Occupy Los Angeles Update #7 - OWS

Red, White and Black by JLALA

"The illusion of freedom in America will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater."

-Frank Zappa

On December 17th members of Occupy Los Angeles gathered to protest the continuing imprisonment and torture of Bradley Manning, the Army soldier and whistle blower who is currently on trial for his actions. 

During the protest, Steven Releford was arrested by LAPD and reportedly beaten, jailed, and is currently being charged with a felony and held for an absurdly high bail. A short while ago I interviewed Mr. Releford at Occupy LA, so of course I'm worried about him.

Ruth Fowler, the independent journalist who has been extensively covering Occupy LA and Occupy WS so much her work was been mentioned on several major media outlets, including the major news organization, RT, has an article here about Mr. Releford's arrest.

I can't help but feel that there is a very real, very organized, very intentional silencing of the Occupy protests and 99% Movement that has been going on since they first started. 

The big media blackout, the corporate and militarized police force collusion that has operated to crack down on the protests, the beatings of journalists trying to cover the Occupy protests, etc., it's all going on because let's face it, everything Occupy represents scares the hell out of the corrupt people at the top that know the villagers are finally angry, and are storming the castle with pitchforks and torches blazing.

I'm not trying to be dramatic or instigate violent revolution. The Occupy movement is working. Lawmakers and politicians, either because they are scared of losing their jobs or because they are emboldened by the political enlightenment that has been illuminating the people of America, are going after the corrupt forces at work that truly deserve the long arm of the law.

All rhetoric, sturm and drang aside, here is my interview with Mr. Opamago Casciani, a Cornell law student and media representative for the Occupy movement. This interview was a few days before the crackdown on the Occupy L.A. camp.

Thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me. What is your name?

My name is Odamago Casciani. I’m a law student at Cornell. I’m from New York. I’m actually part of Anonymous. I’m helping to coordinate things, here. I’ve been at Occupy Wall Street and in Zucotti Park, before I came here.

Is this a legal eviction?

No. This is the city of LA enforcing laws they weren’t enforcing, before.

Is there still a chance that Occupy L.A. can perform some sort of legal action to be allowed to stay here, or is that unnecessary because you already, legally have permission to be here?

Well, they have no responsibility to give us our rights. It’s up to us. But there are legal actions we could take. First thing I would do? An injunction. First, to hold off everything. Just stop moving. We’re not moving, they’re not moving. Just stop.

Once we have that injunction, we go before a judge. Then, a judge has to evict us, which a judge can do, or a judge can tell the city council to come up with a new resolution, which would redact the previous resolution.
Since a city council resolution allows us to stay here, that’s the law. That means that you can’t just decide that the grass is dying so we have to leave.

So the city claims that in order to maintain the park, the camp has to go? 

Yes. Their whole reason is that it’s unsanitary, first of all.

That seems to always be the reason.


Yeah, every single Occupy. They also claim that it’s because of public safety.

Did anyone provide evidence for this, or was it something they just decided to do?

I don’t know what’s being said during the meetings with the mayor behind closed doors, but I personally think it’s a political maneuver.

The mayor believes, since LA has been peaceful, if he can find a way to get us to leave peacefully it will look great for him politically, without violence or chaose, it will look good on him politically.

Why do the camps have to exist? Why should you stay here?


Well, my thing is…I was actually in the strategy room when they came up with the idea for tents. The tents would stand for freedom of speech. I think it’s good symbolism. If money is considered freedom of speech, so are tents. Because if corporations can say that money is freedom of speech, then why in the hell can I not say that my tent is freedom of speech?

So on that level, I believe that the tents and the Occupations themselves are signature to the movement, because without them we are just like every regular non-profit organization out there.

Do you feel that previous demonstrations have not been effective?

Do you mean, like previous demonstrations like the End the Fed March?

Like that, but also during the entire Bush Adminstration, when there were huge protests against the war in Iraq the media would just show the crowd for about thirty seconds and nothing would happen. It felt like that no matter how big a protect could get, it could just get ignored. 

Exactly. I go back to Ghandi. They won because of publicity. They were so controversial, the things they were doing at the time, that the media had a story.

A march, well, that’s people with signs, walking. But no one has ever seen tents outside City Hall. Now the media is all over it. We have caused people to look at us.

That’s why I believe tents are the signature of the whole Occupation. To get people aware. To get them to look and ask, “What are they talking about?” And then once people are asking those questions, they can look for the answers or come over here and find out about it.

Do you think Occupy has had an impact on politics in America?

