Alexander Schaefer, 'Burning Banks' Artist, Arrested For Chalk Drawings Outside Chase Bank In LA

Alex Schaefer B of A: Eagle Rock; oil on canvas, plein air, 8 by 6

[LINK]

[EXCERPT]:

Alexander Schaefer, the artist behind the"burning banks" series, was arrested Monday afternoon, the LA Weekly reports.The arrest of the artist whose popularity skyrocketed in the height of Occupy LA came less than two weeks after the clash between LAPD and Occupy protesters at the "Chalk Walk" demonstration.

Painting by Alex Schaefer

OWS/OwA photographer PAUL TALBOT brutally arrested!

Evidently, OWS activist artist and photographer Paul Talbot was arrested at the end of the Guitarmy march from Philadelphia (I found this video on REDDIT). Paul is a much loved person in Occupy, who has devoted himself to the movement culture and community, its documentation and preservation. It is absolutely outrageous that he has been so brutally manhandled by the NYPD, who are systematically operating as 1% enforcers against peaceful protest, while violent crime in the city skyrockets. If anyone has any information, please contact us here. Paul, we hope you're okay. 

THIS IS NOT A SPECTATOR SPORT

For the past several weeks, post-WS2MS, most of the work for Occupy with Art has been taking place off-grid as we prepare to launch Occupational Art School and our other upcoming projects, such as CO-OP/Occuburbs. Temporarily, the OwA Facebook page has been the nexus for the OwA constant data stream. We have been documenting the unfolding LIBOR scandal and conspiracy, the drumbeat of Occupy-Is-Dead stories, the censorship of coverage of global protests, corruption of democracy at national to local levels, the consistent efforts by multinational corporations and their proxies to co-opt and monetize every aspect of human society, accelerating campaigns to convert de-colonized/liberated sovereignties into permanent militarized surveillance + police + prison states serving 1% interests, the perpetuation of de-humanizing conditions such as endless wars (on "terror" or "drugs"), closed-door negotiations by plutocrats who deign and collude to brutally and insidiously determine humanity's future from the top-down... and the stunning, courageous actions of individuals operating, usually with no visible means of support, against these forces of oppression, greed and hate.

Please be patient while we format the 2.0 iteration of our enterprise. Or rather, don't be patient. Get off your fucking ass and do something. 

THE Most Important Occupation in the World Right Now.

Update on Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 10:19AM by admin

Update on Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 10:21AM by admin

Update on Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 10:24AM by admin

CO-OP Platform Text 3: Occufest [A Media Proposition]

By Chris Moylan

Occupy Wall Street has been relentless in demonstrating the structural, legal and financial dimensions of a systematic and well-financed process to corrupt Congress, paralyze the executive branch, manipulate the courts, and weaken financial regulations to allow speculative banking and investment practices ruinous to millions and exorbitantly profitable to the few. This calling to account extends to environmental practices, war policy, food production and marketing; the list goes on.

It stands to reason that harm to art and culture has paralleled harm done to economic and political life. On a practical level, when millions lose their homes and their jobs the arts suffer in varying degrees along with other elements of a society. However, detecting changes in discourse, as opposed to changes in attendance or viewership or the like, is difficult and to a large extent requires the wisdom of hindsight. We can track accurately how many people are attending what kinds of movies, but it can take some time to determine what a given cluster of comedies or action movies says about the zeitgeist at given time.  It can take time for the effects of social trauma to manifest themselves in fiction, movies, tv shows, not to mention more ambitious or serious undertakings in music, visual arts, poetry, and dance…

We can, however, identify some of the egregious forms of damage being inflicted on the public psyche right now, leaving the more subtle analysis of cultural artifacts to another time and context. In particular, the working poor and lower middle class people are subject to insult in the guise of entertainment and degradation in the guise of advertising. The Occupy Wall Street ambition to build a better world might include the task of defending and supporting the dignity of those who would inhabit. In particular this is something that artists and writers associated with OWS can do.

Click to read more ...

