemployment rate a half-point higher than it would otherwise be.
Then there are all the state job losses, which are also keeping the unemployment rate elevated, as I show here.
Finally, as my CBPP colleague and UI expert Hannah Shaw points out, over 400,000 long-term unemployed persons in 25 high-unemployment states have lost UI benefits so far this year as the extended benefits program is ending in states across the land.

http://tinyurl.com/bqk3xdd

Children’s Mental Health At Risk From Chronic Financial Instability

Drew McWilliams, a clinician and the Chief Operating Officer at Morrison Child and Family Services in Portland, Ore., suggests that amid the underwater mortgages, chronic unemployment and other fallout of the recent recession, a less obvious but equally worrying phenomenon has emerged: the troubled minds of children.

Since the financial collapse of 2008, McWilliams said his clinic has seen an increasing number of children suffering anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Of the 6,000 children that the center treats through in- and out-patient programs, McWilliams said many are trying to cope with the stress borne of persistent financial insecurity.

“Parents are struggling with their own issues and that spills over to their kids,” he said.

http://tinyurl.com/cot7fq5

Boehner: We’ll Do Debt Limit Brinksmanship All Over Again

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wants Congress to raise the debt limit again later this year “without drama, pain and damage.” House Speaker John Boehner has other ideas.

In remarks at the 2012 Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Boehner will erect the same requirements for raising the debt limit this coming winter that nearly led the country to default on its debt last August.

“We shouldn’t dread the debt limit. We should welcome it. It’s an action-forcing event in a town that has become infamous for inaction,” Boehner will say according to excerpts of prepared remarks provided by his office. “That night in New York City, I put forth the principle that we should not raise the debt ceiling without real spending cuts and reforms that exceed the amount of the debt limit increase…. When the time comes, I will again insist on my simple principle of cuts and reforms greater than the debt limit increase. This is the only avenue I see right now to force the elected leadership of this country to solve our structural fiscal imbalance. If that means we have to do a series of stop-gap measures, so be it – but that’s not the ideal. Let’s start solving the problem. We can make the bold cuts and reforms necessary to meet this principle, and we must.”

http://tinyurl.com/7t69w7s

If Only it Were 99 Percent — or Even 80 Percent — Versus the Rich

We’ve heard the mantra over and over. One percent of the richest Americans control 40 percent of the nation’s wealth; and the top 20 percent possess 85 percent of the riches. There’s no question that income inequality continues to grow, especially for minorities. But these numbers don’t tell the whole story.

Yes, statistically the upper 1 percent of the population or perhaps more realistically 20 percent (still a huge wealth gap) — stand in sharp contrast to the lower 80 percent of the population which share only 15 percent of the national wealth, have fewer resources and thus less power than the rich. They should be fighting back. But they aren’t. Many of the 80 percent in the middle- and low-income group are not paying attention, have a false view of who they are, or simply do not grasp that they are part of an endangered species. As a result, they are not a cohesive army ready to do battle for changes that will benefit them.

How else can we explain why we don’t have universal health care? Ask anyone to rank what is most important in life and they consistently place health at the top, ahead of money and achievement. Many of the 80 percent of Americans who collectively have only 15 percent of the national wealth have been brainwashed to believe that all government is bad, despite the fact that state, federal and local governments provide life essentials that would not otherwise be available to them. In fact, according to a recent Cornell University study half of Americans who receive some form of government aid “swear” they don’t get help from the government. That includes aid from programs like Social Security, Medicare, veterans benefits, Head Start, student loans, subsidized housing and more.

http://tinyurl.com/bo3znx7

Chart: Wages of young college graduates have failed to grow over the last decade 

The wages of young college graduates have fared poorly during the Great Recession and its aftermath. Between 2007 and 2011, the wages of young college graduates dropped 4.6 percent (5.1 percent for men and 4.1 percent for women). As the figure shows, however, the wage growth of young graduates was weak even before the Great Recession began; they have fared poorly over the entire period of general wage stagnation that began during the business cycle of 2000-2007. Between 2000 and 2011, the wages of young college graduates dropped 5.4 percent (1.6 percent for men and 8.5 percent for women).

http://tinyurl.com/cvr8ztp

The Student Loan Debate

You have to wonder if this wasn’t an election year, would the Senate still be battling over how to fund the proposal to keep interest rates on student loans where they are? It’s a shame that a topic so close to the hearts and pocketbooks of so many Americans becomes the stuff of campaign fighting.

With college debt soaring over a trillion dollars, parents and students are up in arms. It’s no wonder why California students have started demonstrating and the Occupy Wall Street movement has taken up the banner too.

The cost of educating our children, who are our future, rises at an alarming rate. Tuition has risen 530 percent since 1982. The average student graduates with $26,000 of debt; a student that is in the eighth grade now will graduate with $44,000 of debt. No matter what the Senate decides, this problem won’t go away any time soon. In 2011, 43 states cut funding to higher education institutions as well as grant money to students. This drives up tuition rates and decreases the total value of financial aid. Students and parents are left to pay the difference.

http://tinyurl.com/d4tbpw4

Anti-NATO protesters use social media to spread message

Tuesday night, as aggressive protesters charged through the streets of Bridgeport, a group of sympathizers had their back. From a Wicker Park loft, a high-tech effort was under way to make sure “the whole world is watching,” or at least they can if they want to.

“Part of it is how much of this will get out there. Not only get out, but is circulating to a new audience?” said NATO Indy Media’s Jimmy Johnson. “It’s fine if all the protesters retweet our stuff, but what we really want is to reach a new audience.”

This is essentially an-anti NATO newsroom, staffed by volunteers, some of whom cover their faces.

http://tinyurl.com/bqcnrpq

Boisterous Protests At Local Banks Stay Non-Violent

Traffic in downtown Minneapolis came to a standstill on Friday as protesters targeted big banks for bringing the economy and the lives of many people to a standstill as well.

“Everyone’s starting to see that the root of a whole lot of our problems whether it’s education or immigration, we’re all coming together around what the banks are doing to our communities.” said Steve Fletcher of Neighborhoods Organizing For Change.

