Occupy Forum Presents “Outing the Oligarchy Part II” with Victor Menotti

  By MikeZonta | April 28, 2013 - 6:38 pm |
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OccupyForum Presents…

 

Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!

Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue

on all sides of these critically important issues!

 

Monday, April 29th, from 6:00 – 9:00 pm at Global Exchange

2017 Mission at 16th Street, 2nd floor, across from the16th Street BART Station.

 

Outing the Oligarchy Part II

With Victor Menotti

from the International Forum on Globalization

                                                           

What does it take to get millions into the streets? Last time, we began to discuss “unifiers” – What is the commonality uniting and mobilizing the movement? Ideas from “reclaiming our democracy” to “compassion and love for our brothers and sisters” to “fighting for the planet” and more are on the table as we consider the mandate to organize at this crucial time.

 

IFG will share its experiences about organizing resistance to the World Trade Organization’s 1999 Seattle summit, where peaceful protesters on the streets prevented ministers from meeting, and poor countries in the negotiating suites stood up to rich countries to stop the WTO’s expansion of rights for global corporations. Seattle saw a cross-border, cross-constituency coalition emerge that had systemic critiques of corporate power at its core, much like Occupy. IFG and others will explain who were some of the key actors, what issues mobilized so many of their members into the streets, how did non-organizations relate to these efforts, and what lessons can be learned for today’s political moment and urgent needs for organizing opposition and advancing alternatives to today’s global economic system.

 

We will also further examine the Koch brothers’ web of influence as a case study of how oligarchic power is organized. What are the weak links where we can insert ourselves? There are 16 Billionaires in San Francisco. We will turn our focus to using this idea to galvanize the movement.

 

Time will be allotted for Q&A, discussion and announcements.

Tonight, we will save time to talk about affinity groups for upcoming actions.

Donations to OccupyForum to cover costs are encouraged; no one turned away!

Protest Gap in solidarity with Bangladeshi Garment workers burnt in factory fires

  By robb | April 21, 2013 - 7:22 pm |
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This Thursday, April 25 at 12:00pm, NOON

Join us at: Gap Inc. global headquarters

2 Folsom St. San Francisco, CA 94105 (near Embarcadero BART)

https://www.facebook.com/events/557689770917918/

Since 2006, more than 600 Bangladeshi garment workers have died in preventable fires while sewing clothing for companies like Gap and Walmart. 112 workers died in a recent fire at a Walmart supplier and 29 workers died at a Gap supplier, but Gap and Walmart are still refusing to pay for reforms and join with other companies in a binding fire safety agreement that includes independent inspections and workerrepresentation. Until there is real change, any day there could be another factory fire with workers locked inside.

JOIN A BANGLADESHI FACTORY FIRE SURVIVOR AND LOCAL ACTIVISTS TO CALL ON THE GAP TO PAY 10 CENTS MORE PER GARMENT & JOIN SAFETY AGREEMENT TO SAVE WORKERS’ LIVES!

At the protest, meet:

SUMI ABEDIN is a Bangladeshi garment worker who survived the November 24, 2012, fire that killed 112 workers at Tazreen Fashions, a factory that supplied Walmart, Disney, Sears, Dickies, and SeanJohn, and produced US Marines logo apparel for Delta Apparel / Soffe. Sumi was working on the 4th floor of the factory at the time of the fire and survived after jumping from the burning building.

KALPONA AKTER is the executive director of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity (BCWS), one of Bangladesh’s most prominent labor rights advocacy organizations, and is herself a former child garment worker. BCWS is regarded by the international labor rights movement and by multinational apparel companies as among the most effective grassroots labor organizations in the country. Levi Strauss & Co. calls BCWS “a globally respected labor rights organization, which has played a vital role in documenting and working to remedy labor violations in the apparel industry in Bangladesh.” Kalpona is an internationally-recognized labor rights advocate and has traveled widely to speak about the deplorable conditions that Bangladesh garment workers face every day. She was interviewed extensively by local and international media following the deadly fire at Tazreen Fashions in November 2012.

