Showing posts with label Zuccotti Park. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zuccotti Park. Show all posts

Friday, March 23, 2012

The Right To Peaceful Assembly In New York City

Occupy Wall Street protesters have taken over ...Occupy Wall Street protesters have taken over Zuccotti Park as a base of operations. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)It blows my mind that Zuccotti Park is private. It absolutely blows my mind. While we are at it why don't we privatize Central Park as well? Maybe The Donald will buy it. What about Prospect Park? I mean. Isn't there a budget deficit or something? What are parks for?

This city needs to buy back Zuccotti Park at the earliest, like this year. And give it to the Occupy people. The Occupy people put New York City on the world map last year like nobody and nothing else. That has to be honored. It is called saying thank you.

Ends up there is no right to peaceful assembly in New York City. There is a right to peaceful assembly in New York City just like there is a right to free speech in Syria. Assad was asked about free speech a few years back. He said, there is free speech in Syria. As long as people are respectful and decent in what they say. Otherwise you will have chaos, he said. Imagine that. Chaos.

There are people in this city who think the Occupy people doing their 24/7 thing in Zuccotti Park last year was chaos. Do they smell? They asked. It took a Time magazine to see the Occupier's worth, and people running this city still don't get it.

And this city is supposed to be the progressive capital of the world? I am not feeling it. I am not feeling the love.

10 million people joining a Facebook group could not have done what 200 people camping out 24/7 in Zuccotti Park did. It had to happen in person. It had to happen 24/7. It needed to happen in a public place.
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Friday, November 18, 2011

Somewhere To Start

Day 50 Occupy Wall Street November 5 2011 Shan...Image by david_shankbone via Flickr(1) A second term for Barack Obama, with a super majority in the Senate and a majority in the House in exchange for total campaign finance reform within the first 100 days of his second term. If that is not delivered, launch a new third political party. This is me saying 2012 is about The Agenda, not Barack Obama.

(2) Wealth Equity Tax of 10% on all corporations with a valuation over a billion dollars.

(3) Nationalize Zuccotti Park.

Jeff Sachs: New York Times: The New Progressive Movement: Following our recent financial calamity, a third progressive era is likely to be in the making. This one should aim for three things. The first is a revival of crucial public services, especially education, training, public investment and environmental protection. The second is the end of a climate of impunity that encouraged nearly every Wall Street firm to commit financial fraud. The third is to re-establish the supremacy of people votes over dollar votes in Washington....... The progressive era took 20 years to correct abuses of the Gilded Age. The New Deal struggled for a decade to overcome the Great Depression, and the expansion of economic justice lasted through the 1960s. The new wave of reform is but a few months old. ...... The young people in Zuccotti Park and more than 1,000 cities have started America on a path to renewal. The movement, still in its first days, will have to expand in several strategic ways. Activists are needed among shareholders, consumers and students to hold corporations and politicians to account. Shareholders, for example, should pressure companies to get out of politics. Consumers should take their money and purchasing power away from companies that confuse business and political power. The whole range of other actions — shareholder and consumer activism, policy formulation, and running of candidates — will not happen in the park..... To put it simply: tax the rich, end the wars and restore honest and effective government for all....... Finally, the new progressive era will need a fresh and gutsy generation of candidates to seek election victories not through wealthy campaign financiers but through free social media. A new generation of politicians will prove that they can win on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and blog sites, rather than with corporate-financed TV ads. By lowering the cost of political campaigning, the free social media can liberate Washington from the current state of endemic corruption. .... A new generation of leaders is just getting started. The new progressive age has begun.
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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Occupy Zuccotti: The Eviction

Day 31 Occupy Wall Street October 16 2011 Shan...Image by david_shankbone via Flickr(1) I am not alarmed.
(2) The operation was well done, well executed.
(3) It was the wrong thing to do.
(4) New York City should take pride in the fact that something that started in a small park in this city has spread across the world. Liverpool takes pride in The Beatles.
(5) There will be a regrouping.
(6) The eviction was top news on Google News for an entire day. It probably still is. The Occupy people could not have thought of a better way to spread their message around the country, around the world. An operationally well executed plan was a political defeat, if the purpose was to calm down the Occupy movement.
(7) The movement has to rethink, regroup, and do one better.

