Why we Occupy #1

Eviction pending for Wall St. protestors? Make a few calls!

According to the New York Times, NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg is telling protestors they will have to clear out Friday so the park can be "cleaned" for the enjoyment of all.

Yeah, I'm sure his 1% Wall St. buddies would like to be able to look out the window without seeing the unintended fruit of Wall Street's sowing.

rgent -- tomorrow at 7 am, the New York City police plan to evict the Occupy Wall Street protesters.

The only way to stop the eviction is a roaring outcry to New York's billionaire mayor, Mike Bloomberg, and to the owners of the protest park. We must show them that their global reputations are on the line.

Let's flood their offices with phone calls! Avaaz will tell the media about the numbers of calls made, multiplying their impact on the public image of Bloomberg and Richard B. Clark -- the CEO of the company that owns the park. If enough of us call now, we could turn the tide and stop the eviction--but only hours are left!

Call the Mayor and Brookfield Properties Here:

• New York mayor Michael Bloomberg: +1-212-NEW-YORK (639-9675)
• Brookfield CEO Richard Clark: +1-212-417-7063
• Brookfield US headquarters: +1-212-417-7000
• Brookfield Canada headquarters: +1-416-369-2300
• Brookfield Australia headquarters: +61-2-9322-2000

After calling, post a message about how the call went -- to help Avaaz count the number of calls made, and demonstrate the wave of worldwide support for the protesters.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/emergency_callin_to_stop_eviction/?vl

Suggestions for your call:

• Say that you have a message for Brookfield CEO Richard Clark or NYC Mayor Bloomberg (depending on who you are calling)
• Stop the eviction of Zuccotti Park
• We have a constitutional right to protest.
• This is one of the biggest shows of public outrage in decades and these people represent hundreds of thousands across the world who stand with the protesters and the movement for real democracy.
• The protesters are cleaning up the park, keeping it clean and safe

http://www.avaaz.org/en/emergency_callin_to_stop_eviction/?vl

We can help make sure the thousands of protesters rights to freedom of speech and assembly are respected by calling Billionare Bloomberg and Brookfield. Forward to everyone!

Emma, Morgan, Maria Paz, Alice, Ben, Rewan and the whole Avaaz team

SOURCES:

Occupy Wall Street protesters fear eviction from park
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/10/13/occupy-wall-street-protesters-fear-eviction-from-park/

Update: Occupy Wall Street Responds to Bloomberg’s Cleaning ‘Eviction Notice’
http://www.observer.com/2011/10/occupy-wall-street-responds-to-bloombergs-eviction-notice/

Occupy Wall St. - if you can't be there, you can still be counted

An Occupy Wall Street meeting

During the last couple of weeks, the possibilities of an Occupy Springfield have been floating around on email.  The sentiment at the moment seems to be that the timing's not quite right for community organizations: lots of projects already committed to, like the No One Leaves Campaign, and major outreach to the area's homeless people.  But conditions may change; who knows?

In the meantime, you can go here, to Avaaz.org, where by clicking on a petition, your support will register on  a giant counter erected on Wall St.  The tally's gone up by nearly a thousand just since I started this post.

Lots of readers of this blog will be pretty savvy about Occupy Wall St, and where to get up to date information, but for others who are not, here's some starting points.

First, the group that started it all-- Adbusters Media Foundation.  "“We basically floated the idea in mid July into our [email list] and it was spontaneously taken up by all the people of the world,” said Adbusters senior editor Micah White.  Live streaming, live Twitters.

Occupy Wall St. -- Describing itself as the unofficial organizing site, it has latest news, streaming video, minutes of every assembly meeting, and much more.

Occupy Together is tracking and coordinating Occupy movements across the country-- and world!

Check out We Are the 99% -- a photo essay you can contribute to.

Daily Kos has a comprehensive list of more than 200 cities where Occupy actions are taking place. 

More to come.

Photo from Mat McDermott's photostream at Flickr.