“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming” -- Pablo Neruda.
Spring is here and the diverse tribes of occupy are on the march. We're excited about some trends that have been accelerating over the winter: the move towards strategic planning and high impact campaigns. The OWS Strategic Action Labs is in the middle of a planned series of trainings that follow a coherent sequence, starting with goals, researching opponents, choosing targets, and making it clear up front what victory looks like.
Meanwhile, core occupy infrastructure such as InterOccupy.net, NYCGA.net, as well as various websites, blogs and social media accounts retain their power to mobilize. The next eruption of people power on Wall Street might not even carry our branding, but it will build on our experience.
This Spring we are witnessing some high profile victories: small donor empowerment in New York, important gun control legislation in Connecticut, immigration reform passed in Congress, and the historic rise of fast food worker organizing in our city. None of these are perfect, but all of them represent opportunities for building power for the 99%.
Spring is here. We can't afford to waste it.
-- from the ‘Your Inbox: Occupied’ team
Report from Strike Debt
“Medical debt is a symptom. The disease is our for-profit health care system.”
Watch a short animation illustrating the problems with for-profit medical care and follow up by reading Strike Debt’s brand new, in-depth report on for-profit health care and medical debt (or read here) and the ways the system hurts us financially and physically.
Occupy in the News
Truthout.org describes Strike Debt’s recent march and Rolling Jubilee medical debt abolishment. “A physician named David...addressed the crowd before the march...lambasting the idea that the solution to the problem is complicated or somehow unknowable. ‘The answer is single-payer,’ he said.”
At The Huffington Post, the coverage mentions Life or Debt’s “enthusiastic crowds and overwhelmingly positive attention.”
The Villager also covered the Life or Debt events, focusing on the march to the now-closed St. Vincent’s Hospital. “For 161 years this hospital served working-class New York people,” said one of the speakers, “This hospital was closed by fraud, greed and debt.” Another added later “...St. Vincent’s was closed to give way to luxury condominiums,” which left the area without any hospital.
Occupy these Actions & Events
Monday, April 8th-April 10th
Lakota Elders Take Back Their Strength
Throughout NYC
Join us for 3 days of solidarity with Lakota Grandmothers April 8-10. A delegation of Lakota Elders will visit NY to demand an end to the genocide of their people as they renew traditional matriarchal leadership. Let's stand behind them and get their voices heard around the world!
Saturday, April 13th, 1:00-3:00pm
Occupy Crime Scene investigation of Wall Street From Occu-Evolve
Begins at Battery Park
A two-hour walking tour in the Lower Manhattan financial district of Wall Street exploring the story of ‘too big to fail’ Banks. In addition to the Occupy Wall Street movement and occupation of Zuccotti Park(Liberty Plaza) the tour also highlights the history of Lower Manhattan’s original population of Native People and culminates at the African Burial Ground. The tour has a $10 donation suggested with proceeds going to the Occu-Evolve to continue their work! You must RSVP to attend. Please email occu-evolve@mail.com.
Monday, April 15th, 3pm-6pm
Tax Day NYC: Pay Up Wall Street!
Goldman Sachs headquarters, 200 Wall Street
Join Flip The Debt for a nationwide day of action on Tax Day April 15th at the headquarters of Goldman Sachs in NYC, which received millions in interest-free financing from the city on the condition they would create jobs. No surprise, Goldman didn't keep their word. If you are sick and tired of Wall Street banks and large companies raking in billions in corporate welfare while they pay no taxes, take action and join us.
