The Occupy * Protests

[cloudship 7]

I thik we have avoided it for long enough. what are people's take on this movement?

I have a pretty out there view on this, albeit it develops day to day. But I am not focusing so much on the political stances of the movement, but more on the social and community developments of it. My initial concern is that what we have seen is a kind of flash favela pop up in our major cities. The protest was what brought them together, but in reality I see a tent city of the disenfranchised. Even if someone called the protest off, what would these people do/' Many of them dont really have much to return "home" to, some of them it is pretty questionable if they even have a real home to return to. I do see that a year down the road we may be looking at a bunch of holdouts from this who have established a kind of tent city right in our downtowns, and no one knowing what to do with them.

But I am also starting to see an underground culture and community starting. This is all happening at speeds far faster than we have ever sen before. As many people point out there is no one message, no single party or leader. But there is a common thread that tie them together. and looking at some of these protests, they are starting to develop real camp communities. I understand and support much of what they are saying. but I think there is something potentially much bigger here. This might e the start of a new sub culture, actually more than a culture, a new sub community. How that can exists in our current political-economic system remains to be seen, but I could conceive of a new local-base community, one which has completely separated itself form corporate capitalism and is instead creating it's own local people based capitalism.

[Charlotteman 13]

I participated in Occupy Wall St./Seattle a couple afternoons. Had a nice time too.

Interesting how many elderly people are participating. Folks that were 70+ all over the place.

The mayor of Seattle is supporting the event, even though he ordered the police to rid Westlake Plaza of tents twice. He offered to let the demonstrators camp at Seattle City Hall, but people are resistant for a myriad of reasons.

Westlake Plaza sits in one of Seattle's most popular tourist areas, plus Bank of America and Chase Bank are both on the Plaza!

[the99 2]

The occupy movements have solid grounds but aweful, absolutely dreadful execution. Definitely agree that it's quickly spreading as a subculture and a lot of good can be done. And bravo for the 9 main topics finally coming out to be discussed. But without a leader for the cause, it gives everyone an equal voice, but absolutely nothing gets done when everyone is talking. Worse is that before long, protestors will start arguing with each other over what issue is most important.

The movement needs organization, direction, and unification. No Michael Moore doesn't count. All factions need to come together to get something done. Things that could actually hurt corporations, like people pull all of their money out of banks. If a couple people do it, no big deal, if 100k people do it, slightly bigger deal. And if a 1M people do it, things get changes.

United we're strong.

[cityboi 2155]

my concern is that politicians are creating an environment for violence with their divisive rhetoric. The divided nature of our political system has led to the organization of groups like the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street. We have already seen a case where a Tea Party member through a chemical bomb at an OWS member. This all started in the late 1990s when republicans fought hard to impeach BIll Clinton for the Monica Lewinsky scandal. The controversy over the outcome of the 2000 election also played a major role in the division in our country today.

[Charlotteman 13]

Today was National Switch to a Credit Union Day. We gathered again at Seattle's Westlake Center, at least 300 of us.

We held a spirited street wide march to three downtown credit unions. They each had cupcakes, sandwiches and coffee waiting on us! It was such a spirit of fun!

Dozens of people went in and opened accounts, as the crowd cheered them on!

This anti-big bank movement continues to surprise me in that elderly people seem to be the ones that wanna kick the bankers the hardest.

[cloudship 7]

This almost belongs in one of the bulding threads, but what if you were to take the one of the Occupy protests, put them in an old warehouse district, and give them one of these: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/622508883/global-village-construction-set?ref=video? I am curious what would the outcome be - would we see a society within a society?

[Allison Slater 328]

In a few places, they've actually already begun to occupy old abandoned buildings. I just read about one building in Manhattan becoming occupied. No idea how long that will last with Bloomberg's zeal, however.