Former Dewey Occupier joins hundred mile march to CA state capitol from the Bay Area to protest education cuts
Pinole got a taste of the Occupy movement Friday, but not a prolonged one. A group of about 100 people – UC Berkeley faculty, students and members of the Occupy movement -stopped for lunch in Fernandez Park on a leg of their journey to Sacramento to protest cuts in education and other areas.
. . .
A man who identified himself as “Wildabeast” said he is from Massachusetts and had camped at the Occupy Boston site before is was dismantled. He originally protested about cuts in the Boston subway system but said he opposes cuts in education and other services.
“My objective is to carry an upside-down (American) flag all the way and to protest cuts” Wildabeast said. “I found happiness in that tent (in Boston) and I haven’t had it since. I’m trying to get it back.”
http://tinyurl.com/795xrzx
Occupy Rhode Island Campuses protest student burdens
Braving snow and downtown traffic, Occupy Rhode Island Campuses held their first inter-campus event last night. The organization, which includes students from Brown, the University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College and Providence College, staged the March to Defend Education and a rally in conjunction with 59 campuses across the country.
http://tinyurl.com/7j7y7st
Postal closures concern election officials, voters
Elections officials in several states are concerned that the closing of mail-processing centers and post offices could disrupt vote-by-mail balloting this year, a potential problem that has led some members of Congress to call for a delay until after the November elections.
The U.S. Postal Service recently announced that it is moving ahead with plans to close at least 223 processing centers and thousands of post offices, adding to the 153 centers and 965 post offices that have closed since 2008. The moves are part of a wide-ranging cost-cutting strategy for an agency that estimates it will lose up to $18 billion a year by 2015.
Voting officials are raising a variety of concerns, depending on the circumstances in their states. Meanwhile, postal customers have security concerns about leaving ballots in their mailboxes to be picked up by postal carriers.
Prosecutors Can’t Find Crimes at MF Global
No one will be prosecuted at MG Global for stealing from customer accounts, because there is no smoking gun. $1.2 billion disappears, but that isn’t a smoking gun. What’s the matter with these people?
The problem, according to Dealbook, is finding someone who intentionally took customer money. See, if it was Just One of those Things, then it wasn’t a crime. If you accidentally dip into my bank account and use it to pay your debts, why that just isn’t a crime. Circumstantial evidence isn’t enough to prove a crime any more. You have to have an e-mail from someone saying: “I’m going to use customer funds to pay counterparties of MF Global.”
Occupiers form ‘Genetic Crimes Unit’ to go to natural products trade show [CA]
At the event members of the Occupy movement within the organic sector have formed a Genetic Crimes Unit (GCU) to investigate increased spraying of food with toxic weed killers like 2,4 D (the main ingredient in Agent Orange), contamination of the organic food supply, and other risks associated with genetically modified food.
“Many of the world’s socially conscious organic and non-GMO brands will exhibit nutritious food at the three-day Expo. But in the background is a vast sea of unlabeled products sold in America containing GMOs that unsuspecting consumers eat without their knowledge,” says GCU Spokesman David Bronner. “In the name of Wall Street profits, chemical corporations such as Monsanto genetically engineer crops to withstand high doses of their toxic weed killers that contaminate our food and water, and have not been proven safe. The California Medical Association has called for labeling GMOs because of concerns over adverse allergic reactions. Virtually every major country requires labeling of GMOs in foods so their citizens can make informed choices, including all in Europe, Japan and even China. But the US chemical lobby has so far made sure Americans are kept in the dark.”
http://tinyurl.com/7tqgu2k
Evict Us, We Multiply
From the beginning of Occupy Wall Street (OWS) on September 17, 2011, the mainstream media and some in the progressive community have speculated endlessly about Occupy’s demise. We were on our last legs before we were even born. They focused on allegedly insurmountable difficulties: first the lack of “demands,” ideology, or agreed-upon political strategy, then Occupy was too middle class, white, straight, and male to gain traction with workers, women, LGBTs, and people of color who make up most of the 99%, and now they point to the fact that we’ve been evicted from most of our encampments.
The wiseacres failed to understand something very simple: stumbling is not falling, as Malcolm X said.
OWS: Where are they now?
Despite the dwindling press coverage, the 99 Percent are still making ripples in the ocean of perceived corruption in today’s society. In fact, there are currently fifty people staying the night in Zuccotti Park. Although the movement has been reduced, many people are still willing to show their support for the cause, even risking arrest, a danger that has become even more likely for the remaining protestors due to the lack of public attention. Furthermore, the protestors in New York are being joined by multitudes of people worldwide, including protestors in London, Belgium, and Toronto.