I’m going to say this with a little salt, but I think that we could have had an impact if we were more organized. But I will say that we’ve had an impact because we’ve changed the perception of the public.

Because, before Occupy, we knew what the issues were. You were either scared of them, so you didn’t go in to deep, or you just didn’t care. Because of the Occupy movement we have forced people to really look at the issues. The mainstream media is actually looking at the issues.

Before Occupy, it was all about, “Bail outs, give the banks more money, why do the banks have so much money?” Now, they are talking about how the whole Federal Reserve is messed up. Henry Paulson…what was he doing? Timothy Geitner, what was he doing?

Before all this, nobody cared if anyone was even prosecuted. Now, the majority of us are calling for them to be prosecuted. So on think that on that level, we have affected the public paradigm.

Do you think that anything is actually going to happen tonight? What is next for Occupy? If this camp is shut down, how do we keep getting the message out?

I believe that, yes, for the camp, they are going to come in and do what they need to do. Although it is illegal, we could sue them for this, and I’m a law student saying this, but it’s a good thing. It’s going to force us to organize. It’s going to force us to come back.

Maybe it’s just my New York state of mind. When you knock us down in New York, we just get back up, and we’re stronger, because people see what’s being done to us and think, “What’s going on? Look what’s being done to those people. We don’t even know what they are fighting about, but let’s go joing them, because what’s being done to them is just wrong.”

That guy over there right now, speaking to the crowd, I don’t even know him. He’s just some guy who heard that they were going to shut us down, so he came out with a megaphone to give a speech. That just goes to show that being shut down is going to make us stronger.

So the next time, are things going to be more surgical? Because as much as I hope that nothing bad happens tonight, it seems like when anything bad happens, you guys get noticed, more. 

Because it proves the whole point. Our rights as a people have continuously been downplayed. We can be in a public park. This is called a “public” park. You’re telling me I can’t be at a public park?

People may not agree with the individual idealogies that are in the camp, but they’ll join us. Just the fact that they are doing what they are doing proves that we live in a police state. So if you can’t have camps anymore, what can you do to get the message out?

I believe that we can bring the same strategy we have up in New York here to LA, I think that’s what’s going to be born out of them coming in and shutting this camp down. I believe that a lot of the people that aren’t here for the movement will fizzle out.

We could shut down the Staples Center. I call it, “Causing constructive chaos. It’s chaos, for the city, but very constructive for the people.

Sure, we shut down that Bank of America the other day, but it doesn’t matter, because everything is happening electronically. You haven’t shut it down, because they are still conducting business.

But we could all enter a Bank of America, act like we were going to start an account, and then tell everyone working there real statistics about how they are screwing people, in front of all of the customers.

Right now, everyone here is peaceful. But we’re all very angry. President Kennedy once said, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." We’re not at that stage, yet, but they don’t know that when they keep trying to shut us down, it’s only bringing more of us out.

Here's how you can help to bring real participating democracy back to the American government. Money, letters of support, showing up to protest...everything counts.

You can donate to Occupy Wall Street, here.

Here's a link to the Occupy Los Angeles website and forums.

You can find more images for Occupy Los Angeles, here. Here's their Facebook page. 

You can contact Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa about Occupy L.A. right here.

If you support the Occupy movement, let Governor Jerry Brown know about it by writing him a letter to thank him for the support.

Since most of the government stopped caring about the civil rights of Americans back in the late 90's, we're lucky we have groups like the National Lawyers Guild to defend the few we have left. You can support them here.

A letter to the LAPD in support of the demonstrations and a big donation to the Los Angeles Police Memorial Foundation will help the movement. Remember, cops are also the 99%.

Occupy Los Angeles Update #6 - OWS

"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power."

-Benito Mussolini

According to Occupy L.A. blogger Ruth Fowler, the Occupy protest camp was finally broken up, and it wasn't pretty although it could have been worse. My question is, why did her tweets stop going out? Were they blocked? If so, why?

But if you were a gigantic corporation that was about to lose a lot of profits because of a political movement sweeping the nation, wouldn't you help the government protect your profits by blocking a few tweets?

Sarcasm aside, that's why I'm covering Occupy. The Mussolini quote spells it all out. If corporations control the government, and the government doesn't protect the citizenry, is that a democracy? If the government and corporations can and will team up to deprive the citizenry of their life, liberty, pursuit of happiness and wealth, is that a democracy?

I want to give LAPD the benefit of the doubt, but Ruth Fowler is a journalist who was there on the ground, reporting, while other members of the media could not or would not cover the story. 