Occupy the Courts : [J20] Foley Square Rally to End Corporate Personhood Part 1

Uploaded by nothingofficial on Jan 21, 2012

New York City, January 20

On the occasion of the two year anniversary of the historic Citizens United v Federal Election Commission, in which a Supreme Court treated granted a corporation First Amendment rights, a high-energy rally was held at Foley Square. Among the excellent roster of speakers, Virginia Rasmussen, a member of POCLAD, offered a rare historical analysis of case law involving corporte personhood which dates back to the early 19th century. POCLAD or Program for Corporations, Law and Democracy is an activist collective that has focussed on the issue of corporate personhood for several years.

OwA's Chris Cobb is the Illustration for a Great Essay by Brian Holmes

Chris Cobb for Fake Fox News

Profanity and the Financial Markets
A User’s Guide to Closing the Casino

[Excerpt]:

These are tremendous changes with respect to Keynesian Fordism. But one could go further and show how the cybernetic calculus of finance operates as a coordinating rationality for just-in-time production, distribution and sales. When the G-20 finance ministers strive to forestall a transnational credit crunch, it is this just-in-time system that they are serving. The rhythms of finance have come to govern the entire circulation system of the world economy.16 However, if we want to understand how the social relations of the trading floor have spilled over to reshape contemporary culture – through a “functional overdetermination” of the financial apparatus – then we will have to turn back to the micro level, and look more closely at what actually happens inside the casino.

[LINK]

Occupy: New Year's Revolution 2012!

Paul Talbot [OwA Occupeyes] V-blogs the events of New Year's Eve at Liberty Square HERE.

New Years eve in Zuccotti Park (turned out) to be a pretty amazing evening filled with suspense, drama and the NYPD doing what the NYPD does best: over-control everything and create mass hysteria. #Occupy2012 came in with a blast!

Check out the amazing projections ringing in 2012!

Occupy TVNY: Take Back the Commons - D17

December 17, 2011: Occupy Wall Street teams up with artists, musicians and faith leaders to demand a space for public expression and to seek sanctuary in an unused lot owned by Trinity Church, an institution that has shown support for the movement despite its strong ties to Wall Street. Episcopal Bishop George Packard is the first to scale the fence, and is arrested along with fellow occupiers. Reverend Lawson, a leader of the Civil Rights movement, urges the protesters to keep "treading water" because the country needs them. Music from Dean and Britta, live from WBAI studios.

OCCUPYTVNY.ORG

REPRESSION & ...Broomsticks(?)

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to make the group aware that Lady Liberty made an appearance at a community event that Occupy: The Bronx held on Saturday to defend a community garden that the city had recently bulldozed.  5 people were arrested for peaceably standing on the sidewalk (they were NOT blocking traffic -which was non-existent).  We then marched to the 40th precinct, and had a GA while we waited for them to be released.  Then we marched BACK to the garden and shared
thoughts and the history of the garden & action, then left.

HOWEVER, on our way to the subway, the cops prevented us from leaving and demanded that we give them the rods that controlled the puppet's arms and head because they were potential weapons.  !!!

- Joe

COURAGE & REPRESSION

Grindcore Violinist protests 1st amendment violations at Lincoln Center

On December 3, 2011, I was again removed from the city-owned plaza of Lincoln Center for holding a sign, two days after a general assembly including Philip Glass, Lou Reed, and Laurie Anderson came to celebrate Glass's opera about nonviolence, "Satyagraha" only to find the plaza entirely barricaded and inaccessible.

As is the case in most "public-private" situations, the private security wanted more.  They wanted me off the city sidewalk which was not their jurisdiction.  Thanks to one real NYPD officer who chose not to order me off the sidewalk (the old, "blocking the wide-open sidewalk" trick), I was able to finish my set and address the crowd.

WOMAN LOSES JOB FOR BLOOMBERG/WARLORD COMPARISON

FROM YESLAB:

"Bloomberg rep" fired from market research firm for performance highlighting absent mayor's violent tactics...

An actress who played a Bloomberg representative in a satirical performance a block away from the mayor's E. 79th St. residence this past Sunday was fired from her job as an independent contractor at a market research consulting firm.

"They said my performance had put the company in an uncomfortable position," said Mary Notari, who learned of her firing from a phone call Monday afternoon. "The mayor has said ‘No right is absolute’—including, apparently, the right to poke fun at him for using violent force against his own people and for bending the law to do so.”

Click to read more ...