Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Christmas

Mickey Friedman
December 25, 2011

As 2011 comes to a close, it’s fair to say Occupy has occupied the land.

Graphic Image: Alexandra Clotfelter

Far from the opening and closing bells of Wall Street, and its powerful bull, here in the southern Berkshires, Occupy Berkshires demonstrates each Sunday (excepting this Sunday) from 1 PM to 2:45 PM in front of Great Barrington’s Town Hall on Main Street. It then holds its General Assembly at 3 PM at the Quaker Meeting House on 280 Main Road (Route 23 towards Monterey.) There are similar groups in Pittsfield and North Adams.

It’s easy to get rhetorical about the extent and impact of Occupy but a recent study by researchers at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) found occupy movements in 143 small towns and cities in California alone.

“Big cities got the movement early. The spatial depth of the movement to small towns is not well-known,” said Christopher Chase-Dunn, a distinguished professor of sociology who is known internationally for his research of social movements.

People in medium and small-sized towns are occupying space, organizing events, and lending their voices to the movement in their own towns, graduate student Michaela Curran-Strange added. “They are focusing on local issues as well as national and regional ones.”

READ MORE >>

Hasta Luego, Pablo – Occupy Everywhere

By Mickey Friedman
December 12, 2011

I’ve been very sad lately, having lost another dear friend to cancer, Dr. Paul Epstein, Pablo to me, Rufus to his family. Paul was one of the world’s leading experts on the ever-increasing effects of the climate crisis on disease. Pablo was a constant, continuing inspiration to me. He was energetic, sympathetic, and so very quick to smile and laugh. As cranky and curmudgeonly as I am, Paul was happy and gracious.

Dr, Paul Epstein

I met him in New York a long time ago and watched him study and become a doctor and marry my friend, Andy. He practiced medicine, wrote, taught, and organized. He worked for the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard Medical School. I am sure his kindness to patients and students, to friends and family, and the great work he’s done lives on.

Click here to listen to Living on Earth’s Steve Curwood’s short tribute to Paul Epstein.
READ MORE >>

Re-Invent America; Re-Imagine the World

Mickey Friedman
December 2, 2011

(This column, without illustrations, appeared in the Berkshire Record on Thursday, December 1, 2011. This morning my very conservative friend Anthony told me I should start packing. This time I went too far; I’d probably be deported. We argue and joke all the time about politics. He jokes about retiring to a small imaginary village in Sicily where he and his lovely wife and his new-found donkey don’t have to deal with spam, the e-mail version not the lunch meat. He thinks this column might get me to Sicily before he gets there.)

_________________________________________________________________________________

Poster by Frank Kozik

Nobody asked me, but I have a suggestion for the Occupy Movement. Be audacious. Dare to dream big. I see that Michael Moore has his ideas: increasing taxes on the rich, limiting corporate contributions, a single-payer health plan. All good ideas that I support. But still too small.

I say that because the Arctic is melting; and Antarctica is next. Because it’s too late for little changes. You can argue that these reforms will greatly change the lives of many. But Nature is telling us loud and clear: the time is now. Actually, the time was decades ago, but we humans are so very slow to learn.

I’ve been a dissident for a very long time so I may not have enough audacity left. But the folks who Occupied the Verizon building using their nifty video projector, flashing the slogans of the movement on valuable New York City corporate real estate, well, they know audacious. The young folks with their cellphones, all live streaming video of police misconduct, they have audacity.

I say take that courage and re-invent America.

READ MORE >>

Some More Moments Of Occupy

Mickey Friedman
November 22, 2011

Remember the mythic and mystical friendly neighborhood policeman. He is alive and well in the form of Retired Police Captain Ray Lewis of the Philadelphia Police Department. Captain Lewis was recently arrested as part of activities at Occupy Wall Street. Here is what he told the very hardworking streaming videographer, Tim Pool, of wearetheother99:

And then there’s the inside look at the creative projectionists of the OccupyTheVerizonBuilding. I was able to watch some of this live on New York City television as it was happening:

And then for those of you who once took English or taught English, here’s how the brave English faculty at UC Davis responded to the immoral and anti-collegial acts of the Administration. This is what was posted on their webpage:

UC Davis & Some Teachable Moments

Mickey Friedman
November 21, 2011

It’s been quite awhile since I dwelled in academia. So I’m out of practice. No longer speak the language. Maybe you do. Maybe you know what Chancellor Katehi is saying. Maybe it’s the wax in my ears. Maybe I need to sit in on some faculty meetings.

