We would like to begin with an expression of solidarity with Occupy Oakland, whose actions and intent have been inaccurately reported in the corporate media.  Their attempt to occupy abandoned space to use it for human needs on Saturday was met with intense police aggression resulting in injuries to peaceful protesters and 400 arrests. Occupy Oakland needs our support and help with bail money.  Please make a donation to them if you are able.

Following the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, we can expect to see more repression of the Occupy Movement. In fact, the LAPD joined in military exercises in Los Angeles this past Saturday. And movement is being made to shut down the encampments in Washington at Freedom Plaza and McPherson Square. So far the occupations remain. You can follow events  at OccupyFreedomPlaza.org.

Despite this, the Occupy Movement will live on. As we have heard, “You can’t evict an idea” and the Occupy Movement is an idea whose time has come. Plans to build the movement continue to more forward. This week, there will be a Peoples Prayer Breakfast organized by Occupy Faith in response to the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, Feb. 2.

Occupations from around the country are working together to plan the National Occupation of Washington, DC this spring. If your local occupation has not yet expressed solidarity, please bring the proposal to your General Assembly for consensus. And occupiers are encouraged to join in the planning. You can register for the conference calls are on InterOccupy.org every Sunday night at 9 pm eastern/6 pm pacific.

NOW DC which will run through the month of April includes a NOW DC Social Forum from April 7 to 14. If you are interested in holding a workshop, you can read more about it and submit a proposal to workshops@NOWDC.org. We will greet Congress when they return to DC on April 16^th with 2 weeks of direct action.

Many of you who were on Freedom Plaza at the beginning remember the tremendous positive energy that we shared as we took a visible stand against corporatism and militarism and for the creation of a new world that is peaceful, just and sustainable. This moment was captured in a painting by Herb Edwards and the painting is up for auction to support Freedom Plaza. It is currently on display at Bus Boys and Poets. If you would like to bid on it, please contact Dave Petrovich at NJSPOCH@aol.com for information. Bidding closes Feb. 15.

Or you can make a direct donation to help us continue to build this movement.

---

The second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in favor of Citizen’s United is tomorrow, Jan. 20th. Join OWDC for Occupy the Courts beginning at 11:45 on the steps of the Supreme Court for political theater created by the Backbone Campaign followed by a rally and protest. Actions are going on all over the country, so if you are not in DC, check the Move to Amend website to find an action near you.

As you may know, making clear corporations are not people, no longer treating money as speech and giving constitutional rights only to people are issues that are fundamental to the Occupy movement. We must build a movement strong enough to shift power so that a constitutional amendment ending corporate power can be enacted.

OWDC has expanded to two houses where occupiers are focused on working groups that are organizing specific projects. The NOW DC working group, located in the Peace House, is actively helping to plan the National Occupation of Washington, DC (NOWDC.org). Occupiers from around the country are welcome to join in the planning. Visit InterOccupy.org to join the Sunday night conference calls. Peace House occupiers are also working on Outreach and Education, scheduling teach-ins and movie nights. Check the Calendar to see the schedule.

Another OWDC house is in Mt. Rainier, Maryland where occupiers are working on Occupy the Economy and Occupy Media. They are putting together a proposal to create the first occupy co-operative business. If you would like to make a donation to support these projects, please donate on the OWDC website.

A group of occupiers who are staying on Freedom Plaza have chosen to stay there through the winter. If you would like to learn about their events or make a donation to support them, please visit their website.

Watch the Revolution Truth website for the podcast of a discussion with Michael Moore, Chris Hedges, Kevin Zeese, Margaret Flowers, Birgitta Jonsdottir and Jimmy Holvat on the Occupy Movement. Thank you all for your ongoing support.  2012 is going to be an exciting year of Occupy Power!

---

When we called for the occupation of Freedom Plaza in early June, we said this occupation would be “the beginning.”  We saw the occupation of Freedom Plaza as a tactic, much like a lunch counter sit-in or Freedom Ride during the civil rights movement. The Occupation was designed to educate and mobilize people for a much bigger and longer effort to end a government dominated by money and militarism and shift power to the American people. A few weeks before we began to occupy Freedom Plaza, Occupy Wall Street erupted, and other occupations soon followed. Occupation of public space was an idea whose historical time had come.
 
