#OccupySF: a community peacefully protesting economic oppression

URGENT ANNOUNCE

Two Occupiers Still Detained Need Support

“Pirate” Mike and Corporal Nick Shaw aka “Nearly Pantless Nick”, are being held in jail for misdemeanor trespassing charges, for being vocal and outspoken voices for the un-housed and the disenfranchised. Both are Army veterans, and have been integral to the building of the Occupy San Francisco movement. Both are also heroes. Nick recently performed a citizen’s arrest of the alleged stabber of an occupier named Boston. Mike bravely put his safety on the line to keep other occupiers out of harm’s way at a recent direct action. Their reward for their heroism: being targeted and held by the SFPD to languish in jail for a political action. To help free these political prisoners please donate to their bail fund.

Update: Nearly Pantless Nick was released on Supervised PreTrial Release on May 8 and Pirate Mike was released on bond on May 9 with a down payment and promise to pay. We are currently raising donations for the remainder of what is owed. Thank you for the contributions and support.

posted on: May 4, 2012 11:58 pm SF Commune

Ahmed Salah, Egyptian Revolutionary, speaks at #OccupySF

Mr. Salah, one of the co-founders of the 6th of April Youth Movement. Salah talks about the various strategies that were learned, developed, and implemented by activists and civil society groups in the years leading up to the Jan 25 protests, which after 18 days of nonviolent mass action, led to the ouster of Egypt’s former President, Hosni Mubarak.

This video is from live stream on May 5th, 2012 at Sue Bierman Park by Clark Sullivan

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

See more media and video

posted on: May 16, 2012 9:28 am freemansullivan

What time do we get to Chicago?, or How I Learned to Miss the Bus

“for anyone who’d like to go. It’s totally free!” And with thanks to 99% Solidarity, my colleagues and I in Occupy Media were on our way to Chicago. Or, so we thought.

May 6, 5:12pm Pacific Time. Rene posts the notice and I’m one of the first to sign up. First area of confusion: Their front page says there’ll be a bus from San Francisco, where I live, but the sign up page only lists Oakland, which is across the bay. I don’t mind, but I sent them an email asking for clarification anyway.

As the days pass, I receive no reply, but half of our Media team is signed up to go! What an adventure! The bus will have WiFi and movies and even food. Krissana and Rene will take photos, James will video stream and I’ll record and edit video on the road. Rene and I set up webpages so we can also blog. Almost everyone buys a gas mask, just to be safe and packing commences en masse. Go team! A kind friend loans me a laptop, which I set up for my work. Motorcycle ready for storage. Schedules rearranged.

What a great idea! I can’t afford a vacation and we love to work hard and play hard in my circle. “Have you been to Chicago before?” “Does a layover in O’Hare count?”

May 13, 7:00pm. The team meets at my place to discuss details. I’m still searching for a gas mask. Everyone wants to know why 99solidarity.net still shows “TBD” when we look up the departure time and location for our bus. We figure it will probably leave on the evening of the 14th or the day of the 15th. People signing up later than us tell us the website is now displaying “Waiting List” when you try to get on the Oakland bus list.

James tells me he’s also emailed 99% Solidarity, and also has received no reply. He’s made a couple of calls, he says, and then makes more calls during the meeting. We still get no answers.

Our motto.

May 14, morning. The following notice appears on 99solidarity.net :

Oakland and San Francisco Buses Cancelled

Unfortunately, 99% Solidarity and National Nurses United must cancel the buses planned for Oakland and San Francisco. Currently there are only 45 sign-ups from both San Francisco and Oakland areas combined, even when the waitlist is included. This is below the required 50 people needed for one bus.

We were looking forward to having our fellow occupiers from these two amazing occupations be part of the 99% Solidarity Chicago bus trips, meet with you, and march together. We are already planning ahead for the rest of the year all the way to Occupy Inauguration. We sincerely hope that we can work together to plan and mobilize for upcoming actions.

WAT.

Five people? Is that all? We could have made some calls and gotten that many in an hour. Everyone starts posting in the comments: “Why haven’t you replied to us?” “You have a Wait List but then cancel because of poor response?”

Still no word.

May 14th mid morning. Krissana and Rene search for alternative ways to get to Chicago. They find a guy I’ve heard of before. He’s fixing up vegetable oil-powered bus for a cross country trip and he’s advertising on Craig’s List for passengers to contribute to the cost. To say we’re poor here is to understate reality. I set up a WePay account to see what we can do to raise funds.

All of us commence posing it everywhere: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, emails, websites.

NATO Meets in Chicago

May 15 5:28am. “notinthespotlight”, apparently someone with 99% Solidarity, posts in the comments:

Apology of not answering all these quicker. We are overwhelmed by this project. It really pains me and my colleagues to see all these comments and speculation in part due to our lack of resources to keep up all emails, voice mails, phone calls, twitter questions, FB posting and comments here. We do welcome your inquiries and challenges, and will try harder to answer them on time. We just put on Twitter, FB, some more detailed accounts. In short, the bus underwriter NNU [National Nurses United] has both budgetary and other concerns for West Coast buses.

