Month: July 2012

Occupy Homes MN Victory: Developing a Cure for Bank Blight?

This story orginally appeared on the website for Occupy Homes MN (Minnesota). By Susan Kukichi and Anthony Newby After a five-year battle over now-illegal lending practices, a bank error that dropped her from a loan modification program, and a campaign with Occupy Homes MN, north Minneapolis homeowner Ruby Brown has received a mortgage renegotiation from…

How to Kill the Internet

By the Crew at Riseup.net Around the world, there is a magic formula for passing laws to severely limit internet freedom: claim that you must block and monitor traffic in order to prevent child pornography. If you are like me, your impulse is to stop reading right now. There is nothing that I would like…

Terror at the Cinema

This essay was originally published on The State. by Adam Rothstein Another uptown, suburban tragedy. Another list of white people who all died at the same time. Another day of America dying a little inside. It is a society engaged in its own suicidal death spiral, that attacks itself in existential crisis. Like an alcoholic…

Everything For Everyone in Seattle

Seattle, WA – Seattle organizers announce a free, two-day, political and cultural festival called Everything for Everyone meant to connect people from around the country interested in taking the spirit of Occupy to a new level, aimed at changing everything. Everything for Everyone will be fertile ground for developing a new political and cultural ecosystem…

Irreformable Corruption, Rebellious Cities, Commerce, and Coal Trains

By Nicholas Caleb Through a process of losing confidence that has spanned my twenties, I’ve finally given up on national politics and find it incapable of being reformed through existing institutional reform mechanisms (except maybe a constitutional amendment coming from a state driven convention; different can of worms for a different post). The lack of…

Whither Blows Change? Community Forum on Climate Justice

Story and photos Pete Shaw Three years ago I was in Haarlem, Netherlands, watching a televised debate on climate change. For a few moments I felt I had bent my balance: something was bothering me, but I could not figure out what it was. And then I realized that the debate was not about the…

Effective Community Interaction Can Eliminate Police State

By Ahjamu Umi On July 4th, or the Fourth of the Lie as we call it, a number of concerned activists came together in Peninsula Park to celebrate land liberation and defending our communities.  The main focus of this event was to alert people that a series of high profile direct actions are being planned.…

Job Crisis Denial

By Shamus Cooke Before any problem can be fixed it must first be acknowledged. The jobs crisis stays in the shadows, out of mind, and consequently unaddressed. This is allowed to happen because those in power – Republicans and Democrats – both have political reasons to remain silent. When the jobs crisis is discussed, the…

Vigil Preempts City Plan to Clean Sidewalk

by Crash In yet another demonstration of the people’s rising gumption and grit, the sidewalk in front of Portland City Hall was cleaned up to a shine early Sunday morning. The cleaners included Occupy activists, long-term vigil keepers, one hunger striker, and the unhoused folks who have been sleeping on the edge of the sidewalk…