The procession was centred around a four-meter tall effigy of a politician controlled with strings by actors parodying fatcats – or the “1%”, as the OWS movement terms the wealthiest top-notch of society. The climax of the parade unfolded in front of the Danish parliament square, in a dramatic and symbolic cutting of the puppet-chords to symbolize the demonstrators’ protest against financial lobbyism in the Danish government.
In addition to the parade, the day was celebrated with concerts and speeches by prominent figures such as Hördur Thorfason, a central actor in Iceland’s refusal to pay the national debt created by rampant speculation that bankrupted the country in 2008, and Anton Nielsen, a Danish freedom fighter incarcerated six months for donating 3000 USD to the organization PFLP – Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The day was wrapped up in front of the Danish stock-exchange with a speech held by a delegation of Spaniards who expressed their profound concerns about the crisis in their homeland. Mikkel Klinge from “Syntestanken” presented the financial crisis as a game of monopoly – and gave a short talk on how we can change the rules of the game.

Hördur Torfason (from Iceland), donates the symbollic flag of the Icelandic “Cutleryrevolution”

Our 4 m tall politican getting ready to be controlled by the 1%

http://occupycopenhagen.dk/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/occupycopenhagen/
http://foraarsrevolution.wordpress.com/

OCCUPY COPENHAGEN’s spanking new magazine
avaliable as free download pdf (mostly in danish).

Solidarity from OCCUPY COPENHAGEN!

As time went by, the messages that we were all receiving were getting worse. The first big sacrifices worth nothing they said, the crisis is ‘’bigger than we thought’’, troika needs more cuts. So the government and the media started to prepare for more cuts. The blackmail was ‘’this way or the highway’’. Either you follow exactly what troika proposes or you default and get out of Europe with the worst to follow. The terror in disguised… Nevertheless the people’s faith into the fact that this is the only possible solution started slowly to crack. A first sign was the massive demonstration in the 5th of May 2010.More would follow but what they provided was little more than an outlet for people’s rage and indignation, as they lacked both political leadership and a political plan to overthrow the government. In the meanwhile the Left even though divided, started to recover and whispering that another way is possible. That  Greece is just the first in the row of an experiment that takes place designed by banks, neoliberal politicians and high EU officials. That this is a European crisis and not Greek and that more countries would follow. Information and discussions started to spread through Internet regarding how economy is functioning, what exactly debt consists, what is the role of the banks in the crisis, how deep was the corruption in the two major parties all these past 40 years, how many times similar crisis have happened through out history etc. People had to re-discover politics.

In May 2011 and while the new mid-term fiscal plan of austerity measures was under its way, we entered in a new phase. The movement of the Greek  indignados was born in Syntagma square. It was now clear that the traditional modes of struggle were not enough and would no longer work because the social consensus had been systematically destroyed. It was a new reaction and an expression of the anger and the indignation of people which signified a turning point from the economic struggle to the political one as well. The indignados’ movement was directly related to the country’s deepening economic crisis and it swept through Greece for almost three months. Without the umbrella of any political party, or trade union, the movement managed to attract far more numbers than could have been expected, united under three main demands: (1) refusing the debt which the people had not run up; (2) overthrowing the government which accepted the conditions of the ECB-IMF-EU loans in the so-called “Memorandum” (harsh austerity, lowering wages and other ‘reforms’); and (3) real democracy right now. This period was also marked by two very important dates: the general strike of 15 June and the 48-hour general strike of 28 – 29 June. All of them were handled by police with the most brutal way that society had seen for decades.

In autumn the movement started to transform once again going from central to local and inspired all kinds of resistance. The impact of the self-determination that indignados left, could be tracked in many popular assemblies in the squares and neighborhoods of Athens and other Greek cities. Using a broader political framework in order to include and secure the participation of larger sections of society, these popular assemblies extend self-organisation into people’s lives by creating solidarity networks, by occupying public buildings, by creating community grocery stores, social clinics, by exchanging services and products without using money, and more.

