On Saturday December 3rd, 2011, at 10:00 am, Occupy Wall Street and members of the New York faith community invite the Occupy Movement to join in a celebration of our occupation at Liberty Square. We are calling on all occupiers to reenergize our movement, keep Liberty Square active, and share ideas about the importance of outdoor spaces for our future. Bishop George Packard, Pulitzer prize-winning author and journalist Chris Hedges, and OccupyFaith will rally around Occupy Wall Street’s immediate need for spaces to continue organizing for social and economic justice.

The event will celebrate the launch of Tidal, a journal of occupation theory from the Occupy Movement. The journal provides a multidisciplinary exposition of the fundamental challenges posed to institutions of the status quo by the organized chaos of human beings relating to each other democratically and authentically. Home Addition in Santa Monica, CA . At the event, contributors to the journal will bring its pages to life through readings, musical performances, and artistic exhibitions.

The occupations that we have created, our communities, are the heart of the movement. menopoz ya katr . We will celebrate each other with food, songs, passionate speeches, heart-warming stories, and support from our allies and the broader community. There will be a call to reclaim and occupy outdoor spaces followed by a celebration of the best of our occupation and what is yet to come.

When: Thursday December 1, 2011 at 10:30PM.
What: A General Assembly at 10:30 PM at Lincoln Center. Join us in an open conversation about the effects of increased privatization and corporatization of all aspects of society, and the use of nonviolent civil disobedience around the world to reclaim the commons. Composer Philip Glass will join the general assembly and mic-check a statement.

It is no doubt timely that Philip Glass’ opera ‘Satyagraha’–which depicts Gandhi’s early struggle against colonial oppression in South Africa–should be revived by the Metropolitan Opera in 2011, a year which has seen popular revolutions in North Africa, mass uprisings in Europe, and the emergence of Occupy Wall Street protests in the United States.

Yet we see a glaring contradiction in ‘Satyagraha’ being performed at the Lincoln Center where in recent weeks protestors from Occupy Wall Street have been arrested and forcibly removed for exercising their First Amendment rights to peaceful public assembly.

It’s also a striking irony that Bloomberg L.P is one of the Lincoln Center’s leading corporate sponsors. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has stifled free speech, free press, and freedom of assembly in an aggressive campaign against Occupy Wall Street protestors in New York City that has influenced a crackdown on the protests nationally. The juxtaposition is stark: while Bloomberg funds the representation of Gandhi’s pioneering tactics of nonviolent civil disobedience in the Metropolitan Opera House, he simultaneously orders a paramilitary-style raid of the peaceful public occupation of Liberty Park, blacking out the media, while protestors are beaten, tear-gassed, and violently arrested.

Satyagraha is a Sanskrit word meaning “truth-force,” and we at Occupy Wall Street, by exercising tactics of nonviolent direct action inspired by those championed by Gandhi, have insisted that the truth be told: Our commons have been stolen from us to profit the wealthiest 1%. We have lost homes, jobs, affordable education, natural resources, and access to public space. Our culture has been co-opted by a corporate elite. Many suffer so a few may thrive.

Previously, Occupy Museums and other OWS groups came to Lincoln Center to protest the “generous philanthropy” of David H. Koch, the funder of the Tea Party and of anti-global warming research, who uses philanthropic contributions to the former New York State Theater to whitewash his misanthropic reputation and write off his taxes. We will return again to Lincoln Center, where ‘Satyagraha’ has inspired us to once again challenge the ruthless nexus of power and wealth and reclaim our public space and common dignity.

If permission is not granted to protest on Lincoln Center plaza by Thursday evening, some members of Occupy Wall Street will enact a hunger strike. They will not end this strike until their demands are met, starting with the demand that Lincoln Center and the City of New York guarantee the freedoms of speech and assembly on the city-owned plazas and walkways of Lincoln Center. Occupy Museums stand in solidarity with these hunger strikers and offer support for this courageous form of protest.

The symbolic opening of this space for protest stands for the spaces all over the city and country that we vow to liberate from the control of the 1% for the full use of the public.

