2/11/14 – The Day We Fight Back

Join Us in Supporting the Students and Teachers of Tucson Unified School District

Have you wanted to get involved with Occupy, but not really a marcher? Too far away from an Occupation? Intimidated by crowds?

Do you support the right to read and abhor censorship?

We’ve got the action for you.

The Tucson Unified School District has dismantled its Mexican-American Studies program and removed the books used in that program from the classrooms of the district. Teachers and students have vehemently protested this move, including a student-led walkout and an Ethnic Studies School, arranged on the symbolically important 100th day of school. The day when the state counts heads to determine funding.

The books removed include:
Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Rodolfo Acuna’s Occupied America: A History of Chicanos
Bill Bigelow’s Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years
Richard Delgado’s Critical Race Theory
Rodolfo Gonzales’s Message to AZTLAN
Elizabeth Martinez’s (ed) 500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures
Arturo Rosales’s Chicano! The History of the Mexican Civil Rights Movement

This is where you come in. Acting in solidarity with OccupyTucson and the students, parents, and teachers of the Tucson Unified School District we are going send copies of the banned texts to Tucson for distribution. Lots of copies. As many copies as we can find and buy. We respect the rights of authors and publishers, so all copies will be completely legally purchased though an independent bookseller or directly from the publisher. Donations of the these texts are, of course, welcomed.

We’ll be collecting funds via the WePay link on this page. Any amount will be gladly welcomed and all donations will go toward the purchase of books or shipping books.

The repression of the history of resistance, of what Howard Zinn called People’s History, is an old tactic in the class war. Hide what previous generations accomplished, hide the fact of genuine social change in the past, and you hinder the possibility of social progress today. The young people and their teachers in Tucson have spoken loud and clear. They want to know that history and they want those books. Let’s send them some.

Destruction of the People’s Library

Help Needed Retrieving Books!

Friends of the People’s Library–we need help!

The City is freeing our seized books, magazines and other materials at 650 57th Street (entrance at 56th nr or 12th St.), but we need people with cars and people who can help load those cars.

Here is what we need to move:

• Between 2,000 and 4,000 books (we’ll know if it looks right when we see it), this includes five boxes of “Reference” materials many of which were autographed by the authors;
• Our custom made “OWS library stamps;”
• 5 (4?) laptop computers;
• Our wifi device;
• miscellaneous paper supplies;
• A round portable table;
• a rectangular portable table;
• 6 metal shelves (five of which had been set up in two pieces);
• three sets of wooden drawers;
• a periodicals spinning rack;
• Approximately 60 plastic tubs/bins of varying sizes (most small, but several big);
• archival materials;
• posters (including many original posters created by OWS participants);
• two lamps;
• four solar lights;
• 7 (or so) chairs;
• a wooden dinner table;
• periodicals/newspapers/zines (not counted in our book total);
• our awesome tent; [donated by Patti Smith]
• signage;
• personal belongings of librarian

We are also still missing two Librarians! Two young men, Scales and Charlie, are still in the system and we’d like them back please Mr. Bloomberg. These brave librarians have been tireless volunteers and went down with the Library on Monday night. Release them so that they can get back to work serving the information and literary needs of the 99%.

ReOccupy Writers Stand in Solidarity with OWS Tonight at 6:00

Tonight at 6:00 writers and readers from across New York City will gather in Liberty Plaza to reoccupy the space and rebuild the People’s Library. Authors will bring their books, readers will bring their favorite books to donate and together we will rebuild to create the revolution this country needs.

I invite those not in NYC to gather at their occupations, campuses, squares, and parks to read poetry and prose in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street and the 99%. Literature is a revolutionary force. Let’s unleash it against the forces who would divide and conquer us. Let’s make the sound of democracy heard across this whole country. Share your poems, your dreams, and your stories with each other. Stand in solidarity together.

Join us in NYC and across the world for a night of readings, poetry, and revolutionary ideas. Together we will change this country and reclaim our democracy for the 99%.

Today: 9AM Post-Raid Rally and General Assembly

New Yorkers! Meet at 9am at Canal and 6th Avenue. Spread the word…

This movement can’t be contained in one square block in lower Manhattan. It is bigger than that. You can’t evict an idea whose time had come.

Show your support. Turn out en masse….

Posted 36 minutes ago on Nov. 15, 2011, 5:30 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

URGENT: Raid of Occupy Wall Street

URGENT CALL FOR ACTION: The Occupation and the People’s Library are being destroyed right now by the NYPD. The Library and all the tents and equipment from the camp are being thrown in dumpsters.