Large numbers of working people started refusing to pay a debt that they had not run up. Under the slogan “we don’t pay”, this movement has refused to pay motorway tolls, bus fares, electricity bills that include a new property tax and bank debts. Even more elaborate and more radical forms of struggle appeared, with workers taking on self-management. The striking workers at the Hellenic Steel factory in Athens (which started is now entering its seventh month), at Eleftherotypia, one of the most prestigious Greek daily newspapers, at the ALTER TV channel lead the way. At the local general hospital in Kilkis, in northern Greece, health workers have occupied the hospital and taken control to defend the public’s right to free healthcare.

Around the country people threw yogurt at the government’s MPs as a sign of protest. In abroad the new young Greek immigrants stood up wherever government politician appeared and answered back trying to give their side of the story.

All the above while crisis deepened and the austerity measures condemned Greek society to deplorable living conditions.
The huge demonstration on the 19th of October with more than 500.000 each sent once more a huge message to government and troika that they once again failed to take into account. The demonstration was cruelly restrained with extreme use of teargas and police brutality. The media, as always supporting the government, attacked the social ideas and practices of resistance while protecting the monopoly of state violence and legitimacy. The pictures of burning buildings and banks travelled around the world.

But behind the spectacle of the burning and the fires, there was a deeper process going on in society, a patient construction of a different way of doing things, the creation of social cohesion and mutual support. This process can eventually lead us to an alternative path, it can lead to us creating institutions of democratic counter-power in every neighborhood. That Sunday was in fact the point at which the Greek people lost their fear.

Ten days later, on 28 October spontaneous, country-wide, popular demonstrations during the military parades brought the political struggle against the regime to a head, ending the legitimacy of Papandreou’s government and leading to its collapse. The new coalition of the two major parties that took Papandreou’s place had no different intentions. As a matter of fact the things got even worse as the new prime minister was never elected, a far-right wing party entered the government and they all signed a 2^nd more cruel Memorandum.

No need to mention all the misery, poverty and despair(that pushed many people to commit suicide) that these memorandums brought in the Greek society the last two years. Its enough to mention the 50% loss of income and the 45%% of unemployment in young people. The people of the countries that are getting closer to a crisis similar to Greece understand this. They expressed their solidarity on the 18th of February with a European call of Action. The movement in Greece is slowly joining voices with other movements in Portugal, Spain, Italy, France and Ireland.

The latest developments in Greece have paused for the moment the dominance of troika. The elections of May the 6th (which the government refused for so many months) finally brought a clear result of rejecting any sort of memorandums and overthrowing the two ‘’big’’ parties that ruled the country for the last 40 years. In addition the Left has gained remarkable support and for the time being everything is possible (if other countries will follow).

One thing is for sure. That they can not control the people anymore, that this sparkle might lead to a fire… It was about time!

MindTheCam Collective

Truthout was the first news organization to file a FOIA request with DHS for OWS-related documents. In March, the agency released to Truthout nearly 400 pages of redacted documents that showed DHS officials (and in several cases, the Secret Service) closely monitored the eight-month old Occupy movement, gathered intelligence on the group and had disseminated internal threat assessments on OWS–actions which one DHS official characterized as possibly unconstitutional, according to the documents.

Wouldn’t it be refreshing, Truthseekers, to read a government document that wasn’t given the black-marker treatment? Is our national security so threatened by transparency into it’s possible invasive actions against innocent citizens?

Even the Pentagon’s Northern Command unit, which exerts military control over any North American combat zones, was briefed on the goings on of the occupy protestors. Further, the White House was also coordinating DHS actions toward local law enforcement and the Occupiers. This is from CounterPunch.org:

The latest documents, reveal “intense involvement” by the DHS’s so-called National Operations Center (NOC). In its own literature, the DHS describes the NOC as “the primary national-level hub for domestic situational awareness, common operational picture, information fusion, information sharing, communications, and coordination pertaining to the prevention of terrorist attacks and domestic incident management.”

