NYPD loses face and first Occupy Wall Street trial

NYPD loses face and first Occupy Wall Street trial

 

This case could have been a slam dunk for the NYPD, had it not been for one thing: the video showing police claims of disorderly conduct during an OWS protest to be completely untrue. 

Hundreds have been arrested during the Occupy Wall Street protests, but photographer Alexander Arbuckle’s case was the first to go to trial – and after just two days, the Manhattan Criminal Court found him not guilty.

Supporters of the OWS protest movement have already hailed the ruling as a major legal victory.

How to start a revolution: Learn from Iceland!

The people of Iceland forced their corrupt government to resign.
A public assembly was created to rewrite the constitution.
The banks were nationalized, it was decided not to pay the debt that PRIVATE banks created.

All of this in a peaceful way...

What would happen if the rest of the world took this as an example?

#UkUncut London Street Party

#UkUncut London Street Party




On Saturday 26th May people shared and aired concerns and issues about austerity and the long lasting damage this would have on our nations critical NHS service. UK Uncut Great British Street Party held outside Nick Cleggs home demanded that we keep our public services, our rights and our welfare system and to celebrate a new future that isn’t dictated to us by a handful of millionaires but decided by us all – together.

American Spring

American Spring 

Even the cold early spring of 2012 could not deter Occupy Wall Street (OWS) activists in New York city.

People from different backgrounds continue to come out onto the streets.

The agenda driving all the protesters remains the same: income inequality, corruption among banks and multinational corporations, foreclosures, climate change, police brutality and above all, the need to get together and talk in person – not just via mobile phones.

It is all about the courage of ordinary men and women to tell the truth to those who hold power.

RT Question More

RT Question More

RT is a 24/7 English-language news channel. 

We are set to show you how any story can be another story altogether. Broadcasting over six continents and 100 countries, our coverage focuses on international headlines, giving an innovative angle set to challenge viewers worldwide. The channel is government-funded but shapes its editorial policy free from political and commercial influence. Our dedicated team of news professionals unites young talent and household names in the world of broadcast journalism.

We're here to bring you another story.

Blockupy Frankfurt

20,000 people march at a Frankfurt Occupy protest

BERLIN - At least 20,000 people held a major rally of the local Occupy movement in Frankfurt on Saturday to decry austerity measures affecting much of Europe, the dominance of banks, and what they call untamed capitalism.

The protest group, named Blockupy, has called for blocking access to the European Central Bank, which is located in Frankfurt's business district.

This from One Person One Change 

BREAKING NEWS: Police in Frankfurt, Germany take off their badges & helmets to join protesters on an anti-capitalist march and defend them against military ordered to use force to disperse the demonstration. The guards are turning sides. The revolution is drawing near. The people are coming.

The German police took off their helmets and marched with the protest clearing the way for them.  Thought you may like to have this image as well… 

The police coming over to serve and protect the people…

Blockupy Frankfurt. Police are escorting, not participating. Reports of an estimated 20,000+ protesters. Nice to see their faces…. and their humanity coming through…

Mexican Farmers Block Monsanto

Progressive small farmer organizations in Mexico scored a victory over transnational corporations that seek to monopolize seed and food patents.

 

Farmers Win a Battle, but the Offensive Continues

Now that the regular session has been concluded and the bill wasn’t presented, it will have to wait for a new session.  

Withdrawal of the bill was a victory for the social organizations over the transnational beneficiaries of the bill, particularly Monsanto.

Well done people of Mexico!

 

Occupy London Global Spring Day

On 12 May 2012, the Occupy, Indignados and Take the Square movements all over the world called for a global day of action which saw thousands of people taking to the streets.

This piece is a detailed report of how the Occupy London's day progressed, from talks in St Paul's Cathedral to 11 arrests under section 14 of the 1986 Public Order Act at the Bank of England.

The Jubilee is a national sedative- this is a national wake up call

Cameron wants to see ‘the mother of all parties’. The Queen is old – celebrate! 

The Olympics are in town – celebrate! Ignore the fact that we are screwing you, your parents, your grandparents, your children, your friends and neighbours. Ignore the fact that we will monitor your emails, tap your phones, sell off the hospitals and schools brick by brick to the private companies. Have an extra day off, have a party, drink some tea, preferably drink some Pimms. But whatever you do, don’t remember the unemployment figures, the number of disabled people who are killing themselves because their benefits are stopped or the number of services you use that are being scrapped.