This action is sponsored by Corporate Action Network, International Labor Rights Forum, San Francisco Jobs with Justice, SumOfUs, SweatFree Communities, and United Students Against Sweatshops. For more info: bit.ly/EndDeathTrapsTour | LaborRights.org/GapPetition

Conference to Restore the Republic 4/20

  By robb | April 16, 2013 - 9:34 pm |
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Activists across the political spectrum say it’s time to collaborate on a solution to the corruption plaguing our country. We agree!

Conference to Restore the Republic

Conference to Restore the Republic

That’s why Occupiers support and Represent.Us is a sponsor of Rootstrikers’ Conference to Restore the Republic.

On April 20, 2013 in San Francisco, California, activists, experts, and citizens of all political stripes will convene to debate some of the most challenging questions about the reform this country needs. Whether you’re new to the issue and not sure where to start or still trying to understand the variety of solutions proposed to fight corruption, The Conference to Restore the Republic is your opportunity to find clarity and community.

Confirmed speakers include Lawrence Lessig, Ann Ravel, Buddy Roemer, Trevor Potter, and Cenk Uygur — but this conference isn’t just about experts. This is a grassroots event being planned almost entirely by volunteers, and they’re making sure this conference is made 100% for you.

Click here to register for Rootstrikers’ Conference to Restore the Republic.

Hope to see you there.

Graham, Szelena and the entire Represent.Us and Rootstrikers teams

Represent.Us | Read the American Anti-Corruption Act

STRIKE DEBT BAY AREA STRIKES BACK ON TAX DAY!!

  By robb | April 10, 2013 - 7:49 pm | ,
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Monday, April 15

3:00 PM

Federal Reserve Building

101 Market St.

San Francisco

Banks don’t pay taxes but most people do!

Banks don’t pay their debts but we are hounded if we don’t!

Why must we pay income tax when banks and corporations don’t have to?  They use accounting gimmicks, offshore headquarters and other scams to avoid paying their fair share.  Is it fair that taxpayers bailed out the big banks, but they continue to profit at our expense?  Why must we be crushed under the weight of debt for medical, educational, housing AND income tax obligations while those who have made a mess of our communities and our planet freeload at our expense?

On Tax Day, April 15, Strike Debt Bay Area will demonstrate our opposition to debt culture.  We will reach out to indebted taxpayers with remedies to a life of financial servitude.  Join us to spread the word about our activities.

STRIKE DEBT BAY AREA is beginning to organize for mass debt resistance.   Collectively, we can decide that we’ve paid more than enough already for the blunders of the wealthy 1% and we can bill them for the debt they owe us and our communities.

Join us at the Federal Reserve, 3:00PM on Monday, April 15.  Bring your voices.  Bring signs! Bring your stories of debt persecution.  Find out about STRIKE DEBT BAY AREA’s programs for debt resistance.

http://strike-debt-bay-area.tumblr.com/

This Sunday, 3pm Vigil in Solidarity with Guantanamo Bay hunger strike!

  By robb | April 5, 2013 - 9:06 pm |
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This Sunday, April 7th at 3pm at Market St. & Powell in San Francisco

Solidarity with Guantanamo Prisoners Hunger Strike

Solidarity with Guantanamo Prisoners Hunger Strike

Vigil in solidarity with hunger striking prisoners at Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility. The prisoners are being held without charges or trial, most over ten years. It is said now that 130 out of 166 detainees are refusing food. 11 are being forced fed, which is considered torture by the UN Human Rights Commission. Join us Sunday to show solidarity and build awareness of this grave injustice.

www.encyclopedia.com

www.encyclopedia.com

Meet at 3pm this Sunday, April 7th at Powell & Market St in San Francisco.
Feel free to bring banners, signs and props for visual.

