OCCUPY WALL STREET (OWS)
The UPS Store
Re: Occupy Wall Street
118A Fulton St. #205
New York, NY 10038
URL :http://occupywallst.org/
Anti-capitalist movement that seeks to create "a society of cooperation and community" – i.e., a socialist economy
Its members refer to themselves as "the 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%."
Uses "the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic" to achieve its ends
Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is a movement whose activism is planned and organized via a free, open-source social networking website for activists. That website is maintained by an independent group of organizers who describe themselves as “committed to doing technical support work for resistance movements.” Strongly anti-capitalist, OWS characterizes America as a “ruthless,” materialistic society where the chief objective is to “always minimize costs and maximize profits”; where “lives are commodities to be bought and sold on the open market”; and where “the economic transaction has become the dominant way of relating to the culture and artifacts of human civilization.” The “deep spiritual sickness” that necessarily results from this repugnant philosophy of perpetual economic "growth for the sake of growth," says OWS, has caused “vast deprivation, oppression and despoliation ... to cover the world.” OWS's prescribed remedy is to replace the foregoing arrangement “with a society of cooperation and community” – i.e., a socialist economy.
Moreover, OWS organizers advocate the imposition of a "Robin Hood Tax" (i.e., taking from the "rich" and giving to the "poor") on most goods and services worldwide, with the aim of using its generated revenues to fund social-welfare programs. Such a tax was originally the brainchild of non-governmental organizations based mostly in the United Kingdom. A prominent supporter of the Robin Hood Tax is the economist Jeffrey Sachs, a key member of the George Soros-funded Institute for New Economic Thinking.
Describing itself as a "leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions," OWS says: "The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants."
OWS was a key organizer of the September 17, 2011 “Day of Rage” protest targeting Wall Street, the hub of New York City's financial district. According to the group, the purpose of that event was to express “opposition to the principle that has come to dominate not only our economic lives but our entire lives: profit over and above all else.” Other noteworthy organizers of the September 17 rally, which drew approximately 1,000 participants, included USDayOfRage, NYC General Assembly, Take The Square, the AdBusters Media Foundation, and Anonymous.
According to journalist Aaron Klein, the September 17 protests apparently represented “the culmination” of a campaign by Wade Rathke, founder of ACORN and president of an SEIU local in New Orleans, who in March 2011 had issued a call for “days of rage in ten cities around JP Morgan Chase” -- part of his so-called "anti-banking jihad." Rathke's efforts were supported by Stephen Lerner, an SEIU board member and radical-left organizer who candidly aims to “destabilize the folks that are in power and start to rebuild a movement”; “bring down the stock market” through a campaign of disruption; “bring down [the] bonuses” of executives in the financial sector; and “interfere with their ability to ... be rich.”
Occupy Wall Street pledged that during the weeks and months after September 17, 2011, its members would continue to “launch daily smart mob forays all over Lower Manhattan … peaceful, creative happenings in front of [such places as] Goldman Sachs, the SEC, the Federal Reserve, [and] the New York Stock Exchange.” “With a bit of luck, and if fate is on our side,” OWS said, “we may be able to turn all of lower Manhattan into a site of passionate democratic contestation – an American Tahrir Square.” (This was a reference to the major public town square in Cairo which had served as a focal point for the Egyptian Revolution of 2011.)
On October 1, 2011, a horde of the Wall Street demonstrators shut down traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge for two-and-a-half hours, a move that resulted in some 700 arrests. Among the high-profile personalities who had already made personal appearances in support of the demonstrators were Michael Moore, Susan Sarandon, Russell Simmons, Cornel West, Charles Barron, Frances Fox Piven, and Charles Rangel.
By October 6, 2011, the "Occupy Wall Street" movement had spread to 147 cities in the U.S. and 28 overseas and began calling itself "Occupy Together." Among the American cities where OWS protesters had established a foothold were Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, Seattle, Lexington, Tallahassee, Tampa, Gainesville, Washington DC, Houston, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Atlanta, Huntsville, Birmingham, Jersey City, Trenton, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, St. Louis, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Wichita, New Orleans, Cleveland, Austin, Dallas, Phoenix, Indianapolis, Hartford, Madison, Colorado Springs, Tulsa, Chattanooga, Boise, Minneapolis, Sacramento, Nashville, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Dayton, and Portland (Oregon).
Front groups of the community organization ACORN played a major role in organizing the OWS protests nationwide. For instance, the Working Families Party (WFP), a longtime ACORN front, helped mobilize the demonstrations in New York City. "[We are] actually trying to change the capitalist system we have today because it’s not working for any of us," WFP organizer Nelini Stamp told Laura Flanders of Free Speech TV in an interview.
Meanwhile, ACORN’s newer front groups were likewise deeply involved in launching and spreading the OWS movement in October 2011. For instance, New York Communities for Change -- led by longtime ACORN lobbyist Jon Kest -- helped WFP organize the demonstrations in lower Manhattan. In Pennsylvania, Action United participated in the "Occupy Pittsburgh" rallies. In Florida, Organize Now took part in "Occupy Orlando." The Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment led the "Occupy L.A." protests. And New England United for Justice, headed by former ACORN national president Maude Hurd, participated in the related “Take Back Boston” rallies in Massachusetts.
In addition to the individuals listed thus far, other notables who have expressed support for the OWS movement include billionaire financier George Soros, labor leader Richard Trumka, former U.S. senator Russ Feingold, entertainer Roseanne Barr, hip-hop star Kanye West, actor Alec Baldwin, film star Jane Fonda, activist Yoko Ono, preacher Jim Wallis, congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, congressman John Lewis, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee director Robby Mook, TV personality Keith Olbermann, political commentator Rachel Maddow, and former Obama "green jobs czar" Van Jones. Moreover, President Barack Obama said that the OWS protesters "are giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works."
OWS's mission is supported also by a host of activist organizations and leftwing labor unions, including the Working Families Party, the Communist Party USA, the International Socialist Organization, the Peace and Freedom Party, the Democratic Socialists of America, National People's Action, Citizen Action, MoveOn.org, Common Cause, 350.org, the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, and the Service Employees International Union.
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/prin ... grpid=7694
Those who support this movement really should understand who they are in proverbial bed with.
