#Occupy Phoenix reading roundup for 10/22

 There might not be much more added today since we're going to be at the #occupyphoenix general assembly all day.

WHY (RE)OCCUPYING WON’T WORK (Stronghold)

Despite eviction warnings, Occupy Oakland protesters revel into the night (Oakland North)

On Immanence and Occupations (Ian Alan Paul)

Occupy Oakland, Day 12, Morning of Looming Forcible Eviction by Police, 10/21/11: photos (Indybay)

#Occupy reading roundup 10/21

Today's continuously updated list of recommended readings for the #occupy movement:

Mike Davis : No More Bubblegum (The Rag Blog)

David Graeber: On Playing By The Rules – The Strange Success Of #OccupyWallStreet (Naked Capitalism)

Whiteness and the 99% (Bring the Ruckus)

Occupation in Philly, Day 13 (Outside the Circle)

Why I support Occupy The Hood by Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin (Joaquin Cienfuegos)

The Occupy Wall Street image that marks the end of the global consensus (Guardian)

A Letter To The Occupy Together Movement (Racialicious)

OWS Pepper Spray Cop Says I Would "Do Things The Same Way" Again (BI)

Police attack Occupy Melbourne:

#Occupy reading roundup 10/20

Our continually updated list of recommended readings regarding the #occupy movement:

Occupy PHX: Reach out to The People before the police (Prison Abolitionist)

Wall Street protesters divided over Occupy movement's demands (Infoshop News)

What ‘Diversity of Tactics’ Really Means for Occupy Wall Street  (ENews Park Forest)

Occupy Toronto; Why I could not participate in a movement to restore democracy (Ms. Marx)

Occupy Rome. The Day After (Struggles In Italy)

Occupy Wall Street takes lessons from The Yes Men (Wash. Post)

Anarchist opinion of Occupy Denver (Anarchist News)

(Un)occupy Albuquerque Connects Corporate Greed to Fight for Native Land (Colorlines)

From Occupation to Liberation (Truth-Out)

#Occupy reading roundup 10/19

Our regular and continuously updated throughout the day collection of articles we think are useful to the #occupyphoenix movement.

#OccupyOakland – One Week Strong at Oscar Grant Plaza (Bay of Rage)

Tijuana Police Arrest Occupy Tijuana / Ocupemos Tijuana Protesters

Process is politics at Occupy Wall Street (Salon)

A few words spoken on October 15 at the state capitol in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street (benbrucado.com)

Representing the Native Presence in the "Occupy Wall Street" Narrative (Unsettling America)

A Letter to Phil Gordon (Mayor of Phoenix) About the 46 Arrested at #occupyphoenix (That Blog About That Queer Kid)

Intellectual Roots of Wall St. Protest Lie in Academe: Movement's Principles Arise From Scholarchip on Anarchy (The Chronicle of Higher Education)

Occupy movement in New Mexico finds new name out of respect for Native Americans (American Independent)

Wall Street's Second Occupation: The Rise of the NYPD's Homeland Security State (Alternet)

NYPD: "Militarized to its bones" (benbrucato.com)

#Occupy reading roundup 10/18

A collection of articles that we think should be of interest to #occupyphoenix:

Reflections for the US Occupy Movement: From Barcelona's Neighborhood Assemblies (Counterpunch)

The Awakening in America by Ken Knabb (AK Press)

#Occupy Phoenix: Radicals, Police, Nonviolence and Conservative Leaders Oh My! (Infoshop.org)

Woman taps into 'occupy' movement to avoid foreclosure (MSNBC)

One Man's Address To The Crowd Went Beyond Slogans And Directly To The Core Of The Movement (Modern Times)

A History of Georgia's 1%: Why You Must Face Race to Occupy Atlanta (Colorlines)

We Are Anarchists (Anarchist News)

Occupy Phoenix: Police Showing Silent Solidarity? (OP-NAT EYE)

Joshua Fattal at Occupy Oakland on Oct. 17, 2010

Police raid #occupySF on the morning of October 17

A short primer on jail support for #occupyphoenix from my experience (PCWC)

Here's how jail support goes from my experience:

(0) Get some money together.  Have a house party.  Rob a bank.  Organize a car wash.  Whatever.

