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We are the 99%: ‘Occupy’ movement spreads to 560+ cities

by on Oct. 06, 2011, under Arizona, campaign financing, Capitalism, Congress, corporatists, democracy, downtown, economy, education, equality, Free Speech, jobs, organizing, Politics, Progressive Democrats of America, Trickle Down Economics, Tucson

Occupy Tucson poster. (Image Credit: OccupyTucson.org)

Now in its third week, the Occupy Wall Street demonstration has inspired marches and/or live-ins in approximately 566 cities worldwide including Tucson. (When I originally wrote this story less than 24 hours ago, there were protests planned in 300 cities. The number cities has almost doubled in 12 hours.)

As the movement spread, the corporate media could no longer ignore it. The current corporate media story– also repeated on NPR [heavy sigh]– is that the reasons why people are occupying Wall Street or elsewhere are unclear. Except for a handful of progressives– like our own Congressman Raul Grijalva– politicians are not commenting on the Occupy movement at all– including President Obama [another heavy sigh]. How can the politicians go on their way and ignore the anger and frustration that is erupting around them? Political pundits from Amy Goodman to Ann Coulter to Tucson’s own Jon Justice are commenting. (I’m soooooo disappointed that Justice didn’t link to my video on his trash-talk blog post.)

For those of you who don’t know why the Occupy movement is growing or what all of these people are complaining about, I offer these compelling articles and photos from the Huffington Post.

‘We Are The 99 Percent’: Stories Of The Great Recession’s Victims (PHOTOS)

Candidate-Specific Super PACs Offer End Run For Maxed-Out Donors: Study

Eric Cantor Staffer Creating Leadership Super PAC

House GOP Targeting Title X In Push To Axe Family Planning Programs

New Trade Deal Would Benefit Big Pharma At AIDS Programs’ Expense

Follow the Money: Behind Europe’s Debt Crisis Lurks Another Giant Bailout of Wall Street

JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo Accused Of Overcharging Military Veterans

Executive Pay Spiraling Upward As Corporations Race To Pay Their Bosses The Most

Are you thoroughly disgusted? You should be.

Upcoming from Occupy Tucson

October 9: The next Occupy Tucson General Assembly is Sunday, October 9 at noon at Viente de Agosto Park (AKA Pancho Villa Park) downtown.

October 15: The Occupy Tucson event begins on Saturday, October 15 at the same location.

For more information, check out the Occupy Tucson website or check out their facebook page.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 6th, 2011 at 5:24 am and is filed under Arizona, campaign financing, Capitalism, Congress, corporatists, democracy, downtown, economy, education, equality, Free Speech, jobs, organizing, Politics, Progressive Democrats of America, Trickle Down Economics, Tucson. Tags for this post: , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • A

    That 1% is terrified, they can buy them tea party mercernaries via their commadant Dick Armey, finance them via Koch brothers billionaires but mercenaries fight for money, greed, true grass root revolutionaries fight, march for a idea, not money! 99% is how the aristocrats of old France went to the gullitine, one can see the mercenaries getting nervous, since they are the ones who are the fox & friends pundits, the right wing radio talking heads, who like the French aristocrats had their subordinates who went to the guillitine with them during the french revolution, one see’s them hawking the idea the unemployed are lazy shiftless, deserve their unemployment, the employed deserve nothing but minimum wages, let them eat cake is a thing the 99% will not tolerate, and the 1% ought to really be scared!:-) Cause real grass root organizations often are mob like, no Dick Armey organizations, no puppiteer pulling the strings here!

  • http://tucsonprogressive juan

    When the poor have nothing left, they will eat the rich!

    • Joe

      Didn’t Aerosmith call for that?

  • Zelot

    America has gone soft! We haven’t had a good revolution in a long time! Time to take a stand! Show your support and show up!

