ghettomanifesto:

STRIKE NOW! WAYS TO BUILD UP AND PARTICIPATE ON MAY 1ST

Propaganda: Download and print posters, fliers, zines, and more at http://occuprint.org/ and http://maydaynyc.tumblr.com and post them around your neighborhood; give them out to your friends, family, and co-workers; or bring them to community based organizations or local businesses and ask them to post them in their windows or leave a visible stack for members or customers!

Social Media: Social media is the first stage of creating a sustainable alternative media environment. Support user-generated media sources by creating your own media/art on YOUR terms, not corporations! Tweet using the hashtags #GeneralStrike #MayDayNYC & #M1GS. Submit to various tumblrs (http://whyistrike.tumblr.com/ and http://maydaynyc.tumblr.com/). Invite your facebook friends to the May Day festivities: https://www.facebook.com/events/327486667289414/

May Day Arts/Call to Create: On May 1st, 2012, everyone in New York who leaves their house or looks out their window will see public art as part of an historic MayDay celebration. Some of the projects underway are the 1,000-player guitarmy, Occupy Dance, and OWS Poetry. Visit http://call2create.org/ for details about where you can see them and how you can participate in their creation.

99 Pickets: Got a particular loathsome corporation in mind that you’d love to see shut down on May 1st? From 8am-2pm, up to 99 marches will leave at scattered times from Bryant Park and hold pickets in front of various government or corporate headquarters. Contact mayday@nycga.net to view a list of targets in midtown or come to an Action Spokescouncil, Sundays at 7pm at 50 E 7th Street http://atrium.occupy.net/mayday/node/114

Free University: The Free University is an open invitation to educators around New York City to participate in May Day 2012. During the day, lectures, workshops, skill-shares, and discussions will be held — all open to the public. University professors will bring their classes to the commons. http://maydaynyc.org/freeuniversity

Really Really Free Market [RRFM] & Food: RRFMs are temporary capitalism-free, self-sustaining zones instituting the gift economy as an alternative means of resource distribution. Bring clothes, books, toys, tools, and other usable things for the market! For the food tables, bring food, water, coffee, or any eating utensiles (including paltes, napkins, etc). Also, volunteer at Bryant Park or Union Square to help run the RRFM or food tables and remind folks that the items are really, really free.

Jail Support: It is reasonable to expect a massive amount of arrests on the days leading up to and on May 1st itself. During the 7 months (which included thousands of arrests) of Occupy Wall Street’s existence, only a handful of hard working organizers have dedicated themselves to doing jail support. Jail support includes communication with the National Lawyers Guild, tracking comrades in the legal system, and greeting released arrestees with food, water, cigarettes, and support.

Mutual Fucking Aid: Wherever you go on May 1, 2012 bring and share your skills (like haircutting or medical knowledge) and services and offer them up to folks for free! If you can’t come to the RRFM in NYC, open a free store in your neighborhood or somehow otherwise explore the excitement of mutually beneficial, voluntary exchange!

Embrace Autonomy!: During a general strike, we withdraw from capitalism and instead spend our lives exploring the creative and liberating aspects of a culture of resistance. Once you’ve taken the day off, spend your time doing whatever it is that you love to do and make it an act of protest! The options for various autonomous actions are endless– organize a banner drop, employ a fare strike, disrupt consumerism in the act. Use your creativity to decide on a symbolic or instrumental action that you and friends would invest a portion of your day into executing!

(via occupyallstreets)

11:26 pm  •  23 April 2012  •  380 notes  •  View comments

anoninfowarfare:

US hikers Sarah Shourd, Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer took part in demonstrations outside San Quentin prison in California. Photograph: Beck Diefenbach/Reuters

Occupy demonstrators participated in a nationwide day of action to protest against the US prison system on Monday, with demonstrations carried out at over a dozen sites across the country, including prisons in California, Chicago, Denver and New York.

The call to protest was issued by activists with the Occupy Oakland movement and was co-ordinated to coincide with waves of prison hunger strikes that began at California’s Pelican Bay prison in July. Demonstrators denounced the use of restrictive isolation units as infringement upon fundamental human rights. The hunger strikes followed a US supreme court ruling in May which stated that overcrowding in the California prison system had led to “needless suffering and death.” The court ordered the state to reduce its overall prison population from 140,000 to 110,000, which still well-exceeds the state’s maximum prison capacity.

