Happy 10th Occupy Wall Street!, A PA Roundup You Don't Want to Miss, & News From Beyond the Bubble!
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* Occupy Wall Street, NYC 2012 Credit: María María Acha-Kutscher (http://www.acha-kutscher.com)
Gabriel Winant, writing in Dissent, describes the impact Occupy Wall Street has had on many ordinary folks who participated:
“The most significant consequence of Occupy, [Michael] Denning predicted, would not be direct political victories, but rather the experience itself, the individual lessons it taught and the ways that it became embedded in the life histories of those who went through it. As in all intense social movement cycles, participants would find themselves doing things they would not have anticipated, alongside people they would not otherwise have known. They would change not the state but themselves, and then carry that change with them elsewhere. In that moment, I sensed that I was in a distinct political cohort in formation, a sense which became common to Occupy.”
I had a similar experience, not with Occupy, but with the 1999 Battle of Seattle WTO Protests. This led me on a path of fighting for fair trade, international solidarity and human rights accompaniment, and activist-journalism (www.UpsideDownWorld.org).
Have you had a comparable political experience? Leave it in the comments!
Here are some Occupy reflections that I found really insightful:
Occupy Memory, by Molly Crabapple “Occupy grew fast, but it was not solid. Its strengths were also its weaknesses.” https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2021/09/16/occupy-memory/
Occupy Wall Street Changed Everything, by Astra Taylor and Jonathan Smucker “Ten years later, the legacy of Zuccotti Park has never been clearer.” https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/09/occupy-wall-street-changed-everything.html
Occupy Wall Street Did More Than You Think, by Michael Levitin “The movement itself has mostly disappeared. But 10 years later, its legacy is everywhere.” https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/how-occupy-wall-street-reshaped-america/620064/
Why Did the Western Left Ignore Occupy Nigeria?, by Zachariah Mampilly “With millions of participants flooding the streets of Lagos, Abuja, Kano, and other Nigerian cities and towns, it was the largest Occupy movement in the world. Yet ten years later, little has been written about Occupy Nigeria—or the many other African uprisings that have taken place over the last decade.” https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/why-did-the-western-left-ignore-occupy-nigeria
#Occupy@10: An Oral History, by directed by Bill McGarvey for the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR-USA) “An Oral History is a short documentary (30 minutes) directed by Bill McGarvey (McG Media) for the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR-USA). It tells the story of Occupy through the eyes of seven interfaith leaders and activists who participated in Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Oakland.”
Pennsylvania Roundup
In the past, one of my main criticisms of the local papers in Bucks County is that they often platformed and accommodated the far-right and their dangerous and loony ideas without any accountability or progressive pushback. Thankfully, that is changing. First, in case you missed it, my most recent column dropped on Thursday: “Bucks County GOP must reject militias, QAnon, Proud Boys, and other extremism.” You can read it in both the Bucks County Courier Times and The Intelligencer. If you hit a paywall email me and I’ll send you the text.
The paper has also been doing some great straight news reporting that you should all support:
“Report points to militia roots of group that called for protest at Central Bucks meeting”
“We looked at school disciplinary data by race. Here's what we found” [Systemic Racism]
“Bucks NAACP, ADL Philadelphia condemn Pennridge's halt in diversity, equity and inclusion efforts”
Bucks County’s Anusha Viswanathan, a pediatric infectious disease specialist, has a must read OpEd in the Philadelphia Inquirer: “Bucks County’s anti-maskers have become a microcosm of national extremism.” She documents the extremism of the ReOpen Bucks folks. This anti-mask, anti-science, anti-common sense movement has its acolytes running for school boards all across Bucks County - some of whom are also QAnon followers and bigots - and also endorsed by the local Three Percent Militia.
Anusha writes:
“As a doctor and parent I’ve been reeling at those calling for civility as they simultaneously denigrate medical professionals of color as “illegal aliens” and “murderers.” Recoiling at the hypocrisy of advocating for children’s mental health during a county commissioners meeting, yet attacking a public official who experienced suicide in her own family. Feeling dismay as a militia group called for its members to camp out for hours near the district’s meeting room, canceling only after public outcry. Watching with alarm as lifelong public servantst and school board candidates are subjected to threats and bullying.”
Students organize/protest against ban on anti-racist teaching materials! “More than two dozen students have been gathering in front of Central York High School at 7:15 a.m. each day this week, as school buses arrive and parents drop off their children. The students organizing the protest are mostly seniors, but they hope their efforts will benefit younger classes…” Read more HERE. Also, read this student organizer Edha Gupta’s OpEd: “Enough is Enough!”
Students in Bucks County should take note!
County Commissioner Slams PA Legislators for Jan. 6 Insurrection: “The charges you made that the November election was not valid were bogus.” This was how Franklin County Commissioner Bob Ziborowki began an email addressing Senators Doug Mastriano and Judy Ward and Representatives Rob Kaufman and Paul Schemel nine days after the January 6th Insurrection… Read more at PA Spotlight.
PA’s Dr. Death? A far-right quack, Dr. Joel E. Yeager, “put a stock, four-page [mask] exemption letter on the homepage of his practice’s website. The site invited people to ‘print your own copy.’” Thankfully the Pennsylvania Department of State is investigating a complaint against the Lebanon, PA-based doctor.
