BAUAW NEWSLETTER - THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2011

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The General Strike in Oakland on November 2 was a fantastic expression of solidarity and unity that will mark that day forever! It was overwhelmingly peaceful. People were friendly, and there was a real sense of community. It was the best feeling I've experienced in a crowd in a long time. And there were 30-40 thousand of us there!

And, yes, we shut that port DOWN!

We are the 99 percent!

Also, there has been a call from Occupy the Hood:

Occupy The Hood Calls On Young People of African Descent to Uplift the Community” On Saturday, November 19, 2011, people of African descent are being encouraged to join the Occupy Wall Street Movement in their cities and in their communities.”
By Phillip Jackson
http://thyblackman.com/2011/11/01/occupy-the-hood-calls-young-people-uplift-the-community/

There is an ongoing Occupy movement in San Francisco and Oakland

• Solidarity with the world-wide Occupy movement!
• End police attacks on our communities!
• Defend Oakland schools and libraries!
• Against an economic system built on imperialism, inequality and corporate power that perpetuates all forms of oppression and the destruction of the environment!

There is a 24/hr presence/protest at:

Oakland at Oscar Grant (Frank Ogawa) Plaza

San Francisco at the Federal Reserve, 101 Market St., S.F. and the OccupySF encampment is at Justin Herman Plaza

This is only the beginning!

In solidarity,

Bonnie Weinstein

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Declaration of the Occupation of New York City

This document was accepted by the NYC General Assembly on September 29, 2011
Translations: French, Slovak, Spanish, German, Italian, Arabic, Portuguese

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

-- They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
-- They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
-- They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one's skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
-- They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
-- They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
-- They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
-- They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
-- They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers' healthcare and pay.
-- They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
-- They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
-- They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
-- They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
-- They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
-- They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
-- They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.
-- They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
-- They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people's lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.
-- They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
-- They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
-- They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
-- They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.
-- They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
-- They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*

To the people of the world,

We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.
Join us and make your voices heard!

*These grievances are not all-inclusive.

-New York General Assembly #occupywallstreet, September 29, 2011
http://www.nycga.net/resources/declaration/

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We Are the 99 Percent

We are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to choose between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are suffering from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay and no rights, if we're working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1 percent is getting everything. We are the 99 percent.

Brought to you by the people who occupy wall street. Why will YOU occupy?

OccupyWallSt.org
Occupytogether.org
wearethe99percentuk.tumblr.com
http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/

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Drop All Charges on the 'Occupy Wall Street' Arrestees!
Stop Police Attacks & Arrests! Support 'Occupy Wall Street'!

SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION AT http://bailoutpeople.org/dropchargesonoccupywallstarrestees.shtml to send email messages to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, NYC City Council, NYPD, the NY Congressional Delegation, Congressional Leaders, the NY Legislature, President Obama, Attorney General Holder, members of the media YOU WANT ALL CHARGES DROPPED ON THE 'OCCUPY WALL STREET ARRESTEES!

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Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Table of Contents:
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.
C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
D. ARTICLES IN FULL

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A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS

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For Immediate Release
Howard Petrick's "Rambo" - anti-VietNam activist tells his story-Marsh Berkeleyu-Oct 20-Dec 10

The Little Guy Takes on the Pentagon in Howard Petrick's "Rambo: The Missing Years" at The Marsh-Berkeley, Oct 20-Dec 10

The Hilarious and True Story of the Private Who Protested the Viet Nam War - While Still in the Army!

"Howard's show is proof you can fight bureaucracy and win. How he does so is told with aplomb and a certain sense of mischievousness." - Vancouver Fringe

"The potency of the show...springs from Petrick's first-hand account of his anti-Vietnam activism from within the army...this comes with an intriguing authenticity."- Winnipeg Free Press

"Petrick delivers...For 60 minutes he has you laughing through the fear." - Winnipeg Uptown

San Francisco. September 26, 2011. The Vancouver Sun calls San Francisco's Howard Petrick, "a guy who really knows how to get up the nose of the war machine." Petrick's Rambo: The Missing Years is an hilarious - and true - account of the misadventures of a Vietnam-era draftee who frustrates the military brass by asserting his right to organize his fellow GIs against the war. Petrick's Rambo - not to be confused in the least with the Sylvester Stallone action figure - plays at The Marsh-Berkeley, 2120 Alston Way in Berkeley, October 20 through December 10.

The story begins as Petrick (aka 'Hanoi Howie") reports for the draft and refuses to fill out the forms, befuddling the military bureaucracy for the first of many times to come. Yet, during his time of service he maintains an unblemished military record, breaks no rules, and continues to carry out his military duties.

Directed by Mark Kenward and developed with David Ford, the show plays on Thursday and Friday at 7:00 pm and Saturday at 8:30 pm from October 20 to December 10, 2011 (press opening November 4, no performance on Thanksgiving Day) at The Cabaret at The Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston Way, near Shattuck. The public may visit www.themarsh.org or call 415-282-3055.

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Here is the official statement from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression on the 1-year anniversary of the raids.
Build the Movement Against Political Repression
One year since the September 24 FBI Raids and Grand Jury Subpoenas
Statement of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, 9-22-2011

Please come to the Committee to Stop FBI Repression one-day Conference in Chicago on November 5, 2011.
http://www.stopfbi.net/national-conference-2011

The Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR) is asking you to build the movement against political repression on the one-year anniversary of the Sept. 24, 2010 FBI raids on anti-war and international solidarity activists. We need your continued solidarity as we build movements for peace, justice and equality.

The storm of political repression continues to expand and threaten. It is likely to intensify and churn into a destructive force with indictments, trials, and attempts to imprison anti-war activists. The last we knew, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald was preparing multiple indictments as he and Attorney General Eric Holder attempt to criminalize the targeted activists and the movements to which we dedicate our lives.

It is one year since the FBI raided two homes in Chicago and five homes plus the Anti-War Committee office in Minneapolis, eventually handing out 23 subpoenas. The anti-war activists' homes were turned upside down and notebooks, cell phones, artwork, computers, passports and personal belongings were all carted off by the FBI. Anyone who has ever been robbed knows the feelings - shock and anger.

The man responsible for this assault on activists and their families, on free speech and the right to organize, is U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago. Fitzgerald has an ugly record of getting powerful Republicans like Dick Cheney and Karl Rove off the hook, while mercilessly pursuing an agenda to scare America into silence and submission with the phony 'war on terror.' Fitzgerald is attempting to criminalize anti-war activists with accusations of 'material support for terrorism,' involving groups in Palestine and Colombia.

First the U.S. government targeted Arabs and Muslims, violating their civil rights and liberties and spying on them. Then they came for the anti-war and international solidarity activists. We refuse to be criminalized. We continue to speak out and organize. We say, "Opposing U.S. war and occupation is not a crime!" We are currently building a united front with groups and movements to defeat Fitzgerald's reactionary, fear mongering assault on anti-war activism and to restore civil liberties taken away by the undemocratic USA PATRIOT Act.

Many people know the developments in the case, but for those who do not, we invite you to read a timeline at stopfbi.net. We think the repression centers on this: During the lead up to the Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota, a federal law enforcement officer, using the phony name of "Karen Sullivan" got involved and joined the Anti-War Committee and Freedom Road Socialist Organization in Minneapolis. She lied to everyone she met and helped the FBI to disrupt many activities in the anti-war, international solidarity and labor movements in Minnesota - and also other states and even over in Palestine. It is outrageous.

In fact, many of those being investigated travelled to Colombia or Palestine to learn firsthand about U.S. government funding for war and oppression. There was no money given to any groups that the U.S. government lists as terrorist organizations. However, we met people who are a lot like most Americans - students, community organizers, religious leaders, trade unionists, women's group leaders and activists much like ourselves. Many of the U.S. activists wrote about their trips, did educational events, or helped organized protests against U.S. militarism and war. In a increasingly repressive period, this is enough to make one a suspect in Fitzgerald's office.

This struggle is far from one-sided however. The response to the FBI raids and the pushback from the movement is tremendous. Minneapolis and Chicago immediately organized a number of press conferences and rallies with hundreds of people. Over the first two weeks after the raids, 60 cities protested outside FBI offices, from New York to Kalamazoo, from traveled to the Bay Area. The National Lawyers Guild convention was in New Orleans the day of the FBI raids and they immediately issued a solidarity statement and got to work on the case. Solidarity poured in from anti-war, civil rights, religious and faith groups, students and unions. Groups and committees began working to obtain letters of support from members of Congress. The solidarity was overwhelming. It was great!

It is possible that U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald thought he was picking on an isolated group of activists. Instead, those raided proved to have many friends and allies from decades of work for social justice and peace. Over the months, all the targeted activists refused to appear at the grand jury dates set by U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald's office. In November 2010, a large crew of us travelled to New York City to found the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, after the United National Antiwar Committee meeting.

In December 2010, U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald's office called in three of the Minnesota women and threatened them. We prepared a campaign in case they were jailed for refusing to speak. The FBI also delivered subpoenas to nine more Arab-American and Palestine solidarity activists in December. Their grand jury date was on Jan. 25, 2011, and we organized protests in over 70 American cities, plus a few overseas. The movement was building and expanding, so we organized conferences with over 800 participants in the Midwest, the South, and on the East and West Coasts. While we were organizing a pushback, the FBI was making new plans.

On May 17, 2011, at 5:00 a.m., the Los Angeles, California Sheriff, under the direction of the FBI, busted down the front door of Chicano leader Carlos Montes, storming in with automatic weapons drawn and shouting. The early morning raid was supposedly about weapons and permits, but they seized decades of notes and writings about the Chicano, immigrant rights, education rights and anti-war movements. The FBI attempted to question Carlos Montes while he was handcuffed and in the back of a L.A. sheriff squad car. Montes is going to another preliminary court date on Sept. 29, prepared to face six felony charges, carrying up to three years in prison for each, knowing he is extraordinarily targeted by the FBI. We will walk every step of the way with Carlos Montes, and more. Montes was with us at the Republican National Convention protests; his name was included on the search warrant for the Anti-War Committee office in Minneapolis, and the FBI attempted to question him about this case. We ask you to support Carlos Montes and to organize speaking events with him and local protests on his important court dates, Sept. 29 being the next one.

The same week the FBI raided Carlos Montes in May 2011, the CSFR came back with a big revelation - we released a set of documents, the FBI game plan, which the FBI mistakenly left behind in a file drawer at one of the homes. The FBI documents are on the CSFR website and are fascinating to read. Fitzgerald and company developed 102 questions that come right from a McCarthy witch-hunt trial of the 1950s. It is like turning back the clock five decades.

The whole intention of the raids is clear: They want to paint activists as 'terrorists' and shut down the organizing. They came at a time when the rich and powerful are frightened of not just the masses of people overseas, but of the people in their own country. With a failing U.S. war in Afghanistan, a U.S. occupation of Iraq predicted to last decades, a new war for oil and domination in Libya, a failing immigration policy that breaks up families and produces super-profits for big business, and now a long and deep economic crisis that is pushing large segments of working people into poverty, the highest levels of the U.S. government are turning to political repression.

The only hope for the future is in building stronger, consistent and determined movements. In a principled act of solidarity, the 23 subpoenaed activists refuse to testify before the grand jury. This sets an example for others.

In addition, the outpouring of support and mobilization into the streets from the anti-war, international solidarity, civil rights, labor and immigrant rights movements means that not one of the 24 has spent a single day in jail. That is a victory.

We ask you to stand with us, to stay vigilant and to hold steady as we proceed to organize against wars abroad and injustice at home and as we defend Carlos Montes from the FBI charade in Los Angeles.

Committee to Stop FBI Repression - www.stopfbi.net
follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend
Copyright (c) 2011 Committee to Stop FBI Repression, All rights reserved.
Thanks for your ongoing interest in the fight against FBI repression of anti-war and international solidarity activists!
Our mailing address is:
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
PO Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55414

Add us to your address book

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Occupy Education -- Nov. 16, 2011 -- The 99% Say No Fee Hikes, No Cuts, No Privatization!

Meet at 7 am at UCSF Mission Bay Campus,
1555 6th Street, San Francisco
-- Occupy San Francisco
(adopted at the Oct. 19 General Assembly)

Call by Occupy San Francisco

We the 99% commit ourselves to mobilize against the privatization of public education being forced upon California and the country. The 1% -- the bankers, the UC Regents, the CSU Trustees, and the corporate politicians -- are pushing through vicious fee hikes, layoffs, and budget cuts under the pretext of the financial crisis that they created and profited off of.

They say cuts are inevitable because there are no funds -- but we know that if we really taxed the corporations, ended the wars, or took back the bailout funds, there would be no budget shortfall. They say we have to accept-- but we know that if we take mass collective action, we can defeat these attacks.

On November 16th, the UC Regents will be discussing and possibly voting on a proposal to raise fees up to 81% over the next 4 years -- raising tuition to over $22,000. This is a brutal attack against the 99% of California, particularly for communities of color and working families, and on all sectors of public education, from pre-K-12 to higher education.

We call on all the 99%, on all the Occupy general assemblies and camps throughout Northern California, on all student, labor, and community organizations, to come together in a massive display of non-violent civil disobedience to prevent the UC Regents meeting from taking place, to send the strongest message that we will not accept any fee hikes, cuts, or concessions in any level of public education.

We can win this struggle. Join us!

For more info, contact:
occupyeducation@gmail.com
www.occupyed.org
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CALL FOR AN EMERGENCY INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
Against the wars of occupation; Against the interference in the internal affairs of countries; In defense of the integrity and sovereignty of nations

Algiers, Algeria -- December 3-5, 2011

Ever since the invasion of Afghanistan by NATO troops in 2001, under the pretext of the "War on Terror," and of Iraq in 2003, in the name of a so-called "struggle for democracy," imperialist governments, under the leadership of the U.S. government, have implemented a strategy based on international wars of occupation and plunder. This strategy has also included widespread interference in the internal affairs of nations, the astronomic growth of war budgets, the assault on democratic rights, and the massive cuts in social spending -- particularly in Europe and the United States.

Today, the governments of the imperialist powers -- specifically the U.S., French, British and Italian governments -- have opened a new front in the war; this time in the Maghreb region of Northern Africa. (*)

A new step has been taken with the further implementation of the U.S. government's Greater Middle East Plan, which was first announced by George W. Bush in 2003 at the time of the launching of the war of occupation and looting of Iraq. It's a plan that aims to dismantle nations along ethnic, religious and communitarian lines -- from Pakistan to Mauritania.

At the very moment when the Tunisian and Egyptian workers and peoples are struggling to exercise their full sovereignty by means of democracy, Libya is descending into chaos after a foreign military intervention under the aegis of NATO -- an intervention that threatens its territorial integrity.

By this means, all the countries of the Maghreb region are now facing threats to their integrity. But this is not all: The implications for the SAHEL countries (parts of Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Algeria, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Tunisia, Ethiopia and Eritrea) and, more generally, for sub-Saharan Africa are incalculable. This is because the conflict has gone way beyond the Libyan borders in terms of the movement of weapons -- including heavy weapons massively distributed among Libyan civilians and armed terrorist groups who have openly displayed them in the aftermath of the foreign military intervention.

This is not to mention the devastating effects on the economies of these countries, especially when combined with the massive return of hundreds of thousands of migrants who had been working in Libya, as well as more than one million Libyan refugees, mostly in Tunisia.

In reality, through the foreign military intervention in Libya, the U.S., French, British and Italian imperialists seek to terrorize all the peoples of the region and the world.

No political party genuinely committed to the sovereignty of nations and to democracy can condone, under whatever pretext whatsoever, the imperialist war of occupation and plunder in Libya. No labor organization faithful to the traditions of the international labor movement can condone such a war. That is why we the undersigned reject another war on our African continent -- a continent that is already bloodied and torn apart by so-called ethnic conflicts, which are really nothing but the result of foreign plunder of the continent's natural resources, the repayment of foreign debt, and the various manipulations that result therewith.

We reject any foreign military presence in any form whatsoever in our region of the Maghreb, elsewhere across Northern Africa, and, more generally, on our continent of Africa.

We reject any and all attacks upon sovereign nations.

We reject the foreign looting of the riches and resources of the peoples of the Maghreb and of Africa as a whole. Taking control over these resources -- including through the installation of foreign military bases, starting with AFRICOM (United States Africa Command) -- is the real objective of the war of occupation in Libya, under the auspices of NATO. This is what's really at stake.

We denounce the imperialist designs of the governments that are racing to grab the reconstruction deals for the infrastructure of Libya, destroyed by NATO air strikes - another stake of the war.

We deny the imperialist governments, NATO and the mongers of war and chaos the right to decide the fate of the peoples of the Maghreb, sub-Saharan Africa and all peoples of the world.

We affirm that because there can be no popular sovereignty without national sovereignty, from the standpoint of democracy it is up to sovereign peoples -- and up to them alone -- to define their present and their future without external interference and foreign military intervention.

We call upon organizations and parties around the world and in our own country that oppose the imperialist wars to join us in supporting and participating in an Emergency International Conference in Algiers on December 3-5, 2011, against the wars of occupation, against the interference in the internal affairs of countries, and in defense of the integrity and sovereignty of nations. (**)

signed/

A. Sidi Said
General Secretary
General Union of Algerian Workers (UGTA)
Louisa Hanoune
General Secretary
Workers Party of Algeria (PT)
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(*) The five countries that make up the Maghreb region are Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Mauritania.

(**) For more information about the conference or how you can get involved, please contact the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples in Paris at . You can also write to . Thanks.

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Occupy The Hood Calls On Young People of African Descent to Uplift the Community \” On Saturday, November 19, 2011, people of African descent are being encouraged to join the Occupy Wall Street Movement in their cities and in their communities.”
By Phillip Jackson
http://thyblackman.com/2011/11/01/occupy-the-hood-calls-young-people-uplift-the-community/

(Liberia, West Africa) The Occupy Wall Street Movement has captured the imagination of the world. We now have Occupy Tokyo, Occupy Berlin, Occupy Mexico, Occupy Australia, Occupy Brazil, Occupy Denmark, Occupy Asia and even Occupy Antarctica. But where are the voices of young people of African descent and why are their voices silent?

On Saturday, November 19, 2011, people of African descent are being encouraged to join the Occupy Wall Street Movement in their cities and in their communities. But before occupying Wall Street or any street, we need to properly and successfully occupy the minds and spirits of people of African descent with thoughts of improvement, achievement, excellence, progress and cooperative labor. We must do this every day until we have created a new world in which people of African descent will thrive!

To look at the evening news on the occupations, it would seem as though young White men and women suffer most from the problems of our societies and the world in which we live. That is absolutely not true! In fact, the suffering from social and economic ills of people of African descent around the world is hugely disproportionate. So why has the “Occupy Movement” not inspired more young Black people across the globe to demand change and improvement in their world?

Some say Black people have too many “real” problems to be concerned about the volatility of the stock markets or whether Fortune 500 companies will each capture another billion dollars. Some say that Black Americans have forgotten the lessons learned from the civil rights movement. And others say that young Africans and young Black Americans today have been reprogrammed with technological toys, various forms of entertainment and other relatively mindless distractions. Regardless, young Black people around the world do not understand that decisions that govern the quality of their lives are being made without their input.

But a glimmer of hope has come to us in the form of a spinoff from Occupy Wall Street. It is called Occupy The Hood. While Occupy Wall Street addresses the viciousness of capitalism, uneven distribution and control of world resources, corrupt and ineffective governments, lack of human well-being across the world, climate change and the environment, wars and global violence and other dire issues, Occupy The Hood is being led by young people of African descent and addresses issues that cause people of African descent to suffer. And while we must absolutely stand in solidarity with our White, Asian, Arab and Hispanic brothers and sisters working to change the world, we must also organize to directly improve the conditions in our “hood.”

To look at the evening news on the occupations, it would seem as though young White men and women suffer most from the problems of our societies and the world in which we live. That is absolutely not true! In fact, the suffering from social and economic ills of people of African descent around the world is hugely disproportionate. So why has the “Occupy Movement” not inspired more young Black people across the globe to demand change and improvement in their world?

Some say Black people have too many “real” problems to be concerned about the volatility of the stock markets or whether Fortune 500 companies will each capture another billion dollars. Some say that Black Americans have forgotten the lessons learned from the civil rights movement. And others say that young Africans and young Black Americans today have been reprogrammed with technological toys, various forms of entertainment and other relatively mindless distractions. Regardless, young Black people around the world do not understand that decisions that govern the quality of their lives are being made without their input.

But a glimmer of hope has come to us in the form of a spin-off from Occupy Wall Street. It is called Occupy The Hood. While Occupy Wall Street addresses the viciousness of capitalism, uneven distribution and control of world resources, corrupt and ineffective governments, lack of human well-being across the world, climate change and the environment, wars and global violence and other dire issues, Occupy The Hood is being led by young people of African descent and addresses issues that cause people of African descent to suffer. And while we must absolutely stand in solidarity with our White, Asian, Arab and Hispanic brothers and sisters working to change the world, we must also organize to directly improve the conditions in our “hood.”
— November 1, 2011

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UNAC Conference: March 23-25, 2012

The United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) conference originally scheduled for November, 11-13, 2011, has been rescheduled for March 23-25, 2012, in order to tie in to organizing efforts for building massive protests at the NATO/G-8 Summits in Chicago, May 15-22, and to have sufficient time to generate an action program for the next stage of building a mass movement for social change.

Organizations are invited to endorse this conference by clicking here:

http://www.jotform.com/form/12685942513

Donations are needed for bringing international speakers and to subsidize attendance of students and low income participants. Contributions will be accepted at www.UNACpeace.org.

For the initial conference flyer, click here:

http://nepajac.org/conferenceflyer.pdf

Click here to donate to UNAC:

https://nationalpeaceconference.org/Donate.html

Click here for the Facebook UNAC group:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_157059221012587&ap=1

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NATO/G8 protests in Chicago.
United National Antiwar Committee
UNACpeace@gmain.com or UNAC at P.O. Box 123, Delmar, NY 12054
518-227-6947
www.UNACpeace.org

UNAC, along with other organizations and activists, has formed a coalition to help organize protests in Chicago during the week of May 15 - 22 while NATO and G8 are holding their summit meetings. The new coalition was formed at a meeting of 163 people representing 73 different organization in Chicago on August 28 and is called Coalition Against NATO/G8 War and Poverty Agenda (CANGATE). For a report on the Chicago meeting, click here: http://nepajac.org/chicagoreport.htm

To add your email to the new CANGATE listserve, send an email to: cangate-subscribe@lists.riseup.net.

