San Diego Celebrates May Day With A Broad Coalition Of Unions And Community Organizations

by Carlos Huerta San Diego, California, Pictures by Nicholas Paget-Clarke
(Original article taken from www.inmotionmagazine.com, and can be found here)

It was almost 8 months ago, September 17, 2011, when New Yorkers took over the financial district where Wall Street is located and settled into Zuccotti Park. There they set up a kitchen, the people’s library, brought community members to provide educational teach-ins on different topics, and fed, sheltered, and nursed one another. In essence, they created a community from the ground up giving birth to Occupy Wall Street (OWS). A movement inspired by the uprisings in the Arab World, dubbed the Arab Spring, OWS voiced their collective grievances changing the conversation all across the US and sprouting Occupy communities across each state, including here in San Diego.

Under the banner of the “99%,” Occupy joined in solidarity the many existing struggles. Locally, Occupy stood against the big banking institutions and their illegal practices as homes were foreclosed which forced people onto the streets. Occupy helped organize National Transfer Day which added 650,000 new members to Credit Unions, raising awareness on helping support the control of local economies. Occupy has stood against giant corporations and their influence over politics which they control through lobbying and monetary power. Occupy has fed, bathed, and sheltered many of the houseless community. Occupy continues to participate in various autonomous self-sustainable projects including community gardens. Occupy has stood up and resonated the voices of workers and farmer’s rights. Occupy has taken a stand against the legalized death sentence of Medicare recipients through budget cuts. Occupy has taken the streets and stood with immigrant communities who are afraid of stepping out against ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), private for-profit prisons system and illegal deportations. Occupy has stood for justice and equality for all against the constant oppression from the police state in a worldwide struggle.

Deep in the Lacandon Jungle of Chiapas, Subcomandante Marcos wrote: “In the world of the powerful there is no room for anyone but themselves and their servants. In the world we want, everyone fits. The nation we construct is one where all communities and languages fit.” The struggles facing us now are nothing new, for years the current institutions have oppressed the people, they have silenced us, stolen our voices, instilled fear onto us, turned us against each other. They have made education out of reach through budget cuts and debt slavery, and they have taken people’s homes and jobs while their wallets continue to accumulate capital. Meanwhile, the people we have voted to positions of power do nothing but represent the interests of the rich corporations.

When do we say no more?

As we celebrate May Day, International Workers Day, it’s imperative to look around us with a sense of camaraderie, to put aside the dividing differences and focus on the struggles that bring us together. It is time to question the morality of the institutions, elected officials, and legislations that have brought us to this point. We do not need them, they need us. They need us to consume. They need our resources and our labor in order to hoard wealth. It is said that the masses make history, we are the people, we have the numbers, and the power to build the world we want; a global society that recognizes the universal rights of life, liberty, education, shelter, and healthcare. Such a world is possible through cooperation, community building, and tolerance, by getting to know each other and taking care of one another.

As we have taken and continue to take the streets let our voices empower each other giving birth to a voice once lost. As we continue marching let each step plant a strong seed of solidarity that will bloom and endure. Let May Day be much more than an annual gathering of our fight and continue joining each other’s struggles daily through our actions and interactions. Let’s continue having these conversations and public gatherings coming up with alternatives and solutions. Lets celebrate the richness of our differences because the struggle is far from over. From San Diego to Chile to Egypt and Greece, one world, one struggle. Occupy together.

Also see:

More photos from the San Diego May Day marches and rallies

www.immotionmagazine.com

Whats New?

Protest group set for mass demonstrations against banks; ‘spring offensive’

The world’s biggest banks are working with one another and police to gather intelligence as protesters try to rejuvenate the Occupy Wall Street movement with May demonstrations, industry security consultants said.

Among 99 protest targets in midtown Manhattan on May 1 are JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Bank of America Corp. (BAC) offices, said Marisa Holmes, a member of Occupy’s May Day planning committee. Events are scheduled for more than 115 cities, including an effort to shut down the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, where Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) investors relied on police to get past protests at their annual meeting this week.

“Our goal is to kick off the spring offensive and go directly to where the financial elite play and plan,” she said.

After evictions and arrests from Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park to London that began last year, the movement against income inequality and corporate abuse will regain strength, said Brian McNary, director of global risk at Pinkerton Consulting & Investigations, a subsidiary of Sweden’s Securitas AB. (SECUB) He works with international financial firms to “identify, map and track” protesters across social media and at their assemblies, he said. The companies gather data “carefully and methodically” to prevent business disruptions.

