The Quebec protests evolves from student debt to austerity

from adbusters...

Quebec: Red Square Revolt

It started with students — first a few at the Université Laval, and then hundreds of thousands, filling the streets every day and every night, wearing red squares (carrés rouges) to symbolize the giant debt they’d accrue if their government went ahead with proposed tuition hikes. Now the movement has turned into a bigger revolt against austerity measures in Quebec — a grève générale illimitée (#ggi) or unlimited general strike questioning the fundamentals of liberal democracy and capitalism. This short video summarizes the strike, its goals, and the persistence of protestors even as the Quebec government attempts to institute draconian anti-protest laws.

interestingly, the quebec protests made it across the atlantic to appear at the cannes film festival...

Quebecois filmmaker Xavier Dolan wore the red square, which has become the symbol of the Quebec student movement, on the red carpet for the premiere of his film Laurence Anyways at Cannes.

The young director sported the square on his tux and the film's actors Nathalie Baye, Melvil Poupaud and Suzanne Clement, also wore the symbol in support of students.

The screening came as students took to the streets in Montreal to protest new laws cracking down on public protesting, which critics say threaten civil liberties. Molotov cocktails were thrown and windows were smashed, ending in at least four arrests.

"questioning the fundamentals of liberal democracy and capitalism"... cool...

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John Pilger: Obama is as reactionary and violent as George W. Bush, and in some ways he is worse

john pilger is right up there with chris hedges in his unvarnished critique of the crap that is piled on our heads daily by our handlers...

The width of a cigarette paper separates the Democratic and Republican parties on economic and foreign policies. Both represent the super rich and the impoverishment of a nation from which trillions of tax dollars have been transferred to a permanent war industry and banks that are little more than criminal enterprises. Obama is as reactionary and violent as George W. Bush, and in some ways he is worse. His personal speciality is the use of Hellfire missile-armed drones against defenceless people. Under cover of a partial withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, he has sent US special forces to 120 countries where death squads are trained. He has revived the old cold war on two fronts: against China in Asia and with a "shield" of missiles aimed at Russia. The first black president has presided over the incarceration and surveillance of greater numbers of  black people than were enslaved in 1850. He has prosecuted more whistleblowers - truth-tellers - than any of his predecessors.  His vice-president, Joe Biden, a zealous warmonger, has called WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange a "hi-tech terrorist".  Biden has also converted to the cause of gay marriage.

One of America's true heroes is the gay soldier Bradley Manning, the whistleblower alleged to have provided WikiLeaks with the epic evidence of American carnage in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was the Obama administration that smeared his homosexuality as weird, and it was Obama himself who declared a man convicted of no crime to be guilty.

[...]

The truth is that what matters to those who aspire to control our lives is not skin pigment or gender, or whether or not we are gay, but the class we serve. The goals are to ensure that we look inward on ourselves, not outward to others and never comprehend the sheer scale of undemocratic power, and to that we collaborate in isolating those who resist. This attrition of criminalising, brutalising and banning protest can too easily turn western democracies into states of fear.

[...]

That is why the people of Greece ought to be our inspiration. By their own painful experience they know their freedom can only be regained by standing up to the German Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and their own quislings in Athens. People across Latin America have achieved this: the indignados of Bolivia who saw off the water privateers and the Argentinians who told the IMF what to do with their debt. The courage of disobedience was their weapon. Remember Bradley Manning.

greece is offering us a model and a template for what we should be opting for in the way of resistance to the inexorable takeover by our super-rich elites... i am reasonably sure spain will be next up...

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An amazing triumph...! APEC dinner gala in Hawaii last night gets occupied

how often does someone from the occupy movement get to deliver a thoughtful protest in front of a gathering of world leaders in what was, at least last night, probably one of the most highly-guarded spots on the entire planet...? what an amazing triumph...!

from the yes lab...

A change in the programmed entertainment at last night's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gala left a few world leaders slack-jawed, though most seemed not to notice that anything was amiss.

During the gala dinner, renowned Hawaiian guitarist Makana, who performed at the White House in 2009, opened his suit jacket to reveal a home-made “Occupy with Aloha” T-shirt. Then, instead of playing the expected instrumental background music, he spent almost 45 minutes repeatedly singing his protest ballad released earlier that day. The ballad, called “We Are the Many,” includes lines such as “The lobbyists at Washington do gnaw.... And until they are purged, we won't withdraw,” and ends with the refrain: “We'll occupy the streets, we'll occupy the courts, we'll occupy the offices of you, till you do the bidding of the many, not the few.”

Those who could hear Makana’s message included Presidents Barack Obama of the United States of America, Hu Jintao of China, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia, Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada, and over a dozen other heads of state.

“At first, I was worried about playing ‘We Are The Many,’” said Makana. “But I found it odd that I was afraid to sing a song I’d written, especially since I'd written it with these people in mind.”