We will speak for our part. 99% Solidairty made the mistake of not spotting unusually high amount of duplicates in OSF/OO sign-up before bus booking deadline.

99Solidarity is a new group. This project started first as 50 to 100 occupiers max with 1 or 2 buses from NYC. Got to 18 cities & over 1000 sign-ups. End up not being able to accommodate 9 citi/200 peep for reasons of budget & required numbers. We end up with 800+ occupiers going to Chicago. Our goal is to get nationally coordinated OWSers to Chicago to make our voices loud and clear; and to foster better organization among occupiers. While the response was wonderful, we have been seriously under capacity.

We’d love to have OSF and OO to be part of this trip. The confusion was massive duplication. We have average 10% duplication among the 1,000 signups. Without enough vetted volunteers who we would feel safe to access full sign-up sheet with private information to constantly de-dup, we start wait-listing around 50 for each city/route as a best estimate. OSF/OO had very slow start for reason we didn’t understand. Once we combined the two locations, it got to 63 by deadline including wait lists from both occupies and kept going. But when we eventually get around to do de-dup, it was down to 45 include waitlists.

Fri last week, we were risking losing all West Cost buses which cost $24-27k each. We started to raise money from scratch, but NNU came through with four buses right before deadline, 3 for LA, 1 for Portland, but OSF/OO was not included. There has been budget & possible other concerns by NNU. They are the donor of the buses and have underwritten 17 of them. We have not been able to change their decision of canceling the Bay Area bus. For our part, we can only try to find alternative over the weekend and continue to do so till now.

We’ve been working with NNU, SF/OO bus captain, co-captain, ground coordinator on daily basis, and we may still have a chance to bring some Bay area activists through our buses to Chicago.

“budgetary and other concerns”? Everyone posts replies, but there’s no response as to what that means… no response at all.

May 15 10:00am. I call Chuck Idelson, Communications Director of NNU. I get ahold of him on his cell phone and am cheerful. He did not want to talk.

“99% Solidarity cancelled your bus.” he tells me.

“They’re saying you did.” I reply.

“You have to call and ask them.” he says.

“So, they point the finger at you and you point back to them?”

“Yes.”

May 15 1:36pm. I’m just finishing up the writing of this story when someone else posts in the comments at 99solidarity.net:

Alexandra @ Oakland says:

May 15, 2012 at 4:36 pm

Hello Faithful Peepl of OO & SF,

We are so sorry for the fiasco from lack of communication. I am one of the many organizers. I also understand OO/SF bus was cancelled by the group paying for buses. I am happy to talk to you about details.

We are making other plans to get you there. Please call me (# below) if you still want to go with a group. One option would leave TODAY (Tuesday 5.15.12 early evening). It is really important that this flagship part of the Movement be represented in Chicago!

Again, I am so sorry that you have all been caught up in this lack of transparency too. I understand the bad taste it leaves and we want to resolve as much of this as possible. Please call me for more information. ~ In Peace, Alexandra @ 510.xxx.xxxx

BTW, the time stamp is on east coast time. it’s now 1:14pm in East Bay

I drop everything and call her immediately. Well, there’s a fine how do you do! It turns out the slight problem with the busses turned out to be a perfect excuse to cancel our bus. Why? Because while the rank and file nurses are more likely to support Occupy, the governing board of their local affiliate, The California Nurses Association, seems to think that Oakland = Occupy Oakland = violence, and cancelled the bus. Of course, we know and love OO, and they’re not like that, but there you are. Alexandra promised to work hard to get us on a bus and into Chicago.

How will it turn out? Will our heroes make it? Will evil forces thwart their plans? Stay tuned!

We are up to $410 to take us all to Chicago and back. Not quite where we need to be. If you’d like to make a donation, we’d very much appreciate it! If you’d like to contact the folks who scheduled then cancelled the bus, please be polite when you speak to them.

Please click here to donate so we can go to Chicago!

Contact Information

99% Solidarity

http://99solidarity.net/contact/

California Nurses Association

http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/affiliates/entry/contact-cna

by Peter M

See more media and video

posted on: May 15, 2012 2:59 pm peterm

Wells Fargo Meeting Takeover

: Occupy and Community Groups from throughout the region, including labor and religious leaders marched on the Wells Fargo shareholders meeting to demand changes to their unfair business practices.

: The protest kicked off the night before with speakers and movies.

: “LET US IN! LET US IN!” More than a dozen Occupy shareholders eventually made their way into the meeting where they loudly critiqued the company’s behavior.

posted on: April 24, 2012 10:07 pm communications

Ahmed Salah, Egyptian Revolutionary, speaks at #OccupySF

This video is from live stream on May 5th, 2012 at Sue Bierman Park by Clark Sullivan

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

posted on: May 16, 2012 9:28 am freemansullivan

A28 Occupy SF Picnic… A Huge Success!