About 500 people from many activist groups began a march from Peavey Plaza on May 11, 2012 to visit local bank headquarters and to generate attention along the way. They blocked traffic, sat down in two major Minneapolis Mall intersections, ignored police orders to leave and answered the order with chants, incense and Aztec dancing.

http://tinyurl.com/cgw87bw

Woman Fights to Support Occupy in Peace

A Minnesota woman claims in Federal Court that her community forced her to remove signs in her yard supporting Occupy Wall Street, while allowing others to publicize their support for the troops or other causes.

Robin Hensel, a 58-year-old grandmother living in Little Falls, says the trouble started in September 2011 when she placed signs in her yard expressing support for the Occupy Wall Street movement and other causes.

After the village received a complaint because of “disagreement with her political viewpoint, it ordered Hensel in November to remove all “illegal” signs from her yard, threatening fines if she did not comply, according to the complaint.

http://tinyurl.com/cew553f

Medics Trained For NATO Protests

NATO protesters won’t need to run far to find medical help during the Summit this weekend.

After a 20-hour training seminar organized through Chicago Action Medical, nearly 35 Chicago residents and medical providers are now equipped to handle the medical needs of protesters at the upcoming NATO Summit.

Chicago Action Medical, a grassroots organization that has been in the city since 2002, offers unique and basic medical care to fellow activists. The organization, which has worked with post-Katrina victims and various Occupy movements, held various training sessions for any resident wishing to participate over the last couple weeks.

http://tinyurl.com/c7l867p

Judge Issues Temporary Restraining Order Against ‘Occupy the Farm’ Defendants

An Alameda County Superior Court judge in Hayward issued a temporary restraining order Wednesday against the 14 defendants named in a lawsuit brought by the University of California against protesters who took over university-owned land in Albany last month.

Judge David Hunter’s ruling prohibits the defendants from entering, occupying or farming on the Gill Tract themselves, or helping others in any of those activities. Another hearing is scheduled for May 31, when the judge will decide whether to order a preliminary injunction against the defendants.

http://tinyurl.com/car836k

Occupy protesters take on AC Transit fare transfers

Occupy Oakland, working with Alameda-Contra Costa Transit bus operators, launched a campaign Wednesday asking drivers to honor transfers in ways that will ease the financial pain felt by the system’s riders.

Before the last round of service cuts, it was AC Transit policy to honor transfers for up to three hours. Currently, transfers are only valid for two hours.

At the campaign announcement outside the Fruitvale BART station this afternoon, Occupy’s Cicily Cooper said that service cuts and fare hikes have made life harder on both riders and drivers, who often sympathize with their riders’ financial hardship.

Cooper said the service cuts disproportionately affect communities of color, as the disappearance of routes has meant riders in poorer neighborhoods need to take additional buses to reach the same destinations.

http://tinyurl.com/cu2w6nd

Busloads of protesters head to Chicago for NATO Summit

Look out Chicago. Here comes Occupy Wall Street.

More than 40 protesters from the original occupation of New York’s financial district that inspired a national movement left for Chicago on a bus in the early hours of Wednesday.

Singing protest songs and planning a series of actions against the upcoming NATO Summit, they’re due to be the first of 17 busloads of protesters coming from across the country when they arrive in Chicago tonight.

http://tinyurl.com/ckgedpz

Long-running Frankfurt ”Occupy” camp cleared

German authorities on Wednesday cleared out a group of protesters who have camped for months in front of the European Central Bank, ahead of huge anti-capitalism protests expected at the weekend.

Some of the demonstrators hurled paint at police who were moving them on, after they ignored a request to leave voluntarily, said an AFP reporter at the scene. There were a dozen or so arrests, according to a police spokesman.

However, the clearing of the “Occupy Frankfurt” camp was largely peaceful, with around 50 demonstrators sitting stubbornly on the ground in a show of passive resistance.

http://tinyurl.com/6ls9hfm

Police uproot Moscow encampment, battle protesters

Russian riot police cleared a Moscow park early Wednesday of a week-old encampment considered a local version of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and hours later clashed with anti-government protesters outside a Stalinist skyscraper in a different part of town.

The dispersal of several dozen protesters at the encampment, which they called Occupy Abai, preceded a nighttime confrontation at Kudrinskaya Square, where several hundred protesters had gathered to voice opposition to President Vladimir Putin.

http://tinyurl.com/84p4keb

UK police protest ‘criminal’ cuts

It’s not just the Occupy and 15m movements out on the streets lately. 34,000 police in the United Kingdom are protesting salary cuts and loss of jobs.

With worries over public safety, as well as cuts in staff, salaries and benefits, the police are currently policing their own protests on the streets of the United Kingdom.

The protesters claim that with less police out on the streets, people will no longer feel safe. However criminals will feel safer with the lack of policing.

http://tinyurl.com/7mlxhro

To get a daily listing of Occupy Boston’s events and activities (and more!), subscribe to the Daily Digest by going to https://lists.mayfirst.org/mailman/listinfo/obupdates. To subscribe to the OB Media Rundown, send your request to johnm@occupyboston.org

Questioning and criticizing capitalism have been taboo, treated by federal authorities, immigration officials, police and most of the public alike as akin to treason. Fear-driven silence has substituted for the necessary, healthy criticism without which all institutions, systems, and traditions harden into dogmas, deteriorate into social rigidities, or worse. Protected from criticism and debate, capitalism in the United States could and has indulged all its darker impulses and tendencies. No public exposure, criticism and movement for change could arise or stand in its way as the system and its effects became ever more unequal, unjust, inefficient and oppressive. Long before the Occupy movement arose to reveal and oppose what U.S. capitalism had become, that capitalism had divided the 1 percent from the 99 percent.

http://tinyurl.com/chqgegh

Greece on brink of collapse as runs on its banks break out

[Greek president] Papoulias said he had been warned by the central bank and finance ministry that the country faced “the risk of a collapse of the banking system if withdrawals of deposits from banks continue due to the insecurity of the citizens generated by the political situation”.

http://tinyurl.com/d2bnsy8

Report: Global Biodiversity Down 30 Percent in 40 Years

The world’s biodiversity is down 30 percent since the 1970s, according to a new report, with tropical species taking the biggest hit. And if humanity continues as it has been, the picture could get bleaker.

Humanity is outstripping the Earth’s resources by 50 percent – essentially using the resources of one and a half Earths every year, according to the 2012 Living Planet Report, produced by conservation agency the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

http://tinyurl.com/83am2lk

The Human Disaster of Unemployment

Millions of workers have been disconnected from the work force, and possibly even from society. If they are not reconnected, the costs to them and to society will be grim.

