God turning His back on the bankstas

First veterans, now churches too.
Traditional bases of support are turning.

A small but growing number of religious communities across the country are removing their money from Wall Street banks to protest what they see as unfair mortgage foreclosures and unwillingness to lend to small businesses.

The New Bottom Line (NBL) coalition of congregations, community organizations, labor unions and individuals is promoting a "Move Our Money" campaign with the goal of shifting $1 billion from big banks to community banks and credit unions.
-Huffington Post

OPD thugs terrorize people serving free turkey dinners on Thanksgiving Day

OPD flipped out when port-a-potties arrived at Oscar Grant Plaza while people were serving free turkey dinners. Then they started assaulting people. If that wasn't enough, as you can see at the end of this video, one officer tried to tase an unarmed man, but a woman pushes his arm down and ruins the officer's shot.
OBVIOUSLY, if the intended tasee had committed ANY kind of crime, the officer would not tolerate a bystander preventing him from getting his tasing on. Instead, a woman physically intervenes (with alleged "police work", which is allegedly a crime in itself), but the officer simply shrugs it off and allows the intended victim to continue mouthing off (which is not a crime).
This is OPD folks.

Happy Thingstaken Day

Today, I’m thankful for the validation.
The world really is watching. This really is the future, and though the revolution may not necessarily be televised, it is being streamed and youtubed and tweeted and facebooked.
Joblessness, homelessness, shootings, starvation, mental illness, professional motherfuckery, rats in City Hall, undas, cops, pigs and shit…none of this is new to us. This is how we roll. They killed Lil Bobby, Judy Bari, Oscar Grant, and countless others. Each time, we came back stronger than before, letting them know that we would not be intimidated.
This is why I built a life here, planted a garden and joined the community. Oakland keeps it real.
I’m not a pacifist. Because I grew up in Nazi territory during the 80s, I strongly believe in everyone’s right to defend themselves, but I’m also trying to raise a son in a world where people use their words before their fists. The strong commitment to non-violence in Oakland, a place where people are not afraid to fight by any means necessary, is incredibly encouraging, and we should all be proud.
People in Oakland get it, and have gotten it for a long time. This is the best place to experience the collapse, because people have been preparing for it, people have been organizing around it, and most importantly, people are willing to work together to survive it. All 99.99% of us.
Oakland really is a commune. It was before the Occupy movement, and it will be after. That’s how we roll. People who don’t know don’t know, and they can judge from that position of ignorance all they want. We don’t need anyone else’s validation, especially if their perspectives are rooted in the old played-out infinite growth paradigm. They are the dinosaurs, and we are the birds.
Even if the Occupy movement died tomorrow, hella people still got an unprecedented sensitivity training for free. They didn’t have to go off to some foreign land in search of meaning, as they had a convenient excuse to come to Oakland as part of some sort of urban domestic peace corps minus the fees and bureaucracy. No passport was needed for this trip. They served the people here in this country, and I highly doubt that they’ll be satisfied going back to a meaningless life of endless consumption. I doubt that anyone will really have that choice to be honest.
Besides, the movement ain’t dyin tomorrow anyway. It was never just about the camp. The camp, which was unlike any other camp anywhere else in the country, was but one protest out of many in Oakland. The camp was merely a symbol that could be replicated elsewhere, like the mouse ears of the movement. It was important for the homeless people, but it wasn’t the end goal.
The end goal was, and still is, a better world. The path to that goal is the process, and that still lives on.
Inclusiveness.
Everyone in, no one left out.
Judgement is the bankstas’ way. Mutual respect is the only way we can learn from one another, and if we can’t learn from each other, we can’t learn.
We have a lot to learn if we want to survive, and there really isn’t a better place to learn than right here, right now.
So I have to also be thankful for the bankstas’ predictable greediness. They couldn’t possibly save themselves from themselves, and they partied like it was 1999…for an extra decade.
And now the collapse is here. It was inevitable to us, and that’s why we have been preparing: dreaming and planning, learning and sharing, organizing and working to make a better world. Now, thanks to the teargas and the pepperspray, more people have a reason to notice, and be curious. They are all welcome to join the movement towards a better world, and they can do so in their own home towns. Oakland isn’t just a place, it’s a way of life, one that the overwhelming majority of us have chosen.
We aren’t where we need to be yet, but we are still ahead of the curve, and it’s being noted. For those of us committed to the struggle, who have been screaming for years/decades hoping to be heard, it is nice to know that the tide has shifted away from willful ignorance and towards curiosity. That’s actually more than we realistically hoped for, and it is a call to action for us to step it up and continue building on the momentum.
The whole world is watching.

