A coalition of dozens of community organizations; unions; and civil rights, environmental, student, and activist groups is organizing the 99% Spring, with a goal of training 100,000 people in direct action the week of April 9-15. The trainings will:
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Radical left-wing activist Bill Ayers apparently stopped by Occupy Union Square in New York City on Friday and shared a little bit of what gets him going each day: Ending capitalism.
“I get up every morning and think, today I’m going to make a difference,” Ayers said in a video clip posted online. “Today I’m going to end capitalism. Today I’m going to make a revolution. I go to bed every night disappointed but I’m back to work tomorrow, and that’s the only way you can do it.”
(h/t Weasel Zippers)
Michael Moore may sympathize with the 99 percent, but he got a bit of a rude reminder that he isn’t one of them at a rally in New York city’s Zuccotti Park on Saturday.
Moore reportedly decided to go for a personal meet-and-greet with Occupy protesters, and while he snapped multiple photos with adoring fans, there was also some discontent after his speech as some hecklers called him “50 million dollar, Halliburton invested Michael Moore.” Presumably, the latter accusation refers to a story from 2005 that Moore once owned Halliburton stock.
Michigan Live found the YouTube (seemingly taken by an Occupy sympathizer) of the heckling, and Reuters gives us some excerpts from Moore’s remarks:
[Occupy Wall Street] continues to draw celebrities, however. On Saturday night, independent filmmaker Michael Moore strode through the park before the police incursion.
“I think it’s great that this movement continues to grow,” Moore said. “I think the goals are clear. People are concerned that they have no control over their own democracy. They have no control over their own lives.
“This is the beginning. This park is sacred ground for millions across the country.”
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoID-HIzTe8
The part with Moore and the heckling begins around 4:15 in the video.
After predicting earlier this month that “we’ll see action” from the Occupy Wall Street movement in the spring, leftist professor and activist Frances Fox Piven said it’s “time for another surge from the bottom.”
Piven, making her comments in a video for the left-leaning magazine The Nation, said soaring inequality has always been the “default position” in America.
“In the absence of movements from below, of real trouble from below, in the absence of protests, American politics, electoral politics — despite the fact that so many people go out to vote — reverts to a position where big money is the dominating force, and when big money is the dominating force, regulations of business become impossible, or they are ignored, and that of course is what happened in the current period.”
She continued, “It’s been time for another surge from the bottom for quite a while, and some of us have been waiting.”
New York City police officers cleared out Zuccotti Park and made multiple arrests Saturday night when Occupy Wall Street protesters gathered to mark the six-month anniversary of the movement.