Unemployment is almost always a traumatic event, especially for older workers. A paper by the economists Daniel Sullivan and Till von Wachter estimates a 50 to 100 percent increase in death rates for older male workers in the years immediately following a job loss, if they previously had been consistently employed. This higher mortality rate implies that a male worker displaced in midcareer can expect to live about one and a half years less than a worker who keeps his job.

There are various reasons for this rise in mortality. One is suicide. A recent study found that a 10 percent increase in the unemployment rate (say from 8 to 8.8 percent) would increase the suicide rate for males by 1.47 percent. This is not a small effect. Assuming a link of that scale, the increase in unemployment would lead to an additional 128 suicides per month in the United States. The picture for the long-term unemployed is especially disturbing. The duration of unemployment is the dominant force in the relationship between joblessness and the risk of suicide.

http://tinyurl.com/7kmxvhl

Morgan Stanley CEO faces questions from Occupy Wall Street

Members of the Occupy Wall Street movement descended upon Morgan Stanley’s annual meeting yesterday, pressing chairman and chief executive James Gorman with a slew of questions about Wall Street lobbying, job creation and compensation.

At one point in the meeting, OWS members shouted a series of allegations at the stage, interrupting Martin Cohen, the firm’s corporate secretary, as he read results of stockholder votes on company proposals.

Gorman faced more than a dozen questions from OWS members and only a few from supportive shareholders. The meeting lasted more than an hour, longer than usual. About 60 shareholders attended; around half were Occupy Wall Street representatives.

http://tinyurl.com/c9lque6

Credit union’s unusual problem: A few too many deposits [WA]

Vashon’s thriving credit union has had to put a halt to new business accounts – but for a most unusual reason: The small credit union is a little too flush with cash.

Since Puget Sound Cooperative Credit Union (PSCCU) opened a Vashon branch a little more than a year ago, hundreds of Islanders, many of them frustrated with corporate-owned banks and their escalating fees, have flocked to the financial institution. It now has about 2,000 members on Vashon and $20 million in deposits, a rate of growth that has astonished its founders and even garnered national media attention.

The Los Angeles Times recently wrote a lengthy and glowing piece on the credit union, noting that Vashon’s branch – and the story behind it – has made the Island “a darling” of the Occupy movement. The story was picked up by the Seattle Times, the Bellingham Herald and other papers.

http://tinyurl.com/bvbuxu5

LA City Council Passes Bank Disclosure Rules

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday passed an ordinance requiring banks that do business in Los Angeles city to disclose their lending practices to communities within the city.

The unanimous vote represents a victory for unions and other progressive organizations that have been pushing for so-called responsible banking ordinances across the country. Momentum for these ordinances picked up with the emergence of the Occupy movements last fall. The New York City Council approved a similar ordinance on Tuesday.

Under the L.A. ordinance, which goes to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for his expected signature, banks receiving city contracts must disclose data on the loans they make and other services they provide to communities with few financial institutions. The city would then compile a “community reinvestment score” for each bank seeking city business.

http://tinyurl.com/d8xw8ru

How Justice Souter Almost Left the Supreme Court in a Blaze of Glory

Before retiring from the Supreme Court in 2009, liberal Justice David Souter penned a dissent so critical of the court’s conservative justices, Chief Justice John Roberts went to great lengths to prevent it from being published. That’s one of the clams from The New Yorker’s epic dissection of the 2010 Supreme Court Decision Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission. Taking us inside the legal wranglings of the high-profile case, staff writer Jeffrey Toobin describes a dissent Souter wrote at the end of his tenure at the Supreme Court. The argument, which remains unpublished, accused Roberts of engineering the outcome of the Citizens United case:

Souter wrote a dissent that aired some of the Court’s dirty laundry. By definition, dissents challenge the legal conclusions of the majority, but Souter accused the Chief Justice of violating the Court’s own procedures to engineer the result he wanted.

Roberts didn’t mind spirited disagreement on the merits of any case, but Souter’s attack-an extraordinary, bridge-burning farewell to the Court-could damage the Court’s credibility. So the Chief came up with a strategically ingenious maneuver.

http://tinyurl.com/6oyettf

Bank Protesters Too Young To Comprehend Economy, Says Romney

Last week, hundreds of peaceful protesters demonstrated outside of Bank of America’s shareholder meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, a move presidential candidate Mitt Romney summarily dismissed as ignorant and youthful, reports the NationalJournal.
“Unfortunately, a lot of young folks haven’t had the opportunity to really understand how the economy works,” Romney said in response to the protesters. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, Romney, age 65, is plenty old enough to understand the economy, evidently. “This is a time for new direction for America, and for someone who understands how to get the economy going again – and I do,” Romney added.

http://tinyurl.com/crgf3ve

How FBI Entrapment Is Inventing ‘Terrorists’ – and Letting Bad Guys Off the Hook

In all these law enforcement schemes the alleged terrorists masterminds end up seeming, when the full story comes out, unable to terrorize their way out of a paper bag without law enforcement tutelage. (“They teach you how to make all this stuff out of simple household items,” one of the kids says on a recording quoted in the FBI affidavit about a book he has just discovered, The Anarchist Cookbook. Someone asks him how much it says explosives cost. “I’m not sure,” he responds, “I just downloaded it last night.”) It’s a perfect example of how post-9/11 fear made law enforcement tactics seem acceptable that were previously beyond the pale. Previously, however, the targets have been Muslims; now they’re white kids from Ohio. And maybe you could argue that this is acceptable, if the feds were actually acting out of a good-faith assessment of what threats are imminent and which are not. But that’s not what they’re doing at all. Instead, they are arrogating to themselves a downright Orwellian power – the power to deploy the might of the State to shape a fundamental narrative about which ideas Americans must be most scared of, and which ones they should not fear much at all, independent of the relative objective dangerousness of the people who hold those ideas.

http://tinyurl.com/cgpcwyk

Homeland Security Communicated with Local Officials About Occupy

If Occupy Wall Street activists were worried about the Department of Homeland Security monitoring their activities, wait unilt they get a load of this. According to new DHS documents obtained from a Freedom of Information Act request by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF), DHS officials were also communicating with local authorities in cities where Occupy Wall Street protests occurred.