(8) It is not within this or any other mayor's power to address the concerns of the movement. The mayor does not have a political solution. The movement is above the mayor's pay scale. The movement is not asking the mayor for the solution. No city official can address.
(9) This movement is out of the box thinking. It is stepping out. It is saying the entire system is dysfunctional. Something fundamental is not working.
(10) The movement can sleep outdoors if it wants to. Why not? The right to peaceful assembly does not end when the sun sets.

(11) The movement has to go through some introspection.
(12) Public acts are important. 200 people in 200 basements hammering away on social media sites could not have had one millionth the impact. Of course Zuccotti Park mattered. That 24/7 character has to be brought back. (Occupy Wall Street Could Legitimately Go Indoors)
(13) Nonviolence is the only option.
(14) My favorite part of the movement so far has been individuals writing out on placards explaining what makes them part of the 99%. That has to be magnified.

(15) Mass actions like literally shutting down Wall Street and crossing the Brooklyn Bridge in ways that disrupt traffic might be great ways to get old media attention and magnify the message, but they go beyond my personal comfort level for now.
(16) But then financial bad behavior on Wall Street over the past decade was not exactly within your comfort level either.
(17) I wish the movement worked harder to achieve more sophisticated levels of organization.
(18) Isolated incidents of possible criminal behavior, or in one case suicide, would be a lame excuse to shut down the movement. There are murders taking place in New York City every day. Should the city be shut down?

(19) Message.
(20) Organization.
(21) The movement will take a few months to take both of those to the next level. The mayor wants debates. There will be debates.

The Occupy movement is not a mirror image of the Tea Party. To say it is to suggest Charlie Rangel is a modern day MLK. The Occupy movement competes with acts by MLK. It is a modern day movement, completely crowd sourced.

Occupy The World
Occupy Wall Street Could Legitimately Go Indoors
Occupy
The Conversation Is The Revolution
Tahrir Square In America
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Sunday, November 13, 2011

Occupy The World

Day 43 Occupy Wall Street October 29 2011 Shan...Image by david_shankbone via FlickrOccupy America has to be first and foremost about total campaign finance reform. I was Barack Obama's first full time volunteer in New York City. And I staunchly believe in the guy's reelection. But I have tried to see the Occupy movement for what it is and I have been open to options that might or might not be best for Barack Obama's political party. (A Multi Party System For America) But I believe 2012 has to be about The Agenda. The agenda is total campaign finance reform and progressive taxation (Sales Tax, Wealth Equity Tax) within 100 days of Barack Obama's second term. To that end giving him a second term, a super majority in the Senate and a majority in the House might be the best way. (Occupy Wall Street: My Idea Of Obama 2012) But that can be no blank check. The Occupy movement has to spell out the agenda by the summer of 2012.

Occupy China, Occupy Russia, Occupy Iran All Over Again

The Occupy movement can achieve globally what guns and tanks can not. The Occupy movement can end all wars for all times. You do that by turning all countries into democracies through peaceful protests. And once that goal is achieved, by achieving rule of law between countries. The UN General Assembly has to be reorganized and turned into a true global parliament.

Occupy Wall Street Could Legitimately Go Indoors
Occupy
The Conversation Is The Revolution
Tahrir Square In America
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Sunday, October 23, 2011

Occupy Wall Street: My Idea Of Obama 2012




Occupy
Sales Tax, Wealth Equity Tax
The Conversation Is The Revolution
Tahrir Square In America

There are people who are saying Occupy Wall Street will not survive the New York winter. They obviously don't know the difference between a political movement and a camping trip. This is no camping trip.

This thing is just getting started. Within a month this movement has gone national, has gone global.

I want to emphasize. This is not about seeking confrontations with the police. The police are part of the 99%. All they want is information. They want to know beforehand if you are going to come out into the streets. Tell them.

