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HOLLYWOOD AND THE CIA — Film historian Ed Rampell details Hollywood’s entangled relationship with the CIA and the Pentagon; HOUSES OF THE DEAD: Nancy Kurshan exposes the cruel human rights offenses taking place inside America’s vast gulag of Control Unit Prisons; BROTHERHOOD OF SUMMER: David Macaray charts the history of the most powerful union in the US: the Baseball Players Association; TAR SANDS COME TO AMERICA: Steve Horn explains how the Keystone Pipeline debates have diverted attention from Big Oil’s other plans to transport Alberta’s oil into the US. PLUS: Jeffrey St. Clair on CONSTITUTIONAL ENTROPY; Mike Whitney on HOW THE BANKS TARGETED BLACKS; Chris Floyd on THE RISE OF BRITAIN’S TEA PARTY; Kristin Kolb on THE NEEDLE AND THE DAMAGE DONE; Kim Nicolini on the FILMS OF WILLIAM FRIEDKIN; and Lee Ballinger on POETS VS. THE ONE PERCENT.
Archives by Tag 'Occupy Wall Street'
And some of the Pharisees among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.
—Luke 19:39-40
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“…once in a lifetime
the longed for tidal wave
of justice can rise up…
So hope for a great sea-change…
Believe in miracles…”
– Irish Nobel Prize laureate Seamus Heaney, from the poem “The Cure.”...
“It’s not that we don’t have demands… We speak them with our struggle. Our movement is made up of people fighting for jobs, for schools, for debt relief, equitable housing, and healthcare… We are … democratic, fierce, and unwaveri...
On November 2nd workers, students, and others in Oakland, California will join in the first general strike our nation has seen this century. Partially to protest recent police brutality, really this action dramatic expands the largest social movement this nation has see...
“I think it’s dangerous, this class warfare”
– Mitt Romney on OWS, Oct. 4, 2011
Occupy Wall Street (OWS) represents a nationwide movement-in-the-making that is independent of the two-Party duopoly. Both the mo...
The most compelling take away image from a visit to Zuccotti Park, home of the burgeoning Occupy Wall Street movement, is the almost unbelievable amount of global energy emanating from such a tiny plot of real estate. How is it possible for the ideas of so few people ca...
On Saturday October 22nd, my wife and I visited Occupy Wall Street to see history in the making—and to donate two of my relevant books to the OWS library. The entrance point on Broadway of Zuccotti Park, formerly called Liberty Plaza, stops one cold. You face a dozen or...
“A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth glancing at,” wrote Oscar Wilde, “for it leaves out the one country at which humanity is always landing. And when humanity lands there, it looks out, and seeing a better country, sets sail. Progress is t...
Protesters at Zuccotti Park spent a very long weekend in an October snow, tarps and tents providing scant protection against some early flurries. Zuccotti sits on the south edge of Tribeca, a tony, toasty neighborhood of the 1 percent, where loft and condo prices still...
The slow but inexorable dissolution of feudal society that began centuries ago in England and Western Europe made two historical transformations possible: the rise of capitalism, an economic system based on market relations and private ownership; and the entrance into the...
A remarkable shift in mass public opinion is occurring right before our eyes. It does not happen often. Normally, only when there is a severe breakdown in public confidence about the future.
Now is such a time.
Millions are demanding clear explanations for t...
The question confronting the Occupy Wall Street encampments and their offshoots in scores of cities and towns around the country is quo vadis? Where is it going?
This decentralized, leaderless civic initiative has attracted the persistent attention of the ...
A protest sign in NYC, “FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE I FEEL AT HOME...
In mere weeks Occupy Wall Street has challenged prevailing perceptions of the U.S. left, the status quo, and the relationship between the two. Overcoming the police suppression and media blackout of its vulnerable beginnings, OWS has absorbed energy and tactics from the M...
Coast to coast, from Oakland to Atlanta, cops are busting up Occupations. The right is fighting back against what might be the most vibrant, vital, dynamic and fast-growing movement for social change this country has seen since at least the movement against the U.S. war...
One of the theories of the practice of psychology encountered in college is “egoism,” the argument that all people at all times act in their own self-interest. The theory is circular in that once the premise is accepted, any argument that runs counter to it is presume...
On October 25th James Miller, a professor at the New School for Social Research, weighed in on the Occupy movement in an Op-Ed in the New York Times. In this piece, Miller warned against extremist, anti-democratic elements who threaten to undermine the nascent movement....
Some years ago, my husband, youngest son, and I watched Ultimate Fighting—grappling—during which two contenders slammed and choked each other while writhing on a mat. The contest ended when one of the opponents tap, tap, tapped the mat, in surrender.
Barack O...
Until recent events proved otherwise, the hyper-commercialized surface of the corporate state gave the appearance of being too diffuse–too devoid of a center to pose a threat of totalitarian excess. Accordingly, as of late, due to the violent response to OWS protest...
American voters now have a clear view of who they can vote for next year, with Barack Obama as the Democrats’ certain candidate and Mitt Romney as the Republicans’. Both candidates offer much the same prescriptions for the multiple crises facing their country ...
With the various Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, talk of economic and social fairness is in the air. Demonstrators are complaining about the vast inequalities in wealth and political influence between the rich 1 percent or so and the remaining 99 percent.
Are th...
The sign at the Occupy Wall Street demonstration revealed the struggles of America’s young: “A B.A., $30,000 in student debt and no job.” Young people are graduating from college into the worst jobs market since the 1930s while carrying record levels of student debt...
It’s not too cool to be ridiculed
But you brought this upon yourself
The world is tired of pacifiers
We want the truth and nothing else
And we are sick and tired of hearing your song
Telling how you are gonna change right f...
I. That Strange Brown Man, Gandhi.
Gandhi is standing in the bustle of Occupy Boston. The wry smile, the flapping ears, and the walking stick in hand. A sign flags near his knees, “The world holds enough for everyone’s NEED, bu...
The call to “occupy Wall Street” is a call to occupy corporations. But how do we actually do that? Here are three ways.
1. Occupying the Boardroom
The first thing to recognize about our big corporations is that they have thousands an...