You Are Not A Loan

In These Times
Rebecca Burns

Is a debt strike the future of Occupy?

Though the Occupy camps have disbanded, many organizers believe they’ve found the next big tent under which the year-old movement can regroup: debt. At the one-year anniversary celebration of Occupy Wall Street, members of the group Strike Debt distributed 5,000 free copies of a “Debt Resistors’ Operations Manual.”

Debt, Occupiers argue, is a new way of understanding what sets the 99% apart from the 1%. With wages remain- ing stagnant as the cost of living has increased, workers increasingly finance their day-to-day lives on a deficit. An estimated 75 percent of households now carry some amount of debt. And the problem goes even deeper: Creditors ranging from seedy sub-prime lenders to the International Monetary Fund have the power to compel cities, states and entire nations to forgo basic necessities in order to fulfill their promissory notes.

Could this new offshoot of Occupy reignite the movement? In These Times organized a dialogue about the prospect of a modern-day debtors’ revolt—and how the creditors might fight back. Participating were Pam Brown, an organizer with Strike Debt; Jodi Dean, professor of political science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges; Mike Konczal, a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute; and Peter Rugh, an organizer with theOccupy Wall Street Environmental Solidarity working group. 

Most Occupiers have been reluctant to organize the movement around any one overarching issue. What’s the potential benefit of focusing on debt?

Jodi: The issue of debt is typically embedded in the austerity agenda. Debt, whether our nearly unfathomable national debt or debilitating personal debt, supposedly signifies a will too weak to sacrifice present pleasures for future benefits. And in a country so punitive that weakness of any sort invites cruelty and condemnation, debt has given Republicans—and Democrats tripping over themselves in their race to the Right—an opportunity to inflict pain on “the 47 percent” by cutting much-needed benefits and services. So Strike Debt’s move to claim debt as a cause for the Left is a welcome change.

Pete: It would be a mistake to understand Occupy as a single-issue movement focused on debt. For example, OWS Environmental Solidarity is helping coordinate direct actions against fracking and other forms of extraction. But there is a symbiotic relationship between the exploitation of the planet and the exploitation of people, and debt is a useful lens for this. The question we ask by focusing on debt is “Who owes who?” We are all owed a future, but we aren’t going to get one if we accept that Wall Street is entitled to cash in on the investments it’s already made in wrecking the planet.

What are the challenges of organizing people as debtors—rather than as workers, women or others who have been the basis of mass movements?

Jodi: The individual quality of debt makes a collective response a big challenge. Unlike the factory, where worker encounter one another daily, debtors accumulate debt—and face the consequences of default—privately. That others are in the same boat may feel reassuring, but it doesn’t change one’s credit score. And because it’s often hard to figure out who actually owns a loan, it will be hard to organize and target debtors’ actions.

Pam: It’s true that debt is much harder to organize around than the collective grievances of the workplace. But that’s why, as the power of labor declines, figuring out how to build a debt resistance movement is so important.

During the Red Scare, federal support for increased home ownership was considered vital to the project of combating Soviet influence. While nothing longer than a five-year mortgage existed before the Great Depression, homeownership shot up once the government began insuring loans for home building and home buying. The 30-year mortgage was created, and it was an axiom of the time that a homeowner encumbered by years of mortgage debt was less likely to go on strike. So the acceleration of our indebtedness, and its erosion of collective action, was in many ways a response to the power of worker solidarity.

So what could a collective response to debt look like?

Mike: While the language of “striking debt” is important and provocative, there are a number of problems that a strike against paying debts to creditors would encounter.

In a factory strike, workers have leverage because the bosses and owners are losing money and want the factory to resume running. But creditors often want people to miss the first payment so they can charge fees and penalties, and third-party collection agencies get a windfall through defaults on student loans. This raises the question: If a debt strike takes the form of encouraging people to miss payments or default, how can it be effective in an industry that would likely cheer such a move?

There’s also the question of retribution. Your boss can’t work against your renting a house or getting a phone in a different city five years down the road because you went on strike, but your creditor can. So part of the project will be thinking of new ways of imagining a strike.

Pam: On the horizon is a Rolling Jubilee, where we will be purchasing defaulted debt and legally abolishing it. We are also in the process of building an international organization analogous to a union. In the same way factory strikes improved conditions, withdrawing from the debt system opens up space to reclaim our future. 

Pete: The fact that Pam is proposing an “organization analogous to a union” without fear that her bicycle will get keyed shows how far Occupy has come from a vehement fear of codifying anything. But this effort may require organization to a greater extent than we’ve seen so far. 

Is a campaign against debt in part an argument for a stronger welfare state?

Jodi: Debilitating medical and student debt are the result of a market approach to medicine and education. So if Strike Debt grows, we could see demands for free healthcare and free universities. Once people stop thinking of banks as entitled to interest and fees, then we may also decide as a society that public sector workers, pensions and basic infrastructures are more important than playing the bankers’ game.

Mike: Strike Debt could serve as the basis for a campaign to reestablish education, health, civic infrastructure and income maintenance as part of our basic commons, not to be auctioned off for the benefit of the few.