The violence against journalists and other news media involved in the Occupy movement is particularly chilling to me, especially since I've been blogging about the 99% Movement. 

Every time I was down at Occupy, the police were very polite to me. Of course, it was broad daylight and they weren't chasing me out of the place, but at one point a cop let me off with a warning for a minor traffic violation even though he knew I was involved in the protests. I can't complain about that. 

I know you've read this damn quote a million times, but here it is again: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

That's the First Amendment to the Constitution. It's as obvious about it's intent as it can get. The Founding Fathers made freedom of speech and the press part of the First Amendment because it was so important to get the truth out to prevent fascism. Our country was created in the face of fascism, in defiance of fascism, and as a clear, 180 degree alternative to fascism. 

Are you tired of one governing body telling you what to do no matter how hard you work or what you say? Then journey to America, because we are a democracy. That's the message I get the most out of the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution.

If the media is not being allowed to record events, are being denied access to where they need to go to report the story, something is being covered up. And no matter what political party you belong to, if you look at the assault on our civil rights that has increased since the Bush Administration, the bank bailouts, the very existence of Guantanamo Bay and the fact that American citizens can be held without trial, you have to agree that we need to keep an eye on the government, so they don't take our money and use it to exploit us. It's not political, it's obvious.

Even the scenes of horrific violence against peaceful protesters that you see everywhere, from MSNBC to YouTube to the brutal torture at UC Davis and the severe treatment of protesters at Oakland, each image delivers the same, brutal message: "If you attempt to use your First Amendment rights we will beat the ever living snot out of you." They mean it, too. Priests, congressmen, old women and young girls have all been victims.

I don't blame the police because they are being ordered to do what they do. If not, they'd be fired. I don't blame the top brass because they are being told what to do, otherwise they'd be fired. Someone somewhere at the top, either a politician, a wealthy businessman, or both, eventually decided that it's time for the protesters and the press the get their asses kicked, and gives the order for the cops to kick ass. That's all it is.

I am not anti-government. I like our government. The Founding Fathers designed a perfect system of self-limiting levers of power that normal people like you and I can still occupy. The government was designed by the people, for the people. As long as voting is free, all you need is communication, and logic and the democratic election process will do the rest.

There's been a lot of talk by the media, members of Occupy and everyone from Russel Simmons to Michael Moore to more than a few politicians, that the Occupy movement needs to get political, to either join a party or become one. 

But the Democratic Party have proven they can't stand up to Wall Street because they need a lot of money to stay in power. The Republican Party are completely supportive of Wall Street because they are the 1%. They are there to represent everything the 99% Movement opposes, so of course they get a lot of money. And in American politics, money is power.

I believe that the Democrats have their back against a wall this time, though. They've lost the middle class. All Occupy has to do is persist with their message, and more politicians will listen to the people instead of a handful of millionaires.

That's why the press and the protesters are a huge political threat to the few bad politicians who are currently hogging the levers of power and won't let the government work for the people. In my humble opinion, making it cost so much to get into politics is just one step in maintaining political power when you know citizens no longer trust you enough to vote for you. Suppressing the press and protesters threw bogus voter ID laws, unconstitutional permit requirements and nebulous zoning laws is a natural step in maintaining the grip on power.

The Occupy camps had to exist because normal protest movements were not working. Thousands upon thousands of people would show up, the press would talk about it for five minutes on the nightly news, and then politicians would go on to business as usual. As the situation in America gets worse, despite the fact our GDP is as robust as ever, there had to be another strategy.

Occupy LA is gone as a camp, but the world is listening to the Occupy movement. As long as we can vote, tweet, blog, post on forums, talk to each other, Facebook, MySpace, text and YouTube, normal people can pick a politician to vote for, regardless of how high a price tag big media has placed on the process, and replace the bad people with the good people through the genius of our election process.

I truly believe that the system still works, and that Occupy can be a political movement that saves the country from the 1% that just wants to profit from America's pain.

I will put up more posts this week, featuring interviews with protesters camping out at Occupy Los Angeles along with more photos.

Here's how you can help to bring real participating democracy back to the American government. Money, letters of support, showing up to protest...everything counts.

You can donate to Occupy Wall Street, here.

Here's a link to the Occupy Los Angeles website and forums.

You can find more images for Occupy Los Angeles, here. Here's their Facebook page. 

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has handled this as best he could, and we can all agree that L.A. didn't end up being anything like Oakland. You can thank him right here.