 Don’t dissent. Don’t resist. Don’t protest. If you do, you are unpatriotic, a killjoy, a ‘dangerous anarchist’. We will arrest you if you put an anti-Olympics poster in the window, we will stop and search if you’re wearing a hoodie too near the Olympic stadium. We will pre-emptively arrest you and slap an ASBO on you if you dare to suggest that all is not well and try to do something about it.

 UK Uncut also wants to party – but for completely different reasons. We want to undermine the government’s propaganda and the Jubilee pageantry.

The idea of UK Uncut holding street parties of resistance came from anger that the government will use Jubilee celebrations as a national sedative and a justification to clamp down on political protest. We want people to remember and to resist the cuts being rammed through by the government. We want people to celebrate a different future, determined by everyone.

And from Photography by Ben

Click the link for more photos and his take on the day.

More here from Heard in London

 

 UK Uncut hold anti-austerity street party outside Nick Clegg's house

 

Occupy Wall Street: The Most Important Thing in the World Now

A little old but a really good article by Naomi Klein October 6, 2011 

We have picked a fight with the most powerful economic and political forces on the planet. That’s frightening. And as this movement grows from strength to strength, it will get more frightening. Always be aware that there will be a temptation to shift to smaller targets—like, say, the person sitting next to you at this meeting. After all, that is a battle that’s easier to win.

Don’t give in to the temptation. I’m not saying don’t call each other on shit. But this time, let’s treat each other as if we plan to work side by side in struggle for many, many years to come. Because the task before will demand nothing less.

Let’s treat this beautiful movement as if it is most important thing in the world. Because it is. It really is.

May 27th Solidarity Assembly at 12:00pm

Washington Square Park (Garibaldi Statue on the East side of the park)

This is part of weekly thematic assemblies.

2012-05-25 Stand up for Julian Assange before it's too late

On May 23, Julian Assange attended a screening of "Shadows of Liberty" wearing a kevlar Guy Fawkes mask.

"This may be my last time in public, so I thought I should start with a situation where you won't be able to see me anymore."

The UK Supreme Court will decide whether or not Julian Assange is to be extradited to Sweden on May 30, at 9:15AM.

The proceedings will be open to the public and will also be live-streamed via the Sky website. The judgment is expected to last around 10 minutes.

If the court rules to extradite Mr Assange, he will be sent to Sweden within 10 days. He can appeal further to the European Court of Human Rights, though this will not stop his extradition.

Julian Assange has not been charged with any crime in any country, yet he will have spent 540 days detained—10 in solitary confinement, and 530 under house arrest—by the time the verdict is handed down. 

Sweden is trying to extradite him for the purpose of questioning, but they have refused all offers to question him via telephone or video call, despite it being a completely legal method under Swedish law.

If extradited to Sweden, Mr Assange will be immediately placed in prison, incommunicado. He will be held in solitary confinement, which the UN Rapporteur on Torture stated amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in excess of 15 days.

Since Sweden does not have a bail system, he will be held for an indefinite period of time. If charged, the following trial would be held in secret.

How You Can Help:

Donate

Julian Assange is faced with hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, despite never having faced any charges. There are many ways you can donate to his legal fund:

Rally

Supporters will be at the UK Supreme Court on May 30, starting at 8:00AM (set up at 7:30AM). You can find out more about this event at the Veterans for Peace UK website.

Rallies are planned all over the world to support Julian Assange on May 30 and 31. See our list of rallies and attend one near you. If there isn't one in your area, establish your own and contact us with the information so we can add it to the main list.

Build Community

Join Friends of WikiLeaks, a social network created to help build connections between people with similar causes.

Spread the Facts

People must be informed about the injustices Julian Assange has faced, and the ones he could potentially face in the future. It is vital to spread the facts to the public.

Casseroles - Montréal, 24 Mai 2012

They took away the right to peaceful protest by camping - but they can't take away the thoughts and ideas that have now taken root. People will protest and show solidarity with the Occupy movement in any way they can.  You can't evict an idea!

Video: #OWS Summer Disobedience School rings the People's Alarm in Times Square! #SDS #Occupy

Occupy's Spiritual Quest

The fork in the road ahead. From Adbusters.