The DHS says that the NOC is “the primary conduit for the White House Situation Room.”

Another document shows that earlier, in advance of a planned Occupy action at the Oakland, CA port facility on Nov. 2, DHS “went so far as to keep the Pentagon’s Northcom (Northern Command) in the intelligence loop.”

Given the subterfuge revealed in these documents that went into trying to create the illusion that the DHS was and is not coordinating a national campaign of spying, disruption and repression against Occupy activists, it is almost comical to find documents that show the DHS was in “direct communication with the White House” to obtain advance approval of public statements by DHS officials denying any DHS involvement in anti-Occupy actions.

Given the fact that President Obama has failed to make good on his promises to roll back the Bush Crime Family’s domestic surveillance programs, it appears he is in favor of monitoring US citizens, particularly those who express displeasure with the status quo. That reality is underscored by recent disclosures by whistle-blowers about the massive extent of domestic spying approved by the current administration. Common Dreams reports:

National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower and Government Accountability Project (GAP) client William Binney continued publicly revealing massive domestic surveillance beginning under President George W. Bush in the aftermath of 9/11, and continuing rampantly under President Obama. A senior crypto-mathematician, Binney served at NSA for over forty years, lastly as the Technical Director of the NSA World Geopolitical and Military Analysis Reporting group, made up of thousands of NSA employees charged with analyzing massive volumes of electronic data gathered worldwide.

Binney’s explosive disclosures over the past few weeks include: The first public description of Stellar Wind, the NSA’s massive domestic spying program, which has the capacity to intercept trillions of domestic electronic communications of Americans, including e-mails, phone calls, and Internet activities. Adding that …after 9/11, all the wraps came off for NSA, and they decided to – between the White House and NSA and CIA – they decided to eliminate the protections on U.S. citizens and collect on, domestically. So they started collecting from a commercial – the one commercial company that I know of that participated provided over 300 – probably, on the average, about 320 million records of communication of a U.S. citizen to a U.S. citizen inside this country.”

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Boy, 9-11 sure opened the floodgates to kinds of fun and interesting invasions of our privacy and civil liberties, didn’t it, Truthseekers? Don’t you feel so much safer? knowing the government is protecting you from the fearsome dangers posed by the occupy protestors? I’m sure the corporations feel better. They’re people, too, you know . . . .

The comfort of the squat is dangerous for the revolutionary spirit. Especially when there is little of it. It’s evening and we’re sitting together in the living room, a dozen marchers. In the small kitchen, Mami is cooking for her hijos de puta. The cloud of spicy smoke is so thick that it’s hard to read the writings on the walls.

It’s the first time that our clan has a roof, sofas, a kitchen, a shower to call our own. At least for the moment. After half a year of camping, people enjoy it. And no-one will deny that we didn’t deserve it.

But on the other hand, it’s 15M’s eve. Tomorrow we celebrate the first anniversary of our movement, and right now there is a handful of our people holding the square of Syntagma.

I have been there the first two nights, and I’ll be damned if I don’t join them now. So I rise up from the soft pillows of the sofa, I cut my way through the cloud of smoke, and I go. “Later, people. I’m going to see what’s cooking on Syntagma.”

It’s a twenty minute walk. When I arrive, I see we occupied the center of the square. People with sleeping backs and covers are gathered in a circle. I squeeze in, I lie down and I listen to humming of the conversation as I start to doze off.

Just when I’m about to get some sleep, police arrive. Two dozen officers in riot gear. Because of the blankets, this is considered camping in a public space, and we have to move.

We are not the only ones. All over Athens, thousands of homeless people are ‘camping’ as well. They are more every day.

We take away blankets and sleeping bags. We leave the cardboard. We lock arms and legs together and we humm. It takes as while, but in the end police retreat. We take our stuff again, and we stay in Syntagma for the third night in a row.