More than 1,200 Occupy camps sprang up quickly across the nation and the world.  The first months of this new movement profoundly shook the foundation of the 1% – almost instantly creating a new form of political power. This TIME “Person of the Year” protest movement, truly grown from the grass roots, handed the 99% some REAL political capital for the first time in decades and installed the Occupy Movement as a force to be reckoned with.
 
Shifting power to the American people requires much more than an occupation.  The Occupy Movement needs to build on four strong components – (1) non-violent protest and civil resistance, (2) non-participation in the existing corporate finance-dominated economy, (3) the development of concrete plans and policies to transform the corporate economy into a people's economy and (4) ending government dominated by money by shifting political power to the American people. Occupy Washington, DC says: no oligarchy, no plutocracy we want participatory democracy.  As we transitioned to winter we had many discussions on Freedom Plaza and among the web-community of Occupy Washington, DC.  We surveyed everyone on the Plaza to understand what their interests were.  These ideas and insights determined our next steps, described here:
 
1.       Continue to hold Freedom Plaza.  We have achieved a great deal through the occupation of Freedom Plaza.  We’ve shown how persons from different backgrounds, economic circumstances, races and political interests can live and work together; and form a community.  The encampment on Pennsylvania Ave. between the Congress and the Treasury/White House allowed us to reach thousands of people.  Our signs, newspaper – the Occupied Washington Post – and conversations with many Americans have spread the Occupy message.  We’ve carried out multiple protest actions in Congress, as well as at banks, the Chamber of Commerce and other locations.  We’ve held our own occupied super committee hearingand published a report to fix the economy, the “99%'s Deficit Proposal.”  This winter the number of people at the encampment will shrink but it will be available to expand as needed for actions like Witness Against Torture from January 11 to 20, the Occupy The Dream’s plans for the Federal Reserve on January 16, MLK Day, Occupy Congress scheduled for January 17 and Occupy the Courts protest against the Citizen’s United decision on January 20.  Freedom Plaza will continue to be a flagship for the American people to see that the occupy movement continues.
 
2.      The Peace House and Organizing National Resistance.  Approximately a dozen occupiers will move into the Peace House to work on organizing NOW DC (the National Occupation of Washington, DC) that begins on March 30. They will organize to bring occupiers from throughout the country to the nation’s capitol to show the breadth and depth of the Occupy Movement.  Peace House occupiers will work with occupations and others from across the country to build NOW DC. The creators of the Peace House, William Thomas and his wife Ellen Thomas, maintained and supported a 24 hour a day, 365 days a year 30 year protest of nuclear war on the north side of the White House. The disarmament vigil, founded on June 3, 1981, is courageously maintained by Concepcion Picciotto who joined Thomas a month after it began.  Picciotto will continue to use the Peace House when she takes breaks with Freedom Plaza occupiers filling in to continue the vigil. Volunteers at the Peace House will also work on local outreach and education in the greater DC community.
 
3.      Mt. Rainer House and Organizing Occupy the Economy and Occupy Media.  Another dozen occupiers will move into the Mt. Rainer House.  This house will focus on building democratic economic structures as alternatives to the corporate-economy.  This year is the United Nation’s International Year of Co-operatives and we will focus on creating worker-owned co-operatives that grow a co-operative sub-economy.  Business plans will be developed, start-up capital sought and initial projects will be run out of the Mt. Rainer House.  We will open the development of democratized economic structures to our web community as well.  Already being examined are a political messaging business involving bumper stickers, signs, buttons and tee shirts, a food service providing occu-pie food and a housing redevelopment business.  These co-operatives will provide funding to the occupiers working on them and revenues for the Occupy Movement.  In addition, the Mt. Rainer House will be developing an Occupy Television Show and other media projects for public access, cable and web-outlets.
 
Both houses will be run as collectives that we intend to develop into useful models for other Occupies around the country to emulate.  Occupy Washington, DC will be building on years of experience with collectives, co-operatives and intentional communities to create Occupy Homes like these that are productive and build the movement.
 
The fourth leg of our Occupy Washington, DC community is our web-based community.  Some web-occupiers have joined the encampment at Freedom Plaza, others have supported it financially, others have organized to bring people to Washington, DC and still others have provided ideas for how we should shape our future.  We appreciate everything that each of you do.
 