The gala was the most secure event of the summit. It was held inside the Hale Koa hotel, a 72-acre facility owned and controlled by the US Defense Department; the site was fortified with an additional three miles of fencing constructed solely for the APEC summit.

Makana was surprised that no one objected to him playing the overtly critical song. “I just kept doing different versions,” he said. “I must’ve repeated ‘the bidding of the many, not the few’ at least 50 times, like a mantra. It was surreal and sobering.”

[...]

After facing large-scale protests in South Korea, Australia, Peru, and Japan, APEC moved this year's event to Hawaii, the most isolated piece of land on earth. In preparation for the meeting, homeless families were moved out of sight and millions of taxpayer dollars were spent on security—including over $700,000 on non-lethal weapons for crowd control. In a bitter twist, the multi-million dollar security plans backfired when a local Hawaiian man was shot and killed by a 27-year-old DC-based federal agent providing security for dignitaries.

Makana’s action was assisted by the Yes Lab and Occupy the Boardroom. In recent weeks, Occupy protesters have been showing up at corporate events, headquarters and even on the doorsteps of those in power. “Makana really raised the bar by delivering the Occupy message inside what is probably the most secure place on the planet right now,” said Mike Bonanno of the Yes Lab.

here's a youtube video of the song he sang...

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Matt Taibbi confesses - he finally "gets" the Occupy movement

i've "gotten" it from the beginning... as soon as i started reading about it, i instantly understood where the protestors were coming from because it's exactly the same place i've been coming from for a very long time and have been despairing that i would ever see like-minded people stepping forward...

matt taibbi in rolling stone...

We're all born wanting the freedom to imagine a better and more beautiful future. But modern America has become a place so drearily confining and predictable that it chokes the life out of that built-in desire. Everything from our pop culture to our economy to our politics feels oppressive and unresponsive. We see 10 million commercials a day, and every day is the same life-killing chase for money, money and more money; the only thing that changes from minute to minute is that every tick of the clock brings with it another space-age vendor dreaming up some new way to try to sell you something or reach into your pocket. The relentless sameness of the two-party political system is beginning to feel like a Jacob's Ladder nightmare with no end; we're entering another turn on the four-year merry-go-round, and the thought of having to try to get excited about yet another minor quadrennial shift in the direction of one or the other pole of alienating corporate full-of-shitness is enough to make anyone want to smash his own hand flat with a hammer.

If you think of it this way, Occupy Wall Street takes on another meaning. There's no better symbol of the gloom and psychological repression of modern America than the banking system, a huge heartless machine that attaches itself to you at an early age, and from which there is no escape. You fail to receive a few past-due notices about a $19 payment you missed on that TV you bought at Circuit City, and next thing you know a collector has filed a judgment against you for $3,000 in fees and interest. Or maybe you wake up one morning and your car is gone, legally repossessed by Vulture Inc., the debt-buying firm that bought your loan on the Internet from Chase for two cents on the dollar. This is why people hate Wall Street. They hate it because the banks have made life for ordinary people a vicious tightrope act; you slip anywhere along the way, it's 10,000 feet down into a vat of razor blades that you can never climb out of.

That, to me, is what Occupy Wall Street is addressing. People don't know exactly what they want, but as one friend of mine put it, they know one thing: FUCK THIS SHIT! We want something different: a different life, with different values, or at least a chance at different values.

yep, yep and yep... that's exactly what i want... something different... not just anything different, but something different that values people over money, compassion over selfishness, serenity over anger, and social justice over pay-to-play...

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What's next for OWS

from the guardian...

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Clever, creative, funny, pointed, and non-violent protest - THIS is what the First Amendment looks like

i'll tell ya... this kind of stuff really inspires me... it's clever, it's creative, it definitely makes a point and, what's more, it attracts a lot of attention from a lot of people who, if was a routine, sign-carrying, slogan-chanting street demonstration, would probably give it a wide berth...

creativity and pointed humor get my vote every time...

On November 4th, we [the Other 98%] occupied the Kochs.

The Koch Brothers and their front group, Americans For Prosperity, held a gala for the 1% in Washington DC, called "Defending The American Dream." 1200 of our friends showed up to Occupy The Kochs. This is what happened.

here's a similar thing they did for another koch gala in nyc...



good stuff...

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Protect the occupations: what the rest of the 99 percent can do

as a close observer of the occupy movement and seeing the need for evolution beyond merely "occupying," i think it's critical to find ways to effectively communicate with and potentially bring in the vast numbers of other people who share the concerns of the those who have chosen to be active in the effort...

jeremy brecher in the nation...