One challenge is that the government is also increasingly on the other side of these debts, and the same powers that make it a good provider of social insurance make it a vicious debt collector. The government can outwait even the most resistant of student loan debtors. There are more and more stories about senior citizens pushed into poverty or having their Social Security checks garnished to make student loan payments. Strikes work against factories because eventually the capital owners need the factory to start working again, but there’s no indication that this leverage exists with the debts governments stand behind. Factor in how law enforcement is increasingly acting as a front line of debt collection, and this is a poisonous combination.

Occupy has to this point resisted making demands. But could a broad demand for something like debt cancellation advance the movement at this stage?

Pam: Many of us believe that cancellation of some sort is inevitable; the question is who will have their debts canceled and who will not. But I don’t think we’ll see one demand, even as it relates to debt, coming out of Occupy.

Pete: One year into the movement, we need to sustain the bonds that have been forged between Occupiers working on different issues in different parts of the world. How do we do this without demands? We shouldn’t be afraid of raising “mini-demands” under the broad banner of Occupy, whether we are student debt resistors or environ- mental activists fighting nuclear power. Together, we are all demanding a more just and sustainable world.

Occupy Portland spinoff group protests use of pepper spray at protest

The Oregonian
Deborah Bloom

One of an estimated 20 protesters who were
pepper-sprayed on Saturday gets some help.

Upset with the police bureau's use of force at Saturday's rally, Portland protesters are looking for ways to avoid such a reaction in the future when they demonstrate in public.

Portland Action Lab, an offshoot of the Occupy Portland movement, will meet Wednesday to reflect on the rally and discuss ideas for mitigating police officers' use of force, which some protesters have called excessive and violent.

"We keep running into this realization that the police are going to use force on us whenever we're in the streets," said spokesperson Nicholas Caleb.

The roughly 300-person rally against funding cuts to social and public services was mostly peaceful, but ended up with 20 people pepper-sprayed and one demonstrator arrested after police stopped the marchers from making a left turn onto a street in the Lloyd District.

Police began pepper-spraying demonstrators after they were confronted with wooden shields, department spokesperson Pete Simpson said.

The group also didn't have a permit for the rally, which is required for those marching on public streets. If the group had a permit, police would have been willing to escort the protesters through a route already approved by the department, Simpson said.

"We believe to express political dissent we shouldn't have to ask permission,"

said Mike Losier, another spokesperson for the group.

The police department's response to the group had become increasingly violent since the beginning of Occupy Portland, Caleb said.

"They're using riot police when there isn't a riot going on. People get bum rushed by cops in paramilitary fashion and hog tied," Caleb said.

Portland Anti-Austerity Protest Draws 1,000 Despite Police Violence

FP Street
Steve Slater
Matt Scuffham

It’s difficult to build a pre-election protest with so many labor and community groups busy campaigning for Democrats. Nevertheless, over 1,000 people marched the streets in Portland, Oregon against austerity cuts to education and other public services and the consequent debt accumulated by students.

The specific date of the pre-election protest was set to educate the public about the bi-partisan plan of national austerity cuts, which are expected to occur post-election and likely include massive cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, public education, and Social Security.

The Portland demonstration was endorsed or supported by six labor unions, including Portland’s teachers and the largest public employee union in Oregon. Over a dozen community groups endorsed the event.

But the police came ready to start a fight. There was a fleet of bicycle police and dozens of riot police, including those mounted on horseback. The police created confrontations by blocking streets on the marching route and pepper spraying marchers if they got too close. About 24 people were pepper sprayed, including several high school students and an elderly woman.

It should be noted that Portland’s mayor is the first openly gay Mayor in the country and a “liberal” Democrat.

Despite the police’s repeated attempts to dismember the march, the day was an overall success. The demonstration gained enough coverage to teach the city what austerity is, while speakers and fliers offered alternatives that would make austerity cuts unnecessary, such as taxing the rich and corporations instead of making cuts to education and social programs.

Also, the organizational framework has been created for further coalition building against austerity, with labor and community groups finding common purpose against a bi-partisan policy that is destroying the social safety net while being used as an excuse to attack unions.

This is important because future state budget deficits are expected in Oregon. Instead of raising taxes on the rich, whose tax rates have declined for the past three decades, the Democratic governor will likely try again to implement austerity cuts in response to a budget deficit. In other words, he will try to resolve the deficit at the expense of working people and the poor. Cuts will also likely be attempted again on the city level in Portland, in response to yet another budget deficit.

The economic crisis is not over for working people, who are likely to experience years of austerity budgets on all levels of government, while corporations, too, attempt to implement austerity wage and benefit cuts to their workforce in order to “remain competitive.”

If labor and community groups unite the broader population with common goals and collective, massive action, we can build a powerful social movement capable not only of defending ourselves from austerity, but changing the power dynamic in this country to the benefit of working people.

If united in massive numbers, we’ll have the strength to make the rich and corporations pay for this crisis they created.

Portland, Oregon Prepares For Pre-Election Anti-Austerity Protest

CounterCurrents
Shamus Cooke

On November 3rd Portland community and labor groups will declare "enough is enough" by organizing a first for the U.S. — a large demonstration against government austerity cuts.

The protest takes aim at the governmental policy of austerity — where public deficits on a city, state, and federal level are being addressed by “cuts only" budgets, resulting in continued de-funding of education, health care, transportation, and other vital public services, combined with an attack on public sector workers.