With all of these new activities we are not leaving the old behind. The non-violent civil resistance actions we have done against the 1% political and economic elites will continue and escalate.  We will also continue to provide educational forums on a range of issues, invite noted speakers to Occupy Washington, DC, organize protest actions in Congress and to expose the monied interests that dominate the government.  We are working on curricula for outreach to youth from elementary school through college so they can practice the principles of participatory democracy and learn the General Assembly process.
 
The occupations are building a foundation for the long-term independent movement needed to transform a greed-based government dominated by concentrated wealth into a participatory democracy – a government of, by, and for the American people – one that puts human necessities before the profits of financial power brokers. This enormous transformation will be achieved if we continue to stand in solidarity with persistence and uncompromising confidence that the people can, and will, rule free themselves from the mis-rule of the corporatists.

To help spread the word, please forward this email to your friends.
You will be able to visit the website for the National Occupation of Washington, DC soon - look for NOWDC.org. You can start making plans to join us starting March 30th now.
And your donations are always needed to keep the effort going. Thank you.

In peace and solidarity
 
Occupy Washington, DC/October2011
Copyright © 2011 October 2011, All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:
October 2011
PO Box 102011
Washington, DC 20001

   
Facebook
   
Twitter

hen we called for the occupation of Freedom Plaza in early June, we said this occupation would be “the beginning.”  We saw the occupation of Freedom Plaza as a tactic, much like a lunch counter sit-in or Freedom Ride during the civil rights movement. The Occupation was designed to educate and mobilize people for a much bigger and longer effort to end a government dominated by money and militarism and shift power to the American people. A few weeks before we began to occupy Freedom Plaza, Occupy Wall Street erupted, and other occupations soon followed. Occupation of public space was an idea whose historical time had come.
 
More than 1,200 Occupy camps sprang up quickly across the nation and the world.  The first months of this new movement profoundly shook the foundation of the 1% – almost instantly creating a new form of political power. This TIME “Person of the Year” protest movement, truly grown from the grass roots, handed the 99% some REAL political capital for the first time in decades and installed the Occupy Movement as a force to be reckoned with.
 
Shifting power to the American people requires much more than an occupation.  The Occupy Movement needs to build on four strong components – (1) non-violent protest and civil resistance, (2) non-participation in the existing corporate finance-dominated economy, (3) the development of concrete plans and policies to transform the corporate economy into a people's economy and (4) ending government dominated by money by shifting political power to the American people. Occupy Washington, DC says: no oligarchy, no plutocracy we want participatory democracy.  As we transitioned to winter we had many discussions on Freedom Plaza and among the web-community of Occupy Washington, DC.  We surveyed everyone on the Plaza to understand what their interests were.  These ideas and insights determined our next steps, described here:
 
1.       Continue to hold Freedom Plaza.  We have achieved a great deal through the occupation of Freedom Plaza.  We’ve shown how persons from different backgrounds, economic circumstances, races and political interests can live and work together; and form a community.  The encampment on Pennsylvania Ave. between the Congress and the Treasury/White House allowed us to reach thousands of people.  Our signs, newspaper – the Occupied Washington Post – and conversations with many Americans have spread the Occupy message.  We’ve carried out multiple protest actions in Congress, as well as at banks, the Chamber of Commerce and other locations.  We’ve held our own occupied super committee hearingand published a report to fix the economy, the “99%'s Deficit Proposal.”  This winter the number of people at the encampment will shrink but it will be available to expand as needed for actions like Witness Against Torture from January 11 to 20, the Occupy The Dream’s plans for the Federal Reserve on January 16, MLK Day, Occupy Congress scheduled for January 17 and Occupy the Courts protest against the Citizen’s United decision on January 20.  Freedom Plaza will continue to be a flagship for the American people to see that the occupy movement continues.
 
2.      The Peace House and Organizing National Resistance.  Approximately a dozen occupiers will move into the Peace House to work on organizing NOW DC (the National Occupation of Washington, DC) that begins on March 30. They will organize to bring occupiers from throughout the country to the nation’s capitol to show the breadth and depth of the Occupy Movement.  Peace House occupiers will work with occupations and others from across the country to build NOW DC. The creators of the Peace House, William Thomas and his wife Ellen Thomas, maintained and supported a 24 hour a day, 365 days a year 30 year protest of nuclear war on the north side of the White House. The disarmament vigil, founded on June 3, 1981, is courageously maintained by Concepcion Picciotto who joined Thomas a month after it began.  Picciotto will continue to use the Peace House when she takes breaks with Freedom Plaza occupiers filling in to continue the vigil. Volunteers at the Peace House will also work on local outreach and education in the greater DC community.
 
