Greetings 99%!!
Apologies from Occupy Los Angeles that this message is getting to you on such short notice! Most of us occupiers have stayed busy since M1GS, continuing the daily struggle against the tyranny of the 1%.
First, we wanted to let you know what we’re up to tonight and tomorrow. Tonight, Friday May 11, we’re having a regular general assembly. We don’t currently have any proposals scheduled, so it should be an informational night of committee updates, action notifications, and breakout discussion groups. It starts at 7:30 p.m., at the corner of 6th & Olive at Pershing Square.
Immediately following the general assembly, we’ll have an opportunity to replicate both the energy of May Day and the occupation last Fall. We are marching from Pershing Square to 6th & Main Street and occupying. Occupy Los Angeles, Occupy the Hood, and Occupy Skid Row have been pitching tents and occupying Main Street every Friday for over three months.
In solidarity with residents of Skid Row, this both symbolic and direct action is meant to raise awareness on not only homelessness, but also the causes and benefactors of gentrification. There will be free pizza and great conversation! Bring tent.
OccupyLA also has a major day of action planned for tomorrow, Saturday, May 12. Saturdays are our weekly themed general assemblies, and tomorrow is an “Anti-Capitalist” theme. From 1 - 4 p.m., occupiers will be facilitating an assembly regarding current economics and alternatives. Here’s the rough order of the day:
- Quick & dirty definition of capitalism, plus glossary of terms to be handed out.
- “Demystifying Capitalism” game - a series of questions to illustrate the contradictions of capitalism.
- Analysis of capitalism
- History of neo-liberal capitalism in Chile, as related to the US
- History of oil capitalism in Nigeria
- Brief definition of each of the different schools of thought of the alternatives to capitalism, highlighting the similarities and overlaps. Followed by asking the GA what questions they would want to ask each school of thought. (Ex: How would a socialist approach global warming?)
- Discussion groups; question: What do you see as the alternative? How do you get to the alternative?
We will be meeting on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. to finalize all plans. Feel free to contribute!
Also, there is going to be a Really Really Free Market from 1 - 4 p.m. An RRFM is like a community gathering where participants bring, and give away absolutely free, any usable items, skills, ideas, smiles, talents, friendship, excitement, discussions, games, and many other things that we as a community can come together and share.
Can you cut hair? Can you provide unwanted clothing? Meals? What about music lessons or arts and crafts? Bring it all!
After the GA and Really Really Free market, we will have an action. It will most likely be an action at a bank since banks are pretty damn capitalist... (though they are just a symptom of the institutional problem).
It should be a great Saturday, in solidarity with the global call for action. M12! Take back the power.
All Power to All People. See you this weekend!
1 Comment
Anti-capitalism and Anti-socialism
Submitted by Antagon-X on
I have a few words for those who blame Capitalism for all our problems and worship pseudo-leaders such as Lenin, Marx, Che Guevara and Fidel Castro.
In Capitalism, a human being is considered a "part" of a machine. You work, you get paid. Your freedom of speech is conditioned to where you are/who you are. For instance, you cannot tell your boss exactly what you think about him/her because you might get fired.
You have the fredom to get in debt, to buy a TV set that will serve mostly to receive subliminal messages about spending, buying things you don't need, getting sick watching depressing sitcoms such as E.R., etc.
You can go to school with the only condition that you will be in debt for the rest of your life.
There is an elite group we often refer to as the 1% who are the ones who ceated and maintain a credit-score system that classifies how "good" or "bad" a person is for "the system". They control all the industries. They control our politicians and basically we do what they want us to do.
In a Pseudo-Socialist system things are not very different. There is an elite group that controls EVERYTHING. They call themselves "freedom fighters" but in reality they do not accept anything opposed to what they preach. Freedom of speech is fully conditioned; an example of this are Cuban dissidents. The pseudo-socialist elite lives surrounded by luxury that the common people cannot even dream about. They are pretty much a 0.1%.
A clear and historic example: After the end of the Soviet Union, countries such as Hungary started a democracy, free market, and a free society, but who do you think had the money to start businesses such as banks, supermarkets, car dealers? no idea? The answer is: The guys from the military elite during the Soviet Union. Thay had all the money in the country because they owned the country.
Also, in a pseudo-socialist system education is free but you will be programmed for the rest of your life with ideas that the 0.1% wants you to believe. They use a terminology that people end up repeating like monkeys such as "the empire", "oligarchy", etc. but the truth is that they have their own empire and like oligarchs, a small group of families wearing red shirts controls the country.
And things get cynical when companies like Nike, Apple, Intel, and Walmart, that are defenders of Capitalism by nature, go to a pseudo-communist country like China to do "business" there. The 1% of the USA doing business with the 0.1% of China!
We have been conditioned to believe that there has to be either Capitalism or Socialism, but none of these two systems will ever work as long as greed exists within ourselves.
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