The Occupy movement is about finding one public space in every town, every city, and then filling it up to capacity - in New York I believe that number is 1,000 - and maintaining that number by having people camp out in rotation. You are looking for volunteers who will show up for one 24 hour period and then will stay on stand by after that. The more people you can thus "process" the better. Because all such "processed" people will join the online army. People who have been there, done that will be more enthusiastic.

If the number is 1,000 in New York City, in a small town that number might be 50, or even 20. That would work.

The important thing is for all such occupations to stay connected to each other. Create a Twitter account. Create a Facebook page. Create a YouTube channel. Create a LiveStream page.

The ultimate idea is to occupy the first 100 days of the Obama administration in 2013. And then we can go home.

Stay at capacity. If the capacity in Zuccotti Park is 1,000 people, stick to 1,000 people. Have people sign up online. There likely will be a core group of about 30 people, but even that core group can rotate.

Do march. It is important to come out into the street. But inform the NYPD beforehand. One march a month would work. And one big march next summer. Summer of 2012. A million strong march into Central Park from all parts of the city, into one big convergence.

The number one agenda item is to take money out of politics and to turn America into a one person, one vote democracy that it is not today. Total campaign finance reform. The rest follow from that.

Keep the White House. Take back the House. Acquire a super majority of 60 plus in the Senate. And demand that Obama and Pelosi carry out the agenda during the first 100 days of 2013.

Occupy Wall Street also is to do with the global spread of democracy. We have to uproot one dictator after another. We can do it.

Stay connected. Stay communicated. The conversation is the revolution.

(1) Total campaign finance reform.
(2) Universal health.
(3) Universal, lifelong education.
(4) Global democracy.
(5) A Global Marshall Plan.

(6) End the Bush tax cuts.
(7) A wealth equity tax. The American people, represented by the US federal government, own 10% of every company that has a market value over a billion dollars.

(8) Put up 20 satellites at a cost of $400 million each to ensure universally global broadband, ad supported. As long as people anywhere can buy/borrow/share/receive hardware - laptop/tablet/smartphone - and are willing to watch ads, they have broadband. This 20 billion will be recouped. This is an investment, not an expense.
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Sunday, October 16, 2011

Occupy

The corner of Wall Street and Broadway, showin...Image via WikipediaCongregate. Do not disrupt. This is about getting together, peacefully, amicably, almost in a celebratory way.

This is not about disrupting traffic. This is not about preventing people from going to work. This is not about seeking confrontations with the police.

It has to stay completely nonviolent. It has to become super, duper organized. It has to be sophisticated.

Occupy one public space in each city, each town where people camp out around the clock. If the space's capacity is 1,000 people, stay at 1,000 people. Get people to participate in rotation. So one person might clock in for one 24 hour period to be replaced by another person who signed up to be there.

The occupation can not end until the fundamental fabric of the democracy has been impacted. The goal is one person, one vote democracy. The insane people running the banks on Wall Street threw the bus into the ditch and gave the world the Great Recession. Now they want to go back to their same old ways. That is not an option.

We want a new architecture for global finance. And so the occupation has to continue. It has to grow. It has to grow on all continents. It has to grow from one city to many cities. It has to go to every town, every city. Maybe you are a small town, and your public space will only hold 50 people, and that is okay.

The thing is, we are all connected. The occupation in one town is connected to the occupation in every other town. Each city is connected to every other. This is a global movement, a national movement.

It has to stay nonviolent. It has to stay intelligent. It has to be about the conversation. The mass, public action is about the conversation. For every person camped out at a park, there are 1,000 people and more participating online. That online "occupation" is as real as it gets. These are real people with real opinions, with real challenges, real political weight.

This movement is about roping in more and more people into the conversation.

Sales Tax, Wealth Equity Tax
The Conversation Is The Revolution
Tahrir Square In America
America And Europe Need To Learn From Japan
This Woman Is Dynamo
The Mini Me Stimulus Bill Lacks Imagination
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