It sounds suspiciously like sophistry to me. You know, slightly deceptive reasoning or argumentation.

So concerned that events could get out of hand, so worried someone would get hurt, that she might have to inform a parent that somehow because she hadn’t acted she would have to inform them that their kid had been hurt … Following what in fact was the protocol …

Never really owning up to the fact that she was the one who, in fact, set in motion the very act of hurting students.

READ MORE >>

The Power of Silence – Occupy UC Davis

By Mickey Friedman
November 20, 2011

Red Crow’s Bill Shein has written and spoken often of the power of nonviolent protest. The students at University of California, Davis have offered a new and inspirational example.

Take a moment to review recent events at UC Davis.

In the spirit of suppression that has swept the nation, in decision after decision to use police power to disrupt largely non-violent citizen occupations, the Chancellor of UC Davis inexplicably invited police to break up a peaceful demonstration of students expressing support for other occupations, including UC Berkeley.

Here’s the horrifying video of what is clearly out-of-control police:


 

And from another angle:

 

UC Davis Assistant Professor Nathan Brown from the Department of English reminds us of what is best about of American universities:

Here is a portion of his letter to the Chancellor:

Linda P.B. Katehi,

I am a junior faculty member at UC Davis. I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, and I teach in the Program in Critical Theory and in Science & Technology Studies. I have a strong record of research, teaching, and service. I am currently a Board Member of the Davis Faculty Association. I have also taken an active role in supporting the student movement to defend public education on our campus and throughout the UC system. In a word: I am the sort of young faculty member, like many of my colleagues, this campus needs. I am an asset to the University of California at Davis.

You are not.

I write to you and to my colleagues for three reasons:

1) to express my outrage at the police brutality which occurred against students engaged in peaceful protest on the UC Davis campus today

2) to hold you accountable for this police brutality

3) to demand your immediate resignation

Read the entire letter here: http://bicyclebarricade.wordpress.com/2011/11/19/open-letter-to-chancellor-linda-p-b-katehi/

And now, to those who wonder whether the Occupy Movement will be successful, we say watch this.

 

Perhaps without even knowing about the student demonstrators of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee – the brave SNCC students who fifty years ago occupied the segregated lunch counters of the south – they are recreating today’s version of the movement.

 

 

Who are the 99% and what’s bothering them?

The mainstream media in the United States keeps asking about the 99% – and about the Occupy Movement – wondering who they are and what they want.

Well thanks to the smart folks across the water at the UK Guardian who somehow have managed to do what the US press can’t do – which is to cover the Occupy Movement with consistency and courage, we now have a very simple, user-friendly way to look at underlying issues that trouble the 99%.

 

 

A Million Faces

By Mickey Friedman
November 7, 2011

This Sunday morning, after an hour of serious shoveling, I was able to get my car to Fuel for my Sunday latte.

My deepest sympathies to our Great Barrington pear trees which fell overnight, victim of our premature nor’easter. And an apology to those who said the trees needed to be replaced. Nature voted with you. And it’s time to pick more wisely. Maybe trees with no leaves and no limbs.

Great Barrington Pear Trees vs October Snow Storm - Photo: Hayley Weller © 2011

Anyway, this was one of those deadline-approaching-mornings when I had absolutely no idea what to write about. But lucky for me, the Berkshire Eagle was handy. I began reading in the Entertainment Section about my friend, local potter Daniel Bellow. According to Eagle writer Jeremy Goodwin, Bellow’s decision to replace writing editorials for the Eagle for making beautiful porcelain pottery, was motivated “by a sense of the newspaper industry’s decline.”

Jeremy’s words made sense. So naturally I turned to the Opinion page to read the morning’s editorial for an up-to-date status report on Daniel’s replacement. For some reason, the Eagle never credits its editorial writers so I don’t know who’s responsible for some of this silliness.
READ MORE >>

Sen. Downing’s ‘Tips Bill’ & Fundraising Raise Questions

By Bill Shein
October 31, 2011

There’s at least one thread that runs through the many-flavored Occupy Wall Street protests: Big money from a narrow economic elite, flowing into and around our political system, has distorted participatory democracy to create an economic system that’s unfair and unjust. Concentration of wealth, historic income and wealth inequality, and forced belt-tightening for working people are hallmarks of our age.