Locally, Occupy New Orleans, which at one point was camping out in Duncan Plaza, has since disbanded its physical habitations across from City Hall. However, the movement is still not finished, as it continues to organize protests against large corporations such as British Petroleum , who was responsible for the recent disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Also, Occupy NOLA has bi-weekly meetings, known as General Assemblies, to help organize its future efforts. If you are interested in learning more, check out their website at occupynola.net.
http://tinyurl.com/6lmkbqo
F the Banks Takes on Bank of America
A new citizen action site called F the Banks (the F stands for foreclose, I’m told) has kicked off their campaign by taking aim at Bank of America in a series of actions throughout the spring. The first one coincided with Leap Day protests put on by the Occupy movement. At Zuccotti Park, writer Matt Taibbi passed around this article, which I think he wrote exclusively for the event and not for Rolling Stone. It’s a gleeful broadside at BofA.
The Occupy Wall Street Bat Signal Returns With A Batmobile
Occupy Wall Street might have gone mostly dormant for the winter, but some of the agitators behind the movement’s biggest actions still have a few tricks up their sleeve. The next one, rolling out tomorrow, is on wheels, armed with a periscope, and aimed to delight.
Call it the evolution of the Occupy Bat Signal, the amazing projections that lit up the side of a New York skyscraper as OWS protesters streamed over the Brooklyn Bridge and engaged in call-and-response chants with the glowing messages last November. The Illuminator is a specially modified van designed to replicate some of the awe that the light projections inspired, but made available anywhere, anytime.
http://tinyurl.com/7lm8weq
New Occupy group forms at University of Southern Maine
In an effort to ignite student involvement with the Occupy Wall Street movement, two students and one graduate from the University of Southern Maine have formed a new Occupy group centered around the university.
Occupy USM’s founders said the group will also focus on issues concerning higher education and student debt, as well as the core issues of the Occupy Wall Street movement like economic inequality and corruption.
The group’s first meeting is scheduled for March 6 near the USM Portland Bookstore in the Woodbury Campus Center.
http://tinyurl.com/87uzgh2
‘No more cuts!’ [MI]
Rosa Parks is best known as an activist standing up for equal rights. Using a transit center named in her honor as a backdrop, angry citizens vented their frustrations Feb. 28 over recent cuts – including the elimination of 1-4 a.m. service on all routes and extended wait times between buses – to city bus services.
Led by Occupy Detroit and By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), a small group of bus riders stood outside the Rosa Parks Transit Center Feb. 28 to protest the recent reductions and criticize Mayor Dave Bing and the Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT) for not doing enough.
http://tinyurl.com/7vo9cpm
Students occupy education
Members of Occupy Stanford spent Thursday demonstrating in Berkeley and Oakland in support of Occupy Education, a movement protesting funding cuts of public education and tuition hikes in the University of California system.
The rallies, which were part of a nationwide Day of Action to support public education, kicked off a five-day march in Northern California to the Capitol building in Sacramento, where demonstrators plan to begin occupying the Capitol on Monday.
“This movement won’t stop,” said Laura Wells, the Green Party candidate for governor in 2010, to The Daily. “You can’t deal the next generation a lack of opportunity and expect them to sit there and take it.”
600 students join Occupy Berkeley High rally to protest cuts, support ‘millionaires tax’ [CA]
Around 3 p.m., another rally was held in Berkeley. This one, at the K-12 school administration building, was put together by Occupy Berkeley High and attended by some 600 students, whose signs and t- shirts said: “Wake up! Stand up! Speak up! Shake up! We are the 99 percent. Tax the rich.”
The “tax the rich” refers to a proposed “millionaires tax” that will be on California’s November ballot, if its supporters collect the required signatures. It would levy an additional state income tax of three percent for Californians whose annual adjusted gross income is over one million dollars, and five percent for those making over two million dollars a year.
The funds would restore budget cuts to education, public safety, and other services. The California Federation of Teachers is backing this measure. Berkeley High senior Amelia McCrea spoke to the crowd, calling for the millionaire’s tax and asking: “Doesn’t the government realise that someday, we’re going to be running the show?
http://tinyurl.com/6ryae9v
Brother Ali Joins Occupy Homes Movement [MN]
Over the years, impressively bearded Minneapolis MC Brother Ali has earned a reputation as a standup dude, and now that he’s joined the Occupy Homes Minnesota movement, that rep is about to grow even more. “When I found out about the Occupy Homes,” Ali says in a new video, which you can watch below, “the extension of it, where common, everyday people are getting involved to help save some of these families and raise our voices and put pressure on the banks and everybody involved to work with these homeowners, I was really inspired.”
