Occupy Wall Street 3: Now What?

radio's on. my segments are over, but still a solid 90 minutes coming up: http://tunein.com/station/?StationId=22091

still up: updates on the 2 year anniversary of the egyptian revolution, great interviews with davey d (!), bella eiko & a minister from the black riders liberation party on bill "stop & frisk" braddock being hired by the city of oakland (plus details on the mechanics of the black riders' various social programs), and a few other items. good show imo.

haha um @TheRealRoseanne just RT'd us again. never sure how i feel about that.

Occupy the SEC has filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of New York against six federal agencies, over those agencies' delay in promulgating a Final Rulemaking in connection with the "Volcker Rule."

http://www.occupythesec.org/

The DC eviction defense group, after two victories and just this week getting a quiet, painful second loss, is going into hibernation.

The IMF comes to town in a few weeks, and I expect that just like last year, several thousand black bloc'ers will fail to show up despite all their internet bandanna-rattling.

Strike Debt is doing their--depending on who you ask--variously advisable thing. http://www.thenation.com/blog/173480/strike-debt-abolishes-11-million-medical-debt#

Wins defending homes all over the country. Minnesota & Atlanta both still killin it with direct action: http://stonemountain.patch.com/articles/occupy-our-homes-atlanta-backs-local-evicted-woman

Radio still on every week: mixcloud.com/mariahblank/

So strange, to think we all had this moment together. Feels a long time ago now.

Getting a lot of perspective from this great book--wish I'd read it two years ago: https://secure.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=518

I always take heart in the Utah Philips quote "the joy is in the struggle", also expressed eloquently in Philip K. Dick's "Radio Free Albemuth" - our job is to carry shreds of light through the new dark ages, not necessarily to win.

<3

goddaaamn today was fun

also glad the nazis at the white house (actual nazis waiting for us at the white house, that's not like a 'white house is full of nazis' thing) got their feathers nice and ruffled. those bullshit flags are way more useful on fire anyway.

wore an orange vest and Peacekept for the day; saw a lot of faces i hadn't in a while.

friend of mine in seattle had the windows of her small business smashed. it's just a little bar/distillery :(

good on you for peacekeeping today, dlh.

i ended up having to do absolutely nothing; was proud of us. sorry about your friend clay.

oh and hoos as usual making righteous calls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCb2Le3wtIk

btw there were all kinds of organizations at this march doing all kinds of cool stuff like foreclosure resistance or worker education or helping day laborers or being wobblies or whatever, and they all had people in them i recognized from occupy and i think had met each other at occupy (occupy here meaning The Camps), but what the official "occupy" representatives were there doing was they had a big papier-mache golden bull with bank/corporate logos on it and they dressed up as ancient egyptians and danced around it for five minutes to cake's "comfort eagle". this is nothing people haven't been saying since last may (i just haven't been in touch cuz i'm a useless fair-weather rank-sweller) but felt like there's a tremendous legacy of occupy as event + bankruptcy of occupy as brand.

i do like comfort eagle tho.

friend of mine got hurt during his arrest for Being Black In The Cops Way, charged with apo--all charges dropped and he just walked out the courtroom door

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/03/may-day-anarchists-will-compensate-small-businesses-whose-windows-were-smashed

i have a variety of competing impulses about this. the synical interpretation is obvious, but if it's legit i enjoy this.

friend of mine in seattle had the windows of her small business smashed. it's just a little bar/distillery :(

― Clay, Thursday, May 2, 2013 6:58 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

is your friend one of the above by chance, clay?

Oh I didn't see that, yes, Sun L1quor! That's awesome that some people are standing up and helping out!

rad. i'm glad to hear that.

X| at the part of that stranger story that's like 'anarchist that ~wanted to be credited as **the anarchists of puget sound**~" as though that's not one of the best known groups within certain circles of the entire NW

like just that minor linguistic turn makes "a legitimate organization made up of concerned humans" into a questionable potentially publicity seeking or something similar troupe and that just upsets me in ways i can't quite work out

I don't think the money was really the problem in the first place, though. I think they were just kinda sad about the whole ordeal. Her facebook post on the subject was just like "c'mon, we didn't hurt anybody :(" xp

right, that's been the impression i've gathered from the aftermath. i'm glad to hear folks are stepping up in an effort to rectify the fuckup, whatever the cause. i know folks happy to break a window but can't think of anyone who'd go in on a local business.

from The Alt-Weekly no less xxp

It's just part and parcel of the ""self described """anarchists""" said in court today" style of marginalization, frustrating to see it even in the NW

@constantnatalie

McDonald's brought in replacement workers to replace strikers at a Detroit store, but those replacement workers are now on strike too. #d15
via Twitter for iPhone

interviewing josh eidelson from the nation on my show this weekend re: this low wage organizing work that's been going on. inspiring stuff.

I have been fucking loving the news of the Detroit fast food strike

http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/05/10/detroit-experiences-what-may-be-largest-fast-food-strike-yet/

hell yeah

That is so amazing/inspiring.

just got word that dc cops have visited a half dozen of my friend's houses today.

fuck.

arrests or just "visits"?

unclear. rumors of a couple of arrests, but the simmering panic + security culture are such that people are being really vague about it over any means of communication that can get subpoenaed

2 arrests confirmed.

they raided a house I'm at all the time. Fuck. Goddammit.

oh geez :/

wow ok, feeling some feelings here

that sucks, man. you got a lawyer you can call in a worst case scenario?

yeah, we're in good with nlg people & i've got the number in memory.

one of three back in the world already, still mum.

ugh hoos stay free

Friend who turned himself in after finding out his house was raided while he was working is now being held for a week. All I'm hearing is "it isn't a felony," but they're still holding him for a week.

Held for a week on a misdemeanor charge! Fuck that noise.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/401832_10151433963502293_1826174651_n.jpg

friend of mine quipped 'and thus the pacific northwest comes to the east coast'

lil grandiose given we think he's out soon, but i gotta ride for my man

he's out today--after holding him for the week the gov lawyers suddenly realized "gosh, we haven't even filed the paperwork on this yet: you know what? nevermind."

arrested on a bogus charge. held for a week. charge dropped.

and he was one of a few other surprise arrests too. they're trying to put down a chilling effect pretty hard.

but in any case--he's out and we're relieved.

damn, while i wasn't looking tidal went and got all upscale

http://tidalmag.org/about/

that said the articles in it feel intensely actively dull and recycled and going-through-the-motions except the bond/ratings agency article which just makes no sense and the choice of lorde poem which is almost actively offensive in this context, but at least it has an obvious agenda. outside of that this notion of 'theory' is like high-minded platitudes.

not exactly a rupture, no.