OCCUPY OAKLAND'S NOV. 2, GENERAL STRIKE: WHICH UNIONS SUPPORT AND WHICH WILL WALK

The ambitious call for a General Strike in Oakland is picking up steam with a press conference today followed by a history lesson about the General Strike of 1946 when over 100,000 workers walked out for three days in support of women workers in a local department store. But that was 1946 and this is 2011.

Many Unions have contracts which prohibit wildcat strikes, it is a particular problem for public workers who are caught in a maze of requirements around strikes. That being said, many Unions are being very creative. Many Unions have passed resolutions in support of the November 2nd Day Of Action and are encouraging workers to participate. Some of the Unions are particularly militant and determined. These are some of my favorites.

ILWU is planning on shutting down the Ports in the Bay Area. The mass march is scheduled to head for the Port Of Oakland. This could give mass picketing a whole new meaning. The General Assembly has passed a resolution in support of the current struggle the ILWU is having with violations of their contract by grain operators in Washington State.

UAW 2865 -They are encouraging all their members to support the strike action. In an interesting use of their contract language they have identified Occupation Oakland and Occupation Wall Street as a "sanctioned Union Strike Line to be honored by their union". Some private sector workers can refuse to cross a picket line of other unions. In this case they are stating that they will "actively support all union and non union workers who refuse to break up or raid or confiscate the belongings of protesters". They also state that they recognize that protest movements and strike lines do not have curfews, are not 9-5 activities and they will work to protect the right to protest 24 hours a day, with on site food, medical supplies, water and tents.

The Philippine Airline Employees Association - Proclaimed their solidarity with the General Strike and especially the blockade of the Port Of Oakland. Currently more than 1,000 of their members are occupying areas outside Manila and Ceba.

Carpenters Local 713 - Represents 3,000 private sector construction workers in Alameda County. They officially support the call for a 1 day strike November 2nd.

Last but not least is my union SEIU. Local 1021 is the largest union in Oakland and represents city workers. The Oakland City Administrator, Deanna Santana issued a statement saying that SEIU has requested that the City of Oakland allow workers to leave work as part of the Oakland General Strike. She stated that "City workers who participate will not face disciplinary action." This applies to all city workers in all unions.

We will have to wait until Wednesday to see the results, but clearly the call for a one day General Strike was not made without thought and knowledge of the Bay Area Labor Community. Viva La Huelga!

CEO pay soars as nameplate state (Wisconsin) firms skirt taxes

This month we selected four big manufacturers to look at
some of the basic trends in corporate America: soaring
executive pay, plentiful profits, shrinking workforces and
minimal taxes paid.
Each has thousands of Wisconsin employees: Kimberly-
Clark, the paper-products giant; Brunswick, owner of
Mercury Marine in Fond du Lac; Snap-on, the Kenosha
auto-tool firm; and Rockwell Automation, descendant of
Allen-Bradley, a Milwaukee industrial icon.
We examined a decade of data for these firms and their
subsidiaries, from 2000 through 2009 (the most recent
year with tax data.) Some conclusions:
• Average compensation for the firms’ highest-paid
executive tripled in the decade, from $2.3 million to
$6.9 million.
• Profits rolled in; ten-for-ten profitable years for all but
Brunswick, which lost money only in 2008- 09. Total
pretax profits from all four for the decade: $29 billion.
• State income tax payments were almost universally
$0. Three of the firms paid nothing during 2000-2009.
The fourth (K-C) paid tax in only three of the ten years.
Its total tax payments: $2.9 million. [See table on page
2 for details on taxes compared with profits.]
• Global employment shrank dramatically, falling by
21%, 44% and 41% at three of the firms and rising a
modest 2% at the fourth (K-C). Wisconsin employment
data are not available.

Read more: http://host.madison.com/ct/business/biz_beat/article_3dc76d06-0013-11e1-990a-001cc4c002e0.html#ixzz1cPH4tac6

Occupy Salem: Saving Life on the Planet as We Know It

Malik Rahim, former Black Panther and people's activist in New Orleans, provides spiritual and logistical support to Occupy Salem. Here he speaks to the crowd at the Capitol on Saturday Oct 29, 2011.

General strike in Tunisia's hotels and travel agencies

From the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF):

Tunisia's IUF-affiliated food and tourism union FGAT-UGTT has called a sector-wide general strike in hotels and travel agences November 1, and is requesting global support. Since the overthrow of Ben Ali 51 collective agreements have been negotiated in the private sector, leaving only the tourism workers – who played a prominent role in the uprising – still waiting for their bosses to agree to new terms and conditions for workers in this vital sector.

You can support their demands – click here to send a message to the responsible government officials and employer associations, supporting the union's demands and urging them to come to the table NOW!

