Oct 11 2011

Occupy Movements Face Challenges, Continue to Grow

Feature Stories | Published 11 Oct 2011, 10:10 am | Comments Off on Occupy Movements Face Challenges, Continue to Grow -

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The Boston police have arrested an estimated 100 protestors camping out in Dewey Square. The Occupy Boston group reportedly tried to expand their encampment and were stopped by police. The Occupy movement is now in its 4th week and is growing, with tent cities popping up all over the country including in places like Colorado Springs, Colorado, South Bend, Indiana, and Lexington, Kentucky. Over the weekend Marxist philosopher Slavoj Zizek addressed the Occupy New York crowd saying, “We are not dreamers. We are awakening from a dream which is tuning into a nightmare. We are not destroying anything. We are only witnessing how the system is destroying itself.” On Friday Tavis Smiley and Cornel West brought their 11 state poverty tour to Occupy LA. They were interviewed live from Downtown LA on Countdown with Keith Olberman, who asked West if the movement was the same on both coasts. Tavis Smiley followed up saying he thought there were many legitimate grievances being aired, and that this movement didn’t need one message as was needed during the civil rights era. The leaderless Occupy Wall Street movement, planned and coordinated through mass general assembly meetings, has been under pressure from the public and the media to issue one, or a set, of specific demands. A lack of demands is not, as we just heard, decried as a weakness by all of the Occupy supporters, and that in and of itself has become an issue of public debate. Behind the scenes, in New York, LA and likely many more locales, there is an ongoing debate on whether people of color and organizers from marginalized communities are able to assume an equal role in the general assemblies.

GUEST: Refugio Mata, Spokesperson with Good Jobs LA, a local coalition of organizations, unions and more that are supporting Occupy LA through logistical support, supplies, and training.

GUEST: Kim Ives, journalist and editor Haiti Liberte, he is also a member of the International Suport Haiti Network which organized a march across the Brooklyn bridge in solidarity with Occupy New York and to demand an end to UN occupation of Haiti; Refugio Mata, spokesperson with Good Jobs LA

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