‘Occupy’ Candidate Pulls Out of Dem. Congressional Race
One of the first congressional candidates to emerge from the Occupy Wall Street movement withdrew his position from the Democratic primary ballot in Pennsylvania on Friday and pledged he would continue his run as a write-in campaign.
Facing a legal challenge to his nominating petitions, Nate Kleinman said he would rather spend the next two months building support at the polls than battling over signatures.
Occupy Campus grabs students’ attention in El Paso
Members of the Occupy El Paso and Miners Without Borders worked together to host an Occupy Colleges event Feb. 29 and March 1 at Leech Grove on the UTEP campus. The event featured a used-book sale, petition signing and the passing out of information through multiple flyers.
“I’m here because of the fact that there’s a lot of books on the ground,” said Brian Barraza, sophomore biological sciences major. “I haven’t talked much with Occupy, but when I came by yesterday half of them were shouting out facts about tuition raises over the past 10 years and such.”
Barraza said that while the books were what initially got his attention, the groups’ messages about their stance on issues concerning higher education, was what he was going to check out later.
http://tinyurl.com/6tt8k8u
DePaul Students Occupy President’s Office To Protest Tuition Hike
Between 15 and 20 students marched to DePaul University President Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider’s office Thursday night, then occupied the building, to express their objection to a proposed tuition hike for incoming freshmen and current students next year.
DePaul plans to raise tuition for current students by 2.2 percent next year, and will charge incoming freshmen 5 percent more to attend than the previous class, according to The Depaulia, the school’s student newspaper. The increases will be put to a vote March 3, but protesters are asking the university to postpone the vote, and hold a public forum before finalizing their decision.
Students Walk Out for Education Rights at University of South Florida
Over 200 students rallied at the University of South Florida to protest budget cuts and rising tuition costs. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) along with other groups, including Occupy USF and a local union with the American Federation of State, City, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), took part in a walkout to protest the attacks on students and education. This walkout came as part of the March 1st National Day of Action for Education Rights. Across the board, education continues to be cut and tuition is on the rise.
Fordson Students Rally for Education [MI]
Fordson High School senior Natalie El-Zayat’s can pinpoint the moment when she knew she had to stand up against education funding cuts.
Her 10-year-old brother came home with his U.S. history book. It was falling apart, with no binding, missing pages, and with no back cover.
“I got so angry because (the school) expected him to learn from it, and they would not replace it for him,” she said. “I just can’t take it anymore.”
http://tinyurl.com/7wph494
DCC, Vassar students walk out of classes to protest educational cuts
Some 30 Dutchess Community College students and about 65 fellow students at Vassar College walked out of classes in unison on Thursday to protest what they said are cuts to education funding across the country.
http://tinyurl.com/6oces4a
Occupy Bloomington Event Criticizes State Of Education
Local Occupiers organized in Dunn Meadow on Thursday to participate in a national Defense of Education Day. Occupiers set up tables and booths with informational pamphlets critiquing the state of education in the United States.
Occupier and school psychology doctoral student Kelly Thomas says student debt is one of many educational issues she is concerned about.
“Students often literally have to work their entire lives to pay for an education that they got when they were 18 that often they didn’t know what they were in it for, what their goals were,” she says.
http://tinyurl.com/893txzv
Women Are the Majority of the Majority [Canada]
The global Occupy movement of the past year has drawn significant attention to the vast and expanding inequality between the richest one percent in society and the rest of us – the 99 percent. Women make up slightly over 50 percent of the Canadian population but when it comes to wealthiest Canadians, men are vastly over-represented. In the 500 largest and most influential companies in Canada, men hold 93.8 percent of the top earning positions and make up 99 percent of the highest paid 100 chief executive officers at publicly traded companies. When it comes to those who are economically disenfranchised corporate greed, women are the majority of the majority.
. . .
“Many prominent economists have characterized the recession of 2008 as the ‘he’ recession because job loss was most significant in manufacturing and other sectors dominated by male workers. However, government cuts to public services could spiral Ontario into a new recession – a ‘she’ recession – that targets women’s jobs in the public sector and vital services that so many women rely on,” said OFL President Sid Ryan. “Premier McGuinty is labouring under the misguided notion that it is possible to cut your way to prosperity. What Ontarians desperately need is a job creation strategy.”
http://tinyurl.com/74jzwzx
One Response to “The OB Media Rundown for 3/3/12”
on March 3rd, 2012 at 6:17 am #
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