Occupy LA-Wisdom Quarterly activities

Council of Elders, Occupy Los Angeles, Wisdom Quarterly, Against the Stream, LACHS

Saturday, 11-4-11: 3:30 pm meditation and Dharma teaching guided by Against the Stream, south steps. SEIU Health and Wellness Fair at OLA covering addiction, mental health, both the physical and spiritual. Clinicians, counselors, mediators, 12 steppers will be there.

Sunday: 2:00 pm, Interfaith Affinity Group meeting and to discuss plans for Nonviolence Day. Less about planning and more about sharing and being together in a spiritual setting. 3:30 is a Compassionate Communication class.

• COUNCIL OF ELDERS Sunday, Nov. 20th, 3:00 pm: Noted civil rights leaders Rev. James M. Lawson, Dolores Huerta, Rev. Canon Malcolm Boyd, Dr. Maher Hathout, Rabbi Leonard Beerman, and others from many of the defining American social justice movements of the 20th century. They will lead a service of solidarity and host a conversation with Occupy demonstrators and others. Similar event with other notable elders will be held in San Francisco.

Nonviolence Day is 12-3-11. Music and more. Guided meditation. Inspiring original songs incorporating devotional chanting including harmonium, bells, tambourines, guitars, drums, singing and dancing. Yoga class.

Meditation by Megan and Andrea (Against the Stream)

• Monday, Nov. 21st, 11:00 am-12:15 pm

Everyone is invited to join a Sitting Meditation and Silent Peace Walk at Occupy Los Angeles. We will send positive intentions out into the world.

Let us be the change we want to see in the world -- as we generate the combined energy of mindfulness, calm reflection, loving-kindness, and insight. The 99% and the 1% are worthy of happiness and compassion. Let's sit and walk for protestors as well as police, slum lords and slum residents, householders and homeless. Poverty, unemployment, greed, and corruption are more than a domestic issue. Help create an environment for the 100% to come together in meditation and share the intention of creating peace, harmony, and freedom for ALL beings.

Simple acts contribute to a major paradigm shift. Why? Peace in ourselves creates peace in the world.

SCHEDULE
10:50 am - Gather, get settled
11:00 am - Sitting meditation
11:20 am - Peace Walk in silence
11:50 am - Sitting mediation (20 mins)

Organized by the Los Angeles Compassionate Heart Sangha, a mindfulness meditation group practicing in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh. No political affiliation.

Occupy UCLA: Take down those tents!

The Occupy Movement promised a Day of Action across nation
Take Back UCLA

(LA Times) Bringing the Occupy Wall Street movement and student protests to Westwood, about 25 tents were set up today on the UCLA campus. But officials said the encampment violated school rules and would not last long.

The tents were pitched on Wilson Plaza near the base of the landmark Janss Steps. And about 100 or so demonstrators were reportedly gathered in the area. Authorities were studying ways to make sure the camp did not stay up...

“The university does intend to enforce those policies,” UCLA spokesman Phil Hampton said.

“At this point, the conversations taking place are about how best to do that.” UCLA wants to balance the protesters’ right to free speech with [the rights of police to beat them]... More

PHOTOS: Day of Action

Occupy LA Calendar Actions (video)

Occupy UCLA, Occupy Los Angeles, Wisdom Quarterly, Occupy CSUDH

Channel 5 (FOX Channel 11 local affiliate KTLA.com/local) Los Angeles news coverage

There are fresh and exciting actions afoot. There are two BeGrouped text groups -- one for the Action Committee (discussiion) and one for Action Updates (strictly updates, no chatter). There is also a Twitter feed @OccupyLAAction and spying through Facebook.com/groups/215029945237006

Wednesday:
What: Mic Check at UC Board of Trustees Meeting
Where: Long Beach
When: Bus leaving OLA (Occupy LA) 1st & Main at 8:15 am.
Why: Tuition Hikes

Protesters Arrested at Massive "Occupy L.A." Rally
LOS ANGELES (KTLA) - Union and Occupy LA demonstrators staged a massive
march and rally in downtown LA as part of Thursday's "National Day of Action"

Thursday:
What: Occupy the Bridge
Why: Corporate greed is killing good jobs. L.A.'s bridges, roads, parks, and schools are outdated and crumbling. We're losing firefighters, police, and good school jobs in our communities due to budget cuts. But Congress refuses to tax millionaires and super-wealthy corporations to pay for legislation that will create 125,400 good jobs in California. Wall Street banks were in trouble, Congress rushed to bail them out with billions in taxpayer money - but now Congress and corporations are turning their backs on our schools and communities.
When: Meet at Spring and 1st at 6:00 am for breakfast and to march over. March begins at BofA Plaza at 7:00 am!
Where: 4th & Flower St.