Three years after the May 1968 uprising that swept the world, the great French philosopher Michel Foucault observed that a key strategy of power is to “appear inaccessible to events.” Power, Foucault argued with a nod towards 1968’s failed insurrection, acts to “dispel the shock of daily occurrences, to dissolve the event … to exclude the radical break introduced by events.”

Forty years later, in light of Occupy, Foucault’s observation still strikes home. Despite achieving the impossible at unprecedented speed – sparking a global awakening, triggering a thousand people’s assemblies worldwide, and giving birth to a visceral anti-corporate, pro-democracy spiritual insurrection – Occupy is now struggling through an existential moment. 

 Our movement has been dealt a blow: our May 1 and follow-up events have been dissolved by power; the status quo has shown itself to be far more resilient than many of us expected.

Now a passionate debate is emerging within our movement. On one side are those who cheer the death of Occupy in the hopes that it will transform into something unexpected and new. And on the other are patient organizers who counsel that all great movements take years to unfold.

...

The fire in the soul of Occupy burns from Oakland to Quebec, Barcelona to Chicago, Wall Street to Moscow and Frankfurt… the question now is which fork in the road will our movement take?

Occupy Montreal

From Occupy Wall St on twitter 

 

This is what solidarity looks like. from Shawn Carrie at Occupy Wall St yesterday in  Montréal

EU health commission: Monsanto strain won’t be banned

Members of the "Occupy" movement in the Midwest protest against Monsanto's agricultural practices in front of the Missouri Botanical Garden during the "Occupy the Midwest" regional conference in St. Louis, Missouri March 16, 2012 (Reuters/Sarah Conard)

Invincible agricultural giant Monsanto has once again demonstrated its ability to crush countries on the legal battlefield. The EFSA has ruled there is no “scientific evidence” of damage caused by consuming genetically-modified maize.

­France is the latest country to try and battle Monsanto over its genetically-modified corn. In February it requested that the European Commission ban the MON 810 strain from EU markets, supporting the request with scientific argumentation. While awaiting the decision, French government unilaterally reinstalled a ban on MON 810, though the country’s highest court had earlier ruled in favor of Monsanto.

It took the European Food Safety Authority three months to come to a quite predictable conclusion – that the strain poses no threat, and will not be banned.

France is by far not the only country attempting to get rid of Monsanto’s maize. Five other EU countries – Germany, Greece, Austria, Luxembourg and Hungary – also imposed ban on MON 810 cultivation.

But in the US, the billion-dollar corporation's home, only the protesters in the streets seem to care. In March, thousands of people joined the Occupy Monsanto movement and marched through Washington, DC, Seattle, and Los Angeles.

Protesters accuse the biotech giant of anti-competitive actions like cleaning its reputation with multibillion-dollar cash injections and deliberately bankrupting independent farmers in order to force them into using their genetically-engineered seeds.

The Occupy Monsanto movement is planning to launch another round of protests during the harvesting season 2012.

Monsanto buys leading bee research firm after being implicated in bee colony collapse

(NaturalNews) Amid all the controversy over genetically-modified (GM) crops and their pesticides and herbicides decimating bee populations all around the world, biotechnology behemoth Monsanto has decided to buy out one of the major international firms devoted to studying and protecting bees.

According to a company announcement, Beeologics handed over the reins to Monsanto back on September 28, 2011, which means the gene-manipulating giant will now be able to control the flow of information and products coming from Beeologics for colony collapse disorder (CCD).

Since 2007, Beeologics has been studying CCD, as well as Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV), for the purpose of coming up with intervention-based ways to mitigate these conditions. And based on the way the company describes both CCD and IAPV on its website, Beeologics has largely taken the approach that intervention, rather than prevention, is the key to solving the global bee crisis.

Now that Beeologics is owned and controlled by Monsanto, the company is sure to completely avoid dealing with the true causes of CCD and IAPV as they pertain to Monsanto's crop technologies -- GMOs and their chemical counterparts. 

 So going into the future, it seems expected that Beeologics will come up with "scientific breakthroughs" that deny any link between CCD and GMO technologies, and instead blame mystery pathogens and other factors that require more chemicals to eliminate.

Azerbaijan: Imprisoned for peaceful protest

Tural Abbasli was arrested at a protest in April 2011, and is now serving two and a half years in prison. 

He is one of 17 prisoners of conscience that have been detained in connection with anti-government protests last spring.