PCJF, a civil rights legal group working on behalf of filmmaker Michael Moore, says the documents reveal a “vast, tentacled, national intelligence and domestic spying network that the U.S. government operates against its own people.”

http://tinyurl.com/brlx2wp

North Carolina Protests ‘Tyranny of the Majority’

Activists from Occupy Raleigh and 14th Amendment Equality Projects marched through the streets of Raleigh on Monday and want a repeal of Amendment One, which defined marriage in North Carolina solely as a union between a man and a woman. One local newspaper columnist, Barry Saunders, wrote in the News & Observer that the rally showed some that gay people haven’t been voted into oblivion.

“How much do you want to bet that some of the true believers who rushed down to their polling station last Tuesday did so with the belief that their ‘Yes’ vote on the marriage ban would also ban gays?” Saunders wrote.

http://tinyurl.com/cudwdku

Judge says student photographer arrested at OWS protest not guilty

student journalist arrested during an Occupy Wall Street protest was found not guilty Tuesday of disorderly conduct.

NYU student Alex Arbuckle went to court to fight the charges, stemming from a New Year’s Eve protest he was photographing, after the Manhattan district attorney’s office decided to pursue charges against him. He was offered a plea deal, which Arbuckle said he considered “a tacit admission of guilt.”

“I knew I wasn’t guilty,” Arbuckle, 21, said Tuesday. He was represented by lawyers from the National Lawyers Guild, which has worked with hundreds of arrested OWS protesters.

http://tinyurl.com/chj2tof

Four Arrested at Anti-Deportation Protest in Chicago

Four people were arrested Tuesday for blocking the entrance to Chicago’s federal immigration court during a protest against deportations of undocumented immigrants.

One of those arrested was the Rev. Jose Landaverde, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Anglican Mission, who earlier led protesters in a march from the city’s mainly Mexican La Villita/Little Village neighborhood.

The organizers had announced plans for an act of civil disobedience, suggesting they would try to force their way into the downtown building that houses the immigration court and other federal offices. In the end, however, Landaverde and Emma Lozano, head of the Familia Latina Unida/Centro Sin Fronteras organization, decided on a sit-in at the building entrance.

Arrested along with the veteran immigration activists were two members of Occupy Chicago.

http://tinyurl.com/d5pfrje

Poetry replaces placards as Russia’s Occupy protesters camp out

A SLENDER young man is performing an impassioned rap poem to an applauding crowd. A group engrossed in card games ignore the show, while someone is strumming a folksy tune on the guitar. Welcome to Occupy Abai, Moscow’s street sit-in.

Activists have been camped out on a leafy Moscow boulevard for more than a week, a small but unusual protest in a country where demonstrations must be agreed with the authorities in advance, and the spring evenings are cool and rainy.

Occupy Abai takes its name from the monument to a hitherto little-known Kazakh poet, Abai Kunanbaev, where protesters have gathered, as well as a dose of inspiration from the anti-capitalist movements that have “occupied” public places from Dame Street to Wall Street. But the cause is local.

http://tinyurl.com/d67293e

Occupy London Gets British Bankers Association CEO Meeting

About 80 Occupy London protesters rallied outside the British Bankers Association’s headquarters, demanding a meeting with Chief Executive Officer Angela Knight.

Knight met with three demonstrators today inside the BBA’s building on Old Broad Street in the City’s financial district, said an Occupy organizer, Ryan Hickey. They would have preferred she met them outside where all could ask questions, he said.

Palestinians Mark “Nakba” with Day of Protest

As the prisoner hunger strike comes to an apparent end, Palestinians across the Occupied Territories are holding protests today to mark what they call the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced from their homes during the period Israel declared statehood in 1948. A mass rally is expected in the Gaza Strip, along with a number of smaller protests across the West Bank. Clashes have already been reported, with Israeli troops firing tear gas and rubber bullets at stone-throwing Palestinian youth.

http://tinyurl.com/cbjfj46

To get a daily listing of Occupy Boston’s events and activities (and more!), subscribe to the Daily Digest by going tohttps://lists.mayfirst.org/mailman/listinfo/obupdates. To subscribe to the OB Media Rundown, send your request to johnm@occupyboston.org

Stories of the Day: If you’re going to the NATO protest, please read this information from the ACLU: Protesting NATO: What to Know About the Secret Service and H.R. 347. Inequality isn’t only plaguing America—the Arab Spring flowered because international capitalism is broken. In From Cairo to Wall Street: Voices from the Global Spring, edited by Anya Schiffrin and Eamon Kircher-Allen, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz says the world is finally rising up and demanding a democracy where people, not dollars, matter—the best government that money can buy just isn’t good enough. … What the protests tell us is that there was outrage and that outrage gives hope. For more, see The 99 Percent Wakes Up. We have been, like nations on the periphery of empire, colonized. We are controlled by tiny corporate entities that have no loyalty to the nation and indeed in the language of traditional patriotism are traitors. They strip us of our resources, keep us politically passive and enrich themselves at our expense. … The colonized are denied job security. Incomes are reduced to subsistence level. The poor are plunged into desperation. Mass movements, such as labor unions, are dismantled. The school system is degraded so only the elites have access to a superior education. Laws are written to legalize corporate plunder and abuse, as well as criminalize dissent. And the ensuing fear and instability—keenly felt this past weekend by the more than 200,000 Americans who lost their unemployment benefits—ensure political passivity by diverting all personal energy toward survival. … A change of power does not require the election of a Mitt Romney or a Barack Obama or a Democratic majority in Congress, or an attempt to reform the system or electing progressive candidates, but rather a destruction of corporate domination of the political process. For more, see Colonized by Corporations. And: David Graeber likes to say that he had three goals for the year: promote his book, learn to drive, and launch a worldwide revolution. The first is going well, the second has proven challenging, and the third is looking up. Graeber is a 50-year-old anthropologist…He’s also an anarchist and radical organizer, a veteran of many of the major left-wing demonstrations of the past decade … This summer, Graeber was a key member of a small band of activists who quietly planned, then noisily carried out, the occupation of Lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, providing the focal point for what has grown into an amorphous global movement known as Occupy Wall Street. For more, see David Graeber, the Anti-Leader of Occupy Wall Street. And here’s an article by David Graeber, who says: “Occupy is shedding its liberal accretions and rapidly turning into something with much deeper roots, creating alliances that promise to transform the very notion of revolutionary politics in America. …  In endorsing a vision of universal equality, of the dissolution of national borders, and democratic self-governing communities, nurses, bus drivers, and construction workers at the heart of America’s greatest capitalist metropolis are signing on to the vision, if not the tactics, of revolutionary anarchism.” For more, see Occupy’s Liberation From Liberalism.

