![A Tahrir Moment on Wall Street [Spanish]](http://www.adbusters.org/files/magazine/teaser/flag_spanish_guardian.png?1317158534 "A Tahrir Moment on Wall Street [Spanish]")
Hey you rebels, radicals and utopian dreamers out there,
Our call to #OCCUPYWALLSTREET on September 17 shook up a tsunami of spontaneous enthusiasm. Jammers from all over the nation (and a few Canadians!) have sent word that they will be there. Meanwhile various activist organizers have realized the potential of this event, rolled up their sleeves and gotten to work. While some techies have teamed up to build an indie open source website for organizing carpools to the event (occupywallst.org), others are thinking through the logistics of feeding everyone and defending the first days of the occupation. Through it all, a deluge of solidarity messages have been pouring in from Spain, Egypt and elsewhere.
Will you be there?
Imagine … the dawn of the 13th day of the occupation … you're tired, not sleeping or eating too great … you've been harassed, maybe tear gassed and beaten. Bloomberg is threatening to call in the National Guard, Obama is hemming and hawing, but you are sitting tight because much of the nation is cheering you on. Al Jazeera and the BBC are beaming your struggle to a captivated world and the tension is building for Obama to break his silence. It feels much like it did in Tahrir Square moments before Mubarak caved. You've never felt so alive!
What had the power to inspire all this?
It was our one simple demand that Barack Obama must ordain a Presidential Commission tasked with ending the influence that corporate money has over our representatives in Washington. Our one simple demand is: STOP THE MONIED CORRUPTION AT THE HEART OF OUR DEMOCRACY!
Achieving this Presidential Reform Commission will be the crucial first step towards opening a political space for a flurry of further people's demands like, total transparency in all government affairs, a Tobin Tax on financial transactions, a grand strategy for reducing America's carbon footprint …
September 17 could be the beginning of an American Spring … the moment we the people turn the tables on our would-be corporate masters and start acting like free empowered citizens once again.
Are you with us? Bring a tent.
for the wild,
Culture Jammers HQ
Get Involved:
Call to Artists:
We call on Helmut Smits, Darius and Downey, Mark Jenkins, JR, Bansky and cultural creatives everywhere to create pieces that embolden the September 17th revolt. Send to [email protected]
Call to International Jammers:
We call on jammers across the world to occupy financial districts on September 17:
#OCCUPYBAYSTREET in Toronto, Canada
#OCCUPYCANARYWHARF in London, UK
#OCCUPYMARTINPLACE in Sydney, Australia
#OCCUPYMARUNOUCHI in Tokyo, Japan
#OCCUPYBANKENVIERTEL in Frankfurt, Germany
… and elsewhere!
I'm with the "Kill all
I'm with the "Kill all liberals" guy. LOL...
Hi everybody, One year ago
Hi everybody,
One year ago the Adbusters cover was a photo of Obama with a clown's red nose. So... what happened?
Now that the U.S. have been downgraded, now that for 3 weeks the people of Spain occupied the major squares of their country, you are calling for the Occupy Wall Street campaign in order to obtain that... "Barack Obama must ordain a Presidential Commission tasked with ending the influence that corporate money has over our representatives in Washington"?!????
Is it me not understanding where you are going? Or is this all campaign just a joke?
You said you would have changed the text but you didn't yet... who is going to follow you?
Love,
Gianmaria
They are all crooks, it is
They are all crooks, it is hard to understand why anyone trusts them and spends their time supporting these rascals, each and every one of them.
Any West Coasters who want to
Any West Coasters who want to organize, check out occupywallstwestcoast.wordpress.com!
I hate to sound like a coward
I hate to sound like a coward and a sellout, but that Saturday is my college's homecoming weekend. This is definitely an important issue and I wish I could take part, but I want to see some people I haven't seen in a while.
But I wish everyone participating all the best! It's not like the media will talk about it in the first place, though.
Yeah... I'd like to go, but
Yeah... I'd like to go, but i'm in college and is it really worth missing class for this? What to do?
do it! you have the chance to
do it! you have the chance to change the course of our country and your future. will you trade that for some classes?
The USA government don't need
The USA government don't need the National Guard to end this protest, just one psycho banker executive with a large guns collection is enough. Another usual american blood day is coming. Have fun.
Another point is that No one
Another point is that No one trades on the floor and Wall Street is just a luxury address. Any business youre 'thwarting' can still take place at a mid town McDonalds with WiFi....
Its a shame after all these years activism is still just about romance and romantic idealism, nothing to do with reality or change. this proves it.....
Answer to the 10 Core
Answer to the 10 Core Demands: in no. 7 you wrote: 7. Establish true Universal health care.
Are you ready to pay a 18% of US$1,000/per month wages, plus 23% sales tax on any item, 8% sales tax on food, in order to have Universal health care like we do in Europe? The employer pays about 28% of your wages (which of course, comes out of your wages) to support this universal health care.
Not to mention the years long waiting list if you need surgery of any kind and about one year waiting list if you want to see a specialist doctor of any kind. Good luck!
