UK Uncut describe themselves as “a grassroots anti-austerity network”. In the footnotes to this video, this is how UK Uncut they describe the boss of Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs:
Dave Hartnett, head of HMRC, has spent the last few years shaking hands on sweetheart deals with multinational corporations. Vodafone were let off upwards of £6bn in tax, Goldman Sachs were let off over £10m in tax. By pure chance, Dave Hartnett also happens to be Whitehall’s most wined and dined civil servant, accepting expensive dinners and drinks from companies such as KPMG, Ernst and Young, PWC and, of course, Goldman Sachs.
On 9th November Dave Hartnett was delivering the keynote speech at the Corporate Tax Conference, the biggest annual gathering of everyone who’s anyone in corporate tax. Some UK Uncut activists dressed up as Vodafone and Goldman Sachs execs and surprised Dave to say a huge thank you for his kind favours.
Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films was on MSNBC’s The Ed Show last night to discuss the completely idiotic way Fox has bashed Occupy Wall Street. (My former company released several of his documentaries on DVD including OutFoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism, a project I was proud to have put some money behind).
Watch the opening montage: How could anyone save for a totally uninformed pisshead take Fox News and what these people have to say seriously? It’s simply dishonest reporting yet the Geritol set and thick people all over the country take this shite as the gospel truth. Who benefits from keeping the common man ignorant and infuriated? (The 1%?)
It’s just bizarre to watch this, having visited Zuccotti Park several times personally. What they describe bears little to no resemblance to what I saw with my own two eyes on several occasions. They are flat out liars and fabricators.
Why NOT occupy Fox News? It would give them something legitimate to complain about and man, would that be a whole lot of fun.
Occupy London has taken over a derelict, building owned by Swiss bank UBS. The protesters hope to take legal possession of the building through UK’s squatter’s rights, then open the venue as a “Bank of Ideas”, as Sarah Layler told the Guardian:
“The Bank of Ideas will host a full events programme where people will be able to trade in creativity rather than cash. We will also make space available for those that have lost their nurseries, community centres and youth clubs to savage government spending cuts.”
Situated on Crown Place, near Liverpool Street Station, in the East of the City, the UBS building is the third Occupy London site, following on from St. Paul’s Cathedral and Finsbury Square, Islington. The protesters plan to hold an inaugural conference, for representatives from the whole of the UK Occupy movement, at the building this weekend. This event will include comedy from Josie Long and a seminar from Alessio Rastani - the independent trader who made headlines with his comments about banking in September.
By now you’ve probably heard that the efforts to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker got off to a rousing start with just under 10% of the 540,000 signatures needed to force the recall election collected in the just first two days (no thanks to losers like this).
Walker, who can raise unlimited funds to fight the recall, released his first TV commercial recently touting some rather dubious “successes” of his short time in office. The Democrats and the unions in Wisconsin answered the ad with the punch to the throat you can watch below.
It’s about TIME that progressives realized that they are going to have to play HARD—not “dirty” like the WI GOP and the Koch Bros have, but HARD so their punches land and HURT—and I, for one, loved seeing this commercial. I thought it kicked ass. Scott Walker’s ass.
Read this: Retired Pastor Opens Mind, Front Yard to Walker Recall Movement (Wauwatosa Patch)
Sabotage? Caledonia Man Claims He, and Others, Plan to Shred Signed Walker Recall Petitions (Wauwatosa Patch)
Donate to the efforts to pink-slip Scott Walker and Wisconsin Republicans at ActBlue.
Jesse LaGreca, the articulate young man who effectively “schooled” Fox News creep Griff Jenkins in an amusing encounter that has become one of the defining “viral videos” of the Occupy Wall Street movement so far, has been with the encampment for two months. Speaking for himself, but on behalf of the movement, LeGrecca summarized what the movement is seeking, on his Ministry of Truth blog at Daily Kos.
I think this is a pretty good to-do list for the progressive movement in this country, and as LaGreca correctly points out: We know the Republicans are our enemies, but with friends like the Democrats… I mean, come the fuck on, it’s time to get real!. The Dems are in a rough spot: They have to decide which side they’re on and if they can’t decide, it will be decided for them.
Are millionaire Deomcrats in the House and Senate going to vote against their own interests and the people whose money got them elected in the first place? You’re dreaming if you think that.
I keep hearing from people that Occupy Wall Street protests don’t have a clear message, so here is a short rundown of the “message” as far as I have seen.
It is time to invest in infrastructure and education
It is time to STOP busting labor unions, whether private or public
It is time to defend Medicare and Social Security tooth and nail from phony reforms or baloney cuts
It is time to STOP the spending cuts and start investing in America, and if we have to raise taxes on the rich and corporations in order to force them to invest in America, then so be it.