If you support the Occupy movement, let Governor Jerry Brown know about it by writing him a letter to thank him for the support.

Since most of the government stopped caring about the civil rights of Americans back in the late 90's, we're lucky we have groups like the National Lawyers Guild to defend the few we have left. You can support them here.

A letter to the LAPD in support of the demonstrations and a big donation to the Los Angeles Police Memorial Foundation will help the movement. Remember, cops are also the 99%.

Occupy Los Angeles Update #5 - OWS

This is the second part of my interview with Ryan Rice, who is a writer, media representative and roaming informed moderator for Occupy Los Angeles and the 99% Movement.

He has also worked closely with Occupy Oakland, and was jailed along with Kayvan Saveghi, the second military veteran who was injured by Oakland police and left in his jail cell with severe internal injuries for sixteen hours without medical treatment.

It would be irresponsible of me to post the rest of this interview, which is a lurid account of Ryan's experience in jail along with Kayvan Saveghi, without adding my own brief comment.

I don't hate cops. My father was a police officer, and so were his friends and a few other members of my family. My father is retired and although I myself am not a police officer, I grew up with cops. I can't entirely understand what it's like to be a member of law enforcement, but I do understand a few things.

It's tough to have a dangerous, sometimes violent job where you don't get paid a lot, retirement is uncertain, everyone you try to help seems to hate you and the media (and anyone with a camera) can't wait to make you look like the modern-day Gestapo. 

Most cops are very good, honest people who want to help people. If they weren't they could never get hired as law enforcement. Yes, there are some bad cops. There are also bad waiters and bad brain surgeons and bad nuclear physicists. 

Otherwise, I believe there are always more good people than bad, regardless of occupation. 

The cops in Oakland were doing what they were told to do. Ultimately, law enforcement must obey an elected public official. If the official does their job, what happened in Oakland doesn't happen.

I don't hate cops. I blame the elected officials they work for when and vote them out of office when they do a bad job, and vote into office public officials who understand people (which includes police officers) and knows how to handle peaceful demonstrators without unnecessary force, torture or confinement. 

That is my honest opinion. 

I also would like to mention that my father was a military veteran, and so were many of my friends and family growing up. I still have a lot of friends who are veterans, or who are currently serving in the military right now, and I have a tremendous respect for them.

You normally work for Occupy Los Angeles, but from what I understand you flew up to assist with Occupy Oakland. What was that like?

We got approved for funds for a van so a few of us took a trip up there. We drove up there November 2nd, Tuesday night and got there by November 3rd for the general strike. 

You were also arrested with the second military veteran, Kayvan Saveghi, who was critically injured by police officers in Oakland?

Yes. He was leaving the Occupy site when he was beaten and arrested. I myself was sick and had been sleeping in my tent when I woke up to flash bang and tear gas grenades. I wanted to find my friends and make sure they were safe, so I put on my gas mask and I went out to the “no-zone” to find my friends.

That was where most of the protestors were, defending their First Amendment rights and standing up to police. Anyone there was targeted for intimidation, brutality and arrest.

So you got to the jail after Saveghi?

We were all zip-tied, I think there was about 103 arrests. I was on a Sheriff’s bus that had about 55 people on board. They kept moving us around arbitrarily with no explanation, and they left the zip-ties on. I was with him when we were moved around from cell block A, to B, to D…I spent about 15 hours in jail, and I’d say I spent about half that time in a cell with him.

Well, the guy is a veteran. He’s a tough cookie. We were all concerned about his hands, which were visibly swollen from baton beatings. His arm, leg and side were also bruised heavily. But an internal injury can take hours before you start feeling the pain. 

With the adrenaline rush of getting beaten and arrested, that can stave off the pain for a while, but after the eighth hour he started requesting medical attention and at hour twelve he was really starting to cry for help.

At one point he was crawling down the hallway, pleading for assistance, and the guards just snickered at him.

Did they make fun of him?

They didn’t really make fun of him, they just said, “Well, we can’t help you if you can’t get up off the ground.” 

Did they know he was a veteran?

Yes. 

Was he targeted for intimidation because he was a veteran?

We were all targeted for intimidation by the police because we were protestors. Every opportunity the police had to intimidate us, to be arbitrarily cruel, they took. It angers me because it was so unnecessary. 

I’m speechless because we were powerless to stop this. Our rights were being violated. The police were not there to protect and serve us. They were there to protect and serve their corporate overlords. It made me so angry that I, as a protestor, was powerless to stop it. 

