HAPPEN
MANILA,
OCTOBER 19,
2011 (ASSOCIATED PRESS) Filipino protesters hold banners
showing support for Anti-Wall Street activists during a rally outside the
American Chamber of Commerce office in Manila on Saturday. Mass actions have
been held at Wall Street in New York to denounce US economic policies that
protesters blamed for the current crisis affecting millions of US citizens. AFP
NEW YORK— Americans protesting corporate greed and inequality faced down
authorities in parks and plazas across the country ahead of what organizers
describe as 24 hours of public action planned Saturday in cities around the
world.
Groups spanning the globe from Asia to Europe — and in every US state —
announced demonstrations and other actions. The rapidly growing movement could
link a protest that started in New York's financial district together with
longer-standing anti-austerity demonstrations that have raged across Europe amid
a roiling economic crisis.
In Manila, about 100 members of various groups under the Philippine left-wing
alliance, Bayan, marched on the US Embassy Saturday morning to express support
for the Occupy Wall Street protests in the United States and to denounce "US
imperialism" and US-led wars and aggression.
They carried a large banner that said, "Resist imperialist plunder, state
repression and wars of aggression," and another expressing "Solidarity action
for Occupy Wall Street." They also chanted "US troops, out now!" in reference to
the presence of hundreds of US soldiers, mostly in the southern Philippines,
involved in anti-terrorism training of Filipino troops. One man carried a
placard saying "Genuine people's democracy lives in the streets."
In the US, demonstrators from San Francisco to New York resisted police, with
some forming human chains and heckling corporate leaders. Hundreds have been
arrested on minor charges in cities across the US since the protests started
about a month ago.
Protesters at the heart of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement in New York
exulted Friday after beating back a plan they said was intended to clear them
from the privately owned park where they have slept, eaten and protested for the
past month. They said their victory will embolden the movement across the US and
beyond.
[PHOTO - Hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protestors march towards Wall
Street after being heartened by a postponement of a scheduled cleanup of their
camp at Zuccotti Park that many saw as a de facto eviction, Friday, in New York.
AP]
"We are going to piggy-back off the success of today, and it's going to be
bigger than we ever imagined," said protester Daniel Zetah.
The owners of Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan had announced plans to
temporarily evict the hundreds of protesters before dawn Friday so that the
grounds could be power-washed and inspected. But protesters feared it was a
pretext to break up the demonstration and swelled their ranks by several
thousand, recruiting through Facebook, Twitter and word-of-mouth.
Minutes before the appointed hour, the word came down that the park's owners,
Brookfield Office Properties, had postponed the cleanup. Brookfield, whose board
includes New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's girlfriend, said in a statement
that it had decided to delay the cleaning "for a short period of time" at the
request of "a number of local political leaders."
As protesters celebrated, about 15 people in a breakaway group were arrested
nearby in a clash with police. A legal observer marching with the group refused
to move off the street for police and was run over by an officer's scooter. He
fell to the ground screaming and writhing and kicked over the scooter to free
his foot before police flipped him over and arrested him.
And a video posted online showed a police officer punching a protester in the
side of the head on a crowded street. Police said the altercation occurred after
the man tried to elbow the officer in the face and other people in the crowd
jumped on the officer, who was sprayed with a liquid coming from the man's
direction. Police said the man, who escaped and is wanted for attempted assault
on an officer, later said in an online interview he's HIV positive and the
officer should be tested medically.
A man who identified himself as the protester, Felix Rivera-Pitre, said in a
statement posted online that he didn't provoke the officer. "I was just doing
what everyone else was doing in the march," he said. "It felt like he was taking
his frustrations out on me."
In San Francisco, protesters from the Occupy Wall Street movement heckled
News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch during a speech at an education forum, accusing
the media mogul of trying to profit from public education.
"Corporations own all the media in the world. Why should they not own all the
education as well?" an activist who identified himself as Joe Hill yelled
sarcastically.