3.      Mt. Rainer House and Organizing Occupy the Economy and Occupy Media.  Another dozen occupiers will move into the Mt. Rainer House.  This house will focus on building democratic economic structures as alternatives to the corporate-economy.  This year is the United Nation’s International Year of Co-operatives and we will focus on creating worker-owned co-operatives that grow a co-operative sub-economy.  Business plans will be developed, start-up capital sought and initial projects will be run out of the Mt. Rainer House.  We will open the development of democratized economic structures to our web community as well.  Already being examined are a political messaging business involving bumper stickers, signs, buttons and tee shirts, a food service providing occu-pie food and a housing redevelopment business.  These co-operatives will provide funding to the occupiers working on them and revenues for the Occupy Movement.  In addition, the Mt. Rainer House will be developing an Occupy Television Show and other media projects for public access, cable and web-outlets.
 
Both houses will be run as collectives that we intend to develop into useful models for other Occupies around the country to emulate.  Occupy Washington, DC will be building on years of experience with collectives, co-operatives and intentional communities to create Occupy Homes like these that are productive and build the movement.
 
The fourth leg of our Occupy Washington, DC community is our web-based community.  Some web-occupiers have joined the encampment at Freedom Plaza, others have supported it financially, others have organized to bring people to Washington, DC and still others have provided ideas for how we should shape our future.  We appreciate everything that each of you do.
 
With all of these new activities we are not leaving the old behind. The non-violent civil resistance actions we have done against the 1% political and economic elites will continue and escalate.  We will also continue to provide educational forums on a range of issues, invite noted speakers to Occupy Washington, DC, organize protest actions in Congress and to expose the monied interests that dominate the government.  We are working on curricula for outreach to youth from elementary school through college so they can practice the principles of participatory democracy and learn the General Assembly process.
 
The occupations are building a foundation for the long-term independent movement needed to transform a greed-based government dominated by concentrated wealth into a participatory democracy – a government of, by, and for the American people – one that puts human necessities before the profits of financial power brokers. This enormous transformation will be achieved if we continue to stand in solidarity with persistence and uncompromising confidence that the people can, and will, rule free themselves from the mis-rule of the corporatists.

To help spread the word, please forward this email to your friends.
You will be able to visit the website for the National Occupation of Washington, DC soon - look for NOWDC.org. You can start making plans to join us starting March 30th now.
And your donations are always needed to keep the effort going. Thank you.

In peace and solidarity
 
Occupy Washington, DC/October2011
Copyright © 2011 October 2011, All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:
October 2011
PO Box 102011
Washington, DC 20001

   
Facebook
   
Twitter

---

 

There is a war going on against dockworkers and their families in Longview, Wash. Members of ILWU Local 21 have been arrested, beaten and their homes raided. They are fighting to protect their union jobs against EGT, which is trying to break the ILWU’s coastwide contract, established after the 1934 San Francisco general strike and West Coast Maritime strike.

EGT and its majority partner, Bunge NA, want to bust the ILWU, one of the most militant, progressive unions in the U.S. EGT has broken the union’s contract with the Port of Longview and is using scab labor at its export grain terminal. On Sept. 8, hundreds of angry Longshore workers charged through the gates, and EGT claims that grain was dumped from a 107-car train and a cyclone fence was torn down.

This struggle is occurring at a time when national union membership has dropped to a 70-year low of 11.9 percent, with 6.9 percent of private sector workers in unions. EGT’s actions are part of the ruling-class attack to drive us all to the bottom. Even with low union membership rates, national median weekly wages for union members are $917, compared to $717 for workers not in unions.

The 1% not only wants to take away that extra $200 from the remaining 14.7 million unionized workers, but wants to destroy all unions, especially the militant ILWU, to keep us from organizing to take back what is rightfully ours.

Fighting Wall Street on the waterfront

EGT — a joint venture between U.S.-based Bunge NA, Japanese-based Itochu and Korean-based STX Pan Ocean — is part of the 1%. If EGT is successful in its attack on the ILWU in Longview, that will have a ripple effect on all port workers on the West Coast.

