Citizenship That Speaks Loudly

Although we live during a time when the term 'citizen' has been largely supplanted by corporate misnomers like 'stakeholders' and 'customers' and 'taxpayers,' the concept of citizenship still lives in the hearts of many. And while we hear all the time about the 'rights' of stakeholders, not often are we reminded of the 'responsibilities' of citizenship.

A recent post of a speech given by Tamo Campos, the grandson of David Suzuki, was one such reminder, as is this one by Simon Fraser University molecular biologist Lynne Quarmby, arrested at the same place as was Camos, Burnaby Mountain, for exercising her right of protest against the activities of Kinder Morgan:



Earlier, David Suzuki himself gave an impassioned speech:




All who see the world solely through the lens of 'market values' should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

Urban Camouflage for Canada's Soldiers?

The past dozen or so years have left most of us familiar with the pixelated camouflage pattern, pioneered in Canada, and worn by many nations’ soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Americans are now going back to a more traditional camouflage for their combat uniforms. Canada, however, is not. We already have three variants of the pixelated pattern – a rich green pattern for temperate forests, the desert tan we see so often and a white/grey winter-Arctic camo.

It turns out there’s a fourth pixelated pattern under development, an urban camouflage that our warriors can use presumably in our cities. The pattern is supposed to emulate conditions in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.

It’s called CUEPAT, Canadian Urban Environment Pattern, and it’s designed so that your little warfighter can be concealed in our cities.

The requirement is to have an urban pattern which works in the unique requirements of Canada’s three major metropolitan areas, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. The current CBR (Chemical Biological, Radioactive) individual protective equipment (IPE) used by the Canadian military is provided in a woodland or desert camouflage. A camouflage suited to the Canadian urban environment is required when the military operates in urban terrain.

The military issued this specification: “Determine design parameters for an advanced Canadian urban environment camouflage patter (focus on Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal urban settings). Consider ...unique colour blends that would improve the users concealment in a range of urban environments.”

Do we really want our own military to be focusing on concealing our soldiers in our cities? To what end, exactly? What’s the threat that they perceive warrants an urban camouflage capability? Northern Gateway, perhaps? Like the American military, do they foresee mass uprisings and civil disobedience that will have to be countered with military intervention? I don’t think I’m okay with this, are you?

MoS, the Disaffected Lib

This Is What Engaged Citizenship Looks Like

On Friday, fifty-four members of the global climate movement were arrested in Washington, DC after blockading the offices of an environmental engineering firm responsible for contributing to what protesters see as a deeply flawed impact statement on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, a controversial tar sands project that has become a focus of the climate change debate in the US.

Demanding that the State Department’s final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) of Keystone XL be fair, balanced, and free from the influence of the fossil fuel industry, the activists surrounded the offices, locked arms, and refused to leave until they were arrested by local police.



You can read the full story here.

H/t trapdinawrpool

An Update on Tim DeChristopher

About a year ago I wrote a post on Tim DeChristopher, a brave young activist who was sentenced to two years in prison for disrupting an oil and gas auction. In an act of civil disobedience, he submitted winning bids on land in Utah with no intention of paying for them.

An update on his status is provided by Peter Scheer on Truthdig. As well, there is a link on the site to an interview of DeChristopher that Chris Hedges conducted in 2011.

Worthwhile reading for those seeking examples of principled behaviour in these times.

Two Monday Morning Links

There are two pieces on the Occupy Toronto situation that are worth reading in today's paper. The first is the editorial in the Toronto Star examining the possibilities for the future now that the occupiers will soon be decamping from St. James Park due to a judicial decision just handed down. It is a decision that need hardly sound the death knell of a movement that is resonating with millions of people.

The second piece, by Linda McQuaig, accords the Occupy Movement high praise indeed. Says McQuaig:

[T]hey’ve managed to change the public discourse, putting inequality front and centre — something activists and writers, myself included, have failed to accomplish despite decades of trying.

I'm hoping, and betting, that this is only the end of the beginning.

The roots of the UC-Davis pepper-spraying

That's the title of a searing and insightful analysis by Glenn Greenwald as he examines both the mentality and the effects, both intended and unintended, of the excessive and brutal force used against Occupy demonstrators and others.

Amongst his findings are the following:

- excessive police force against non-violent protest is not a new phenomenon;

- that excessive force has been emboldened since 9/11;

- this disproportionate use of force is not having the desired effect, in that it is galvanizing, not deterring people to join in activist acts.

I hope yoiu will take the time to read the entire article, which includes video of Greenwald speaking about Badley Manning and WikiLeaks.

A Premeditated Act of Police Brutality

In this video, a group of college students are huddled on the ground in a defensive position at UC Davis on November 18. An officer, later identified as UC police Lt. John Pike, then casually douses them with a chemical agent. You’ll note that a number of bystanders who were simply watching what was going on are also exposed.

The reaction of the bystanders, however, is to their credit: total non-violence. A moral victory for the oppressed 99%.