According to the Albany Times-Union, Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings, under pressure from the administration of Governor Andrew Cuomo, thereupon directed city police to arrest several hundred Occupy Albany protesters. The police refused. The Times-Union reported that “State Police supported the defiant posture of Albany police leaders to hold off making arrests for the low-level offense of trespassing, in part because of concern it could incite a riot or draw thousands of protesters in a backlash that could endanger police and the public.” According to the official, “The bottom line is the police know policing, not the governor and not the mayor.” Meanwhile, Albany County District Attorney David Soares informed the mayor and police officials that, “Unless there is property damage or injuries to law enforcement we don’t prosecute people for protesting.”

[...]

Here are some ways 99 percenters might want to think about organizing with their own real and virtual communities:

• Bring a speaker from your local Occupy group to a meeting in your living room or to whatever organizations you belong to.
• Organize a General Assembly in your neighborhood to discuss the issues of the 99 percent. Discuss what is upsetting people and decide on some concrete action to address it.
• If your PTA supports teachers’ jobs and programs for low-income students, get them to visit their political representatives and also do a joint action with your local Occupy group.
• If your church’s food pantry or homeless shelter needs money, hold an action at your local bank offices demanding that they feed the homeless in “their” community. If they won’t, ask your elected officials to take a look at the benefits they receive from “their” community. (Remember, according to Mayor Bloomberg it was the threat of city council officials to look into benefits received by the owners of Zuccotti Park that led them to back off their efforts to shut down OWS.)
• Create a Facebook page for your own equivalent of “Knitters for the 99 Percent.”
• Create a group to monitor local media and to protest when they favor the concerns of the 1 percent over those of the 99 percent.
• Organize public hearings in your town about what’s really happening to the 99 percent and how the 1 percent’s power is affecting them.
• Create your own temporary occupations in your own milieu addressing concerns about housing, jobs, media or whatever else concerns you and your fellow 99 percenters.

[...]

The occupations have been incredibly successful. But nothing can fail like success. Z magazine founder Michael Albert, just returned from conversations with protest veterans in Greece, Turkey, London, Dublin and Spain, reports he was told that their massive assemblies and occupations at first were invigorating and uplifting. “We were creating a new community. We were making new friends. We were hearing from new people.” But as days and weeks passed, “it got too familiar. And it wasn’t obvious what more they could do.”

there's a threshold to be crossed and a higher plateau to be achieved... how we do that is going to be a significant challenge...

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Move Your Money Day @Occupy Reno

it was 17 degrees when i headed downtown early this morning to join other occupy reno folks... we were assembling in city plaza and preparing to march around downtown, specifically wells fargo and bank of america... there were probably thirty people altogether - old, young, male, female, kids and dogs... we had determined in advance not to put ourselves in any potential legal jeopardy by protesting on bank property with the exception of those of us who had planned to enter one of the banks to close their accounts... we also decided to move from corner to corner of any intersections we were occupying so that we wouldn't be cited for loitering... we chanted, we brandished our signs and we marched...

at least 40 or 50 passing cars gave us honks and waves to which we responded with smiles, waves and occasional whoops of acknowledgement... probably less than half a dozen times, people in passing cars flipped us off... most chose to simply regard us with bemusement... one spandex and helmet-clad bicyclist zoomed by yelling "get jobs you lazy whiners"... (interestingly enough, with a few exceptions, almost everyone in the group is, in fact, employed...) we had fully expected to be shadowed by local police but, amazingly enough, we didn't see a single squad car the entire time... unfortunately, the local news media were nowhere to be seen either...

overall, we spent about 2 1/2 hours and covered maybe two miles up and down the main street of downtown reno... despite the cold and occasional snowflakes, everyone stuck it out...

here's a collage of photos from the morning...


[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

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Occupy Reno

I've signed on to keep FDL members informed about Occupy Reno (see here).

On Wednesday, the Occupy Reno members appeared before the Reno City Council (see front page article here). A 90-day permit was approved for the old municipal pool site on Moana Lane. The $35 per day ($1100 per month) fee was waived and the permit filing fee of $103 was donated by a City Councilman.

Some smugness and condescension was in the air, however, as the Councilman expressed doubts that many "occupiers" would turn out given that Reno's winter temps are quickly taking hold (down to the mid- to upper-20s at night now and soon to be lower with the likelihood of occasional snow).

Occupy Reno organizers came one step closer on Wednesday to occupying the property outside the dormant Moana Pool.

The Reno City Council told city staff to grant the protesters a three-month special event permit as long as the group meets all the public safety and health rules that govern special events, such as obtaining portable toilets, meeting with fire and police officials and getting the Washoe County District Board of Health's blessing.

The City Council also agreed to waive the $35-per-day fee usually associated with groups renting city park space -- about $1,100 a month. Because the property has been shuttered since 2007, City Council members said Reno wouldn't be losing or gaining anything with the waiver.

[...]