The pre-election date of the protest is no accident, but an intentional action that, in part, aims to bring awareness to the post-election cuts slated to “fix” the national deficit. Although Democrats and Republicans are still wrangling over a specific dollar amount of cuts, they do agree that at least $4 trillion in cuts — including social programs like Medicare, education and likely Social Security — are "necessary" ($4 trillion is Obama's proposal; Paul Ryan's is $6 trillion).

Nearly all politicians claim there is no alternative to austerity cuts, which in Portland have caused devastation to public schools and other social services.

The alternative solution to austerity is obvious: budget deficits should be fixed by taxing the corporations and the wealthy, who have benefited for decades from a bi-partisan policy of lower tax rates, while working people have seen property, liquor, and other regressive taxes levied against them. These pro-corporate policies are in large part the cause of the current deficit, the recession — caused by the big banks — is another cause.

Giant protests against austerity in Europe have attracted hundreds of thousands and evolved into citywide general strikes, thanks in large part to the active participation of the European labor movement. In Portland, the anti-austerity demonstration is endorsed by locals from Service Employees International Union, Communication Workers of America, Letter Carriers, Laborers, Jobs With Justice, and other community groups including Occupy Portland.

If the Portland protest is large enough it will have succeeded in educating the community about the special interest, pro-corporate agenda behind the national and local austerity cuts, while also showing practical alternatives to austerity: making the rich and corporations pay for the crisis they created.

Ideally, the Portland demonstration will be the beginning of a working-class coalition of labor and community groups with the potential of growing into a powerful European-like movement capable defeating not only city and state austerity budgets, but working with other cities to change social policy on a national level.

Economists agree that the economic downturn shows no signs of real recovery, ensuring that austerity will remain an issue that threatens the livelihoods of all working people for years to come. Better to start fighting it now!

The protest begins 1pm, at Portland's Holladay Park on November 3rd.

Shamus Cooke is a social service worker, trade unionist, and writer for Workers Action (www.workerscompass.org) He can be reached at Shamuscooke@gmail.com

US forces blow up Afghan civilian dead bodies: protesters

PressTV

Anti-US protesters in southern Afghanistan say US-led forces have blown up the dead bodies of three civilians, who were recently arrested and killed by the foreign forces in the country.

Hundreds of angry protesters blocked the Kandahar-Kabul highway in the city of Qalat on Monday, in response to the killings.

Foreign forces have reportedly refused to return the bodies of the victims to their families.

Protesters say the victims were all civilians and they had no connections with the Taliban militants.

This is while over Sunday and Monday, at least eight people were killed in US-led airstrikes in the Wardak and Kandahar provinces respectively situated in central and southern Afghanistan.

The loss of civilian lives at the hands of US-led foreign forces is a highly sensitive issue in Afghanistan, which has dramatically increased anti-American sentiment and triggered anti-US protests across the war-torn country.

The issue is also a major source of friction between Kabul and Washington.

The United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 under the pretext of combating terrorism.

The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity continues to rise across Afghanistan, despite the presence of thousands of US-led troopers in the violence-scarred country.

Thousands protest Britain govt's austerity measures in London

Business Today

Demonstrators take part in an anti-austerity protest march
 through central London on October 20.

Tens of thousands of people from across Britain gathered in central London on Saturday to protest against the government's austerity policy.

Unions, anti-war campaigners, left-wing leaders, community groups and other activists poured down London's streets in a demonstration against reductions to public sector spending which officials are pushing through in order to rein in the Britain's debt, which stands at more than 1 trillion pounds ($1.7 trillion).

Although the austerity program has had some modest successes - the country's deficit has dropped slightly - the UK economy has shrunk for three consecutive quarters amid cuts at home and economic turmoil on the continent.

Brendan Barber, whose Trades Union Congress helped organize the march, said the message of Saturday's protest was that "austerity is simply failing."

"The government is making life desperately hard for millions of people because of pay cuts for workers, while the rich are given tax cuts," he said.

Britain borrowed 13 billion pounds in September alone, and with other European countries - including next door neighbor Ireland - struggling to make good on their debt, and there is a general consensus that the UK budget needs to be rebalanced.

The protesters urged the Conservative-Liberal coalition government to come to realise that its austerityprescription for the recession-hit country had failed.

They argued that spending cuts are hitting jobs, services and living standards, and called for a new approach which puts the focus on growth and an economy that works.

"Ministers told us that if we only accepted the pain, recovery would come," Barber said. "Instead we have been mired in a double dip recession."

Similar protests were also held in Belfast, Northern Ireland's capital, and Glasgow, Scotland's biggest city.

Video: Police Provocateurs Caught Inciting Violence In Spain

Daily Bail

Greece joins Spain and Portugal in protesting austerity measures

SMH
Liz Alderman
Niki Kisantonis

Up in flames ... burning firebombs form a backdrop to a
riot officer during a demonstration in Athens on Wednesday.

After a period of relative calm, European markets shuddered once again as protests erupted across Greece and demonstrators surrounded the Spanish parliament for a second day to protest against the austerity program of the Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy.

Greek riot police clashed with hundreds of hooded youths hurling petrol bombs on Wednesday, as tens of thousands of striking workers rallied against a latest round of austerity measures in Athens.

