Happy Easter Peeps!

Ides of March Walk

Veteran Occupy Walker William Terzin has taken action and is walking the original route of last year’s Occupy Walk USA once again.  His determination underlines the famous Occupy saying, Ideas Never Die!  This new phase of Occupy Walk is titled the Ides of March Walk.

Terzin started from Oceanside on March 15th and is on his way to Joshua Tree.  There on March 31st we will gather at the spot the original walkers camped before heading across the Mojave desert.  Join the event page and show your support.  We have two weeks to get our camping gear together and celebrate the resistance!

Currently the OWUSA logistics team is rekindling the social network and infrastructure built upon last year’s efforts.  For updates follow @occupywalkusa on Twitter and check back here for details.

Thanks Big Tuna for your determination and your autonomous action.  Walk the walk!

Donations are being accepted on our Occupy Walk USA wepay account, or at

Ides of March Walk

Solidarity!

Walking to Fort Hernandez

After a few days rest, Jason decided to make his way back to Fort Hernandez from San Diego. He will start by walking north from Pacific Beach. “Walking there is a good way to start.” says Brock, “I can’t wait any longer. They need our support.” Help him raise awareness and funds along the way. Please donate if you can. Updates from the journey will be tweeted from @occupywalkusa.

FortHernandez Facebook Page.

Hearing for DJ’s Re-Release Tuesday Oct 8, 2012

Hearing For Danny Johnson Tuesday at 10 am at Skokie Courthouse, 5600 Old Orchard Rd. in room 207 w/ Judge Haberkorn. Solidarity requested thru supporter presence as hearing decides if Danny is re-released to house arrest or kept in Cook County Jail. Please dress nicely & no political messaging.

Background Article:

http://www.examiner.com/article/nato-protestor-from-la-ordered-to-ankle-bracelet-house-arrest-chicago

Occupy Walkers Join Guitarmy for 99 Mile March

After NATGAT, DJ, Adam, Mikey and Jason were re-united again in support of the 99 Mile March.  OWS Music Group organized the action through a tactical arm called Guitarmy.  Between 60-70 occupiers from all over the country took part in the march from Philadelphia to Manhattan.  Details and history from the action can be found at 99milemarch.org

This march brought together walkers from various other marches including Walkupy.  It brought together farmers, musicians, students, poets and teachers.  The experiences shared changed lives.  The meme of Occupy  was taken to a deeper level of action.  Songs were sung.  Chants were written.  Now, all roads are Guitarmy roads!

OWUSA at NATGAT. Occupy Philadelphia Prepares for national action.

DJ and Jason have arrived in Philadelphia early to help Occupy prepare for the first ever national gathering of the Occupy movement. NATGAT begins officially on June 30 and goes until July 4th, with planned discussions, direct actions and encampments happening throughout the week. Adam and Mikey are making their way from Chicago, planning to meet up with other walkers and marching to Occupy Wall St. with the 99 mile march after the event comes to a close. This is a big step forward for the movement, and plans are being made to integrate actions and create more sustainable mobile occupations across the country.

Stickers For The Walk

Thanks to Emily Richards and Jim Yuran for getting us a new box of OWUSA stickers. Jim runs the Artlab, a happening arist space in North Park. His printing biz, right next door, printed these up on short notice and at cost. Emily, who runs Artistech Media, another local business, covered the costs personally and shipped to us in Albuquerque. If you are traveling across the country, you might see one here or there. Especially on route 66. If you’d like a few contact us and we’ll mail you a few.

Colonized by Corporations

Published on Monday, May 14, 2012 by TruthDig.com

Colonized by Corporations

by Chris Hedges

In Robert E. Gamer’s book “The Developing Nations” is a chapter called “Why Men Do Not Revolt.” In it Gamer notes that although the oppressed often do revolt, the object of their hostility is misplaced. They vent their fury on a political puppet, someone who masks colonial power, a despised racial or ethnic group or an apostate within their own political class. The useless battles serve as an effective mask for what Gamer calls the “patron-client” networks that are responsible for the continuity of colonial oppression. The squabbles among the oppressed, the political campaigns between candidates who each are servants of colonial power, Gamer writes, absolve the actual centers of power from addressing the conditions that cause the frustrations of the people. Inequities, political disenfranchisement and injustices are never seriously addressed. “The government merely does the minimum necessary to prevent those few who are prone toward political action from organizing into politically effective groups,” he writes.

                                                                                                                                                                (Illustration by Mr. Fish)

Gamer and many others who study the nature of colonial rule offer the best insights into the functioning of our corporate state. We have been, like nations on the periphery of empire, colonized. We are controlled by tiny corporate entities that have no loyalty to the nation and indeed in the language of traditional patriotism are traitors. They strip us of our resources, keep us politically passive and enrich themselves at our expense. The mechanisms of control are familiar to those whom the Martinique-born French psychiatrist and writer Frantz Fanon called “the wretched of the earth,” including African-Americans. The colonized are denied job security. Incomes are reduced to subsistence level. The poor are plunged into desperation. Mass movements, such as labor unions, are dismantled. The school system is degraded so only the elites have access to a superior education. Laws are written to legalize corporate plunder and abuse, as well as criminalize dissent. And the ensuing fear and instability—keenly felt this past weekend by the more than 200,000 Americans who lost their unemployment benefits—ensure political passivity by diverting all personal energy toward survival. It is an old, old game.

A change of power does not require the election of a Mitt Romney or a Barack Obama or a Democratic majority in Congress, or an attempt to reform the system or electing progressive candidates, but rather a destruction of corporate domination of the political process—Gamer’s “patron-client” networks. It requires the establishment of new mechanisms of governance to distribute wealth and protect resources, to curtail corporate power, to cope with the destruction of the ecosystem and to foster the common good. But we must first recognize ourselves as colonial subjects. We must accept that we have no effective voice in the way we are governed. We must accept the hollowness of electoral politics, the futility of our political theater, and we must destroy the corporate structure itself.

Read the rest of the article here

© 2012 TruthDig.com

Chris Hedges writes a regular column for Truthdig.com. Hedges graduated from Harvard Divinity School and was for nearly two decades a foreign correspondent for The New York Times. He is the author of many books, including: War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning, What Every Person Should Know About War, andAmerican Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.  His most recent book is Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle.

Walk Together — Occupy Edit

Walk Together — Occupy Edit

 

Cops evicting Occupy Walk USA in Chicago.MOV

Cops evicting Occupy Walk USA in Chicago.MOV