Facebook Event Page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/607955282549856/

UN High Comissioner for Human Rights calls for closing of Guantanamo Bay today!
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/u-n-official-calls-for-closing-of-guantanamo-bay-20130405

NY Times Editorial from today:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/06/opinion/hunger-strike-at-guantanamo-bay.html?_r=0

New York Times EDITORIAL
Hunger Strike at Guantánamo
Published: April 5, 2013

The hunger strike that has spread since early February among the 166 detainees still at Guantánamo Bay is again exposing the lawlessness of the system that marooned them there. The government claims that around 40 detainees are taking part. Lawyers for detainees report that their clients say around 130 detainees in one part of the prison have taken part.

The number matters less than the nature of the protest, however: this is a collective act of despair. Prisoners on the hunger strike say that they would rather die than remain in the purgatory of indefinite detention. Only three prisoners now at Guantánamo have been found guilty of any crime, yet the others also are locked away, with dwindling hope of ever being released.

Detainees there have gone on hunger strikes many times since the facility opened in 2002. A major strike in 2005 involved more than 200 detainees. But those earlier actions were largely about the brutality of treatment the detainees received. The protest this time seems more fundamental. Gen. John Kelly of the Marines, whose Southern Command oversees Guantánamo Bay, explained the motivation of the detainees at a Congressional hearing last month by saying, “They had great optimism that Guantánamo would be closed” based on President Obama’s pledge in his first campaign, but they are now “devastated” that nothing has changed.

For 86 detainees, this is a particular outrage. They wereapproved for release three years ago by a government task force, which included civilian and military agencies responsible for national security.
But Congress outrageously has limited the president’s options in releasing them, through a statute that makes it very difficult to use federal money to transfer Guantánamo prisoners anywhere. Fifty-six of those approved for release are Yemenis. The government, however, has said it will not release them to Yemen for the “foreseeable future,” apparently because they might fall under the influence of people antagonistic to the United States. That false logic would mean that no Yemenis could ever travel to this country, but that is not the case.

The other 30 detainees approved for release are from different countries, though the government will not say where they are from. Over the past decade, the government has sent detainees to at least 52 countries, The Times and NPR have determined, so it surely can find countries to take detainees who cannot be returned home.

As for the remaining 80 prisoners, the three who have been convicted and the 30 or so who are subjects of active cases or investigations can be transferred to a military or civilian prison. The rest are in indefinite detention — a legal limbo in which they are considered by the government to be too dangerous to release and too difficult to prosecute. Such detention is the essence of what has been wrong with Guantánamo from the start. The cases of these detainees must be reviewed and resolved according to the rule of law.

The government is force-feeding at least 10 of the hunger strikers. International agreements among doctors say doctors must respect a striker’s decision if he makes “an informed and voluntary refusal” to eat. But under American policy, Guantánamo doctors cannot adhere to those principles. The Obama administration justifies the force-feeding of detainees as protecting their safety and welfare. But the truly humane response to this crisis is to free prisoners who have been approved for release, end indefinite detention and close the prison at Guantánamo

Rally & Protest at President Obama’s San Francisco Fundraiser

  By robb | April 1, 2013 - 9:19 pm |
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This Wednesday, President Obama will be in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood for a fundraiser and OccupySF Visioning Group and Environmental Justice Working Group invite you to join the demonstrations.

OccupySF Visioning Group will be joining Rainforest Action Network and hundreds of our closest friends will be there to deliver a simple yet urgent message: reject Keystone XL.

It’s going to be huge—and we need it to be even bigger. More than 1000 people have already RSVP’d from CREDO, Sierra Club, 350, Friends of the Earth, and more.

Can you join us this Wednesday and help spread the word?

WHAT: Keystone XL Protest at President Obama’s San Francisco Fundraiser
WHEN: Wednesday, April 3, 5:30pm
WHERE: 2870 Broadway at Baker, San Francisco, CA

The president’s fundraiser this Wednesday will be a major opportunity for the president to hear from his progressive base that he needs to be a leader on climate change and reject Keystone XL.