The ILWU is a democratic, bottom-up union with an activist rank and file. It has a strong history of support for community issues — standing up against apartheid South Africa, against the war in Iraq, and for the Wisconsin workers’ struggle against union busting. Bay Area ILWU Local 10 backed community protests after the police killing of Oscar Grant in 2009. They honored picket lines in Occupy Oakland’s Nov. 2 general strike and the Dec. 12 West Coast port shutdown.

Caravans and support actions are being organized up and down the West Coast, nationally and internationally, to greet the STX ship coming to be loaded with scab grain. ILWU Local 10 has pledged support for Local 21’s struggle against EGT and their union-busting drive and has funded a bus to Longview. The San Francisco Labor Council has endorsed the solidarity caravan.

Individuals and organizations are asked to support this critical working-class struggle by joining the caravan or other solidarity actions. Sign up at http://bailoutpeople.org to get involved. As soon as official word of the ship’s pending arrival is confirmed, supporters will be contacted by email and phone to let you know it’s time to mobilize in Longview. If you have a car and are able to take others, or if you would like to be a passenger in a rented bus or van, please indicate that on the website form.

Bunge NA, one of EGT’s parent companies, is headquartered in St. Louis, Mo., with offices in Washington, D.C. and White Plains, N.Y. If you are in these areas, ask your local Occupy group to organize solidarity actions in conjunction with the ship’s arrival in Longview. EGT also has facilities in Chester and Kintyre Flats, Mont. EGT is also building a high-capacity shuttle train loader in Carter, Mont. Bunge has locations all over the Midwest and South. To see if there is a location near you, go to http://www.bungenorthamerica.com/locations/usa/index.shtml.

For updates and further information, visit Occupy Oakland at www.Westcoastportshutdown.org; Defend ILWU at http://www.facebook.com/groups/256313837734192/; or Occupy Longview at www.facebook.com/OccupyLongview#!/OccupyLongview.

 Plans being made for 2012, including NOW DC (the National Occupation of Washington, DC) beginning on March 30th, are going to bring this movement to another level.  The voices of the American people are going to drown out the election year voices of two Wall Street parties and their big business funded candidates. The relevant conversation will come from the people, not from the political consultants who write speeches for corporate-approved candidates. If candidates want to be relevant, they better start listening.
At Occupy Washington, DC at Freedom Plaza we will be making some exciting announcements of our next steps.  From the beginning, when we went public last June we said we would leave Freedom Plaza when we thought it was the right time to leave.  We are still there, and we are staying.  But, as we prepare for winter we will be evolving in new directions that will show the Occupy Movement is serious about revolutionizing the economy and creating participatory democracy.  
This has been an effort of tens of thousands.  We really could not have gotten this far without each of you.  And, the next steps in the effort to transform the country are going to require each of us to step up again.  Now, the profiteers from the status quo know the people are angry and mobilized, they will resist and it is the people’s job to break their resistance. 
We’ve made great first steps – but there are many steps ahead. Thank you for what you have done.  You will be amazed at what we will all do – together.
For some end-of-year reading and reflection, please see this excellent zine, “How the People Got Their Groove Back,” put together by Ashley Sanders, one of the initial organizers of the occupation of Freedom Plaza. We hope to see you next year!
In peace and solidarity,
Occupy Washington, DC/October2011 TeamWe Are The 99 Percent
www.wearethe99percent.us Free posters, signs, and stickers! Information to fuel the movement

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TeamDeclaration for Washington DC

Consented to by General Assembly November 30th, 2011 | PDF

We have been captives of corrupt economic and political systems for far too long. The concentration of wealth and the purchase of political power stifle the voices of the increasingly disenfranchised 99 percent. Corporate dominance subverts democracy, intentionally sows division, destroys the environment, obstructs the just and equitable pursuit of happiness, and violates the rights and dignity of all life.

Occupy D.C. is an open community of diverse individuals, facing different forms of oppression and impacted by economic exploitation to differing degrees, but united by a shared vision of equality for the common good. The harsh economic conditions that have plagued the poor, working class, and communities of color for generations have begun to affect the previously financially secure. This acute awareness of our common fate has united us in our struggle for a better future. We recognize that inequality and injustice systemically affect every aspect of our society: our communities, homes, and hearts. To build the world we envision, we commit ourselves to overcoming our personal biases so we can successfully challenge systems of oppression in solidarity.