If the permit is approved, city staff said it will continue to work with organizers to ensure all of the regulations are being met while drawing up plans to extend the permit if needed. County health officials will keep an eye on the encampment, too.

So far the Occupy Reno movement hasn't conflicted with local authorities, instead drawing compliments from city staff and Reno Police Chief Steve Pitts on Wednesday for being willing to work out all the legal details before setting up camp on city property.

In fact, Councilman Dave Aiazzi said he would personally pay for the organizer's $103 permit filling fee.

[...]

Aiazzi said he was comfortable approving the special event permit in October, as opposed to May, with winter just around the corner. Other members agreed.

A General Assembly was held at the site last evening. The GA agenda is posted on the Occupy Reno website here.

A clean-up of the site is scheduled for today. I've been struggling with the flu or I would have attended the General Assembly. I hope to make the clean-up this morning and, if I do, will have some video to share.

Stay tuned.

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It’s a world set on screwing just about everyone without compunction, shame, or even plausible deniability

andy kroll at tomdispatch...

The last time we saw a moment like this globally was 1968. (Other dates, like 1848 in Europe and 1919 in China, when the young took the lead in a previously dead world, also come to mind.) It’s the moment when the blood stirs and the young, unable to bear the state of their country or the world, hit the streets with the urge to take the fate of humankind in their own hands.

It’s always unexpected. No one predicted Tahrir Square. No one imagined tens of thousands of young Syrians, weaponless, facing the military might of the state. No one expected the protests in Wisconsin. No one, myself included, imagined that young Americans, so seemingly somnolent as things went from bad to worse, would launch such a spreading movement, and -- most important of all -- decide not to go home. (At the last demonstration I attended in New York City in the spring, the median age was probably 55.)

The Tea Party movement has, until now, gotten the headlines for its anger, in part because the well-funded right wing poured money into the Tea Party name, but it’s an aging movement. Whatever it does, in pure actuarial terms it's likely to represent an ending, not a beginning. Occupy Wall Street could, on the other hand, be the beginning of something, even if no one in it knows what the future has in store or perhaps what their movement is all about -- a strength of theirs, by the way, not their weakness.

It’s true, as many have pointed out, that they don’t have a list of well thought out demands, but the demand to have such a list is just their elders trying to bring them to heel. The fact is, they don’t have to know just what they’re doing, any more than a writer or filmmaker has to understand the book being written or the film shot. It’s not a necessity. It’s not the price of admission. If there’s one thing that’s obvious and heartening, as my friend, the novelist Beverly Gologorsky, said to me while we oldsters circumnavigated the park, “The overwhelming feeling I have is that no one here is planning to go home any time soon.”

Never have they been more needed. Theirs is certainly a movement, like the ones in the Middle East, inspired in part by economic disaster and aimed at an airless political as well as corporate/financial system controlled by the 1% left out of the signs in the park hailing the 99% of Americans whom Occupy Wall Street hopes to represent. It’s a world set on screwing just about everyone in that vast cohort of Americans without compunction, shame, or even, these days, plausible deniability.

i sincerely hope they aren't going home any time soon...

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Is there a spark of hope coming from Occupy Wall Street...?

wouldn't it be loverly...?

from raw story...

Matt Taibbi: ‘Occupy Wall Street’ can spark movement, motivate change

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A short analysis of the global protest movement with a special focus on Wall Street

the nyt is sitting up and taking note...

Their complaints range from corruption to lack of affordable housing and joblessness, common grievances the world over. But from South Asia to the heartland of Europe and now even to Wall Street, these protesters share something else: wariness, even contempt, toward traditional politicians and the democratic political process they preside over.

They are taking to the streets, in part, because they have little faith in the ballot box.

“Our parents are grateful because they’re voting,” said Marta Solanas, 27, referring to older Spaniards’ decades spent under the Franco dictatorship. “We’re the first generation to say that voting is worthless.”

Economics have been one driving force, with growing income inequality, high unemployment and recession-driven cuts in social spending breeding widespread malaise. Alienation runs especially deep in Europe, with boycotts and strikes that, in London and Athens, erupted into violence.

But even in India and Israel, where growth remains robust, protesters say they so distrust their country’s political class and its pandering to established interest groups that they feel only an assault on the system itself can bring about real change.

Young Israeli organizers repeatedly turned out gigantic crowds insisting that their political leaders, regardless of party, had been so thoroughly captured by security concerns, ultra-Orthodox groups and other special interests that they could no longer respond to the country’s middle class.

[...]

Increasingly, citizens of all ages, but particularly the young, are rejecting conventional structures like parties and trade unions in favor of a less hierarchical, more participatory system modeled in many ways on the culture of the Web.

In that sense, the protest movements in democracies are not altogether unlike those that have rocked authoritarian governments this year, toppling longtime leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Protesters have created their own political space online that is chilly, sometimes openly hostile, toward traditional institutions of the elite.