Although five have been released, Tural and 11 others remain behind bars.

Tural’s lawyer has told us that he was beaten by police after his arrest last year and since then he has been expelled from university and family members have been fired from their jobs.

In March 2012 it was reported that two of the prisoners were beaten up by prison guards. Police then violently broke up a protest by their supporters outraged at the news and briefly detained a further 17 people.  Five of the protestors, including Jabbar Savalan, were beaten up by the police.

Update: 16 May 2012

11 of those jailed for their role in the anti-government protests last spring launched a hunger strike yesterday (15 May), and have vowed to continue until the end of the Eurovision Song Contest, which takes place in Azerbaijan later this month. Some of the prisoners' relatives have joined the hunger strike in solidarity. 

Read more here 

Take action here

 

Again with the pots! Louder this time! 8pm EST!

Again with the pots! Louder this time! 8pm EST!

I'm never going to forget that experience. Just walked out of my house banging a pot, then everyone else on my block appeared at their balconies and doors doing the same thing, so we decided to go for a walk. Turns out everyone else in the neighbourhood was also banging their pots, so we all got together and walked around for a few hours. Finished the night with a few beers and some new friends.

This is what democracy looks like.




Again last night, Quebecers and people around the world showed their indignation for corruption, undemocratic practices, and debt slavery by joining their communities in a thunderous clanging of pots! In coordination with Occupy Wall Street and other groups, people in the US and Europe also started banging on pots.

Our traditional methods of communicating - through our media, our politics, our business - are corrupt and unusable, so we will get our message out with pots!

Let's build a global movement!

Solidarity with the Mexican Spring

One week ago, hundreds of students demonstrated outside Televisa's broadcasting centers. 

 The protests continued to grow, reaching a size of around 50,000 in Mexico City on Saturday, when marchers shut down Paseo de la Reforma, a main thoroughfare in the capital. Over 20 cities in Mexico have joined in solidarity so far.

MarchYoSoy132, May 23 2012

Occupy Quebec

IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE PEOPLE OF QUEBEC, SHOW YOUR INDIGNATION FOR CORRUPTION, UNDEMOCRATIC PRACTICES, AND DEBT SLAVERY!

Montreal police have been doing whatever it takes to snuff out the nightly protests. In response, we've de-centralized.

Last night, at 8pm EST, people all over the province, but mainly in Montreal, went outside and started banging on kitchen pots, making a massive noise that could be heard all over Montreal island.

People came off their balconies and into the streets, and dozens of marches started forming, getting larger, and larger, all converging on downtown.

We're doing it again tonight, and every night, jusqu'à la victoire!

400 arrested in Canada student fees protests

Quebec last week passed emergency legislation meant to end Canada's most sustained student demonstrations ever

About 400 people have been arrested in the latest protest in Canada over higher university tuition fees.

Occupy Everywhere

Uploaded by standupsp3ak0ut on Jan 18, 2012

A video collaboration of vids and pics from occupy movements everywhere! Occupy the world!

Nato Weekend In Chicago May 2012

Nato Weekend In Chicago May 2012

Loads more photos

 

Thousands of protestors participating in an anti-war march walk south on Michigan Avenue for a rally near McCormick Place. (Fox News reported a couple hundred protesters). I said it once, I'll say it again: If you rely on Fox for news, you're a fucking idiot. — Zbigniew Bzdak, Chicago Tribune, May 20, 2012

Move Our Money. Bank Local.

May is Move Our Money Month. Bank Local!

Will we continue down the path to less freedom, less free time, and more stress. More bills, more greed, environmental destruction. Will we allow the 1% to get away with destroying communities and controlling the government? Or will we say no more. We are the 99% and we will no longer tolerate the greed and rule of the 1%. Our actions determine the direction we go. Lets organize.

Let’s move our money out of their criminal too big to fail banks. Here’s how ...

Monsanto is going after kids

Monsanto is going after kids....

The 16 page guide was produced by a group known as the Council for Biotechnology Information (CBI), a pro-GMO coalition of the world's largest biotechnology companies and organizations. CBI routinely ignores independent science that shows GMOs and their growing chemicals to be dangerous, and continues to purvey the lie that GMO technologies are not only safe, but that they are superior to conventional and organic growing methods.

"We're broke."