We are peaceably assembled at McPherson Square, practicing direct democracy on the doorstep of K Street, the epicenter of destructive corporate and governmental relationships. Recognizing that the term ‘occupy’ is associated with exploitation, violence, and imperialism, we are reclaiming it to mean the peaceful liberation of public space. In this disenfranchised city, we are insisting that our economic and political systems serve the people’s interests. Now is the time to advance and complete the struggles of the many who came before us.

We are assembled because…

• It is absurd that the 1 percent has taken 40 percent of the nation’s wealth through exploiting labor, outsourcing jobs, and manipulating the tax code to their benefit through special capital tax rates and loopholes. The system is rigged in their favor, yet they cry foul when anyone even dares to question their relentless class warfare.

• Candidates in our electoral system require huge sums of money to be competitive. These contributions from multi-national corporations and wealthy individuals destroy responsive representative governance. A system of backroom deals, kickbacks, bribes, and dirty politics overrides the will of the people. The rotation of decision makers between the public and private sectors cultivates a network of public officials, lobbyists, and executives whose aligned interests do not serve the American people.

• The entrenched two-party system overlooks public interests by pursuing narrow political goals. This climate encourages candidates to polarize voters for individual power and personal gain. Citizens’ meaningful input has been compromised by gerrymandering, voter disenfranchisement, and unresponsive politicians. Residents of Washington, D.C., continue to lack autonomy and legislative representation.

• The 1 percent benefits from economic, political, and legal structures that oppress communities long targeted by displacement, denial of sovereignty, slavery, and other injustices. These persecuted but resilient communities continue to suffer through generations of disproportionately higher rates of unemployment, poverty, criminalization, and homelessness. Facets of the 1 percent campaign to blame these groups for these problems while obstructing healing and restoration.

• Those with power have divided us from working in solidarity by perpetuating historical prejudices and discrimination based on perceived race, religion, immigrant or indigenous status, income, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability, among other things. These divisions have inhibited our ability to work in solidarity, though today we recognize the power of uniting as the 99 percent.

• Financial institutions gambled with our savings, homes, and economy. They collapsed the financial system and needed the public to bail them out of their failures yet deny any responsibility and continue to fight oversight. Corporations loot from those whose labor creates society’s prosperity, while the government allows them to privatize profits and socialize risk.

• Corporate interests threaten life on Earth by extracting and burning fossil fuels and resisting the necessary transition to renewable energy. Their drilling, mining, clear-cutting, overfishing, and factory farming destroys the land, jeopardizes our food and water, and poisons the soil with near impunity. They privilege polluters over people by subsidizing fossil fuels, blocking investments in clean energy and efficient transportation, and hiding environmental destruction from public oversight.

• Private corporations, with the government’s support, use common resources and infrastructure for short-term personal profit, while stifling efforts to invest in public goods.

• The U.S. government engages in drawn-out, costly conflicts abroad. Numerous acts of conquest have been, and continue to be, pursued to control resources, overthrow foreign governments, and install subservient regimes. These wars destroy the lives of innocent civilians and American soldiers, many of whom suffer adverse effects throughout life. These operations are a blank check to divert money from domestic priorities.

• Government authorities cultivate a culture of fear to invade our privacy, limit assembly, restrict speech, and deny due process. They have failed in their duty to protect our rights. Exacerbated by profiteering interests, the criminal justice system has unfairly targeted underprivileged communities and outspoken groups for prosecution rather than protection.

• Corporatized culture warps our perception of reality. It cheapens and mocks the beauty of human thought and experience while promoting excessive materialism as the path to happiness. The corporate news media furthers the interests of the very wealthy, distorts and disregards the truth, and confines our imagination of what is possible for ourselves and society.

• Leaders are trading our access to basic needs in exchange for handouts to the ultra-wealthy. Our rights to healthcare, education, food, water, and housing are sacrificed to profit-driven market forces. They are attacking unemployment insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, creating an uncertain future for us all.*

A better world is possible.

To all people,

We, the Washington D.C. General Assembly occupying K Street in McPherson Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble and reclaim the commons. Re-conceive ways to build a democratic, just, and sustainable world.

To all who value democracy, we encourage you to collaborate and share available resources.