(1) Get a land line that someone is going to sit at and wait by in case arrests happen.  That's their job. It's not exciting but it's fucking important. It's gotta be a land line in Maricopa county because Sheriff Joe is an asshole and you can't call cell phones from his prisons.  Let everyone at the action know the number to call.  It should be someone you all agree on and that you trust.  Reliable.

(2) Ask people who might get arrested what name they want to use when they call and who they want you to call for bail money, help, support, a ride, someone to cover for them at work tomorrow or whatever.  People might want to use fake names.  That's okay because fuck the cops.  Write that shit down so you get it right.

(3) It's gonna take a few hours for people to process out.  Maybe 24 hours even or more.  That's just how it goes because the pigs want to keep people out of the game while they protect rich people and the status quo.  That's why they sometimes arrest you and don't charge you.  They're pricks.

(4) Call all your fucking friends.  Have your friends call their friends.  Get your asses down to the fucking jail.  Call your friends who are musicians. The cops or idiot lawyers may tell you that if you stay that people in jail can't see friends, families or lawyers.  This is bullshit.  No one sees family or lawyers before their first appearance before the judge.  The asshole judge is not going to ask about guilt or innocence so lawyers don't really fucking matter at that point.  Don't fall for this shit.  Stay outside the jail and wait for your friend.  They will be happy you did.  If you're loud enough they might hear you.  They'll like that.

(5) Your friends are going to call you.  Do what you agreed to do in step 2.  They will really fucking appreciate it.  Being in jail, especially if your friends are alone, injured, or of a marginalized identity, can really suck.  It can be deadly.  They want to talk to you and to know they are getting out.  Help them with all your heart but don't lie.  Never lie about release prospects.  Don't talk about illegal shit.  The cops are listening.

(6) Pack the room where they are being read their charges.  These days because the fucks who run shit are afraid that we will liberate our friends like we used to back in the day, this mostly happens via video.  Your friends who are locked up probably can't see you, but they will be happy to hear you tell them you were there when it counted after they get out.  So be there.

(7) Bail your friends out if you can.  Really fucking important.

(8) Be outside in large numbers when they get out.  They are going to be so stoked to see you.  They might want a beer, too, so buy it for them because jail fucking sucks.  Maybe buy them two.

Others should chime in if I forgot something.  This shit always meant a lot to me.  And I'm a fucking militant, not a lawyer, so there's your disclosure.  Lawyers should advise but not tell you what to do.  Their job is to get your ass out of jail after you do what you do, not to tell you not to do it.

Whose side are you on? Oh, wait, we know!

Photo via Downtown Devil

This doesn't make you angry?

Do you have a free bone in your fucking body?

Could it be any clearer what side the police are on?

People were peaceful, they rejected the radicals, they carried the American flag around, they negotiated with the city, they sang all the old peace songs and the national anthem, too!  Politicians showed up... and yet, look at the result!

And we anarchists did what we were asked to do.  We didn't riot, we didn't overwhelm you with our weird dress and odd ideas.  We didn't speak to the media.  We didn't cover the space with our flags and banners.  We didn't tag everything.  We didn't fight with the Nazis who showed up.

And yet, isn't it obvious?

The cops are our enemies.  They are the defenders of the rich and powerful -- the very people we are opposing!  Look at what they do when we just try to take a little public space for a few hours to have a discussion about what we think this world should look like as opposed to how it is.

They are not part of the 99%.  Look what they do.

Until everyone is free!  We know who locked them up!

A call to defend Occupy Phoenix!

 A few of the anarchists active in the Occupy Phoenix events have put this call out in response to police threats of aggression towards anyone planning on staying in Margaret T. Hance park overnight.  

All who find themselves in solidarity are encouraged to come downtown tonight.