Other Occupies/Protests: Tents belonging to some of the most persistent Occupy protesters in North America will be removed Wednesday morning if demonstrators won’t leave a downtown park, the mayor of St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, said Tuesday. Dennis O’Keefe has asked Occupy protesters in Harbourside Park to leave by midnight or city officials will dismantle their tents at around 8 a.m. “I don’t use the term ’evict’ because we’re not evicting them,” O’Keefe said, stressing that protesters can use the popular seaside meeting place during daylight and evening hours. “The only thing is, they can’t continue to live in the park — any more than I can.” For more, see Occupy Newfoundland Kicked Out. In more news from Canada: A court order had forced a Quebec college to reopen; as a result, some teachers and parents helped striking students form a picket line to keep other kids out; riot police then burst through to help enforce the court order; and, in the end, the school closed again because teachers weren’t prepared to teach. The height of Tuesday’s standoff at College Lionel-Groulx saw riot police use pepper spray and physical force to help 53 students return to class after winning a court injunction. For more, see Riot Cops Open School, Staff Shuts it Down. And in more school news: a 16-year-old Bronx boy was slapped with a disorderly conduct ticket inside his high school after trying to hand out flyers protesting the city’s plan to shut down the school. Malik Ayala, a sophomore at Lehman High School in Schuylerville, was summoned to the dean’s office last month after being ordered by school staffers to stop handing out copies of a letter he had written urging students to unite and stand up for the school. The Education Department is in the process of closing it. ”What will happen if all the public schools get shut down?” Ayala, who is a member of the school’s Student Leadership Council, wrote in the flyers, which featured the Black Panther Party icon at the top, along with the words, “Power to the People …Then and Now.” … “They’re turning our schools into penitentiaries,” added Ayala, who said he has was issued a second ticket at a Bronx subway station April 18 while videotaping police officers conducting stop-and-frisks. For more, see Bronx Student Ticketed After Handing Out Flyers Protesting School Closure.

“Poverty is not an accident. Like slavery and apartheid, it is man-made and can be removed by the actions of human beings.” Nelson Mandela

In order to open an account at a local credit union, FAWG filed and received an Employer Identification Number for Occupy Boston, and a Doing Business As Certificate for Occupy Boston FAWG.  Subsequently, two FAWG members offered to be the signatories on the credit union account. From that point,  FAWG  proceeded to track, deposit, spend, record and report on as many OB expenses it could discover. It set up cash disbursement systems. It set up an online bookkeeping account.  It stabilized OB’s financial management.  Now, if only OB members would turn in receipts more often . . .

That said, FAWG, over time, has narrowed and become a very insular group . . . 2 or 3 people with the access, control and knowledge of OB funds, and most of the $, and the accounting thereof, only flowing through one person’s hands.  To these remaining FAWG members, this does not seem like a good model for a horizontal democracy movement. We feel so strongly about this we challenged the OB community to have a conversation about any and all aspects of its finances. That Community Conversation took place on April 10, at a General Assembly.

FAWG recorded all the issues and concerns raised at the April 10 meeting, categorized them, and held a subsequent meeting on May 6, at which fifteen members of the Occupy Boston community met to discuss the next phase of Occupy Boston’s financial management.  By meeting’s end, participants consented to begin the process to set up new structures to address Occupy Boston’s finances, in regards to accounting, liability and governance. Of paramount importance is  reducing the liability of the two credit union signers.

This work will continue at FAWG’s next meeting, on 5/16/12., from 7:00 to 9:00, at City Place.  All are welcome. Bring your ideas. Cookies will be served.

Please see the 4/10/12 meeting minutes here:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZDSrDgRgj4yptY0nA7glRNPobJJBcq8FONEozoCxEwk/edit

Please see 5/6/12 meeting minutes here:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/18T1MBqS6yqQwjyURkbOCRkQzkAGKY-PD-J_JnUgjDcU/edit

Please see a categorization of issues and concerns raised at the 4/10 meeting, now grouped under the areas of Liability, Governance and Accounting (on the Next Steps tab) here:  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsQk3Yy-nTUxdHgzbUdCd3U2Z0hrUi1jNV93di1XM3c#gid=7

General Assemblies will no longer occur on Thursdays, effective immediately. The next General Assembly is scheduled for Saturday, May 19th, and will continue to be held at the previously scheduled time on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Groups and individuals within Occupy Boston are strongly encouraged to be innovative in creating space for the community to come together during the time now free on Thursdays.

Attention Digest Fans! The amount of time it takes to put the Digest together is too much for one person to keep doing it 7 days a week. So, starting May 16, the Daily Digest will be published on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. If you are requesting that an event be listed in the Daily Digest, please give 2-3 days advance notice, or realize that your item may not be appearing until 2-3 days after you send it to me. Thank you.