[PHOTO - Bill Clinton has hailed the Occupy Wall Street protests for
stirring a 'good positive debate'. The former president said the Occupy Wall
Street movement reminded him of the Tea Party's early days, with protesters
saying: 'There's something wrong with this country. This is not working for me'.
But he added that the protesters must become more organised and come up with a
better programme in order to have a bigger impact, reported the Chicago
Tribune.]
Murdoch appeared unfazed.
"It's OK, a little controversy makes everything more interesting," he said to
audience applause before continuing his speech.
In Denver, dozens of police in riot gear herded protesters away from the
Colorado state Capitol grounds, dragging some and arresting about two dozen as
they dismantled the encampment the protesters have held for three weeks.
In Trenton, the New Jersey state capital, protesters were ordered to remove
tents near a war memorial.
Organizers in Des Moines, Iowa, accepted an offer Friday night from the mayor
to move from the state Capitol where they were prohibited from staying overnight
to a city park blocks away, averting a possible showdown.
San Diego police used pepper spray to break up a human chain formed by
anti-Wall Street demonstrators at a downtown plaza where they have camped for a
week.
In Philadelphia, protester Matt Monk, a freelance writer, was elated by the
news out of New York.
"That means at the very least, the powers-that-be, wherever they are, know
that they have to contend with us in a less heavy-handed way," he said.
A call for mass protests on Saturday originated a month ago from a meeting in
Spain, where mostly young and unemployed people angry at the country's handling
of the economic crisis have been demonstrating for months. It was reposted on
the Occupy Wall Street website and has been further amplified through social
media.
In Sydney, Australia, around 300 people gathered Saturday, cheering a speaker
who shouted, "We're sick of corporate greed! Big banks, big corporate power
standing over us and taking away our rights!"
At the Sydney rally, Danny Lim, a 67 year old immigrant from Malaysia, said
he moved to Australia 48 years ago in search of opportunities. Now he no longer
trusts the government to look after his best interests. He thinks Australia's
government has become too dependent upon the US for direction.
"The big man — they don't care. They screw everyone. Eventually we'll
mortgage our children away," Lim said.
In Tokyo, where the ongoing nuclear crisis dominates public concerns, about
200 people joined the global protests Saturday.
Under the light drizzle, the participants marched outside the Tokyo Electric
Power Co., which operates the tsunami-hit Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant,
chanting anti-nuclear slogans, while opposing the US-led Trans-Pacific
Partnership free trade bloc that Japan is considering joining.
"No to nuclear power, no TPP," the marchers chanted as they held up banners.
South Korean activists have pledged to bring 1,000 people into the capital's
Yoeuido financial district and in front of Seoul City Hall to protest
inequality.
Rome is girding for major protests Saturday by demonstrators known as the
"indignati." As Premier Silvio Berlusconi survived a no-confidence vote in
Parliament, protesters outside shouted "Shame!" and hurled eggs toward the
legislative building.
Italian TV reports from Milan showed about 20 young people trying
unsuccessfully to enter a building where Goldman Sachs has an office, and
spraying red paint on the entrance.
Protesters in London vowed to occupy the London Stock Exchange on Saturday.
Nights of rioting rocked the British capital in August after the fatal police
shooting of a 29-year-old man.
In Canada, protests were planned for Saturday in cities including Montreal
and Vancouver. In Toronto, demonstrators plan to gather at Canada's main stock
exchange.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he doubted Canadians would be as angry as
their neighbors to the south as Canadian banks have not received a US-type
bailout. He declined to comment when asked if he was concerned about a possible
repeat of street violence that Toronto experienced at the G-20 summit last year.
In the United States, politicians in both President Barack Obama's Democratic
Party and the opposition Republican Party struggled to come up with a response
to the growing nationwide movement. Democrats have been largely supportive but
also wary of endorsing criticism of Obama's rescue of big banks in the aftermath
of the 2008 financial crisis. The bank bailout was launched in the last months
of President George W. Bush's administration.