Sarah Shourd, Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer – the American hikers who were held for over a year by Iranian authorities – took part in demonstrations outside San Quentin prison in Marin County, California. Addressing the crowd, Shourd described the psychological impact of solitary confinement, saying her 14 and a half months without human contact drove her to beat the walls of her cell until her knuckles bled. Shourd noted that Nelson Mandella described the two weeks he spent in solitary confinement as the most dehumanising experience he had ever been through.

“In Iran the first thing they do is put you in solitary,” Fattal added.

Bauer said “a prisoner’s greatest fear is being forgotten.” He described how hunger strikes became the hikers’ own “greatest weapon” in pushing their captors to heed their demands. According to Bauer, however, the most influential force for changing their quality of life while being held in Iran was the result of pressure applied by those outside the prison. It was for that fact, Bauer argued, that “this movement, this Cccupy movement, needs to permeate the prisons.”

Occupy supporters are calling for a fundamental change in the US prison system, which today houses one quarter of the planet’s prisoners; more than 2.4 million people. As of 2005, roughly one quarter of those held in US prisons or jails had been convicted on a drug charge. Activists point out that in the past three decades the nation’s prison population has increased by more than 500%, with minorities comprising 60% of those incarcerated. The number of women locked up between 1997 and 2007 increased by 832%.

Demonstrators are broadly calling for the abolition of inhumane prison conditions, and the elimination of policies such as capital punishment, life sentences without the possibility of parole and so-called “three strikes, you’re out” laws.

Some demonstrators were also demanding changes in their own specific states. Activists in Columbus, Ohio, for example, highlighted the fact that their state is second only to Texas in rates of capital punishment and planned to deliver letters to several elected officials, including governor John Kasich.

Ben Turk, an activist with Red Bird Prison abolition, noted that rising prices in prison commissaries have also been an issue with many Ohio prisoners. According to Turk, prices at the commissaries where prisoners purchase food and other amenities have risen, while the amount of money prisoners are able to make have largely remained the same.

“We work with prisoners and ask them what their grievances are,” Turk said. “A lot of them talk about how commissary prices have been continually rising for the last couple of decades, while state pay remains the same.”

At least 20 prisoners at Ohio State Penitentiary chose to fast for the day in solidarity with Monday’s action.

In Washington DC, demonstrators protested new prisoner visitation policies that will include the installation teleconference TV screens in place of glass partition.

In New York City, Mercedes Smith, a Brooklyn mother, took the streets along with roughly 250 others who marched from the Lincoln Correctional Facility through Harlem. Smith said she and her 21 year-old son had both been personally impacted by the criminal justice system. Smith said her son had been stopped and searched by the police throughout his life and is now incarcerated.

Smith carried a sign that read “End the War On Drugs”. She said that people who were addicted to drugs had a “sickness” that was “not a reason to put them in prison.”

“This war is costing more money. All the money that they using to keep this war going on, they could open up more centers, more programmes to help people,” Smith told the Guardian.

(via anti-propaganda)

9:08 am  •  21 February 2012  •  16 notes  •  View comments

(Source: trishalurie, via thedame)

4:45 pm  •  12 December 2011  •  27 notes  •  View comments

4:18 pm  •  12 December 2011  •  View comments

logicallypositive:

enemyofthestatist:

aheram:

The True Cost of U.S. Military Equipment

And then there are the true costs of war.

This is absolutely crazy. Never let them tell you these wars aren’t costly.

And that’s purely monetary terms. Doesn’t even get into the very real cost of human lives…

(via thedamsel)

6:29 pm  •  10 December 2011  •  2,862 notes  •  View comments

mohandasgandhi:

kateoplis:

Interactive: Which nations are really responsible for climate change

• CO2: USA, 5.2 billion tons per year. Global rank: 2
• Consumption footprint: USA, 6.15 billion tons per year. Global rank: 1

Public enemy no. 1

Note the deforestation side note, which really would make a more comprehensive infographic if it was included. These two issues (emissions and deforestation) go hand in hand.