This Is What Revolution Looks Like

That is the title of Chris Hedges' latest column on truthdig.org. Despite the attempts to dismantle the Occupy encampments, attempts that seem eerily coordinated, Hedges suggests that this is only the end of the first stage of a revolution by people who have seen the truth and refuse to go back to the way they were, maxing out their credit cards and watching mindless television; in short, they are refusing to continue to follow the corporate agenda, which demands passivity and uncritical acceptance of its debased imperatives.

As with most of Hedges' work, this is a piece well-worth reading.

Occupy Wall Street Police Breakup

News has spread quickly about the cowardly breakup of the Zucotti Park Wall Street Occupiers. Here is a link to a livestream covering the protesters as they move throughout the streets of New York

The Trial of Goldman Sachs

Even if you only have time to watch the opening statements by Chris Hedges and philosopher, activist and professor Cornell West, this video, a mock trial of Goldman Sachs by members of Occupy Wall Street, is well-worth watching. The array of 'crimes' committed by the investment banker and the absence of any meaningful penalty for those crimes are an ample illustration of the core truth being promoted by the Occupy Movement.

Finding Freedom in Handcuffs

That is the title of Chris Hedges' latest column at truthdig.org, written after his arrest for sitting on the sidewalk in front of Goldman Sachs in New York. It is a powerful indictment of the immorality that pervades the ethos of unfettered capitalism, and a poignant reflection on some of the experiences that led Hedges to support and be part of the Occupy Movement.

While some may recoil from his evocative but strong imagery, his words help bring us to a truth that few are willing to truly confront as we go about our daily lives, ensconced in our layers of identity that insulate and isolate us from the true meaning of humanity.

Chris Hedges' Indictment of Goldman Sachs

Prior to his arrest the other day for sitting on the sidewalk in front of Goldman Sachs, Chris Hedges issued the following indictment of the investment banking and securities firm:

Goldman Sachs, which received more subsidies and bailout-related funds than any other investment bank because the Federal Reserve permitted it to become a bank holding company under its “emergency situation,” has used billions in taxpayer money to enrich itself and reward its top executives. It handed its senior employees a staggering $18 billion in 2009, $16 billion in 2010 and $10 billion in 2011 in mega-bonuses. This massive transfer of wealth upwards by the Bush and Obama administrations, now estimated at $13 trillion to $14 trillion, went into the pockets of those who carried out fraud and criminal activity rather than the victims who lost their jobs, their savings and often their homes.

You can read the rest of the indictment, which includes its unconscionable food profiteering practices, here.

The Arrest of Chris Hedges

If you advance to the 30 minute mark of this video, you will see Pulitzer Prize winner, author, and activist Chris Hedges, along with other Occupy Wall Street protesters, being arrested by the NYPD for sitting down on the sidewalk in front of Goldman Sachs, one of the chief architects behind the global collapse of 2008.

Ironic does not begin to describe this travesty.

Seattle Police and the OWS Movement

Many thanks to Roxy Katt for her post and link to a story and video showing Seattle Police arresting a woman for opening up an umbrella while on the ground in a park, a practice recently banned by the city.

While watching the video, I initially had the sense that the police were behaving so gingerly in making the arrest because a camera was filming the action. Then I started to wonder whether or not it might also be indicative of their ambivalence about what they had to do. Did they too think the new law, which they are required to enforce, is an oppressive response to peaceful protest?

The Latest From Chris Hedges

For those who have not yet read Chris Hedges' Death of the Liberal Class, his latest essay on truthdig, entitled A Movement Too Big to Fail, is must-reading.

Using the thesis from his book, namely that the members and institutions of the traditional liberal class: unions, political parties, academia, etc. long ago abandoned their function of opposing the rise of imbalance through the dominance of the power elite, Hedges asserts that the Occupy Movement will not be co-opted by those failed counter-balances.

Says Hedges:

The Occupy Wall Street movement, like all radical movements, has obliterated the narrow political parameters. It proposes something new. It will not make concessions with corrupt systems of corporate power. It holds fast to moral imperatives regardless of the cost. It confronts authority out of a sense of responsibility. It is not interested in formal positions of power. It is not seeking office. It is not trying to get people to vote. It has no resources. It can’t carry suitcases of money to congressional offices or run millions of dollars of advertisements. All it can do is ask us to use our bodies and voices, often at personal risk, to fight back. It has no other way of defying the corporate state. This rebellion creates a real community instead of a managed or virtual one. It affirms our dignity. It permits us to become free and independent human beings.

I especially like his reference to creating a real community and affirming our dignity, permitting us to become free and independent human beings. It is through the spreading realization of this strength as individuals opposing a system rigged in favour of the few that the many will grow and have a voice.

So despite Bob Rae stopping by at the St James encampment the other day, no doubt for political advantage, and despite unions beginning to show solidarity with the movement, they are not the important elements in this fight, having long ago sold out principle to become part of the power structure. It is the people themselves, you and I and all others who want to see change, that are the ones who matter in this movement.