Image Info

The NYC Central Labor Council has called a march on Dec 1st for Jobs and Economic Fairness that’s “not just for the labor movement, but for everyone who is frustrated and worried about the growing economic disparity in this country. It’s for anyone who has ever agonized about finding a job, paying for college, meeting a mortgage payment, or how to buy enough food for dinner. ”
#OWS will be there. More info here. Image Info

Police are once again attacking Occupy Los Angeles after occupiers successfully defended Solidarity Park a few nights ago. Watch the events unfold live via Spencer Mills:

Live Updates

• 1:16 a.m. EST: Occupy LA being surrounded by police
• 1:17 a.m. EST: LA NLG present, numerous press agencies, Russia Today…
• 1:20 a.m. EST: Occupy Philly received third and final warning, local ABC news crew left at 1:10 local time.
• 1:24 a.m. EST: Occupy Philly may be relocating? Unconfirmed. Protesters at 18th and Locust st.
• 11:27 p.m. PST (Los Angeles): It’s still possible to get into Solidarity park by Little Tokyo/Arts District train stop, according to @OakFoSho.
• 2:29 a.m. EST (Philadelphia): Scanners report nine arrests.
• 11:30 p.m. PST (Los Angeles): LAPD set up a perimeter 3 blocks from the park. Also bringing more reinforcements.
• 2:50 a.m. EST (Philadelphia): Police using bikes as weapons.
• 2:57 a.m.: Bike cops leaving.
• 3:11 a.m. EST (Philadelphia): 12 or so protesters still in park, surrounded by police, Legal has all information on them.
• 12:15 a.m. PST: LAPD marching in.
• 12:18 a.m. PST: Hundreds of LAPD officers with various biohazard suits (Mills’ audio reports), rubber bullet guns (Via Mills) and zipties.
• 12:20 a.m. PST: Visual confirmation of bio-suits, Mills claims 1300 officers.
• 12:28 a.m. PST: LAPD declares unlawful assembly. Giving 10 min (unconfirmed) window to leave.
• 12:33 a.m. PST: Occupy LA is staying in the square. Mic checking the police. “The people of California do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies that serve them”
• 9:06 a.m. EST: Final Reports of 200 arrests in LA and 50 in Philly.

Or from the CBS helicopter:

Occupy Philly

Tomorrow, the Aviation Week and Credit Suisse will be holding their 17th annual Aerospace & Defense Finance Conference in NYC. These war profiteers export death in the name of defense. They have obscene influence over our democracy with politicians in their pockets and hundreds of lobbyists working congress. They sell arms to to the 1% so that war can be waged against the 99% in efficient and technologically advanced ways. #OWS will not stand silent as these dangerous parasites take our tax dollars and turn them into arms and profit.

WHEN: Wednesday, 11/30, two rallies/marches–6:30am meet up and rally to non-violently interrupt business as usual as delegates enter the conference, and 4:30pm to rally against militarism.
WHERE: Both rallies are In Madison Sq. Park near the intersection of 24th and Madison. The Conference is being held at One Madison Avenue 12th Floor (Park Ave South between 24th & 23rd streets).

Some background info
Where your tax dollars go pie chart
Aerospace & Defense Finance Conference Site

Call Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett (405-297-2424 – email mayor@okc.gov) and voice your opposition to the eviction of this peaceful expression of free speech!

The coordinated crackdown on free speech continues. While Occupations in Los Angeles and Philadelphia are still holding strong (as of 11pm EST) and Washingtonians are occupying their State Capitol, the encampment at Occupy Oklahoma City is now under threat of eviction.

City officials declined to renew a permit application and announced that overnight encampment will no longer be “tolerated” at Kerr Park, where the Occupation is currently centered. Officials also stated that the Occupiers will not be granted a permit at any other location. OccupyOKC had previously been paying $55 per day for the permit. After the city refused to accept payment for a renewal, the police department told the Occupiers in a letter to expect eviction between 11 p.m. to 5 a.m tonight. Several Occupiers have stated they are prepared to be arrested nonviolently.

During the Black Friday national day of action against consumerism, several Occupy OKC members were arrested inside a Walmart. Occupy OKC participants used the people’s mic inside to show support for employees who had to work that day. Police allegedly over-responded, tackling protesters and using force against the peaceful disruption.

Updates:

• 12:32am EST: Police are beginning to surround the park.
• 12:20am EST: Twenty minutes past the 11pm CST eviction deadline, at least fifty people reported in the park. No sign of police yet.

Inside of a barricaded meeting at Baruch College (24th and Lexington Ave), the City University of New York Board of Trustees is voting to raise tuition at the school. Outside, hundreds of Occupy CUNY students and their supporters are chanting, “Education is a right, Fight! Fight! Fight!”