To have your organization endorse the NATO/G8 protest, please click here:

https://www.nationalpeaceconference.org/NATO_G8_protest_support.html

Click here to hear audio of the August 28 meeting:

http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/54145

Click here for the talk by Marilyn Levin, UNAC co-coordinator at the August 28 meeting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1tHQ7ilDJ8&NR=1

Click here for Pat Hunts welcome to the meeting and Joe Iosbaker's remarks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoNGcnBGGfI

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B. VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.:
[Some of these videos are embeded on the BAUAW website:
http://bauaw.blogspot.com/ or bauaw.org ...bw]

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The Banks are Made of Marble
A Song by Les Rice (Written 1948 or 1949)*

I've traveled round this country
From shore to shining shore
It really made me wonder
The things I heard and saw

I saw the weary farmer
Plowing sod and loam
l heard the auction hammer
A knocking down his home

But the banks are made of marble
With a guard at every door
And the vaults are stuffed with silver
That the farmer sweated for

l saw the seaman standing
Idly by the shore
l heard the bosses saying
Got no work for you no more

But the banks are made of marble
With a guard at every door
And the vaults are stuffed with silver
That the seaman sweated for

I saw the weary miner
Scrubbing coal dust from his back
I heard his children cryin
Got no coal to heat the shack

But the banks are made of marble
With a guard at every door
And the vaults are stuffed with silver
That the miner sweated for

I've seen my brothers working
Throughout this mighty land
l prayed we'd get together
And together make a stand

Final Chorus

Then we'd own those banks of marble
With a guard at every door
And we'd share those vaults of silver
That we have sweated for

-Common Dreams, October 22, 2011
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/10/22-0

*Notes

In the notes to this song on Pete Seeger's 1959 Folkways LP 'American Industrial Songs' Irwin Silber wrote:

Les Rice, the composer of this song, is a New York State apple farmer and one-time president of the Ulster County chapter of the Farmers Union. His songs have made him well-known to farmers throughout the northeast. Perhaps his most well-known composition is "Banks of Marble" which achieved great popularity among union members throughout the country and even in Canada, where new verses have been found.

This song, written around 1948-49. deals with the farmer's perennial problem of "parity" and how it affects the farmer's life.

'I'm sixty per cent an American, I'm sixty per cent a man. That's what parity says I am, That's the law of the land. Now, do I work sixty per cent of each day? Eat sixty per cent of my meals? And does my truck take me into town on sixty per cent of it's wheels?

Now will my chicks be content to eat just sixty per cent of their mash? And will the middleman give my throat just sixty per cent of a slash? Now all you workers in city and town, I know your budget's a mess; But when you get down to that last lousy buck, remember I've forty cents less!'

The song has gained new resonance since the 2008-2009 financial meltdown!
http://unionsong.com/u024.html

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Occupy The New York City DOE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbmjMickJMA&feature=player_embedded

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Occupy Oakland: Michael Moore Full Speech 10.28.2011
"Occupy the Economy."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-vQ3BVdv2U&feature=player_embedded

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WHAT HAPPENED IN OAKLAND TUESDAY NIGHT, OCTOBER 25:

Occupy Oakland Protest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlPs-REyl-0&feature=player_embedded

Cops make mass arrests at occupy Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R27kD2_7PwU&feature=player_embedded

Raw Video: Protesters Clash With Oakland Police
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpO-lJr2BQY&feature=player_embedded

Occupy Oakland - Flashbangs USED on protesters OPD LIES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqNOPZLw03Q&feature=player_embedded

KTVU TV Video of Police violence
http://www.ktvu.com/video/29587714/index.html

Marine Vet wounded, tear gas & flash-bang grenades thrown in downtown Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMUgPTCgwcQ&feature=player_embedded

Tear Gas billowing through 14th & Broadway in Downtown Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU4Y0pwJtWE&feature=player_embedded

Arrests at Occupy Atlanta -- This is what a police state looks like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YStWz6jbeZA&feature=player_embedded

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"A Conversation About Democracy," one of hundreds of clips the makers of a collaborative documentary about Occupy Wall Street have received.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/coming-attractions-occupy-wall-st-the-documentary/?hp

*---------*

Marine Vet at #OccupyWallStreet Tells Sean Hannity to "F**k Off"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aaTGsGdp4c&feature=player_embedded

*---------*

Labor Beat: Chicago - War Protest March to Obama's 2012 HQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTkOincM93s

*---------*

Labor Beat: Hey You Billionaire, Pay Your Fair Share
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY8isD33f-I

On Oct. 10, 2011, a combination of five feeder marches gathered in Chicago's Loop to protest the Futures & Options and American Mortgage Bankers Association expos. The feeders represented constituencies for jobs, housing, and public schools. They generated a combined march of 7,000, and finally ended up at the Art Institute where the banksters were having a reception dinner. Here are selected scenes and comments from a big spectrum of interests affected by the dictatorship of capital being forced upon the workers of Chicago. Includes the march for homes/housing starting from the Hyatt, the Occupy Chicago location where the teachers union gathered, and the final convergence at the Art Institute. Street interviews. Also, interview/speech by Karen Lewis, President of Chicago Teachers Union. Produced by Labor Beat. Labor Beat is a CAN TV Community Partner. Labor Beat is a non-profit 501(c)(3) member of IBEW 1220. Views are those of the producer Labor Beat. For info: mail@laborbeat.org, www.laborbeat.org. 312-226-3330. For other Labor Beat videos, visit Google Video, YouTube, or blip.tv and search "Labor Beat". Labor Beat has regular cable slots in Chicago, Evanston, Rockford, Urbana, IL; St. Louis, MO; Philadelphia, PA; Princeton, NJ; and Rochester, NY. For more detailed information, send us a request at mail@laborbeat.org

*---------*

Voices of Occupy Boston 2011 - Kwame Somburu (Paul Boutelle) Part I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA48gmfGB6U&feature=youtu.be

Voices of Occupy Boston 2011 - Kwame Somburu (Paul Boutelle) Part II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjKZpOk7TyM&feature=related

*---------*

Tom Morello (The Nightwatchman) - This Land Is Your Land @OccupyLA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1ImQ7Ylvdo&feature=player_embedded#!

*---------*

#Occupy St. Louis: Bank of America refuses to let customers close accounts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KtI85Zc6Oik

*---------*

ALL COLORS (Occupy LA)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1Zh6hDQC8I

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600+ Protesters March on Bank of America - #Occupy Austin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS1JOJ3joOA&feature=player_embedded

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Scenes From #Occupy Las Vegas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=olatH3pSvlk

*---------*

#Occupy Wall Street In Washington Square: Mohammed Ezzeldin, former occupier of Egypt's Tahrir Square Speaks at Washington Square!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziodsFWEb5Y&feature=player_embedded

[This truly is an amazing thing to see -- no microphones allowed by NYPD yet the crowd is completely engaged with the speakers. The speeches have to be short because the words are repeated and passed along to those furthest away since they can't hear them. Mohammed's speech is great and there's no doubt that the crowd thinks so, too...Bonnie Weinstein]

*---------*

#OccupyTheHood, Occupy Wall Street
By adele pham
http://vimeo.com/30146870

*---------*

#Occupy Wall Street Protesters Marching
[Thousands of NYU Students march to OWS...bw]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWJpzx9IqU4

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AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka Supporting Occupy Wall Street
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soV79czwzoo&feature=player_embedded

*---------*

Live arrest at brooklyn bridge #occupywallstreet by We are Change
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yULSI-31Pto&feature=player_embedded

*---------*

PEACEFUL FEMALE PROTESTORS PENNED IN THE STREET AND MACED!- #OccupyWallStreet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moD2JnGTToA

*---------*

Police Raid on Occpy Boston 10 11 11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5G9agQjM60&noredirect=1

*---------*

Occupy Boston protesters arrested
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/occupy-boston-protesters-arrested/2011/10/11/gIQAsCzWdL_video.html

Boston police have arrested 129 people during Tuesday's Occupy Boston demonstrations. The early morning arrests were mostly for trespassing. (Oct. 11) (/The Associated Press)

*---------*

Video of Boston PD attacking veterans at OWS protest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s3zFca5znU&feature=relmfu

*---------*

Occupy Frankfurt Germany
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmxQP2eMdMU&feature=player_embedded

*---------*

Occupy Rome - La manifestazione di Roma October 15th OccupyTogether
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25CWyNnJVOI&feature=player_embedded

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FREE THE CUBAN FIVE!
http://www.thecuban5.org/wordpress/index.php

Free Them
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmS4kHC_OlY&feature=player_embedded

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LOWKEY OBAMA NATION (BANIDO DA TV)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRFywomdJTM&feature=related

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Labor Beat: THE PEOPLE'S PUTT PUTT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FkYBneJpds

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The Preacher and the Slave - Joe Hill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca_MEJmuzMM

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Visualizing a Trillion: Just How Big That Number Is?
"1 million seconds is about 11.5 days, 1 billion seconds is about 32 years while a trillion seconds is equal to 32,000 years."
Digital Inspiration
http://www.labnol.org/internet/visualize-numbers-how-big-is-trillion-dollars/7814/

How Much Is $1 Trillion?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPfY0q-rEdY&feature=player_embedded

Courtesy the credit crisis and big bailout packages, the figure "trillion" has suddenly become part of our everyday conversations. One trillion dollars, or 1 followed by 12 zeros, is lots of money but have you ever tried visualizing how big that number actually is?

For people who can visualize one million dollars, the comparison made on CNN should give you an idea about a trillion - "if you start spending a million dollars every single day since Jesus was born, you still wouldn't have spend a trillion dollars".

Another mathematician puts it like this: "1 million seconds is about 11.5 days, 1 billion seconds is about 32 years while a trillion seconds is equal to 32,000 years".

Now if the above comparisons weren't really helpful, check another illustration that compares the built of an average human being against a stack of $100 currency notes bundles.

A bundle of $100 notes is equivalent to $10,000 and that can easily fit in your pocket. 1 million dollars will probably fit inside a standard shopping bag while a billion dollars would occupy a small room of your house.

With this background in mind, 1 trillion (1,000,000,000,000) is 1000 times bigger than 1 billion and would therefore take up an entire football field - the man is still standing in the bottom-left corner. (See visuals -- including a video -- at website:
http://www.labnol.org/internet/visualize-numbers-how-big-is-trillion-dollars/7814/

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One World One Revolution -- MUST SEE VIDEO -- Powerful and beautiful...bw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE3R1BQrYCw&feature=player_embedded

"When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty." Thomas Jefferson

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Japan: angry Fukushima citizens confront government (video)
Posted by Xeni Jardin on Monday, Jul 25th at 11:36am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVuGwc9dlhQ&feature=player_embedded

The video above documents what I am told is a meeting between Fukushima residents and government officials from Tokyo, said to have taken place on 19 July 2011. The citizens are demanding their government evacuate people from a broader area around the Fukushima nuclear plant, because of ever-increasing fears about the still-spreading radiation. They are demanding that their government provide financial and logistical support to get out. In the video above, you can see that some participants actually brought samples of their children's urine to the meeting, and they demanded that the government test it for radioactivity.

When asked by one person at the meeting about citizens' right to live a healthy and radioactive-free life, Local Nuclear Emergency Response Team Director Akira Satoh replies "I don't know if they have that right."

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Licensed to Kill Video
http://nirs.org/multimedia/video/l2k.htm

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Tier Systems Cripple Middle Class Dreams for Young Workers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09pQW6TW8m4&feature=youtu.be

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Union Town by Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5ZT71DxLuM&feature=player_embedded

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BRADLEY MANNING "BROKE THE LAW" SAYS OBAMA!

"He broke the law!" says Obama about Bradley Manning who has yet to even be charged, let alone, gone to trial and found guilty. How horrendous is it for the President to declare someone guilty before going to trial or being charged with a crime! Justice in the U.S.A.!

Obama on FREE BRADLEY MANNING protest... San Francisco, CA. April 21, 2011-Presidential remarks on interrupt/interaction/performance art happening at fundraiser. Logan Price queries Barack after org. FRESH JUICE PARTY political action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfmtUpd4id0&feature=youtu.be

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Max Romeo - Socialism Is Love
http://youtu.be/eTvUs4rY4to

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Cuba: The Accidental Eden
http://video.pbs.org/video/1598230084/

[This is a stunningly beautiful portrait of the Cuban natural environment as it is today. ...bw]

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The Kill Team
How U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan murdered innocent civilians and mutilated their corpses - and how their officers failed to stop them. Plus: An exclusive look at the war crime photos censored by the Pentagon
Rolling Stone
March 27, 3011
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-kill-team-20110327

Afghans respond to "Kill Team"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3guxWIorhdA

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WikiLeaks Mirrors

Wikileaks is currently under heavy attack.

In order to make it impossible to ever fully remove Wikileaks from the Internet, you will find below a list of mirrors of Wikileaks website and CableGate pages.

Go to
http://wikileaks.ch/Mirrors.html

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Labor Beat: Labor Stands with Subpoenaed Activists Against FBI Raids and Grand Jury Investigation of antiwar and social justice activists.
"If trouble is not at your door. It's on it's way, or it just left."
"Investigate the Billionaires...Full investigation into Wall Street..." Jesse Sharkey, Vice President, Chicago Teachers Union
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSNUSIGZCMQ

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Julian Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVGqE726OAo&feature=player_embedded

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Coal Ash: One Valley's Tale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E7h-DNvwx4&feature=player_embedded

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Flashmob: Cape Town Opera say NO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wElyrFOnKPk

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"Don't F*** With Our Activists" - Mobilizing Against FBI Raid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyG3dIUGQvQ

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C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS

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It's time to tell the White House that "We the People" support PFC Bradley Manning's freedom and the UN's investigation into alleged torture in Quantico, VA

On September 22nd, the White House launched a new petition website called "We the People." According to the White House blog, if a petition reaches 5,000 signatures in 30 days, "it will be reviewed by policy experts and you'll receive an official response."

Act now! Sign our petition to the White House: LINK

This is our chance to make sure the people in power know that the public still care about the fate of PFC Bradley Manning, and that we won't let this issue go away until PFC Manning is recognized as the whistleblower he is. It is also an opportunity for us to educate fellow Americans who may not have heard of PFC Manning yet, by boosting our petition to the top of the WhiteHouse.gov site.

The same day the White House launched the petition website, it also unveiled an Open Government Action Plan calling to "Strengthen and Expand Whistleblower Protection for Government Personnel." We consider this ironic given the fact that in April of 2011 the UN Chief Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, was forced to issue a rare reprimand to the U.S. for repeatedly denying his request to meet with alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower PFC Manning in an official, unmonitored visit to investigation allegations of his torture in the military brig of Quantico, VA.

We submitted the petition to the "We the People" website earlier this week, and we have already gathered over 1,000 signatures. We are relying on your help so that we can reach the 5,000 mark, and then some.

Signing the petition requires a quick and simple registration process. (Should you encounter technical trouble, please check out the link at the bottom of this e-mail.)

Click here to sign the petition now!

Already signed the petition? You can promote it to your friends on facebook and twitter! Copy and paste the following text: Tell the Obama Administration to let UN investigate torture of alleged WikiLeaks whistleblower PFC Bradley Manning! http://wh.gov/40y

We petition the obama administration to:
Free PFC Bradley Manning, the accused WikiLeaks whistleblower.
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/free-pfc-bradley-manning-accused-wikileaks-whistleblower/kX1GJKsD?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl

Using the information PFC Bradley Manning allegedly revealed, media outlets have published thousands of stories, detailing countless attempts by governments around the world -- including our own -- to illegally conceal evidence of human rights abuses.

According to the President, "employees with the courage to report wrongdoing are a government's best defense against waste, fraud and abuse."

It appears that PFC Manning acted on his conscience, at great personal risk, to answer the President's call.

However, he has been subjected to extreme confinement conditions that US legal scholars have said may amount to torture.

Therefore, we also ask the Obama administration to stop blocking the UN's chief torture investigator, Juan Mendez, from conducting an official visit with PFC Manning.

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Cristian Fernandez is only 12 years old. And if Florida prosecutor Angela Corey has her way, he'll never leave jail again.

Cristian hasn't had an easy life. He's the same age now as his mother was when he was born. He's a survivor of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. In 2010, Cristian watched his stepfather commit suicide to avoid being charged with abusing Cristian.

Last January, Cristian was wrestling with his 2-year-old brother, David, and accidentally broke David's leg. Despite this, their mother left Cristian with his brother again in March. While the two boys were alone, Cristian allegedly pushed his brother against a bookcase, and David sustained a head injury. After their mother returned home, she waited six hours before taking David to the hospital. David eventually died.

Now Cristian is being charged with first degree murder -- as an adult. He's the youngest person in the history of his Florida county to receive this charge, and his next hearing is scheduled for tomorrow.

Melissa Higgins works with kids who get caught up in the criminal justice system in her home state of New Hampshire. When she read about Cristian's case, she was appalled -- so she started a petition on Change.org asking Florida State's Attorney Angela Corey to try Cristian as a child. Please sign Melissa's petition immediately before Cristian's hearing tomorrow.

As part of his prosecution, Cristian has been examined by two different forensic psychiatrists -- each of whom concluded that he was "emotionally underdeveloped but essentially reformable despite a tough life."

Cristian has already been through more than most of us can imagine -- and now the rest of his life is in the hands of a Florida prosecutor who wants to make sure Cristian never leaves jail.

The purpose of the juvenile justice system is to reform kids who haven't gotten a fair shake. If Cristian is sent to adult prison, it will be more than a tragedy for him -- it will also be a signal to other prosecutors that kids' lives are acceptable collateral in the quest to be seen as "tough on crime."

Cristian's next hearing is in just 24 hours. State's Attorney Angela Corey needs to know that her actions are being watched -- please sign the petition asking her not to try Cristian as an adult:

http://www.change.org/petitions/reverse-decision-to-try-12-yo-cristian-fernandez-as-an-adult

Thanks for being a change-maker,

- Michael and the Change.org team

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International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5
TAKE ACTION: New Punishment Against Rene Gonzalez

On Oct 7, René González, one of the Cuban 5 Patriots will be released from the US prison in Marianna Florida after serving out his 15 year sentence. Rene's crime was defending the security of the Cuban people against terrorist attacks.

The US government is now trying to stop his immediate return to his homeland, and his family, after he serves out the last day of this unjust sentence. And now, in the most cynical and mean spirited fashion, the US court that sentenced him in 2001 is extending his punishment by making him remain in the United States.

Because Rene was born in the US he will now have to spend an additional 3 years of probation here. Seven months ago his lawyer presented a motion asking the court to modify the conditions of his probation so that after he finished his sentence he be allowed to return to Cuba to reunite with his wife and his family for humanitarian reasons.

On March 25, the prosecutor Caroline Heck Miller asked the judge to deny the motion. On September 16 Judge Joan Lenard rejected the defense motion, alleging among other reasons, that the Court needs time to evaluate the behavior of the condemned person after he is freed to verify that he is not a danger to the United States.

We have to remember that this is the same prosecutor that rejected an attempt to try Posada Carriles as a criminal, and this is the same judge that included in the conditions of his release a special point that while Rene is under supervised release that," the accused is prohibited from associating with or visiting specific places where individuals or groups such as terrorists are known to be or frequent"

By writing this Judge Lenard made the shameful recognition that terrorists groups do exist and enjoy impunity in Miami. Furthermore she is offering them protection from Rene from bothering or denouncing them upon his release.

It was not enough for the US government to make Rene fulfill the complete sentence to the last day; It was not enough to try and blackmail his family by telling them he would not go to trial if he collaborated against his 4 brothers; it was not enough to pressure Rene with what could happen to his family if he did not cooperate with the government, including the detention and deportation of his wife Olga Salanueva; and it was not enough to deny Olga visas to visit her husband repeatedly all these years.

Why does the US government want to continue punishing René and his family?

The prejudice of the Miami community against the Five was denounced by three judges of the Eleventh Circuit of the Atlanta Court of Appeals on August 27, 2005, where it was recognized who the terrorists were, what organizations they belonged to and where they reside. To mandate that Rene Gonzalez stay another 3 years of supervised "freedom" in Florida, where a nest of international terrorists reside and who publicly make their hatred of Cuba and the Cuban 5 known, is to put the life of Rene in serious risk.

Today we are making a call to friends from all over the world to denounce this new punishment and to demand the US government allow René Gonzalez to return to Cuba to reunite with his wife and his family as soon as he get out of prison.

Contact now President Barack Obama and US Attorney General Eric Holder demanding the immediate return of René Gonzalez to his homeland and his family

TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE WHITE HOUSE

Write a letter to President Obama

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20500
EE.UU.

Make a phone call and leave a message for President Barack Obama: 202-456-1111

Send an e-mail message to President Barack Obama
HTTP://WWW.WHITEHOUSE.GOV/CONTACT

TO COMMUNICATE WITH THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT

Write a letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder

US Attorney General Eric Holder
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

Make a phone call and leave a message for US Attorney General Eric Holder: 202-514-2000
Or call the public commentary line: 202-353-1555

Send an e-mail message to US Attorney General Eric Holder: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5

International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5
To learn more about the Cuban 5 visit:
www.thecuban5.org

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Say No to Police Repression of NATO/G8 Protests
http://www.stopfbi.net/get-involved/nato-g8-police-repression

The CSFR Signs Letter to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel

The CSFR is working with the United National Antiwar Committee and many other anti-war groups to organize mass rallies and protests on May 15 and May 19, 2012. We will protest the powerful and wealthy war-makers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Group of 8. Mobilize your groups, unions, and houses of worship. Bring your children, friends, and community. Demand jobs, healthcare, housing and education, not war!

Office of the Mayor
City of Chicago
To: Mayor Rahm Emanuel

We, the undersigned, demand that your administration grant us permits for protests on May 15 and 19, 2012, including appropriate rally gathering locations and march routes to the venue for the NATO/G8 summit taking place that week. We come to you because your administration has already spoken to us through Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy. He has threatened mass arrests and violence against protestors.

[Read the full text of the letter here: http://www.stopfbi.net/get-involved/nato-g8-police-repression/full-text]

For the 10s of thousands of people from Chicago, around the country and across the world who will gather here to protest against NATO and the G8, we demand that the City of Chicago:

1. Grant us permits to rally and march to the NATO/G8 summit
2. Guarantee our civil liberties
3. Guarantee us there will be no spying, infiltration of organizations or other attacks by the FBI or partner law enforcement agencies.


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Supporter of Leak Suspect Is Called Before Grand Jury
By SCOTT SHANE
June 15, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/us/politics/16brfs-Washington.html?ref=world

A supporter of Pfc. Bradley E. Manning, who is accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of documents to WikiLeaks, was called before a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., on Wednesday, but he said he declined to answer any questions. The supporter, David M. House, a freelance computer scientist, said he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, because he believes the Justice Department is "creating a climate of fear around WikiLeaks and the Bradley Manning support network." The grand jury inquiry is separate from the military prosecution of Private Manning and is believed to be exploring whether the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, or others in the group violated the law by acquiring and publishing military and State Department documents.

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Justice for Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace: Decades of isolation in Louisiana state prisons must end
Take Action -- Sign Petition Here:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/justice-for-albert-woodfox-and-herman-wallace

For nearly four decades, 64-year-old Albert Woodfox and 69-year-old Herman Wallace have been held in solitary confinement, mostly in the Louisiana State Penitentiary (known as Angola prison). Throughout their prolonged incarceration in Closed Cell Restriction (CCR) Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace have endured very restrictive conditions including 23 hour cellular confinement. They have limited access to books, newspapers and TV and throughout the years of imprisonment they have been deprived of opportunities for mental stimulation and access to work and education. Social interaction has been restricted to occasional visits from friends and family and limited telephone calls.