The critical mass of wiki and mapping tools, video and social networking sites, the communal news wire of Twitter and the ease of donations afforded by sites like PayPal makes coalitions of like-minded individuals instantly viable.

the money quote, imho, is what i've highlighted in bold above - "We’re the first generation to say that voting is worthless"... that statement perfectly captures my own feelings... it's also nice to see the reference to "citizens of all ages"... i turn 64 in december and there's no question in my mind that i feel a great deal more affinity with those, young or old, who seek "a less hierarchical, more participatory system"...

turning to what's happening on wall street (and seems to be spreading across the country), glenn, as always, offers trenchant commentary on the "condescending, dismissive and scornful" coverage reflected in the news media some of which, not surprisingly, comes from our so-called "liberals," "progressives," and "democrats"...

A significant aspect of this progressive disdain is grounded in the belief that the only valid form of political activism is support for Democratic Party candidates, and a corresponding desire to undermine anything that distracts from that goal. Indeed, the loyalists of both parties have an interest in marginalizing anything that might serve as a vehicle for activism outside of fealty to one of the two parties (Fox News' firing of Glenn Beck was almost certainly motivated by his frequent deviation from the GOP party-line orthodoxy which Fox exists to foster.

The very idea that the one can effectively battle Wall Street's corruption and control by working for the Democratic Party is absurd on its face: Wall Street's favorite candidate in 2008 was Barack Obama, whose administration -- led by a Wall Street White House Chief of Staff and Wall-Street-subservient Treasury Secretary and filled to the brim with Goldman Sachs officials -- is now working hard to protect bankers from meaningful accountability (and though he's behind Wall Street's own Mitt Romney in the Wall Street cash sweepstakes this year, Obama is still doing well); one of Wall Street's most faithful servants is Chuck Schumer, the money man of the Democratic Party; and the second-ranking Senate Democrat acknowledged -- when Democrats controlled the Congress -- that the owners of Congress are bankers. There are individuals who impressively rail against the crony capitalism and corporatism that sustains Wall Street's power, but they're no match for the party apparatus that remains fully owned and controlled by it.

But much of this progressive criticism consists of relatively (ostensibly) well-intentioned tactical and organizational critiques of the protests: there wasn't a clear unified message; it lacked a coherent media strategy; the neo-hippie participants were too off-putting to Middle America; the resulting police brutality overwhelmed the message, etc. etc. That's the high-minded form which most progressive scorn for the protests took: it's just not professionally organized or effective.

Some of these critiques are ludicrous. Does anyone really not know what the basic message is of this protest: that Wall Street is oozing corruption and criminality and its unrestrained political power -- in the form of crony capitalism and ownership of political institutions -- is destroying financial security for everyone else? Beyond that, criticizing protesters for the prominence of police brutality stories is pure victim-blaming (and, independently, having police brutality highlighted is its own benefit).

[...]

[T]here is a sprawling apparatus of federal and local militarized police forces and private corporate security designed to send this message: if you participate in protests or other forms of dissent outside of harmless approved channels, you're going to be harmed in numerous ways. As Yves Smith put it this week:

I’m beginning to wonder whether the right to assemble is effectively dead in the US. No one who is a wage slave (which is the overwhelming majority of the population) can afford to have an arrest record, even a misdemeanor, in this age of short job tenures and rising use of background checks.

This is all designed to deter any meaningful challenges to the government and corporate institutions which are suffocating them, to bully those who consider such challenges into accepting its futility. And it works.

[...]

Given the costs and risks one incurs from participating in protests like this -- to say nothing of the widespread mockery one receives -- it's natural that most of the participants will be young and not yet desperate to cling to institutional stability. It's also natural that this cohort won't be well-versed (or even interested) in the high arts of media messaging and leadership structures. Democratic Party precinct captains, MBA students in management theory and corporate communications, and campaign media strategists aren't the ones who will fuel protests like this; it takes a mindset of passionate dissent and a willingness to remove oneself from the safe confines of institutional respectability.

with that last thought of glenn's in mind, here's an excerpt from today's alternet, calling for the rest of us to join in...

It's astonishing that this self-organized festival of democracy has sprouted on the turf of the masters of the universe, the men who play the tune that both political parties and the media dance to. The New York Police Department, which has deployed hundreds of officers at a time to surround and intimidate protesters, is capable of arresting everyone and clearing Liberty Plaza in minutes. But they haven't, which is also astonishing.

[...]

Yet while many people support the occupation, they hesitate to fully join in and are quick to offer criticism. It's clear that the biggest obstacles to building a powerful movement are not the police or capital -- it's our own cynicism and despair.

Now, there are endless objections one can make. But if we focus on the possibilities, and shed our despair, our hesitancy and our cynicism, and collectively come to Wall Street with critical thinking, ideas and solidarity we can change the world.