Join your voice with ours and let it amplify until the heart of the movement booms with our chorus of solidarity.
*These grievances are not all inclusive.

 

It is the meme that launched a thousand camps. The protests in Wall Street, London and Oakland may be its flagships, but the Occupy movement is a global one, stretching across six continents, more than 60 countries, and sparking up to 2,600 demonstrations. There have been 10 camps in Britain alone.

It is hard to say who started it. Occupy Wall Street, which began in September, was the first to popularise the term. But #OWS was itself predated by camps in Madrid, Athens, Santiago – and even Malaysia. The day most Occupy camps got going – 15 October – was first proposed because it marked the five-month anniversary of the Spanish occupation.

What unites them? A common rage at economic and social injustice and the feeling that "the 99%" are being shafted by society's richest 1%. But each protest has been different. Some were no more than rallies, and their demands differed from protest to protest – if they existed at all. Many protesters propose tweaks to capitalism – a Robin Hood tax, perhaps. Others want wholesale systemic change. Often, anger has a local twist. At St Paul's Cathedral, occupiers have precise demands for the City of London. In Chile, they attacked university fees; in Spain, youth unemployment.

In almost all cases, though, the camps themselves are a kind of demand – and a solution: the stab at an alternative society that at least aims to operate without hierarchy, and with full, participatory democracy. PK
More info:  http://www.theportlandalliance.org/occupation

Wall Street

The US's first occupation was eventually cleared from its New York base in Zuccotti Park on 15 November, two days shy of its two-month anniversary. The camp had swelled to around 200 tents before being cleared, and tens of thousands showed their support by joining in protests two days later, attempting (unsuccessfully) to shut down Wall Street and marching (successfully) over Brooklyn Bridge. Occupy Wall Street events have continued since, with students from the City University of New York occupying a college, and a drum circle being set up outside Mayor Mike Bloomberg's Upper West Side apartment. Lawyers for the occupation have been given until 9 December to file a fresh lawsuit, which protesters hope could yet allow them to re-occupy Zuccotti. AG

Vancouver

The Vancouver-based group Adbusters was the first to suggest occupying Wall Street, and, fittingly, Vancouver is also home to the largest Occupy movement in Canada. Some 4,000 people joined a march on 15 October that turned into the occupation of the lawn of a Vancouver art gallery. Protesters were evicted on 18 November, moving to Robson Square, near the city's court, but were moved on 22 November, leaving the occupation without a camp for the first time in five weeks. A small group of 100 protesters occupied a construction site in central Vancouver on Tuesday in a "non-GA backed action", but left after being ordered out by police and remain without a base. Occupy Vancouver is also involved in the west coast port shutdown. AG

Portland

The occupation was removed by police on 13 November, but demonstrations in Portland have regularly attracted thousands of people. During demonstrations on 17 November, a protester was pepper-sprayed by police at point-blank range. The moment was captured on camera, and until events at UC Davis and Seattle – where 84-year-old Dorli Rainey was pepper-sprayed by police – was set to become one of the most striking images from the protests so far. Protesters are continuing to hold general assemblies in Portland, and gather each Sunday to plan new actions. Portland police have promised to limit their presence at rallies held by the group, in part due to a lack of manpower. AG

A tent belonging to a UC Davis protester makes its message plain. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Oakland

The occupation of Oakland's Frank H Ogawa Plaza has been the scene of the most violent clashes between police and protesters in north America. It first attracted widespread attention when former marine Scott Olsen was seriously injured as police cleared the camp on 25 October. Police have repeatedly used tear gas, rubber bullets and other non-lethal projectiles to suppress protests in Oakland, which have included a march that shut down the the city's port, costing millions of dollars in lost revenues and wages. The camp was finally shut down in a relatively peaceful operation by police on 14 November. Protesters are looking for new sites to occupy and are planning a "co-ordinated West Coast port blockade" for 12 December. AG

UC, Davis

Video footage from University of California, Davis, quickly spread around the world last week. A police officer is seen stepping over a line of seated, silent university students, before flamboyantly waving a pepper-spray canister aloft and then dousing each protester in an orange mist. The demonstrators were given this treatment on 19 November after refusing to dismantle their small camp, which had been erected the night before. Two protesters were hospitalised and have since been discharged, while UC Davis's police chief has since been suspended along with two officers. Seizing on the increased interest the pepper-spray incident has garnered, Occupy UC Davis staged a student strike on Monday, in protest against tuition fees and the university's funding practices. AG