The third night in Syntagma

After the retreat of police

Occupy the tree
In the morning, at six, it’s police again for the wake up call. We have to move, seriously this time. The reason is that the sprayers come to clean the square.
We stay put. Riot police is deployed on two sides, and then they send in the cleaning car to put us pressure.

In a white cloud, the water vapour bounces of the tiles of Syntagma. The machine moves slowly towards the group. People start to evacuate, to try and safe their stuff. It could have ended right there. Indignados simply washed away from Syntagma as yesterday’s dirt.

This morning, #15M.

The sprayers arrive

But it didn’t end that way. The real heroine of the day was comrade Sabina from Belgium. She laid herself down in the streaming water in front of the spraying vehicle. And the firm look in her eyes said she wasn’t going to move.

It was the key moment. Max joins in and others follow. Comrade Cansino takes a bath straight in front of the vehicle and comrade Aristocrates plays the guitar. It’s a fabulous scene. And it’s true what they say. Our movement has an innate taste for drama and beauty.

Then police proceeds to evacuate, hesitatingly. They don’t really know how to handle us. If we were a band of hard core anarchists they would have just beaten us off the square and into the bus in ten minutes time. But these crazy foreign pacifists are different. They have to be handled with gloves. Plastic gloves to be exact.

The first people get dragged away. But just before they get to the police car, others come running in and piling up. Police have to start all over again. First, they surround the pile. Sabina got left out, but today she has revolutionary spirit for ten. She charges the police like a wild horse, demanding access to the circle.

In the end the arrest took more than two hours. About a dozen people resisted, passionately. I didn’t add to their numbers. I preferred to document the scene and spread the news.

Today is the first anniversary of our movement. Here in Athens the marchers and locals on Syntagma marked it appropriately with a determined act of resistance. Not so much against police, but better, against the water.

Before evening Anarchist singer-songwriter “comrade Arkadi” made a concert. Later, a freemarket was opened, where everyone could leave their goods and gather what was left by other people. Tomorrow 15th of May, there will be a lecture on free non-capitalist economy in the camp.

Closer to the evening, participators of the “Food Not Bombs”, who have already developed a routine for feeding the camp, brough food. Evening assembly become a full general meeting, deciding all important questions. This evening, several hundred people took part, but unfortunately not all participators of the camp are interested. It was decided that a general assembly will be organise every evening 21:00 at the statue of Abai Kunanbayev.

This time, financial questions were given a special attention. Most of the people agreed, that due to big turnover of the people in the camp (in practice nobody may be present 24 hours a day), there should be at least three treasurers, and not just one, as it was decided 13th of May. As a matter of fact, there is already a working group on the finances, which was selected after first general assembly in the camp, it is allocating necessary money for other groups. Amounts exceeding 5000 rubles (120 euros/$) will be dicscussed in the general assembly.

Also, question of moving the camp was discussed. Some people proposed to negotiate with Moscow authorities, and to move camp to a spot where authorities would allow tents (at the moment, people are sleeping without tents). But other participators were adamant in staying in Chistye Prudy until the end, and in case of dispersal of the camp, to move camp to other spot in the boulevard ring of the capital.

Duma deputy Dmitri Gudkov was visiting the camp, and wanted to speak at the assembly. However he was totally surprised, that his status as a deputy did not implied any privilegies, and he was asked to raise his hand and wait for his turn. Deputy preferred to leave the camp.

As we already wrote, during the day 14th of May authorities attempted to close camp by using park workers from local administration of the
municipality, with a pretext of renovating the grass. Camp participators moved their property from the grass, but returned in the evening. Photos of local people prove, that grass around the statute of Kubai was trampled a long time before the protest camp was established. However camp participators announced that they may repair the grass on their own, and necessary funds for that were already raised.

Activists of Autonomous Action distributed special issue of the  paper “Situatsiya” and  leaflets.