Stories of the Day: University of California police arrested nine people Monday morning in a raid designed to end the occupation of the Gill Tract (Occupy the Farm) and allow the university to begin research preparations this week, officials said. One young man, who appears to be in his late teens or early 20s, remained on the property as of 9:44 a.m. about 15 feet up in a tree, said University of California spokesman Dan Mogulof. Authorities were in communication with him, and he didn’t appear to have any gear or supplies. Urban farming activists took over the university-owned field three weeks ago to plant crops and advocate for a publicly-accessible community farm on the land. The Gill Tract has historically been used for scientific research, but has long been eyed by urban farming advocates as a prime location for a community farm. For the story, see Nine Arrested After Early-Morning Raid. And Indonesia became the first country to suspend imports of U.S. beef following the discovery of an American dairy cow infected with mad cow disease. ”We will lift the ban as soon as the U.S. can assure us its dairy cows are free of mad cow disease,” said Indonesia’s Vice Agriculture Minister Rusman Heriawan. For more, see Indonesia Halts U.S. Beef Imports Over Mad Cow Concern. And Several Minnesota moms who facilitate access to local farm food are planning to act despite the risk of criminal charges laid out in warnings from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA). The MDA has threatened several of them, and has already conducted investigations against them. The letters warn that if they continue helping provide fresh food to their friends and neighbors, the MDA will press criminal charges and prosecute. The MDA holds that the mothers are violating food-handling regulations. Here, Melinda Olsen discusses the ordeal in detail – she only helps the farmer for free by storing goods in her garage for others. No commerce. Yet, she is ominously threatened by MDA for food crimes. For more, see Fresh Food Moms Threatened with Criminal Charges Scheduled to Disobey. And genetic engineering is a threat to food security, especially in a changing climate. The introduction of genetically manipulated organisms by choice or by accident grossly undermines sustainable agriculture and in so doing, severely limits the choice of food we can eat. Once GE/GMO plants are released into the environment, they are out of control. If anything goes wrong – they are impossible to recall. GE contamination threatens biodiversity respected as the global heritage of humankind, and one of our world’s fundamental keys to survival. For a short informative video from Greenpeace on the risks of GE/GMO foods, click here. In other news, the FBI is quietly pushing its plan to force surveillance backdoors on social networks, VoIP, and Web e-mail providers, and that the bureau is asking Internet companies not to oppose a law making those backdoors mandatory. For more, see Backdoors for Government Surveillance. And here’s an ugly story: Gun range targets meant to resemble dead Florida teen Trayvon Martin are offensive enough. But what’s more disturbing is that the Florida entrepreneur’s distributor reportedly sold out his entire stock in two days. The seller says he ‘wanted to make money’ off of Martin’s controversial shooting by George Zimmerman. For more, see Man Sells Out of Trayvon Martin Targets. After that, here’s a bit of inspiration: my friend Venus Cumara performing her  powerful poem Occupy Your Heart, Reclaim Love for Occupy London. For the video, click here.

Other Occupies/Protests: From Occupy Wall Street: Anti ACTA, SOPA, PIPA, CCI, CISPA, MPAA, RIAA, MPA, ARAA, internet ID, censorship protest June 9, 2012. Occupy Wall Street, Liberty Plaza, New York, NY 10006. NATIONWIDE, CALLING ALL OCCUPIERS!!!! Knowledge should be free. This is a serious threat to education of people lower on the caste system. It will damage opportunity for all greatly. It also promotes monopoly and greed within governance as well as control of the people. This protest is to take place on the same date as a similar protest taking place in Paris France. MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD. SUPPORT FAIR USE AND EDUCATION! Facebook event page:  http://www.facebook.com/events/287232521354857.

Dozens of demonstrators calling for an end to war rushed into President Barack Obama’s campaign headquarters in Chicago on Monday morning, and eight were arrested, NBCChicago reported.

The protest, led by a group associated with the Catholic Worker movement, was the first of a series of planned demonstrations and marches by groups highlighting poverty, environmental, and education issues during the May 20-21 NATO summit in the city and the May 18-19 G8 summit at Camp David in Maryland.

http://tinyurl.com/88ynn7g

Revivals of protest in the class war

Despite the success of the Occupy movement in putting inequality on the international agenda, it can safely be reported that just about everywhere, the 1 per cent are still laughing all the way to the bank. In fact they own the bank. Just a little south of here, the Bank of America was bailed out by American taxpayers to the tune of $45-billion. It claimed a pre-tax loss of $5.4-billion and so paid no taxes for the past two years. In one of those years, it dished out executive bonuses and compensation worth $35-billion. Could I make this stuff up?

The bargain between the 1 per cent and the governments of the 1 per cent is clear: huge tax breaks for the big boys, austerity for the 99 per cent. Can you handle more figures? Since the geniuses on Wall Street gave us the great crash of 2008, American banks received $7.7-trillion in bailout money and British banks $1.3-trillion. Yes, trillion, in both cases. To offset those losses to the public purse, the United States will cut public spending by $2.4-trillion in the next decade and Britain $128-billion. In Britain this will include almost half-a-million lost public sector jobs.

It’s time to resurrect the biting formula given us years ago by John Kenneth Galbraith, an earlier generation’s Paul Krugman: private affluence, public squalor.

http://tinyurl.com/cw5lkza

People’s Summit opens a week of protest against NATO in Chicago

Hundreds gathered from across the country for the People’s Summit, united in their opposition to the NATO/G8 agenda of war and poverty. Organized jointly by the Coalition Against NATO/G8 War and Poverty Agenda (CANG8) and Occupy Chicago, the People’s Summit included 40 workshops and four plenary sessions. More than 50 attended a workshop featuring three Chicago leaders of the CANG8, speaking on, “The Strategic Aim in Opposing NATO in Chicago.”

http://tinyurl.com/bpordqo

Occupiers To Hold ‘People’s Summit’ Alternative To G8 Meetings

Members of the Occupy movement will hold an “Occupy G8 People’s Summit” in Frederick, Maryland to provide a vision for democratic economic development as the G8 meetings commence on May 18.  A series of speakers will lead discussions on the impact of concentrated wealth on global public policy, the effects of wealth inequality on peoples’ well-being, and alternative structures that would close the wealth divide and create a more democratic, sustainable economy. Details of the summit, which begin at 10:00 AM Friday, are below.

http://tinyurl.com/bq7uob9

Secure Communities deportation program will expand to New York and Mass., despite Democratic governors’ objections

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said they opposed the Secure Communities fingerprint sharing program because it interferes with local policing priorities. Under the program, the fingerprints from local jails are matched against a federal immigration database. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) then asks local jails to detain people they think may be in the country without authorization, while it decides whether to try to deport them. Immigrants rights advocates say the program expels thousands of people who have no criminal records and makes witnesses to crimes afraid to come forward because they mistakenly believe they will be fingerprinted and deported.

The federal government at first gave the impression that states and counties could opt out of Secure Communities, before reversing course and saying it would be up and running in every county by 2013, with or without local officials’ consent. ICE officials say Secure Communities allows them to focus on deporting criminals, the agency’s top priority. ICE recently changed one aspect of the program so that fewer illegal immigrants without criminal records who are fingerprinted after minor traffic violations-such as driving without a license-are detained.