Please click here to RSVP and invite your friends to join us, too.

The last time we protested outside President Obama’s San Francisco fundraiser, at the height of the Keystone XL fight in 2011, we know our pressure surprised the president and made a major impact on the White House.
We need to do it again. See you on Wednesday!

AND…

OccupySF Environmental Justice Working Group will be holding a Climate Rally & Obamacare Protest just a few blocks away:  NO XL, NO FRACKING, NO NUCLEAR POWER, NO FOSSIL FUELS, STOP DIRTY POWER, Running out of time. See you there! Bring signs!!!

TIME:    5:00 PM – 6:30 PM
Location Details:
Divisadero & Pacific Ave
# 3, 24, 1 buses, map http://tinyurl.com/co5f89e
Event Type:    Protest
Obama: Hands Off Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid!
Improved Medicare for All! Scrap the Social Security Payroll Tax Cap!
Obamacare? Hell No! Insurance Companies Got to Go!

Demonstrate at Obama’s Fundraiser
Wednesday, April 3, 5-6:30 PM
Divisadero & Pacific Ave
# 3, 24, 1 buses, map http://tinyurl.com/co5f89e

Obama’s in town raising money from his rich supporters, while preparing to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits from the poorest and most vulnerable people in society. Obamacare will leave tens of millions uninsured, including all undocumented immigrants, will force millions onto high-deductable insurance they can’t afford to use, will provide better care for the rich who can afford it, and will incentivize employers to convert full-time jobs to part-time. Obamacare also squeezes Medicare by clamping down on its spending, while allowing insurance and drug companies’ prices and profits to rise.

Improved Medicare is the solution to rising healthcare costs, not the problem. Having everyone pay into Medicare and having an improved Medicare cover everyone would provide Equal, Comprehensive, Affordable and Accessible healthcare for everyone, at less cost because of the resulting control over healthcare prices, economies of scale, and the elimination of the bloated profits and bureaucracy of the private insurance system.

Social Security is the country’s most successful social program. It does not, and can not contribute a penny to the national debt, and should not be even mentioned in discussing the debt. Social Security has a surplus of over $2.5 Trillion, and is growing, enough to fund full benefits until 2033, and 75% of benefits after that. Taxing incomes over $113,700 could sustain full benefits indefinitely. Obama’s chained-CPI is a Social Security benefit cut that would get worse as recipients get older, $1,200 per year for recipients in their 80s.

We need jobs rebuilding housing, schools, hospitals and roads, not austerity for us and more wealth for the rich.

And we need to protect planet Earth… Stop Poisoning Us. We Are the Environment.

Save Noisebridge Fundraiser – Art Auction, Music, Food & More

  By robb | March 28, 2013 - 7:45 pm |
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noisebridge logoYou are, hereby, cordially invited to Noisebridge on March 30, 2013 for a fundraiser to save the epic hackerspace from closing this July. Of coarse you don’t need an invitation to visit Noisebridge & enjoy the plethora of activities, classes & technical infrastructure available there; the space is open 24/7 & entry is merely based upon “be(ing) excellent to each other” so feel free to drop by anytime, day or night; but please…no sleeping.wakeupandhackkitty

 

Noisebridge members provided critical infrastructure & technical assistance to OccupySF. They made bike generator that powered the Media Tent. They provided free internet for all of Bradley Manning Plaza, a phone to make free local & long distance calls & a 24/7 webcam streaming to the internet that kept watch when we were under threat of attack from police. They built us an awesome website & hosted it themselves. They taught classes on internet security & privacy. They provided free assistance on all technical matters that arose & a place for occupiers to escape to when the frontline was too chaotic. Indeed, Noisebridge was OccupySF’s greatest ally in our battle for politico-economic justice throughout the encampment & still remain so to this day.