  • Jennie

    And when the rich have nothing left but money, and money has no value, what will they do? They have no skills (except the ability to spend money). When the people that they PAY are growing their own foods, making their own clothes, and we are all in it together, (not including them in our revolution) and they are on the street corner in their $2000 suits, begging for scraps of food, we will do unto them as they have done unto us…ignore them and hope they go away?

  • B

    The bible pretty much sums up the rich…..for it is written it will be as hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven as it will be for a camel to go through the eye of a needle! Is it not funny the GOP/Tea Party talk 24/7 about what? Money, their love of money again the bible is clear on this “love of money is root of all evil”! Who claims to be the most righteous compassionate christians, the most ardent defenders of god, the bible? Again the GOP/Tea Publicans talk a good game…..but what do they say about the poor……they are lazy shiftless deserving of their poverty, what do they say about the sick let them die, Jesus said to ignore the poor, hungry, naked those sick and in prison was to ignore him, what did the rich man do when Jesus told him to go and give away all his wealth/riches to the poor when he asked to follow Jesus, he went away sad unable to do as Jesus asked, he loved his money more! Woe be to those who love money above all else for what have they gained when they gain the whole world and loose their immortal souls in the process…., its not hard to figure where the GOP/Tea Party stand, blind biblical goats, whom Jesus will sort out from his sheep on judgment day, pity them for their fate is horrible, eternal!

  • fabienne

    Beware of he wolf in sheep’s clothing. NPR is totally part of corporate America, they maintain and follow the Status Quo. NPR has coverage of the stock market many time a day and is rarely negative or critical about it. So if you listen to NPR, make sure you check elsewhere as well.

  • Fraser007

    Same old crowd, same old look. Just think its close to 4th Ave so they wont have far to walk. Maybe the trolley will have some people to move.
    Maybe you can be like your NYC buddies. Wow …I’m impresssed.  LOL

  • Dexter

    Maricopa county has the highest vacancies of homes in nation if one believes the news, does that mean anything? I think it does, a boom came in 2000 with the Bush/Cheney crowd preaching cut taxes to the rich, jobs and prosperity would flow like sweet honey! Now I hate to bust all you right wing snake oil addicts bubbles of delusions of grandeur but its now 2011, if your still drunk on that right wing snake oil cure all that ails you cut taxes to the rich and jobs/prosperity will flow like honey in 2012, vote republican if not vote democrat!

  • dollarshort

    Has anyone found someone in these  created mobs who has not milked the system for every benefit possible and now want to get rewarded, as promised by progressives/liberals? 

    • Ernie McCray

      Yeah, at Occupy San Diego I found about 2000 people whom I wouldn’t consider a mob who had not milked the system for every benefit possible. You’re thinking of the corporate mob. It was so beautiful seeing young adults wake up and rise against Corporate Greed! They are among the 99%, indeed.

      • dollarshort

        200 people who respected the law and society. Their past involvement in the system was what? What I think is every  generation seeks to find their place and discovers,  after a period of making noise in the streets, they only wanted the benefits and protection of the system without earning the privilege.  

        • Ernie McCray

          Well the past involvement of many at our demonstration are people who have contributed greatly to our city, many well respected educators, long time community organizers who have worked with the homeless and set up programs for children. We all, including people in the corporate world, deserve benefits and protection, that’s what our taxes should be about, but the “average” person is more and more being subtracted from the equation, left to fend for themselves in a world that’s becoming harder to exist in by the day. What was beautiful about the protest here in San Diego was there was absolutely no heckling from people who weren’t directly involved in the rally. You can’t imagine how refreshing that is to an old dude who has been to many a rally for peace and justice. What’s wrong with wanting to feel hopeful? How does one, in your opinion, earn the privilege of having the government treat him or her with respect?

  • Carolyn Classen

    Lots of flyers being handed out last night at 2nd Saturdays Downtown on today’s Occupy Tucson event at high noon, Veinte de Agosto Park downtown. We got approached 3 times.

    • Ernie McCray

      Bear Down, Tucson. Occupy. What we’ve got going here in San Diego is something beautiful to see. An awakening.