The Occupation Illustrated

#OO in-house documentarian Susie_C has posted a great Illustrated History of Occupy Oakland. Check it out here.

18th & Linden

A vacant lot facing foreclosure in West Oakland was occupied yesterday.

Surrounded by a chain-link fence, the lot at 18th and Linden streets has food and water for anyone who asks, about a dozen tents, tarps, protest signs and even entertainment -- a man belting out a raspy, undecipherable tune on a weedy knoll outside the camp.
-Inside Bay Area

They are being raided as I write this.
Very intresting.
This is the first occupation in the hood. People in West Oakland are acting like people from West Oakland, but the cops are treating this like Snow Park by the lake.
And now the cops are leaving because they realized that it isn't Snow Park.
It wasn't the occupiers who ran the cops off either.
It was the neighborhood.

Or maybe the cops didn't really have authorization from the property owner to evict?
Who knows.

Some people tried in vain to organize a march to Oscar Grant Plaza after the cops left. Eventually though, the group was gone after slowly dwindling down throughout the night.

Here's the official story:

OAKLAND -- A confrontation between police and a diverse group of Occupy Oakland protesters ended late Tuesday, when campers moved out of a vacant lot that they had taken over a day earlier.

About 100 people gathered on the sidewalk outside the lot after police issued a 30-minute warning to vacate the lot inside a chain-link fence that surrounds 18th and Linden streets. The displaced campers were scrambling to figure out a new plan late Tuesday, and it was unclear if they planned to camp overnight.

A lot owner must file a complaint with police before officers can clear the premises.

Earlier Tuesday night, police appeared ready to move in on the group. About 30 police officers were at the scene, most of them in riot gear.

About 20 people set up tents on the lot late Monday night, and Tuesday afternoon the camp was bustling with people. Food and water were available for anyone who asked.

Police gave the protesters a 30-minute warning about 8:30 p.m. to leave the camp or be arrested. But at 9:50 p.m., police surprised protesters and observers alike when several of them removed their riot gear and all the officers promptly drove away. Police helicopters remained in the area and it was unclear what the department's next move would be.

It was not immediately clear whether they left because they did not have authority to evict the protesters.
-Inside Bay Area

Occupy Oakland Update

Watch live streaming video from occupyoakland at livestream.com

On Saturday, a rally and march and new occupation took place in Oakland. A victory garden was planted at Oscar Grant Plaza during a long rally. A march through downtown Oakland followed, ending at a new location in the heart of Uppity Uptown at 19th & Telegraph. True to form, a huge dance party ensued. Police raided the new camp at 19th & Broadway and destroyed the victory garden early Sunday morning. They then raided Snow Park early Monday morning.

During the GA on Friday, a resoution calling for a December 12 West Coast Port Shutdown was approved unanimously.

Occupy Oakland calls for the blockade and disruption of the economic apparatus of the 1% with a coordinated shutdown of ports on the entire West Coast on December 12th. The 1% has disrupted the lives of longshoremen and port truckers and the workers who create their wealth, just as coordinated nationwide police attacks have turned our cities into battlegrounds in an effort to disrupt our Occupy movement.

We call on each West Coast occupation to organize a mass mobilization to shut down its local port. Our eyes are on the continued union-busting and attacks on organized labor, in particular the rupture of Longshoremen jurisdiction in Longview Washington by the EGT. Already, Occupy Los Angeles has passed a resolution to carry out a port action on the Port Of Los Angeles on December 12th, to shut down SSA terminals, which are owned by Goldman Sachs.

Occupy Oakland expands this call to the entire West Coast, and calls for continuing solidarity with the Longshoremen in Longview Washington in their ongoing struggle against the EGT. The EGT is an international grain exporter led by Bunge LTD, a company constituted of 1% bankers whose practices have ruined the lives of the working class all over the world, from Argentina to the West Coast of the US. During the November 2nd General Strike, tens of thousands shutdown the Port Of Oakland as a warning shot to EGT to stop its attacks on Longview. Since the EGT has disregarded this message, and continues to attack the Longshoremen at Longview, we will now shut down ports along the entire West Coast.
-Occupy Oakland

World Revolution Update