How many times in your life do you get a chance to watch history unfold, to actively participate in building a better society, to come together with thousands of people where genuine democracy is the reality and not a fantasy?

For too long our minds have been chained by fear, by division, by impotence. The one thing the elite fear most is a great awakening. That day is here. Together we can seize it.

i've been cheerleading for this kind of thing for many, many years, and, yes, i know i've quietly been waiting for the apocalypse... maybe, just maybe, my waiting is coming to an end...

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We are watching the beginnings of the defiant self-assertion of a new generation of Americans

david graeber on the wall street occupation...

from the guardian's comment is free via alternet...

We are watching the beginnings of the defiant self-assertion of a new generation of Americans, a generation who are looking forward to finishing their education with no jobs, no future, but still saddled with enormous and unforgivable debt. Most, I found, were of working-class or otherwise modest backgrounds, kids who did exactly what they were told they should: studied, got into college, and are now not just being punished for it, but humiliated – faced with a life of being treated as deadbeats, moral reprobates.

Is it really surprising they would like to have a word with the financial magnates who stole their future?

Just as in Europe, we are seeing the results of colossal social failure. The occupiers are the very sort of people, brimming with ideas, whose energies a healthy society would be marshaling to improve life for everyone. Instead, they are using it to envision ways to bring the whole system down.

[...]

What we've learned now is that the economic crisis of the 1970s never really went away. It was fobbed off by cheap credit at home and massive plunder abroad – the latter, in the name of the "third world debt crisis". But the global south fought back. The "alter-globalisation movement", was in the end, successful: the IMF has been driven out of East Asia and Latin America, just as it is now being driven from the Middle East. As a result, the debt crisis has come home to Europe and North America, replete with the exact same approach: declare a financial crisis, appoint supposedly neutral technocrats to manage it, and then engage in an orgy of plunder in the name of "austerity".

i'm surprised that he didn't once reference naomi klein and disaster capitalism, a topic i've posted on repeatedly here...

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More than 250,000 march in London "to let them know this is wrong"

this is what the "will of the people" looks like...

Commander Bob Broadhurst of the Metropolitan Police confirmed that more than 250,000 people had marched peacefully...

[...]

Britain is facing 80 billion pounds ($130 billion) of public spending cuts from Prime Minister David Cameron's coalition government as it struggles to get the country's large budget deficit under control. The government has already raised sales tax, but Britons are bracing for big cuts to public spending.

After the country spent billions bailing out indebted banks, and suffered a squeeze on tax revenue and an increase in welfare bills, Treasury chief George Osborne has staked the coalition government's future on tough economic remedies. [emphasis added]

As many as half a million public sector jobs will be lost, about 18 billion ($28.5 billion) axed from welfare payments and the pension age raised to 66 by 2020, earlier than previously planned.

The TUC, the main umbrella body for British unions, says it believes the cuts will threaten the country's economic recovery, and has urged the government to create new taxes for banks and to close loopholes that allow some companies to pay less tax — an argument that chimes with many of the protesters.

"They shouldn't be taking money from public services. What have we done to deserve this?" said Alison Foster, a 53-year-old school teacher. "Yes, they are making vicious cuts. That's why I'm marching, to let them know this is wrong."

it IS wrong... it's wrong in the uk, it's wrong in greece and it's wrong here in the u.s... our super-rich elites are sucking up power and money in staggering amounts, governments throw even more money at them so they don't have to live with the consequences of their own excesses, and us poor miserable slobs are the ones who have to pay...? fuck, no...! screw 'em...!

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"People here have acted lawfully and responsibly. There's no reason to consider arrests."

this is extremely cool...

The occupation of the Wisconsin Capitol by protesters fighting efforts to strip public workers of union bargaining rights carried on Sunday after police decided not to forcibly remove demonstrators and end a nearly two-week-long sit-in.

Roughly three hours after a deadline to vacate the building had passed and as police officers continued to look on quietly, protest coordinator Erika Wolf took to a microphone and announced: "There's really awesomely good news — that we're going to be able to stay here tonight."

A cheer went up from the several hundred protesters who had ignored a request from the state agency that oversees the Capitol to leave by 4 p.m. so that the normally immaculate building could get a thorough cleaning.

[...]

Wisconsin Capitol Police Chief Charles Tubbs said demonstrators who had occupied all three floors of the Capitol would have to relocate to the ground floor overnight. Anyone who left the building was barred from returning until Monday morning, although police did allow union officials to bring food into the building for the protesters.

No demonstrators would be arrested as long as they continue to obey the law, Tubbs said. By late evening, the air smelled of pizza and lemon-scented disinfectant as demonstrators quietly ate dinner and several janitors worked around them to clean the Capitol's marble floors.

