If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
Two news items popped this week that highlight the ever-growing Neo-Feudalism that has become our new economy. First, Occupy Wall Street (OWS) filed ...
Media hypocrisy about the Occupy Wall Street movement is old news. But the New York Times hit the "refresh" button once again with its coverage of the May Day demonstrations in New York and around the country on May 2.
Youth Radio reporters are live Tweeting May Day demonstrations in Oakland, California @YouthRadio, and we're archiving the stream on this p...
The divisiveness, infighting, and turf wars have made it easy for the ones who created this mess to run roughshod over the American people and the laws that were meant to protect them.
I interviewed Paul Hetznecker, one of the lead attorneys among a team of 14 lawyers who defended 31 Occupy Philly protesters who were arrested on November 30, 2011, shortly after Occupy Philly was shut down.
"Occupy," says Noam Chomsky in his new book, "is the first major public response to thirty years of class war." One of the movement's greatest successes has been simply to put the inequalities of everyday life on the national agenda, influencing reporting, public perception and language itself.
May Day started here, but then became an international day in support of American workers who were being subjected to brutal violence and judicial punishment. If you get to a point where the existing institutions will not bend to the popular will, you have to eliminate the institutions.
Where this movement goes, I don't know, but as a photographer and one who cares about the whole, it inspires me to continue to cover it.
The OWS movement has refused to go quietly. They're still right there, in spirit, and -- given this Thursday's world premiere of While We Watch, the documentary which chronicles the OWS movement -- one could even argue, stronger.
This year, if you say "Tax Day" and "social movement," the Tea Party isn't necessarily the first thing that comes to mind. And if you go looking for a protest, you'll likely find folks protesting against the tax evaders of the top 1 percent.
Where are the songs for Occupy's time in history? Who will write the words and music and poetry? Will we find our voice? These questions have been answered in full and emphatically with OccupyThisAlbum.
In spite of all the idiocies and unfairness, in spite of the impact of corporate wealth on campaigns and public opinion, elected leaders still have the capacity to translate mass movements into things that people can vote for.
What happens next is anyone's guess. Is the Occupy movement poised for a comeback? Or is it about to be co-opted altogether? Can both, in fact, happen simultaneously, and would that be a good thing or not?
I've been treating addicts for more than 40 years and when I hear the descriptions of those for whom millions and billions of dollars in wealth drives them to want more and more, I know we're dealing with addiction.
Like many in my generation, it seems, I had waited my whole life for a social movement whose dimensions and ambitions were commensurate with the shortcomings I saw in the world around me. By now, I am convinced that OWS is not that movement.
Today, especially thanks to Occupy Wall Street, we know how economic inequality had grown while the people with the most money in society work the hardest to not pay their fair share. They have been resisting for years, "legally," they claim.
