The Occupation movement is larger than one small park in Downtown Manhattan. It exists everywhere there are people that resist this system.
by NYC Local of the SP-USA
November 15, 2011 - The Socialist Party USA condemns the police action taken against the months long occupation of Zuccotti Park in New York City. Under the cover of dark, the NYPD cowardly entered the park and forced hundreds of protesters out. The power of our Occupation is demonstrated by the fact that the police had to shut down all subway and car traffic to the Park because they feared solidarity demonstrations. In the end, about 70 demonstrators refused the police orders despite the overwhelming force and were arrested.
We strongly condemn the NYPD, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and all other parts of the political establishment and law enforcement who were involved in this raid. We demand the immediate release of those arrested for non-violently occupying Zuccotti. We demand the immediate restoration of civil liberties – especially the right to free speech and free association – in Downtown Manhattan.
The police raid is a clear attempt to disable plans for a massive march on November 17th. The March against the richest 1% and Wall Street is being coordinated by community, trade union and occupation groups and will fill Downtown Manhattan with tens of thousands of poor and working class people who have been dispossessed by the capitalist system. Temporarily removing the Occupation will do nothing to stop this mass outpouring of dissent. We will march and we will demonstrate that we have the power to transform this society no matter what level of police repression.
The Occupation movement is larger than one small park in Downtown Manhattan. It exists everywhere there are people that resist this system. This morning’s raid is a sign of the system’s weakness not its strength. It signals that the use of force is the only way to deal with dissent – the only way to temporarily quiet an Occupation, which announced boldly that the system was broken and that another world is possible.
Poor and working class people, people without jobs, without homes, without healthcare have finally woken up. We demand the one thing that capitalism cannot deliver – a future, a life-a peaceful, productive life- where we are able to develop ourselves to our fullest human potential. This is a core belief of the Occupation movement and we share it.
As Socialists, we are permanent resisters. We stand in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. We will continue to spread the powerful message of OWS that we are the 99% and that we are no longer willing to quietly accept the economic inequality, the war and the environmental destruction that the capitalist system is based upon. Occupy Everything!
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Alexander and Mendoza are opposed to the assaults on both the protesters' bodies and liberties. They claim that this is more of the same from the Democrats and Republicans alike.
Presidential Candidate Alexander says "Remember well who is behind these assaults on you; these are the men and women who are bought and sold like commodities by corporations. These are not just Republican officials, but also the Democratic Party that are assaulting your rights to free speech. Your calls for social and economic justice do not sit well with their owners. When the Democrats try to sweet talk you into believing they support the 99%: forget their words and remember their actions."
From the beginning, the Occupy movement has been under attack by the political establishment. Police had been sent to harass the protesters by preventing them from putting up tents and had begun using archaic laws against wearing masks in public to arrest protesters by day four. By day ten, the police began unprovoked physical intimidation of protesters by targeting individuals at random. On October 10, police began arresting protesters for not vacating in Boston, a Democratic Party stronghold. On October 25, police began assaulting protesters with tear gas, and other "nonlethal" weapons in the Democratic stronghold of Oakland, California. Many were injured and an Iraq War veteran, Scott Olsen was rendered in critical condition after a tear gas canister fractured his skull; those who ran to his aid were further attacked by police while trying to save his life. Throughout the country, other evictions have been attempted by mayors of both Democratic and Republican parties.
On November 15, the city of New York finally made good on its threats to prevent camping in Liberty Square so as to turn back the movement. Protesters were forcibly evicted during the wee hours of the morning, while the media was intentionally kept at bay during the raid. . The protesters promptly gained a court order granting them access to the park, only to see that the police would not obey the rule of law, only the rule of the 1%. Those that hopped barricades to affirm their court-approved rights were brutalized. One was even physically thrown back over the barricade by police in contempt of the justice system they are supposed to enforce. The New York Supreme Court later reversed the decision by the lower court, forcing the protesters to continue without sources of sustenance as winter sets in.
The campaign believes that since the protesters already oppose the political and economic situation in the United States, they should also begin to firmly acknowledge all of those whom are attacking them. "Remember well who is behind these assaults on you," urges Stewart Alexander, presidential nominee for the Socialist Party USA. "These are the men and women who are bought and sold like commodities by corporations. These are not just Republican officials, but also the Democratic Party that are assaulting your rights to free speech. Your calls for social and economic justice do not sit well with their owners. When the Democrats try to sweet talk you into believing they support the 99%: forget their words and remember their actions."
Setting up camps in order to protest also has significant precedent according to the campaign. "I remember learning about the Bonus Army in high school," explains Alex Mendoza, the ticket"s vice-presidential candidate. "World War I veterans marched on Washington and set up camp to demand payment on funds promised to be paid to them. Their encampment was a symbol that they would not simply go away, that they were determined to stick it out until their demands were met. Police met these men with violence back then too.
Alexander and Mendoza are opposed to the assaults on both the protesters' bodies and liberties. They claim that this is more of the same from the Democrats and Republicans alike. They cite the curtailing of our liberties by the PATRIOT Act, the FBI raids on the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) for simply speaking in favor of a group opposed by the US Government, and the creation of "free speech zones." The assault on the FRSO was made possible by the case of Holder V. Humanitarian Law Project, in which it was ruled that merely speaking in favor of a group deemed terrorist by the Secretary of State is considered offering them material support. The Holder who had sued and pushed for this interpretation is Eric H. Holder Jr., Attorney General for Barack Obama.
"There should be no "free speech zones" in America," says Mendoza. "America is one big free speech zone where one should be able to express their freedom of conscience absolutely everywhere without fear of repercussions from the powers that be.” "Our administration would be pushing for radical change in this system." Alexander continues. "First, we will enact radical change in our economic system to express economic justice and economic democracy; second, radical change to our political system to have more representative democracy and reinvigorate our civil liberties. As President, even if Nazis or Klansmen protested peacefully outside my front door at the White House, for weeks on end, I would not raise a finger against them or instruct anyone else to do so."
Both candidates have supported the Occupy campaign from its beginning and the campaign considers the sentiment of the protesters as central to their campaign.
Alexander explains: "This is our constituency, the working class, every day people who are fed up with the system and need real answers to their problems, not sacrifices upon the altar of the market to buy favor and prayers for minimum-wage jobs."
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