3:30 PM (PDT) As the press reports that OWS is all over for the day, here’s a picture taken a moment ago in Liberty Square
3pm- Word from New York is that the late day actions were peaceful with few arrests. Thousands of people remain in Liberty Park. We’re headed out shortly to cover San Diego Occupy events. Check out our live feed from NYC below.
Other occupiers: In addition to the protests already underway in New York, there are Occupy actions planed in San Diego CA, San Francisco CA, Merced CA, Davis CA, Carson City NV, Reno NV, Denver CO, Syracuse NY, Middleton PA, & Ashville NC.
1 Pm This next hour will probably be the most dramatic part of the day for Occupy Wall Street. The activists gathered in Liberty Park are getting ready to march on Wall Street; the cops are massed and blocking the way.
Also It would appear that Anonymous has taken the Monsanto website down for the afternoon. Occupy groups in California have been targeting Monsanto for demonstrations as part of a campaign to support a ballot initiative that would require labeling of GMO foods.
NYPD reports 143 arrests as of 12:30 PDT.
From Around California… In San Francisco Occupy is currently holding a news conference to mark the occupation of a square in the financial district.. Activists say they plan to take to the streets with a march later this afternoon from Justin HermanPlaza to the city’s Financial District and rally this evening outside the Bank of America building on California Street, the site of previous protests. In the East Bay, the Occupy rally will start at4 p.m. at the Wells Fargo Bank near the downtown Berkeley BART station. In Davis, about 50 protesters picketed in front of a Monsanto plant this morning, saying they wanted to shut down the local office of the multinational biotechnology company.
From Huffington Post (aka Sideboob Gazette): Here’s one guy that hasn’t figured it out yet-
Occupy ‘Has Lost Steam’
“The movement has lost steam,” says Jamie Chandler, a political science professor at Hunter College in New York. “Occupy Wall Street failed to influence Washington because organizers didn’t professionalize. They didn’t form PACs and field candidates.”
11am NYC Updates: (From Alternet)
Maps handed out over the weekend (along with pre-coordinated text message lists) separated the Financial District into quadrants, each with its own theme: the Eco Zone, the Debt Zone, the Education Zone, and the 99% Zone (which includes the original occupation site at Zuccotti Park/Liberty Plaza). At7am, groups assembled in each zone to spread throughout the financial district, staging creative actions as well as old-fashioned sit-down protests, designed to confuse, distract, and infiltrate the heart of Wall Street. …
Bhaskar Sunkara of Jacobin magazine commented “When #OWS succeeds (tactically) make no mistake, it’s a product of a creative well-spring w/ distinctly anarchist roots.” He’s right; it’s been the strength and the weakness of the movement for a while. Today showed it, for a little while, at its best–joyous, thematic protests with (multiple) specific goals, coming together and breaking apart spontaneously, thinking on its feet and rolling with the punches, unable to be broken up by arrests, even targeted arrests. The protests were cheerful and celebratory; party hats and glitter abounded. It’s been said by many, including Naomi Klein, that building a mass movement requires for the left to demonstrate not that it’s right, but that it’s having more fun, and today it’s clear who’s having fun: the activists, not the cops. It’s also clear who’s causing the traffic jams and roadblocks in the financial district: NYPD.
10:30am The mainstream news media has apparently decided that something IS happening around Wall Street today. CNN aired coverage at 1:21 EDT. Reports from the National Lawyer’s Guild say that 124 people have been arrested as of Noon (East Coast time). It’s obvious now that more than a “couple hundred” people are involved–that’s what was being said earlier.
What the Occupiers call a “Roving Carnival of Resistance” is currently in play. Groups are showing up at pre-designated points, setting up picket lines or sitting in and then melting away when the police move in. NYPD tactics now include forming a wall of police around arrests, with the apparent intent of keeping photographers away.
Corporate targets of today’s OWS actions include branches of Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., along with Deutsche Bank AG, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Liberty Street and American International Group Inc.
8:30 am–Welcome to September 17th. Today is the 225th Anniversary of the Constitution of the United States. It’s also the first year anniversary of the start of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests/movement.
Over the weekend people streamed into New York from around the nation for a three day event remembering the protests last year. Although OWS events are scheduled for 30 cities around the world, most in the mainstream media are running with the meme that the Occupy movement is dead. There will be events in San Diego today. (See Below)
The Huffington Post, that so-called bastion of liberal news, ran an Associated Press report on its front page declaring that this morning’s protests were already over, even as numerous videographers were livestreaming via various social media showing protests in progress. The hashtag #S17 was the number one reference on Twitter at of 7am PDT, meaning tens of thousands of people were following tweets from the events in New York.
It’s difficult to tell just what is going on as I’m writing this, but obviously there is more to this story than the mainstream media is reporting.
On Saturday around 300 people marched on Zuccotti Park – the lower Manhattan site which served as base camp for months of demonstrations. Yesterday (Sunday) saw thousands show up for a live music event, including a Foley Square concert featuring Tom Morello, guitarist for the rock band Rage Against the Machine. Activist Jews staged a Rosh Hashanah service in Zuccotti, allowing people to stream into the NYPD’s forbidden zone. The police could not risk the potential public relations blowback of photographs of people trying to hold a religious celebration being carted off to jail.
The plan for today (Monday) was that Occupy were expected to attempt to surround the New York Stock Exchange and disrupt morning rush hour traffic in Manhattan’s financial district. Evidently the news media and the NYPD expected one large group to march on Wall Street, which didn’t happen. Instead, groups ranging in size from a few dozen to several hundred converged from all directions and participated in rolling slowdowns and blockades of intersections around the financial district. Some of the Occupy protesters were dressed in business attired, making it more difficult for police to sort out the Occupiers from people headed to work. (Stay tuned for updates)
Here in San Diego Occupy has a series of events this afternoon. Women Occupy San Diego is encouraging people to meet at Canvas For a Cause (3705 10th Avenue) at 4pm for a rally speaking out in support of Proposition 37, the initiative that will require foods containing Genetically Modified Organisms, to be labeled.
Speakers will include the San Diego/Imperial Labor Council’s Lorena Gonzales, professor Norrie Robbins and poet Jeeni Criscenzo del Rio. The women’s Occupella group will also perform. Starting at 5 pm, the group intendeds to line the overpass bridge on Robinson Avenue in Hillcrest overlooking State Route 163 to display signs and banners visible to rush hour traffic headed through Balboa Park.
When Women OSD takes to the Robinson Avenue Bridge with their signs, OSD plans to go further north and protest on the University Avenue bridge, also over State Route 163, with OWS signs acknowledging the movement’s 1 year anniversary.
At 6 p.m., Occupy San Diego will march west on University and then south on 6th Avenue to Laurel Street (Redwood Circle). The march will end at Balboa Park for a free speech, open mic, drum circle and other activities in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street’s first anniversary
Livestream video from New York Courtesy Timcast
New Ry Cooder video:
Wall Street Part of Town
From FireDogLake: A Year of Occupy, By Kevin Gosztola
…The corporate and/or establishment media have believed the Occupy movement was dead for months now. According to The Gothamist’s collection of “groan-inducing” headlines, since November 2011, the movement has been dead to a good portion of the press in one way or another, even though reporters continue to go cover actions organized under the banner of Occupy (and sometimes get arrested for doing their job).