Occupy Phoenix is moving from Cesar Chavez plaza to Margaret T. Hance park, next to the Burton Barr Library in downtown Phoenix. The move is being made because the Chavez plaza is shut down by the police at 6 PM, whereas Hance park is open until 11.

People are planning on occupying the park tonight, which officially closes at 11 PM. However, the cops have said that there is no way they are going to let anyone stay past that time, nor allow camping gear, nor would they commit to not cracking down violently when pressed by a participant at the Occupy Phoenix gathering today.

In response to the possible attack by the authorities, participants are organizing a party at the park to commence after the thousands arrive from Chavez park to Hance park. There is now an open call out for all interested to come down to Hance park this evening, and into the night.

The new movement challenging the destruction and greed of capitalism must have a space to organize from, which is why we must protect our movement from state and police repression. The wealthy and powerful want to crush the grassroots opposition before we can build our own decentralized power that could potentially change and transform society.

Come down to defend the occupation in Hance Park this evening, and stay all night!

No more banks, no borders!  An end to the era of loan officers, and police officers!

The National Socialist Movement scum show up armed to counter protest #occupyphoenix

Today at the first mass general assembly of the #occupyphoenix movement, neo-Nazi members of the National Socialist Movement showed up, armed and in their "Arizona Border Guard" militia fatigues, to counter protest.  Sporting assault rifles, they posed flanked by dozens of cops.  Recognizing key NSM organizers in their midst, several people confronted them and set about informing the generally ignorant crowd that before them stood actual fascists, armed to the teeth.

Ignorant liberals behaved in a variety of idiotic ways.  Some contending that the Nazis were part of the 99% as well, if only confused.  Others were actually intrigued by the word "socialist".  "I kind of like socialism," one old lady said.  Other confused liberals mistook the fascists for soldiers, forgetting their self-assumed pledge of non-violence (which apparently exempts the military as well) and posing their children for a cool shot with the army guys.

One liberal pacifist came up to confront people speaking loudly about the Nazis, telling them that the protest was supposed to be non-violent and that by using loud language we were being "violent".  She made no such attempt to approach the Nazis, highlighting the deep contradictions and blindspots in the ideology of nonviolence as practiced by this movement, which so far has only deployed this ideology inwards to control participants rather than outwards towards the genuine threats.

This attitude towards the NSM scum played out, quite predictably, along racial lines, with whites being the only ones to express attitudes of tolerance towards them.  This points to the continuing importance of addressing racism and the continual appeal and relevance of racial privileges within the movement.  Indeed, we can expand this argument to the whole attitude of the bulk of the white movement towards the police.  Experiencing policing in quite different ways than people of color in general, white middle class liberals mistake their own experience for that of others, and routinely attack anyone who questions the alleged 99% status of the police, or points out their quite obvious  tendencies towards violent action, as violent themselves.  To question the violence of the police is to be violent, according to this backwards analysis.

The presence of an armed fascist street-level opposition to our movement, in the form of the National Socialist Movement and it's "Arizona Border Guard" front group, is one major reason to reject dogmatic pacifism and poorly thought-out nonviolence.  Instead, what we heard from protesters speaking during the general assembly were declarations of the most naive nonviolence imaginable.  Arizona is a right wing state and the forces of reaction are huge and easily overwhelming if they want to be.

#Occupyphoenix organizers should not kid themselves about their numbers or power.  This movement clearly has capability to attract large numbers, as evidenced by the several thousand that showed up today for the general assembly and will march later to set up camp at Margaret T. Hance park.  But we need to be honest about our political circumstances and the forces of reaction arrayed against us.  Today is a reminder for those who are paying attention.

When the fascists finally departed, one man in a motorized wheel chair came up to me to ask me who they were.  When I told him, a cheer went up from the crowd mocking the vacating Nazis.  He looked at me and said, "They're gone, but don't mistake their absence for the absence of fascists in general."  Standing behind him were the cops.  Another lesson the #occupyphoenix movement has yet to learn.

New PCWC poster for #occupyphoenix

Build the general strike.