Soft Regime Change in America
The #OCCUPY movement is entering an ominous new phase.
Police attacked #OCCUPYOAKLAND on Tuesday with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash grenades. Scott Olsen, a two time Iraq war veteran, was critically wounded in the assault. Graphic pictures of an unconscious Olsen, his skull fractured, being carried by fellow protestors to safety have reverberated from Zuccotti to Cairo and escalated the movement. On Wednesday, three thousand protestors reclaimed the square, reestablished their encampment and held a general assembly that called for a General Strike.
"We as fellow occupiers of Oscar Grant Plaza propose that on Wednesday November 2, 2011, we liberate Oakland and shut down the 1%... All banks and corporations should close down for the day or we will march on them."
There are signs of occupations in other cities taking up Oakland's call. A tantalizing possibility hangs in the air: Could a wildcat general strike spread across the nation? Are we witnessing the first clues of how a soft regime change might begin in America?
occupywallstreet.org / occupytogether.org / Twitter / Facebook
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Anonymous
On Friday night in Washington, D.C., the Occupy protests turned violent when activists marched on the city's convention center in opposition to an annual summit held by the conservative Americans for Prosperity Foundation. Forbes reports on the conflict:
Occupiers, many of whom had their faces obscured by masks or bandanas, began banging on the transparent glass walls and doors of the building, demanding entrance, then attempting to gain access by pushing their way in when guests came or went. Eventually all doors bar one at L Street were locked, with AFP guests and accredited press able to do nothing but stand inside and watch the clash intensify, with a line of police and security guards manning the locked doors at the Mt Vernon St entrance.
At one point, a 78-year-old woman who was attending the event was knocked down some stairs while attempting to get around the protesters, as this video shows. She reportedly wound up with a bump on her head and a bloody nose.
D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said of the violence, "That is no longer a peaceful protest" and that the protesters have become "increasingly confrontational and violent toward uninvolved bystanders and motorists."
In New York, women were recently forced to set up a "safety tent" after a rash of sexual assaults and fear of more sexual predators joining the protests. In October, Baltimore occupiers discouraged women from reporting sexual assaults and rapes to the police. Also in New York, an occupier turned violent this week in a McDonald's often used for bathrooms when the restaurant refused to give him free food.
These incidents follow violence last month in Oakland, California, in which protesters shut down a busy port, took over abandoned buildings, set fires, burned American flags, defaced private property and destroyed ATMs.
Anonymous
On Friday night in Washington, D.C., the Occupy protests turned violent when activists marched on the city's convention center in opposition to an annual summit held by the conservative Americans for Prosperity Foundation. Forbes reports on the conflict:
Occupiers, many of whom had their faces obscured by masks or bandanas, began banging on the transparent glass walls and doors of the building, demanding entrance, then attempting to gain access by pushing their way in when guests came or went. Eventually all doors bar one at L Street were locked, with AFP guests and accredited press able to do nothing but stand inside and watch the clash intensify, with a line of police and security guards manning the locked doors at the Mt Vernon St entrance.
At one point, a 78-year-old woman who was attending the event was knocked down some stairs while attempting to get around the protesters, as this video shows. She reportedly wound up with a bump on her head and a bloody nose.
D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said of the violence, "That is no longer a peaceful protest" and that the protesters have become "increasingly confrontational and violent toward uninvolved bystanders and motorists."
In New York, women were recently forced to set up a "safety tent" after a rash of sexual assaults and fear of more sexual predators joining the protests. In October, Baltimore occupiers discouraged women from reporting sexual assaults and rapes to the police. Also in New York, an occupier turned violent this week in a McDonald's often used for bathrooms when the restaurant refused to give him free food.
These incidents follow violence last month in Oakland, California, in which protesters shut down a busy port, took over abandoned buildings, set fires, burned American flags, defaced private property and destroyed ATMs.
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