Students are asking all supporters to join them at Baruch College until 8PM this evening.

Following the lead of student protesters opposing tuition hikes and austerity measures, today has been called as a student strike and day of action in solidarity with the protesters at the University of California-Davis who faced severe police repression while expressing their right to free speech. CUNY has already implemented force against students who are fighting back against tuition hikes before.

The proposal to call for a strike was passed by a massive general assembly at UC-Davis in an effort to shut down campuses where the UC Regents’ were scheduled to vote today on austerity measures there:

In the midst of the economic crisis, the Regents have intensified their pursuit of the project of privatization and de-funding that diminish the quality of education and quality of life for those across the UC, while consigning students’ futures to greater and greater sums of debt.

The Regents’ theft of an ostensibly public resource to fund “capital projects” such as construction projects and private research initiatives, demonstrate a clear conflict of interests that benefits a narrow administrative elite—both the Regents and their local appointees (chancellors and vice chancellors)—at the expense of the greater faculty, staff, and student body.

The familiar rhetoric of austerity demands our resigned compliance, as our learning and working conditions progressively deteriorate. We have seen recently and in years past that political dissent is met with increasingly violent displays of force and repression by University police.

The continued destruction of higher education in California, and the repressive forms of police violence that sustain it, cannot be viewed apart from larger economic and political systems that concentrate wealth and political power in the hands of the few.

Over 100,000 people have already signed a petition asking for the resignation of UC-Davis Chancellor Ketahi, while the UC-Davis English Department has called for the disbandment of the UC-Davis police force over the incident.

update from comments: the rally is at 25th st, must enter at lex, you can’t enter from 3rd ave unless you have id. the back door at 24th is heavily guarded and where the trustees enter and leave.

Even as hundreds of police gathered around City Hall, Occupy Los Angeles continued to peacefully assemble in impressive numbers in Solidarity Park (formerly City Hall Park) throughout the night. Accounts put the crowd at over 2,000.

Early this morning, LAPD moved in to evict the encampment. Around 5am PST, police armed with batons and riot gear ordered the nonviolent Occupiers to disperse from the street or face violent arrest. translation . The crowd responded by asking LAPD to lay down their weapons and join them. At least four arrests were made, before the police backed down.

In the words of one Occupy LA participant who was interviewed by the New York Times, “It wasn’t in their best interest to come in when there are thousands here.” And the whole world continues to watch; the livestream OccupyFreedomLA reported that it had over 37,000 views last night alone.

El pueblo unido jams ser vencido! All night, all day, Occupy LA!

UPDATE: Occupy LA is now seeking a court order to prevent eviction! General Assembly at 7:45pm Pacific Standard Time.

Though ordered by the city to leave yesterday and threatened with arrest, Occupy Philly remains peacefully assembled. For background on the situation in Philly, see our earlier post.

Updates:

• 10:54pm EST: Still there, still peaceful, still no arrests.
• 7:15pm EST: Still at Dilworth! General Assembly underway.
• 6:53pm EST: Police presence reported to be thinning.
• 5:43pm EST: Police are blocking off public park. Occupy Philly still urging supporters to gather, bring cameras!
• 4:40pm EST: More police are reported seen massing near the plaza, but have not yet made any attempt to evict. Occupy Philly is still holding strong at Dilworth, planning to hold General Assembly!
• 12:58pm EST: Occupy Philly will be gathering at 4pm today at Dilworth Plaza**, not at Rittenhouse Square. Please come out and support us as we make plans for the future of our movement in Philly.
• 12:32pm EST: According to Twitter report, power has been shut off at Occupy Philly this morning.
• 11:03am EST: From a Facebook post:
  

  “Our eviction party last night started off at 5pm with about a thousand supporters and an open mic about what kind of world we want to live in. Then we had a dance party, a conga line to Thomas Paine Plaza, and a 5am march against traffic to Rittenhouse Square, where we strolled past police cars at every entrance. Eviction didn’t happen, but a lot of fun did! Please go to Occupy Philly to support and relieve people who’ve been up ALL NIGHT holding the space against the eviction!! We called Nutter’s bluff and are still going strong! Much love crew!!! And come and join us tonight.” SEE PHOTOS: OccupyPhilly on Facebook