Or so claim governors and lawmakers all over the country. Our states and our nation can no longer afford, their plaint goes, the programs and services that Americans expect government to provide. We must do with less. We need "austerity."

But we're not broke. Not even close. The United States of America is awash in wealth. Our corporations are holding record trillions in cash. And overall individual wealth in the United States, the Credit Suisse Research Institute reported this past fall, has risen 23 percent since the year 2000, to $236,213 per American adult.

War Veterans Protest, Throw Their Medals at NATO Summit!

May 20, 2012 CHICAGO (Reuters) - Nearly 50 U.S. military veterans at an anti-NATO rally in Chicago threw their service medals into the street on Sunday, an action they said symbolized their rejection of the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Discretionary spending USA

Discretionary spending USA

'NoNato

A few photos from around the web, sorry have no authers.  Let me know if any are yours.

 

 

Blockupy Frankfurt: Promised, fulfilled?

Declaration on the conclusion of the European Action Days

This portrayal is unembellished: we know our limits. We know that these limits are more restricted than we would like. We wanted to be more; we wanted more often to be the one decisive step ahead. We’ve wished that there would have been more tents on the squares, for a longer period.

We had prepared a large range of asambleas and und meetings, opportunities to have a free exchange and free debates. The violence of the bans and the violence of those who executed them, kept us from doing so.

Blockupy Frankfurt was just a beginning. But a beginning is something that can be instantaneously reiterated, always new. This is what we trusted in; this is what we believed in, together with many others. This is what we have now made possible.

Capital, state and their apparatus of violence knew this, and this is what they tried to prohibit by their means.

This is what democracy looks like: a doubled face. Their face and ours. Everybody saw. From this experience many people have drawn their conclusions, others will follow tomorrow.

Capital, state and their apparatus of violence will still be there tomorrow. We will be there, too.

We will come back. We will meet again in Frankfurt, in Rome, in Athens, in Barcelona, in Tunis. Make capitalism history. Worldwide. Promised.

Thanks to all who joined us and will join us again.

Interventionist Left, May 20th

#NoNATO So Far: Thousands Protest War and Austerity

You wouldn't know it from watching CNN, but thousands of people have gathered this week in Chicago and elsewhere to peacefully express their indignation at a political system dominated by war and austerity. 

 

We are building a world without technocrats and political and financial elites, a world based on mutual aid, solidarity, direct democracy, and co-operation. Sometimes festive, sometimes militant, we are in the streets non-violently demanding health care, immigrant justice, ecological sustainability, education funding, and more. But the only thing corporate media wants to talk about is three people accused of making Molotov cocktails at the encouragement of police informants desperate to demonize nonviolent protesters in the public eye. In reality, the only violence this week has been perpetrated by the police themselves.

Here's what's really happened. (With pictures!)  ... Read on  ... 

It is about believing what is possible. Blockupy.

I created this image and slogan to capture my feelings after Blockupy. I have taken the background photo out of a live stream by the public/state-owned TV station Hessischer Rundfunk (hr). It shows the rally/assembly near the European Central Bank in Frankfurt on Saturday, the last day of Blockupy. Share it freely.

 

After four days of Blockupy Frankfurt and peaceful protest by more than 20,000 humans (according to the police), there is an awesome feeling in the air.

Blockupy Frankfurt has made something simple very clear:

It is possible!

Even though, in an outrageous violation of civil rights, all assemblies have been banned by the authorities (except the demonstration on the last day of Blockupy); even though 5,000 police officers enforced these bans in and out of Frankfurt by blocking and controlling almost the complete European Banking capital of Frankfurt:

It is possible to show worldwide solidarity.

It is possible to come together in great numbers.

It is possible to protest for real democracy, against austerity policies, against the overwhelming power of financial institutions.

It is possible to take squares temporarily and symbolically block the banking sector.

It is possible to stay completely peaceful and upbeat!

It is possible!

Why is this so important? ... Read on ...

Chicago Police Department (CPD) clash with thousands of protesters At NATO Summit

CHICAGO — Thousands of protesters marched through downtown Chicago on Sunday in one of the city's largest demonstrations in years, airing grievances about war, climate change and a wide range of other complaints as world leaders assembled for a NATO summit.

The protest, which stirred worries about violence in the streets, was largely peaceful until the end, when a small group of demonstrators clashed with a line of police who tried to keep them from the lakeside convention center where President Barack Obama is hosting the gathering.