Local Channel 5 Los Angeles News (KTLA.com), Nov. 17, 2011

What: USWW March
When: Noon
Where: Leaving from City Hall South Side



OCCUPY UCLA @ 12:30 pm
What: One-Day Strike, all day picket line at CSU Dominguez Hills, Carson
When: 6:00 am - 7:00 pm (or whatever portion of the day you're available)
Where: Campus Main Entrance (Gate E), 1000 E. Victoria St, Carson 90747
Why: Support Quality Public Higher Education
Stop the Corporate Takeover of the CSU! Help Save Middle Class Jobs!
Faculty Want to Provide Quality Education & Support Our Families. Join us!
Facebook.com/event.php?eid=219712158099755



Saturday:
What: Health & Wellness Fair
**MORE INFO COMING ASAP**

What: Aerial Photo of Occupy Los Angeles
**MORE INFO COMING ASAP**

Occupy Wall Street New York, SEIU, and Occupy Los Angeles (KTLA.com)

What: Power of Comedy Event
When: 8:00 pm (leave from City Hall at 7:00 pm)
Where: Meet at northside OLA steps; event is at the Hollywood Palladium
Why: to encourage comedians to avoid working with stations who misrepresent the movement
**This is a ticketed event. OLA RSVP contact TBD -- stay tuned!**

Tuesday Nov. 22nd:
What: Teach-In & March to the Fed
When: Teach-In at 2:30 on northside steps, leave from Fountain Box at 4:00 pm for March
Where: Federal Reserve Bank
**Please let me know when we have a Facebook event for this, waiting on that link to print flyers**

UC Berkeley administrator misspeaks about a peaceful worldwide movement involving students that is repeatedly the victim of police and state-sanctioned violence.

Saturday Dec. 3rd:
**Still in Development**
What: Occupy Union Station -- joint action with Occupy Long Beach and Occupy Pasadena, likely other Occupy SoCal groups as well
When: 11:00 am -2:00/3ish
Where: Union Station
Why: Skits and so on to creatively reach out and gain public awareness and support
More details to come

**Still in Development**
What: Official LA Day of Non-Violence
Where: Southside steps OLA
Presentations/Speakers/music/etc. Presented by Interfaith Community, Quakers, and UCLA Center for Study of Religion.

More details to come



Tuesday Dec. 6th:
What: City Council Meeting
When: 10:00 am
Where: City Hall
Why: Resolution to end Corporate Personhood

Saturday, Dec. 10th:
What: March for International Human Rights Day
When: 10:00 am-1:00 pm
Facebook.com/event.php?eid=229528123768777

Cal State Long Beach police pepper spray abuse as tuition is hiked

Police dismantle Berkeley's Occupy Cal tents

CC Liu, Pat Macpherson (Wisdom Quarterly)
Sproul Plaza, massive student gathering at UC Berkeley (CTV.ca/AP/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Police dismantle Occupy Cal tents, camps elsewhere remain quiet

(SJMN) While Occupy Movement camps around the San Francisco Bay Area were relatively quiet overnight, police in riot gear cleared out tents at UC Berkeley's Sproul Plaza, the center of the 1960's student Free Speech Movement. The same location is becoming the West Coast center of the Occupy Wall Street cum Occupy College Movement. The separate more exclusive University of California system, already facing massive hikes, has reacted by Occupying UCLA starting today. More coverage

• "Occupy" Movement Spreads to Campuses
  

  (UCLA) An article in Tuesday's LA Times about California college students supporting the Occupy Wall Street movement referenced a protest and outdoor... More
• The Daily Bruin: Occupy UCLA protest starts

Meanwhile in England, "Occupy the Stock Exchange" (occupylsx.org) and Occupy London rage. Demonstrators are asking British police one question: "Who do you serve?" In the USA, Occupy Wall Street is reanimating larger than ever. Police tried to set up barricades protesters moved aside then panicked when vinegar fell on them; they demanded to be rushed to the hospital (to get hazard pay and a day off while on overtime). Police in Long Beach (Los Angeles) pepper sprayed hapless students protesting a crippling 9% tuition hike on Cal State University students.