  • mojo

    Blah, blah, blah. All of you faux revolutionaries crack me up. You tip your beret at just the right angle and then get on your Macs and start spouting a bunch of whiney nonsense about class struggle. Really, read what’s being said here, and you can’t escape the concluion that emotional thinkers arn’t what’s needed right now. And a camping trip to Pancho’s statue may make you feel like it’s 1968 in Chicago, but look in the mirror, it ain’t so.
    Take the Oama/Biden 2012 stickers off of your Prius and WAKE UP! The Democrats AND the Republicans are the problem, not “the rich”. Political corruption, surrogate bribery, elite universities and big government are the enemy, because the bigger government gets and the more control it has in your life, the more it can tell you how to live. And isn’t it odd that all of these corrupt politicians (including the Obamas) went to Harvard, Columbia or Yale, or all three?
    You all want to tell everyone how to live their lives and how they can pay for yours, but you better have some pretty heavy firepower when you start talking about beheading people, and you better know how to use it. An AR-15 only costs about $800, and the ammo isn’t that expensive. A couple of banana clips could provide one person all the firepower they need to defend themselves against 40 or 50 people at a time. This isn’t 18th Century France, or early 20th Century Russia, folks, this is a heavily armed American public who won’t be taken down easily.
    So please save the silly “revolution” talk, and get real about how all of our “leaders” are selling our country to anyone who’s buying.  Vote them all out, and stop supporting the Demopublicans and Republicrats.

    • Ernie McCray

      Why badmouth people who are trying, in their way, to better our society? And who’s talking about beheading somebody? 
       

      • mojo

        The very first post in this thread talked about beheading people (see above). “99% is how the Fraench aristocrats went to the guillotine” – that’s who. Roseane Barr, a progressive, that’s who. A lot of the “occupy [your city here]” dopes are talking about it.
         
        Acting like children, sitting around repeating what your “facilitators” are saying is Marxist claptrap, a fit of collectivist nonsense, and a waste of time and the people who want this country to move toward Marxist principles are fools. Marxism has never worked, communism has never worked, and pure socialism has never worked (European style democratic socialism has also failed, as evidenced by France, Greece and the rest of them.)
         
        Class warfare and “give me what’s yours” isn’t making the world a beter place, it’s making it worse. Sitting around whining isn’t a strategy, it’s cowardice. It’s giving up on yourself, and putting your future in the hands of collectivists who just want the power they don’t presently have. And when they get it, look out.

        • leftfield

          I haven’t heard a thing about Marxism coming out of the “Occupy” protests.  In fact, I haven’t heard anything about revolution except your talk about weapons, universities and politicians.  

          • mojo

            Then I suggest you pay a little closer attention to what’s going on. Go on Youtube and watch some video of the Wall Street protests. Pay attention to what the “facilitator” is having the zombies repeat, and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Go read their websites and their blogs. Pretty clear, if you’re listening.
             
            Also, don’t put words in my mouth. Notice how I said “vote” the bums out, and the reference to weapons was tied to the beheading comment, and the likely response to those calling for violent revolution. That’s why that kind of talk is silly, those caling for violent reform are the least well armed – that was my point.

        • Ernie McCray

          You are correct: “Class warfare and ‘give me what’s yours’ isn’t making the world a better place.” That’s what the protests are saying as it has been the corporations in bed with our representatives, that have pretty much maintained a war against Us, We the People, leading to the disarray and the anger that characterizes our society at this moment in time, and hinders the making of a better existence for human beings. Who are you to define something as a waste of time when it’s energizing so many people, many of them young: it’s their world down the line and we should be glad that they’re becoming interested and thinking about what’s going on and how they might take part. You refer to their actions as cowardice when they draw the attention of someone like you who speaks in glowing terms of weapons and looks down your nose at them? That is pretty brave, if you ask me, because your attitudes about people taking an active part in a democracy are a little on the scary side. The demonstrations here in San Diego have been carried out brilliantly with no hint of violence in the air and more and more people around town are tuning in and hopefully will become more involved in a range of issues that need tending to. You apparently don’t like us activist people but you don’t have to batter us with your vitriol. Leave us alone. Let us be “Americans.”