On Tuesday in Spain tens of thousands of demonstrators besieged the parliament over the austerity measures. Last week more than half a million people marched in cities across Portugal to protest against an increase in social security contributions, and a million marched in Barcelona calling for Catalan independence.

The Greek clashes took place after more than 50,000 people marched to parliament demanding the government ignore the latest demands of the country's creditors for additional cuts to salaries, pensions and benefits. Riot police fired tear-gas and pepper spray against demonstrators who used marble stones and bottles as weapons and set fire to garbage bins and portable kiosks in central Syntagma Square.

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One group could be seen setting fire to trees in the National Gardens, causing flames and black smoke to fill the skies above the parliament.

The nationwide strike, called by the country's two biggest private and public sector unions, is the first such action since the country's conservative-led coalition government was formed in June.

The 24-hour walkout affected schools, pharmacists, customs workers, ports and government offices. Museums and major archaeological sites turned tourists away. Shops were closed and ferry services suspended. More than a dozen domestic and international flights were cancelled or rescheduled after air traffic controllers called a three-hour stoppage. Petrol stations remained shut for most of the day and hospitals operated on emergency staff as doctors joined the strike.

Among the strikers was Babis Vasiliadis, a hotel chef who was recently left unemployed. He said: ''This is not just about having a decent job and making enough money to feed your family - it is about the right of every citizen to live a decent life.''

Marching nearby, 58-year-old pensioner Stavroula Zervea, said she no longer can survive after her pension was slashed by more than a third. ''I suspect it will only get worse - but the question is how much more tax hikes can the Greek people handle?'' she said.

Hours before demonstrators hit the streets, the Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras, and his Finance Minister, Yannis Stournaras, reportedly hammered out a deal on the $15 billion package of spending cuts, along with a further $2.6 billion in taxes, demanded by the country's international lenders, the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The bulk of the cuts will affect wages, pensions and welfare benefits, putting renewed pressure on the country, which is in the fifth year of recession and has seen unemployment soar to more than 24 per cent.

Spain prepares yet more austerity measures , protesters battle police

The Daily Herald

Protesters clashed with police in Spain's capital on Tuesday as the government prepared a new round of unpopular austerity measures for the 2013 budget to be announced on Thursday.

Thousands gathered in Neptune plaza, a few metres from El Prado museum in central Madrid, where they formed a human chain around parliament, surrounded by barricades, police trucks and more than 1,500 police in riot gear.

Police fired rubber bullets and beat protesters with truncheons, first as protesters were trying to tear down barriers and later to clear the square. The police said at least 22 people had been arrested and at least 32 injured, including four policemen.

As lawmakers started to leave the parliament shortly after nine p.m. in official cars or by foot, a few hundred people were still demonstrating in front of the building. Most dispersed shortly afterwards
The protest, promoted over the Internet by different activist groups, was younger and more rowdy than recent marches called by labour unions. Protesters said they were fed up with cuts to public salaries and health and education.

"My annual salary has dropped by 8,000 euros and if it falls much further I won't be able to make ends meet," said Luis Rodriguez, 36, a firefighter who joined the protest. He said he was considering leaving Spain to find a better quality of life.

With this year's budget deficit target looking untenable, the conservative government is now looking at such things as cuts in inflation-linked pensions, taxes on stock transactions, "green taxes" on emissions or eliminating tax breaks.

The 2013 budget is the second conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has had to pass since he took office in December. Spain must persuade its European partners that it can cut the budget shortfall by more than 60 billion euros by 2014. Rajoy has already passed spending cuts and tax hikes worth slightly more than that over the next two years, but half-year figures show the 2012 deficit target slipping from view as tax income forecasts will not be hit due to economic contraction.

He said earlier this month the 2013 budget would cut spending further in all areas of government apart from pensions and borrowing costs. Spain is at the centre of the euro zone debt crisis on concerns the government cannot control its finances and those of highly indebted regions, bitten by a second recession since 2009 which has put one in four workers out of a job.

Occupy Wall St activists to surround NYSE in effort to regain impetus

Group, which struggled to maintain momentum after initial flurry last autumn, to celebrate one-year anniversary on Monday

Guardian

Activists plan to mark the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street on Monday by descending on New York's financial district in an attempt to rejuvenate a movement that has failed to sustain momentum after initially sparking a national conversation about economic inequality.

The group, which popularized the phrase "We are the 99%," will attempt to surround the New York Stock Exchange and disrupt morning rush hour in lower Manhattan, according to a movement spokeswoman.

Monday's protests will cap a weekend of Occupy seminars, music and demonstrations in New York, said Linnea Paton, 24, an Occupy Wall Street (OWS) spokeswoman. Demonstrations are also planned in other US cities, other OWS organizers said.

The grassroots movement caught the world by surprise last fall with a spontaneous encampment in lower Manhattan that soon spread to cities across North America and Europe.

Occupy briefly revived a long-dormant spirit of US social activism, and drew enduring attention to economic injustice.

But the movement's colorful cast of theatrical demonstrators struggled through last winter to sustain the momentum that first drew attention to its patchwork of economic grievances – including corporate malfeasance on Wall Street, crippling student debt and aggressive bank foreclosures on American homes.