• [1,000+] gather for OLA/Union march; Occupy Cal raided
• Dozens of Occupy protesters arrested at bank sit-in
• Occupy Cal draws thousands: Supporters crowd Sproul
  
• Police clear Occupy Cal encampment (again)
• Occupy Cal makes history at UC Berkeley
• Occupy Cal - The Daily Californian

Mario Savio Speech: Prof. Reich (video)

(CalTVinfo)

This is the full speech given by author, former US Labor Secretary, and current UC Berkeley Professor Robert Reich on the "Mario Savio Steps" of Sproul Plaza on Nov. 15, 2011. Filmed by Jeffrey New, Myles Moscato; edited by Myles Moscato. At the same rally, students used the people's mic to repeat Savio's words verbatim. It was a glorious moment.

• Cal State Long Beach protesters met with police brutality
• "Very ugly" tuition protest at CSU Long Beach end in pepper spray
• Protesters pepper-sprayed during vote on tuition increase as CSU

Famous Mario Savio speech segment

UC Berkeley plans massive rally 11-15-11

OccupyBerkeley.org

Occupy Cal has not gone anywhere. Tents were destroyed and teenage students dragged away by "storm trooper" style police in jack boots. In outrage students are holding teach outs and a general student strike. People -- supporters, faculty, graduate student teachers, Occupy Oakland (who are marching to Cal in support), Occupy San Francisco, and UC students -- will not stand by for 1960s history to repeat itself as the country (empire) is again engaged in secret wars around the world and strip mining the planet from its base on Wall Street and anti-environment corporations (Monsanto, ADM, Halliburton

• Occupy Yale
  
• Student loans add to angst at Occupy Wall Street
• Bank of America expects $1.8 B gain from Chinese bank
• Is "Occupy Rose Parade" organizer former corporate lawyer?
• (Susan Swift) We can put a face behind the Occupy movement -- and it appears to be a wanna-be one percenter. Peter Thottam is the creator of Occupy Los Angeles and also the progressive force behind Occupy the Rose Parade.

  

  Thottam’s been planning this occupation disruption of the Rose Parade for the last six months — at least that’s how long he’s had the “Occupy the Rose Parade” Twitter feed going. Ironically, Peter Thottam is a Goldman Sachs alum, an Ivy-Leaguer, and former corporate lawyer from an international mega law firm, and recent MBA grad. Yale, Boalt Hall Berkeley Law, and UCLA MBA. Does this sound like a community organizer or a one percenter? While Peter Thottam’s CV reeks of Wall Street elitism, his bio depicts someone grabbing for the corporate brass ring. But he is strangely unwilling or unable to keep a job at such elite corporate employers as Goldman Sachs or O’Melveny and Myers.

Oakland re-attacked by Police (video)

Wisdom Quarterly, RT.com, Global Grind,

(RT) Nov. 14, 2011 - The City of Oakland paid for 1,000 paramilitary troops in this planned take down. Now police in occupied Oakland have cleared out a re-formed occupation after threatening Occupy demonstrators with more heavy handed violence.

Oakland PD and agents from other San Francisco Bay Area cities encircled the downtown encampment before dawn and moved in at about 6:00 am. They escorted handcuffed protesters away soon afterward to be imprisoned, strip searched, humiliated, and potentially violated further.

• Eyewitness: Occupy Oakland raided again
• Storm Troopers hit one Oakland camp, leave other
  
• Student loans add to angst at Occupy Wall St.

The police state action comes a day after police attacked hundreds of Occupy Wall Street-style demonstrators from encampments in Portland, Oregon arresting more than 50 people. Oakland officials insisted on an end to their city's encampment using the pretext that a man was fatally shot Thursday near the camp.

Scott Olsen regains (free) speech

War veteran/peace activist Scott Olsen releases statement

Berkeley (Occupy Cal), St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Eureka, Denver, Albany (NY), Riverside, Portland, and other camps have been attacked as part of an organized suppression campaign.

• PHOTOS: Can police end occupations and save Wall St.?
• PHOTOS: Occupy Oakland and Wall Street solidarity
• VIDEO: Crackdown on UC Berkeley student protest
• Keystone Tar Sands: Ring Around the Rose Garden
  

Power to the People Film Series


(Theendofpoverty.com)

• Police clear Occupy Oakland tent city

  (San Jose Mercury News) Police cleared Occupy Oakland early Monday in what has so far been a peaceful raid. Hundreds of protesters gathered at... More
• Occupy Oakland: Pre-dawn raid on Frank Ogawa Plaza
• #OWS: The Most Important Thing in the World Now
• Special Report: Food for the Soul at Occupy LA
• Vatican City's gay love triangle murder
  
• How do we dismantle rape culture
  
• Capitalism versus the climate
• Racism in the Occupy Movement?
• Occupy Wall Street and its offshoots have been catching flak for being so "white." Occupy Atlanta is no exception, getting off to a rough start...when a civil rights movement hero-turned-Congressman stopped by to offer his support, only to be waved off by the mostly white G.A.

Protesters push back after closures (video)

Jack booted thugs? Hundreds march through the streets past police after two encampments are beaten down. Demonstrators regroup to figure out next move (oregonlive.com).

Occupy Portland pushes back after closures

Los Angeles Times
PORTLAND, Oregon - Several hundred protesters, some wearing goggles and gas masks, marched past authorities downtown Sunday, hours after riot police forced Occupy Portland demonstrators out of two encampments in parks.

(RT.com courtesy of Jamie Francis and Steve Schwind) Portland police in riot gear surround hundreds of Occupy protesters to violently evict them using batons, deadly weapons, and arrests to promote economic inequality and corporate greed.

Police moved in shortly before noon and drove protesters into the street after dozens remained in the camps in defiance of city officials. Mayor Sam Adams had ordered that the camps be shut down Saturday at midnight, citing unhealthy conditions and the increasing number of drug users and thieves. More than 50 protesters were arrested.

After the police raid, the number of demonstrators swelled throughout the afternoon. By early evening, dozens of officers brandishing nightsticks stood shoulder to shoulder to hold the protesters back. Authorities retreated and protesters broke the standoff by marching through the streets.

Demonstrators regrouped several blocks away, where they broke into small groups to discuss their future. Some were advocating occupying foreclosed homes; others wanted to move onto the Portland State University campus or to the shores of the Willamette River. More

• PHOTOS: Occupy London (42squeek)
  

Mayor Sam Adams threatens to close down the camp. Portland PD is ready to kill, injure, and arrest but having faced massive resistance, they retreat.

Does progressive meditation matter in the midst of regressive, state sanctioned violence? If peace matters and change begins within, what is a more appropriate response?

Telling APEC and Obama: "We Are the Many"
(Makana) Nov. 12, 2011 on the grounds of the Hale Koa, Honolulu

The "World Leaders Dinner" at APEC, hosted by the First Family, got an earful. The Secret Service had warned that any phone cameras would be confiscated. Grabbing video was not easy under constant surveillance but it's my art and my right.

About an hour into my set of generally ambient guitar music and Hawaiian tunes, I felt inspired to share some songs that resonated with the significance of the occasion.

I sang a few verses from "Kaulana Na Pua" (a Hawaiian protest song), then segued into Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower," Sting's "Fragile," and finally my newest song "We Are the Many."

My goal was to fill their ears and the atmosphere with a message that might effectively be received subconsciously. I sweetly sang lines like,

"You enforce your monopolies with guns
While sacrificing our daughters and sons
But certain things belong to everyone
Your thievery has left the people none"

Reactions were muted. I would get strange, befuddled stares from heads of state. It was a very quiet room, no waiters, only me, sound techs, and leaders of almost half the world's population.

Instead of disrupting with force, I chose to deliver an extremely potent and prolonged message in a polite manner. Dedicated to those speaking truth to power. - Makana

How money is divided between the top 400 and bottom 150,000,000

Zen and the Art of Occupying

Richard Schiffman (Huff Post), Occupy Zen, Globalrevolution.TV, Wisdom Quarterly

Occupy Wall Street vs. The Media (theinquisitr.com)

Zen is all about being. Being here. Being here now. We'd rather be-here-now. Having missed the Sixties, and having longed for that time our whole livea, it is a tremendous opportunity to sit in bigger more peaceful demonstrations against war, corporate greed, and cultural hypocrisy. That's all ww need do to be true to ourselves as practitioners of Zen. Sit. Schiffman gets it:

As a card carrying member of the Woodstock generation, it was like falling into a time warp: hundreds milling around armed with home made placards, the throb of African drums, young, half naked bodies sprawled on tarps, a teach-in under a tent, strains of Woody Guthrie.

For a veteran of the 1960s, it was deja vu all over again -- with one key difference -- computer banks and hand held cameras live-streaming the event, and emails of support flashing on large screens from similar encampments as far afield as Seattle, Berlin, and Buenos Aires.

• Maybe it will be televised (Globalrevolution.TV)
• Tibet is still a hidden kingdom in the Internet Age

At the entrance to the square, a circle of [demonstrators] was meditating cross-legged around a makeshift altar replete with didgeridoos and crystal skulls -- not to levitate the Pentagon, but to move some equally implacable edifices, the fortress-like financial institutions which ring Zuccotti Park.

Instead of a black bearded and ascetic Allen Ginsburg, the baseball-capped Russell Simmons was exhorting demonstrators to take back their government and their own increasingly imperiled futures. More

(All tees are ironic of course)

One More Violent Revolution?

Wisdom Quarterly (EDITORS)

A man sitting on his sofa was badgered by his wife to get rid of the dead weight around the house. "What dead weight?"

"Like your parents, for instance," she answered.

"But they're my parents!" he protested.

"They're nothing but dead weight," she argued. Finally, she convinced him to do away with them by pushing them over a cliff and into an abyss.

So one day he tossed them into an old wheelbarrow and trudged up the mountainside.

They were happy about the adventure, the great view, and the time spent with their son, not realizing their fate. He pushed on silently resigned to what he felt he had to do.

They finally reached the top where the view was grand in the dimming light. And they realized why they had been brought here.

They looked at their son, who was silent, and asked of him one final favor.

"What is it?" he moaned.

"Son, make sure that when you throw us over, nothing happens to this old barrow," they pleaded.

"Why!?" he demanded.

"Because, my boy, one day your son is going to need it."

They turned back with tears in their eyes and together and discussed how they might grow in peace, each playing a part, each expressing gratitude, each remembering how we are all part of one another.

Because we cannot thrive apart, we have to thrive together. A violent revolution never accomplished anything but more violence.

12,000 protesters surround White House

Protesters unite, President responds
(treehugger.com/HuffingtonPost.com)

Obama delays Tar Sands oil pipeline decision until 2013

(Democracy Now!) Environmental activists are claiming victory after the Obama administration announced Thursday it will postpone any decision on the proposed 1,700-mile Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline until 2013.

The announcement was made just days after more than 10,000 people encircled the White House calling on Pres. Obama to reject the project. This was the second major action against the project organized by Bill McKibben’s 350.org and Tar Sands Action.

(thinkprogrees.org)

In late August and early September, some 1,200 people were arrested in Washington, D.C., in a two-week campaign of civil disobedience.

"We believe that this delay will kill the pipeline," says the Canadian author and activist Naomi Klein. "If it doesn’t, if this pipeline reemerges after the election, people have signed pledges saying they will put their bodies on the line to stop it." More

• Next: Fracking wells in Delaware River basin
• What is "Fracking"? (hydraulic fracturing)
• VIDEO: Gasland report now on PBS
  
• 12,000 wrap White House in demonstration
  
• Occupy Cal: police crackdown on massive protest
• Occupy Your Block: stop home foreclosures
  
• Penn State riot, child rape cover up, Paterno fired

Gasland the Movie (other trailer)

Occupy Wall Street's permit to protest

Wisdom Quarterly
Solidarity strike with Oakland to stop corporate corruption and its maintenance through police brutality (OccupyWallSt.org)

Forty+ Days at Occupy Wall Street

#OCCUPY WALL STREET is a leaderless, people-powered movement for democracy that began in America on Sept. 17 with an encampment in the financial district of New York City. Inspired by the Egyptian Tahrir Square uprising and Spanish acampadas, we vow to end the corruption by money of our democracy… It is now Day 46.