But some counties, such as Santa Clara County in California and Cook County in Illinois, refuse to place detainers on people at ICE’s request. After Secure Communities was implemented in Washington state in April despite Gov. Chris Gregoire’s objections, immigrant rights groups urged King County officials to join those counties in refusing to cooperate with ICE, according to the AP. It’s unclear if the federal government will take action against counties that ignore ICE’s detainers.

http://tinyurl.com/7nuhtby

Colonized by Corporations

Gamer and many others who study the nature of colonial rule offer the best insights into the functioning of our corporate state. We have been, like nations on the periphery of empire, colonized. We are controlled by tiny corporate entities that have no loyalty to the nation and indeed in the language of traditional patriotism are traitors. They strip us of our resources, keep us politically passive and enrich themselves at our expense. The mechanisms of control are familiar to those whom the Martinique-born French psychiatrist and writer Frantz Fanon called “the wretched of the earth,” including African-Americans. The colonized are denied job security. Incomes are reduced to subsistence level. The poor are plunged into desperation. Mass movements, such as labor unions, are dismantled. The school system is degraded so only the elites have access to a superior education. Laws are written to legalize corporate plunder and abuse, as well as criminalize dissent. And the ensuing fear and instability-keenly felt this past weekend by the more than 200,000 Americans who lost their unemployment benefits-ensure political passivity by diverting all personal energy toward survival. It is an old, old game.

A change of power does not require the election of a Mitt Romney or a Barack Obama or a Democratic majority in Congress, or an attempt to reform the system or electing progressive candidates, but rather a destruction of corporate domination of the political process-Gamer’s “patron-client” networks. It requires the establishment of new mechanisms of governance to distribute wealth and protect resources, to curtail corporate power, to cope with the destruction of the ecosystem and to foster the common good. But we must first recognize ourselves as colonial subjects. We must accept that we have no effective voice in the way we are governed. We must accept the hollowness of electoral politics, the futility of our political theater, and we must destroy the corporate structure itself.

http://tinyurl.com/6tbnf9p

Party Ends Badly for U.S. Trade Reps, Federal Agents, in Dallas

Two dozen rogue “delegates” disrupted the corporate-sponsored welcome gala for the high-stakes Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade negotiations yesterday with a fake award ceremony and “mic check.” Other activists, meanwhile, replaced hundreds of rolls of toilet paper (TP) throughout the conference venue with more informative versions, and projected a message on the venue’s facade.

The first action began when a smartly-dressed man approached the podium immediately after the gala’s keynote speech by Ron Kirk, U.S. Trade Representative and former mayor of Dallas. The man (local puppeteer David Goodwin) introduced himself as “Git Haversall,” president of the “Texas Corporate Power Partnership,” and announced he was giving Kirk and other U.S. trade negotiators the “2012 Corporate Power Tool Award,” which “Haversall’s” partner held aloft.

http://tinyurl.com/6p9t6du

JP Morgan boss to face shareholders over $2bn ‘tempest in a teapot’

The embattled boss of JP Morgan, Jamie Dimon, faces shareholders at the bank’s annual general meeting on Tuesday amid a backlash against its campaign to dilute plans for the tighter regulation of Wall Street.

Pension funds have called for the positions of chairman and chief executive, which are both held by Dimon, to be split, in the aftermath of a $2bn trading loss announced by the bank last week.

The White House called on Monday for the efforts of “Wall Street lobbyists” to be resisted. Congressman Barney Frank, co-author of the act that contains the proposed new rules against which Dimon has campaigned, told the Guardian that the JP Morgan fiasco “shows how wrong he is in arguing that the legislation is not needed”.

http://tinyurl.com/ckm842z

Wealthy right-wingers who hate regulation produce ‘OWS-toned’ video criticizing the president for taking WS donations

President Obama is too closely tied to Wall Street, claims a new web video that takes the tone of Occupy Wall Street, though it was produced by a conservative group.

The video, released by the American Future Fund, an Iowa-based organization designed to be “a voice for conservative principles” and “free market ideals,” alleges that raising tens of millions of dollars from Wall Street gave Obama reason to let (presumably culpable) Wall Street executives off easy:

http://tinyurl.com/7pnxpw6

9 arrested after UC police clear out ‘Occupy the Farm’ settlement

University of California police arrested nine protesters at the university-owned Gill Tract on Monday morning, ending a 23-day occupation of urban farmland where they wanted to grow food for surrounding communities.

About 100 officers clad in riot gear and brandishing batons began staging early in the morning near the 10-acre site in Albany that is used for research by UC Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources.

Seven protesters were arrested outside the closed gate to the land for unlawful assembly and two were arrested inside for trespassing. All of them were taken to Santa Rita Jail in Dublin and could be charged with misdemeanors, UC Berkeley police spokesman Lt. Eric Tajada said.

http://tinyurl.com/8ydcmty

Undeterred by Raid, Occupy the Farm Plans to Reconvene Tomorrow

A missive sent this morning amid the raid at Albany’s Occupy the Farm protest said the group would reconvene tomorrow afternoon to plan its next step. But the future is a little hazy for this rogue group of well-intentioned agriculturalists, who spent roughly three weeks tilling two acres of arable land on a parcel owned by UC Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources, and commandeering additional space for its makeshift encampment. The protesters argued that the 10 acres at Gill Tract, which contain Class 1 soil, evidently the best kind for growing edible crops. It’s currently being allocated for agricultural experiments, many of which involve corn.

http://tinyurl.com/8yc9798

Standing Up to The Richest Man on Earth

“What are George Washington University’s values? Do they want to hold up exploitation as a legitimate business model?” he adds.

About 30 protesters (a mix of Occupy participants as well as members of a coalition called Two Countries, One Voice) are outside GW University posing this question to the institution on May 11th, 2012, while a handful meet with administrators inside. Their stated goal is convincing the university to cancel a decision to give an honorary degree to Carlos Slim, the richest man in the world, at their May 20th commencement ceremony.

Their questions and anger are valid, considering that this esteemed institution wants to honor a tycoon accused of overcharging poor and working class Mexicans to the tune of $6 billion per year in cell and landline fees. Slim has a net worth of $69 billion dollars.

http://tinyurl.com/6oeqpwn

Video project examines Occupy Oakland from different viewpoints

The inspiration for a web project that contains interviews with 16 people “involved or impacted” by Occupy Oakland came from an exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California that documents the year 1968. “We thought, ‘What we would have done if we had a time machine and could go back to 1968 with a camera and a notebook?’” said Alex Abramovich, a journalist, artist and one of the co-creators of the project. “‘What did we wish someone had done?’”

