Occupy Wall Street update

Today, 8 December 2011.

Occupy the Police State. Jason Leopold, Truthout: “Important questions have been raised about what role, if any, the federal government has played in dismantling the Occupy encampments around the country and what the protesters and civil liberties groups say is ultimately an attempt to stifle dissent … ‘It’s eerily disturbing how history is once again repeating itself. Law enforcement is beginning to look increasingly like a civilian branch of the military and local government officials trample upon the rights of citizens and doing so in ways that are becoming more violent'”: here.

Los Angeles and Occupy LA Agree: It’s Time to End Corporate Personhood. Brooke Jarvis, YES! Magazine: “On December 3, just two days before Occupy L.A. was evicted by police, the General Assembly of the occupation passed a unanimous resolution calling for a constitutional amendment to end corporate personhood. Today, the City Council of Los Angeles also voted, also unanimously, for a resolution making the same appeal … When L.A. and Occupy L.A. are making the same unanimous demand, it’s clear that the desire to take on corporate power in politics is gaining traction”: here.

The Wars of the One Percent. William J. Astore, TomDispatch: “… Afghanistan and Iraq were wars of choice, not wars of necessity…. we’ve chosen to create a ‘warrior’ or ‘war fighter’ caste in this country, which we send with few concerns and fewer qualms to prosecute Washington’s foreign wars of choice…. Here’s an American fact: the 99% are far too remote from our wars of choice and those who fight them. To reclaim the latter, we must end the former. And that’s a war of necessity that has to be fought – and won”: here.

Occupy Wall Street’s Hunger Strikers. J.A. Myerson, Truthout: “Three Wall Street occupiers began a hunger strike Saturday, demanding that Trinity Church lend a vacant lot it owns to Occupy Wall Street. The protest, recently dispossessed of Zuccotti Park, which had been its home for nearly two months, wants a temporary plot elsewhere, and is petitioning Trinity to let it use its land…. Eventually everyone needs food, and if Trinity Church wants to make sure these young people get fed, all it has to do is offer them space it’s not using”: here.

So, the Walmart heirs alone are worth the same amount as roughly a third of Americans; here.

Ex-Greek PM George Papandreou on Greece’s Fiscal Crisis and Why He Backs Occupy Movement: here.