On Sunday, organizers will provide live music, including a Foley Square concert featuring Tom Morello, guitarist for the rock band Rage Against the Machine.

At 7am Monday, some protesters will try to surround the NYSE, while others will engage in a loosely choreographed series of "sit-ins" at intersections throughout the financial district, according to OWS's website.

The tactics are designed to undermine New York police efforts to contain protesters on the narrow, winding streets of the financial district.

Last year's demonstrations featured the spectacle of activists breaking into sudden dashes down one narrow street or another, pursued by visibly frustrated police and television reporters tripping down cobblestone streets.

Sound permits for Sunday's events have been secured, Paton said, but OWS has not sought permits for Monday's protests - which last fall led to mass arrests and clashes between police and protesters. Occupy Wall Street maintains about $50,000 in its bail fund, several organizers said.

NYPD spokesman Paul Brown confirmed that no OWS demonstration permit applications were submitted, but said police will be prepared for demonstrations.

"We accommodate peaceful protests and make arrests for unlawful activity," he said.

Brown said that based on previous experience with OWS, the NYPD expects that "a relatively small group of self-described anarchists will attempt unlawful activity and try to instigate confrontations with police by others while attempting to escape arrest themselves … we expect most demonstrators to be peaceful."

New York police have made a total of 1,852 Occupy arrests as of September 12 according to Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance's office, including the arrest of 700 protesters who spilled into the roadway while marching across the Brooklyn bridge last October.

On Friday, Twitter was ordered by a New York judge to turn over the tweets of one of the protesters arrested on the bridge. That case has emerged as a closely watched court fight over law enforcement access to users' social media content.

Six weeks after the Brooklyn bridge arrests, citing public health concerns, New York authorities entered the Manhattan OWS camp and dispersed protesters. The movement has never regained its initial momentum.

Tens of thousands protest Spanish austerity measures

CNN
Al Goodman

Tens of thousands of demonstrators from across Spain filled Madrid's central Colon Plaza Saturday in a large anti-austerity protest.

Ten columns of marches converged on the plaza, some representing Spain's regions and others representing groups like civil servants.

Spain is mired in an economic crisis, with unemployment near 25%, and the government has taken belt-tightening measures to secure loans and reduce the deficit.

Some civil servants, for instance, dressed in black in a symbolic mourning over salary and vacation cutbacks, even as they are asked to work longer hours.

Jose Antonio Domingo, a tax collector for the town of San Sebastian de los Reyes, just north of Madrid, wore a black shirt with the words "we are poor and those at fault are rich."

The worst part of the reforms is the "humiliation" that civil servants face, he said. Elected officials meanwhile, appoint their political friends to town hall posts, even though they have no training to manage a local government, he said.

The protesters demanded a referendum on the government's deficit-reduction strategy of cost-cutting and tax hikes, and vow that if the government -- in power since last December -- does not authorize a referendum, they will try to hold their own.

The government says there have already been 1,900 protest in Madrid this year and the demonstrators Saturday promised a "hot autumn" of many more.

This weekend's protest showed how demonstrations in Spain have evolved over the past year. Anti-austerity protests at first were carried out by youths, and later, trade unions took the lead. On Saturday, dozens of civic groups joined the others in the plaza.

The government estimated up to 65,000 protesters in Madrid. A spokesman for the Workers' Commissions union claimed the turnout was closer to 1 million.

The protest was peaceful, though there was a moment of tension at one point as throngs of police behind metal barriers took position to protect the headquarters of the ruling conservative Popular Party, just up the street from protest speeches were being made.

Four people were arrested for refusing to show identification to police upon request, a government spokesman said.

Another large group at the protest were public school teachers, who wore green t-shirts.
High school teacher Jose Ignacio Blanco said cutbacks to education are hitting hard. On Friday in class, he said, there were 31 students but not enough desks and chairs. Four students had to stand during the class.

Saturday's demonstration comes at a difficult time for the government. A bailout of up to 100 billion euros for Spain's most troubled banks is already underway. Many experts say a bailout for Spain's sovereign debt is inevitable but Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said publicly this week that the government has not decided on that and is closely monitoring the situation.

'Reps, Dems do not want people’s voice be heard'

PressTV

Republicans and Democrats are not interested in having the voice of American people be heard as they discuss “the most minor differences between the two parties,” says American journalist Don DeBar.

In a phone interview with the U.S. Desk on Thursday, DeBar said Republicans and Democrats are not “having an actual debate” at their national conventions.

“There is no desire in having the people’s voice be heard because they’re suppressing that in the street with tear gas and batons once it reaches a certain level”, said DeBar.

Stressing that the two parties’ conventions in Tampa and Charlotte have created many problems for poor people, DeBar said: “they don’t really care whatsoever for the impacts that their convention has on the actual people that live in either of those two cities”.

Furthermore, the journalist said the Republicans were practicing public-private partnership in Tampa as they take the money required for their expenses out of the public’s pocket while placing the benefits in the hands of the wealthy.

“The very site of the Republican National Convention, in fact, is one of the so-called public-private partnerships where the expenses are all public and the benefits are all private”, he said.

Three NATO Protestors Are The First To Be Charged Under Illinois' Post-9/11 Terrorism Law

Business Insider
Abbey Rogers

Cook County prosecutors invoked Illinois' never-before-used anti-terrorism statute to charge three NATO protestors with planning an assault on Obama campaign headquarters.