The protesters tried to move east toward McCormick Place and threw objects at police. Some officers responded by swinging their batons. After more than an hour, the two sides were still locked in a standoff, with police blocking the protesters' path and the crowd refusing to leave. Some protesters appeared to have blood streaming down their faces. Authorities were seen carrying a few people away from the scene.

CNN Coverage of Police at NATO Summit in Chicago Against Protesters 5-20-2012

5-20-2012 Broadcast around 4:55pm PST live on CNN

OWS Summer Disobedience School

On May 26th OWS Direct Action Group launches Summer Disobedience School - kicking off 3 months of city-wide mayhem! 

We've completed Spring Training - and we're moving and communicating in the streets like never before.

Now we take our fight to sites of injustices throughout NYC, gradually building a culture of radical non-violent disobedience.

We'll be disrupting banks, corporations and the state all summer long, starting with the crooks in mid-town.

We graduate as a full-on revolutionary force September 17th: City-Wide Shut Down!

Occupy Together!

Nice one from Part-Time Occupy Support P.O.S.

Thousands march to oppose police repression in run-up to NATO summit

Chicago saw thousands of people in the streets Saturday in the run-up to the beginning of the NATO summit. with the afternoon's boisterous but peaceful protest marches marred by sweeping police violence.

Police beat corralled protesters at State and Washington: 19 May 2012 #NATO

Thousands of marchers gathered in Chicago today to continue a week of criticism directed at the arms industry, NATO, and the austerity measures carried out against social service providers on the local level.

The first of three marches on Saturday focused attention on the closures of half of the city of Chicago's neighborhood mental health clinics as 2-3 thousand people congregated in front of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's home at 4228 N. Hermitage.

Protests began in the morning, when people gathered at the Irving Park Brown Line public transit stop to don hospital gowns and canvas the local neighborhood, then assembled at noon for the “Healthcare not Warfare!” action. That protest marched on the house of mayor Rahm Emanuel to protest his closure of half of the city’s public mental health clinics in a ‘cost-saving’ measure protesters say is both unnecessary and part of the city’s push to privatize public services.

Cop van pushes protester in Chicago

Cop van pushes protester in Chicago


Video streaming by Ustream

SHARE THIS PHOTO!!! Protester in Chicago hit by police van about 20 minutes ago. NoNATO 

 It was your government, not imagined terrorists, that injured Americans today

NATO: Just why are people protesting?

A resource for civilian journalists, streamers and activists

Chris Geovanis, Chicago Indymedia

Solidarity March - Nato

Video streaming by Ustream

Occupy Nato

Police passing out these flyers all over Metra stations. This is draconian. Looks like I won't be able to use the train

Army Convoy Heading Towards NATO Summit As Chicago Law Enforcement Prepares For War With Protesters

Chicago police and security personal are set for what they seem to believe will be a full scale battle with protesters during this weekends NATO Summit.

With numerous protest groups set to launch widespread protests throughout the weekend, the police state is out like never before.

In a move eerily reminiscent of the Soviet Union and East Germany, multiple activists were arrested and literally disappeared just days before the summit.

An article published by RT quoted a National Lawyers Guild spokesman in regards to the pre crime arrests:

Hermes adds to the Tribune that “there’s absolutely no evidence of wrongdoing,” and that law enforcement officers were simply trying to make the activists “disappear” days before police expect major anti-NATO protests in Chicago.

“We were literally calling all morning and all afternoon to try to contact these people,” Hermes says. “That’s why we used the term ‘disappeared.’ ”

In a separate statement offered to an NBC News station in Chicago, Hermes adds,

“The city has so far not indicated the reasons for the raid, what they are charging the protesters with, nor provided any evidence of wrongdoing” and that the NLG was still seeking a copy of the search warrant used in the raid.

“Preemptive raids like this are a hallmark of National Special Security Events,” Sarah Gelsomino of the National Lawyers Guild and the People’s Law Office adds in a press release.

California Right to Know - 2012

Stand up for your right to know

California GMO Labeling Initiative Headed for Ballot: Right to Know Campaign Turns in Nearly One Million Signatures

SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- In victory rallies across state today, supporters celebrated as the California Right to Know campaign filed 971,126 signatures for the state's first-ever ballot initiative to require labeling of genetically engineered foods. The huge signature haul, gathered in a 10-week period, is nearly double the 555,236 signatures the campaign needs to qualify for the November ballot.