"People here have acted lawfully and responsibly," Tubbs said. "There's no reason to consider arrests."

simple, quiet, peaceful determination... gives me goose-bumps...

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Unfettered capitalism is a brutal and revolutionary force that exploits human beings and the natural world until exhaustion or collapse

chris hedges...

We have been gradually disempowered by a corporate state that, as Huxley foresaw, seduced and manipulated us through sensual gratification, cheap mass-produced goods, boundless credit, political theater and amusement. While we were entertained, the regulations that once kept predatory corporate power in check were dismantled, the laws that once protected us were rewritten and we were impoverished. ... The state, crippled by massive deficits, endless war and corporate malfeasance, is sliding toward bankruptcy. ... We are moving from a society where we are skillfully manipulated by lies and illusions to one where we are overtly controlled.

[...]

Now that the corporate coup is over, we stand naked and defenseless. We are beginning to understand, as Karl Marx knew, that unfettered and unregulated capitalism is a brutal and revolutionary force that exploits human beings and the natural world until exhaustion or collapse.

[...]

The good-paying jobs are not coming back. The largest deficits in human history mean that we are trapped in a debt peonage system that will be used by the corporate state to eradicate the last vestiges of social protection for citizens, including Social Security. The state has devolved from a capitalist democracy to neo-feudalism. And when these truths become apparent, anger will replace the corporate-imposed cheerful conformity.

[...]

The noose is tightening. The era of amusement is being replaced by the era of repression. Tens of millions of citizens have had their e-mails and phone records turned over to the government. We are the most monitored and spied-on citizenry in human history. Many of us have our daily routine caught on dozens of security cameras. Our proclivities and habits are recorded on the Internet. Our profiles are electronically generated. Our bodies are patted down at airports and filmed by scanners. And public service announcements, car inspection stickers, and public transportation posters constantly urge us to report suspicious activity. The enemy is everywhere.

Those who do not comply with the dictates of the war on terror, a war which, as Orwell noted, is endless, are brutally silenced. The draconian security measures used to cripple protests at the G-20 gatherings in Pittsburgh and Toronto were wildly disproportionate for the level of street activity. But they sent a clear message—DO NOT TRY THIS. The FBI’s targeting of antiwar and Palestinian activists, which in late September saw agents raid homes in Minneapolis and Chicago, is a harbinger of what is to come for all who dare defy the state’s official Newspeak. The agents—our Thought Police—seized phones, computers, documents and other personal belongings. Subpoenas to appear before a grand jury have since been served on 26 people. The subpoenas cite federal law prohibiting “providing material support or resources to designated foreign terrorist organizations.” Terror, even for those who have nothing to do with terror, becomes the blunt instrument used by Big Brother to protect us from ourselves.

resistance is futile...

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A message to the Irish people: "The ultimate aim is to gut our country of everything of value" [UPDATE]

listen carefully... the man speaks the truth...



thanks to kevin at cryptogon...

[UPDATE]

in the video above, jim corr called for people in ireland to take to the streets... evidently, his call - among others - was heard...

Tens of thousands of people have marched through Dublin in protest at the government's austerity programme.

Protest leaders said it was the first of many demonstrations over plans to raise taxes and cut public spending.

The austerity programme is designed to cut the Irish Republic's massive government deficit, exacerbated by the rescue of the country's banks.

The march came as officials met to hammer out the final details of a financial bail-out for the country.

The EU and the IMF are set to lend the country more than 85bn euros ($113bn; £72bn), with the terms of the deal expected to be announced on Sunday ahead of the markets re-opening on Monday.

State broadcaster RTE has reported that the interest rate to be paid on part of the loan could be as much as 6.7%, higher than the rate charged to Greece for its bail-out, which has raised concerns from opposition parties.

[...]

Organisers said more than 100,000 people took part in Saturday's protest, while the Irish police (Gardai) estimated that "in the region of 50,000" people marched to Dublin's General Post Office, site of the nationalist uprising against British rule in 1916.

A spokesman for the Irish Congress of Trade Unions president, Macdara Doyle, told the BBC that the protest was designed to send out a clear message: "We're trying to convince government and show government that there's no support for their plan amongst civic society and that every measure they have taken to date has been exactly the opposite of what they need to do.

"Our fears about the new budget is that it's deflationary multiplied by ten. It's taking far too much money out of the economy and whatever possible chance there is of, some sort of growth taking hold in the economy will be killed by this proposed budget."

corr's take - and mine as well - is that the whole greece-ireland and soon-to-be spain-italy-portugal "crisis" has been well-engineered by our super-rich elites as simply one more way to divert whatever money and power they don't already have into their greedy, gaping maws...

i had a brief conversation with an immigration and customs enforcement agent last evening (i had been selected for a bag screening on arrival in the u.s.)... he, as so many others i've talked to, fully recognizes that we are under the control of our super-rich elites and the banksters that serve as their front line... maybe one of these days, the american people will find the backbone to do what the irish and greeks are already doing, stand up and fight back...