Louisiana prison authorities have over the course of 39 years failed to provide a meaningful review of the men's continued isolation as they continue to rubberstamp the original decision to confine the men in CCR. Decades of solitary confinement have had a clear psychological effect on the men. Lawyers report that they are both suffering from serious health problems caused or exacerbated by their years of close confinement.

After being held together in the same prison for nearly 40 years, the men are now held in seperate institutions where they continue to be subjected to conditions that can only be described as cruel, inhuman and degrading.
Take action now to demand that Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace be immediately removed from solitary confinement

Sign our petition which will be sent to the Governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, calling on him to:

-- take immediate steps to remove Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace from close confinement
-- ensure that their treatment complies with the USA's obligations under international standards and the US Constitution.

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WITNESS GAZA
http://www.witnessgaza.com/

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One year after Bradley's detainment, we need your support more than ever.

Dear Friends,

One year ago, on May 26, 2010, the U.S. government quietly arrested a humble young American intelligence analyst in Iraq and imprisoned him in a military camp in Kuwait. Over the coming weeks, the facts of the arrest and charges against this shy soldier would come to light. And across the world, people like you and I would step forward to help defend him.

Bradley Manning, now 23 years old, has never been to court but has already served a year in prison- including 10 months in conditions of confinement that were clear violation of the international conventions against torture. Bradley has been informally charged with releasing to the world documents that have revealed corruption by world leaders, widespread civilian deaths at the hands of U.S. forces, the true face of Guantanamo, an unvarnished view of the U.S.'s imperialistic foreign negotiations, and the murder of two employees of Reuters News Agency by American soldiers. These documents released by WikiLeaks have spurred democratic revolutions across the Arab world and have changed the face of journalism forever.

For his act of courage, Bradley Manning now faces life in prison-or even death.

But you can help save him-and we've already seen our collective power. Working together with concerned citizens around the world, the Bradley Manning Support Network has helped raise worldwide awareness about Manning's torturous confinement conditions. Through the collective actions of well over a half million people and scores of organizations, we successfully pressured the U.S. government to end the tortuous conditions of pre-trial confinement that Bradley was subjected to at the Marine Base at Quantico, Virginia. Today, Bradley is being treated humanely at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. T hanks to your support, Bradley is given leeway to interact with other pre-trial prisoners, read books, write letters, and even has a window in his cell.

Of course we didn't mount this campaign to just improve Bradley's conditions in jail. Our goal is to ensure that he can receive a fair and open trial. Our goal is to win Bradley's freedom so that he can be reunited with his family and fulfill his dream of going to college. Today, to commemorate Bradley's one year anniversary in prison, will you join me in making a donation to help support Bradley's defense?

http://bradleymanning.org/donate

We'll be facing incredible challenges in the coming months, and your tax-deductible donation today will help pay for Bradley's civilian legal counsel and the growing international grassroots campaign on his behalf. The U.S. government has already spent a year building its case against Bradley, and is now calling its witnesses to Virginia to testify before a grand jury.

What happens to Bradley may ripple through history - he is already considered by many to be the single most important person of his generation. Please show your commitment to Bradley and your support for whistle-blowers and the truth by making a donation today.

With your help, I hope we will come to remember May 26th as a day to commemorate all those who risk their lives and freedom to promote informed democracy - and as the birth of a movement that successfully defended one courageous whistle-blower against the full fury of the U.S. government.

Donate now: bradleymanning.org/donate

In solidarity,

Jeff Paterson and Loraine Reitman,
On behalf of the Bradley Manning Support Network Steering Committee
www.bradleymanning.org

P.S. After you have donated, please help us by forwarding this email to your closest friends. Ask them to stand with you to support Bradley Manning, and the rights of all whistleblowers.

View the new 90 second "I am Bradley Manning" video:

I am Bradley Manning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-P3OXML00s

Courage to Resist
484 Lake Park Ave. #41
Oakland, CA 94610
510-488-3559
couragetoresist.org

"A Fort Leavenworth mailing address has been released for Bradley Manning:

Bradley Manning 89289
830 Sabalu Road
Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027

The receptionist at the military barracks confirmed that if someone sends Bradley Manning a letter to that address, it will be delivered to him."

http://www.bradleymanning.org/news/update-42811

This is also a Facebook event

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=207100509321891#!/event.php?eid=207100509321891


Courage to Resist needs your support

Please donate today:
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590

"Soldiers sworn oath is to defend and support the Constitution. Bradley Manning has been defending and supporting our Constitution."
-Dan Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistle-blower

Jeff Paterson
Project Director, Courage to Resist
First US military service member to refuse to fight in Iraq
Please donate today.

https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590

P.S. I'm asking that you consider a contribution of $50 or more, or possibly becoming a sustainer at $15 a month. Of course, now is also a perfect time to make a end of year tax-deductible donation. Thanks again for your support!

Please click here to forward this to a friend who might
also be interested in supporting GI resisters.
http://ymlp.com/forward.php?id=lS3tR&e=bonnieweinstein@yahoo.com

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Drop the Charges Against Carlos Montes, Stop the FBI Attack on the Chicano and Immigrant Rights Movement, and Stop FBI Repression of Anti-War Activists NOW!Call Off the Expanding Grand Jury Witchhunt and FBI Repression of Anti-War Activists NOW!

Cancel the Subpoenas! Cancel the Grand Juries!
Condemn the FBI Raids and Harassment of Chicano, Immigrant Rights, Anti-War and International Solidarity Activists!

STOP THE FBI CAMPAIGN OF REPRESSION AGAINST CHICANO, IMMIGRANT RIGHTS, ANTI-WAR AND INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY ACTIVISTS NOW!
Initiated by the Committee to Stop FBI Repression stopfbi.net stopfbi@gmail.com

http://iacenter.org/stopfbi/

Contact the Committee to Stop FBI Repression
at stopfbi.net
stopfbi@gmail.com

Committee to Stop FBI Repression
NATIONAL CALL-IN DAY -- ANY DAY
to Fitzgerald, Holder and Obama

The Grand Jury is still on its witch hunt and the FBI is still
harassing activists. This must stop.
Please make these calls:
1. Call U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald at 312-353-5300 . Then dial 0
(zero) for operator and ask to leave a message with the Duty Clerk.
2. Call U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder 202-353-1555
3. Call President Obama at 202-456-1111

FFI: Visit www.StopFBI.net or email info@StopFBI.net or call
612-379-3585 .
Copyright (c) 2011 Committee to Stop FBI Repression, All rights
reserved.

Our mailing address is:
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
PO Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55415

Committee to Stop FBI Repression
P.O. Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55414

Please make a donation today at stopfbi.net (PayPal) on the right side of your screen. Also you can write to:
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
P.O. Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55414

This is a critical time for us to stand together, defend free speech, and defend those who help to organize for peace and justice, both at home and abroad!

Thank you for your generosity! Tom Burke

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Mumia Wins Decision Against Re-Imposition Of Death Sentence, But...
The Battle Is Still On To
FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!
The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222 • Oakland CA 94610
www.laboractionmumia.org

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Call for EMERGENCY RESPONSE Action if Assange Indicted,

Dear Friends:

We write in haste, trying to reach as many of you as possible although the holiday break has begun.......This plan for an urgent "The Day After" demonstration is one we hope you and many, many more organizations will take up as your own, and mobilize for. World Can't Wait asks you to do all you can to spread it through list serves, Facebook, twitter, holiday gatherings.

Our proposal is very very simple, and you can use the following announcement to mobilize - or write your own....

ANY DAY NOW . . . IN THE EVENT THAT THE U.S. INDICTS JULIAN ASSANGE

An emergency public demonstration THE DAY AFTER any U.S. criminal indictment is announced against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Spread the word and call people to come out, across the whole range of movements and groups: anti-war, human rights, freedom of information/freedom of the press, peace, anti-torture, environmental, students and youth, radicals and revolutionaries, religious, civil liberties, teachers and educators, journalists, anti-imperialists, anti-censorship, anti-police state......

At the Federal Building in San Francisco, we'll form ourselves into a human chain "surrounding" the government that meets the Wikileaked truth with repression and wants to imprison and silence leakers, whistleblowers and truthtellers - when, in fact, these people are heroes. We'll say:

HANDS OFF WIKILEAKS! FREE JULIAN ASSANGE! FREE BRADLEY MANNING!

Join the HUMAN CHAIN AROUND THE FEDERAL BUILDING!
New Federal Building, 7th and Mission, San Francisco (nearest BART: Civic Center)
4:00-6:00 PM on The Day FOLLOWING U.S. indictment of Assange

Bring all your friends - signs and banners - bullhorns.

Those who dare at great risk to themselves to put the truth in the hands of the people - and others who might at this moment be thinking about doing more of this themselves -- need to see how much they are supported, and that despite harsh repression from the government and total spin by the mainstream media, the people do want the truth told.

Brad Manning's Christmas Eve statement was just released by his lawyer: "Pvt. Bradley Manning, the lone soldier who stands accused of stealing millions of pages secret US government documents and handing them over to secrets outlet WikiLeaks, wants his supporters to know that they've meant a lot to him. 'I greatly appreciate everyone's support and well wishes during this time,' he said in a Christmas Eve statement released by his lawyer...." Read more here:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/mannings-message-christmas-eve-i-gr/

Demonstrations defending Wikileaks and Assange, and Brad Manning, have already been flowering around the world. Make it happen here too.
Especially here . . .

To join into this action plan, or with questions, contact World Can't Wait or whichever organization or listserve you received this message from.

World Can't Wait, SF Bay
415-864-5153
sf@worldcantwait.org

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DEFEND LYNNE STEWART!
http://lynnestewart.org/

Write to Lynne Stewart at:

Lynne Stewart #53504 - 054
Unit 2N
Federal Medical Center, Carswell
P.O. Box 27137
Fort Worth, TEXAS 76127

Visiting Lynne:

Visiting is very liberal but first she has to get people on her visiting list; wait til she or the lawyers let you know. The visits are FRI, SAT, SUN AND MON for 4 hours and on weekends 8 to 3. Bring clear plastic change purse with lots of change to buy from the machines. Brief Kiss upon arrival and departure, no touching or holding during visit (!!) On visiting forms it may be required that you knew me before I came to prison. Not a problem for most of you.

Commissary Money:

Commissary Money is always welcome It is how Lynne pay for the phone and for email. Also for a lot that prison doesn't supply in terms of food and "sundries" (pens!) (A very big list that includes Raisins, Salad Dressing, ankle sox, mozzarella (definitely not from Antonys--more like a white cheddar, Sanitas Corn Chips but no Salsa, etc. To add money, you do this by using Western Union and a credit card by phone or you can send a USPO money order or Business or Govt Check. The negotiable instruments (PAPER!) need to be sent to Federal Bureau of Prisons, 53504-054, Lynne Stewart, PO Box 474701, Des Moines Iowa 50947-001 (Payable to Lynne Stewart, 53504-054) They hold the mo or checks for 15 days. Western Union costs $10 but is within 2 hours. If you mail, your return address must be on the envelope. Unnecessarily complicated? Of course, it's the BOP !)

The address of her Defense Committee is:

Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
1070 Dean Street
Brooklyn, New York 11216
For further information:
718-789-0558 or 917-853-9759

Please make a generous contribution to her defense.

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KEVIN COOPER IS INNOCENT! FREE KEVIN COOPER!

Reasonable doubts about executing Kevin Cooper
Chronicle Editorial
Monday, December 13, 2010
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/13/EDG81GP0I7.DTL

Death penalty -- Kevin Cooper is Innocent! Help save his life from San Quentin's death row!

http://www.savekevincooper.org/
http://www.savekevincooper.org/pages/essays_content.html?ID=255

URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA
17 December 2010
Click here to take action online:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=15084

To learn about recent Urgent Action successes and updates, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/iar/success

For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa25910.pdf

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Short Video About Al-Awda's Work
The following link is to a short video which provides an overview of Al-Awda's work since the founding of our organization in 2000. This video was first shown on Saturday May 23, 2009 at the fundraising banquet of the 7th Annual Int'l Al-Awda Convention in Anaheim California. It was produced from footage collected over the past nine years.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiAkbB5uC0&eurl
Support Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, depends on your financial support to carry out its work.

To submit your tax-deductible donation to support our work, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and follow the simple instructions.

Thank you for your generosity!

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D. ARTICLES IN FULL (Unless otherwise noted)

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1) Occupy San Francisco: the teenager who was refused cancer treatment
Miran Istina, 18, joined protests after four years of being denied life-saving bone marrow transplant for leukaemia
By Eoin Reynolds in San Francisco
guardian.co.uk, Friday 28 October 2011 17.47 EDT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/28/occupy-san-francisco-cancer-patient

2) 'Occupy' Protest at St. Paul's Cathedral in London Divides Church
"The rift has added to deep divisions in recent years within the church and among its priests and bishops over the role of women, gays and lesbians. But the split over the St. Paul's protest threatens to be more rancorous because it goes to the core of a theological dilemma the church has faced for centuries: whether, and when, as the country's 'established' church, with the monarch as its head, it should follow the social radicalism that Jesus demonstrated when he overturned the money lenders' tables in the temple, or act, in effect, as a handmaiden of the prevailing social and political order."
By JOHN F. BURNS
October 30, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/31/world/europe/occupy-protest-at-st-pauls-cathedral-splits-anglican-church.html?ref=world

3) Occupy Protesters Regroup After Mass Arrests
By KIRK JOHNSON
October 30, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/31/us/occupy-wall-street-protesters-arrested-in-denver-and-portland.html?ref=us

4) Concerns Are Raised About Genetically Engineered Mosquitoes
By ANDREW POLLACK
October 30, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/31/science/concerns-raised-about-genetically-engineered-mosquitoes.html?ref=business

5) Michael Moore: "There's No Turning Back!"
"Everybody has something to give to this. We're all in this together. We're gonna sink or swim together. That's our choice right now. When, when they, when I was there last night, somebody asked one of the people in the media tent, 'What are the goals? What are you trying to accomplish?' And he said, well, he said, 'Our mission is in our name, Occupy Wall Street,' and then he said, 'Period.' I thought about that for a second. Occupy Wall Street, period. In other words, it isn't just about these encampments; it's that we're not stopping until we, the people, occupy our economy that runs this country! This is our economy! It's our country! We're the ones that have a say. And, and when somebody says to me, 'Well,' you know, 'What's the goal? What's the end-game?' And I say, 'Well, let me tell you somethin' first of all, we've already had a number of victories in our first six weeks. And let's acknowledge those victories. Alright? Number one, number one, we have killed despair across the country. The despair that people were feeling, that despair is dissipating right now. This movement has killed apathy. People have got up off the sofa! They've turned off Dancing with the Stars! And gone out in the streets!"
Monday 31 October 2011
by: Felipe Messina, Media Roots | Video with Transcript
Michael Moore Speaks at Occupy Oakland, October 28, 2011 from John Hamilton on Vimeo.
http://www.truth-out.org/michael-moore-theres-no-turning-back/1320084730

6) London Cathedral Stops Legal Action Against Protesters
By RAVI SOMAIYA
November 1, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/world/europe/london-cathedral-st-pauls-stops-legal-action-against-occupy-protesters.html?ref=world

7) Government in Greece Teeters After Move on Referendum
By NIKI KITSANTONIS and RACHEL DONADIO
November 1, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/world/europe/markets-tumble-as-greece-plans-referendum-on-latest-europe-aid-deal.html?ref=world

8) Dissenting, or Seeking Shelter? Homeless Stake a Claim at Protests
"'If you are hungry and are in need of a meal, we will serve you as long as you do not disrupt the occupiers,' said Michele Watson, one of the managers of the food tent, on a soft and sunny day that was a reminder of why so many homeless people have settled in this city. 'We don't turn anyone away. I don't care what your address is.'"
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
October 31, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/us/dissenting-or-seeking-shelter-homeless-stake-a-claim-at-protests.html?ref=us

9) Unions Stand with Occupy Movement in Oakland and Nationwide
by Mike Hall
Oct 31, 2011
http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/10/31/unions-stand-with-occupy-movement-in-oakland-and-nationwide/

10) Occupy Wall Streeters are right about skewed economic rewards in the United States
[Note: There are many informatie charts at this site...bw]
By Josh Bivens and Lawrence Mishel
Economic Policy Institute
October 26, 2011
http://www.epi.org/publication/bp331-occupy-wall-street/

11) Court Lets Nashville Protesters Stay
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
October 31, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/us/court-lets-nashville-protesters-stay.html?ref=us

12) Brooklyn Detective Convicted of Planting Drugs on Innocent People
By TIM STELLOH
November 1, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/nyregion/brooklyn-detective-convicted-of-planting-drugs-on-innocent-people.html?ref=nyregion

13) Bank of America Drops Plan for Debit Card Fee
By TARA SIEGEL BERNARD
November 1, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/business/bank-of-america-drops-plan-for-debit-card-fee.html?ref=business

14) Court Unlikely to Allow Private Prison to Be Sued
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 1, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/11/01/business/AP-US-Supreme-Court-Private-Prisons.html?src=busln

15) The Occupy Movement: "Historical Reflections on Our Current Tasks"
From Ralph SCHOENMAN

16) Fears of Fission Rise at Stricken Japanese Plant
By HIROKO TABUCHI
November 2, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/world/asia/bursts-of-fission-detected-at-fukushima-reactor-in-japan.html?ref=world

17) British Court Says WikiLeaks Founder Can Be Extradited for Questioning
By RAVI SOMAIYA
November 2, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/world/europe/wikileaks-founder-faces-extradition-hearing-in-london.html?ref=world

18) Firing Sought for One of Two Officers in Bell Shooting Case
By ROB HARRIS
November 2, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/nyregion/in-sean-bell-shooting-trial-prosecutors-urge-firing-of-one-officer.html?ref=nyregion

19) Cubans Can Buy and Sell Property, Government Says
By DAMIEN CAVE
November 3, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/04/world/americas/cubans-can-buy-and-sell-property-government-says.html?ref=business

20) BP Agrees to Pay Texas $50 Million for Pollution
[Just so you know, BP is worth about 100 billion...bw]
By REUTERS
November 3, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2011/11/03/business/business-us-texas-bp.html?src=busln

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1) Occupy San Francisco: the teenager who was refused cancer treatment
Miran Istina, 18, joined protests after four years of being denied life-saving bone marrow transplant for leukaemia
By Eoin Reynolds in San Francisco
guardian.co.uk, Friday 28 October 2011 17.47 EDT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/28/occupy-san-francisco-cancer-patient

As Miran Istina puts it, she has been living on borrowed time since she was 14. Diagnosed with cancer, she was given just months to live after her health insurer refused to provide her with life-saving surgery.

Now 18, Istina, from the city of Sisters in Oregon, has spent the past three weeks living in a tent at the Occupy San Francisco protest and says she will stay there indefinitely, despite her illness.

She was inspired to take part in the protest by the refusal of her insurance company to pay for treatment for her chronic myelogenous leukaemia.

She said: "They denied me on the terms of a pre-existing condition. Seeing as I had only had that insurance for a few months, and I was in early stage two which meant I had to have had it for at least a year, they determined it was a pre-existing condition and denied me healthcare."

Treatment would require a bone marrow transplant and extensive radiation therapy and chemotherapy, at a cost of several hundreds of thousands of dollars. Coming from an ordinary middle-class background, her family has no way of paying for the surgery that would save her life.

Following her insurer's refusal, she spent three years travelling the US looking for a healthcare provider who would give her a chance at life.

Istina said: "I went all over the place, looking for someone to give a damn, really, someone to care enough to treat me. Because we were middle class, we couldn't afford to treat my disease. We'd be in debt for the rest of our family life."

After repeated refusals to offer her treatment, she said: "I decided I was going to spend the rest of my life doing whatever my heart wants."

The Occupy movement attracted Istina as she ties the corporate influence on American politics to the decision that has sentenced her to death.

She said: "The corporate influence on politics influences just about anything that happens, seeing as politicians write the plans that healthcare has to follow. It directly links the fact that insurers only pick and choose those who are actually worth it [financially]. I just happen to not be one of the ones they wanted to be around much longer.

"The decision was absolutely influenced by some corporation or some bank saying, 'we can't afford her. She's not worth our money.' In end terms, corporate greed is going to cost me my life.

"I used to be really upset about it. I'm not as much any more. I'm angry, for sure, but I think me being here might help it never happen again. That's why I'm here. It's that there are other people this is going to happen to if this movement doesn't succeed and that's not healthy. I'm done being the victim. However long I have left is dedicated heart and soul to this movement, no matter what it takes."

She has immersed herself in the movement, becoming the chief media relations officer for Occupy SF and organising fundraising events around the city. On Thursday afternoon she led a CNN television crew on a walk through the camp, to show how they were living, explain their motives and refute claims that the living conditions are unsanitary.

She said of her new life: "My heart is finally satisfied."

The Occupy San Francisco movement has seen up to 300 protesters take over the Justin Herman Plaza, at the Embarcadero in the downtown district since October 5.

The occupiers are given food by local restaurants and have received donations from supporters to provide supplies.

Health professionals from the San Francisco General Hospital are providing round-the-clock care for Istina, who needs strong pain killers and constant monitoring of her condition. Earlier in the month she suffered a kidney malfunction which required urgent hospital treatment.

Throughout the afternoon four police officers kept a watchful eye over the groups of tents and makeshift shelters but the atmosphere was relaxed. When the officers staged a walk-through some of the occupiers shared jokes with them. One said: "Please leave the automatic weapons outside the camp. This is a peaceful protest."

Another said: "We're not doing any harm. We're just a bunch of peace-loving hippies."

But a raid on the camp is possible at any time. San Francisco mayor Ed Lee has repeatedly insisted that the camp is illegal and all tents should be removed but so far little has been done to enforce the law.

He has threatened a raid and on Wednesday night occupiers expected police to move in, sparking a larger than normal demonstration. Two candidates for the upcoming mayoral election joined with the protesters but despite the presence nearby of riot police, the raid did not go ahead.

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2) 'Occupy' Protest at St. Paul's Cathedral in London Divides Church
"The rift has added to deep divisions in recent years within the church and among its priests and bishops over the role of women, gays and lesbians. But the split over the St. Paul's protest threatens to be more rancorous because it goes to the core of a theological dilemma the church has faced for centuries: whether, and when, as the country's 'established' church, with the monarch as its head, it should follow the social radicalism that Jesus demonstrated when he overturned the money lenders' tables in the temple, or act, in effect, as a handmaiden of the prevailing social and political order."
By JOHN F. BURNS
October 30, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/31/world/europe/occupy-protest-at-st-pauls-cathedral-splits-anglican-church.html?ref=world

LONDON - In a city where demonstrations of every kind are part of the daily syncopation, there has rarely been any with quite the same potential for amplifying the protesters' cause as the one that has settled in recently on the historic forecourt of St. Paul's Cathedral, setting off a painful crisis of conscience for the Church of England .