Santiago

Led by charismatic 23-year-old Camila Vallejo, 25,000 Chileans marched in solidarity with Occupy on 15 October. But their own occupations started much earlier: since May, students against university fees have occupied more than 200 high schools. Unlike their European counterparts, the Chileans see themselves as having clear demands – free higher education – and their actions are having a demonstrable effect on politicians. Last week, the government proposed raising education funding by hundreds of millions of dollars. Even these concessions might not be enough for the protesters, who plan to reoccupy their schools in March, the start of Chile's academic year, if their demands for free education are not met. PK

Madrid and Barcelona

Spain's indignados hit the streets as early as 15 May. Centred on Madrid's Puerta del Sol and Barcelona's Plaça Catalunya, tens of thousands camped out in up to 30 cities, protesting, in some cases, for almost a month about the country's 43% youth unemployment rate. The success of the 15M movement, as it became known, prompted some indignados to call for a worldwide protest on 15 October, the date that sparked a wave of Occupy protests. In Madrid and Barcelona, hundreds of thousands gathered under the Occupy banner. No major occupations have since taken place, but many indignados are occupying empty buildings and sheltering families recently evicted from their homes. The day before Spain's general election last week, won by the conservative Popular party, a few hundred protesters gathered again in central Barcelona – but hardly any in Madrid. PK

London

Immediately evicted from their first target, the London Stock Exchange, Occupy London settled a few feet away on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral. They were initially welcomed by the church hierarchy – but after a drop in cathedral revenue, the camp was asked to disband. This prompted the resignation of both Canon Giles Fraser, who supported the protesters, and the dean, who was felt to have mismanaged the situation. Criticised for harming the church more than the City, the occupiers then released a set of demands for financial and legal reform in the Corporation of London. Along the way, they expanded to a second site in Finsbury Square, and began squatting a building owned by financial services company UBS. PK

Frankfurt

Occupy camps have emerged across Germany – with more than 50 tents pitched outside Frankfurt's European Central Bank. There are two sites in Berlin alone, while 15 members of Occupy Hamburg recently disrupted a speech given in the city by the CEO of Deutsche Bank, Josef Ackermann. In early November, nearly 10,000 marched in both Frankfurt and Berlin in support of Occupy. PK

Rome

Thousands of protesters gathered in Rome on 15 October in what was the largest and most violent of the Occupy demonstrations in Europe that day. Riots broke out after a bomb went off, and an occupation – known locally as an accampata – later began outside a church in the centre of the city. The camp is still going – but recently relocated to the site of the ruined Roman Baths of Caracalla, a mile down the road. PK

Tel Aviv

On 15 October, 1,000 Israeli protesters held a dance party in an affluent Tel Aviv street. It was called Occupy Rothschild Boulevard. But this was less Israel's answer to Occupy Wall Street and more the rebranding of a much larger campaign of civil disobedience that had mushroomed across Israel throughout the summer. From July onwards, two months before protests reached Wall Street, tent cities sprang up in protest at the rising cost of living – first on Rothschild Blvd, and then throughout 25 other towns and cities. In early September, 430,000 Israelis took to the streets in support, but by the end of the summer many had started to leave their tents. Police evicted the last few campers in early October. PK

Kuala Lumpur

Dozens of protesters have peripatetically occupied Dataran Merdeka, a square in Kuala Lumpur, since late July. Unlike many other occupations, Occupy Dataran is not a continuous occupation, but meets every Saturday night for a low-key "general assembly" – similar to those in London and New York – that lasts until the small hours. PK

Hong Kong

Sited underneath the HSBC bank, the 30-strong Occupy Hong Kong is not as large as many western camps but, unlike its counterparts, it has avoided upsetting authority. By limiting their activity to music and low-key political discussion rather than more ambitious civil disobedience, the protesters have remained untouched by police. PK

Melbourne

A few thousand marched through Melbourne in October, and many stayed to occupy a square in the city's business district. The camp has since had numerous run-ins with police, with more than 100 occupiers arrested. They have been moved on twice, and the remnants are still fighting eviction from the city's Treasury Gardens, the camp's third significant staging post. PK