It is time to STOP the racist and discriminatory practice of “Stop and Frisk” and other tactics of racial profiling
It is time for civil rights for ALL, and that means equal rights for LGBT Americans to serve our military and marry whom ever they will
It is time for ACCOUNTABILITY for the men who lied us into war and crashed our economy
It is time for immigration reform that does not punish workers, but provides a clear pathway to citizenship for everyone
It is time for investigations that lead to prosecutions on Wall Street in response to the crimes that have been committed in the last decade.
It is time for a serious discussion about the Federal Reserve and it’s role in this economic disaster
It is time for universal health care that everyone can afford. It is time to talk about Single Payer Health Care.
It is time for alternative green energy instead of Oil and Coal.
It is time to protect our civil liberties and our constitution.
It is time for a discussion about free trade and how it has undermined the working class while enriching only the wealthiest among us.
It is time to end corporate personhood.
There are sooooo many things that need to be fixed, reformed and addressed, and this short list does not do justice to the many grievances that the 99% have, but we must accept the fact that the GOP only serves the rich and the Dem Establishment only serves to cave to the GOP. They are NOT going to help us. We are going to have to do this ourselves.
It is time to have the BIG conversation about what kind of country we want America to be, and the lobbyists and corrupt career politicians and the corrupt corporate media are NOT going to hijack our conversation. Do we want America to be a nation where 1 out of 5 children live in poverty while the wealthiest among us get ever more wealthy and more powerful? Do we want to live in a nation with crumbling infrastructure that can only reward the rich with ever decreasing tax rates while our schools go unfunded? Do we want to live in a country that can always fund these never ending wars but must cut spending on everything else?
Hear, hear!
It’s time to forget about the park, that’s over and it’s probably a good thing that it is. There’s work to be done this winter. It was never about sleeping in a park in lower Manhattan in sub-zero weather in the first place.
After today, the movement needs to figure out what it’s going to do next. Phase one has been a rousing, inspiring success. Bring on Phase two!
Read the rest of Welcome to PHASE 2 of Occupy Wall Street, now here is a message (Daily Kos).
“Revolution Über Alles” by The Who Boys mashes up The Dead Kennedys’ California Über Alles” and Gil Scott-Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”
This mashup is several years old but couldn’t be timelier. I put together some clips of recent police action during Occupy Oakland/Berkeley to further bring it into the moment.
Retired Philadelphia Police Captain, Raymond Lewis was arrested today by NYPD officers for taking part in OWS.
Lewis, who has cut a figure at OWS in his police uniform, has criticized NYPD’s behavior towards the protesters as “disgusting” and “totally uncalled for”. He has also asked NY cops to stop being “Wall Street Mercenaries”, and to go watch the film Inside Job.
“All the cops are, they’re just workers for the one percent and they don’t even realize they’re being exploited”.
Lewis has also stated police negotiation would have been a better response to the tactics employed by the NYPD:
“You should, by law, only use force to protect someone’s life or to protect them from being bodily injured. If you’re not protecting somebody’s life or protecting them from bodily injury, there’s no need to use force. And the number one thing that they always have in their favor that they seldom use is negotiation–continue to talk, and talk and talk to people. You have nothing to lose by that. This bullrush–what happened last night is totally uncalled for when they did not use negotiation long enough.”
I don’t know who this Retired Captain Lewis is, but by his presence at OWS and his arrest, he has set an example for other police men and women to follow.
Above photograph of Captain Leiws taken by Adam Gabbatt
Occupy TVNY’s Janine Saunders (who posted the video last week of Douglas Rushkoff’s teach-in at Occupy Wall Street) sent in this clip of “dangerous mind” Harry Belafonte addressing Occupy Wall Street, the labor movement, Rev. Martin Luther King, staying the non-violent course as activists and how the young people of today give him hope.
Occupy TVNY caught up with long time activist, singer and actor Harry Belafonte backstage at a screening of Sing Your Song—a new documentary about his life, organized for members of Occupy Wall Street and Local 1199.
A grand total of THREE, yes, three assholes stage their own completely witless counter-protest today in lower Manhattan.
“Get a job”?
Seriously? THAT is the best you can do? The very BEST and smartest and most clever thing you can think of? In a SEA of clever, funny signs you come up with lameness and you’re the ones who still have a job???
Apparently so. When you’re an apologist for a failed economic system… yes, THIS is the best you can do.
There are no jobs, lickspittle dummies! That’s one of the reasons these people are keeping you from getting to work today, Republican fools! Occupy everywhere!
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