sexgenderbody

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

Occupy Oakland may have been “at it for months,” but the group’s naive attempt at supporting the struggles of our most vulnerable communities fell flat on May 1. 

May Day marches in the past, typically led by the immigrant rights group Oakland Sin Fronteras - OSF - served to highlight the fight for immigrant rights. But this year, it was Occupy Oakland and the Black Bloc that made global May Day headlines.

The Dignity and Resistance group (led primarily by Occupy Oakland organizers) had its banner leading the march, but it was the trust of OSF that brought the majority of Latino migrants to the protest. Ultimately, OSF seemed to be treated merely as a “contingent.” 

It was noon and the mood downtown had grown tense. A haze of smoke from flash-bang grenades filled the air as nearly 100 protesters, led by the Black Bloc and their shields, advanced towards at least 30 riot police. Still more deterrents were launched and the pandemonium continued. 

Meanwhile, at the Fruitvale Plaza, the May Day rally had begun. Scores of families were gathering and the familiar, cheery bells of popsicle vendor carts filled the air. The mood was pleasant and the sun was out. It was a good day for immigrant rights. 

For the past six years, the city of Oakland has given permits to OSF to organize and take to the streets on May Day. This year was no different. Yet, despite permits, stakes are high for undocumented migrants who brave leaving the shadows of invisibility to make their voices heard. In my opinion, they are far braver then the most aggressive, shield-wielding “Occupier” could ever hope to be. 

Arrest for an undocumented immigrant does not just mean a few hours in jail, only to be bailed out. Rather, its deportation from the United States and, often, permanent separation from their families.

News of the violence downtown had reached the Fruitvale rally and there was a tense feeling among Latino organizers. Their contingents trusted them to execute a safe march with minimal police presence. One leader admonished her high schoolers saying, “If you see an Occupier, engage them, ask them to chant with you. Be inclusive!” 

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

Santiago de Chile, November 29 (Prensa Latina) - Chilean public workers will begin a 48-hour strike on Tuesday to demand job security and reject the wage adjustment presented by the government.

The protesters are members of the National Association of Fiscal Employees (ANEF), the Teachers Association and the National Federation of University Professionals in the Health Services, three of the main public sector unions.

According to ANEF leader Raul de la Puente, the wage proposal of a five percent increase is still insufficient. This was announced by the government in recent hours and accepted by 11 of the 14 public associations such as the National Confederation of Municipal Health Workers.

The ANEF had requested a salary increase of 9.8 percent, while the government had proposed a four percent increase which then rose to 4.5 and finally to five percent.

Besides an increased adjustment and automatic renewal of employment contracts designed to ensure job security, the strikers also demand an adequate retirement incentive policy.

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

Tell Bloomberg: Don’t Foreclose the Occupation.
Join us at 6AM FRIDAY for non-violent eviction defense.

Please take a minute to read this, and please take action and spread the word far and wide.

Occupy Wall Street is gaining momentum, with occupation actions now happening in cities across the country.

But last night Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD notified Occupy Wall Street participants about plans to “clean the park”—the site of the Wall Street protests—tomorrow starting at 7am. “Cleaning” was used as a pretext to shut down “Bloombergville” a few months back, and to shut down peaceful occupations elsewhere.

Bloomberg says that the park will be open for public usage following the cleaning, but with a notable caveat: Occupy Wall Street participants must follow the “rules”. These rules include, “no tarps or sleeping bags” and “no lying down.”

So, seems likely that this is their attempt to shut down #OWS for good. 

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PLEASE TAKE ACTION:

1) Call 311 and tell Bloomberg to support our right to assemble and to not interfere with #OWS. If you are calling from outside NY use this number 212-NEW-YORK.

2) Come to #OWS on FRIDAY AT 6AM to defend the occupation from eviction.

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Occupy Wall Street is committed to keeping the park clean and safe — we even have a Sanitation Working Group whose purpose this is. We are organizing major cleaning operations today and will do so regularly.

If Bloomberg truly cares about sanitation here he should support the installation of portopans and dumpsters. #OWS allies have been working to secure these things to support our efforts.

We know where the real dirt is: on Wall Street. Billionaire Bloomberg is beholden to bankers. 

