Category: Essays & Letters

Occupy Northeast: The Coffee Shop

by Kendall Reflections is a coffee shop where people meet to change the world. It’s a meeting space, book store, theatre, art gallery, music venue, and park. It’s one of the few places in Portland where people can buy African-American greeting cards and cowrie shells, fridge magnets and baskets. It’s a place to play chess,…

10 Things Everyone Should Know About the Quebec Student Movement

by Andrew Gavin Marshall The student strikes in Quebec, which began in February and have lasted for three months, involving roughly 175,000 students in the mostly French-speaking Canadian province, have been subjected to a massive provincial and national media propaganda campaign to demonize and dismiss the students and their struggle. The following is a list…

NATO Invades: We Can’t Feed The Poor, But We Can Fund Wars?

This article is from the Occupied News Wire. It was originally published in the Occupied Chicago Tribune. by Occupied Chicago Tribune Staff When NATO released a video earlier this month introducing Chicago to the visiting heads of state, it was full of so many errors and missteps—that the city is the capital of Illinois, that…

Post-Arrest FAQ: Know the Courts, Occupy the Courts

by Chris O’Connor and Stu Sugarman Many resources are available to explain your constitutional rights when you are facing arrest. But what happens after you have been arrested? The Occupier recently asked lawyers Chris O’Connor and Stu Sugarman to answer some “Frequently Asked Questions”. Arraign-what? An arraignment is the first hearing in many criminal and…

Why U.S. Politicians Are Quiet About Europe’s Meltdown

by Shamus Cooke After the Greek elections struck fear into the hearts of the global banksters, the fallout remains uncertain. If the next Greek election produces an anti-austerity government, Greece will almost certainly make a speedy exit from the Euro. If this happens — and it is looking increasingly inevitable — the consequences for the…

Dear Cascadia: A Letter from the Great Beyond

By Little Bear This is a follow-up to May 6th’s piece titled “RIP Ernest Callenbach, Good Morning Cascadia”. This letter was originally published in TomDispatch. Ernest Callenbach, author of “Ecotopia”, dreamt of a liberated and sustainable Pacific Northwest. He called it Ecotopia. We call it Cascadia. Epistle to the Ecotopians By Ernest Callenbach [This document…

Some Lies and Misinformation Surrounding Occupy Portland

Lataya Dailey “The Occupiers Cost Thousands of Dollars of Damage to the Parks.” We’ve heard the estimate that over 85,000 dollars in damage was caused by Occupiers while the protest site was established in Chapman and Lownsdale Park. According to a press release from workers of LABORERS’ LOCAL 483 who maintain the parks “ The…

Steve Novick Wants More Money in Politics – His Politics!

by Stephen Quirke Steve Novick is an odd fellow. He seems to fashion himself a rebel, a brave upstart pushing bold new ideas. But I’ve been noticing some weird things about Novick, a pattern that I’m finding it hard to ignore. That pattern is simply this: on the big issues – on the structural things…

Portland Police Bureau’s Press Release Stripped Naked

by Vargus Pike The Portland Police Bureau’s press release in response to accusations of police brutality on May Day is a masterful piece of propaganda. Its author knew full well that the local news and radio stations would parrot the high points of the press release that cast the police as shining examples of truth,…

A Few Good Democrats are Not Enough

This piece is from the Occupied News Wire. It originally appeared in the Occupied Wall Street Journal. by Max Berger As long as there has been a thing called Occupy Wall Street, there have been people who’ve suggested it should become the left’s version of the Tea Party. Josh Harkinson’s piece is a notable contribution to the…