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Obama has been discarded - rapacious greed fuels the plunge of tens of millions of Americans into abject poverty and misery

reading a chris hedges column is like coming face-to-face with the nine circles of dante's hell...

The tragedy—if tragedy is the right word—is that Obama, after selling his soul to corporations, has been discarded. Corporate power doesn’t need brand Obama anymore. They have found new brands in the tea party, Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck. Obama has been abandoned by those who once bundled contributions for him by the millions of dollars.

[...]

We have reached a point where stunted and deformed individuals, whose rapacious greed fuels the plunge of tens of millions of Americans into abject poverty and misery, determine the moral fiber of the nation. It is no more morally justifiable to kill someone for profit than it is to kill that person for religious fanaticism. And yet, from health companies to the oil and natural gas industry to private weapons contractors, individual death and the wholesale death of the ecosystem have become acceptable corporate business. The mounting human misery in the United States, which could lead to the sporadic bursts of anger we have seen on the streets of France, will be met with severe repression from the security and surveillance state, which always accompanies the rise of the corporate state. The one method left open by which we can respond—massive street protests, the destruction of corporate property and violence—will become the excuse to impose total tyranny. The intrusive pat-downs at airports may soon become a fond memory of what it was like when we still had a little freedom left.

All reform movements, from the battle for universal health care to the struggle for alternative energy and sane environmental controls to financial regulation to an end to our permanent war economy, have run into this new, terrifying configuration of power. They have confronted an awful truth. We do not count. And they have been helpless to respond as those who are most skilled in the manipulation of hate lead a confused populace to call for their own enslavement.

ready to jump off a tall building...? me too... in fact, i've BEEN ready for several years now, minus the small detour into self-delusion i took when supporting obama's election... so, what DO we do...? basically, what i've been doing all along...

again, chris hedges...

It is time to think of resistance in a new way, something that is no longer carried out to reform a system but as an end in itself. African-Americans understood this during the long night of slavery. German opposition leaders understood it under the Nazis. Dissidents in the former Soviet Union knew this during the nightmare of communism. Resistance in these closed systems was local and often solitary. It was done with the understanding that evil must always be defied. The tiny acts of rebellion—day after day, month after month, year after year and decade after decade—exposed to everyone who witnessed them the heartlessness, cruelty and inhumanity of the oppressor. They were acts of truth and beauty. We must take to the street. We must jam as many wrenches into the corporate system as we can. We must not make it easy for them. But we also must no longer live in self-delusion. This is a battle that will outlive us. And if we fight, even with this tragic vision, we will lead lives worth living and keep alive another way of being.

i did what i was threatening to do... i closed my accounts with wells fargo and hsbc and consolidated them into my credit union account making loud noises in the process about not wanting to do any more business with "too big to fail" failed banks...

i've been debt-free for over ten years...

i live simply... my needs are very small... (i'm not into survivalism nor will i ever be, but i think i could make do reasonably well even if most of our infrastructure was to collapse...)

i publish this blog... (yeah, i know... woo-hoo...)

i try to be a role model for what i believe and what i teach...

i honestly don't know what more i can do although i'm certainly open to ideas...

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Taking to the streets to protest against helping the poor?

the pathetic irony is that most of those who are making the most noise about socialism and the welfare state are also bible-brandishing, self-proclaimed christians who, imho, have never bothered to read the compassionate, do-unto-others message of jesus in the gospels or, if they have, don't care to take it to heart...

chris floyd...

[T]he news has been filled with stories of mass protests across the United States for months on end, with angry citizens taking to the streets -- and the ballot boxes -- to register their stern displeasure.

And what has displeased them so, what has moved them from the quiet simmering of discontent to explosions of public protest? Is it those trillions spent on pointless wars? Is it the coddling of the super-rich? Is it the degradation of their daily lives, and the darkening of their children's future by endless war and lost opportunities in a system skewed sharply -- and punitively -- toward the needs and greeds of powerful elites? Is it the runaway encroachment of civil liberties? Is it mass unemployment, and the relentless rollback of public services essential to a dignified and civilized life?

No, it is none of these. While the Europeans protest for jobs and dignity, Americans pour out into the streets in angry demonstrations against the very idea of helping the poor and the economically devastated, or putting the slightest restraint on the rapacious super-rich. The Europeans protest actual policies, while our American "dissidents" froth and rant about a fantasy world of "socialist" programs that only benefit shiftless darkies and sneaky, border-crossing 'Messicans -- and, of course, the devil-worshiping Muslims, who are plotting every hour to poison the precious bodily fluids of real Americans and take over the country from within.

once again, i'm stunned at what's happening in my country...

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