Op-Ed

Americans should urge their local chambers of commerce to disavow their connections with the policies of the US Chamber, and we should call for the firing of its CEO, Tom Donohue, said Kevin Zeese, an organizer for Stop The Machine which is one of two occupations in Washington, DC. “The Chamber of Commerce has always been conservative but it’s become right-wing, Karl- Rove- conservative since Donohue has come along.”

Those of us occupying Freedom Plaza marched several blocks to the Newseum where Donohue and AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka appeared on ABC’s Sunday morning talk show. When we ‘greeted’ them, we seemed nonexistent to Donohue.

The global upheaval that is the Occupy Movement is hopefully in the process of changing---and saving---the world.

Through the astonishing power of creative non-violence, it has the magic and moxie to defeat the failing forces of corporate greed.

A long-term agenda seems to be emerging: social justice, racial and gender equality, ecological survival, true democracy, an end to war, and so much more. "When the power of love overcomes the love of power," said Jimi Hendrix, "the world will know peace."

Such a moment must come now in the nick of time, as the corporate ways of greed and violence pitch us to the precipice of self-extinction.

At that edge sits a sinister technology, a poisoned cancerous power that continues to harm us all even as 3 of its cores melt and spew at Fukushima.

Atomic energy, the so-called "Peaceful Atom", has failed on all fronts.

Once sold as "too cheap to meter," it's now the world's most expensive electric generator.

Once embraced as a corporate bonanza, it cannot obtain private liability insurance.

Once hyped as the world's energy savior, it cannot attract private investment.

The commentator and writer spoke to the Stop The Machine contingent of Occupy DC today, saying this movement is part of the “march of democracy” that continues to this day, taking some steps forward while also, unfortunately, taking steps backward.

Hightower, who writes about the Occupy Movement in the November edition of his newsletter, the Hightower Lowdown, disagrees with what some commentators have said about it.

“You’re being condemned even by some progressives for not having an agenda. Well, hello ? Wall Street is in the movement’s name. Seems like an agenda to me. Right now, protest is the issue. Just being here is a big part of the battle.”

Hightower said there is no rush for having a list of demands or a manifesto. He said during the American Revolution it was years before that happened.

Will it find a voice to articulate not merely the pain of the struggling middle class but the endemic unfairness and racism of inescapable poverty? “Everyone is important,” read the sign of an elderly protester. My God, what if it were true? What if we could see, in the desperate thrashing of the abandoned class, everyone’s future, that of the 99 percent and that of the 1 percent?

Let the Occupy movement become such a merging of voices that it reaches and changes the rigged game of American democracy and puts the collective failure of the system, in all its manifestations — from environmental collapse to our doomed wars and the hubris of empire to the violence in our streets — at the forefront of our media and our consciousness. Let the movement be the first tremor of a new awareness that dehumanizes no one.

Daryl Lamont Jenkins is involved with Occupy Philadelphia, and is the founder of One People’s Project, an anti-racist organization. He’s also involved with Occupy the Hood. He spoke with the Columbus Free Press at Freedom Plaza, one of two Occupy DC sites. “This is our way of encouraging people in the Black and Hispanic communities and poorer communities to know--- straight up---‘this is about you.’ Matter of fact, we’ve been the 99 percent for a very long time.”

Jenkins said it’s not a case of being segregated. It’s a matter of connecting various occupations around the nation with people in the nearby communities who might not recognize their affinity with people protesting and camping out in their cities.

Oct 20 ----If Occupy DC is doing this, why aren’t we ? About 25 activists shut down a branch of Citibank on K Street this afternoon amid the high-rise offices of lobbyists. People in expensive business suits walked past as we chanted, “ Hey, Citibank, stop all foreclosures. Hey CEOs, pay all your taxes…”

Management there apparently instruct their staff to shut down during protests in order to prevent persuaded customers from closing their accounts. And closing accounts is exactly what we intend to get an increasingly greater number of people to join us in doing, whether it’s here in D.C. or in Columbus.

Three days before we vote down SB-5, there will be an international Move Your Money day of action.

Last week, President Obama racked up several more broken campaign promises as he pushed through Congress three new job-killing corporate trade agreements. The Senate Finance Committee was quite open about the fact that these agreements will kill off more jobs and eager to mitigate the damage with band aids attached to the treaties. Some of us who were in the hearing room felt an obligation to speak up and ask why in the world the senators -- with perfect bipartisan harmony -- insisted on causing the damage in the first place. And for that we were thrown in jail.

Imagine the denunciations of human rights abuses in Colombia if the plan for that country this week were war rather than corporate exploitation to produce impoverishment to produce drug crops to produce war. Imagine the denunciations of human rights abuses in Iran having continued as usual if U.S. cops weren't cracking skulls in New York, Boston, Denver, and San Diego. Maybe we wouldn't have needed the Tale of the Moronic Mexican Iranian Assassins at all.

Show your support this afternoon around 5 by coming to Broad and High or city hall as we present a petition to Columbus City council for a long-term site for what would be essentially a tent city for Occupy Columbus. If you can't make it to that, help out in any other way you can in the fight to defeat corporate rule, making our government more accountable to We the People. A better world is possible. We will graciously accept however much money or time you can spare, whatever talents you may have to share, and whatever else you can donate such as food, water---you name it. Showing up in-person is best, but you can visit our site at occupycolumbus.org or find us on Facebook.

On September 27, the Ohio Senate passed HB 63, an Ohio Right Right to Life (ORTL) bill to "tighten" up the procedures by which unmarried women in Ohio under the age of 18 can get an abortion without parental notification and consent. The passage of HB 63 is another tool to hack away at abortion access in the state. The bill, however, gives us the opportunity to expose the duplicitous nature of ORTL's fraudulent concerns about "informed consent" "parental involvement" and "best interests" of teen women.. Dubious at best, these bytes spewed out to the public are nullified by ORTL's sponsorship, support, and promotion of Ohio's "safe haven law," which encourages women-- and targets teens especially-- to hide pregnancies, give birth unattended, and to turn over their newborns anonymously to the state with no counseling, no parental involvement, and no health care, all under their "pro-life" banner.

JUDICIAL BYPASS

McGovern expressed confidence in the inevitable success of a mass movement for renewed democracy and an end to corporate rule and militarism. He spoke with the Columbus Free Press last weekend at Freedom Plaza, one of two sites of Occupy D.C.

“I work for justice now. I used to work for the CIA and the US Army, ” said McGovern whom police bloodied and arrested in February at George Washington University when he stood up in silent protest during a speech by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. During the spectacle of cops grabbing the 71-year-old McGovern, Clinton didn't miss a beat or blink an eye as she criticized--ironically-- governments that don’t allow protests and freedom of expression.