Beware of the Spanish
Beware of the Spanish ¨revolution¨. It is not clear what they want but mostly they want free housing, free this and that and we, middle class workers to pay for with our taxes. Poor people do not pay taxes because they are poor, rich men do not pay taxes since they have smart CPA´s who know how to evade them, middle class is getting taxed and getting poorer.
No Communism please. It was a failure in the Eastern European countries, China, etc, so it does not work. Look at North Korea. Communism does not work. I am a worker and monthly pay my mortgage, my taxes, everything. Please do not copy the Spanish ¨revolution¨. All they want is a free ride.
Greetings from Puerta del
Greetings from Puerta del Sol, Madrid, Spain.
Inspired by you, we´re preparing our actions to support September 17th. Because we´re not puppets in the hands of bankers and politicians.
Good job! Best luck!
Here's an idea, you won't
Here's an idea, you won't like it because you must exist outside of it all, but hear me out.
I run an investment fund, we gather people together from all over the country and invest in companies, green companies, organic companies, righteous companies. Companies you would like to exist in your new model. we jam these companies with straight liquid cash via the stock market. my investors aren't out for a 4% gain, they're out to vote with there monies, to get these companies cash flow and encourage others to do so as well.
imagine if the scale of such a thing grew...Organic, Green, Good comapnies could see millions of capitol dollars roll in, allowing them to take on controlling companies that hold a controlling share. Sugar will reappear in our food, maybe even nutrients as well.
the free market/stock market system allows for thousands of ways a critical mass of people could effect change. its a turnable rudder on a ship.
the system/state/insert term thrives on the fact that real revolutionaries stay marginal at best because the system has weaved this idea of total seperation into the fabric of rebellion. When the vulnerabilities of the system are glaring.
Maybe you believe my idea is weak, but were doing it, taking action on a different front. Working from the inside out. The free-market system is built for this and as corrupt as it has become and still maintains very simple vulnerabilities.
No one even trades on the floor anymore. So while I believe you actions will be marginalized and downplayed (if even outright unreported)by the media, on that day my fund will see $100,000 more dollars being funneled to quality companies, organic companies, companies ran by decent people. Not for the purpose of making a % of gain, but to funnel capitol into the change we want to come.
I was once right there with you, I have tear gas can scars, it was great fun. But at the end of the day reality is always going to be reality. there are 10,000 ways to effect real change. your just going to have to stop reading the propaganda that tells you it can only be done from outside.
best of luck
The Ten Core Demands of
The Ten Core Demands of Americans:
1. No more tax money to privatize our public schools, our armed forces or use of our public lands or resources, esp. water.
2. Raise tariffs so that it is more expensive to manufacture outside our country than in our country; this is necessary to provide a meaningful opportunity for work for our people and protect more vulnerable populations from exploitation by our multi-national corporations.
4. Raise tax rates on the top 10% of earners and corporations to 60%.
3. Amend the Constitution to address Citizens United; corporations are not people and have no right to speech and there can be no anonymous funding of democratic functioning.
4. Publicly fund elections.
5. Reduce all international military bases by 50% and withdraw all troops. Then utilize the military to nationalize fossil fuel production and have a change over to solar and wind within 5 years. Fund it with taxes formerly given to fossil fuel corpororations, and when profitable provide profit to American people as dividends.
6. Abolish the Federal Reserve and reinstate Glass-Seigelman (sp?).
7. Establish true Universal health care.
8. Moretorium on all immigration for 10 years in order to allow labor enough leverage to organize and another generation of professionals to complete their educations and enter the workplace, esp. in such fields as science, engineering,medical and business. Immediate nationalization of any business found to be employing/exploiting non-citizen workers.
9. 10 year moretorium on IRS investigation of individuals within the bottom 75% income levels and utilize those resources instead to investigate off-shore accounts and 'black money'schemes by corporations and individuals in the top 25%.
10. Nationalize corporate farms and transition to sustainable farming, use tax money to accomplish and when profitable, pay profits to Americans in dividends.
A Mother
Sounds Great!!! If only it
Sounds Great!!! If only it could be that way...but our government is way too corrupt to allow anything beneficial to the people to take place.
Sp? re: Glass-Seigelman
Sp? re: Glass-Seigelman (close) but: Glass-Steigell. And you nailed it on almost every point for me. You see it as it is. We can change it by only voting for those who use public money to run. No more corporate control of America! In addition, hand over international control of bases to NATO or the UN, like you said. We cannot afford to finance that sort of thing anymore. Besides, the world has changed a lot since the marshall plan was enacted.
And, I almost forgot, let's
And, I almost forgot, let's not pay Halliburton the rest of what we owe them (to help balance our budget)until we get to the bottom of their influence in declaring war on Iraq, and Dick Cheney's involvement. Something was/is fishy and I say "no pay until, they say" what went on.
Good luck everybody!
Good luck everybody!