They are talking about another raid. I know the city council is figuring out what to do with them, how to support them. In Los Angeles the house has approved a resolution, which I believe is just empty words, but here’s the big city on the West Coast putting pressure on New York and saying, “Hey, we’re accommodating them.

Mayor Blumberg in New York City needs to accommodate the protestors down at Wall Street. So I think any kind of action by any official will be good in terms of letting other cities know how to deal with them.

I don’t know what is going to happen. The general assembly’s there are awesome, they have hundreds of people that participate. Who knows? This movement is happening so quickly, and the dynamics are changing so much that I don’t know what’s going to happen.

Do you think that Occupy Wall Street wants the same thing as Occupy L.A.? Are all of the movements protesting the same thing? Because I feel that Occupy Wall Street has one set of demands, and different cities have their own demands based on what their particular problems might be.

For instance, Oakland has had a long history of police violence, but here at Occupy L.A. it’s a different sort of feeling here, and the police have been very polite. 

I think it is important to note the individuality of these protests. When Occupy Wall Street started and Occupy L.A. began, I felt that there was an element to Occupy L.A. that was different. We were there for the financial reasons. We were there to protest the banks, to protest profits over people…

Occupy L.A. had the need to address the social issues that come with a broken, “crony-capitalism” type of system including homelessness, immigration issues…some of these issues are much more apparent in L.A. than over at Occupy Wall Street. 

So I think that each city does have it’s own space to access issues. In Oakland it was police brutality. We are all here to address the same sets of issues on a state and local level. I think that in Oakland that was a powerful component.

What do you think is going to happen next with the Occupy movement? Are you going to back up a Democratic or Republican candidate that supports your views?

I’ve spoken out against Occupy aligning itself with a broken political system. But there is some value to looking at what the Tea Party has done to promote their own agenda. I don’t agree with them, but they have successfully integrated themselves into the political process and they have brought some of the things that they want to do to their fruition. 

If we can do that, I’m not necessarily against it, but what I would like to see is not necessarily one of us running our own politicians, but I would like to see politicians that are clearly supporting us and coming to us, like Dennis Kucinich or Obama, but not just as politicians but as people who are standing up for what’s right. 

Any politician would be welcome here, if they want to stand up for what’s right.

Here's how you can help to bring real participating democracy back to the American government. Money, letters of support, supplies...everything counts.

You can donate to Occupy Wall Street, here.

You can donate to Occupy Los Angeles, here. They recently posted this important banking update on their Facebook page. 

Here's a link to their Amazon wish list.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has been incredibly supportive of the protesters. You can support him right back, here.

Governor Jerry Brown could take out Occupy Los Angeles with a single phone call. Write him a letter and thank him for the support.

Since most of the government stopped caring about the civil rights of Americans back in the late 90's, we're lucky we have groups like the National Lawyers Guild to defend the few we have left. You can support them here.

A letter to the LAPD in support of the demonstrations and a big donation to the Los Angeles Police Memorial Foundation will help the movement. Remember, cops are also the 99%.

Occupy Los Angeles Update #4 - OWS

Art by Lalo Alcaraz

The Occupy Oakland and Occupy Wall Street camps have been cleared out, but American citizens have returned in greater numbers. Politicians, reporters and the protesters themselves are all saying that police raids have only strengthened the resolve of the movement.

According to the BBC, there are 751 Occupy movements going on right now in major cities worldwide, with millions marching in solidarity with the 99%. Statistically, each raid by authorities just attracts more protesters the next day. Violent raids only give the Occupy movements greater publicity and even greater numbers.

The positive part of me hopes for a giant voter turnout and significant government reform. The cynic in me expects artillery.

I interviewed Ryan Rice, 27, who is a writer, media representative and roaming informed moderator for Occupy Los Angeles and the 99% Movement.

He has also worked closely with Occupy Oakland, and was jailed along with the second military veteran, Kayvan Saveghi, who was injured by Oakland Police and left in his jail cell with a ruptured internal organ for sixteen hours without medical treatment.

This interview will be broken up into two parts.

How long have you been with the Occupy movement?


The first pre-Occupy movement was September 22nd, at Pershing Square. It was just fifty of us getting together to decide what to do in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. I’ve been on the ground since then.

So far very few major news organizations have given you proper objective coverage, even though your crowds are much larger than the Tea Party gatherings that seem to attract a lot of attention. Did you expect the mainstream media’s reaction?