For the last 15 days, St. Paul's has been the backdrop for London's counterpart to the Occupy Wall Street tent city in Zuccotti Square in New York. Here, the protest has taken on aspects of a medieval carnival, a jumbled tent city with buskers and rappers and clothing stalls and a panoply of banners and a makeshift cafeteria. There have been pet dogs, and a man dressed as Jesus declaiming against the usurers in the temple.

Where Princess Diana appeared to pealing bells after her marriage to Prince Charles, where a nation grateful for deliverance in war watched the caissons arrive for the funerals of Lord Nelson and Winston Churchill, beneath Christopher Wren's great dome that stood defiant amid the smoke and fire of the Luftwaffe's blitz, Britain's anticapitalist battalions have pitched camp.

Scores of similar encampments have sprung up in cities around the world, echoing the continuing protest in Wall Street's heart against the bankers and corporate barons and complicit politicians the protesters hold responsible for global financial distress.

But few, if any, of the protests outside New York have had the resonance the St. Paul's campers have achieved in Britain by choosing as their venue what many regard as the country's most iconic religious landmark. With bishops squaring off against bishops, priests against priests, and the church hierarchy in disarray over whether to take steps to force the dismantling of the camp - not to mention Prime Minister David Cameron's parachuting into the debate from 10,000 miles away in Australia, where he has attending a Commonwealth summit meeting - the St. Paul's story has been front-page news and a feast for the television newscasts.

Campers have used the space at St. Paul's as a modern Colosseum for dramatizing and projecting their case, or cases, since the issues earnestly debated among the tents run the gamut, from the causes of the banking crisis to the plight of the world's homeless and hungry, anarchist dogmas, the virtues of meditation, and much besides. Like performers who have played less rewarding venues without ever hitting the big time, the protesters in the scores of tents have surprised themselves, as well as much of the rest of Britain, with the range of their impact.

The experience has been all the more striking for the fact that St. Paul's was the protesters' second choice. Their original plan was to establish the camp in Paternoster Square, a short walk from St. Paul's, and an iconic location in its own right since it was established in an area obliterated by German bombing in 1940. One of the steel-and-glass towers overlooking the square is the London Stock Exchange, in the heart of the "square mile" of the City of London, which vies with New York for the title of the world's leading financial center.

Along with the church authorities, the camp has a powerful adversary in the City of London Corporation, the local government in the financial district. It views the St. Paul's protest, and a smaller satellite camp nearby for the overflow from St. Paul's, as an unhelpful, unsightly presence at a time when London, as a financial center, is struggling. A slumping market, the loss of thousands of jobs and unease over tightening banking oversight planned by the Cameron government have banished the vaunted confidence of the City of London's boosters, who before the banking crisis exploded in 2008 boasted that London had outdistanced Wall Street as a favored venue for investors.

Last week, the corporation went to court to seek an order dismantling the St. Paul's camp as a breach of the historic right of unimpeded access to the country's "highways." Though the St. Paul's encampment is concentrated on the cathedral forecourt, a pedestrian area in normal times, a corporation executive, Michael Wellbank, overlooked the distinction. "Protest is an essential right in democracy, but a campaign on the highway is not," he told reporters. "Encampment on a busy thoroughfare clearly impacts the rights of others."

On Friday, with protest leaders saying they planned to remain indefinitely, St. Paul's officials chose to join in the lawsuit, precipitating an acrimonious debate within the Church of England, and among the protesters. The cathedral had already closed its doors, suspending tourist visits and religious services, a step not taken since World War II. Although it was partially reopened on Saturday, cathedral officials stuck to their demand for an end to the camp. Citing health and safety rules, they said the cathedral could not operate with protesters preparing meals over campsite gas cookers on the approaches, and blocking accessways that would be needed for an emergency evacuation.

One of the cathedral's top officials, Canon Giles Fraser, had already resigned, saying he could not accept a forcible dismantling of the camp if the lawsuit is upheld. He was followed by a second cleric at the cathedral. (On Monday, a third official resigned as well.) Quickly, a wide rift opened within the church, with some, like Mr. Fraser, saying that the church's mission to seek social justice should make it the protesters' natural ally, and others saying the overriding concern had to be clearing the camp so St. Paul's, which draws thousands of worshipers every week, could continue to operate.

The rift has added to deep divisions in recent years within the church and among its priests and bishops over the role of women, gays and lesbians. But the split over the St. Paul's protest threatens to be more rancorous because it goes to the core of a theological dilemma the church has faced for centuries: whether, and when, as the country's "established" church, with the monarch as its head, it should follow the social radicalism that Jesus demonstrated when he overturned the money lenders' tables in the temple, or act, in effect, as a handmaiden of the prevailing social and political order.

One former archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, has sided strongly with Mr. Fraser. But Prime Minister Cameron told the BBC from Australia, "I've got a feeling that if you or I decided to pitch a tent in the middle of Oxford Street, then we would be moved on pretty quickly," and London's maverick mayor, Boris Johnson, concurred. "An excellent point has been made" by the protesters, he said, "but having made their point, it's time for them to move on."

On Sunday, in what amounted to a peace mission to the protesters, the bishop of London, the Rev. Richard Chartres, spoke to them from a lectern in the forecourt, offering a mixed message that reflected the church's attempt to straddle its divide. He said he was "concerned that this should not lead to violence," and repeated an offer, previously rejected by the campers, to hold a debate on their cause in the cathedral, but only after the tents have been removed. Then he signaled the depth of his own misgivings. "You have a notice saying, 'What would Jesus do?' " he said. "That is a question for me as well."

Ravi Somaiya contributed reporting.

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3) Occupy Protesters Regroup After Mass Arrests
By KIRK JOHNSON
October 30, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/31/us/occupy-wall-street-protesters-arrested-in-denver-and-portland.html?ref=us

DENVER - Protesters in Denver and Nashville regrouped on Sunday, a day after dozens of arrests at demonstrations inspired by Occupy Wall Street in both cities.

The demonstrators in Denver held a peace vigil in the evening. It followed a melee on Saturday night that was one of the most intense clashes with the police since the protest groups began gathering in a downtown park more than a month ago.

On Saturday, officers used pepper spray on the protesters, some of whom surged toward police lines. Two people were charged with assaulting an officer.

In Nashville, where state law enforcement officials arrested 29 people on Saturday, the issue was a curfew imposed last week that barred protesters from inhabiting a downtown plaza near the State Capitol.

The legality of the curfew has been questioned, and a magistrate judge immediately released the protesters, who had been charged with trespassing, saying that the state had no authority to create such a restriction.

The Tennessee Highway Patrol, the law enforcement agency that made the arrests, issued a statement on Sunday saying that "the curfew remains in effect."

The highway patrol said the restriction was intended to help ensure the safety of the protesters, and it urged the protesters to "adhere to the conditions of the policy."

"The goal remains the same," the statement said, "and that is to provide for the safety and security of everyone on the plaza."

The A.C.L.U. of Tennessee said it planned to file a lawsuit challenging the curfew at the downtown plaza, The Tennessean newspaper reported.

On Saturday, for the third consecutive night, dozens of demonstrators defied the curfew and inhabited the site, chanting and waving signs and huddling for warmth in the 40-degree weather. The police made no new arrests overnight.

In Denver, most of the arrests on Saturday were over a police rule prohibiting structures, including tents, from being erected in public parks. Some accounts said that tensions escalated when the protesters climbed the State Capitol's steps during a march by as many as 2,000 people. No public demonstrations are allowed on the steps without a permit.

But a media liaison with Occupy Denver, Jeannie Hartley, said on Sunday that the protesters had never made it to the steps, which were blocked off.

Most of the 20 arrests, a police spokesman said, were made when officers moved to keep people from erecting tents across the street from the Capitol at Civic Center Park. Several videos showed the police using pepper spray. Two protesters were arrested and charged with felony assault on a police officer after officials said he was knocked off his motorcycle, and other officers were kicked, said the spokesman, Lt. Matt Murray.

Lieutenant Murray said that the police requested reinforcements after the officer was knocked off his motorcycle and that the enlarged force then moved into the park where most of the arrests were made.

One video posted on the Occupy Denver Facebook page also clearly showed tension and conflict within the protesters' ranks. At one point, a man, shouting in anger, is seen being pushed from the crowd to confront the officers, who are lined up with shields and batons.

"I will fight back!" he screamed as other protesters pulled him back. One demonstrator, who had pushed to the front, confronted the man: "We are nonviolent - do not instigate that!"

"They hit me!" the first man shouted.

"Yeah, and they're going to keep hitting you!" the other said.

"They don't have a right!"

In Portland, Ore., about 30 demonstrators were arrested early Sunday after they refused to leave a park after a midnight curfew, according to The Associated Press.

The police pulled vans up to a group of demonstrators sitting in a circle at the park, Jamison Square, and began arresting them one by one. An Associated Press photographer said most of the protesters went limp, and police carried or dragged them away. No violence was reported during the 90 minutes of arrests. The protesters - all of whom appeared to be in their 20s and 30s - were handcuffed before they were driven off. One continued to chant, "We are the 99 percent."

The crowd thinned out about 3:30 a.m. as the last arrests were made.

Robbie Brown contributed reporting from Atlanta.

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4) Concerns Are Raised About Genetically Engineered Mosquitoes
By ANDREW POLLACK
October 30, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/31/science/concerns-raised-about-genetically-engineered-mosquitoes.html?ref=business

These mosquitoes are genetically engineered to kill - their own children.

Researchers on Sunday reported initial signs of success from the first release into the environment of mosquitoes engineered to pass a lethal gene to their offspring, killing them before they reach adulthood.

The results, and other work elsewhere, could herald an age in which genetically modified insects will be used to help control agricultural pests and insect-borne diseases like dengue fever and malaria.

But the research is arousing concern about possible unintended effects on public health and the environment, because once genetically modified insects are released, they cannot be recalled.

Authorities in the Florida Keys, which in 2009 experienced its first cases of dengue fever in decades, hope to conduct an open-air test of the modified mosquitoes as early as December, pending approval from the Agriculture Department.

"It's a more ecologically friendly way to control mosquitoes than spraying insecticides," said Coleen Fitzsimmons, a spokeswoman for the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District.

The Agriculture Department, meanwhile, is looking at using genetic engineering to help control farm pests like the Mediterranean fruit fly, or medfly, and the cotton-munching pink bollworm, according to an environmental impact statement it published in 2008. Millions of genetically engineered bollworms have been released over cotton fields in Yuma County, Ariz.

Yet even supporters of the research worry it could provoke a public reaction similar to the one that has limited the acceptance of genetically modified crops. In particular, critics say that Oxitec, the British biotechnology company that developed the dengue-fighting mosquito, has rushed into field testing without sufficient review and public consultation, sometimes in countries with weak regulations.

"Even if the harms don't materialize, this will undermine the credibility and legitimacy of the research enterprise," said Lawrence O. Gostin, professor of international health law at Georgetown University.

The first release, which was discussed in a scientific paper published online on Sunday by the journal Nature Biotechnology, took place in the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean in 2009 and caught the international scientific community by surprise. Oxitec has subsequently released the modified mosquitoes in Malaysia and Brazil.

Luke Alphey, the chief scientist at Oxitec, said the company had left the review and community outreach to authorities in the host countries.

"They know much better how to communicate with people in those communities than we do coming in from the U.K." he said.

Dr. Alphey was a zoology researcher at Oxford before co-founding Oxitec in 2002. The company has raised about $24 million from investors, including Oxford, he said. A major backer is East Hill Advisors, which is run by the New England businessman Landon T. Clay, former chief executive of Eaton Vance, an investment management firm.

Oxitec says its approach is an extension of a technique used successfully for decades to suppress or even eradicate pests, which involves the release of millions of sterile insects that mate with wild ones, producing no offspring.

But the technique has not been successfully used for mosquitoes, in part because the radiation usually used to sterilize the insects also injures them, making it difficult for them to compete for mates against wild counterparts.

Oxitec has created Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the species that is the main transmitter of the dengue and yellow fever viruses, containing a gene that will kill them unless they are given tetracycline, a common antibiotic.

In the lab, with tetracycline provided, the mosquitoes can be bred for generations and multiplied. Males are then released into the wild, where tetracycline is not available. They live long enough to mate but their progeny will die before adulthood.

The study published on Sunday looked at how successfully the lab-reared, genetically modified insects could mate. About 19,000 engineered mosquitoes were released over four weeks in 2009 in a 25-acre area on Grand Cayman island.

Based on data from traps, the genetically engineered males accounted for 16 percent of the overall male population in the test zone, and the lethal gene was found in almost 10 percent of larvae. Those figures suggest the genetically engineered males were about half as successful in mating as wild ones, a rate sufficient to suppress the population.

Oxitec has already said a larger trial on Grand Cayman island in 2010 reduced the population of the targeted mosquito by 80 percent for three months. That work has not yet been published.

Dr. Alphey said the technique was safe because only males were released, while only females bite people and spread the disease, adding that it should have little environmental impact. "It's exquisitely targeted to the specific organism you are trying to take out," he said.

The company is focusing on dengue fever rather than malaria because a single mosquito species is responsible for most of its spread, while many species carry malaria. Also, unlike for malaria, there are no drugs to treat dengue, and bed nets do not help prevent the disease because the mosquito bites during the day.

There are 50 million to 100 million cases of dengue each year, with an estimated 25,000 deaths. The disease causes severe flulike symptoms and occasionally, hemorrhagic fever.

The Oxitec technique, however, is not foolproof.

Alfred M. Handler, a geneticist at the Agriculture Department in Gainesville, Fla., said the mosquitoes, while being bred for generations in the lab, can evolve resistance to the lethal gene and might then be released inadvertently.

Todd Shelly, an entomologist for the Agriculture Department in Hawaii, said in a commentary published on Sunday by Nature Biotechnology that 3.5 percent of the insects in a lab test survived to adulthood despite presumably carrying the lethal gene.

Also, the sorting of male and female mosquitoes, which is done by hand, can result in up to 0.5 percent of the released insects being female, the commentary said. If millions of mosquitoes were released, even that small percentage of females could lead to a temporary increase in disease spread.

Oxitec and a molecular biologist, Anthony A. James of the University of California, Irvine, say they have developed a solution - a genetic modification that makes female mosquitoes, but not males, unable to fly. The grounded females cannot mate or bite people, and separating males from females before release would be easier.

In a test in large cages in Mexico, however, male mosquitoes carrying this gene did not mate very successfully, said Stephanie James, director of science at the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, which oversaw the project.

In Arizona, pink bollworms sterilized by radiation have already helped suppress the population of that pest. To monitor how well the program is working, the sterile bugs are fed a red dye. That way, researchers can tell if a trapped insect is sterile or wild.

But the dye does not always show up, leading to false alarms that wild bollworms are on the loose. Giving the sterilized bugs a coral gene that makes them glow with red fluorescence is a better way to identify them, said Bruce Tabashnik, an entomologist at the University of Arizona. He is an author of a report on the field trial published in the journal PLoS One in September.

Experts assembled by the World Health Organization are preparing guidelines on how field tests of genetically modified insects should be conducted. Proponents hope the field will not face the same opposition as biotechnology crops.

"You don't eat insects," said Dr. James of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health. "This is being done for a good cause."

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5) Michael Moore: "There's No Turning Back!"
"Everybody has something to give to this. We're all in this together. We're gonna sink or swim together. That's our choice right now. When, when they, when I was there last night, somebody asked one of the people in the media tent, 'What are the goals? What are you trying to accomplish?' And he said, well, he said, 'Our mission is in our name, Occupy Wall Street,' and then he said, 'Period.' I thought about that for a second. Occupy Wall Street, period. In other words, it isn't just about these encampments; it's that we're not stopping until we, the people, occupy our economy that runs this country! This is our economy! It's our country! We're the ones that have a say. And, and when somebody says to me, 'Well,' you know, 'What's the goal? What's the end-game?' And I say, 'Well, let me tell you somethin' first of all, we've already had a number of victories in our first six weeks. And let's acknowledge those victories. Alright? Number one, number one, we have killed despair across the country. The despair that people were feeling, that despair is dissipating right now. This movement has killed apathy. People have got up off the sofa! They've turned off Dancing with the Stars! And gone out in the streets!"
Monday 31 October 2011
by: Felipe Messina, Media Roots | Video with Transcript
Michael Moore Speaks at Occupy Oakland, October 28, 2011 from John Hamilton on Vimeo.
http://www.truth-out.org/michael-moore-theres-no-turning-back/1320084730

Occupy Oakland Host: " Mic check one two. Can everyone, even in the back, can hear me?"

Crowd: "Yeah!!"

Host: "Okay, great. It's my pleasure to introduce Michael Moore."

Michael Moore: "Greetings, Oakland! Occupy Oakland! Occupy Oakland! Occupy Oakland! Occupy everywhere!! I, I am honoured to be here, to be part of this. Uh, to the media who are present, uh, let me stress to you, this movement has no spokesperson. Everyone here is a spokesperson. Everyone here, everyone here has a story to tell. There are people here who have no health insurance. There are people here who do not have a job. There are people here who are living in poverty. There are people here who have jobs, but have been told to take less. And I invite you to interview the thousands of other spokespeople who are here at Occupy Oakland. Someone asked me, 'Who is the leader of this organisation?' [Guffaws] And I said, 'We are all the leaders! Everyone here!' We are all leaders. And we are all followers. We are all doing this together. The media and the power establishment is having a hard time figuring this out. So, be patient with them. They are used to just a few people showing up with a few signs and then they go away and have a meeting in the basement of the Unitarian Church. God bless the Unitarians, by the way. Those in charge in this country and the media arm of Wall Street and corporate America were not prepared for this to be happening in hundreds, hundreds of cities across this country right now! Hundreds! And it has, it has happened with no leaders, no organisation, no dues pay, no dues to pay. It's happened organically from the grassroots, the true grassroots. And in my lifetime, I have never seen a movement like this take hold this fast with this many people all across the country. Thank you, everyone, all of us for doing this. And there's no turning back, is there?"

Crowd: "No!!!"

Michael Moore: "There's no turning back!!"

Crowd: "No!!!"

Michael Moore: "I was at Occupy Wall Street last night, in Zuccotti Park, Liberty Plaza, and I am here to bring greetings from the original Occupy Wall Street. Thank you, Oakland! Thank you, Oakland!"

Audience Member (male): "Power to the people! Power to the people!"

Michael Moore: "I said, I said, 'What are we gonna do with winter coming?' It was almost a freezing rain last night in New York City. I said, 'What are we gonna do with winter coming?' And they said, 'There's two guys over there right now who have flown in from Occupy Anchorage."

Crowd: [Laughs]

Michael Moore: "And they are here to consult with us on how to make it through the winter!"

Crowd: [Laughs Cheers]

Michael Moore: "They said there's even an ice company in New Jersey that has offered large blocks of ice to build igloos in Zuccotti Park. The Mayor, and the Police, and Wall Street are hoping that the winter will kill the movement in the same way that they don't understand that this is a leaderless organisation with tens of millions of spokespeople. They also don't understand that weather is not the problem facing us right now. Climate change is facing us. But the weather in New York City is not going to stop this incredible movement. Let me just give you an idea, uh, because I've been travelling the country, what I've seen. Uh, there's a town about, maybe a hundred and fifty miles east of here called Grass Valley, California. Are you familiar with it?"

Crowd: "Yeah!!!" [Cheers]

Michael Moore: "Where the hell is Grass Valley, right? No, I know where it is. Nobody across the country knows Grass Valley. And, of course, the media doesn't know Grass Valley. But last weekend, in Grass Valley, there were 400 people participating in Occupy Grass Valley. 400 people! There's, there's only a few thousand people in the town. Alright? And, and everyone was there, old, young, out of work, people with work, the spread of American society is at each of these. You could see it right now. I can see it. I am sitting here looking at the mosaic that this country is right now, right here in Oakland. This is-"

Audience Member (male): "Hey cameraman, turn around and take a picture."

Michael Moore: "We'll get the cameras to turn around here, just a sec-, you know, I don't understand it either. I've wondered this for a long time. Uh, and I've tried to explain to them that this is not what people want to be looking at while they're eating dinner and watching the six o'clock news. So, I'm sorry. But I'm getting healthy. And I'm now in my tenth month with no red meat. [Guffaws]"

Crowd: "Whoo!!!"

Michael Moore: "And that will be the sound bite on the evening news."

Crowd: [Laughs]

Michael Moore: "Now, this is the first of these that I've spoken at where there's an amplified sound system. Um, what laws are we breaking here?"

Audience Member (male): "A lot."

Michael Moore: "A lot of laws? [Chuckles] Um-"

Audience Member (male): "We set it up just for you!"

Michael Moore: "Thank you! Thank you. Um, Mayor Quan is having a press conference right now. Uh-"

Crowd: "Boo!!!"

Michael Moore: "-upstairs. I sent her an email asking if we could, uh, speak, um, while I was here. Uh, but I have to tell you the other night, uh, both Tuesday and Wednesday night, um, not being here and watching from afar, uh, what took place here, um, was really horrifying, uh, to see this in this country. Um, it made, it made, it made the rest of the people in the United States aware of something that maybe many of you had been aware of for the last decade and that is the militarisation of our local police departments."

Crowd: "Yeah!! [Cheers Applause] Fuck the police!"

Michael Moore: "The Congress is not allowed to tell the public how much is spent on Homeland Security, but these local police departments all across the country over the last ten years have sucked up, literally, billions of dollars to buy sophisticated equipment, to buy armaments that you use in a warzone-"

Crowd: "Boo!"

Michael Moore: "-to buy tanks, to set up spying systems."

Audience Member (male): "On our tax dollars."

Michael Moore: "Yes, we paid for this. And, um, and to prepare for what they believe is the inevitable, which is the people, sooner or later, aren't going to take it any longer."

Crowd: "Whoo!!!"

Michael Moore: "Ten years-"

Audience Member (male): "Don't protect the corporations!!!"

Audience Member (male): "Fuck them!"

Crowd: "Shhh. Shhh."

Michael Moore: "Ten years after 9/11, the majority of Americans realise who the real terrorists are. They are the people who, who create policies and who do things that literally do kill people. For instance, a Congressional Committee last month released these figures. They wanted to find out how many Americans die every year because, simply from the fact, that they don't have health insurance. They didn't go to the doctor 'cos they didn't have insurance. Nearly 45,000 Americans die every year simply because they don't have health insurance. My friends, that is fifteen 9/11s every single year! A system, a system that is set up to harm our own citizens! A profit-making insurance system! Who said that it is morally correct to make a profit off people when they get sick? Do ya, how, how sick is that? I can tell you-"

Audience Member (male): "Neocolonialism!"

Michael Moore: "How much money-"

Audience Member (male): "Free America!"

Michael Moore: "-has corporate America made from these two wars? These two illegal, immoral wars? How much have they made? We are still spending over $2 billion dollars a week on these wars. What could we do with that money if it was here in Oakland and Flint, Michigan and across the country? Somebody asked me, coming in here, 'Who organised this?'

Scattered Members of Crowd: "We did!!"

