Posted Oct. 14, 2011, 8:51 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
People power triumphs over Wall Street’s bid to end the protests mayor
bloomberg and Brookfield Inc. back down on eviction world prepares for day of
action Saturday October 15 in 950+ cities in 82 countries. We Are Winning!
NEW YORK, NY — Over 3,000 people gathered at Liberty Plaza in the pre-dawn
hours this morning to defend the peaceful Occupation near Wall Street. The crowd
cheered at the news that multinational real estate firm Brookfield Properties
will postpone its so-called “cleanup” of the park and that Mayor
Bloomberg has told the NYPD to stand down on orders to remove protesters. On
the eve of the October 15 global day of action against Wall Street greed, this
development has emboldened the movement and sent a clear message that the power
of the people has prevailed against Wall Street.
“We are winning and Wall Street is afraid,” said Kira Moyer-Sims,
a protester from Portland, Oregon. “This movement is gaining momentum
and is too big to fail.”
“Brookfield Properties is the 1%. They have invested $24 billion in mortgage-backed
securities, so as millions face foreclosure and eviction due to predatory lending
and the burst of the housing bubble that Wall Street created, its not surprising
they threatened to evict Occupy Wall Street,” said Patrick Burner, an
organizer with Occupy Wall Street from the Bed-Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn.
“But Brookfield and Bloomberg have backed down and our movement is only
growing as the 99% take to the streets world wide to call for economic justice.”
The early morning announcement from the Mayor’s office in New York came
after 300,000+ Americans signed petitions to stop the eviction, and flooded
the 311 phone network in solidarity with those in Liberty Square. At 6 AM this
morning, 3,000+ New Yorkers, unions, students, and others joined the occupiers
in the square to send a clear message to the 1% who want to silence this peaceful
assembly of the 99%. Donations poured into the protesters from Italy, England,
Mexico and many other countries by everyday people hoping to help the movement
grow.
“For too long the 99% have been ignored as our economic system has collapsed.
The banks got bailouts and we’ve been sold out, ” said Harrison
Schultz, business analyst from Brooklyn . “Wall Street’s greed has
corrupted our country and is killing our planet. But today we celebrate victory
and vow to keep fighting for justice and change on Wall Street, and in over
100 cities in the US and over 950 cities globally.”
On October 15th, Occupy Wall Street will demonstrate in concert over 951 cities
in 82 countries and counting as people around the globe protest in an international
day of solidarity against the greed and corruption of the 1%.
Occupy Wall Street is a people powered movement that began on September 17,
2011 in Liberty Square in Manhattan’s Financial District, and has spread
to over 100 cities in the United States and actions in over 1,500 cities globally.
#OWS is fighting back against the corrosive power of major banks and multinational
corporations on the democratic process, and the role of Wall Street in creating
an economic collapse that caused the greatest recession in generations. The
movement is inspired by uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, Spain, Greece, Italy and
the UK, and aims to expose how the richest 1% of people who are writing the
rules of the global economy and are imposing an agenda of neoliberalism and
economic inequality.
October 15th Call to Action
Posted Oct. 14, 2011, 1:07 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Over the last 30 years, the 1% have created a global economic system – neoliberalism
– that attacks our human rights and destroys our environment. Neoliberalism
is worldwide – it is the reason you no longer have a job, it is the reason you
cannot afford healthcare, education, food, your mortgage.
Neoliberalism is your future stolen.
Neoliberalism is everywhere, gutting labor standards, living wages, social
contracts, and environmental protections. It is "a great vampire squid
wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into
anything that smells like money." It is a system that ravages the global
south and creates global financial crisis – crisis in Spain, in Greece, in the
United States. It is a system built on greed and thrives on destablizing shocks.
It allows the 1% to enrich themselves by impoverishing humanity.
This has to stop!
We must usher in an era of democratic and economic justice.
We must change, we must evolve.
On October 15th the world will rise up as one and say, "We have had enough!
We are a new beginning, a global fight on on all fronts that will usher in an
era of shared prosperity, respect, mutual aid, and dignity."
October 15th: Occupy Banks from Mary Matthews on Vimeo.