Some songs of Arkadi in youtube:
http://youtu.be/kMj0aZhsLaA,
http://youtu.be/FhLNnEgwdP4

Schedule for tomorrow 15th of May:

Online translation from the camp:

http://îêêóïàéàáàé.ðô/t/

Updates in Russian:

http://www.novayagazeta.ru/news/56718.html (15 ìàÿ),
http://www.novayagazeta.ru/news/56685.html (14 ìàÿ)

Updates from other Russian cities: Ðîññèè: http://www.ikd.ru/node/18262

Contact address for those, willing to come to camp:
occupytogether12@gmail.com

Occupy these Upcoming Events

Every Wednesday, 4pm
The People’s Gong
This Wednesday, and every Wednesday thereafter, we call on all people to join Occupy Wall Street in ringing the People’s Gong. We first meet at the steps of Federal Hall, mic check, and afterwards we return to Liberty Plaza to debrief and to have a Direct Action Working Group meeting. We invite all working groups to re-occupy Liberty Park with us and hold their meetings on Wednesday evenings.

Thursday, May 17th, 6pm
Occupy the NRC hearing on Indian Point
DoubleTree Hotel, 455 South Broadway, Tarrytown, NY
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is hosting a public meeting about the safety of Indian Point on May 17, and OWS Environmental Solidarity and a broad coalition need your help to send it a loud message: Don’t Let it Happen Here! Shut Down Indian Point Now! RSVP for a seat on a bus from Manhattan. Buses leave at 3:45pm sharp from Grand Central.

Thursday, May 17th, 6:30pm
Feminist General Assembly
Washington Square Park
The Feminist General Assembly (Fem GA) will be a space for building strong networks and promoting collaboration amongst feminist groups across NYC and nearby areas. The intent is to hold a Fem GA periodically to foster ongoing cooperation.

Sunday, May 20, 8am
#Occupy Wall Street AIDS Walk Team
Central Park, 59th & 5th Avenue entrance
Our message for the day is that we are the 99%, that we raise the issue of HIV/AIDS awareness and more importantly that we care about our brothers and sisters who are infected and affected with HIV/AIDS. We invite your participation by pre-registering for the #OWS Team (#9339) at aidswalknewyork2012.kintera.org/ows or calling (212) 807.9255 to request to be placed on the Occupy Wall Street Team (#9339).

Wednesday May 23, 6pm
Winning at Work: Labor Law for the 99%
Communication Workers of America, 6 Harrison Street
“If it’s effective, it’s illegal”. This is common wisdom for anyone trying to organize in workplaces today. The OWS Labor Alliance presents a workshop with Daniel Gross and Sonia Lin about how to challenge the hurdles facing workplace organizing.

Wednesday May 23, 630pm
Community Cluster Meeting
33 West 14th Street
Many of us have been working in clusters. There’s the eco-cluster, outreach cluster, action cluster, and many more. In the lead-up to May Day we used clusters, which helped us organize a massive day of action. Come to the OWS Community Cluster if you are already in one, want to join one, or are curious about where we’re at.

Saturday May 26, 12pm
Summer Disobedience School
Bryant Park, 42nd Street and 6th Avenue
The OWS Direct Action Group is launching Summer Disobedience School. We’ve completed Spring Training – and we’re moving and communicating in the streets like never before. Join us!

Saturday May 26, 1pm
Critical Walking Tours
The Gandhi statue in the southwest corner of Union Square
Engage the city, your body, and others, by putting yourself in motion on a set of 6 summer discussion-walks to engage the political, ecological, and your embodied urban environment – New York City. Each walk will start at different point in the city with a short inspirational text and space from which to launch our journey and discussion.

This week’s featured Occu-Projects

Occupy NYC Project List, Issue 3
The Occupy NYC Project List, formerly the OWS Project List, is a monthly printed free publication informing thousands of NY area people with up to date details on the courageous political projects currently under development by Occupy groups across the NYC metro area. The Occupy NYC  Project List provides direct contact information so that readers can get involved in shaping action to defend our communities. Check out Issue #2 and submit your project for Issue #3!