Occupy pages and Sites

138 Occupy pages and sites listed by Raina Lincicum.   From Australia to America to England ... Occupy the earth!!

Beekeepers Win Ban on Monsanto's GMOs in Poland

Monsanto's Mon810 corn, genetically engineered to produce a mutant version of the insecticide Bt, has been banned in Poland following protests by beekeepers who showed the corn was killing honeybees. 

Poland is the first country to formally acknowledge the link between Monsanto's genetically engineered corn and the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) that's been devastating bees around the world. Many analysts believe that Monsanto has known the danger their GMOs posed to bees all along.

The biotech giant recently purchased a CCD research firm, Beeologics, that government agencies, including the US Department of Agriculture, have been relying on for help unraveling the mystery behind the disappearance of the bees.

Occupy in Spain

2000 people going right now to the Spanish stock exchange in Madrid.

 

Indignados Puerta del Sol Madrid Spain  May 12 2012

Bankers’ lobby steps up to save sky-high bonuses

City big guns are lobbying hard in Europe to thwart moves aimed at curbing annual bonuses.

 

The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), one of the City’s most powerful financial lobby groups, is against capping bankers’ bonuses. It has written to members of  the European Parliament to vote against rules that would drastically limit them.

It is perhaps hardly surprising that the City wants to block these restrictions, but a glimpse at the level of lobbying occurring was provided by a story reported in the Sunday Telegraph. According to the newspaper the industry group wrote to Members of the European Parliament this weekend. The letter, seen by the Sunday Telegraph, was signed by Simon Lewis, chief executive of AFME. Lewis warns that amending the CRD to include a cap on bankers bonuses could result in banks simply raising basic salaries.

The AFME is made up of over 190 members including all pan-EU and global banks, key regional banks, brokers, law firms, investors and other financial market participants.

City AM has previously reported on AFME consulting with lawyers Clifford Chance over suing the EU if Brussels imposed such restrictions.

The Bureau has been looking into the issues around lobbying in the financial sector. Stay tuned for more. 

Times Square USA

This photograph was taken a few minutes ago in Times Square. Unfettered capitalism, an economic force that seemed unassailable, beyond reproach or reform, a monster we learned to be grateful for, suddenly finds its ugliness exposed among the lights of Times Square. 

Mass sit-in at Times Square

 

Peoples assembly at Times Square! Another City is Possible

 

When the 1 Percent Fails to Contribute Its Fair Share, Veterans Pay Dearly

Over the last few weeks, thousands of people from across the country have taken to the streets to demand the biggest corporations in the U.S. pay their fair share of taxes.

Last week, Bank of America was the latest corporation to face the wrath of shareholders and protesters for its business practices; this week,it's JPMorgan Chase, which is at the center of shareholder anger after losing $2 billion in investments, and Morgan Stanley, which has slashed jobs and rewarded its executives with lavish pay and bonuses despite its role in thefinancial meltdown.

The America that allows huge corporations to cut jobs here at home and get large tax breaks in the process is not the America I fought for.

What has happened to basic fairness in our economy when so many troops come back from their service, unable to find a decent job, yet still pay more in taxes than the likes of billionaires or huge corporations like GE?

As it turns out, big corporations aren't playing by the same rules -- and our communities are paying for it. Families are struggling to stay in their homes, facing joblessness and cuts to vital services. Our children's schools are crumbling and the American Dream -- a good life for those who work hard and play by the rules -- is receding further and further out of sight.

Many who served in Iraq and Afghanistan were part of the National Guard. While they can't be laid-off while deployed, there was no guarantee the company or small business they worked for would exist when they came home. Military families are particularly hard-hit, often having to make do with less income while loved ones are deployed, and expenses like child care increase in a temporary one-parent household. They need relief.

Yet corporations like General Electric, Wells Fargo and Bank of America rake in billions and get away with paying no federal income taxes, or are taxed at a lower rate than those serving in the military. Their refusal to pay their fair share has cost our economy billions of dollars that could fund Medicare, education, veterans' services, and create jobs for men and women returning from service.

Tax-dodging General Electric was once a shining example of American enterprise, providing good jobs that could support families. Entire towns and cities grew around GE plants and generations of families worked for GE for their entire lives. Innovation and job creation went hand in hand and as GE grew, so did our economy.