 

So, please, if you have the time, come by & enjoy the art, music, demos, presentations, festivities & more this Saturday while Noisebridge celebrates it’s 5 years of service to the San Francisco community & help save Noisebridge from closing this July. OccupySF is going to need them as things pick up this spring, summer & fall…it’s not over till it’s over & we have only just begun.

DATE:        Saturday, 30-March-2013
TIME:         4pm to 11pm
WHERE:    Noisebridge, 2169 Mission St, 3rd floor (1.5 blocks from 16th St. Mission BART) — Map & How to Get here
WHO:         Geeks, dorks, nerds, hipsters, punks, hippies, weirdos — Anyone and Everyone — all genders — all ages!
WHAT:       Live bands!     Art!     Demos!     Presentations!     Workshops!     Sticker & Patch Exchange!     Zines!      Silent Art Auction!     Raffle!
 HOW:       Gently Suggested $10 – 20 Donation!

and remember…be excellent to each other.

TransPacific Partnership

  By Johnsf | March 23, 2013 - 8:53 pm |
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The TransPacific Partnership (TPP):
What Corporations Want
and Why People in 13 Countries are Saying “NO!”

Q & A and Open Discussion
with Arthur Stamoulis, Executive Director, Citizens Trade Campaign

Occupy Forum continues Monday, March 25th, from 6:30 – 9 pm , Global Exchange.
2017 Mission Street (at 16th Street) 2nd Floor, near16th Street BART Station.
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
 
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a massive new international trade pact being pushed by the U.S. government at the behest of transnational corporations. If it continues on its current course, the TPP will serve two primary purposes:
 
1. Making it easier for corporations to shift jobs throughout the world to wherever labor is the most exploited and regulations are the weakest; and
 
2. Putting checks on democracy at home and abroad by constraining governments’ ability to regulate in the public interest.
 
The TPP is already being negotiated between the United States, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam — but it is also specifically intended as a “docking agreement” that other Pacific Rim countries would join over time, with Japan, Korea, China and others already expressing some interest.

Corporations already cheering the TPP include Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Wal-Mart, Chevron, Newscorp, GE and Halliburton. The TPP has been questioned — if not outright opposed — by labor, environmental, family farm, consumer, indigenous and other social justice groups on four continents.
 
Join us to learn about the current state of negotiations, growing #NoTPP movements across continents, and upcoming opportunities for action to #StopTPP!

RVSP on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/496566303712067/

http://www.globalexchange.org/events/discussion-transpacific-partnership-tpp-what-corporations-want-how-people-13-countries-are-sa

Time will be allotted for Q&A and open discussion. Monday March 25, 6:30 – 9 pm.
2017 Mission Street, 2nd Floor #200, near Mission/16th Street BART
Donations to OccupyForum to cover our costs are encouraged; no one turned away!

THE TPP HAS BEEN CALLED “NAFTA ON STEROIDS”

“As a direct result of NAFTA, there are fewer good jobs, more struggling family farms,
less stable food systems, and everyday consumer safety measures are weaker and
social inequality grows. The pact’s intellectual property rules continue to undermine
access to affordable medicine, while its financial service provisions have undermined
banking regulations.  NAFTA fueled even more the conditions that precipitated an
economic emigration crisis and exacerbated a false drug war, leading to mass-scale
human rights abuses where tens of thousands of citizens have been the victims.  It
has degraded the earth and its ecosystems in numerous ways, including from mining
and other resource extraction projects, and has had pronounced effects on indigenous
peoples’ sovereignty.  Subsequent trade agreements have similarly propelled a race to
the bottom in wages, labor rights and environmental protection, as well as deregulation
and privatization, contributing to the worldwide financial and climate crises. Halting
further damage should be a shared priority of our peoples. Instead, because NAFTA has simultaneously redirected wealth and power to elites in each of the countries involved, the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States, among others, are now seeking to expand NAFTA’s trade and investment rules throughout the Pacific Rim in the form of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).”

