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<div> Greece, Spain, France, England, Italy, Portugal .... Now NYC! Too early to tell though<br>
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<pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><tt><tt>davep spotted this on the guardian.co.uk site and thought you should see it.<br>
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<br>
<br>
To see this story with its related links on the guardian.co.uk site, go to <br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/sep/19/occupy-wall-street-financial-system" target="_blank">http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/sep/19/occupy-wall-street-financial-system</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
The call to occupy Wall Street resonates around the world<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
We need deeper changes to our financial system, or tent cities of people angry <br>
<br>
at corporate greed will keep appearing<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Micah White and Kalle Lasn<br>
<br>
Tuesday September 20 2011<br>
<br>
guardian.co.uk<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/sep/19/occupy-wall-street-financial-system" target="_blank">http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/sep/19/occupy-wall-street-financial-system</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On Saturday 17 September, many of us watched [<a href="http://livestream.com/globalrevolution" target="_blank">http://livestream.com/globalrevolution</a>" <br>
<br>
title="Global Revolution: Occupy Wall Street $eptember 17th] in awe as 5,000 <br>
<br>
Americans [<a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/09/wall-st-protesters-say-theyre-settled-in/" target="_blank">http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/09/wall-st-protesters-say-theyre-settled-in/</a>" <br>
<br>
title="ABC: Wall St. Protesters Say Theyre Settled In] descended on to the <br>
<br>
financial district of lower Manhattan, waved signs, unfurled banners <br>
<br>
[<a href="http://understory.ran.org/2008/10/01/activists-raise-a-150-square-foot-foreclosed-sign-behind-iconic-wall-street-bull/" target="_blank">http://understory.ran.org/2008/10/01/activists-raise-a-150-square-foot-foreclosed-sign-behind-iconic-wall-street-bull/</a>" <br>
<br>
title="The Understory: Activists raise a 150 square foot FORECLOSED? sign behind <br>
<br>
iconic Wall Street bull], beat drums, chanted slogans and proceeded to walk <br>
<br>
towards the "financial Gomorrah [<a href="http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters-blog/occupywallstreet.html" target="_blank">http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters-blog/occupywallstreet.html</a>" <br>
<br>
title="Adbusters: Occupy Wall Street]" of the nation. They vowed to "occupy Wall <br>
<br>
Street" and to "bring justice to the bankers", but the New York police thwarted <br>
<br>
their efforts temporarily, locking down the symbolic street with barricades and <br>
<br>
checkpoints.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Undeterred, protesters walked laps around the area before holding a people's <br>
<br>
assembly and setting up a semi-permanent protest encampment in a park on Liberty <br>
<br>
Street [<a href="http://local.google.com/maps?q=Zuccotti+Park,+New+York,+NY&hl=en&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=44.069599,88.154297&vpsrc=0&t=h&z=15" target="_blank">http://local.google.com/maps?q=Zuccotti+Park,+New+York,+NY&hl=en&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=44.069599,88.154297&vpsrc=0&t=h&z=15</a>" <br>
<br>
title="Google Maps: Liberty Street], a stone's throw from Wall Street and a <br>
<br>
block from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Three hundred spent the night [<a href="https://twitter.com/#%21/jeffrae/status/115404228549296129" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/#!/jeffrae/status/115404228549296129</a>" <br>
<br>
title="Twitter: Jeffrae], several hundred reinforcements arrived the next day <br>
<br>
and as we write this article, the encampment is rolling out sleeping bags once <br>
<br>
again. When they tweeted to the world that they were hungry, a nearby pizzeria <br>
<br>
received $2,800 in orders [<a href="https://twitter.com/#%21/anonops/status/115580388214194176" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/#!/anonops/status/115580388214194176</a>" <br>
<br>
title="Twitter: @anonops] for delivery in a single hour. Emboldened by an <br>
<br>
outpouring of international solidarity, these American indignados said they'd be <br>
<br>
there to greet the bankers when the stock market opened on Monday. It looks <br>
<br>
like, for now, the police don't think they can stop them. ABC News reports <br>
<br>
[<a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/09/wall-st-protesters-say-theyre-settled-in/" target="_blank">http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/09/wall-st-protesters-say-theyre-settled-in/</a>" <br>
<br>
title="ABC: Wall St. Protesters Say Theyre Settled In] that "even though the <br>
<br>
demonstrators don't have a permit for the protest, [the New York police <br>
<br>
department says that] they have no plans to remove those protesters who seem <br>
<br>
determined to stay on the streets." Organisers on the ground say, "we're digging <br>
<br>
in for a long-term occupation [<a href="http://www.salon.com/news/politics/feature/2011/09/18/wallstreet/index.html" target="_blank">http://www.salon.com/news/politics/feature/2011/09/18/wallstreet/index.html</a>" <br>
<br>
title="]".<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
#OCCUPYWALLSTREET [<a href="http://www.occupywallstreet.org/" target="_blank">http://www.occupywallstreet.org/</a>" title="] was inspired by <br>
<br>
the people's assemblies of Spain [<a href="http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/97/manuel-castells.html" target="_blank">http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/97/manuel-castells.html</a>" <br>
<br>
title="] and floated as a concept by a double-page poster in the 97th issue of <br>
<br>
Adbusters magazine, but it was spearheaded, orchestrated and accomplished by <br>
<br>
independent activists. It all started when Adbusters asked its network of <br>
<br>
culture jammers to flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens and <br>
<br>
peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months. The idea caught on <br>