Please call:

311, if you’re in New York City

If you’re outside NYC, please call the NYPD Switchboard at: 646-610-5000

And the Mayor’s office at: 212-NEW-YORK (212-639-9675)

Ask that the Mayor and NYPD stop the eviction of Occupy Wall Street.

I’m currently watching video from the CBS News helicopter which shows that the NYPD have surrounded the occupation at Liberty Plaza with two layers of barricades and lines of police. They have also set up lights shining into the park from all sides. Streams of police are visible entering the park.

Library staff have confirmed that police are entering the occupation. The global revolution livestream is reporting that the park is being “raided” now.

It appears that at this moment, the NYPD are moving to evict the occupation. CBS reports that the press is not being allowed into the park to cover the events. There are massive numbers of police lined up in battallions on the north side of the park. Also, no one is being allowed near the park.

The police are making every effort to prevent media and OWS cameras from filming what is occurring in the park right now. The best way you can help right now is to flood the city with calls and spread the word.

Eviction Resistance.

Photographs by Stephen Boyer of the People’s Library wrapped up and ready for the eviction resistance Friday morning.

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Statement from OWS Direct Action

Brookfield property group has informed Occupy Wall Street of their intent to “clean” Liberty Square, our home and community. OWS views this as an attempt to evict over 500 peaceful and nonviolent protesters form Liberty Square, a tactic used to evict occupations in Austin, TX, Barcelona, Spain, and Bloombergville, NY.

OWS is a highly organized community with a sanitation working group that works tirelessly to keep our plaza clean. In a show of good will, OWS organized a full day of cleaning on Thursday, 13 October 2011 in response to Brookfield’s concerns.

We have no intention of leaving our park. We have spent weeks building a strong community of mutual aid and empowerment. The city government has brutalized and intimidated us and the media has attempted to censor and belittle our message. Despite these challenges, our message has been heard by millions around the world, and they are taking up the call to action by occupying spaces in their communities and opening them up to practice direct, horizontal, non-hierarchical democracy.

OWS invites Brookfield property group to re-clean Liberty Plaza in 1/3 increments starting at 7am as they have proposed. We will maintain physical presence in two thirds of our plaza at all times while they re-clean.

The possibility of eviction doesn’t simply threaten the immediate occupiers of Liberty Square. As a symbolic home to the growing movement against global injustice, any attempt to evict Liberty Square will be met with strong resistance by occupiers, community groups, local unions and organized labor, as well as individual supporters world wide.

Occupy Everything.

Not in NYC? Here’s how you can stop the eviction.

From Moveon.org

“Another important way to make sure that Mayor Bloomberg hears from all of us is to call New York City’s complaint line at (212) NEW-YORK–that’s (212) 639-9675.

When you’re asked to, Press 1 for English, hit 0, and then wait through the message and hold music until you get an operator. Then tell the operator you’re calling in protest against the eviction of the Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zuccotti Park.

This New York call line has great systems for gathering, counting, and reporting calls, so our collective call will be heard.”

EMERGENCY CALL TO ACTION: Prevent the forcible closure of Occupy Wall Street!

(The following response to the NYPD announcement was posted at 2:14pm, October 13, 2011)

Tell Bloomberg: Don’t Foreclose the Occupation.

Join us at 6AM FRIDAY for non-violent eviction defense.

Please take a minute to read this, and please take action and spread the word far and wide.

Occupy Wall Street is gaining momentum, with occupation actions now happening in cities across the world.

But last night Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD notified Occupy Wall Street participants about plans to “clean the park”—the site of the Wall Street protests—tomorrow starting at 7am. “Cleaning” was used as a pretext to shut down “Bloombergville” a few months back, and to shut down peaceful occupations elsewhere.

Bloomberg says that the park will be open for public usage following the cleaning, but with a notable caveat: Occupy Wall Street participants must follow the “rules”. These rules include, “no tarps or sleeping bags” and “no lying down.”

So, seems likely that this is their attempt to shut down #OWS for good.

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PLEASE TAKE ACTION:

1) Call 311 and tell Bloomberg to support our right to assemble and to not interfere with #OWS. If you are calling from outside NY use this number 212-NEW-YORK.

2) Come to #OWS on FRIDAY AT 6AM to defend the occupation from eviction.

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Occupy Wall Street is committed to keeping the park clean and safe — we even have a Sanitation Working Group whose purpose this is. We are organizing major cleaning operations today and will do so regularly.

If Bloomberg truly cares about sanitation here he should support the installation of portopans and dumpsters. #OWS allies have been working to secure these things to support our efforts.

We know where the real dirt is: on Wall Street. Billionaire Bloomberg is beholden to bankers.

We won’t allow Bloomberg and the NYPD to foreclose our occupation. This is an occupation, not a permitted picnic.