(via the-sexpat-life)

10:26 am  •  8 December 2011  •  465 notes  •  View comments

occupyonline:

ProPublica study reveals striking racial disparities in presidential pardons #ICRR #Racism

And justice for all? A study broke this weekend that flies in the face of that notion. Pro Publica journalists Dafna Linzer and Jennifer LaFleur investigated the last decade’s worth of presidential pardons, and found some alarming things. For starters, white applicants were four times more likely to receive a pardon than minority applicants, with blacks having the lowest chance of approval. After taking office, President Bush outsourced the pardons process to lawyers in the Office of the Pardon Attorney, who claim their protocol for examining cases never included any mention of the applicant’s race, but that non-statistical factors like candor and remorse were taken into account. That said, there are striking examples of minorities being denied for very similar or lesser offenses than successful white applicants. Of the thirty-four drug-related pardons President Bush authorized, all were white. Of President Obama’s twenty-two total pardons to date, twenty have been white. Pro Publica’s reporting on this is excellent, and far more in-depth than we can possibly summarize; we urge you to look for yourself.

• Exhibit A Two women, one white and one black, both from the same city in Texas, filed for pardons on tax related offenses. The black woman had been fined $3000 for underreporting her income in 1989, while the white woman had faked multiple tax returns to reap over $25,000; only the white woman’s pardon was approved.
• Exhibit B A first-time, black drug offender from South Carolina was given probation for possessing 1.1 grams of crack; his pardon was denied. Conversely, a white four-time offender, who had served prison time for selling 1,050 grams of methamphetamine, was pardoned; only the white man’s pardon was approved. source

Follow ShortFormBlog

Disgusting.

(Source: shortformblog, via enlighteningnews)

10:13 am  •  8 December 2011  •  3,432 notes  •  View comments

11-15-11 4 - Special Comment - Mayor Bloomberg - Countdown with Keith Olbermann (by MiniRtist)

7:22 am  •  5 December 2011  •  1 note  •  View comments

randomactsofchaos:

whipporwill:

Seniors get socialism, young Americans get debt

Socialism for the old, raw capitalism for the young – that seems to be the new American Way.

There are quite a few folks in their 60s, 70s and 80s freaked out by the phantom specter of creeping, European-style socialism who, at the same time, are oblivious to the reality that they already live in a socialist paradise. Americans over the age of 65 have free medical care and a steady income to the day they die provided by the federal government.

Meanwhile, many young people in this country cannot find jobs, cannot afford homes and are weighed down by student loan debts. For the first time, a new generation of Americans appears destined to be poorer than their parents.

Census data released this week indicates that the over-65 cohort boasts a net worth that is 47 times greater than the net worth of citizens under age 35. This is the biggest disparity on record; twice what it was in 2005 and five times the difference just 25 years ago.

While politicians have dutifully maintained the social safety net for seniors, they have hacked away at programs that benefit young people, particularly support for public schools and colleges. Back when I was a Baby Boomer lad, the public schools I attended were well funded and rich with an array of course offerings. Now, too many public schools are starved for funding, arts and humanities courses are being cut and extracurricular activities are endangered. When I went to college, tuition was a few hundred dollars a year. If you were lucky enough to live in California, tuition was free and the universities were among the best in the world. Now, tuitions have skyrocketed, state funding has been slashed and access to higher education is restricted.

Coming out of college, I never worried about finding a job – everyone found a job. The internships I had paid pretty well. My first job paid even better and it did not take me long to save enough money to buy a house.

Today, unpaid internships are the rule. Even with a college degree, young people find starting positions at many companies are lowly training gigs with no pay. When paid employment is finally obtained, there are student loans to be paid off before a young person can begin to think about buying property. Those who have managed to buy houses have seen the value of those homes drop. Many have lost houses to foreclosure.

Meanwhile, older Americans who bought into the housing market when home values were soaring are sitting pretty.

(via other-stuff)

2:05 am  •  4 December 2011  •  18 notes  •  View comments

smooth:

40 Exciting Occupy Movement Poster Designs | koikoikoi

9:07 am  •  2 December 2011  •  37 notes  •  View comments