Republicans at first criticized the demonstrations but have shifted their
tone in recent days. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor warned of "growing mobs"
but later said the protesters were "justifiably frustrated." In Tuesday's
Republican presidential debate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich referred to
the protesters as "left-wing agitators."
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made a reference to the New York
protest in a speech at The Economic Club of New York.
"The protests happening just a few miles from here ought to be a reminder to
all of us that we have a great deal of work to do to live up to the expectations
of the American people," she said Friday.
And a group of 100 authors including Salman Rushdie, Neil Gaiman and Pulitzer
Prize-winning novelists Jennifer Egan and Michael Cunningham signed an online
petition declaring their support for "Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy Movement
around the world."
Complete stories on our Digital Edition newsstand for tablets, netbooks
and mobile phones. Subscribe and get several chances to win tickets to the Black
Eyed Peas concert in Manila as well as tickets to Stomp. Promo details. About to
step out? Get breaking alerts on your mobile.phone. Text ON INQ BREAKING to
4467, for Globe, Smart and Sun subscribers in the Philippines.
FROM MALAYA
'Occupy Wall Street' in PH? It will never happen, says
Palace BY REGINA BENGCO
[PHOTO - 'OCCUPY WALL STREET' PROTEST IN THE PHILIPPINES]
Malacañang yesterday said there is no basis for an "Occupy Wall Street" to
happen in the Philippines because President Aquino has not forgotten the working
class.
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said Aquino is not siding with big
business, contrary to the claims of those who have been predicting a Philippine
version of the protests in Wall Street, which were denunciations of capitalism.
Members of the Philippine Airlines Employees' Association and informal
settlers from North Triangle in Quezon City tried an "occupy Roxas boulevard"
version at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) yesterday,
where President Aquino met with the basic sectors and officials of the National
Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC).
"That's unfounded, that's not true. Our social programs are moving. Our CCT
(conditional cash transfer program) is one proof that we are siding with the
poorest of the poor. These are issues, contentious issues. Obviously they have a
certain bias towards their own side of the issue and so they will raise these
things as hitting the President but as a matter of principle, as a matter of
policy that is incorrect," Lacierda said.
[PHOTO - 'OCCUPY WALL STREET' PROTEST IN CANADA]
Aquino, in his speech at the NAPC conference, said increased health insurance
coverage and the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) are his
administration's weapons against poverty.
He said his government has enrolled 5.2 million families in the PhilHealth
program.
He said P11.3 billion has been set aside for additional classrooms, a 54
percent increase compared to last year's budget, while P7.1 billion or more than
double has been allotted for the improvement of health facilities.
He said the 4Ps program now has 2.23 million beneficiaries, compared to about
800,000 in July 2010.
Aquino also said he has issued Administrative Order 21, which reorganized and
specified the members of the NAPC.
Under AO 21, Aquino included as members of NAPC the People's Credit and
Finance Corp. and representatives of farmers and landless rural workers,
fisherfolk, urban poor, indigenous cultural communities/indigenous peoples,
workers in the formal sector and migrant workers, workers in the informal
sector, women, youth and students, persons with disabilities, disaster victims,
senior citizens, children, cooperatives, and non-governmental organizations.
The new order required proof of existence such as certification from the
Securities and Exchange Commission for organizations joining the NAPC's basic
sectors. It also provided for a Philippine approach to social reform and poverty
alleviation.
Can 'Occupy' protests last without leaders? By
CHRIS HAWLEY and DAVID B. CARUSO - Associated Press | AP – 5 hours ago
NEW YORK (AP) — They were out to change the world, overthrow the
establishment and liberate the poor. But first somebody would have to do
something about those bongo drums.