          • mojo

            Kind of ignored my response, didn’t you, Ernie? You ignore the beheading talk, and refer to my post as “vitriol”, yet a bunch of people sitting around repeating everything the “facilitator” is saying makes sense to you? “Collective action” is a bunch of zombies mindlessly repeating what is said, in quest of discussing a collectivist “agenda”, to ensure that no one appears to be a leader? And that’s not a waste of time? Uh, okay.
             
            Go watch the Atlanta video, where they took ten minutes to decide whether to let Congressman Lewis even speak to them. If you think that’s a productive use of time, good luck with that. But we would be much better off with an honest media that exposes corruption, whether it’s Obama’s corruption, or the other side’s corruption.
             
            People like you are really good at name calling and branding people “racist” or “scary” or “Unamerican” or whatever, but it adds nothing to the substance of your argument. If you don’t like my comments, don’t read them, but don’t mischaracterize them, because I could call you names and tell you to shut up (which is what your effectively telling me to do), but I would rather engage people like you than villify you. That’s the difference beytween you and me, Ernie – people like you can’t stand it when others disagree with you.
             

            • Ernie McCray

              Man, I get disagreed with everyday. And I agree with you in one breath and then you say something that takes my breath away. You say something like “we would be much better off with an honest media that exposes corruption, whether it’s Obama’s corruption. or the other side’s corruption” and I agree with that 100%, not 99. I’ve stood in a crowd and voiced such a sentiment. And then you cite a specific incident like people taking ten minutes to decide whether to let John Lewis speak or not and you ask if I think that’s a productive use of time. I don’t know what that’s about. But I do know that people, the more they work on how they want to act and proceed, can figure things out. Working within a democracy isn’t necessarily smooth and without stumbling blocks. This movement, even though it’s not finely focused, is questioning all the powers that be, politicians, the media, corporations. It’s got people involved. What is it about that that you don’t you like? Why don’t you join the folks at the Tucson rallies and engage them with your thoughts and dezombieize them? I doubt, however,  if you will find one person with “beheading” on their agenda. I don’t take part in movements where violence is in the mix and there’s been none of that in “Occupy” matters to any significant extent.

  • Carolyn Classen

    About 200 people there today (at least for the first hour) to make proposals for future agenda items and speak of their numerous concerns.  Mayoral candidate Mary DeCamp, former Ward 5 Councilman Steve Leal, former LD 28 House Rep. Ted Downing and other former Green Party candidates (Dave Ewoldt, Dave Croteau, Jon McLane) in attendance.  Next week’s Peaceful Occupation on Oct. 15 at Veinte de Agosto Park  may interfere with Tucson Meet Yourself, so stay tuned for location update.

  • http://youtu.be/QR-fd8zaQyU B

    http://youtu.be/QR-fd8zaQyU
     
     
    “what I do, I do out of love for my people, not the hatred of others.”
     
     
     
     
    Now is the time;)

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The Tucson Progressive

Pamela Powers Hannley writes the Tucson Progressive blog on the TucsonCitizen.com and contributes articles to the Huffington Post and Salon.com. She has had more than 30 years of experience in written, visual, and electronic communication—including freelance writing, photography, graphic design, and consulting. In addition to blogging for the Citizen, she is the Managing Editor of an international medical research journal.

Hannley has authored medical research articles, print magazine and newspaper stories, and numerous cancer prevention and self-help publications.

She has been a blogger since 2006, joined the ranks of Tucson Citizen bloggers in October 2010, and started contributing to the Huffington Post in 2011 and to Salon.com in 2012.

Hannley holds a masters’ degree in public health from The University of Arizona and a bachelors’ degree in journalism from The Ohio State University. She is a native of Amherst, Ohio but has lived in Tucson since 1981.