SEIU503: COG WORKERS GET A HIGH DEDUCTIBLE CATASTROPHIC HEALTH PLAN

First we had the imposition of the Health Engagement Model (HEM) on the workers in the State Unit. There has been a lot of discussion here about the concerns of workers regarding this program. But this new development is much worse! The Oregon Cascades West Council Of Governments (COG) is moving into a new realm.

A number of years ago the State of Oregon contracted out the administration (Eligibility and Case Management) of Disability and Senior Services to a county consortium (Linn, Benton, and Lincoln Counties) known as the COG. Because we were not State Employees we could not participate in the excellent PEBB Health Plans. Our Health Insurance was never as good and cost us more out of pocket than our co-workers who were not contracted out. But for years we bargained hard, organized our co-workers and one year almost went on strike. Management was sleazy but we usually caught them and let our co-workers know what they were up to and made them back down.

With this new contract there is a huge change. Can this even be called a Health "Benefit"? It is a Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield High Deductible Plan. This type of plan is called "Catastrophic" coverage for a reason. They were created to "market" to young people so they could have a lower premium (in this case only slightly lower) and the high deductible meant if they were in a car crash or something big, there would be some coverage once they paid the deductible. But the real motive is to have a huge disincentive to even use it. You have coverage, but don't use it. The Blue Cross Blue Shield Crime Family rakes in even more money and management pays less. Everyone wins except the worker. Now of course for this contract period management will pay each worker a subsidy towards that deductible. But if I know the COG (and I do) after this contract more and more of that deductible will be the responsibility of the worker. And they will be more and more reticent to even use it, unless there is a catastrophe.

That is not all. The immediate hurt is to the early (Under 65) retirees. Most Unions care about their retirees or at least let them know what changes may be coming. For those of us who have to pay full premium for the COG's plan we will now also have to pay the full high deductible (no subsidy for us). My PERS check is about average and for me the yearly deductible equals an entire month's check.

If there is anything that makes "Fight Back For A Fair Economy" sound hollow, this is it!!!

Armenian American Voices in ‘Occupy’ Movement

From the Armenian-American social democrats: 

BOSTON, Mass. (A.W.)—Spread over 80 countries and 1,000 cities, the global Occupy movement is growing fast, with protesters camping out in financial districts and public areas, demanding an end to “corporate greed.” In the U.S., they come from various walks of life, sharing similar—and often interrelated—grievances, from exorbitantly high-priced educational opportunities, to a lack of health insurance, to the flood of home foreclosures, and anger over bank bailouts. Many Armenian Americans share the same frustrations as their fellow citizens and, like them, have taken to the streets, lending their voices to the occupying masses.

Occupy Boston (Photo by Nanore Barsoumian)

Action Through Poetry
Sevan “Apollo” Aydinian, also known as Apollo Poetry, is an Armenian American poet who is a spokesman for Occupy Phoenix. He hopes the Occupy movement will result in “a complete restructuring of the political and monetary system,” he told the Armenian Weekly. Once the public understands the relationship between the two systems, once “they see that they are being used as slaves,” they will join the “revolution,” he said.

Occupy Phoenix began on Oct. 15 when protesters gathered in the city’s Cesar Chavez Plaza at noon. Less than 48 hours later, many were already arrested, charged with trespassing or loitering, and then released. As in many other cities, however, the protesters kept coming back.
Aydinian has been careful in discussing the movement in on-air interviews with leading channels. The media often tries to misrepresent the protesters, he said. In a recent interview, he went to great lengths to explain the lack of vertical hierarchy in the movement to an interviewer bent on pinpointing “the leaders.” There are facilitators and organizers, maintained Aydinian, and anyone can assume either position. But Occupy Wall Street, or any of its side-shoots, has no leaders—not in the conventional sense, anyway.

The poet stressed the diversity of views present on the ground. You can’t box the protesters in a single category. “There are people from all parts of the political spectrum. That’s the main reason [Occupy Wall Street] grew to over 1,600 cities in a couple of weeks. It includes everybody. This is truly the people’s movement,” he said.

The “We are the 99 percent” slogan has caught on. It refers to the increasingly better-known and disturbing statistic that the top 1 percent of Americans controls between 40-50 percent of the country’s wealth. And that wealth, say Occupiers, has been used to undermine the democratic process and the wellbeing of the other 99 percent.

Read more here.

CCDS Report back from German Die Linke Congress

Erfurt, Germany, October 2011 – Culminating nearly two years of discussion and debate, the 519 delegates of the Die Linke Party of Germany united overwhelmingly around a new program at its Congress in Erfurt, Germany, October 21 – 23. The Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism was one of 43 Communist, Socialist, left parties and organizations making up the international delegation, and was the sole representative from the United States.

