All posts tagged Occupy movement
I'm not always wearing my full habit...
If you approve of that – you think that’s peaceable assembly – you need to be peed on. See how you like it.
Tennessee Rep. Eric Watson, sponsor of a bill to remove Occupy Nashville protesters, with a penalty of nearly a year in jail or a $2,500 fine.
The House Judiciary Committee voted 14-2 to approve a ban on unauthorized camping on public grounds, in a bid to force the four-month-old Occupy encampment from War Memorial Plaza. The committee also approved an amendment that raised violations to a Class A misdemeanor, the highest class of penalties short of a felony.
(via mockingbirds)
Yup, now being homeless in Tennessee is one step short of a felony. Nice.
(Source: tennessean.com)
EDIT: The canister of gas is indeed nothing more than pressurized air. While it’s reprehensible to cover up the activities, these protesters were not “gassed.”
Houston Police Place Tent Over Restrained Protestors and Gas Them
oh. my. god.
This is absolutely horrifying. I couldn’t watch the entire 14 minutes. It’s shortly after 3 minutes when you see the tank of gas being used. Tears rolled freely down my cheeks, and I feel like vomiting now.
Houston first responders who did this to fellow human beings: Undercover Nun is praying for your immortal souls. God knows, you need it.
AN OPEN LETTER FROM AMERICA’S PORT TRUCK DRIVERS ON "OCCUPY THE PORTS"
We are the front-line workers who haul container rigs full of imported and exported goods to and from the docks and warehouses every day.
We have been elected by committees of our co-workers at the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle, Tacoma, New York and New Jersey to tell our collective story. We have accepted the honor to speak up for our brothers and sisters about our working conditions despite the risk of retaliation we face. One of us is a mother, the rest of us fathers. Between the five of us we have 11 children and one more baby on the way. We have a combined 46 years of experience driving cargo from our shores for America’s stores.
We are inspired that a non-violent democratic movement that insists on basic economic fairness is capturing the hearts and minds of so many working people. Thank you “99 Percenters” for hearing our call for justice. We are humbled and overwhelmed by recent attention. Normally we are invisible.
Today’s demonstrations will impact us. While we cannot officially speak for every worker who shares our occupation, we can use this opportunity to reveal what it’s like to walk a day in our shoes for the 110,000 of us in America whose job it is to be a port truck driver. It may be tempting for media to ask questions about whether we support a shutdown, but there are no easy answers. Instead, we ask you, are you willing to listen and learn why a one-word response is impossible?
If you read nothing else today, go and read this. Jesus weeps. Undercover Nun weeps with him.
*giggle*
(Source: thaqueenbee, via baxtavius)
Can the hungry go on a hunger strike? Non-violence is a piece of theatre. You need an audience. What can you do when you have no audience? People have the right to resist annihilation.
Arundhati Roy from The Guardian (via counterworlds)
This sums up the uncomfortableness I feel about the Occupy movement. The truly poor, the truly hungry — these people are too busy working to find every nickel or scrap of food they can, just to survive. They don’t have time to camp and shout slogans all day. The Occupy movement arose from the middle class, where the risk is not as great. If a middle-class-er goes without food for a day, she or he will feel funny the next day. But there are people here in America who might die after going without food for a day, because they are that close to the edge.
I’m not trying to say that OWS is a bad thing or that these people shouldn’t be demonstrating. Just that I’ve had an abiding discomfort with the movement, and I struggle to explain why.
(via bluntlyblue)