April 29, 2012 San Francisco

The A28 Occupy SF Spring Picnic in Sue Bierman park was a huge success! About 100 OSFers showed up for a day in the sun on the lawn. We ate excellent vegan and non-vegan food donated in pot-luck style by the many amazing cooks amongst us. We drank icy beverages, wine and shared the blessings of Mother Earth. Kudos to Phil for his dynamite BBQ, to those who brought salads, pasta, fancy Italian cold cuts and delicious vegetarian fare.

There were many great conversations and much hilarity. Our comrade Boston who survived a brutal attack was amongst us, returning (as he said) from the dead. Pirate Mike was up from the Santa Cruz mountains with his crew. Nick was there, Beth, Ideological Jane, Stardust in Human Form wore is tie-dye, David S. was in the house on a quick bike trip down from painting Big Man, Belle Star, Maria, Angelina, Chance, Lisa, Bob, Peg and Reede, even the illusive Marc showed up to argue with all of us. There were too many others to name all.

The highlight of the event for your blogger was Miran Istina’s original acapella songs, Frontline and Bruises which I tried to record but fumble-fingered and lost instead. Hat’s off to Miran who headed out on the Greyhound home to Oregon. Her two songs were amazing! Other musicians delighted the picnicers with tasty folk, jazz and union songs.

Let’s do it again soon gang! And a special shout out to Outreach WGers Ben and Rachael for organizing the event.

posted on: April 29, 2012 11:23 pm carlos

Co-operative Economics, part 1: What is a Co-operative?

Disgust with corporate domination of society is one of the many reasons people join the Occupy movement. The hierarchical and oligarchic nature of corporations clashes with the democratic nature of public institutions. Corporate proponents argue their system’s efficiency make it superior to democracy. Any concerns about protecting the public interested are allayed through the “invisible hand” of the market and shareholders. The prosperity the system provides, they say, justifies its existence. Yet there is an economic model which organizes business and economic activity while encouraging political democracy.

A co-operative is an association of people who meet their economic needs through democratically controlled businesses. Co-operatives take one of two forms. In the first type is called a consumer co-operative. They are businesses that are owned by their customers who run the business based on one-person one-vote. Like conventional businesses they hire workers to meet the needs of the co-operative. The second type is the worker co-operative. Worker co-ops are businesses that are owned and operated by the employees.

Credit unions are one of the most common examples of co-operative enterprise. Both credit unions and banks provide financial services such as holding deposits, providing credit, and loaning money to businesses. Unlike traditional banks, credit unions are neither controlled by wealthy shareholders nor dedicated solely to maximizing profits. Each member of the credit union gets one vote on all policy decisions. As non-profit organizations, these alternatives to banks are required by law to provide the best services possible for their members. They do so by reinvesting any profits earned to improve the credit union for the members’ benefit. Some credit unions are run by volunteers, others have full-time paid staff.

Worker co-operatives share credit unions’ emphases on direct democracy and member control. While credit unions sometimes hire non-members as employees, worker co-ops are owned by the employees of the co-operative business. More precisely, the International Co-operative Alliance defines a worker co-op as a business where a majority of the members are workers in the business. All methods of organization and management are decided by direct democratic processes. Their primary objective, according to the ICA, is to create and maintain sustainable, productive jobs and improve the quality of life for their members.

Worker co-ops, while uncommon, operate in every sector of the economy. There are farmer-owned agricultural co-ops, schools, cab companies, art galleries, and tech companies just to name a few. Co-ops rarely, if ever, lay off workers preferring to find alternatives that keep people employed.

One venerable example of a successful worker’s cooperative is San Francisco’s Rainbow Grocery. All work is done by self-managed work teams. Teams set their objectives and budgets at yearly meetings. Overall management is handled by a board of directors elected directly from the members. Monthly membership meetings ratify the board’s proposed store policies, including wages, benefits, and major changes in store operations.

The co-operative principles work equally well when employed on a national and even international scale. The best example of this is MONDRAGON Corporation. An alliance of worker co-ops based in the Basque country of Spain, MONDRAGON is a major regional job creator employing over 85,000 people in Spain and southern France. They operate in multiple industries including appliance manufacturing, engineering and architecture, construction, retail, supermarkets, and R&D. They even have their own university, which offers bachelor’s and master’s programs in engineering, business, the humanities, education, and culinary science.

An increasing number of American workers are starting to take notice of the co-operative model. On March 26th, 2012 the United Steel Workers and MONDRAGON officially entered a partnership to encourage worker-ownership in Ohio. This move came on the heels of the successful February re-occupation of the Goose Island Republic Window Factory. Workers took over the factory in protest of the impending plant shutdown. One option the workers presented to the owners, Serious Energy, was letting the workers buy the factory and operate it as a worker co-op. Serious Energy, facing bad publicity and support from the local community including Occupy Chicago, backed down and announced they would keep the plant open an additional 90 days.

In short, co-operatives prioritize the welfare of their members over profit. They work to build long-term, sustainable businesses. Directed by their members instead of those with the most money, co-operatives work on any scale. In part 2 we will look into the benefits of co-operative membership.

-written by Ryan Smith from Ideological Liberation WG