Here are 2 great articles about the history of the OCCUPY Movement. Still alive.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/how-occupy-wall-street-reshaped-america/620064/
Oct 20 2019
JOIN THE XR REBELLION
I found the following article so aligned with OCCUPY principles and values that I became motivated to finally put out a post. While the local chapter OCCUPY BELLINGHAM has paused for now we still gather on Fridays to drink a beer and stay acquainted. And we are certainly all still thinking and engaged in the world around us. Many of us are tired and waiting for the youth and she came! I thank Greta Thunberg for further motivating me into action.
The three demands of XR rebellion are clear and were adapted by OCCUPY BELLINGHAM shortly after a meeting with local XR folks. They are:
1) Tell the truth about these crises
2)Reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2025
3) Create a democratic citizens’ assembly of randomly selected and demographically representative citizens to hear expert testimonies and direct an emergency-level effort to reduce carbon emission and protect biodiversity
The first demand can be helped by letting your representatives know what you want them to do. Note how even the debates are getting some push-back when climate is not mentioned. This demand can be further pushed out as people gather for protest and civil disobedience. Bring it to the Friday peace vigil. https://www.fridaysforfuture.org/
The third demand will be the most long term and may be the most difficult. Gotta start somewhere. The homeless are asking for a seat at the table. The Incarcerated – same. These demands pose a threat to the status quo for sure. Many here in Bellingham have been experiencing People’s Assemblies for years. This is a further step in the direction of democracy.
Mar 03 2019
MORE ON VENEZUELA – OPEN LETTER TO AOC
The motive behind neoliberalism is perpetuation of ruling class power and American international power, and the mechanics are fourfold: capture competitor nations in an American-dominated system, exploit the markets of weaker nations, ensure net flows of wealth from peripheral nations to sustain US consumption, and lock peripheral nations into debt and dependency as leverage to control how they do business.
It was this system that Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian movement challenged, and opposition to neoliberalism is precisely what put this movement in the gunsights of the US ruling class and its colonial surrogates in Venezuela. Because it is not the popular leaders (like Zelaya, Chavez, Aristide) that are the primary threat. They focus the threat, and thereby increase it, but the real threat is popular rule. The coup in progress in Venezuela is not against Maduro, per se, but against the majority of poor, non-white Venezuelans.
If this propaganda works, the people will resist, and all in the resistance are already pre-demonized by precisely the kind of propaganda you have been clickbaited into repeating. And mark my words, if that resistance is met with a US invasion, it could turn into a bloodbath. The overwhelming majority of Venezuelans will oppose it, and many will actively fight. I have been to Venezuela, seen the racial/class hierarchy up close, drank Polarcitas with them into the wee hours over pollo asado, and walked the mountains with them. They will not back down. They will never accept a foreign army. And a good deal of the armed forces are loyal to the Venezuelan Constitution — the military stopped the last overt US coup attempt in 2002.
Do any of us want to be complicit in this? Do not repeat the assertions that are paving the way.
The coup in progress is not just Trump; it is Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack …..
Feb 25 2019
GETTING THE RIGHT NEWS OUT TO THE MANY WHO CARE
Here is another take on the Venezuela crisis with some historical perspective. This might become a valuable alternative news source.
Feb 24 2019
ABBY MARTIN ON VENEZUELA
Finding the alternative news on this latest coup being delivered right before our eyes.
Feb 24 2019
REGIME CHANGE AGAIN
Commentary by Dianne Foster:
So, we have to confront this supposedly humanitarian aid, which is not humanitarian aid. It’s just direct intervention in order to have regime change, which has been the purpose of the Trump government from the very beginning. And we know what regime change has meant in other places. We know the experience of regime change in Libya. We know the experience of regime change in Iraq. We know what the people in Syria are facing today as a consequence of these imperial attempts tohave regime change. So, there is no possibility that this so-called humanitarian aid will make any positive contribution to the Venezuelan situation. It’s just going to make it worse, because it’s deepening the crisis in terms of medicine and food for the Venezuelan people, on one hand, it’s increasing the likelihood of an escalation of violence, and it’s opening up the doors to the possibility of a civil war.
So, the need for some sort of negotiation, for putting a stop to this escalation, and to put the blame, on one hand, on Maduro’s responsibility for having, throughout this six years of government, created such an incredible collapse of the Venezuelan economy—today, the economy is half of what it used to be when Maduro came to power, and this is basically the government’s responsibility. U.S. sanctions against Venezuela, Trump’s sanctions against Venezuela, started a year and a half ago, around mid-2017. But the crisis came from way before. U.S. sanctions have deepened the crisis, but they are not the main cause of the crisis. The main cause of the crisis is ineptitude and massive corruption by the Maduro government.
Jan 28 2019
OUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE
This is just in from Davos by this young person. She is a miracle. Write, Call, Email your elected officials at all levels with the following OCCUPY demands.
OCCUPY BELLINGHAM demands that our elected officials at all levels:
- Tell citizens the truth via their web sites, tweets, town halls, social media about the looming global climate extinction/catastrophe. (Climate disruption is the #1 existential threat to the habitability of our planet and we must hold our elected representatives accountable)
- Enact enforceable legislation (sponsoring, co-sponsoring, signing on to) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to sustainable levels. (The global extinction intersects with immigration, gender, homeless, racial bias, equity, equality, labor)
- Hold citizens accountable to be honest about our own impacts and do what we can to reduce them. (Altering the current global climate extinction will take everyone’s cooperation and participation. (No one will escape the consequence of this global climate extinction)
Find the rest of our demands under the menu “about”.
Jan 06 2019
FIGHT FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE – 2
So we begin our learning about the Global Extinction Rebellion. Many people are on board with this, believe it, are changing their approach to life, and working to help others understand it. Having watched our own Jill McIntyre-Witt TedXtalk (the post below) I hope you are now enthusiastic about learning more. The next person to hear from is Dr. Gail Bradbrook, the founder of Rising Up and now the Global Extinction Rebellion. Here is her talk to give us the basics of the idea.
Dec 28 2018
FIGHT FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE
Let’s start with a local hero, Jill McKintyre-Witt. She is calling for climate justice and we are on to this with new demands and forming a relationship with a local group of the Extinction Rebellion. Enjoy the Ted Talk.
Jul 20 2018