Now, GE is the poster-child for corporate tax-dodging. GE keeps billions offshore, avoiding U.S. taxes. It lavishes millions on executives while cutting tens of thousands of jobs, and employs an army of tax attorneys and political lobbyists like Capitol Tax Partners (which also lobbies for Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, State Street Corporation and other Wall Street giants that crashed the economy) to buy influence, invent and lobby for corporate tax loopholes, and keep GE ahead of its tax bill.

Did the White House Direct the Police Crackdown on Occupy?

A new trove of heavily redacted documents provided by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) on behalf of filmmaker Michael Moore and the National Lawyers Guild makes it increasingly evident that there was and is a nationally coordinated campaign to disrupt and crush the Occupy Movement.

The latest documents, reveal “intense involvement” by the DHS’s so-called National Operations Center (NOC).  In its own literature, the DHS describes the NOC as “the primary national-level hub for domestic situational awareness, common operational picture, information fusion, information sharing, communications, and coordination pertaining to the prevention of terrorist attacks and domestic incident management.”

The DHS says that the NOC is “the primary conduit for the White House Situation Room” and that it also “facilitates information sharing and operational coordination with other federal, state, local, tribal, non-governmental operation centers and the private sector.”

A better description for a fascist police state network could not be written.

Remember, this vast yet centralized operation — what Verheyden-Hilliard describes as “a vast, tentacled, national intelligence and domestic spying network that the U.S. government operates against its own people” — was in this case deployed not against some terrorist organization or even mob or drug cartel, but rather against a loose-knit band of protesters, all conscientiously and publicly committed to nonviolence, who were exercising their Constitutionally-protected right to gather in public places and to speak out against the crimes and abuses of the corporate elite and the politicians who are bought and paid by that elite.

The overall sense from these latest documents is that Washington and the DHS, along with the FBI, was the nexus of the crackdown, orchestrating it, encouraging it, and attempting to cover its tracks.

The documents among other things expose the massive hypocrisy of the Obama administration and the Democratic Party, which this election year have tried to co-opt and claim as their own the anti-fat-cat theme of the “We are the 99%”-chanting Occupiers, while actually acting in the interest of Bank of America and its fellow financial sector mega-firms in trying to crush the movement itself.

To see all the new FOIA documents, go to the  PJIF website.

Protesting NATO: What to Know About the Secret Service and H.R. 347

The forthcoming summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, set for May 20 and 21 in Chicago, could be the first public test of H.R. 347, the recently passed law that expanded the ability of the Secret Service to suppress protests in or around certain restricted zones near individuals under its protection. We've written about H.R. 347 here and here

What will be particularly interesting (read: alarming) is if the Secret Service starts to use the law to get at protests that are physically removed from the event. 

For instance, if a lawful protest that is within earshot of the summit gets rowdy enough that it "disrupts" the "orderly conduct of Government business or official functions," does that trigger the statute? We just don't know. The Secret Service certainly has the ability and obligation to secure the individuals it protects, but it also must permit lawful protest to be seen and heard. It cannot use H.R. 347 to "sanitize" the summit.

In any event, the summit is slightly more than a week away and time will soon tell how "big a deal" the law is. As always, if you hear anything on H.R. 347, let us know, and you can also personally urge the Secret Service to respect the First Amendment here.

Police Aggression London

Must watch video: Eleven arrests during peaceful Occupy London protest at the Bank of England

Section 14 Order – indicating imminent public disorder, damage to property or serious disruption to the community – enforced on “questionable” grounds.

Failure by police to communicate with protestors, political policing, aggressive arrests, reckless use of police force – all captured on video

Indications emerging that arrests targeted specific Occupy London supporters

Bail conditions indicate crackdown on lawful protest activities ahead of the Olympics and Jubilee, reminiscent of the ‘pre-crime’ arrests around the Royal Wedding last year for which a Judicial Review will shortly be heard.
Police from virtually every borough inLondon- in addition to members of the Territorial Support Group – violently removed supporters of Occupy London who were merely sitting on the steps of the Royal Exchange Saturday 15 May. The arrests came after a day of “Meet the 1%” activities and marches throughout the city that were timed to coincide with an international day of action marked in over 380 cities worldwide.

#12MGlobal Actions in Over 50 Countries

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Amsterdam

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