Banks are preparing for Occupy demonstrations at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s Chicago summit on May 20 and 21 by sharing information from video surveillance, robots and officers in buildings, giving “a real-time, 360-degree” view, said McNary, who works on the project.

Elk Versus Wolves

Banks cooperating on surveillance are like elk fending off wolves in Yellowstone National Park, he said. While other animals try in vain to sprint away alone, elk survive attacks by forming a ring together, he said.

Planning for May 1 in New York began in January in a fourth-floor workspace at 16 Beaver St., about two blocks from Wall Street, according to Holmes. The date serves as an international labor day, commemorating a deadly 1886 clash between police and workers in Chicago’s Haymarket Square.

The midtown demonstrations will take place from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., followed by a march from Bryant Park to Union Square and a 4 p.m. rally there, according to an online schedule. Protesters, including labor unions and community groups, have a permit to march from Union Square to lower Manhattan, according to police. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS)’s headquarters is among financial- district picketing options, Holmes said.

Atrium Closed

Banks are bracing. Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) is closing the public atrium of its U.S. headquarters at 60 Wall St., which protesters have used for meetings, Holmes said. Duncan King, a bank spokesman, declined to comment.

New York police can handle picketers, said Paul Browne, a spokesman. “We’re experienced at accommodating lawful protests and responding appropriately to anyone who engages in unlawful activity,” he said. “We’re prepared to do both next month.”

Banks have a history of coordinating security with city authorities. At a 2009 U.S. Senate hearing, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly described a partnership with financial-district firms that gives his department “access to hundreds of private- security cameras.” Footage is monitored in a downtown Manhattan center, he said. A 2005 letter Kelly wrote to Edward Forst, then chief administrative officer at Goldman Sachs, shows it was among firms getting space in the facility.

‘Fire’ Rekindling

Starting in 2010, JPMorgan gave the New York City Police Foundation the largest donation in the group’s history, the bank’s website shows. The gift, valued at $4.6 million, included 1,000 patrol car laptops. “These officers put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe,” Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, 56, said in a statement on the website.

New York companies have provided services and equipment for decades and are proud to show their support, Browne said. The foundation is the department’s fundraising arm. Goldman Sachs, News Corp. and Barclays Plc (BARC) were among 16 donors who gave at least $100,000 through the year ended June 30, 2010, according to the foundation’s website. Dozens of others gave less.

Last year’s anti-bank protests were “like a big forest fire that was suppressed and put out,” Chris Swecker, the former head of security at Bank of America, said in an interview. Firms are studying protesters because “there’s also the opportunity for spontaneous fires to spring back up again,” said Swecker, who runs a security-consulting firm in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Private-security teams in London have become an “incredible army” and “the eyes and ears of the city” thanks to a coordination program called Project Griffin, according to Rachel Briggs, policy director at the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue. The organization develops responses to security challenges.

‘Show of Strength’

The heads of security of most of the major banks there have formed a group called “sister banks,” said Ian Mansfield, a London police counterterrorism security adviser. They do more than gather and share information with one another and the police, he said by e-mail. “Sometimes we will ask for a high- visibility deployment around premises basically as a ‘show of strength,’” he wrote.

Spokesmen for Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup Inc. (C), Morgan Stanley (MS), UBS AG (UBSN) and Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) wouldn’t describe security measures for the protests. One likened commenting to telling al-Qaeda about the bank’s continuity plans.

“When you portray a position of weakness, it invites attack,” said McNary, the Pinkerton director. “They don’t want to provide the perception that they’re hunkering down behind their bulwarks and putting up big walls.”

—Bloomberg News—

noneofthismatters:

May Day 2012, Brooklyn / NYC

I love walking past my office while protesting.

Events in photos (so far)

occupyallstreets:

Trigger Warning: Police Brutality

OPD inciting a police riot in Oakland during the May Day protest.

thepeoplesrecord:

1,200 LAX Airport workers are striking right now & causing delays & traffic throughout the airport. The workers are demanding more organizing rights & safer working conditions. 

Read about the LAX Strike: The Anatomy of a Strike 

thinkmexican:

2012 International Workers’ Day
Zócalo, Mexico City

occupy-sandiego:

The people are home! #m1gs #osf

thepeoplesrecord:

Riot police use tear gas against demonstrators during a May Day rally in central Ankara May 1, 2012