Brian Church, Jared Chase, and Brent Vincent Betterly were arrested on terrorism charges after protesting the NATO summit recently held in Chicago, the Associated Press reported Wednesday morning.

Lawyers for the men are criticizing the state's anti-terrorism statute, saying it's too all-encompassing and ill-defined, according to the AP.

Even the charges against the men themselves were shrouded in secrecy, as prosecutors initially refused to disclose the indictment to the defense attorneys, the AP reported.

Defense attorneys, who were able to get a copy of the indictment from the Cook County Circuit Court clerk's office, claimed state's attorneys said they'd only release the indictment at a July 2 arraignment.
The three men plan to plead not guilty at their arraignment, according to the AP.

Mainstream media calls this "hundreds of protestors" Montréal

12160

James Φοίνιξ



Some ten thousand protesters on foot, bicycle, skateboard or rollerblades, crossed Montreal late Saturday to the deafening din of pots, fog horns and whistles. 

MONTREAL – Perhaps it was the summer-like weather, or the prospect of a new set of negotiations between the government and student groups on the horizon.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Student+protests+weekend+peaceful+defiance/6687923/story.html

Perhaps it had more to do with the festive atmosphere created by the clinking and clanging of thousands of pots and pans that rang out through the city each night, or maybe Montrealers decided they had simply had enough of a handful of violent hooligans besmirching their city’s reputation.

Whatever the reason, the peaceful demonstrations that wound their way through streets across Montreal Island and beyond this weekend were a far cry from the violence and destruction witnessed in recent weeks. Tens of thousands of residents – people of every age, background and political stripe – took to the streets Friday and Saturday to protest both rising tuition fees and the controversial Bill 78 without a single major confrontation with police. Sunday night’s event ended the same way, with police reporting only a single arrest for mischief.

Why Did This Man Get Naked in Front of Everyone at Portland International Airport?

Gawker

Unlike this woman, he actually had a semi-legitimate reason.

John E. Brennan, 50, was arrested yesterday evening and charged with disorderly conduct and indecent exposure after stripping all the way down at a security checkpoint inside Portland International Airport.
Asked to explain his actions, Brennan, who was on his way to San Jose, California, said he "had disrobed as a form of protest against TSA Screeners who he felt were harassing him." Police noted that he was not under the influence of an intoxicating agent at the time.

According to a police report, "Mr. Brennan's actions caused two screening lanes to be closed and while some passengers covered their eyes and their children's eyes and moved away from the screening area, others stepped out of the screening lanes to look, laugh and take photos of Mr. Brennan."

He was arrested after refusing to heed repeated requests to put his clothes back on, and is currently being held on $4,000 bond.

Reached for comment, Brennan's father said he doesn't know what could have caused his son's odd behavior. "This is quite a shock," he said. "He hasn't been under any stress that I know of. He's never really under any stress. He works for a computer company in California. He does something with the Internet, which is just kind of mystical to me. This is quite a surprise."
Works on the Internet, you say? Case closed.

Young student protester arrives at court after surgery

PressTV

Alfie Meadows arrives at court after living through what he’s called a ‘nightmare’. The young Philosophy student underwent three hours of emergency surgery to relieve bleeding on the brain after being hit by a policeman’s truncheon during the student demos nearly two years ago.

Yet it’s Meadows who finds himself on trial for violent disorder; a charge which carries a sentence of up to five years in prison.
Supporters gathered outside Kingston Crown Court to show solidarity with Alfie and to defend the right of citizens to protest without fear of police abuse.

The police have come under increasing fire after they were accused of excessive force during the student protests of December 2010 when Mr Meadows was injured.

Several police officers were also taken to hospital on the day after suffering, what they say, was a sustained attack by some members of the protests.

The Metropolitan police say Meadows was in a group that had deviated from an agreed demonstration route but campaigners warn that the actions of the police- on the day of the protest and after - raise serious concerns.

At the request of the Meadows family, an Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation into his case is suspended pending the outcome of the violent disorder case. Alfie Meadows has pleaded not guilty and denies all the charges against him. The case continues.

Alfie Meadows is not the only one on trial here today. The British justice system and the Metropolitan Police also find themselves in the docks. 

31 arrested in women's rights demonstration at state Capitol

Richmond Times Dispatch
Olympia Meola

Del. Delores L. McQuinn, D-Richmond, tonight spoke out against the arrests of 31 women's rights demonstrators in a protest at the state Capitol earlier today that drew Virginia State Police in riot gear.

She said the arrests "are just the latest example of government overreach that we’ve seen in recent weeks."

"The men and women who marched on Capitol Square have a right to peacefully protest without the threat that they will be arrested for exercising that right," McQuinn said in a news release. "At several recent women’s rights events, there has been an overabundance of police presence. In fact, the Capitol Police tactical team has been at all of the events," she said.

McQuinn said she had "never seen a similar police presence when guns rights advocates assemble on Capitol Square on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday."

McQuinn called the arrests "a sad reminder that our progress towards equality for all Virginians has not been achieved.”

(This has been a breaking news update. Check back for more details as they become available. Earlier updates are posted below. Read more in tomorrow's Richmond Times-Dispatch.)