We won’t allow Bloomberg and the NYPD to foreclose our occupation. This is an occupation, not a permitted picnic.

pococcupywallstreet:

To those who want to support the Occupation of Wall Street, who want to struggle for a more just and equitable society, but who feel excluded from the campaign, this is a message for you.

To those who do not feel as though their voices are being heard, who have felt unable or uncomfortable participating in the campaign, or who feel as though they have been silenced, this is a message for you.

To those who haven’t thought about #OccupyWallStreet but know that radical social change is needed, and to those who have thought about joining the protest but do not know where or how to begin, this is a message for you.

You are not alone.  The individuals who make up the People of Color Working Group have come together because we share precisely these feelings and believe that the opportunity for consciousness-raising presented by #OccupyWallStreet is one that cannot be missed.  It is time to push for the expansion and diversification of #OccupyWallStreet.  If this is truly to be a movement of the 99%, it will need the rest of the city and the rest of the country.

Let’s be real.  The economic crisis did not begin with the collapse of the Lehman Brothers in 2008. Indeed, people of color and poor people have been in a state of crisis since the founding of this country, and for indigenous communities, since before the founding of the nation.  We have long known that capitalism serves only the interests of a tiny, mostly white, minority.

Black and brown folks have long known that whenever economic troubles ‘necessitate’ austerity measures and the people are asked to tighten their belts, we are the first to lose our jobs, our children’s schools are the first to lose funding, and our bodies are the first to be brutalized and caged. Only we can speak this truth to power.  We must not miss the chance to put the needs of people of color—upon whose backs this country was built—at the forefront of this struggle.

The People of Color Working Group was formed to build a racially conscious and inclusive movement.  We are reaching out to communities of color, including immigrant, undocumented, and low-wage workers, prisoners, LGTBQ people of color, marginalized religious communities such as Muslims, and indigenous peoples, for whom this occupation ironically comes on top of another one and therefore must be decolonized.  We know that many individuals have responsibilities that do not allow them to participate in the occupation and that the heavy police presence at Liberty Park undoubtedly deters many.  We know because we are some of these individuals.  But this movement is not confined to Liberty Park: with your help, the movement will be made accessible to all.

If it is not made so, it will not succeed.  By ignoring the dynamics of power and privilege, this monumental social movement risks replicating the very structures of injustice it seeks to eliminate.  And so we are actively working to unite the diverse voices of all communities, in order to understand exactly what is at stake, and to demand that a movement to end economic injustice must have at its core an honest struggle to end racism.

The People of Color working group is not meant to divide, but to unite, all peoples. Our hope is that we, the 99%, can move forward together, with a critical understanding of how the greed, corruption, and inequality inherent to capitalism threatens the lives of all peoples and the Earth.

The People of Color working group was launched on October 1, 2011. We can be reached by email at unified.ows@gmail.com. We can also be found online at pococcupywallstreet.tumblr.com We meet Sundays @ 3 PM and Wednesdays @ 6:30 PM under the large red structure in Liberty Square.

stay-human:

fuckyeahmarxismleninism: Santiago, Aug 23 (Prensa Latina) - Almost 50 young students have been on hunger strike for 36 days, demanding free and public education; the health of three of them is seriously deteriorating. The spokesman of the protesters, Matias Villegas, declared Tuesday to Radio Cooperativa that the students are demanding that the Executive solve the problem as soon as possible.

Felipe Sanhueza, Matías Ortega and Gloria Negrete are the ones with the worst health conditions, especially Gloria who remains in the San Luis de Buin hospital, just outside Santiago.

Angel Muños (18) and Fidel Carrasco (16) chained themselves in front of a high school in solidarity with the students of Buin and also joined the hunger strike on Monday.

According to the spokeswoman for the Chilean Students Federation, Camila Vallejo, the government is responsible for these extreme measures, like the hunger strike, since it has not changed its position.

Vallejo warned that the strikers’ lives are in danger, and criticized the Chilean government for remaining indifferent towards this crisis.

Meanwhile, social groups keep joining the 48 hours national strike called by the Workers United Center of Chile starting Wednesday.

Social protests have been taking place in Chile since last April when students took the streets, schools and universities demanding the end of education for profit, established by the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).