"It was our one simple demand
"It was our one simple demand that Barack Obama must ordain a Presidential Commission tasked with ending the influence that corporate money has over our representatives in Washington."
I'm sorry, but this is a terrible idea; I did not think the organizers were so naive. Ask a bunch of rich, corporate-backed, corrupt politicians (and yes, corporations have bribed Obama too) to decide how best to fix the problem of rich, corporate-backed, corrupt politicians. How did you not see this conflict of interest? Even if the plan goes 100% according to plan, the "ordained commission" will inevitably take months to years to make its recommendations, which will inevitably amount to either a slap on corruption's wrist or nothing at all, as the Wall St. occupation will have long been forgotten by the public at that point, and they will have no trouble sweeping the whole ordeal under the rug.
I really like the idea of occupying Wall St., but this is absolutely the wrong "simple demand." You should think of something better fast, or else risk wasting everyone's time and efforts
I agree. I'm going to go. I
I agree. I'm going to go. I don't care what they stand for. I gigantic mass of people in Wall Street at least sends a message to the world that we are not the apathetic complacent Americans anymore. Maybe we can start to scare our governments into doing things in our benefit like Germany has done. I'm beginning to feel the call to activism as my cynicism hasn't done a damn thing and I'm pissed off.
I'm a member of what they are calling "The Lost Generation" college grads who dumped out of the education pipe into an economic wasteland with no jobs. 54% of college grads unemployed. I need to do something and I think this time it's going to be real grass roots activism. I swear I've never said this before.
I agree too. We need to show
I agree too. We need to show that we are no longer apathetic and complacent. Action is the difference between dreamers and doers; it is time for us to stop dreaming and start doing. Who's down for #occupydowntownLA?
occupywestcoast is underway,
occupywestcoast is underway, let's do it!
http://occupywallstwestcoast.wordpress.com/
The Corporate Ayn Randian
The Corporate Ayn Randian rule by, of and for the top 1% political game MUST collapse. It is unsustainable and "immoral"!
Obama is president, because of Lincoln, because of King.
Obama the "negotiator", with the "plantation owners", Corporate America, is beyond obscene.
Corporate Greed and Corporate Wars are killing America’s democratic soul. Just like Slavery and Jim Crow were once America's soul killing “sins".
What would Lincoln say?
What would King say?
Obama can steady the tiller of Corporate Empire, or like Lincoln and King, free the slaves, We the People!
There is no "middle ground", no "grand bargain".
Either people are slaves or people are free.
Wall Street Corporate Greed, Pentagon Perpetual Corporate Wars, Corporate Owned Media spewing lies and fear, Corporate Owned Politicians doing their Corporate Masters bidding, this Corporate Tyranny MUST end.
President Obama, can you hear Lincoln, can you hear King?
President Obama, I pray that you can.
In the beginning of a change,
In the beginning of a change, the Patriot is a scarce man and brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a Patriot. – Mark Twain
"Imagine … the dawn of the
"Imagine … the dawn of the 13th day of the occupation … you're tired, not sleeping or eating too great … you've been harassed, maybe tear gassed and beaten. " And then you realize that what you thought was the second american revolution, a great people's movement, all you endured was so that a bunch of bourgeois in suits could discuss the problem over fine wines in a commission that will be a complete lobbyist magnet.
And you've been cheated.
Thankfully the movement will be bigger. Tahrir started as a tiny protest, it ballooned, and it's still ongoing. And if we do have a Tahrir moment, it won't be a 20,000 strong vanguard with meek demands. It will be hundreds of thousands, millions of people, ready to fight.
WE THE PEOPLE HOLD THE
WE THE PEOPLE HOLD THE POWER.ITS UP TO US. WITH OUR STANDARD OF LIVING WE'RE LUCKY TO BE ABLE TO CHOOSE TO HAVE THIS POWER. THE TIME HAS AND WILL FOREVER BE NOW. DON'T FORGET WHO YOU ARE. CORPORATIONS AND CONSUMERISM HAS PLAGUED THE EARTH AND ITS INHABITANTS>WE HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE THAT>THE EARTH IS STRONG>THE EARTH IS MAGIC>BUT IF WE DONT COME TOGETHER FOR POSITIVE CHANGE, WE COULD KILL OURSELVES. OUR WAY OF LIFE IN THIS SOCIETY IS KILLING PEOPLE ACROSS THE GLOBE AS IT IS AND ITS TAKING AWAY NATURAL BEAUTIES WHICH WE MAY NEVER SEE AGAIN. *PARADIGM SHIFT!*
How can I help spread the
How can I help spread the movement of ideals in West Coast Canada? I can't afford to make it down, but agree entirely with the philosophical grounds that this movement rests on. Any ideas? Thanks!
- Your friendly comrade up north
This might seem like small
This might seem like small step, but what do naysayers suggest we do about fat bankers? O!
We will be there, and we are
We will be there, and we are ready to take the square but don't think for a second that we will settle for a paltry presidential commission because this revolution does not belong to you.
Fight together to end the
Fight together to end the abuse of citizens of the world