At the Occupy Wall Street protest camp in Manhattan, protesters agonized over
what to do about drum players who had turned part of the site into an impromptu
dance floor. The neighbors were complaining about the racket. The protesters had
tried to put a time limit on the noise, but the drummers were refusing to obey.
"It's an issue, definitely," sighed protester Kanene Holder, 31, late last
week. "We'll have to work it out."
Reining in a few pesky percussionists would seem to be an easy task for a
movement seemingly on the verge of becoming a political force. But one month
after it burst onto the scene and inspired similar protests across the country,
the Occupy Wall Street protest remains stubbornly decentralized, complicating
everything from enforcing camp rules to writing a national platform.
[PHOTO - 'OCCUPY WALL STREET' PROTEST IN TORONTO]
On Saturday the protesters marched on bank offices and later into Times
Square mixing with gawkers, Broadway showgoers, tourists and police to create a
chaotic scene in the midst of Manhattan.
"Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!" protesters chanted Saturday from
within police barricades. Police, some in riot gear and mounted on horses, tried
to push them out of the square and onto the sidewalks in an attempt to funnel
the crowds away.
But while the movement's message against corporate greed has struck a nerve
with many Americans, the lack of leaders in Manhattan and at other protest camps
has baffled many.
In Minneapolis, Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek has been meeting every
morning with a delegation of protesters — "at least, the ones who come forward
and say they are the organizers," Stanek said. "It's a little difficult because
it seems like each day it's been a completely different group of folks."
Protesters say the decentralization is deliberate and note that other
movements, like the 1960s civil rights effort, began in a similarly disorganized
way. It also calls to mind the Arab Spring, which had influential protesters but
no clear leaders, at least initially.
And some academics who have studied dissent movements say that while being
"leaderless" has some drawbacks, it could also have great advantages. Chief
among them: It has allowed people with very different backgrounds — like union
workers and anarchists — to rally behind the same broad message against
corporate greed, without actually agreeing much on where the country should go
from here.
"They have achieved popular support so much quicker than anti-war movement,
or civil rights movement," said Todd Gitlin, an expert on political dissent at
Columbia University.
From its earliest days, the people at the heart of Occupy Wall Street have
worked hard to make it a movement without leaders.
[PHOTO - OCCUPY' PROTEST IN FRANCE]
The original call for the demonstration came from the editors of the Canadian
anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters in mid-July. But since then, no one on the
publication's staff has been actively involved in organizing or leading the
protests.
The two men who came up with the idea, 69-year-old Adbusters co-founder Kalle
Lasn and 29-year-old editor Micah White, have yet to go to New York to see the
demonstration.
The large group of activists who began meeting to plan the occupation in
midsummer came from a variety of groups and backgrounds, and resolved from the
start that they wouldn't elect leaders, appoint a central planning council, or
even name lead negotiators to deal with New York's police or City Hall.
"A lot of people can't handle that — it goes to their head," said Joey
Pearson, 29, a laid-off auto worker from Cincinnati.
Instead, decisions at the camp in lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park are made at
a General Assembly of protesters that sometimes numbers in the thousands, while
the nitty-gritty work of organizing the encampment is carried out by a large
number of autonomous work teams that largely function without central oversight.
New York police have prohibited protesters from using a public address system
because they do not have a permit for their demonstration. So the protesters
have adopted a system of hand signals — fingers up for agreement, down for
disagreement — and a "human microphone" in which the crowd repeats each word so
that everyone can hear.
On Friday night the General Assembly meeting lurched along through this
call-and-response system.
"The GA ..." shouted a member of the Facilitation Committee.
"THE GA!" bellowed the crowd.
"... is now ..."
"IS NOW!"
"... in session."
"IN SESSION!"
A member of the Community Relations Committee outlined the drum problem,
summarizing the neighbors' concerns a few words at a time.
The General Assembly had already decided during Thursday night's meeting to
limit drum playing, but to no avail.