Learn More

Saturday, May 19, 2pm
Weekly Occupy Wall Street Orientations
The Gandhi statue in the southwest corner of Union Square
Learn more about how to get involved with Occupy. Can’t make it? Email Tascha and the rest of the crew at orientation@nycga.net for more information.

Daily #OccupyUnionSq Info Table, 9am – 9pm
@OWSUnionSquare
Every day Occupy Union Square has an Info Table open and staffed, acting as a hub to promote the constant flurry of events and meetings occurring in the park and across OWS. We need good outreach people to take shifts at the table! Click here to sign up. And click here to find out how you can help out with other immediate needs of the Union Square occupiers to keep it running and growing!

For Text Message alerts on your cellphone about daily events, actions, and important information, sign up for the ComHub SMS blasts by texting @owscom to 23559.

The rave went on happily tonight
(picture: https://twitter.com/#!/henninghenke/status/202822151143821312/photo/1)
Loads of police surrounding the demons trators and demanding banners to be taken down. One of the banners read: “Our Solidarity Against Your Crisis”
First subwaystations have been closed of by the transport company, as anounced

There is still one other demonstration in Thursday that is not prohibited: the demonstration against the repressive measures called for by the Komitee fur Grundrechte und Demokratie (starting at 12:00 at Paulsplatz).

Blockupy calls for a demonstration to start in front of Central Station to join the Grundrechte-demonstration.
http://blockupy-frankfurt.org/de/node/406

The Occupy-camp near the European Central Bank has been evicted in the morning of Wednesday. Some 200 persons ‘resisted peacefully’ and were dragged away. Some riotcops got a nice load of paint over them. After the eviction police started to erect fences around the park and the ECB-building.
Film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv2s6O3mJVc&feature=youtu.be
pictures http://www.fr-online.de/blockupy-frankfurt,15402798,15421232.html
Pictures of surroundings of ECB today https://picasaweb.google.com/107194122403576087216/May16201203#
Video streams: http://bambuser.com/v/2651370

Blockupy Call & Newsletter urges “everybody to come to Frankfurt”
http://blockupy-frankfurt.org/de/node/402

OWS declares solidarity with blockupy
http://17to19m.blogsport.eu/2012/05/16/ows-announces-solidarity-with-blockupy/

Towers of Mordor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SxEHmSFrL4&feature=youtu.be

Police claims to expect 30.000 demonstrators, of which between 2000 and 3000 could be ‘militants’. 5000 policemen and women to be deployed.

The car outside of the house of the German head of the EU task force for Greece Horst Reichenbach has been blown up in Potsdam, the action was claimed by ‘friends of Loukanikos’ http://de.indymedia.org/2012/05/330101.shtml

More information: http://www.blockupy-frankfurt.org
http://17to19m.blogsport.eu/
http://notroika.linksnavigator.de/
http://de.indymedia.org/
https://linksunten.indymedia.org/
http://www.ea-frankfurt.org/
http://twitter.com/#!/Blockupy
http://twitter.com/#!/search/blockupy

Previous updates http://www.globalinfo.nl/tag/frankfurt/

The call was to meet at 14h, at that time people were gathering in each of the starting points, we could see people of all ages, older people, families, kids.

Meanwhile the trucks begin to arrive, one for leading the march, another that would act as a stage during the march.

Once the demonstration started, the different marches had, on avarage, around 400 people.

During the walk to Alexander Platz, there were several stops, where the “trucks” gave updates of what was happening the #12M on other cities, the idea of continuity of a global coordination after the 15th October, also the aims of occupy movement were explained as well as the global manifesto was read.

There was not a heavy police presence, so the atmosphere was calm and cheerful. After approximately a 2h walk the marches began to arrive to Alexander Platz, everybody met there, and by that time around 3000 people were there.

After all te marches arrived, everybody actually moved to Neptunbrunnen, where a discussion forum was going to take place, called Markt der ideen, that was supposed to last for 2 weeks but the permission for doing it was denied so, it was going not to be easy to carry out the iniative, but we’ll see what happens the next days.