<br>
immediately on social networks and unaffiliated activists seized the meme and <br>
<br>
built an open-source organising site. A few days later, a general assembly was <br>
<br>
held in New York City and 150 people showed up. These activists became the core <br>
<br>
organisers of the occupation. The mystique of Anonymous pushed the meme into the <br>
<br>
mainstream media. Their video [<a href="http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters-blog/anonymous-joins-occupywallstreet.html" target="_blank">http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters-blog/anonymous-joins-occupywallstreet.html</a>" <br>
<br>
title="] communique endorsing the action garnered 100,000 views and a warning <br>
<br>
from the Department of Homeland Security [<a href="https://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9219711/DHS_warns_of_planned_Anonymous_attacks" target="_blank">https://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9219711/DHS_warns_of_planned_Anonymous_attacks</a>" <br>
<br>
title="] addressed to the nation's bankers. When, in August, the indignados of <br>
<br>
Spain sent word that they would be holding a solidarity event in Madrid's <br>
<br>
financial district, activists in Milan, Valencia, London, Lisbon, Athens, San <br>
<br>
Francisco, Madison, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Israel and beyond vowed to do the <br>
<br>
same [<a href="http://takethesquare.net/17s" target="_blank">http://takethesquare.net/17s</a>" title="].<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
There is a shared feeling on the streets around the world that the global <br>
<br>
economy is a Ponzi scheme run by and for Big Finance. People everywhere are <br>
<br>
waking up to the realisation that there is something fundamentally wrong with a <br>
<br>
system in which speculative financial transactions add up, each day, to $1.3tn <br>
<br>
(50 times more than the sum of all the commercial transactions). Meanwhile, <br>
<br>
according to a United Nations report, "in the 35 countries for which data exist, <br>
<br>
nearly 40% of jobseekers have been without work for more than one year".<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
"CEOs, the biggest corporations, and the wealthy are taking too much from our <br>
<br>
country and I think it's time for us to take back," said one activist <br>
<br>
[<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44564317/ns/us_news-life/" target="_blank">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44564317/ns/us_news-life/</a>" title="] who joined the <br>
<br>
protests last Saturday. Jason Ahmadi, who travelled in from Oakland, California <br>
<br>
explained that "a lot of us feel there is a large crisis in our economy and a <br>
<br>
lot of it is caused by the folks who do business here". Bill Steyerd, a Vietnam <br>
<br>
veteran from Queens, said "it's a worthy cause because people on Wall Street are <br>
<br>
blood-sucking warmongers".<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
There is not just anger. There is also a sense that the standard solutions to <br>
<br>
the economic crisis proposed by our politicians and mainstream economists ? <br>
<br>
stimulus, cuts, debt, low interest rates, encouraging consumption ? are false <br>
<br>
options that will not work. Deeper changes are needed, such as a "Robin Hood <br>
<br>
[<a href="http://robinhoodtax.org/" target="_blank">http://robinhoodtax.org/</a>" title="]" tax on financial transactions; reinstating <br>
<br>
the Glass-Steagall Act [<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass%E2%80%93Steagall_Act" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass%E2%80%93Steagall_Act</a>" <br>
<br>
title="] in the US; implementing a ban on high-frequency "flash" trading <br>
<br>
[<a href="http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1914724,00.html" target="_blank">http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1914724,00.html</a>" <br>
<br>
title="">high-frequency "flash]. The "too big to fail" banks must be broken up, <br>
<br>
downsized and made to serve the people, the economy and society again. The <br>
<br>
financial fraudsters responsible for the 2008 meltdown must be brought to <br>
<br>
justice. Then there is the long-term mother of all solutions: a total rethinking <br>
<br>
of western consumerism that throws into question how we measure progress.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
If the current economic woes in Europe and the US spiral into a prolonged global <br>
<br>
recession, people's encampments will become a permanent fixtures at financial <br>
<br>
districts and outside stock markets around the world. Until our demands are met <br>
<br>
and the global economic regime is fundamentally reformed, our tent cities will <br>
<br>
keep popping up.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Bravo to those courageous souls in the encampment on New York's Liberty Street. <br>
<br>
Every night that #OCCUPYWALLSTREET continues will escalate the possibility of a <br>
<br>
full-fledged global uprising against business as usual.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Now Back to our regularly scheduled mindless programming and other habits....</tt></tt></pre><br>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; color: black; font-size: 14pt;"><font color="gray">========================<br>
</font>“The struggle is for life…. For a<font color="black"> </font><i><font color="darkslategray"><font color="black">real </font><strong>LIFE.</strong></font> </i>You must fight foul, because <font color="darkslategray">LIFE <em>IS</em> REAL!</font> … And, <i>this</i> struggle is for </span><b><span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; color: black; font-size: 14pt;"><font color="darkslategray">HOPE.</font> </span></b><span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; color: black; font-size: 14pt;">So, Fucking Fight<font color="black">!!”</font></span><i style=""><span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; color: black; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="mailto:Fight%21%21%E2%80%9D%E2%80%94@ltazor"><span style="color: darkslategray; text-decoration: none;"><font color="darkslategray"><font color="black">—</font>@ltazor</font></span></a><font color="darkslategray">, Autonome v.1, #1<o:p></o:p></font></span></i></div>
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