Michael Moore: "Who organised this? I know, I know, I know you think we, the people, organised it, right. [Laughs] Where is Wells Fargo? I just passed it on the street. If you want to know who organised this, they organised it! The people on Wall Street organised this! Bank of America organised this! ExxonMobil, BP organised this! They did more by simply putting their boot on the necks of millions of Americans. And like any human being, like any human being, how long can you keep a boot on your neck?"

Audience Member (male): "Not one more second, we ain't takin' it no more!!!!"

Michael Moore: "Not for one second with the boot on the neck."

Crowd: "Whoo!!!"

Audience Member (male): "Go, 'head, Mike."

Audience Member (male): "Oakland style, brotha."

Michael Moore: "[Laughs] I know. He said, 'It's Oakland style. We're doing this Oakland style.'"

Audience Member (male): "Occupy!"

Michael Moore: "Let me tell you something else I've discovered across the country. Um, and that is, um, America, contrary to what maybe many here believe and the way it's portrayed to us in the media, America is not a conservative country. Most Americans are actually quite liberal in their beliefs. They may not call themselves liberals, but if you look at any of the polls, the majority of Americans, come down on the liberal side of the issue on just about every single issue. The majority of Americans are against these wars. The majority of Americans want universal health care. The majority of Americans believe women should be paid the same as men. The majority of Americans-"

Audience Member (female): "That's because they are the majority!"

Michael Moore: "-want stronger environmental laws, not weaker ones."

Audience Member (male): "School closures! School closures!"

Michael Moore: "And for the first time last month, in a poll that was taken, for the first time 54%, the majority of Americans, say they believe gay marriage should be the law of the land."

Audience Member (male): "...legalise marijuana!"

Michael Moore: "That's the country you live in. That's the, that's the country you live in. And I know to people in the Bay Area it may seem to get a little scary as you head toward Richmond."

Crowd: [Laughs]

Michael Moore: "Did I pick the right town?"

Crowd: [Laughs]

Michael Moore: "I need another town. What? As you head towards Walnut Creek!"

Crowd: "Whoo!!!"

Michael Moore: "I was, I was just trying to remember BART stops. Um. Can I just put that down there? ('Yeah. I got you.') Um, but as you go, as you go across this country you see that that's the country you share, the people out there. That's why they're int-, that's why 72% last week said they believe taxes should be raised on the rich, 72%. So-"

Crowd: "Whoo!"

Michael Moore: "So, to the media who are here, um, this is a few thousand people. But everybody here represents a few thousand more, or a few ten thousand more, everybody here. That's how large this is. That's why it can't be stopped. Too many people have been thrown out of their homes. Too many people have had their schools decimated to where their kids aren't getting a proper education."

Audience Member (male): "Five schools are being shut down in Oakland!"

Michael Moore: "We now live in a country with 40 million adults who are functional illiterates. How did that happen?"

Audience Member (male): "We're being oppressed!"

Michael Moore: "It benefits, it benefits those in charge to have an ignorant population. To have a population with 40 million people in it that cannot read and write above a fourth-grade level. Who benefits from that? It's like they've set up the schools now to make sure that you can operate the cash register at McDonald's and you know how to greet someone in a sentence with a noun and a verb in it as they come into Walmart. Let me tell you, let me tell ya who does know that this, that the people of this country have had it and that there's a very progressive thread and vein going through this country right now. That's the other side, Wall Street, corporate America, the right-wing, they know, they know this is a liberal country! All you have to do is turn on talk radio or Fox News, they're so angry, they're so angry aren't they? Let me ask you this. If this was a conservative, right-wing country, wouldn't, if you turned on Fox News every night, wouldn't they just be, 'Yip-a-dee-do-da, Yip-a-dee-day?' They're not that way, are they? They're like, 'Aargh!' Every night, it's 'Raargh! Raargh!' They're, they're just, they, there's a reason why they wanna suppress the vote next year. There's a reason why they're passing laws throughout the country to make it harder for poor people, for senior citizens, for people of colour to vote. There's a reason they're doing that. What's the reason? They know, they know, no, it's very simple, they can do math. They know they're in the minority. They know they're in the minority. Otherwise, really, why would you wanna suppress the vote if you thought America agreed with you? You wouldn't do that, would you? No! If you believed, if you believed that America was with you, you'd be setting up voting booths in every aisle of every Walmart all across the country!"

Crowd: "Whoo!"

Michael Moore: "That's not what they're doing. Um, I also want to tell you, especially those of you who have been camping out here, um, thank you for doing that. You are better; you are better men and women than I am. Give me another year without the red meat. 'Wait, we've got our second sound bite.' Um, but watching the other night, um, [long pause] Scott Olsen."

Crowd: [Applause]

Michael Moore: "It is absolutely criminal that this young man was willing to go and risk his life in a war that he, once over there, didn't agree with, that he would risk his life like this and the only place he had to worry about was here in his own country, in Oakland, California. Um, I think, um, well one thing we can do for the media who are here is to let them know that we are all Scott Olsen. We are all with Scott Olsen! And we are all Scott Olsens! And we will not tolerate our fellow citizens being treated that way by the people that we fund with our tax dollars. I don't, I don't pay people, I don't pay people to take a gun, or a tear gas gun and point it at me and hit me in the head with their ammunition or their tear gas canister. That would be as crazy as me coming up to you right now and saying to you, 'Oh, by the way, would you just punch me in the face?' Why would I do that? Um, I think all of us want to send our best wishes, our prayers, our good karma, everything that we could muster to Scott, so that he is better and well. And, yeah, and I think, I think that, uh, let's have 30 seconds of silence in honour of Scott Olsen and our hope that he will recover quickly from his injuries. Um, I'm goin' on too long here and, uh, I-"

Crowd: "Nah!!!"

Michael Moore: "Well, well, yeah, but. No, no, but I-"

Audience Member (male): "You gotta get to Richmond!"

Michael Moore: "I know. Now that I've, now that I've singled out Richmond, I'm going to have to go and participate in Occupy Richmond."

Crowd: "Yeah! Whoo!!"

Michael Moore: "Or Walnut Creek."

Crowd: [Laughs]

Michael Moore: "Walnut Creek is where we need to be, right? Isn't that where the money is? Alright."

Crowd: [Scattered shouts and appeals]

Michael Moore: "Um, I, I, I understand that Mayor Quan is, uh, she's finishing up her press conference. And I am gonna try and, uh, see if I can, uh, talk to her. Uh, you know, I saw her, I'm sorry, I'm sorry that when she came yesterday to talk that she didn't wait to speak at the General Assembly because I, I think the, uh, well, there's a, there's a process, we're not in a General Assembly right now. But there's a process at the General Assembly where you sign up to speak and we're all equals. You know? When I've, when I've been down, you know, I've been at New York, so I've been at Occupy Wall Street and if I'm number 17 to speak, I'm number 17 to speak. And it doesn't matter if I'm Michael Moore or Michael Schmoe. You know. It doesn't, and, and it's the spirit, that's why this movement has built because it is a movement of equals. Everybody has something to give to this. We're all in this together. We're gonna sink or swim together. That's our choice right now. When, when they, when I was there last night, somebody asked one of the people in the media tent, 'What are the goals? What are you trying to accomplish?' And he said, well, he said, 'Our mission is in our name, Occupy Wall Street,' and then he said, 'Period.' I thought about that for a second. Occupy Wall Street, period. In other words, it isn't just about these encampments; it's that we're not stopping until we, the people, occupy our economy that runs this country! This is our economy! It's our country! We're the ones that have a say. And, and when somebody says to me, 'Well,' you know, 'What's the goal? What's the end-game?' And I say, 'Well, let me tell you somethin' first of all, we've already had a number of victories in our first six weeks. And let's acknowledge those victories. Alright? Number one, number one, we have killed despair across the country. The despair that people were feeling, that despair is dissipating right now. This movement has killed apathy. People have got up off the sofa! They've turned off Dancing with the Stars! And gone out in the streets! This is a victory! There's something very important we've done. Six weeks ago, what was all the media talking about? All the politicians in Washington? All the pundits? What was the, what was the national discussion that we weren't part of that they determined? What were they talking about? The debt ceiling. The debt! The debt ceiling!! The deficit! We gotta reduce the deficit!! We gotta reduce the deficit!! Over and over and over all summer long! The debt ceiling! The deficit! The debt ceiling! The deficit! Can I ask you honestly? When's the last time in the last few weeks you heard them talking about the debt ceiling? Or the deficit? When was the last time? This movement has shook down that bullshit discussion."

Crowd: "Yeah!! Whoo!!!"

Michael Moore: "That is a huge victory. You have altered the national discussion. You have altered it! This is what people are talking about in every town, village, and city across America. Occupy Oakland!! Occupy New York!! Occupy San Francisco!! Occupy Grass Valley!! Occupy Walnut Creek!! Occupy Flint, Michigan!! Occupy everywhere!!! This is the discussion we're gonna have!!! And we're not ceding the discussion to anybody else!!!

Crowd: "Yeah! Whoo!! [Applause]"

Michael Moore: "So, in conclusion, in conclusion, um, I am-"

Audience Member (male): "Move your seat!"

Michael Moore: "-did you just yell at a disabled guy to move his cane?"

Crowd: [Laughs]

Michael Moore: "They told me there were plants here from the police. Plain-clothes, plain-clothes officer, let me just remind you, when you yell too loud at a disabled person, 'Put down the cane,' we know who you are. But welcome! Welcome! Because police officers, you're part of the 99%, too! They'll be coming after you! They'll be coming after your home and your health care and your children. There's a number or towns, there's a number of towns across this country that are behaving differently than Oakland. There are police departments and police unions, hang on, there are police departments and police unions across the country supporting the Occupy movements in their towns. Albany, New York, a beautiful example, the Governor told them to remove the people and the police said, 'We don't consider that part of the police work.'"

Crowd: "Yeah! Whoo!! [Applause]"

Michael Moore: "So, the police do have a choice, even in Oakland. It's still America, Oakland P.D. It's a free country. You can join us. You can join us. You don't have to join them. You don't have to be here defending Wells Fargo and Bank of America and BP and everybody else! You can stand up for yourselves and everybody else! Alright. Um, so, please keep this alive here. I know there's gonna be a lot of snow this winter."

Crowd: [Laughs]

Audience Member (male): "Not here!"

Michael Moore: "I wanna say one more thing about something I saw last week. Pete Seeger was, he had a concert, he did a concert up on the corner, it was he and Arlo and Tom Chapin and a few others. Um, he had a concert up at the corner of 95th and Broadway at Symphony Space in New York. And afterwards, they decided to march from Symphony Space down to Columbus Circle. That's 36 blocks. Pete is 92 years old on, on two canes. On two canes he walked the entire way."

Crowd: [Applause]

Michael Moore: "And when we got to Columbus Circle and he was leading everyone, thousands of people, singing 'This Land is Your Land.' And he looked over and there were two New York City policemen singing along."

Audience Member (male): "Fuck the police!"

Michael Moore: "Um, right-[Michael Moore passes the microphone to man behind him: "There's good and bad police just like there's good and bad people.]

Crowd: [Applause]

Michael Moore: "We are stronger than any rubber bullet or bean bag or tear gas canister. There's too many of us. And what are they defending in the first place? A broken system in a country that has benefited the few at the expense of the many. The time for that to end is right now. And when the history of-"

Background: [A blast is heard in the distance, as Michael Moore flinches and turns around]

Michael Moore: "-when the history-"

Audience Member: "We're from Oakland!"

Michael Moore: "[Laughs] You know how sad it is? He says, 'We're from Oakland we're used to that.'"

Crowd: [Laughs]

Michael Moore: "You shouldn't be used to it. You know if you lived in any of the Weste-, other democracies, the one to the north of us, you know, you would never say a statement like that, 'Oh, we're used to that.' You know, other people in other countries have decided to organise themselves differently. We can do that, too. And, don't worry. For those of you who aren't quite sure, who may just have stopped by to see this today and you're wondering, 'Yeah, but where's this goin? I need to know more. I gotta figure this out.' Don't, don't approach this like other movements from the past. Don't approach it like a term paper. Um, just join in because the group itself, something will come out of this and it will be good. It will be good and generous to each other. So, everybody's gotta come into this on some level. And we could make this happen. So, I just, the thing I want to say, before the, uh, sound effects truck, um, was that when the history of this movement, uh, is written about these first few weeks where-"

Audience Member (male): "Or filmed."

Michael Moore: "No, it's not going to fail."

Crowd: "No, filmed."

Michael Moore: "The what?"

Audience Member (female): "Just let him talk."

Michael Moore: "What film? Oh, or filmed? Yes."

Crowd: [Laughs]

Michael Moore: "Yeah. Are you making a film? No, I'm not making a film, no, no, no, no way. I'm not mak-, no, no, no. I'm sorry."

Crowd: "[Applause] Whoo!"

Michael Moore: "I'm here as a citizen. By the way, haven't I made those films? I was, uh-"

Crowd: "Yeah! Whoo!! [Applause]"

Michael Moore: "I'll tell you what I'm happy about and I have been a bit giddy and overjoyed these past few weeks because at the end of my last film I was pretty dejected, uh, if you did happen to see it. And I, and I didn't, and I said at the end of the film as I was wrappin' the crime scene tape around the New York Stock Exchange, um, that, uh, I just, really, I don't know if I could keep doing this. I don't know if I wanna make another film 'cos I keep making these films and it's, you know, when's this gonna happen? When's this gonna happen? And I said at the end of the film, 'Let me know, audience, or people, when you wanna, when you wanna do something and I'll do it with you.' Um because, um, it's, uh, it's a little rough being the poster boy on Rush Limbaugh or Fox News, uh, everyday. And they can get away with it when it's just the Michael Moore or Naomi Klein or even a number of great people that have been busy on this issue for many years. Um, but when there are a million Naomi Kleins or ten million Michael Moores they won't know what the eff to do."

Crowd: "Yeah! Whoo!! [Applause]"

Michael Moore: "So, and that's why they're confused right now. So, when the history of this movement is written this week in Oakland, California will go down as a watershed moment. People, people across America were disgusted by what they saw here, when average Americans trying to stand up and peacefully assemble, to be brutally savaged and attacked by the police department that they pay for! That, that, let me tell you, the footage, you're here. Okay? You're here. We're out there. We've been watching. Millions have watched it. And millions have been inspired by you because the next night you didn't go away! You came back!!"

Crowd: "Yay!! [Applause]"

Michael Moore: "You came back!! You were supposed to go away!!! You were supposed to go away!!! What are you still doing here??!! And then you came back today!!! And you'll be here tomorrow!!! And I'll be with you!!! Thank you very much!!! Occupy Oakland, thank you!!!!

For more of Michael Moore at Occupy Oakland, visit Media Roots.

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6) London Cathedral Stops Legal Action Against Protesters
By RAVI SOMAIYA
November 1, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/world/europe/london-cathedral-st-pauls-stops-legal-action-against-occupy-protesters.html?ref=world

LONDON - St. Paul's Cathedral has suspended legal action to evict hundreds of anti-capitalist protesters camped outside its doors, according to a statement on Tuesday.

The move was "unanimously agreed," the statement said, after the intervention of the Bishop of London, the most senior Anglican figure in the city.

It follows days of turmoil within the church over the camp - a mass of hundreds of tents that is part of the Occupy protest movement. Two of the leaders at the historic church, Canon Giles Fraser and the dean, Graeme Knowles, had resigned in recent days.

The City of London Corporation, a civic body that oversees the financial district, is still pursuing legal action to remove the protesters, and it was reported Tuesday afternoon that it had served eviction notices. The protesters have repeatedly said they will not move, and several volunteer lawyers on site have been negotiating on their behalf.

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7) Government in Greece Teeters After Move on Referendum
By NIKI KITSANTONIS and RACHEL DONADIO
November 1, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/world/europe/markets-tumble-as-greece-plans-referendum-on-latest-europe-aid-deal.html?ref=world

ATHENS - The Greek government was plunged into chaos on Tuesday, as lawmakers rebelled against Prime Minister George Papandreou's surprise call for a popular referendum on a new debt deal with Greece's foreign lenders.

The revolt by lawmakers and a no-confidence vote planned for Friday raised the prospect of a government collapse that would not only render the referendum plan moot but probably would scuttle - or at least delay - the debt deal that European leaders agreed on after marathon negotiations in Brussels last week. That, in turn, could put Greece on a fast track to default and raises the prospect of the country's exit from the monetary union of countries sharing the euro currency.

The chairman of the euro zone finance ministers, Jean-Claude Juncker, warned that simply the plan to hold a referendum endangers an $11 billion loan that Greece was to receive under the bailout deal, and is urgently needed to prevent a Greek default. Mr. Juncker, who is also the prime minister of Luxembourg, added that Greece could face bankruptcy if it votes "no" on the bailout deal.

The political instability in Greece has long dismayed European officials, who fear that it could touch off a financial market panic that could cause a damaging run on other shaky European economies like that of Italy, which is mired in its own political crisis. Indeed, European markets plunged on Tuesday on the news from Greece, in most cases in excess of four percent.

On Tuesday, European leaders said the deal reached last week to write down 50 percent of some Greek debt was the best available way to put Greece on a growth path and to build a financial "firewall," but that bulwark now seems to be breaking down.

In an effort to limit the damage, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France said they would hold emergency talks on Greece with the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and euro zone leaders on Wednesday, news agencies reported. They said they also plan to meet with representatives of the Greek government before a critical meeting of the G-20 group of advanced and emerging economies on Thursday.

Analysts said that Mr. Papandreou's call for a referendum was a last resort, meant to gain broader political support for the unpopular austerity measures in the deal without forcing early elections that would only worsen the country's political and economic turmoil.

But after weeks of mounting pressure, one Socialist lawmaker quit the party to become an independent, reducing Mr. Papandreou's majority to 152 seats out of 300 in Parliament, and another six Socialists wrote a letter calling on Mr. Papandreou to resign and schedule early elections for a new government with greater political legitimacy. Together, the developments made it doubtful whether his government would survive a confidence vote planned for Friday.

Meanwhile, the center-right opposition New Democracy party on Tuesday stepped up its calls for early elections. Its leader, Antonis Samaras, has opposed most of the austerity measures the government accepted in exchange for foreign financial aid. Mr. Samaras has said that if he were in power, he would try to renegotiate the terms of Greece's arrangement with its principal foreign lenders, known as the troika: the European Union, the European Central Bank and the I.M.F.

"Mr. Papandreou, in his effort to save himself, has presented a divisive and extortionate dilemma," Mr. Samaras said on Tuesday. "New Democracy is determined to avert, at all costs, such reckless adventurism."

Mr. Samaras declined to say whether he would ask his 85 members of Parliament to resign, a move that would lead to the dissolution of Parliament and a snap election. The next general election was not due until 2013, when the Socialists' four-year-term expires. Mr. Samaras is expected to clarify his stance at a meeting of his party's parliamentary group on Wednesday.

European leaders have repeatedly dismissed Mr. Samaras's notion of renegotiating Greece's deal with its lenders, saying that trying to do so would be damaging and would throw away months of work on a plan to keep Greece from defaulting.

Mr. Papandreou's referendum proposal seemed to be his last, best hope of retaining power. His political capital has dried up, and he faces intense anger from voters who have been squeezed to the breaking point by the austerity measures demanded by Greece's foreign lenders.

"Papandreou could not take more political punishment," said George Kirtsos, a political analyst and the owner of the Athens City Press. "We have a strange situation: Everyone's cursing the government, and everyone expects the government to do the job by itself - to reorganize the economy, to cut the deficit, to make a deal with the Germans - but at the same time, nobody helps him."

Many Greek voters say they are tired of hearing about decisions taken in foreign capitals and political initiatives that do not represent ordinary Greeks. "The government is no longer in control, others are calling the shots," said Akis Tsirogiannis, a 42-year-old father-of-two who recently lost his job at a furniture workshop in Athens

But he said he shared the skepticism of many other Greeks that snap elections would solve anything. "The opposition parties are even worse than the government," he said. "They don't have a clue about what needs to be done, they just want to grasp the chance to get into power."

He said he would vote against the debt deal in a referendum, should the government survive to hold such a vote. "This deal, like all the others, is a life sentence of austerity for Greeks. The country is being run from the outside - by bankers and the European Union government. We need to reclaim our country, whatever that entails."

Charged by Europe with dismantling the welfare state they helped create, many of Mr. Papandreou's Socialist members of Parliament feel they too have reached their breaking points.

Vasso Papandreou, a prominent member of parliament and a former minister who is not related to the prime minister, called on Greek President Karolos Papoulias to order the formation of a unity government ahead of early general elections. "Bankruptcy is imminent," she said. Earlier this month, Ms. Papandreou said she would vote for a new raft of austerity measures, but that it would be "the last time" she supported the government unconditionally.

If Mr. Papandreou's government falls, it would not be the first one in Europe to be toppled by the austerity demanded by European debt relief. In Ireland and Portugal governments fell after accepting bailouts from the European Union and the I.M.F., and last month the Slovakian government fell over a vote on whether to participate in the European Union's rescue package.

Niki Kitsantonis reported from Athens and Rachel Donadio from Rome. Stephen Castle contributed reporting from Brussels.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 1, 2011

An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of George Kirtsos and rendered incorrectly the name of the Athens newspaper he owns; it is the City Press, not the City Paper.

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8) Dissenting, or Seeking Shelter? Homeless Stake a Claim at Protests
"'If you are hungry and are in need of a meal, we will serve you as long as you do not disrupt the occupiers,' said Michele Watson, one of the managers of the food tent, on a soft and sunny day that was a reminder of why so many homeless people have settled in this city. 'We don't turn anyone away. I don't care what your address is.'"
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
October 31, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/us/dissenting-or-seeking-shelter-homeless-stake-a-claim-at-protests.html?ref=us

LOS ANGELES - Robert Gaffney, who came here from Oklahoma 10 years ago, settled on a scrap of burlap the other day on a grassy hill outside City Hall, surveying the tents and crowd that make up Occupy Los Angeles. For many of his neighbors at City Hall Park, this is a center of protest and political grievance. For Mr. Gaffney, it is the latest piece of land that he calls home.

It is, he said, more comfortable than the sidewalk in Hollywood that he has been living on for the last few months. It is safer and less sketchy than Skid Row, the homeless colony a few blocks away.

"It's different here," said Mr. Gaffney, 31. "I find myself getting sleep. Interesting conversation." He held up a pair of dirty socks. "But I haven't figured out how to do laundry."

Mr. Gaffney is hardly an unusual presence in the Occupy demonstrations across the country these days. From Los Angeles to Wall Street, from Denver to Boston, homeless men and women have joined the protesters in large numbers, or at least have settled in beside them for the night. While the economic deprivation they suffer might symbolize the grievance at the heart of this protest, they have come less for the cause than for what they almost invariably describe as an easier existence. There is food, as well as bathrooms, safety, company and lots of activity to allow them to pass away their days.

"When the tents went up, everybody moved in," Douglas Marra, a homeless person in Denver, said. "They knew they could get stuff for free."

But their presence is posing a mounting quandary for protesters and the authorities, and divisions have arisen among protesters across the country about how much, if at all, to embrace the interlopers. The rising number of homeless, many of them suffering from mental disorders, has made it easier for Occupy's opponents to belittle the movement as vagrant and lawless and has raised the pressure on municipal authorities to crack down.