Occupy Wall Street is 99% Dead (Wall Street Journal, 11/2/11)
Occupy Movement Losing Steam, Google Data Shows (11/3/11)
Occupy Wall Street: The Bloom Is Fading (The Economist, 11/7/11)
Why Occupy Wall Street Won’t Make A Difference (Huffington Post, 11/11/11)
The Decline And Fall Of Occupy Wall Street: The American Left Has Run Out Of Steam And Liberalism Is In Crisis (Telegraph, 11/16/11)
The Failure Of The “Occupy Wall Street” Movement (O’Reilly Factor, 11/16/11)
Is Occupy Wall Street Over? Many New Yorkers Hope So (CNBC, 11/18/11)
PR Experts: Occupy Movement A Self-Defeating Disaster (Hot Air, 11/18/11)
The Protests Failed But Capitalism Is Still In The Dock (Financial Times, 11/18/11)
The Occupy Movement Has Failed The Essential Test Of Protest (Telegraph, 11/19/11)
Occupy Wall Street’s Failure To Launch (Huffington Post, 11/23/11)
Occupy Wall Street, Vowing Spring Return, Dwindles In NY (WNYC, 1/31/12)
Whatever Happened To Occupy Wall Street? (Huffington Post, 1/31/12)
Whatever Happened To Occupy Wall Street? (Los Angeles Times, 3/7/12)
Is Occupy Wall Street Dead? (Russia Today, 3/16/12)
So Where’s That Occupy Wall Street Comeback? (Gawker, 4/18/12)
Death By Fairy Tale: After Occupy, “The 99% Spring” Fizzle (Forbes, 4/30/12)
Occupy Wall Street Resurgence A Dud (Reuters, 5/1/12)
Occupy Protesters Are “Dumb And They’re Done” (O’Reilly/FOX News, 5/2/12)
The Ho-Hum May Day Protests: Is the Occupy Movement Dead? (The Week, 5/2/12)
Occupy Wall Street’s People Power Loses Popularity (Guardian, 5/14/12)
The Death Of Occupy Wall Street? It Sure Seems Like It (Outside The Beltway, 5/17/12)
Did Occupy Matter? (Harvard Crimson, 5/24/12)
The Failure Of Occupy Wall Street (Huffington Post, 5/31/12)
Occupy Wall Street Struggles For Survival (The Fiscal Times, 6/9/12)
Occupy Wall Street Movement Has Hit A Wall (Washington Post, 6/18/12)
Is The Occupy Movement Dead? (CBS Boston, 6/19/12)
Is Occupy Wall Street Dead?(The Blaze, 6/20/12)
Whatever Happened To Occupy Wall Street? (Front Page Magazine, 7/6/12)
What’s Happened To The Occupiers? (Irish Times, 9/15/12)
One Year Later, What Ever Happened To Occupy Wall Street? (NBC News, 9/16/12)
On This Day: In 1862 The Battle of Antietam took place during the American Civil War. More than 23,000 men were killed, wounded, or missing. The Confederate advance was ended with heavy losses to both armies. In 1930 Construction on Boulder Dam, later renamed Hoover Dam, began in Black Canyon, near Las Vegas, NV. In 1965 “The Smothers Brothers Show” premiered on CBS-TV
On This Day: Eat Fresh! Today’s Farmers’ Markets: Escondido (Welk Resort 8860 Lawrence Welk Drive)1pm –Sunset
Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to “The Starting Line” and get an email every time a new article in this series is posted!
I read the Daily Fishwrap(s) so you don’t have to… Catch “the Starting Line” Monday thru Friday right here at San Diego Free Press (dot) org. Send your hate mail and ideas to DougPorter@SanDiegoFreePress.Org Check us out on Facebook and Twitter.
Doug Porter
Latest posts by Doug Porter (see all)
- Last Call. Last Column. - December 14, 2018
- Which Presidential Candidate Will You Support in 2020? - December 13, 2018
- Mounting the Assault on Big Gay and Other Drivel From SDSU’s Minimum Wage Scrooge - December 12, 2018
Now I understand why they call themselves ‘job-creators’ – it’s our job to watch the rich get richer…
NYC Police have a “suspicious bag” and are saying if no one claims it, they have to assume it’s dangerous and that they will have to “send everyone home”.
I’m happy to see the resurgence of the Occupy movement. It’s important to raise the consciousness of the American people and the mainstream media about what’s going on with Wall Street, which is basically fraud, and with corporations like Monsanto who are poisoning the American food supply because it’s more profitable to farm that way than to farm organically. People are wising up and are buying more and more organic, so much so that all the big food corporations are getting into the organic act. They need to be watched like a hawk, however, because they will try to water down the meaning of “organic”. Right now something like 30 synthetic substances have been made exceptions under the organic label. The organic industry, especially the Big Corporates, will probably push for more. And the certifiers that go around and certify farms as organic are also suspect because they are paid by the farmers themselves. Sound suspicious? It should. Remember the Wall Street rating agencies who were and are paid by JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs to rate their worthless bonds triple A?
Keep the pressure on!