5:20 p.m.
Thirty-one women's-rights demonstrators were arrested this afternoon in a protest at the state Capitol that drew hundreds of protesters and Virginia State Police in riot gear.
Capt. Raymond Goodloe of the Virginia Division of Capitol Police said 17 women and 14 men were arrested. He did not have a breakdown on charges but said those arrested were likely accused of either trespassing or unalawful assembly.

The arrests took place after some protesters, who had marched on downtown streets before entering Capitol Square, refused to leave the south steps of the Capitol. They were hauled off by officers and taken away in a bus parked nearby while other armed officers held protesters at bay with riot shields.

The demonstration came after the General Assembly approved hotly disputed legislation that requires women to have an ultrasound before getting an abortion.

Shelley Abrams, who runs a local abortion clinic, spoke to the crowd this morning before the march. She said she had an abortion and has never regretted her decision.

"Being in a clinic, people have no idea how many people get abortions," she said. "Your sisters are getting them, your mothers. There's a stigma of shame around that and I want that to go away and it starts with people saying, ''I had an abortion.'"

Urbanna resident Louise Friday said legislators are "taking us back to another time with their rules and trying to, in a sneaky way, prohibit women from using contraceptives."

Greece in Flames After Austerity Measures Pass

Common Dreams

Fires raged in Athens overnight with reports that more than 40 buildings had been set ablaze in a violent response to the Greek parliament's passage of an unpopular austerity package negotiated with its European creditors - the EU, ECB, and IMF - in exchange for a tranche of new bailout funds.

Reuters reports:

Cinemas, cafes, shops and banks were set ablaze in central Athens and black-masked protesters fought riot police outside parliament before lawmakers voted on the package that demands deep pay, pension and job cuts -- the price of a 130 billion euro ($172 billion) bailout needed to keep the country afloat.

State television reported the violence spread to the tourist islands of Corfu and Crete, the northern city of Thessaloniki and towns in central Greece. Police said 150 shops were looted in the capital and 34 buildings set ablaze.

Altogether 199 of the 300 lawmakers backed the bill, but 43 deputies from the two parties in the government of Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, the socialists and conservatives, rebelled by voting against It. They were immediately expelled by their parties. [...]

The rebellion and street violence foreshadowed the problems the Greek government faces in implementing the cuts, which include a 22 percent reduction in the minimum wage -- a package critics say condemns the economy to an ever-deeper downward spiral.

***

"Enough is enough!" said 89-year-old Manolis Glezos, one of Greece's most famous leftists and a national hero. "They have no idea what an uprising by the Greek people means. And the Greek people, regardless of ideology, have risen."
'Enough is enough!'

"Enough is enough!" said 89-year-old Manolis Glezos, one of Greece's most famous leftists and a national hero. "They have no idea what an uprising by the Greek people means. And the Greek people, regardless of ideology, have risen."
Glezos is a national hero for sneaking up the Acropolis at night in 1941 and tearing down a Nazi flag from under the noses of the German occupiers, raising the morale of Athens residents.

Thousands gathered while it was still light out to take part in an anti-austerity demonstration
in Athens' Syntagma (Constitution) Square on Sunday as officials debated austerity measures.

And The Guardian adds: 
(STRINGER/REUTERS)

[...] the scenes of mayhem on the streets of Athens and all across the country leave big questions unresolved regarding Greece's capacity to stick with the savage austerity. The country is in its fifth year of recession and has little prospect of halting a steep decline in living standards.

With eurozone leaders declaring it was time for Greece to put up or shut up and that Athens' promises could no longer be believed, Greece's two main parties and the caretaker prime minister invoked apocalyptic scenarios for the country if the cuts were not supported.

Meanwhile street battles between police firing rounds of teargas and demonstrators hurling firebombs and marble slabs left Syntagma square, the plaza in front of the parliament building, resembling a war zone.

Rubbish bins burned and plumes of smoke and asphyxiating clouds of toxic chemicals filled the air.

The explosions were so loud, they could be heard inside parliament and the teargas drifting across square reached the debating chamber. The buildings that were set on fire included cinemas, banks and a number of shops, and Greek television reported that dozens of citizens and at least 40 police officers had been injured.

Under a sea of banners denouncing further wage, pension and job cuts, tens of thousands of protesters chanted against "the occupation" of the country by foreign lenders keeping Greece afloat.

Al Jazeera's Psaropoulos said the protest on Sunday began peacefully but had rapidly descended into violence from both police and protesters.

"There is absolute mayhem in the square outside parliament. Thousands of [people] who started peacefully have not been budged by all the tear gas and stun grenades," he said.

Al Jazeera's Barnaby Phillips, who arrived in Athens as the violence was escalating, described the atmosphere as "surreal".

"The air is thick with tear gas and there are debris and rocks everywhere. I'm now standing by a cinema, and it is no more. It's going up in flames and firefighters are struggling to control it," Barnaby said.

Judge Refuses To Dismiss Charges Against Carlos Montes Outrageous Court Decision – Prepare for Court Feb. 8

Committee to Stop FBI Repression

Carlos next court hearing is Wednesday, February 8, 2012. Carlos Montes has declared himself “not guilty” on 6 felony charges, dealing with an alleged 42-year old arrest and firearms code violations.Montes’ arrest is part of the FBI attack on 23 other antiwar and solidarity activists.