Inspired by films like “The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975″ a comprehensive look at the Black Power movement in the 1960s and 70s made by Swedish journalists, Abramovich and his project partner Lucy Raven set out to create a project that would examine Occupy Oakland from different viewpoints, including from the perspective of those who have ties to it. The result is “Portraits from the Occupation” which is featured on The Oakland Standard, a contemporary art project website created by the museum.

http://tinyurl.com/6r4a69o

Occupy Portland borrows from business

Among numerous initiatives, the group has a strategy to persuade consumers and businesses to invest their money in local banks and credit unions. It also recently created a nonprofit called Friends of Occupy Portland.

Those actions are important. As an editorial points out, Occupy must win over mainstream America if it hopes to effect any real change.

Despite some missteps, Occupy has done a great job of calling attention to the financial excesses of Wall Street and pointing out widespread economic inequality. It was never clear, though, exactly what – for the most part – Occupy wanted to achieve, or how it would accomplish anything. National polls show Occupy’s approval ratings as low as 16 percent.

http://tinyurl.com/bu69mua

Home reoccupations in Portland – Update

Remember Alicia Jackson, the woman who-with the help of Occupy offshoot, Portland Liberation Organizing Council (PLOC)-reclaimed her foreclosed house in North Portland? She’s still holding down the fort in a semi-functional home-for now. PLOC volunteers have committed themselves to being her support net, ready to attack if the bank steps in to take back her home or the police try to arrest her for occupying property that is no longer hers.

The most recent battle PLOC and Jackson took on involved the city’s Water Bureau. On Thursday, the group rallied outside its downtown headquarters, insisting that the bureau turned Jackson’s water back on. To set things straight, City Commissioner Randy Leonard, bureau head, came down to talk to the group face-to-face.

Leonard says he explained to the group that, according to city code, he could not turn the water back on at the house unless the person on record who owns the property requested so. “So I contacted the owner, who isn’t Mrs. Jackson, and they prohibited me from doing so,” says Leonard, adding that the owner said they had intentions to evict and arrest Jackson if she continued to stay.
. . .

[PLOC] Connelly says that for now, Jackson is getting water from her neighbors, and that the group has no intentions of pursuing the issue further. As for the future? “In two weeks, we will go public with another person reclaiming their home. This is just the start,” says Connelly.

http://tinyurl.com/capjxum

Gay Marriage Supporters To March In Raleigh

Occupy Raleigh is joining another citizen initiative to protest North Carolina’s constitutional amendment defining marriage solely as a union between a man and a woman.

Members of Occupy Raleigh and 14th Amendment Equality Projects will march Monday evening in Raleigh, beginning in Nash Square. Occupy Raleigh’s General Assembly passed a resolution against the amendment in February.

http://tinyurl.com/cgv8vb9

CUNY Students Protest Tuition Increases Today for Tomorrow’s Students

“I was on my way to German class,” says Maria, a Macaulay Honors freshman at Hunter College. “But I heard there was a protest.” We were marching on Manhattan’s wealthy Upper East Side toward the office of Matthew Goldstein, chairman of the City University of New York (CUNY) Board of Trustees, to protest tuition hikes and heavy policing of dissent on campus. “The tuition hikes come in gradually, so we will have graduated before the worst of it hits. Really, we’re fighting for future college students, like these ones.” She indicates our recent recruits.

http://tinyurl.com/blzu8o6

Cyclists occupy Midland car park in bid to “reclaim the streets”

MILITANT cyclists took over a Midland car park yesterday in a pedal power protest aimed at reclaiming the streets.

A convoy of cyclists bought up spaces at the car park in Coventry city centre and set up a radical roadshow.

The group, which goes under the name of Bicycology, had been touring the region, reclaiming the streets from cars and demanding “radical change”.

http://tinyurl.com/7tdjk5p

Spanish indignation

THE FIRST anniversary of the 15th May (15-M) movement in Spain, one of the spontaneous progenitors of “Occupy” groupings across the developed world, has coincided with yet another deepening of the country’s multiple crises. The significance of the 15-M “indignation” movement remains elusive. The big political parties of both left and right dismiss it as incoherent, demagogic and directionless.

Nevertheless, it has survived a year of political turmoil and last weekend’s demonstrations have shown that it is still capable of bringing many thousands of supporters peacefully on to the streets, right across the country.

Recent events have only exacerbated the protesters’ sense of grievance at a political system that facilitated a massive property bubble, then slashed public services to the bone, and now seems helpless to address a jobs crisis that leaves half Spain’s young people out of work. The conservative Partido Popular (PP) government, elected only last November, had assumed that its intensification of an already severe austerity programme would bring Spain’s economy under control and eventually lead to growth. The prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, had insisted that, in at least one respect, Spain was in a much stronger position than other troubled EU states: the banking sector was securely funded, and no public money would be needed to shore up its debts.

http://tinyurl.com/codh2b7

What’s behind Putin’s G-8 summit snub?

Some argue that Putin, mindful of a national history that has seen two mighty Russian states collapse under the impact of social discontent in the past century alone, has decided to play it safe and remain at home until it’s clear where the current protest movement may be leading.

“Everyone underestimated the energy of popular protests,” says Sergei Davidis, a leader of the opposition Solidarnost movment. “A lot of people thought it would all calm down [after the inauguration] but that’s not happening, and people are finding new ways to express their civil position. Things like this camp are new for Russia, and the authorities are flummoxed to find that cracking down and arresting people doesn’t stop it. People are saying they don’t want to wait another six years [till the end of Putin's term] to see changes.”

http://tinyurl.com/clg4leu

Russia’s Anti-Putin Camp Gets Case Of Jitters – Oped

When police trucks pulled up at Moscow’s anti-Putin Occupy camp on Monday afternoon, activists feared the worst.

“Police trucks are moving in. They might be going to break it up,” Solidarity movement leader Ilya Yashin wrote in a Twitter post, triggering the mass arrival of journalists to the camp and a frenzy of online activity.

But the authorities had no plans, for now at least, to move against the camp, which has become one of the most high-profile symbols of the challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s rule.

http://tinyurl.com/c8yv2ww

To get a daily listing of Occupy Boston’s events and activities (and more!), subscribe to the Daily Digest by going tohttps://lists.mayfirst.org/mailman/listinfo/obupdates. To subscribe to the OB Media Rundown, send your request to johnm@occupyboston.org