On Friday, the body failed to reach a consensus. But a smaller group of
drummers and mediators later agreed to limit the music to noon to 2 p.m. and 5-7
p.m., said Andrew Smith, 26, of Portland, Ore., who sat in on the negotiations.
The slow pace of decisions has also led to other problems, like keeping the
site clean.
Bobby Cooper, who is on the sanitation working group, said volunteers had
been planning a mass cleaning of the park for about a week but no decision had
been made on their proposals because of drawn-out discussions.
Finally, on Thursday, with the threat of the park's owner evicting protesters
to do its own cleaning, the sanitation group got some attention — and some
plastic bins to distribute to the occupiers.
"I would have wanted these bins a week ago," said Cooper, 30, of Brooklyn.
[PHOTO - 'OCCUPY' PROTEST IN NEW YORK CITY]
In other areas, though, the independent nature of the work teams has allowed
them to act efficiently and quickly. From its first days, the protesters have
had an aggressive media outreach program. The finance committee worked out an
agreement with a nonprofit group in Washington, D.C., that has begun allowing
the movement to accept credit card donations online.
To date, some of the biggest events associated with the demonstration have
been put in motion by the work teams, rather than the assembly. For example, the
group's march several weeks ago to the Brooklyn Bridge — a demonstration that
ended in hundreds of arrests and raised the movement's profile — was planned by
the direct action working group, said Brooklyn schoolteacher Matt Presto, one of
a few dozen "facilitators" who specialize in moderating general assembly
meetings, and other large discussion groups.
And people are demonstrating leadership, even if they don't have a formal
title, activists said.
"There is not a classification in leaders. But there are people whose voices
are respected, and who people want to listen to," said one organizer, Marina
Sitrin.
The commitment to consensus on big issues has prevented the group from
settling upon a single list of demands to present to the public, protesters say.
But they insist that's OK.
"When the civil rights movement started, people didn't come out right out
with a big list of demands — they came out in the streets and just said, 'We're
not going to accept society the way it is,'" said Ed Needham, 43, a public
relations manager from Cambridge, Mass. "That's the stage we're in right now."
A sign near the edge of the protest camp Friday echoed that sentiment.
"We're here, we're unclear, get used to it!" it said.
The movement against nuclear power in the 1970s eschewed big-name leaders or
national organizations. So did the early feminist movement, where organizational
meetings favored consensus over strong leadership. Quakers have been using the
consensus model for hundreds of years.
But political experts say there are drawbacks.
With outsiders not quite certain who is in charge, or who has authority to
speak for the group, there is a possibility that the press or public could
become confused about what the demonstrations stand for, said John Krinsky, a
political science professor at the City University of New York.
Core groups of leaders will eventually emerge, said Gabriella Coleman, an
assistant professor in the Department of Media, Culture and Communication at New
York University who has been studying Occupy Wall Street and also participated
in some of its early planning meetings.
"What happens often is that, sometimes when a tight-knit working group gets
to know each other quite well, newcomers, like six months down the line, have a
harder time getting involved. There is already a culture, friendship, and it is
hard to break into that core group," Coleman said.
The bigger hurdle for the Occupy movement may not be the lack of strong
leaders but the large philosophical differences between the small group of
demonstrators and the much larger — but less radical — group of outsiders who
have been supportive of the protests from afar, Gitlin said.
The young people at Zuccotti Park "really think they are headed for no
future. No jobs. Ice caps are melting. Misery in the offing ... You want a new
civilization," Gitlin said.
"But most of the people who support you ... they don't want a new
civilization. They want to be middle class."
___
Associated Press Writers Cristian Salazar in New York
and Patrick Condon in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2011 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All
rights reserved
PHILIPPINE
HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/phnotweet
This is the PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE (PHNO) Mailing List.
To stop receiving our news items, please send a blank e-mail addressed to: phno-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Please visit our homepage at: http://www.newsflash.org/
(c) Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phno/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phno/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
phno-digest@yahoogroups.com
phno-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
phno-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