In Atlanta on Saturday, demonstrators who had been thrown out of Woodruff Park by the police moved into upper floors of the Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter in a full-scale embrace of the cause of the 600 residents who live below them. It gave the demonstration more of a political focus, and not incidentally expanded its size.

"The homeless bring numbers," said Alex Smith Jr., 50, a former repairman who lives at the shelter and joined the protests. "They bring a voice."

But in places like Nashville, New York, Los Angeles and Oakland, Calif., protesters talk about feeling unsafe because of the presence of homeless people.

"There are a lot of them here that have mental problems and that need help. They are in the wrong place," said Jessica Anderson, 22, who is herself homeless, sitting with friends on a tarp at the Los Angeles site. "They have been creating more problems. There was one guy who showed up last night and he would not shut up: Saying all kinds of crazy stuff all night."

In Nashville, organizers described the homeless as more of a detriment to the movement than an asset. "This is keeping people away: It distracts a lot of energy away from the issues we're fighting for when we're just managing life in the camp," said Bob Titley 56, one of the participants in Occupy Nashville. "A lot of women felt unsafe camping out at night. It discourages a lot of people from participating."

The influx of homeless has been continuing at a steady pace, even as the overall populations of some of the demonstrations have faded under the pressures of dropping temperatures, the passage of time and increasingly aggressive police tactics. Some organizers estimated that as many as 30 percent of the people camping out in some cities were chronically homeless, a figure that seems impossible to verify.

That said, in many encampments, the evidence of a homeless population was plentiful amid the more high-quality tents: blankets, shopping carts, piles of clothes, and people sleeping on the grass, a sheet pulled over their heads. Nan Roman, president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, said the demonstrators and the homeless have some shared interests.

"Homeless people, I think, identify with Occupy because it's about inequities," she said. "And it's another group that is trying to live outside. It's not surprising that there's a confluence here."

Interviews across the country attest to the complexity of the situation.

At Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, some homeless have integrated themselves into Occupy Wall Street, protesters said. But others, they said, appeared to be opportunists looking for free food and clothes, and were often disruptive. Hero Vincent, 21, said that he was a member of a security team that roamed the park and has several times broken up disputes involving people who appeared to be homeless.

"It's bad for most of us who came here to build a movement," he said. "We didn't come here to start a recovery institution."

In Chicago, where there has been a steady influx of homeless people, organizers said there were just occasional problems, involving drinking alcohol or provoking violence. "We just ask them to leave," said Taylor Stekkinger, 18, a member the group's organizational committee.

While some homeless people said they were appreciative of the protesters' cause, other said they were more grateful for the amenities. Cameron Rose, 26, who spent the past two months sleeping in restrooms and under highways in Oakland, called it a welcome respite from a life of worry about food and safety.

"If I need clothes, someone donates clothes," he said. "If I need to take a shower, someone helps me find a place to do that. If I need medical help, there are medics here. Everyone gets fed well, 24/7. I need medical marijuana but I have no money. Here, people give it to me."

At a food tent here in Los Angeles, the homeless are often the first in line when a pot of stew comes out, many of them wandering over from Skid Row.

"If you are hungry and are in need of a meal, we will serve you as long as you do not disrupt the occupiers," said Michele Watson, one of the managers of the food tent, on a soft and sunny day that was a reminder of why so many homeless people have settled in this city. "We don't turn anyone away. I don't care what your address is."

Reporting was contributed by Jess Bidgood from Boston, Robbie Brown from Atlanta, Dan Frosch from Denver, Ian Lovett from Los Angeles, Colin Moynihan from New York, Malia Wollan from Oakland, Calif., and Steven Yaccino from Chicago.

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9) Unions Stand with Occupy Movement in Oakland and Nationwide
by Mike Hall
Oct 31, 2011
http://blog.aflcio.org/2011/10/31/unions-stand-with-occupy-movement-in-oakland-and-nationwide/

The Alameda Labor Council and California Labor Federation are standing in solidarity with Occupy Oakland's Nov. 2 Day of Action. In a message to activists, council Executive Secretary-Treasurer Josie Camacho says working families are "inspired by the spirit of the fight against Wall Street."

This Day of Action will be a public demonstration of support for the right to peaceably assembly without interference, and against the growing wealth and income inequality created by Wall Street and the actions of the richest 1 percent.

Along with encouraging noontime worksite actions and joining the 5 p.m. PDT mobilization at Oakland City hall, the labor council and its affiliates will hold a "cookout" to feed everyone taking part.

Last week, police used tear gas to disperse Occupy Oakland protesters and arrested dozens. They have since been allowed to return. But authorities have shut down Occupy actions and arrested protesters in other cities, including Atlanta; Chicago; Richmond, Va.; Rochester, N.Y.; and other cities. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says it is a:

tremendous dishonor to America when the voices for the powerless are suppressed by the powerful-the top 1 percent.

Occupy movements continue to stay strong across the nation. In Montana, union members joined Occupy Helena protesters in a march and rally. Says Montana State AFL-CIO Executive Secretary Al Ekblad:

Occupy Wall Street is students, workers, people of faith, seniors and many more coming together to demand fairness in the financial market, fairness in the social system and fairness in the economy.

A new study the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) buttresses the Occupy Wall Street movement's emphasis that "We Are the 99 Percent" while Wall Street and the wealthy represent the 1 percent of the nation that has cashed in on the economy.

The Occupy Wall Street movement is fundamentally right about how skewed the nation's economic awards have become....Between 1979 and 2006, the annual wages of the top 0.1 percent grew 324 percent and those of the top 1 percent grew 144 percent, while the bottom 90 percent saw gains over that whole period of just 15 percent. The ratio of the wealth held by the wealthiest 1 percent of households to the wealth held by the median household was 225-to-1 in 2009, up from 131-to-1 in 1983.

Click here for the full report:
http://www.epi.org/publication/bp331-occupy-wall-street/

Last week, Vatican officials said Catholic social teaching and the Occupy Wall Street movement agree that the economy should be at the service of people and that strong action must be taken to reduce the growing gap between rich and poor. Cardinal Peter Turkson of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace told the Catholic News Service (CNS):

People who suffer from the way the financial markets currently operate have the right to say, "Do business differently. Look at the way you're doing business because this is not leading to our welfare and our good." If people can hold their government accountable, why can we not hold other institutions in society to accountability?

For more on the faith community and the Occupy Wall Street movement, visit Interfaith Worker Justice here:
http://www.iwj.org/template/index.cfm

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10) Occupy Wall Streeters are right about skewed economic rewards in the United States
[Note: There are many informatie charts at this site...bw]
By Josh Bivens and Lawrence Mishel
Economic Policy Institute
October 26, 2011
http://www.epi.org/publication/bp331-occupy-wall-street/

The Occupy Wall Street movement has captured much the nation's attention with a clear message: A U.S. economy driven by the interests of business and the wealthy has generated increasingly unequal economic outcomes where the top 1 percent did exceptionally well but the vast majority did not do well at all.

According to the data, they're fundamentally right. This paper presents 12 figures that demonstrate how skewed economic rewards (in income, wages, capital income, and wealth) have become in the United States. These figures, most of which cover 1979 through 2007 (prior to the recession) generally break out trends for the top 1 percent, the next richest 9 percent, and then the bottom 90 percent of households or earners. While income growth at the very top-the richest 1 percent and above-has been truly staggering, incomes at roughly the 90th percentile and above (the richest 10 percent) have generally at least matched the rate of economy-wide productivity. It is below the 90th percentile where one really sees the potential fruits of economic growth (as measured by economy-wide productivity) failing to reach American households. An economy that fails to cut in 90 percent of American households on a fair share of economic growth is one that needs serious reform. As the figures show:

* The top 1 percent of households have secured a very large share of all of the gains in income-59.9 percent of the gains from 1979-2007, while the top 0.1 percent seized an even more disproportionate share-36 percent. In comparison, only 8.6 percent of income gains have gone to the bottom 90 percent. The patterns are similar for wages and capital income.
* As they have accrued a large share of income gains, the incomes of the top 1 percent of households have pulled far away from the incomes of typical Americans. In 2007, average annual incomes of the top 1 percent of households were 42 times greater than incomes of the bottom 90 percent (up from 14 times greater in 1979) and incomes of the top 0.1 percent were 220 times greater (up from 47 times greater in 1979).
* The financial sector's share of the overall economy has roughly doubled in recent decades, and now stands at 7.6 percent of total national income. Relative to this sector's share in 1979, this translates into an extra $547 billion in compensation and profits claimed by the sector-a trend with questionable social payoff.
* Growth in wealth, not just incomes, has also become greatly skewed in recent decades. Most of the wealth gains of the last generation went to those who already had the most wealth, a group increasingly distant from the vast American middle-class. The wealth of the median household actually declined over this time period. As a result, in 2009, wealth held by the wealthiest 1 percent of households was 225 times greater than that held by the median household.

The effect of policy on income and wealth inequality

No one who has looked at trends in economic inequality in the United States in recent decades could dispute the dramatic increase in the share of all income claimed by the richest subgroups-especially the highest-earning 1 percent referred to by Occupy Wall Street activists when they say they represent the 99 percent of Americans left behind. Mishel, Bernstein, and Shierholz (2009) present a comprehensive review of these trends and Piketty and Saez (2010, updating earlier reports) explore in more depth the gains enjoyed by the top 1 percent.

There is some disagreement around the edges of the debate concerning just how dramatic this income-share increase was or when exactly it happened-was it steady and continuous, or the result of a couple of discrete "jumps"? And there are those who discount the seriousness of the divide, saying that middle-class incomes are managing to grow despite the huge increase in the top earners' share. But no serious analyst denies that the top 1 percent (of households or tax-units or families) has seen a very large increase in incomes and in share of total income since the late 1970s.

Public policy, either through commission or omission, has played a central role in the increasing concentration of income. For example, Baker (2006), Bivens (2010), and Hacker and Pierson (2010) have all documented the role of various policies in generating greater inequality. The decade-long surge in income inequality occurred in pre-tax incomes, driven by developments in both major kinds of market-based incomes, namely the wage and salary incomes from work, and capital incomes (realized capital gains, interest, dividends) from wealth. And we know that the most obvious way policy can affect incomes-through taxes-has clearly aided the widening of the income gap. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) shows that even as their share of total incomes more than doubled between 1979 and 2007, the richest 1 percent of household's effective federal tax rate fell from 37 percent to 29.5 percent.

The clear policy tilt in favor of the highest-income households in the completely visible realm of taxes suggests that this group receives preferential treatment in the much more opaque policy decisions that get made in Washington every day. For example, Bartels (2007) shows how policymakers give much larger weight to the preferences of richer constituents.

What the Occupy Wall Street movement has done with its "We are the 99 percent" campaign is to remind Americans that economic outcomes are not just like the weather, something that must simply be endured and adapted to rather than forced to change. Instead, economic outcomes are shaped by political decisions. This insight is valuable because it confers the power to challenge the status quo, which is often preserved by claims that economic rewards are doled out through simple meritocracy and that any interference with market outcomes will wreck the economy. It's not so. Markets are always shaped by policy, and policies in the United States have been shaped to benefit the already well-off. Changing the rules to ensure that rewards are more broadly shared can lead to an economy that is both more efficient and more fair.
The widening income gap

Figures A-C display trends in growth of overall market incomes, including wages and salaries as well as interest, dividend, and capital income generated by holding wealth. In the long period before the current recession, from 1979 to 2007, inflation-adjusted average annual incomes of the highest-income 1 percent of households grew by 224 percent, as shown in Figure A. Those even better off, the top 0.1 percent (the highest-income one one-thousandth of households), saw their incomes grow by 390 percent. In contrast, incomes of the bottom 90 percent grew just 5 percent between 1979 and 2007-and all of that growth occurred in the unusually strong income growth that occurred from 1997 to 2000, a period followed by declining income from 2000 to 2007.1 These data include all sources of market-based incomes such as wages and salaries, dividend and interest income, and realized capital gains, but do not include government transfer income (such as Social Security income or unemployment benefits).

Because of their vastly greater income growth, the highest-earning 1 percent of households have rapidly distanced themselves from the vast majority (the bottom 90 percent). As Figure B shows, average annual incomes of the top 1 percent of households in 1979 were 14 times greater than incomes of the bottom 90 percent; by 2007 incomes of the top 1 percent were 42 times greater. The income gap between the upper 0.1 percent of households and the bottom 90 percent grew even more, from a top-to-bottom ratio of 47-to-1 in 1979 to 220-to-1 in 2007.

The vastly greater income growth of the top highest-income 1 percent of households also obtained a much larger share of income growth than the vast majority (the bottom 90 percent). As shown in Figure C, the top 1 percent gained 59.9 percent of all the income growth generated between 1979 and 2007. In contrast, the bottom 90 percent received just 8.6 percent of all the income generated over the same period. It's illuminating to note that the bottom 90 percent were able to claim just one-fourth of what the top one one-thousandth of households claimed from the growth of that period (36 percent).

Rising inequality in income from work

Figures D-F examine the rising inequality of wage and salary income-in other words, income from work. Labor earnings are by far the most evenly distributed sources of overall income because, after all, the vast majority of non-retired households have members that work. Yet labor earnings have become much more unequally distributed in recent decades. Figure D shows that the top 1 percent of wage and salary earners increased their inflation-adjusted average annual salaries by 144% from 1979 to 2006. The top one one-thousandth (0.1 percent) of earners enjoyed annual wages growth of 324 percent over that same period.

In contrast, the bottom 90 percent of wage earners increased their annual salaries by about 15 percent from 1979 to 2006. Most of this growth occurred during the relatively brief period of tight labor markets that accompanied the late 1990s boom. Between 1979 and 1995, average annual wages for the lowest-earning 90 percent grew just 2.8 percent. And from 2000 and 2006, wages did not improve at all. Thus, nearly all of the wage and salary growth of the bottom 90 percent from 1979 to 2006 occurred from 1995 to 2000 when unemployment was falling and then remained low.2

As with overall incomes, the disparity in wage growth has significantly widened the gap in salary levels between the top earners and everyone else, as shown in Figure E. In 1979 average annual salaries of the top 1 percent of wage earners were 9.4 times that of those in the bottom 90 percent, but by 2000 the gap had more than doubled to 20-to-1, a level that was maintained until 2006.

The very highest-wage earners-those in the upper 0.1 percent (the top one one-thousandth)-increased their distance from the earners in the bottom 90 percent even more rapidly; the ratio of their earnings to those in the bottom 90 percent rose from 21-to-1 in 1979 to 80-to-1 in 2000. This gap shrank after the stock market bubble burst in the late 1990s (wage data include the "realized stock options" that top corporate officers receive) but had nearly recovered its former size by 2006.

Figure F looks directly at the ratio of average compensation earned by the chief executive officers of large firms relative to the compensation of typical workers. In 1978, CEO compensation was 35 times greater than that of the typical worker, up from 24 times as great in 1965. After 1979 the pay of CEOs skyrocketed; by 2000 their pay was 299 times that the pay of a typical worker.

That level of CEO pay was admittedly somewhat inflated by the stock market boom in the late 1990s, and retreated significantly after the tech bubble burst. However, by 2007, CEO pay had nearly restored itself, attaining a ratio of 277-to-1 relative to pay of a typical worker. CEO pay fell again relative to typical workers in the Great Recession but is again reestablishing itself in the recovery. In 2010, the ratio of 243-to-1 was the fifth highest of any year since 1965. At this rate, it will likely not take long for the gap to reach its prior peak.3
Increasing concentration of income from wealth-holding

Figures G-H show that the trend of rapidly growing concentration in overall income and labor earnings is also apparent in the growth of income earned from wealth-holding, often labeled either "unearned" or "capital" income. Essentially, capital incomes are always and everywhere less equally distributed than wage income. As shown in Figure G, in 1979 the top 1 percent of households on the income scale already claimed 38 percent of all capital income generated in the economy. By 2007 this share had ballooned to 57 percent. The next richest 9 percent saw their share of capital incomes shrink from 29 percent in 1979 to 23 percent in 2007. And the bottom 90 percent, which collected 33 percent of capital incomes in 1979, claimed only 20 percent by 2007. This startling concentration of already unequally distributed capital incomes defies the logic of claims that there is a natural limit to how much of the fruits of economic growth can go to any one group.

The very large rise in the share of all capital incomes collected by the highest-income 1 percent since 1979 means that this group has also collected a disproportionate share of the growth in these incomes over the same period. Basically, if the top 1 percent's share of all capital incomes had remained constant between 1979 and 2007, they would have claimed 37 percent of capital income growth in the economy in those years. Instead, as Figure H shows, the top 1 percent alone collected a whopping 86.5 percent of growth in capital incomes during this period.4 The next highest-income 4 percent claimed 10.7 percent of all capital income growth while the bottom 95 percent claimed just 2.8 percent of the growth in these incomes. This figure departs from the convention of the other charts in not isolating the bottom 90 percent because their average capital incomes fell between 1979 and 2007, registering as negative capital income growth, which is hard to depict in a pie chart.

The financial sector's increasing claim on growth

Much of the rising share of total income claimed by the top-earning 1 percent is associated with the rise of the financial sector, which is a dominant employer at the top. Figure I shows the share of total gross domestic product, or national income, attributable to compensation and profits in the corporate financial sector. Between 1929-just before the Great Depression ended the first Gilded Age-and 1973, this share fell from 3.7 percent to 3.2 percent. But between 1973 and 2007, this share more than doubled, to nearly 7 percent.

And financial sector compensation and profits' share of GDP rebounded quickly from the dip of the Great Recession and actually passed its pre-recession peak. By 2010, in fact, the rising share of finance translates into an extra $547 billion claimed by this sector relative to the case where its share had remained at its 1979 level (3.8 percent). This is serious money. The payoff to these larger claims made by the financial sector are dubious. For example, business investment in plant and equipment (i.e., the productivity-generating investment that financial firms are supposed to make cheaper and safer) did not rise between 1973 and 2007. Residential investment, outside of the bubble-inflated mid-2000s, has also failed to show any persistent upward climb during the time that the financial sector has claimed an ever-larger piece of the pie. It is, in short, not off-base to wonder whether there is any return to forking over a much larger share of economic activity to the financial sector.
The concentration of wealth

The concentration of wealth has mirrored trends in the concentration of income. Wealth is a measure of a household's assets (such as real estate, stocks, bonds, and cash) minus their liabilities (such as home mortgages and other personal debt). The only available data covering recent decades dates back to 1983 and shows that the wealth held by the wealthiest 1% of households grew far more than the wealth of the median household, whose wealth was actually lower in 2009 than in 1983. Figure J shows that the wealth of the top 1 percent grew over the 1980s and '90s and by 2007 was 103 percent greater than in 1983. The financial crisis in 2008 reduced the wealth of those at the top but by 2009 their wealth remained 48 percent greater than in 1983. The median household's wealth fared far worse. After falling in the early 1990s the median household's wealth rose and was 48 percent greater in 2007 than in 1983. But the fall of wealth in the financial crisis was sharper for those in the middle than at the top because those in the middle have much of their wealth in housing, values of which fell dramatically after the housing bubble burst. By 2009 the median household's wealth had fallen so much that their wealth was 13.5 percent less than what it was in 1983.5

Not surprisingly, the gap between the wealth of those at the top and those in the middle substantially grew over the last few decades, as Figure K shows. In 1983 the wealthiest 1 percent of households had wealth that was 131 times greater than wealth of the median household. This gap grew until the early 1990s and again in the 2000s, and by 2009 the top 1 percent had 225 times as much wealth as the median household.6

Perhaps more startlingly, more than 94 percent of the gains in wealth from 1983 to 2009 accrued to the top fifth of wealthiest households, with 40.2 percent of the gains going to the wealthiest 1 percent and 41.5 percent going to the next wealthiest 4 percent of households (Figure L). This translated to gains among the wealthiest 1 percent of $4.5 million per household and gains among the next wealthiest 4 percent of roughly $1.2 million per household.7

In other words, the richest 5 percent of households obtained roughly 82 percent of all the nation's gains in wealth between 1983 and 2009. The bottom 60 percent of households actually had less wealth in 2009 than in 1983, meaning they did not participate at all in the growth of wealth over this period.
Basing policy in the true picture of income and wealth

The insights offered by the data on income, wealth, and inequality should shape the economic policy debate going forward. Most immediately, they should inform budget deficit debates about what the United States can "afford." The nation can easily afford more federal government support aimed at reducing today's historically high and persistent rates of joblessness. In fact it is the cheapest option in all major economic respects (Mishel 2011).

Once the current crisis of joblessness has passed and smaller imbalances between federal investment and revenues are appropriately targeted, attention should turn to supporting the same level of economic security and dignity that we have provided for generations. This would mean ending the unnecessary calls to close budget deficits by cutting the benefits provided by Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Thirty years of economic data show that the U.S. economy has generated significant levels of income and should continue to do so into the future; in other words, there is no economic constraint that mandates that we scale back expectations for living standards growth in coming years (Mishel 2011). But this vast income that has been generated has been distributed in an extremely skewed fashion; typical American families have not benefitted from it nearly as much as they could have. This is a political problem that, if solved, has the potential to make our country more fair and the vast majority of its citizens more prosperous.

The politics of economic policymaking may be broken, but the U.S. economy is not broke, the data show. The country does have the economic wherewithal to provide a decent standard of living for all.
Endnotes

1. Economic Policy Institute analysis of "Table A6: Top fractiles income levels (including capital gains) in the United States" from "Income Inequality in the United States, 1913-1998" with Thomas Piketty, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118(1), 2003, 1-39 (Longer updated version published in A.B. Atkinson and T. Piketty eds., Oxford University Press, 2007) (Tables and Figures updated to 2008 in Excel format, July 2010).

2. Based on Table 3.10 in Mishel, Bernstein, and Shierholz (2009), which uses data from Kopczuk, Saez and Song (2007), Table A-3. Data in Table 3.10 for 2006 was extrapolated from 2004 data using growth rates from Social Security Administration wage statistics (http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/COLA/awidevelop.html). SSA provides data on share of total wages and employment in annual wage brackets such as for those earning between $95,000.00 and $99,999.99. We employ the midpoint of the bracket to compute total wage income in each bracket and sum all brackets. Our estimate of total wage income was 99.1 percent of the actual. We used interpolation to derive cutoffs building from the bottom up to obtain the 0-90 percent bracket and then estimating the remaining categories. This allowed us to estimate the wage shares for upper wage groups. To obtain absolute wage trends we used the SSA data on the total wage pool and employment and computed the real wage per worker (based on their share of wages and employment) in the different groups.

3. The CEO pay data are described in the table note for table 3.41 in Mishel, Bernstein, and Shierholz (2009).The compensation data for typical workers comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' series on average hourly earnings of production, non-supervisory workers inflated to compensation using the ratio of compensation to wages in the Bureau of Economic Analysis National Income and Product Accounts.