John Steinbeck and the Occupy Wall Street Movement

In my days as a high school English teacher, one of my favourite books to teach was John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, the story of dispossessed farmers who, due to drought and economic factors, are forced to leave their land behind and travel to California in the hope of starting a new life. That new life ultimately turns out to be one of terrible privation and exploitation as they seek work as migrant pickers, desperate to earn what little money they can to stave off complete starvation.

But beyond being a stinging indictment of an economic system that has stopped working for the people, the novel is ultimately a tale of strength and hope, informed as it is by the author's deep humanity and social conscience.

As I follow the Occupy Wall Street Movement, I find myself thinking of the things against which the movement is protesting, things that have, in fact, been part of the North American economic system for a very long time. But I also think of something else as well, a notion or concept that saves Steinbeck's novel from being a document in despair, a notion that I see very much alive in the people fuelling the Wall Street Movement.

First to the concept: Steinbeck believed in something called Manself which, while difficult to precisely define, is based on the notion that there is something within the human spirit, something we all share and are united by that propels us forward toward something beyond the status quo.

A quote from Chapter 14 (one of the intercalary chapters that breaks from the main narrative of the Joad family's struggles) of The Grapes of Wrath offers a useful demonstration:

For man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments. This you may say of man – when theories change and crash, when schools, philosophies, when narrow dark alleys of thought, national, religious, economic, grow and disintegrate, man reaches, stumbles forward, painfully, mistakenly sometimes. Having stepped forward, he may slip back, but only half a step, never the full step back.

This you may know when the bombs plummet out of the black planes on the market place, when prisoners are stuck like pigs, when the crushed bodies drain filthily in the dust. You may know it in this way. If the step were not being taken, if the stumbling-forward ache were not alive, the bombs would not fall, the throats would not be cut. Fear the time when the bombs stop falling while the bombers live- for every bomb is proof that the spirit has not died. And fear the time when the strikes stop while the great owners live – for every little beaten strike is proof that the step is being taken.

And this you can know- fear the time when Manself will not suffer and die for a concept, for this one quality is the foundation of Manself, and this one quality is man, distinctive in the universe.

The above have always been powerful words for me, as Steinbeck articulates the strength of humanity, the willingness to live and die by principles and beliefs that are a threat to the powers-that-be. He tells us to fear the time the bombers stop dropping the bombs not because he is extolling warfare, but because he sees the use of armed repression as a powerful example of how threatened by the innate strength of humanity are those those who would control us, dictate the terms of our existence, and consign us to lives of misery if they can benefit from that misery.

Essentially he is telling us that whether or not our fight against injustice, evil, and inequity is successful in the short-term isn't the ultimate consideration. Rather, it is the fact that there are those among us who will fight, even if the odds are against them, who will suffer, even die, because their cause is just, that is the reminder of what we are and what we can be. It is, in fact, a strong repudiation of those who would have us believe that we are simply consumers of their goods, voters for their party, fodder for their economic empires.

It is this spirit of Manself, this defiance, this resilience, this refusal to any longer passively submit to a fate determined by the corporate agenda, to in fact confront it and work to defeat it, that I see in the Occupy Wall Street Movement.

It is that thing the power elite, responsible for so much inequity, so much environmental destruction, so much suffering and despair, should be afraid of.

Pop Quiz: Can You Detect The Bias In This News Report?

Hint: it's from a Fox affiliate.

A Victory For The Occupy Wall Street Movement

With the world watching, and over 300,000 names on a petition to stop it, the planned 'cleanup' of Zuccotti Park, formerly called Liberty Plaza Park, has been halted. The cleanup, which had been ordered by Mayor Bloomberg and was to have involved the 'muscle' of the NYPD, was to have taken place at 7 this morning; In a a pretty transparent attempt to end the occupation, the protestors had been told that after the cleanup, they would not be allowed to bring back sleeping bags, tents, etc.

As reported by occupywallstreet.org, more than 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.

The world continues to watch.

Gerald Caplan Writes on The Occupy Wall Street Movement

In an online article entitled This is what democracy looks like: Occupying Wall Street and Bay Street, Gerald Caplan and Amanda Gryzyb discuss why the occupation movement is a healthy expression of the people, and address some of the inequities that will surely help focus its Canadian incarnation beginning on October 15: vast social inequities, climate change, rising unemployment, precarious jobs, the lack of upward social mobility and the egregious corporate influence over government.

More specifically in Canada, some dismaying facts about life here are as follows:

The youth unemployment rate is 17.2 per cent. An increasing number of Canadians – young and old – are precariously employed or underemployed, without benefits and without job security.

The poverty rate in Canada is over 10 per cent, and one in seven children live in poverty.

Our homeless shelters are over capacity and our food banks face constant shortages.

Tuitions at Canadian universities are rising, and graduating students are debilitated by student loan debt.

A nation of such wealth simply should not have such glaring social inequities.

Let's hope for a good turnout on Saturday.

The Older Generation Joins With the Young

For people of my generation, the following videos are heartening, depicting as they to the willingness of military veterans to put themselves at risk to protect the young people in the Occupy Boston Protest. Be sure to view both videos - the first explains the vets' position, the second demonstrates the courage of their convictions: