First up, The Guardian has a very useful resource, a constantly updated map of Occupy actions around the world. You’ll find it here.
And for those wondering how corporate America could figure out a way to make a buck off the Occupy movement, cosmetic company Maybelline has the answer, here.
Obama runs into Occupy Wall Street
Obama, clever politician that he is, tried to spin the moment.
From the Washington Post:
While speaking about jobs before a crowd in Manchester, N.H., President Obama was interrupted by members of the Occupy Wall Street movement, as Peter Wallsten reports.
“Mr. President,” the group said, “over 4,000 peaceful protesters have been arrested. . . ”
Audience members, mostly high school students, booed, but Obama quieted them, saying, “It’s okay.”
Then he directly addressed the protesters.
“For a lot of the folks who have been in New York and all across the country in the Occupy movement, there is a profound sense of frustration about the fact that the essence of the American dream, which is if you work hard, if you stick to it that, you can make it, feels like that’s slipping away,” Obama said. “And that’s not the way things are supposed to be. Not here. Not in America.”
A clip of the moment from RT:
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel also got mic checked today in the Windy City:
Occupy camp returns to UC Davis
UC Davis students are back with their tents, and the big question is whether Chancellor Linda Katebhi will order another eviction.
Elizabeth Flock reports for the Washington Post:
Just hours after UC Davis placed its campus police chief on administrative leave for a pepper-spraying incident that happened at an Occupy protest Friday, Occupy protesters set up a new encampment at the school.
University spokeswoman Claudia Morain told the Associated Press the school was monitoring the protest but did not say whether the students would be allowed to camp overnight. She said UC Davis will take action “step by step,” in an effort to balance campus security and the Occupy demonstrators’ right to protest.
CUNY students challenge trustees
We’re not sure if they were operating under the Occupy banner, but the motives driving university students in New York City are the same as those which have driving student actions here in the Golden State: Proposed tuition raises.
The scene of Monday’s confrontation was a meeting of the City University of New York [CUNY] trustees, which was greeted by a day-long protest by CUNY students.
The police got involved when students tried to rush the room where the trustees were meeting, leading to 15 arrests.
Alice Speri and Anna M. Phillips report for the New York Times:
Carlos Pazmino, 21, a City College student who helped organize the protest, said that after students began opening lobby doors to the building where the CUNY trustees were holding a public hearing on the 14th floor, CUNY public safety officers surrounded the entrances and pushed back, using their batons. He said that when students formed a line to push past, the officers began hitting the students with the batons.
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During the fighting, students on higher floors dropped books down on the police, and captured the scuffle on video. A crowd of 200 to 300 protesters outside beat on the lobby’s windows, also shouting, “Shame.”
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According to a statement released Monday night by CUNY, the hearing room was filled, and protesters in the lobby were directed to an overflow room equipped with live video of the hearing. But some refused to go to the room, and instead surged toward turnstiles, where officers and college officials met them.
Another Occupy Oakland camp rises
Not in Frank Ogawa Plaza near city hall but in a West Oakland lot currently in foreclosure.
Robert Salonga reports for the Contra Costa Times:
Protesters with 10 tents, awnings and camping gear put down stakes at about 7 p.m. Monday night on a large lot adjoining a home at the corner of 18th and Linden Streets. More prospective campers were seen walking toward the camp early Tuesday morning.
The impromptu occupants chose the spot with the understanding it was going through foreclosure, said Mark Creek-Water Dorazio, 63, of Oakland. He said he had been involved in Occupy Oakland since its beginnings in October.
Alameda County records confirm that the lot is the subject of foreclosure proceedings. A notice of trustee sale was published Monday by the county clerk-recorder.
The idea for locating on a foreclosed site had been kicked around in Occupy Oakland general assembly meetings, he said.
A later report says the property’s erstwhile owner disapproves of the encampment.
Economists endorse the Occupy movement
The report from Econ4, an organization which defines its mission this way:
The economic crisis we face today is not only a crisis of the economy. It is also a crisis of economics. The free-market fundamentalism that attained ideological dominance in the final decades of the 20th century has been discredited by financial collapse, global imbalances, mass unemployment, and environmental degradation. To confront these challenges, we need an economics for the 21st century.
We need an economics for open minds that breaks free of the closed-minded economic dogmas of the past. We need an economics that aims to secure long-run human well-being, not an economics preoccupied with maximizing short-run output and profits. We need an economics that recognizes that we need to safeguard the Earth for our children and generations to come. We need an economics for people, the planet, and the future.
Here’s their position statement on Occupy Wall Street, signed by more than 170 economists:
Economists Statement in Support of Occupy Wall Street
We are economists who oppose ideological cleansing in the economics profession. Equally we oppose political cleansing in the vital debate over the causes and consequences of our current economic crisis.
We support the efforts of the Occupy Wall Street movement across the country and across the globe to liberate the economy from the short-term greed of the rich and powerful one percent.
We oppose cynical and perverse attempts to misuse our police officers and public servants to expel advocates of the public good from our public spaces.
We extend our support to the vision of building an economy that works for the people, for the planet, and for the future, and we declare our solidarity with the Occupiers who are exercising our democratic right to demand economic and social justice.
Among the signatories are three members of the UC Berkeley faculty: Calanit Kamala, Kamran Nayeri, and Richard B. Norgaard.
Good for them.
And a final thought. . .
University of California police report to and take direction from campus chancellors. Fire UC Dacis Chancellor and UC Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau.
Apologies and excuses not accepted.