A bill, S.922, filed by State Sen. Ben Downing (D-Pittsfield) at the request of the owners of Cranwell Resort & Spa, would have gutted legal protections for workers that rely on tips.

Those were also hallmarks of the Gilded Age of the late 19th and early 20th century, the time of robber barons, overt political corruption that would lead to Progressive Era reforms, and, here in western Massachusetts, the construction of enormous Berkshires estates.

One of those properties, inhabited by a succession of wealthy owners beginning in the 1850s, is now the luxury Cranwell Resort, Spa, and Golf Club in Lenox.

According to the resort’s website, “Over the years, Cranwell has served as a home to wealthy industrialists, clergy, writers, students, golfers, and culture lovers in Massachusetts … The history of Cranwell is entwined with many stories of the opulent period between 1880 and 1920 that is known as the Gilded Age.”

This month Cranwell is at the center of a story that reveals, very specifically, what’s broken about our political system in what many consider a new Gilded Age. It came to light when conflicting statements from State Sen. Ben Downing (D-Pittsfield), along with information about his fundraising receipts and expenditures that may be related to a campaign for Congress, raised questions about why he filed – and then withdrew – blatantly anti-worker legislation. READ MORE >>

Bill Shein & Occupy Berkshires

Bill Shein, Red Crow writer, reporter, racounteur and small-scale duck farmer, hits the airwaves to explain to WGBY’s Carrie Saldo what Occupy Berkshires is all about:

Occupy Movement comes to Western Massachusetts from WGBY on Vimeo.

Occupy Wall Street! All Day! All Week!

By Matthew Vernon Whalan
October 11, 2011

Zuccotti Park smells like B.O. and fresh bagels and the drum circle in the middle launches up into the city and ricochets off of the surrounding buildings. And they sing and they chant, and their noise has nowhere to hide. Police circle the area by the hundreds. At one point, my brother and I were out on the edge of the park and when the tourist buses pulled up to take pictures, protesters near us turned and began to yell, “You are an American! Get off the bus! Come protest! Get off the bus!”

Occupy Wall Street started with about a 1,000 people walking up and down Wall Street on September 17th. Now, less than a month later, a rapidly growing number of citizens have taken over Zuccotti Park in the heart of New York’s financial district in a surprisingly organized protest that is gaining momentum.

Demonstration at Washington Square, NYC - Photo: Jackson Tynan Whalan

I went down to New York to the Wall Street protests to write about freedom, and it was a goldmine.

It is true that not everybody protesting on Wall Street is there for the same reason, but that is all the better. I met real American citizens: we the people, the middle class, the 99 percent, who want change in more areas than one. READ MORE >>

Red Crow Everywhere

  • RSS Feed
  • Facebook

Follow Red Crow News on Twitter

Support Red Crow

Donate to Red Crow News and support an independent source of news and commentary in western Massachusetts.

RED CROW NEWS

An online newsmagazine based in the Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts, Red Crow News covers what's happening and what we hope will happen.

Along with our slightly unconventional news coverage, you'll find musings and scribblings, and comments about what we care about.

Highly subjective, our C/V/ultures will be writing about culture or the lack thereof.

As always, we're guided by our founding principle: It's News To Us!

And if It's News To You, or you want to add your comment to any of our stories, please use our CONTACT RED CROW form on the left sidebar and send it along.

“A Red Family: Junius, Gladys & Barbara Scales” by Mickey Friedman

"An extraordinary set of reminiscences, beautifully put together by an extremely sensitive, even gifted interviewer. It is a jewel." --Glenda Gilmore, author of Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights, 1919-1950

"Junius Scales is a fascinating character whose experiences tell us so much about his period, and Friedman's family approach opens up new angles on the story." --James R. Barrett, author of William Z. Foster and the Tragedy of American Radicalism

You can purchase the paperback edition of A Red Family for $25.00. Just click on the buy from amazon.com button:


CALENDAR

May 2013
M T W T F S S
« Apr    
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  

Red Crow News

Meta