4. The data in Figure G comes directly from the Congressional Budget Office, which calculates the share of all capital income going to various income groupings. Figure H is calculated by EPI with slightly different data, specifically the CBO estimates of average incomes' sources of incomes by income groupings. What are being labeled as growth in capital incomes between 1979 and 2007 in Figure H are dividends, interest payments, capital gains, and "other business income," which includes partnership income, income from S corporations, and rental income.

5. The data on wealth are based on Wolff's analysis of the Federal Reserve Board's Survey of Consumer Finances presented in Table 3 of Allegretto (2010)

6. Ibid.

7. Ibid.
References

Allegretto, Sylvia. 2009. The State of Working America's Wealth, 2011: Through Volatility and Turmoil the Gap Widens. Economic Policy Institute Briefing Paper #292. Washington, D.C.: EPI.

Bartels, Larry M. 2008. Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

Bivens, Josh. 2011. Failure by Design: The Story behind America's Broken Economy. An Economic Policy Institute Book. Ithaca, N.Y.: ILR Press, an imprint of Cornell University Press.

Congressional Budget Office (CBO). June 2010. "Average Federal Tax Rates for All Households, by Comprehensive Household Income Quintile." Washington, D.C.: CBO. http://www.cbo.gov/publications/collections/tax/2010/all_tables.pdf

Hacker, Jacob S. and Paul Pierson. 2010. Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer - And Turned Its Back on the Middle Class. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Mishel, Lawrence. 2011. We're not broke nor will we be: Policy choices will determine whether rising national income leads to a prosperous middle class. Economic Policy Institute Briefing Paper #310. Washington, D.C.: EPI. http://www.epi.org/publication/were_not_broke_nor_will_we_be/

Mishel, Lawrence, Jared Bernstein, and Heidi Shierholz. 2009. The State of Working America 2008/2009. An Economic Policy Institute Book. Ithaca, N.Y.: ILR Press, an imprint of Cornell University Press.

Piketty, Thomas and Emmanuel Saez. 2010. Excel tables and figures with 2008 data updating "Income Inequality in the United States, 1913-1998," Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118(1), 2003, 1-39 (longer updated version published in A.B. Atkinson and T. Piketty eds., Oxford University Press, 2007).

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11) Court Lets Nashville Protesters Stay
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
October 31, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/us/court-lets-nashville-protesters-stay.html?ref=us

A federal judge on Monday ruled in support of dozens of protesters in Nashville who were arrested over the weekend.

The protesters are allowed to be on state property near the Tennessee Capitol at any time of day, according to the temporary order by Judge Aleta A. Trauger of Federal District Court.

The protesters, part of a national movement opposing corporate greed and wealth inequality that was inspired by Occupy Wall Street, were arrested on Friday and Saturday morning for violating a recently created curfew.

The judge's order came in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on Monday arguing that the arrests violated the protesters' right to free assembly.

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12) Brooklyn Detective Convicted of Planting Drugs on Innocent People
By TIM STELLOH
November 1, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/nyregion/brooklyn-detective-convicted-of-planting-drugs-on-innocent-people.html?ref=nyregion

The New York Police Department, already saddled with corruption scandals, saw its image further tainted on Tuesday with the conviction of a police detective for planting drugs on a woman and her boyfriend.

The bench verdict from Justice Gustin L. Reichbach in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn stemmed from incidents committed in 2007 by the defendant, Jason Arbeeny, a 14-year Police Department veteran.

But the case against Detective Arbeeny was rooted in a far larger tale of corruption in Police Department drug units: Several narcotics officers in Brooklyn have been caught mishandling drugs they seized as evidence, and hundreds of potentially tainted drug cases have been dismissed. The city has made payments to settle civil suits over wrongful incarcerations.

During the trial, prosecutors described the corruption within the Police Department drug units that Detective Arbeeny worked for; one former detective, who did not know the defendant, testified that officers in those units often planted drugs on innocent people. That former detective, Stephen Anderson, has pleaded guilty to official misconduct over a 2008 episode involving drug evidence and now faces two years to four years in prison.

The conviction of Detective Arbeeny on charges of falsifying business records, official misconduct and offering a false instrument for filing, was merely the latest example of police corruption, prosecutors said.

On Jan. 25, 2007, prosecutors said Detective Arbeeny planted a small bag of crack cocaine on two innocent people.

The detective's lawyer, Michael Elbaz, tried to discredit the most important prosecution witnesses, Yvelisse DeLeon and her boyfriend, Juan Figueroa. Ms. DeLeon had testified that the couple drove up to their apartment building in Coney Island and were approached by two plainclothes police officers. She said she then saw Detective Arbeeny remove a bag of powder from his pocket and place it in the vehicle.

"He brought out his pocket," Ms. DeLeon told the court. "He said, 'Look what I find.' It looked like little powder in a little bag."

Later in 2007, the detective was accused of stealing multiple bags of cocaine from the prisoner van he had been assigned to; Justice Reichbach found Detective Arbeeny not guilty of those charges.

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13) Bank of America Drops Plan for Debit Card Fee
By TARA SIEGEL BERNARD
November 1, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/business/bank-of-america-drops-plan-for-debit-card-fee.html?ref=business

Bank of America said Tuesday that it was abandoning its plan to charge its customers a $5 fee to use their debit cards, just a month after announcing the new fee.

The reversal follows a huge backlash from customers, one of whom collected more than 200,000 signatures urging the bank to rethink its plan.

The bank listened, but only after other large banks had indicated that they would not impose similar fees. Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, SunTrust and Regions Financial have all pulled back on their plans.

"We have listened to our customers very closely over the last few weeks and recognize their concern with our proposed debit usage fee," David Darnell, co-chief operating officer at Bank of America, said in a statement. "As a result, we are not currently charging the fee and will not be moving forward with any additional plans to do so."

Wells Fargo said Friday that it was canceling a test that would have imposed a $3-a-month charge on debit card holders in Georgia, Nevada, New Mexico, Washington and Oregon. JPMorgan Chase, which was testing a $3-a-month charge, decided it would not impose a stand-alone debit card use fee. And SunTrust and Regions have both said they would no longer charge the fees.

But Bank of America, the nation's second-largest bank after JPMorgan Chase, took the brunt of the criticism, which came from all corners, including Capitol Hill and the White House. Days after the bank announced that it would charge the fee, President Obama said customers should not be "mistreated" in pursuit of profit, while Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. called the move "incredibly tone deaf."

The debit card fee was supposed to have gone into effect in January.

The new fees were part of efforts by the banks to raise revenue lost elsewhere.

In October, a new rule went into effect that limits the fees banks can levy on merchants every time a consumer uses a debit card to make a purchase. The new limit is expected to cost the banks about $6.6 billion in revenue a year, beginning in 2012, according to Javelin Strategy and Research. That comes on top of another loss, of $5.6 billion, from new rules restricting overdraft fees, which went into effect in July 2010.

But consumers have little sympathy for the banks' loss of revenue. In fact, consumer groups have called for Saturday to be "Bank Transfer Day," where customers of big banks move their accounts to community banks and credit unions.

"Bank of America's new debit card fee was the last straw for many consumers who are tired of banks that got bailed out that are now turning around and hiking fees," Norma Garcia, manager of Consumer Union's financial services program, said in a statement.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 1, 2011

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to Bank of America as the nation's largest bank. JPMorgan Chase has overtaken Bank of America in assets, according to third-quarter results released in October.

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14) Court Unlikely to Allow Private Prison to Be Sued
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 1, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/11/01/business/AP-US-Supreme-Court-Private-Prisons.html?src=busln

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court seems unlikely to allow employees at a privately run federal prison to be sued by an inmate in federal court.

The high court on Tuesday heard arguments by lawyers from the GEO Group, formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections Corp. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Richard Lee Pollard could sue GEO officials for injuries he suffered while imprisoned in Taft, Calif.

But the company running the prison says their employees shouldn't be sued in federal court because prisoners are required to use state courts first.

Justices repeatedly questioned Pollard's lawyer about why his client did not file a state negligence lawsuit against GEO officials. Pollard's lawsuit will be dismissed if he can't sue in federal court, because the state statute of limitations has expired.

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15) "Historical Reflections on Our Current Tasks"
From Ralph SCHOENMAN

1. RECLAIMING THE SOCIALIST IDEAL
by Ralph Schoenman

Globally, mass disaffection, combined with the advancing terminal crisis of the financial system and of capitalism itself, has created the conditions for revolution.

Consequently, each mass response, however triggered, precipitates this dynamic.

The socialist movement and marxist tradition prepare us to understand that the central battle for a democratic polity is to ensure that the economic life of society is determined and controlled democratically.

That's basic.

The key contradiction of our era is that productive forces globally are so vast and, in the industrial metropole, so tied to technological power that we have now the capacity to create a society in which all basic necessities of people are a birthright - as free as the air we breathe.

Our demands should start from the premise that the 99% should determine democratically the purposes of production and the fruit of our labor.

Reclaiming the socialist ideal is inextricably bound up with the central insight of the growing mass movement, that in the U.S. as in other capitalist societies, 1% of the population owns more than 99% of the rest of us combined.

We need in each society political parties and program that advocate and implement the needs of the overwhelming majority of working people who produce all value through their labor.

Working people should determine whether houses and schools, hospitals and libraries, critical transport infrastructure, and the studied advance of scientific knowledge are the objectives of our common labor, or social production remains under the dictate of the exploitative few, a perpetual instrument of profit, exploitation, war and devastation.

Working people should enforce that wars to steal the natural resources and labor power of fellow workers across the world are eliminated and their perpetrators prosecuted as criminals.

We need to build political parties of the working population not the parasitic bosses. Our task is to end the dictatorship of capital that owns and pays for the political process and the dominant parties that service it.

That was the essence of Tony Mazzochi's slogan for the labor party: "the bosses have two parties; we need one of our own."

If democratic determination and control over the purposes of production are called "socialist" by our class opponents, our response should be the same as early American revolutionaries who challenged colonial rule and were demonized by the satraps of the ruling few: "If this be treason, make the most of it!"

"If this be socialism, make the most of it!" is our response.

Democracy requires a unity between economic and political functioning - in which the social fabric of the societies we inhabit and create is based upon economic emancipation of all living life with a political structure that facilitates and ensures basic and perpetual social growth and advance.

This is the arena in which new explosions of creativity will emerge with each generation and vindicate the declaration by Marx that we are living through our pre-history - the early infancy of growth, achievement and fulfillment for all species on this small planet.

2] What Strategy to Fight Global Capitalism?

Contribution to the Open World Conference in Defense of Trade Union Independence and Democratic Rights (OWC) discussion by Ralph Schoenman, author, past executor director of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation and member of the coordinating committee of the International Committee Against Repression (ICAR)

[Note: Ralph Schoenman, a longstanding fighter for trade union and democratic rights, was a panelist in the OWC's workshop on the "Struggle Against Racism and Oppression and in Defense of Democratic Rights." He submitted the article below as a contribution to the OWC report-back discussion and as a presentation to the plenary session.

By RALPH SCHOENMAN

The Open World Conference in Defense of Trade Union Independence and Democratic Rights (OWC) aims at building an international fight-back by workers and their unions against the onslaught of global capital.

We all know how powerful are the multinational corporations who operate in every country. What we must keep in mind as we raise our voices in defense of working people—the vast and overwhelming majority of the inhabitants of our planet—is that the great corporate conglomerates have captured the state in each and every one of our respective countries.

Whatever the forms of nominal governance, the real power is hidden and concentrated in the hands of a tiny oligarchy of the ruling rich. This is true whether our countries are run by a family dictatorship, as in Indonesia or Nigeria, or whether there are nominal forms of representation, as in the United States.

Regardless of the façade, in each and every one of our countries, the real power remains in the hands of the few.

In the United States, the New York Times estimated recently that one- half of one percent of the population in the United States owns more than the rest of the population combined. The top executives of eight companies, reported the Times on February 15, 1998, own personally $15 billion of their companies' equity.

No matter what yardstick we use, the powerful few run the show. The government administers the state and the rich purchase it. The state itself is their private instrument used to police the planet and to subsidize control over planetary resources and cheap labor by the corporations and the banks.

"Rich Control More of U.S. Wealth As Debts Grow for Poor," reads one headline in the New York Times. The article reports an in-depth study prepared by the University of Michigan that shows that wealth has become more concentrated than ever before since 1990.

Features of capitalism

Unionists and activists are mobilizing internationally against the sweatshops and starvation wages, which are the main feature of conditions of work in the global economy.

For every worker laboring from dawn to dusk in a condition of near slavery, there are vast numbers who have no work at all. These conditions are the result of political and economic policies. They are not natural phenomena. They are the inexorable workings of a capitalist economy in which profits depend upon a perpetual war on the earnings of the workers whose labor produces all wealth.

Thousands upon thousands mobilized on this International Day of Action because we want an end to the misery and exploitation that define the waking hours of billions of human beings.

We attribute this to the "trade" policies of global corporations, and while we are right to decry the results, it is important to examine what passes for trade in the global economy.

The notion of "trade" presupposes co-equals sitting down together to exchange things of value. It would be far more accurate to say that the policies of the global corporations who run the economies of our countries involve theft: theft of natural resources and theft of the labor of working people.

The global corporations design policies that they call "trade agreements"—such as NAFTA, Maastricht or the MAI. These are not trade agreements. These are strategic assaults upon the resources of the planet and the living standards of its inhabitants.

Take NAFTA. Since its imposition, the global corporations centered in the United States eliminated nearly a half million jobs. The wages of Mexican workers in the manufacturing sector have fallen 40 percent within Mexico and are one-eleventh of what had been paid for equivalent work to workers in the U.S.

Much work, however, has been concentrated along the border where U.S. companies produce goods for the U.S. market. At the Zenith plant in Reynosa, workers are paid 69 cents per hour.

Not only wages have been under siege. Social services have been assailed. Healthcare has deteriorated drastically. The cost of food and clothing has soared. The housing stock has dwindled to a fraction of its previous meager supply.

Are social clauses a solution?

Some contend that the introduction of social clauses—that is, environmental and labor clauses—into such pacts as NAFTA, Maastricht and the MAI would soften the impact of these agreements by providing protections for workers and the environment.

There is no evidence that such protections are feasible or that corporate rulers would agree to them. The essence of NAFTA, Maastricht and the MAI is the restructuring of work so that work becomes precarious and workers wholly vulnerable to corporate dictate. Job security, a living wage, social benefits, safe working conditions, and eight-hour day and independent union representation are precisely those gains of the workers' movement which these pacts target for elimination.

Even if some palliative passages were incorporated into these strategic corporate plans, NAFTA, Maastricht and the MAI were designed to dislocate and atomize workers. Such presumed protective clauses would be subject to the interpretation and implementation of the corporations themselves.

Moreover, whether the labor and environmental clauses are in the form of side agreements or whether they are within the body of the agreements themselves, there is no mechanism of enforcement on which the workers can rely.

Workers are being removed systematically from secure employment under NAFTA. Manufacturing jobs are offered on the basis of reduced wages and increased hours and, in large measure, are being replaced by sweatshop pass-through work. It should be clear, therefore, to all worker activists that such protective social clauses are incompatible with the entire dynamic of global capitalism today. Reliance on the bosses to implement protective language will prove to be an exercise in futility.

We cannot defend our interests by supplicating corporate rulers to be "good citizens" or to be nice and refrain from exploiting working people. Our demand must be for the right to independent trade unions and the protection of worker rights, so that the power of global capital can be confronted by workers on an international scale.

The agreements are not about trade. They are designed to render workers disposable, replaceable and without the capacity to organize collectively in their own interests.

Corporate capital is driven to this course because capitalism cannot sustain profits in the present era without deepening exploitation to levels not seen since the onset of the industrial revolution. This cannot be achieved without dislocating and fragmenting the organization of workers and undermining them as a cohesive class. Wherever workers have wrested gains, these gains and the organization of working people are under siege.

One-sided class warfare

NAFTA—as President Clinton has repeated ad nauseam—is the model that is to be imposed on the entire continent.

Does this super-exploitation translate into benefits for workers in the United States? Quite the opposite is the case. Full-time work is being eliminated in the United States and replaced with part-time, precarious work precisely so the corporations can pay wages of 69 cents an hour.

Is this a "trade" measure or a form of warfare—class warfare aga
Can we attribute this solely to "trade" agreements such as NAFTA or to the MAI? While these schemes are part of the arsenal of class warfare, it is essential for us to keep in mind that they are weapons in a brutal conflict and we must never lose sight of the war and who wages it.

Today we speak of the global corporations. A few years ago we called them multinationals and a few years before that we spoke and wrote about the Tri-Lateral Commission instead of about NAFTA and the MAI.

Yet, no matter the instrument through which exploitation is both managed and planned, it is the control of the state by concentrated capital that makes it possible.
Nor does it matter which of the two political parties financed by capital holds office. It is office without power because the two parties are the one big property party with separate names.

True face of imperialism

Woodrow Wilson spoke of "making the world safe for democracy," but when addressing the manufacturers of the United States, his message was clear:

"If," Wilson stated in 1912, "America had not had free enterprise, it would not have any sort of liberty at all.” Later that year, he proclaimed Our industry has developed to the point where it collapses unless it finds a free opening on the world market. Our home market is insufficient. We must have a foreign trade." (cited in Against the Crime of Silence: Proceedings of the International Tribunal on U.S. War Crimes in Indochina, Editor John Duffett, New York, 1968)

Herbert Hoover expressed the core policy of the rule of capital in parallel terms:

"Foreign markets will be more important for us, to assure a stable and normal function of our industry. … It assumes of an importance that is greater than the percentage of export in relation to home consumption." (Ibid.)

These were the identical preoccupations of Franklin Roosevelt and of the New Deal. Roosevelt's President of the National Industrial Conference Board, Virgil Jordan, put it like this on December 10, 1940:

"Whatever the outcome of the war may be, America has taken the road towards imperialism on an economic plane as on all other planes of life. Some fear this word ‘imperialism,’ some menacing and well known. Most people prefer, in the American way, to mask the fact under a more vague expression, such as 'defense of the Western Hemisphere.' But consciously or not, America is destined by her temperament, by her capacity by her resources, and by the course of world affairs, not alone of those of the last few years, but since 1900, destined to follow this road.

"Truly we have no choice. We have but to continue on the road that we have been going along for a quarter of a century and which began with the annexation of Cuba and the Philippines, etc. (sic)

“This Empire is seeing its possibilities for expansion on the southern part of this hemisphere and west – in the Pacific – disappearing. The scepter must fall in the hands of the U.S.A.” (Ibid.)

Those who voted for Franklin Roosevelt did not give their knowing sanction to the seizure of countries and the imposition of empire. The CIO in that day was opposed to such things, even as the AFL-CIO today opposes NAFTA and the MAI.

The imperialism celebrated by Virgil Jordan was only possible because the support by organized labor for the Democratic Party demobilized working people and prevented them from forging their own political party to defend our interests. The "no-strike" pledges exacted by the Roosevelt administration permitted these policies to be carried out unopposed.

The gap widens

Today, as the U.S. Census Bureau Report confirms, "the gap between the affluent few and everyone else is wider than it has been since the end of World War Two." As the New York Times (6/19/96) commented, "each indicator has shown a pronounced increase in the gap between the incomes of the wealthy and those of the poor and the working class."

We suffer from greater poverty and deprivation than we did in this country a half- century ago.

The U.S. Census Bureau Report reveals that during the first two years of the Clinton administration, the share of national income claimed by the top 5% grew at a faster rate than in the previous eight years of the Reagan administration combined.

The Census Bureau Report concluded: "the widening disparity in the fortunes of American workers is becoming an entrenched fixture of the country's economy."

How does this work? Forbes reveals that the top corporate rulers control $3.2 trillion in business assets alone. They own 50% of all common stock in America and 45% of all fixed non-residential private capital in the United States.

The conservative Cato Institute calculates that in every sector of our economy the giant corporations are subsidized by the Federal Government. Congress finances 125 subsidy programs for the largest corporations at a net cost of $85 billion per year, not including tax breaks. The top 17 corporations paid no federal income tax for a period of ten years. When we add in the tax breaks, that is a subsidy of over $100 billion—half the Federal deficit.

In agriculture, agro-conglomerates receive $31.3 billion in government subsidies and $2.9 billion in tax rebates. Energy corporations are subsidized to the tune of $15.3 billion. Transportation conglomerates receive $30.6 billion. Aerospace and high tech get $16.7 billion in subsidy. In construction, the major corporations receive $17.4 billion. Financial services—banks, brokerage houses and the great centers of stock and bond speculation—receive $42.3 billion, with tax breaks of $60.4 billion. Commodity credit subsidies are $9.81 billion.

These are not government programs. These are handouts to the corporate oligarchy that owns the government and finances both political parties with the proceeds.

This is why 60 cents of every tax dollar go to the Pentagon and less than a dime to health care. This is how 3 cents get allocated to housing and much of that housing for the affluent. This is why 2 cents go to education and most of that channeled to the schools of the affluent. This is what permits 1 cent to be allocated to generate employment.

While they do this, a child dies of poverty every 50 minutes in the United States. Hundreds of thousands of children are homeless each night. One in every five children goes to bed hungry and cold, without heat, running water and electricity in the rat-infested cages that pass for shelter in our inner cities.

The policies that transfer jobs to the global sweatshops have precise and measurable consequences, described by CNN on March 20. Ten million children will die each year from contaminated water in the countries from which the greatest profits are generated. One-fifth of the world's population lacks potable water. The World Health Organization estimates that over the next two decades, 70 million people will die from a form of tuberculosis that is curable by a simple administration of an antibiotic, and one billion people will be infected.

While the health of the workers of the world is in crisis mode, what of the compensation reaped by the health conglomerates and their corporate controllers?

Richard L. Scott of Columbia HCA received $265.5 million in one year. Peter Nicholson of Boston Scientific Corporation got $231.1 million. David Jones of Humana, Inc. obtained $194.4 million. Leon C. Hirsch of U.S. Surgical Company was paid $105.8 million.

This was just the salary. Leonard Abramson of U.S. Health Care received stock options of $11.4 million, but outright stock holdings of $783.9 million His total compensation package was $805,122,045. The total federal spending on AIDS was $1.4 billion—half of the value of the stockholdings of the top ten health industry executives.

These payments are across the board among corporate conglomerates, as documented in the Special Report in Business Week (April 20, 1998).

Working class independence

The power of global capital can only be challenged by a fight back on a global scale. Unless we organize ourselves in the workplace and politically in every country and build an international party of working people, we shall never escape the control of global capital.

We need organization and political parties independent of capital if we are to devise our own programs and fight for the power to implement them.

To achieve independent class organization, we must build labor parties that can break the capitalist monopoly over the political process. Without this, working people will be led repeatedly into an impasse, helpless and passive tools of the political instruments of their class enemy.

Let us join together in discussing how we can break with the political parties of capital in every country: with the Democrats no less than the Republicans in the United States, with the parties administering the policies of the IMF everywhere.

Let us join together in building that party of working people. As the anthem of the workers' movement proclaims, it is the final battle and, for humanity's sake, we must wage it to win.