Drop the Charges against Carlos Montes

Los Angeles, CA - “In the interests of justice this case should be dismissed,” said attorney Jorge Gonzales, lawyer for veteran Chicano leader Carlos Montes, in Los Angeles Superior Court, Jan. 24. Minutes later, though, Judge Lomeli sided with the prosecution, refusing to dismiss the six trumped up felony charges against Montes, on the grounds of insufficient evidence, setting the stage for a trial later this year. The courtroom was filled with supporters of Montes who wanted to see the charges dropped.

"This proves what we believed all along," said Eric Gardner, a member of the LA Committee to Stop FBI Repression, “The government is going to use all means at its disposal to try and get Carlos - and other anti-war and solidarity activists around the country - behind bars."

Before Montes’ court appearance, activists gathered outside the court building demanding that the charges, which carry up to 18 years in prison, be dismissed. The protesters ranged from long time political activists to street vendors from Central America who Montes is working with to fight police harassment and racist discrimination.

The prosecution has told the press that they want Montes to spend at least five years in jail.

Speaking in front of the courthouse, Mick Kelly, a spokesperson the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, whose Minneapolis home was also raided by the FBI stated, “On May 17, 2011, the L.A. Sheriff Department - acting at the behest of the FBI - raided Montes’s home. The pretext was phony violations of the firearm code. These alleged violations have no basis in reality whatsoever. At issue in this case are the civil liberties of all us who are standing up against war and injustice.”

The May 17 raid, by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department and members of the FBI, took place at 5:00 a.m. The L.A. County Sheriff’s SWAT team and Emergency Operations Bureau agents armed with automatic weapons broke down the door to Montes' home while he slept. They seized computers, cell phones, current and historical political documents and left Montes' home in shambles. Montes could have been killed.

Kelly continued, “Carlos Montes is one of the 24 anti-war and international solidarity activists who have been hit by FBI and grand jury repression since Sept. 24, 2010. Like many of the others who have been caught up in this witch-hunt, Montes was one of the organizers of the massive protests at the 2008 Republican National Convention. And like the others, he has spoken out tirelessly against U.S intervention abroad and oppression here at home.

“Carlos Montes is a hero who has devoted his entire life to making this world a better place. In the 1960s he was a founder and leader of the Brown Berets, the historic East L.A. walkouts and the Chicano Moratorium. He is an important leader in the movement for immigrant rights and has worked to defend public education. Montes is an example of a community leader who serves the people and builds the people’s struggle for justice,” stated Kelly.

Outrageous decision

Montes' defense challenged the state’s claim that he has a felony record from his 1969 arrest for leading a student strike demanding Chicano Studies and Black Studies at East L.A. College. This is important. That the legal record does not support the claim of a past felony should rule out the District Attorney going ahead with this case. The government is alleging that it was a crime for Montes to buy several guns at a local sporting goods store, because of the nonexistent felony record.
The prosecution is basing their evidence on a 42-year-old incident, where during this student strike and rally, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department invaded the East L.A. college campus, beating and arresting student protesters. During the turmoil, Montes was arrested and charged with assaulting a sheriff’s deputy.
"This case is not about old records," says Charla Schlueter of the LA Committee to Stop FBI Repression, "The FBI is dredging up a case over four decades old because of Carlos' involvement in the anti-war, immigrant rights and international solidarity movements today. They don't like that he is part of a movement that challenges U.S. imperialism."

Egyptians stage mass rally against army

Al Jazeera

Egyptian activists have gathered in Cairo for a mass protest against the ruling military and its handling of a series of clashes between security forces and demonstrators that killed 17 people and drew international criticism, even as thousands of others demonstrated their support for the army.

Tens of thousands protested in the capital's Tahrir Square, the focal point of protests against the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) after Friday prayers.

Students called for Egyptians to join Friday's protest with a march from Ain Shams University to Tahrir Square. Two students were among those killed in the latest clashes.

"The current predicament we have reached is a result of the army council's reluctance to play its role, its intentional foot-dragging, breaking its obligations and failing over the economy and security, putting the whole country on the edge of a huge crisis," said a statement signed by two dozen parties, youth movements and others calling for Friday's protest.

Violence 'unacceptable'

Al Jazeera’s Sherine Tadros, reporting from Tahrir Square, said the crowd had been swelling since after the Friday prayers.

“There are also protests in other cities, in Suez and Alexanderia. Lots of different demonstrations, but one clear message: that the SCAF needs to hand over power to civilians," she said.

"They are also saying the recent violent crackdown, specially the violence soldiers used against women, is unacceptable."

The now iconic pictures and videos of a woman protester being dragged and stripped by military forces during bloody clashes that erupted last Friday dominated the media and heightened criticism against the SCAF.

"The women of Egypt are a red line," the protesters in Tahrir chanted. "We either die like them or we get them their rights," followed.

A similar protests was held in Alexandria, Egypt's second city, where several thousand people marched towards an army base chanting slogans against the military. Smaller rallies took place in Suez, Ismailiya and Port Said, witnesses said.

Competing rally

A competing rally of several thousand people gathered in support of the military in another part of Cairo on Friday.