I think for decades now the mainstream media has painted a picture that is beneficial to whom they really represent and are ultimately controlled by, from Rupert Murdoch to the corporations that dictate what they want the people to see.

How do you think that perception can be changed?

It can be changed by the existence of the Internet. We saw how social networking and social media was so effective during the uprising in Egypt, Tunisia, Syria…even Iran in 2009 with the Green Revolution.  So the fact that the Internet exists is making the mainstream media obsolete.

In some cases, the mainstream media has been portraying the Occupy movement in a lot of different ways.

Tell me something about the Occupy movement that the public should know.

Well, the media loves to highlight the problems that come with homelessness finding a place to live here. They like to highlight the violence. The reality is that this Occupy is a microcosm of the problems we’ve faced in our society for decades. If our existence is highlighting those issues, so be it. They need to be focusing on the issues we’re protesting and the substantive arguments we do have that hold weight.

These arguments have held weight in the philosophical and academic realms forever. Nobody pays attention because these corporations squash that dissent, since the arguments are not coming from a place that means profits for them. Our arguments are coming from a place of sustainability and treating people with humanity, and that doesn’t help their bottom line.

Would you say that the 99% Movement is the opposite, or perhaps a reaction to, the Tea Party? Or is this movement not necessarily an answer to the right?

It is just a movement. The Tea Party has more in common with the Occupation that I think they are willing to admit, but their focus has been on small government.

I saw an editorial comic that showed one group protesting a building that represents big business, and then the Tea Party protesting a building that represents big government, and the two buildings grow until it is the same building and both groups are just protesting the same power structure they’re both unhappy with.

What does the 99% Movement have in common with the Tea Party?

I think the Tea Party organically formed from a demand for small government, although having a small government and small social services is something to debate. They came up just like the Occupation movement out of a demand to be heard as a political voice.

The media is now saying that the Occupy movement has to do something else. What do you think?

We live in a 24/7 news cycle. To quote Jeremy Macquire, “We live in a cynical, cynical world.” This endless rush for headlines is what’s causing the mainstream media to demand that we do something.

For me, there is no rush. This is about outreach and education. I don’t feel rushed to do something except have a conversation about what’s wrong with our country and our planet.

The mainstream media loves a good headline. If they don’t get something flashy for their news cycle, it affects their bottom line. So they want us to do something flashy so they’ll make more money.

The reality is, what we are doing is beginning the conversation.

When Bank of America announced that they were going to charge their customers $5 a month to use their bank card, a lot of people were very angry. This highlighted a large part of the conversation the 99% Movement is beginning to have. Now, banks are backing off from the fee and the mainstream media is reporting that as a victory for Occupy Wall Street.


On November 5th nearly a million people moved their accounts from banks to credit unions. If those two are victories, what to you would be the third victory for a cynical observer that might not believe Occupy Wall Street is making a difference?

The most important victory is the drastic re-altering of how we view who controls the government. I think that the highlighting of corporate interests that are running the wars, running our prisons, running the distribution of our food, pharmaceuticals…the fact that we are now aware of the issue and are all discussing it, out in the open, is a victory.

I think what we are trying to do is laying the foundation for a conversation about what industries should be for profit, like health care, education, the military, prisons, etc. The fact is, there are a lot of people making money from those industries.

It’s a hard concept for people to wrap their heads around, about whether or not people should be making money off of these types of things. That goes back to the basic nature of how we create our society. It’s difficult for people to imagine a world that is drastically different from the one we live in.

Do you think that the message the 99% Movement represents is too much for most people?

I think it’s going to turn some people off and others might paint us as the quintessential hippy ideologues, but the reality is, with the access to the Internet and the fact that we are now having these conversations, these things are no longer some sort of pie-in-the-sky dream. We are now all connected in a way that can realistically change the system.

Here's how you can help to bring real participating democracy back to the American government. Money, letters of support, supplies...everything counts.

You can donate to Occupy Wall Street, here.

You can donate to Occupy Los Angeles, here. They recently posted this important banking update on their Facebook page. 

Here's a link to their Amazon wish list.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has been incredibly supportive of the protesters. You can support him right back, here.

Governor Jerry Brown could take out Occupy Los Angeles with a single phone call. Write him a letter and thank him for the support.

Since most of the government stopped caring about the civil rights of Americans back in the late 90's, we're lucky we have groups like the National Lawyers Guild to defend the few we have left. You can support them here.

A letter to the LAPD in support of the demonstrations and a big donation to the Los Angeles Police Memorial Foundation will help the movement. Remember, cops are also the 99%.