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16) Fears of Fission Rise at Stricken Japanese Plant
By HIROKO TABUCHI
November 2, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/world/asia/bursts-of-fission-detected-at-fukushima-reactor-in-japan.html?ref=world

TOKYO — Nuclear workers at the crippled Fukushima power plant raced to inject boric acid into the plant’s No. 2 reactor early Wednesday after telltale radioactive elements were detected there, and the plant’s owner admitted for the first time that fuel deep inside three stricken reactors was probably continuing to experience bursts of fission.

The unexpected bursts — something akin to flare-ups after a major fire — are extremely unlikely to presage a large-scale nuclear reaction with the resulting large-scale production of heat and radiation. But they threaten to increase the amount of dangerous radioactive elements leaking from the complex and complicate cleanup efforts.

The disclosures raise startling questions about how much remains uncertain at the plant, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. The Japanese government has said that it aims to bring the reactors to a stable state known as a “cold shutdown” by the end of the year.

On Wednesday, the plant’s operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, said that gas from Reactor No. 2 indicated the presence of radioactive xenon and other substances that could be byproducts of nuclear fission. The presence of xenon 135 in particular, which has a half-life of just nine hours, seemed to indicate that fission took place very recently.

Trade Minister Yukuo Edano censured Japan’s nuclear regulator, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, for failing to report the discovery to the prime minister’s office for hours, according to local media reports.

The developments added to disquiet over how information related to the disaster has been handled. For almost two months after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out vital cooling systems, setting the stage for disaster, both company and government officials declared it was unlikely that any meltdowns had occurred. They finally conceded that melted fuel had likely breached containments in three reactors, and that it was likely pooled at the bottom of the vessels.

A 12-mile exclusion zone is still in effect around the plant. More than 80,000 households were displaced.

On Wednesday, Tokyo Electric said that the amount of xenon detected was small, and there was no rise in temperature, pressure or radiation levels at the reactor. Researchers were double-checking the data to make sure there were no errors, the company said. Experts concurred that it was possible that Tokyo Electric had made a simple error in its measurements.

But the urgent injection of boric acid underscored that the company was operating on the assumption that the measurements were valid. A naturally occurring element, boron, soaks up the neutrons released when an atom is split so that those neutrons cannot go on to split other atoms when material “goes critical” in the process of fission. Nuclear power plants harness the energy released in the form of heat to produce electricity.

It is impossible to determine exactly what state the fuel is in, given that even an intact reactor can offer only gauges for temperature, pressure and neutron flow, not visual observation. That lack of clarity is one of the most resonant lessons of the Fukushima disaster, when those trying to guide the response and assess the danger had to operate by what amounted to educated guesswork.

In reactors of the design used at Fukushima, the nuclear chain reaction is normally stopped when the operator gives a command to insert control rods, which rise up from the bottom of the core and separate the fuel assemblies. But the fuel in the cores of the three reactors is presumably a haphazard mass, without a strict gridlike geometry, so control rods cannot be inserted. Further, some experts believe some of the fuel has escaped the vessels and is in spaces underneath.

The jumble of material and conditions in the damaged reactors seem very unlikely to be able to produce sustained fission, but some experts have long suspected intermittent criticalities. In other accidents, nuclear material has burst into fission, but the released energy then rearranges the damaged fuel into a configuration that no longer support fission. Gradually, the material re-forms in a way to support another burst.

On Wednesday, Junichi Matsumoto, a Tokyo Electric spokesman, acknowledged episodes of fission, saying at a news conference: “There is a possibility that certain conditions came together temporarily that were conducive to re-criticality,” and that the measurements indicated a burst that occurred at a slightly higher rate than prior cases.

“It’s not that we’ve had zero fission until now,” Mr. Matsumoto said. “But at this point, we do not think there is a large-scale and self-sustained re-criticality.”

Mr. Matsumoto said detailed measurements had not yet been taken at the two other severely damaged reactors on the Fukushima site, but acknowledged the possibility of episodes of fission there, too. The three reactors — and spent fuel rods stored at a fourth damaged reactor — have been leaking radioactive material since the initial disaster. New episodes of fission would only increase their dangers.

“Re-criticality would produce more harmful radioactive material, and because the reactors are damaged, there would be a danger of a leak,” said Hiroaki Koide, assistant professor at Kyoto University’s Research Reactor Institute, whose prescient warnings about nuclear safety have won him respect in Japan.

Mr. Koide holds that the nuclear fuel at the three reactors probably melted through containments and into the ground, raising the possibility of contaminated groundwater. If much of the fuel was indeed in the ground early in the crisis, the “feed and bleed” strategy initially taken by Tokyo Electric — pumping cooling water into the reactors, producing hundreds of tons of radioactive runoff — would have done little to help. Workers have now put in place a circulating cooling system that recycles water, which results in less runoff.

Tokyo Electric does not deny that the fuel may have burrowed into the ground, but its officials say that “most” is likely to remain within the reactor, albeit slumped at the bottom in a molten mass.

Some experts had not expected even bursts of re-criticality to occur, because it was unlikely that the fuel would melt in just the right way — and that another ingredient, water, would be present in just the right amounts — to allow for any nuclear reaction. If episodes of fission at Fukushima were confirmed, Mr. Koide said, “our entire understanding of nuclear safety would be turned on its head.”

Other nuclear experts have debated for months whether nuclear reactions might be continuing, either in the fuel inside the reactors, or in the spent fuel pools at the plant. They have pointed, for example, to the continued reports of short-lived iodine in the spent fuel pool by Reactor No..3.

A former nuclear engineer with three decades of experience at a major engineering firm said that sustained re-criticality remained highly unlikely. But his main concern was that officials could not pinpoint the exact location of the nuclear fuel — which would greatly complicate the cleanup.

The engineer, who has worked at all three nuclear power complexes operated by Tokyo Electric, spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to be identified by his former employers. He said that tiny fuel pellets could have been carried to different parts of the plant, like the spaces under the reactor, during attempts to vent them in the early days. That would explain several cases of lethally high radiation readings found outside the reactor cores.

“If the fuel is still inside the reactor core, that’s one thing,” he said. “But if the fuel has been dispersed more widely, then we are far from any stable shutdown.”

The developments added to the disquiet over handling of information related to the disaster. For almost two months after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, disaster, both company and government officials declared it was unlikely any meltdown had occurred at all at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear complex, finally conceding that the fuel had indeed slumped and had likely breached containments in three reactors.

The amount of detected xenon was small, and there was no rise in temperature, pressure or radiation levels at the reactor, Tokyo Electric said. Researchers were double-checking the data to make sure there were no errors, the company said. Experts concurred that it was possible that Tokyo Electric had made a simple error in its measurements.

But the urgent injection of boric acid underscored that the company was operating on the assumption that the measurements were valid. A naturally occurring element, boron soaks up the neutrons released when an atom is split so that those neutrons cannot go on to split other atoms in the process of fission. Nuclear power plants harness the energy released in the form of heat to produce electricity.

It is impossible to determine exactly what state the fuel is in, given that even an intact reactor can offer only limited gauges in the form of temperature, pressure readings and neutron flow, but not visual observation. That lack of clarity is one of the most resonant lessons of the Fukushima disaster, where those trying to guide the response and assess the danger operated by what amounted to educated guesswork.

In reactors of the design used at Fukushima, that chain reaction is normally stopped when the operator gives a command to insert control rods, which rise up from the bottom of the core and separate the fuel assemblies. But when the cores of three reactors at Fukushima melted, a large part of the fuel presumably formed a jumbled mass in the bottom of the vessel, and without a strict gridlike geometry, the control rods cannot be inserted. Some of the fuel has escaped the vessel, experts believe, and is in spaces underneath, where there is no way to use control rods to interrupt the flow of neutrons.

The jumble of material and conditions had seemed very unlikely to be able to produce sustained fission, but intermittent criticalities have long been suspected.

Junichi Matsumoto, a Tokyo Electric spokesman, acknowledged episodes of fission, telling a news conference: “There is a possibility that certain conditions came together temporarily that were conducive to re-criticality,” and that the measurements indicated a burst that occurred at a slightly higher rate than prior cases. “It’s not that we’ve had zero fission until now,” Mr. Matsumoto said. “But at this point, we do not think there is a large-scale and self-sustained re-criticality.”

A criticality could produce energy that would rearrange the wrecked fuel into a configuration that would no longer support fission, but gradually the material could come together in a form that would support a new burst of fission. That has been the case in previous so-called inadvertent criticalities in other accidents.

He said detailed measurements had not yet been taken at two other severely damaged reactors on the Fukushima site, but acknowledged the possibility of episodes of fission there too. The Fukushima complex, about 160 miles from Tokyo, was struck by a devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11, which knocked out vital cooling systems and caused the nuclear fuel at three of the plant’s six reactors to melt, with radiation leaks and releases whose damage is still being calculated. A 12-mile exclusion zone is still in effect around the plant. Over 80,000 households were displaced.

The three reactors — together with spent fuel rods stored at a fourth damaged reactor — have been leaking radioactive material since the initial disaster, and new episodes of fission would only increase their dangers.

“Re-criticality would produce more harmful radioactive material, and because the reactors are damaged, there would be a danger of a leak,” said Hiroaki Koide, assistant professor at Kyoto University’s Research Reactor Institute, whose prescient warnings about nuclear safety have won him respect in Japan.

Mr. Koide holds that the nuclear fuel at the three reactors probably melted through containments and into the ground, raising the possibility of contaminated groundwater. If much of the fuel was indeed in the ground early in the crisis, the “feed and bleed” strategy initially taken by Tokyo Electric — where workers pumped cooling water into the reactors, producing hundreds of tons of radioactive runoff — would have prevented fuel still in the reactor from boiling itself dry and melting, but would not have done anything to reduce danger from fuel already in the soil — if it got that far. Workers have now put in place a circulating cooling system that recycles water, which results in less runoff.

Tokyo Electric does not deny the possibility that the fuel may have burrowed into the ground, but its officials say that “most” of the fuel likely remains within the reactor, albeit slumped at the bottom in a molten mass.

But even in their most dire assessments, some experts had not expected even bursts of re-criticality to occur, because it was unlikely that the fuel would melt in just the right way — and that another ingredient, water, would be present in just the right amounts — to allow for any nuclear reaction. If episodes of fission at Fukushima were confirmed, Mr. Koide said, “our entire understanding of nuclear safety would be turned on its head.”

Some nuclear experts have debated for months whether nuclear reactions might be continuing, either in the fuel inside the reactors, or in the spent fuel pools at the plant. They have pointed, for example, to the continued reports of short-lived iodine in the spent fuel pool at Reactor No. 3.

A former nuclear engineer with three decades of experience at a major engineering firm, meanwhile, said that sustained re-criticality remained highly unlikely. But his main concern was that officials could not pinpoint the exact location of the nuclear fuel — which would greatly complicate the cleanup.

The engineer, who has worked at all three nuclear power complexes operated by Tokyo Electric, spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to be identified by his former employers. He said that tiny fuel pellets could have been carried to different parts of the plant, like the spaces under the reactor during attempts to vent them in the early days. That would explain several cases of lethally high radiation readings found outside the reactor cores.

“If the fuel is still inside the reactor core, that’s one thing,” he said. But if the fuel has been dispersed more widely, then we are far from any stable shutdown.”

Matthew L. Wald contributed reporting from Washington, and Kantaro Suzuki from Tokyo.

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17) British Court Says WikiLeaks Founder Can Be Extradited for Questioning
By RAVI SOMAIYA
November 2, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/world/europe/wikileaks-founder-faces-extradition-hearing-in-london.html?ref=world

LONDON — A British court ruled Wednesday that Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, can be extradited to Sweden for questioning over allegations of sexual abuse made against him by two women there last year. He will seek a final appeal at Britain’s highest court, according to a person close to him.

Two of Britain’s most senior judges dismissed all four arguments raised by Mr. Assange’s defense team. The decision makes it increasingly likely that Mr. Assange will face his accusers in Sweden.

He has at least 14 days to ask for permission to bring his case before Britain’s highest court, the Supreme Court, for a final appeal. The court hears only cases of constitutional or general public importance.

The 43-page ruling was the latest twist in an 11-month legal battle that has included multiple court appearances and brought out throngs of supporters, and it comes as WikiLeaks has been temporarily shuttered because of continuing financing troubles. Mr. Assange was briefly jailed last December, as Swedish authorities filed an arrest warrant demanding he return to face accusations made by two WikiLeaks volunteers in Stockholm in August 2010. He is accused of two counts of sexual molestation, one count of unlawful coercion and one count of rape based on their allegations that consensual sex became nonconsensual.

He vehemently denies the allegations and has engaged a series of high-profile lawyers to fight the extradition warrant, arguing, among other things, that he could not get a fair trial. Mr. Assange has given interviews condemning Sweden’s strict sexual crimes laws, calling the country “the Saudi Arabia of feminism.”

Wednesday’s ruling marks the second time a British court has rejected his appeals. After the ruling Mr. Assange and a coterie of advisers and friends huddled in the courthouse to discuss their options, flanked by security guards.

“We will consider our next steps in the coming days,” he said in a brief statement to the throng of reporters gathered outside. But a person close to Mr. Assange said he would appear in court again to seek permission to appeal. If the court does not allow him to move his case forward, Mr. Assange will be extradited to Sweden within 10 days of the court’s decision.

Mr. Assange appeared for an initial interview with the police in Sweden in 2010, but flew to London before further questioning could be completed, a court here was subsequently told.

He has told friends that he has refused to return to Stockholm to face questioning because he fears that the country is run by a cabal of interconnected people who are aligned against him.

Mr. Assange’s lawyers have also argued that if he were extradited from Sweden to the United States, he could face the death penalty over the leaking of classified American documents, citing comments by conservative politicians, including the former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, who said he should be hunted down as an anti-American operative. In addition, Mr. Assange has hinted that he believes world powers might be behind the sexual abuse charges, seeing them as a way of silencing him and halting embarrassing leaks.

The WikiLeaks release of hundreds of thousands of United States military documents on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and State Department diplomatic cables dominated the front pages of newspapers across the world last year. Mr. Assange has hoped that releases of such documents would reshape the very nature of government. WikiLeaks cables in which American diplomats reported on the corruption of Tunisia’s rulers did, in fact, help fuel the uprising that overthrew Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, jumpstarting the Arab Spring.

WikiLeaks has foundered since Mr. Assange was briefly jailed last December, before being placed under virtual house arrest at the country mansion of a wealthy friend in eastern England. Mr. Assange told a press conference in London last month that WikiLeaks would cease its publishing activities because it lacked money following a blockade on donations by credit card companies like Visa and MasterCard, and the payments services Western Union and PayPal.

The organization has also been severely weakened by a spate of defections from its core of computer-programmer volunteers, insiders have said. Many, tired of what they described as Mr. Assange’s imperiousness, have formed their own document-leaking sites.

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18) Firing Sought for One of Two Officers in Bell Shooting Case
By ROB HARRIS
November 2, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/nyregion/in-sean-bell-shooting-trial-prosecutors-urge-firing-of-one-officer.html?ref=nyregion

Prosecutors with the New York Police Department recommended on Wednesday that one of the two officers being tried in connection with the killing of Sean Bell five years ago should be allowed to stay on the force while the other should be fired.

In closing arguments in a departmental administrative trial, prosecutors said that Detective Gescard F. Isnora, who fired the first shots in a 50-bullet barrage that killed Mr. Bell on what was supposed to have been his wedding day, should lose his job, but a lesser punishment — the loss of 30 vacation days — was appropriate for Officer Michael Carey, who fired three of the shots.

“Maybe Detective Isnora was frightened; maybe Detective Isnora was nervous,” said Nancy Slater, one of the prosecutors. “I submit he overreacted.”

Ms. Slater also questioned the detective’s judgment in coming out of his undercover role, approaching Mr. Bell’s car with his gun drawn and his shield clipped to his collar, and opening fire on the car early on the morning of Nov. 25, 2006.

Last week, Detective Isnora testified that he thought Mr. Bell and his friend Joseph Guzman, who were parked outside a strip club in Jamaica, Queens, were about to take part in a drive-by shooting. He has said his belief that Mr. Guzman had a gun was based on a heated argument that he overheard in front of the strip club.

But Ms. Slater argued that going from thinking that the man may have had a gun to “I alone have to come out of role and stop a drive-by” was “a huge leap of logic.”

In contrast, Ms. Slater characterized Officer Carey as the victim of “contagious firing” and blamed him for relying too heavily on Detective Isnora’s actions when he decided to start shooting.

“He didn’t know who he was firing at; he didn’t know why he was firing,” Ms. Slater said.

In his closing arguments, Detective Isnora’s lawyer, Philip E. Karasyk, argued that the prosecution was unfairly judging an officer “who has to make life or death decisions in a heartbeat.”

“In that split-second judgment call, Detective Isnora believed Joseph Guzman had a firearm and was about to use it,” Mr. Karasyk said. The police did not find a weapon on Mr. Guzman.

Detective Isnora was acquitted of criminal charges in a State Supreme Court trial in 2008. Officer Carey was not charged criminally.

Officer Carey’s lawyer, Stephen C. Worth, argued that his client’s decision to open fire was based on the information that he had at the time, and that if Mr. Guzman had had a weapon and Officer Carey had not fired, he would have been accused of failing to defend a fellow officer.

The judge presiding over the case, Deputy Commissioner Martin G. Karopkin, will send a recommendation to Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, who will decide the professional fate of the two officers.

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19) Cubans Can Buy and Sell Property, Government Says
By DAMIEN CAVE
November 3, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/04/world/americas/cubans-can-buy-and-sell-property-government-says.html?ref=business

MEXICO CITY — Cuba announced a new property law Thursday that will allow citizens and permanent residents to buy and sell real estate — the most significant market reform yet approved by the government of Raúl Castro, and one that will likely reshape Cuba’s cities and conceptions of class.

The new rules, which affect residential property only, will go into effect Nov. 10, according to Cuba´s state-run newspaper. The official article said more information would be forthcoming, but the bundle of released details confirm that the new law represents a major break from decades of socialist housing policy.

It states that moving will no longer be subject to government approval, that owners will be able to have two homes (a residence and a vacation home) and that purchases, sales, donations and trades will be recognized even in cases of “divorce, death or permanent departure from the country.”

The last item, depending on the fine print, could lead to a wave of sales and migration as Cubans unload property and use the proceeds to flee. But experts and Cuban residents — who have anticipating the law for months — say its implications are likely to be much more far-reaching. In a country defined by limited change for more than 50 years, the law will likely open a Pandora’s box of benefits and risks.

On one hand, billions of dollars in property assets that have that have been essentially unvalued or undervalued and locked in place would be available for sale.

Economists on the island favoring freer-market changes have said the country’s other reforms — making room for small businesses, and private agriculture — have been limited by lack of internal demand, and some experts have argued that home sales could free up the capital needed to jumpstart the island’s seized economy. At the very least, they argue, it will likely lead to a wave of renovation.

“With a housing market, suddenly people have some wealth and that’s a stake in the economy that generates activity,” said Ted Henken, a Latin American Studies professor at Baruch College in New York. He added: “This is a very positive step in the right direction.”

Yet there are also significant social concerns. Mario Coyula, Havana’s director of urbanism and architecture in the 1970s and ‘80s, said that wide-scale buying and selling will lead to a “huge rearrangement” in Havana and other cities as wealthy Cubans move to better areas.

The limit of two houses per owner appears to be an effort to limit the accumulation of wealth, and absentee landlords. But because the island has a shortage of housing supply — with many families and even divorced couples continuing to live together for lack of a better option — critics say that any displacement could raise the prospect of homelessness for some.

Many Cubans have expressed a mix of excitement and fear about the potential for a property market. Some people eager to move said that even if they could sell, they preferred to stick with the established “permuta” system of trading one home for another because it would guarantee that they had a place to live. Others said they would sell immediately, especially if they could leave the country.

Many were waiting to see how much the government would charge them to buy and sell, and that appears to now be established: both the buyer and seller will pay a tax equivalent to 4 percent of the value of the transaction, whether it is a sale or an exchange of homes of equal value.

A major unanswered question in all of this involves the role of foreigners, and Cuban exiles. The law generally requires residency, but the notice in the state-run newspaper, Granma, says the rules will also apply to areas of “descanso or veraneo” — technically rest or holiday zones, presumably resort areas. That raises the possibility of foreign ownership in selected places, perhaps coastal areas, Old Havana and the golf communities that are currently under development with foreign investment.

Cuban-Americans are likely to be very involved. With President Obama’s 2009 decision to allow unlimited travel and remittances for Cuban-Americans, a constant flow of money and visits is now the norm. In exile communities like Miami, there are already efforts under way to funnel money to relatives so that they can buy new homes, or old family homes confiscated after the 1959 Revolution.

Most experts, and Cubans on the island, expect these efforts to accelerate even it is not formally allowed. Indeed, Nov. 10 may amount to the starting gun of an investment race, especially among younger Cuban-Americans who left recently or are the offspring of those who fled after the contentious 1960s.

“I don’t know if they will control the market,” said Philip Peters, an expert at the Lexington Institute in Washington. “But it is certainly going to be the case that the market is going to settle in a way that’s heavily influenced by demand from outside Cuba coming from relatives.”

Mr. Henken provided his own succinct assessment: “This is something that is going to change the structure of how things work.”

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20) BP Agrees to Pay Texas $50 Million for Pollution
[Just so you know, BP is worth about 100 billion...bw]
By REUTERS
November 3, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2011/11/03/business/business-us-texas-bp.html?src=busln

HOUSTON (Reuters) - BP Plc's U.S. subsidiary has agreed to pay $50 million (31 million pound) in civil penalties to the state of Texas for pollution from its Texas City refinery, including the deadly March 2005 explosion, state Attorney General Greg Abbott said.

The fine is equal to the amount BP Products North America paid in 2009 to the federal government for pollution from the explosion, which killed 15 workers and injured 180 other people.

With the agreement, BP clears another hurdle in the way of its plan to sell the 406,540 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery, which accounts for 2.2 percent of U.S. refining capacity.

In addition to the $100 million in fines paid for pollution stemming from the refinery, BP has paid the U.S. Occupational and Safety Administration $71.6 million for worker safety violations and over $2 billion settling legal claims from the explosion.

"The agreement reflects the state's commitment to protecting air quality and holding polluters accountable for illegal emissions," Abbott said.

The agreement must be approved by a state court judge in Austin, Texas, before it will take effect. The court must wait 30 days after the agreement is made public before it can act.

Unlike the federal penalties, which were paid after BP pleaded guilty to violating the U.S. Clean Air Act, the London-based energy giant admits no liability for the pollution, which also includes emissions made five years after the explosion.

"BP does not admit liability and enters into this judgement because of the uncertainty and costs of litigation," according to the agreement to be submitted to the court.

In a statement, the company said it was pleased with the agreement.

"BP has maintained a steady focus on improving safety and compliance at Texas City, and this agreement is an important milestone in the progress of operations at the facility," the company said in a statement.

In February, BP said it wanted to sell the Texas City refinery along with its 265,000 bpd Carson, California, refinery.

Of the $50 million, $500,000 will go directly to the attorney general's office for costs of bringing a lawsuit against BP in 2009 and the rest will go to the state treasury.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba; editing by Jim Marshall)

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