(RT) Movement is spreading across US to hold Wall Street accountable.
Christina Gonzalez beaten by police and arrested for filming abuse.

• Join your local #OCCUPY!
• Winter donations needed
• Are police part of the 99%?

This proposal was passed by the Occupy Oakland General Assembly on Oct. 26, 2011 in the reclaimed Oscar Grant Plaza. Paramilitary troops and various police agencies violently evicted occupiers and attacked Marine veteran Scott Olsen, but the occupiers returned. General Assembly: 1,607 people voted with 1,484 voting in favor of the resolution, 77 abstaining, and 46 voting against, which passed the proposal at 96.9% agreement. The GA operates on a modified consensus process that passes proposals with 90% in favor with abstaining votes removed from the final count. More

The Bill of Rights permits the people to peaceably assemble to petition the government for a redress of grievances (Liza Sabater/Flickr).

• St. Paul's problem: 3rd cleric resigns over Occupy London
  

Top 10 Demands at Occupy Protests

The Activist Beat with Rose Aguilar (Your Call, KALW) is a roundup of activism the mainstream media ignores, under covers, or misrepresents (UprisingRadio.org)

TOP 10 DEMANDS

1. Jail the banksters
2. Help folks stay in their homes
3. Stop the buying of politicians
4. Corporations are not people
5. Support public education
6. Put the unemployed to work
7. Assist the less fortunate
8. Health care for all
9. Stop the wars
10. Love our mother!
    

After spending the last year covering under covered activism, it’s heartening to see the Occupy Wall Street movement gain so much [mainstream] momentum.

While the movement is getting the coverage it deserves in the national media, several talking heads still can’t seem to figure out what the people want. They’re either really good actors or even more disconnected than I thought.

All they have to do is venture out and ask questions.... John Sutter, a building contractor, held a professional looking “Top 10 Demands sign.” More

• Listen: segment - entire program

Veteran: "There is no honor in this" (Occupy)

A Marine at Occupy Wall Street tells NYPD "There is no honor in beating unarmed citizens."

• CostOfWar.com
  
• OccupyWallStreet.org
• OccupyTogether.org
• Global reaction to killing Kaddafi
  

Woman dragged in bank then arrested (video)

Wisdom Quarterly, AboveTopSecret, MSNBC, Inc.

It is not enough not to protest. The secret police (undercover agents infiltrating peaceful movements) will drag you into the bank then arrest you for protesting in the bank.

It sounds Orwellian. It sounds impossible. It happened recently at CitiBank, Inc.

A plainclothes policeman dragged a woman into a bank protest to arrest her as an occupier of the bank. What was she doing? Was she trying to help the "occupiers" inside the bank get media attention or legal help? That will not be tolerated in Bush/Cheney/Obama's America! No, actually, she was a Citibank customer trying to close her account.

Corporate crime is organized, the best organized crime there is.

Close Your Account, Go to Jail
AboveTopSecret.com FORUM (edited)
I can not believe what I have witnessed in this video. Will they be showing this on the mainstream news?

People went in to close their Citibank accounts. But instead they were locked in the bank and arrested. Citibank claims they entered the bank as a large mob screaming and chanting. However, things appear to be very quiet and civilized until the police show up.

There is a female Citibank customer still outside trying to get her account closed. She is talking to a few of them from outside the glass when an undercover cop grabs her and with the help of a banker and police with clubs forcefully drags her in the bank. A man who tries to help her gets dragged in, too.

The Koch Brothers love what corporations are capable of.

She screams and clearly looks distressed, not understanding why she is being manhandled. The police HELP drag her into the bank! Then everyone starts yelling "this is wrong," "shame," "you are disgusting!" I found it highly disturbing.

Police are the Troublemakers at Peaceful Protests


Citibank knows he [yes "he," Mr. Citibank is a "corporate person" with more rights than you or I] can do whatever he wants under the present system.

He is an organized criminal, more umbrella than person, for criminals wearing suits. And the people's police are little better. Citibank supports its local police the way Wall Street donated to have the Occupy Wall Street movement kept as far from Wall St. as possible. More

Forget the People, Power to the Banks!