OntheWilderSide

Our Flickr page has dozens of photos from Occupy Wall Street today…onthewilderside Flickr: here.

Here are my rough notes/retype from
The Occupied Wall Street Journal
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Issue 2

Articles:

“The Most Important Thing In The World”
from a speech by Naomi Klein given on October 6, 2011

Excerpt:

If there is one thing I know, it’s that the 1% loves a crisis. When people are panicked and desperate and no one seems to know what to do, that is the ideal time
to push through their wish-list of pro-corporate policies: privatizing social security, slashing public services, getting rid of the last constraints on corporate power. Amidst the economic crisis, this is happening the world over.

There is only one thing that can block this tactic, and fortunately, it’s a very big thing: the 99%. And, that 99% is taking to the streets from Madison to Madrid to say, “No. We will not pay for your crisis.”

Naomi Klein discusses the similarities and differences between this movement, and the anti-globalization protests in Seattle in 1999.

Insert Box: Poetry

To The Sept. 17 Occupiers,
MONEYMAN
a poem by Wasalu “Lupe Fiasco” Jaco

“This Rebellion Will Not Stop”
by Chris Hedges

Excerpt:

The lords of finance in the skyscrapers surrounding Zucotti Park, who toy with money and lives, who make the political class, the press, and the judiciary jump at their demands, who destroy ecosystems for profit and drain the US Treasury to gamble and speculate, took little notice at first activists on the street below them three weeks ago.

The elites consider everyone outsider their sphere marginal or invisible…

“What Liberty Square Means / The Progress of Revolutions”
by Rebecca Manski
with contributions from
B.R. Manski and Rizzo

“Meeting for the first time, again”
by Amity Paye

Visual:
Uncle Sam with the words:
“The 99% Want You!”

“Editorial Note”
“No list of demands”

We are speaking to each other, and listening.
This occupation is first about participation.

Tens of thousands of New Yorkers streamed in Foley Square on Wednesday — labor unions rolled out, students walked out. The occupation of Wall Street grew to resemble the city we live in.

What race, age, religion, occupation do we represent? None of them. All of them.

Barricaded in by steel pens, surrounded by thousands of cops and NYPD helicopters above, we saw our power reflected in their need to control us. But just as this is our movement, it is our narrative, too.

The exhausted political machines and their PR slicks are already seeking leaders to elevate, messages to claim, talking points to move on. They, more than anyone, will attempt to seize and shape this moment. They are racing to reach the front of the line.

But how can they run out in front of something that is in front of them? They cannot.

For Wall Street and Washington, the demand is not on them to give us something that isn’t theirs to give. It’s ours. We aren’t going anywhere. We just got here.

“High Schools, campuses walk-out to OCCUPY”
by Miles Kohrman

A Timeline
on the bottom of the page, with dates for other occupations,
and important events from Occupy Wall Street

Dec 17 – Tunisia
Jan 25 – Egypt
Feb 17 – Wisconsin
March 26 – London
May 15 – Spain
May 25 – Greece
Aug 6 – England
Sept 23 – Day 7 (of Occupy Wall Street) Less than 24 hours after the execution of Troy Davis by the state of Georgia, hundreds of New Yorkers rally in Union Square to demonstrate outrage…The mass action marks an important linkage among activist groups and offers a glimpse of a people’s solidarity movement taking form.
Oct 1 – Day 15 (of Occupy Wall Street) Thousands from Occupy Wall Street attempt to march across the Brooklyn Bridge. Partway across, they are blocked by police who record 700 arrests on the roadway. In California, more thank 12,000 prisoners enter the second week of a hunger strike…
Oct 3 – JPMorgan Chase announces a $14 million dollar donation to the New York City Police Foundation…
Oct 4 -Demonstrations and sit-ins spread to dozens of cities across the country…
Oct 5 -30,000 protesters comprised of transit, communication, teacher, health care, labor and other unions join a student walkout and residents from across New York at a rally in Foley Park outside City Hall…

A visual with ads for other Occupations in other cities

A box “Get Ready”

And, on the back page:

Principles of Solidarity

The following principals of Solidarity have been adopted by the GA as a “living document” that will be revised through the democratic process of the N.Y.C. General Assembly

On September 17, 2011, people came from all across the United States of American and the world came to protest the blatant injustices of our times perpetuated by the economic and political elites. On the 17th we as individuals rose up against political disenfranchisement and social and economic injustice. We spoke out, resisted, and successfully occupied Wall Street. Today, we proudly remain in Liberty Square constituting ourselves as autonomous political beings engaged in non-violent civil disobedience and building solidarity based on mutual respect, acceptance, and love. It is from these reclaimed grounds that we say to all Americans and to the world: Enough! How many crises does it take? We are the 99% and we have moved to reclaim our mortgaged future.

Through a direct democratic process, we have come together as individuals and crafted these principles of solidarity, which are points of unity that include, but are not limited to:

-Engaging in direct and transparent participatory democracy;

-Exercising personal and collective responsibility;

-Recognizing individuals’ inherent privilege and the influence it has on all interactions;

-Empowering one another against all forms of oppression;

-Redefining how labor is valued;

-The sanctity of individual privacy;

-The belief that education is a human right; and

-Endeavoring to practice and support wide application of open source.

We are daring to imagine a new socio-political and economic alternative that offers greater possibility of equality. We are consolidating the other proposed principles of solidarity, after which demands will follow.

“Protest and Pragmatism”

“Organized Labor Stands Up”

“5 Things You Can Do Now”

1. Occupy
Bring instruments, food, blankets, bedding, rain gear, and your friends.

2. Spread The Word
-Download, print, display, and share flyers:
nycga.net/resources/media
-Twitter #occupywallstreet #occupytogether Facebook: OccupyWallSt

3. Donate
-Visit nycga.net/donate
[There are other donation suggestions. I will type up later.-KW]

4. Follow The Occupation

-nycga.net
-occupywallst.org
-takethesquare.net
-occupytogether.org
-wearethe99percent.tumblr.com

Follow on Twitter: @occupywallstnyc, @nycsep17, @occupywallst

[Note from KW – I believe that on Twitter, you can also find friendly comments with @ows and @occupywallstreet (with street spelled out)]

An action alert:
“People of the World, Rise Up on October 15th!
Stay tuned to occupywallst.org for details.

There are several photos and some artwork. There is one photo of someone being arrested at the Brooklyn Bridge. The caption reads, “Unafraid: Despite 700+ arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge on Oct 1, crowds surged in the following days.”

—end KW’s notes on OWSJ paper

Filed under: activism, grassroots democracy, Labor, local, new york, New York State Politics, News, politics, progressive politics, social & economic justice, US Politics Tagged: | Chris Hedges, Liberty Square, Naomi Klein, NYC, NYC politics, Occupied Wall Street Journal, Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Wall Street newspaper, Occupy Wall Street photos, Occupy Wall Street signes. Occupy Wall Street demands, Zucotti Park