This is via the DESMOG BLOG (and here is Yeager’s YOUTUBE VIDEO) which provides a snapshot of this doctor’s expert medical opinions:
Joel E Yeager: [00:00:17] I’m Dr. Joel Yeager, board certified family physician and my wife, Dr. Lou Ann Yeager, is also a board certified family physician together with me. We made the choice to keep our office open throughout this entire pandemic. I had a phone call after hours. He said, Dr. Joel. He said, I am finally back to work. After a long, many weeks of not being at work and now one of my coworkers has tested positive. I don’t think the coworker had really many symptoms. He said. I don’t have any symptoms at all. He said, what should I do? And I said, well, I can give you the CDC recommendation, which would basically be to go home and isolate yourself from the next seven to 14 days, which means you’re out of work. [00:01:02]
[00:01:03] Or I can give you my recommendation. You’re not symptomatic. You’re finally back to work. Even if you do become symptomatic, we now know that most people fight this virus and do absolutely fine with little to no effects. So we had about a 10 minute conversation. And at the end he said, well, Dr. Joel, I’m so glad to hear this. He said, this just puts my mind at ease.
Because he said, all I hear is what I hear on the news media. And it makes me really frightened. [00:01:26]
[00:02:56] I think my biggest message would be it’s time to get healthy Americans back out circulating in the public. The way to develop an immunity is to get healthy people out, circulating, doing what healthy people normally do. And that’s backed up actually by the facts. The way to get an immunity in the population to a disease that’s relatively as benign as this is to get healthy people circulating. And worst case scenario is do pass it around at school. Well, they’ll develop an immunity to it. I can’t imagine a first grader kindergartner with a mask on eight hours a day at school, you know, not being allowed to participate in in field trips. I mean, all of the I mean, certainly schools are about education, but there’s also a huge social component. And all these restrictions will have huge social implications on children. [00:02:56]
One of the ReOpen Movement’s great medical medical minds!
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Beyond the Bubble
An average of four land and environmental defenders were killed each week, making 2020 the worst year on record, according to Global Witness.
Almost 30% of attacks linked to resource exploitation (logging, mining and large-scale agribusiness), hydroelectric dams & other infrastructure
Over a third of all fatal attacks targeted Indigenous people – Indigenous communities make up only 5% of the world’s population
All but one of 227 recorded killings of defenders took place in Global South countries – the regions suffering most from climate breakdown
In many countries corporations operate with almost complete impunity. Arrests or prosecution remain rare for killing defenders
Read the group’s full report here: “Last Line of Defense.”
Study: Indigenous resistance has staved off 25% of U.S. and Canada’s annual emissions. “A recent report by Indigenous Environmental Network, or IEN, and Oil Change International, or OCI, found that Indigenous-led resistance to 21 fossil fuel projects in the U.S. and Canada over the past decade has stopped or delayed an amount of greenhouse gas pollution equivalent to at least one-quarter of annual U.S. and Canadian emissions.
This is despite an onslaught of attacks against Indigenous activists over the past few years. Over the last few years, victories won against projects through direct actions have led to more than 35 states enacting anti-protest laws, jail time for protestors, thousands of dollars of fines, and even the killing of prominent activists.” Read more HERE.
Peruvian Artist Records Feminism’s Living History. This is an old interview I did from 2015 with María María Acha-Kutscher, the artist whose image I used at the top of the newsletter. Acha-Kutscher turns photographs into digital drawings that she prints onto large format tarps for exhibitions in public spaces.
“I am a feminist visual artist because I am part of a broad movement. It means that my work has a political dimension,” said the Peruvian artist. “It contributes, documents and responds to social needs, especially for women, to the feminist movement.”
Read the interview HERE.
Activists accuse British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto of contaminating water sources in Madagascar. “At some sites, uranium and lead levels have been recorded at 52 and 40 times respectively the World Health Organization’s safe limits for drinking water. Some 15,000 people in southeastern Madagascar depend on these water sources, a report by Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Madagascar said. A coalition of NGOs based in the U.K. and Madagascar is demanding that Rio Tinto provide safe drinking water to these communities immediately.” Read more at Mongabay.com.
The Other Afghan Women: In the countryside, the endless killing of civilians turned women against the occupiers who claimed to be helping them.
This is a long read, but worth it, written by Anand Gopal:
“For Americans, the very real possibility that the gains of the past two decades might be erased appeared to pose a dreadful choice: recommit to seemingly endless war, or abandon Afghan women.
This summer, I travelled to rural Afghanistan to meet women who were already living under the Taliban, to listen to what they thought about this looming dilemma. More than seventy per cent of Afghans do not live in cities, and in the past decade the insurgent group had swallowed large swaths of the countryside. Unlike in relatively liberal Kabul, visiting women in these hinterlands is not easy: even without Taliban rule, women traditionally do not speak to unrelated men. Public and private worlds are sharply divided, and when a woman leaves her home she maintains a cocoon of seclusion through the burqa, which predates the Taliban by centuries. Girls essentially disappear into their homes at puberty, emerging only as grandmothers, if ever. It was through grandmothers—finding each by referral, and speaking to many without seeing their faces—that I was able to meet dozens of women, of all ages…” Finish reading the article at The New Yorker.
Thanks for reading! I look forward to your feedback and suggestions. And most importantly, keep organizing!