Operation Wall Street : Proposal and Declaration

  By robb | March 12, 2013 - 1:15 am | ,
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Operation Wall St

Anonymous launches Operation Wall Street

    The weekend before Christmas 2012, Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) received a response from the FBI to a FOIA reguest it had filed. The document showed “that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are treating protests against the corporate and banking structure of America as potential criminal and terrorist activity” according to Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Executive Director of PCJF who went on to say “These documents also show these federal agencies functioning as a de facto intelligence arm of Wall Street and Corporate America.”

On February 3rd during the Super Bowl, the United States Federal Reserve was hacked and Anonymous claimed to have published personal info on over 4,000 bank executives. The data was allegedly left “on a misconfigured server (*in Tel Aviv*) and basically open for grabs” the hacking crew Par:AnoIA claimed on it’s website. The Federal Reserve stated that a third-party service was the source of the vulnerability.

Occupy News & Updates

Fighting Wall Street Influence

    On February 27th, “a total of 14GB of data, code and software related to Bank of America, Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, TEKSystems and ClearForest” had been released and days later reports of embedded malware and trojans began to surface. The dump included emails between Bank of America and the company contracted to spy on Anonymous and Occupy activists, Bank of America source code and “a full version of ClearForest’s text analyzing software OneCalais,” used to spy on the activist groups.

Reminicient of when HBGeary boasted of it’s ability to oust Anonymous, the loose-knit collective reacted by releasing embarassing information and launching an online campaign known as Operation Wall Street or #OpWallSt; as follows:

Operation Wall Street : Proposal and Declaration

This is a call to all Anonymous “members” and citizens of the world.

It is obvious that the DoJ and other government entities such as the SEC think that it is more important for them to regulate freedom of speech and information rather than to regulate the blatant organized crimes of the financial market. They persecute people like us, Occupy, and Arron Swartz instead of the Bankers and Wall Street executives and CEOs who have robbed Americans of their hard earned tax dollars.

They hand out billions upon billions of dollars to people who in no way need it yet our conditions for the poor, or even the middle class, have been continually diminishing. The middle class is now almost non existent thanks to the crimes of Goldman Sachs and other firms who have indulged in sinister and criminal practices.

Thousands of innocent and exploited people are being forced into homelessness while these same CEOs and executives make billions in so called profit. They make their fortunes on the shattered lives and broken dreams of people who were nothing more than slightly ignorant when trying to establish a comfortable life for themselves and their family.

It is no longer tolerable that these men and women get to live in luxury and lawlessness while innocent people are pushed into poverty and people who fight for freedom are prosecuted and demonized.

They demonize Occupy, they demonize Anonymous, they demonized Arron Swartz, they demonized Julian Assanage and Bradley Manning. They demonize the very people they force onto the street by calling them incompetent and lazy while calling themselves successful.

They must be stopped. With the recent pathetic assault on Anonymous’ methods by the Bank of America, with the growing despondence of the public. OPERATION WALL STREET, must be launched.

Although the attack on the NYSE was coordinated and acted on, more must be done now! It should be the duty of any Anonymous, any hacker, in solidarity with Occupy, to release the Dox on the CEOs & any and all Executives of Goldman Sachs, AIG, Wells Fargo, Chase, Meryl Lynch, and any other guilty party. Their dox, any and all possible personal information on these people, must be released and made public and spread across the internet as much as possible. The people who have lost their homes and had their lives destroyed deserve to know who it was that did it.

We can no longer let these disgraceful human beings live in luxury and escape the consequences of their actions. People are angry and rightfully so. We are stuck more and more in a state which we can not get out of and which is not our fault. The guilty must pay. OPERATION WALL STREET HAS BEEN PROPOSED, LAID OUT, AND LAUNCHED. We promise not to hurt you once we release your information but we cannot hold the people you screwed over responsible for their actions once they know who you are and where you live. You are not free to escape the consequences of your actions, no one is.

We are Anonymous, We are Legion, We do not Forgive, We do not Forget.

Expect Us.