The 44 page draft program, issued in March 2010, was discussed at meetings of local and regional bodies, resulting in 1,300 amendments presented for Congress deliberations. The program was adopted nearly unanimously following 3 days of debate. It will provide the political platform for Die Linke candidates in the 2013 federal elections.

The Congress was held against the backdrop of momentous events in Europe. The Eurozone debt negotiations to save bank profits led by Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, and the general strike in Greece in opposition to the outcome of those negotiations dramatically framed the weekend’s deliberations. A representative of the Synaspismos Party (Coalition of the Left of Greece), Alexis Tsipras, delivered an impassioned greeting of solidarity bringing the Congress to its feet.

“The war in Greece is between capital and labor, not between Greece and Germany,” said Tsipras. “Greece is the guinea pig of the Eurozone. We are committed to defending democracy in Greece before it is too late for you,” he said.

Read more here.

Some Contradictions In Oregon's Labor Movement

I have attended three important labor conferences over the past two weeks. A number of contradictions in our labor movement stand out from these events.

*The primary message from the left in the labor movement now should be that unions should be accountable to the entire working class, and not just the union membership. When this is raised with labor leaders at the grassroots they get it easily enough. One contradiction we face is that there is not an organized left presence in Oregon's labor movement overall at a time when workers could, or should, be moving leftwards. Another contradiction forms around the most class-conscious labor leaders being hesitant or afraid to speak and lead from a position of class consciousness.

*The Occupy movement has changed the debate nationally and within the most progressive sectors of the Oregon labor movement as well. At the same time, however, labor is divided over its relationship to the Occupy movement. Two contradictions stand out here: there is an identification with "the 99% message" but not with a more specific class-conscious politics, and there is a suspicion of "leaderlessness" at a time when labor does not lead.

*The most progressive trade unionists in the state are actively supporting the Occupy movement, but an understanding of that movement within labor is uneven. Labor is not seeking to dominate or subvert the Occupy movement.

*Anti-racist and anti-homophobic work in Oregon's unions clearly needs to pick up and engage more workers, especially young workers.

*Progressive workers who are paying attention in Oregon see, in the main, no contradiction between mass action and political action. What happened in Wisconsin is seen perhaps as a necessary step towards a wider and larger Occupy movement: labor sees sees the struggle in Wisconsin as a logical progression of needed steps to defend itself and not as prioritizing (or selling out) one form of struggle for another.

*The labor movement in Oregon is having a difficult time uniting around a program or core demands for jobs. The contradiction between the labor and environmental movements remains real and potent. We also face a division between private sector and public sector unions and between the two main public sector unions in the state.

*Unions are moving to endorse Obama at different and contradictory speeds and with different processes at work. At the same time, unions are gearing up for local races and regional or statewide ballot measures. Some populist struggles seem to have fallen off of labor's table for the immediate future--issues like a state bank, for instance--while other populist issues (some kind of social insurance, retirement security for all, sick days for all) seem within reach.

*The Health Engagement Model (HEM) issue is the ghost who will not go away. We cannot say that there is an open struggle over HEM within labor, but we can say that those people in labor who seem most supportive of HEM generally see the management of people, rather than the empowerment of workers, as a strong part of labor's role or as a primary union mission. There is also a wholly justifiable concern that if HEM fails universal healthcare in Oregon, or at least healthcare for state workers, will be set back.

*There remains a primary contradiction in the labor movement between labor as an institution and labor as a movement, or as a force within social movements.

These contradictions are apparent because there is enough of a left-wing in the labor movement to make them so. That left-wing is not living up to its responsibilities by remaining unorganized and dispersed. For the time being perhaps these contradictions serve to motivate a creative tension within the labor movement. Their resolution will be worked out in the actions workers and unions take between now and the 2012 elections.

Whiteness and the 99%: interrogating the Occupy movement

Joel Olson has posted a problematic piece entitled "Whiteness and the 99%." You can read that piece here. Problematic as the piece is, it raises some good questions which I have excerpted below. They seem relevant given today's news from around the US and the Occupy struggles and in relation to the sinking feeling I have that portions of the Occupy movement will either have to be saved from themselves or collapse under the weight of anarchism, police repression and police provocations.

Do speakers urge us “get beyond” race? Are they defensive and dismissive of demands for racial justice?

If speakers urge developing “close working relationships with the police,” do they consider how police terrorize Black, Latino, Native, and undocumented communities? Do they consider how police have attacked occupation encampments?

If speakers urge us to hold banks accountable, do they encourage us to focus on redlining, predatory lending, and subprime mortgages, which have decimated Black and Latino neighborhoods?

If speakers urge the cancellation of debts, do they mean for things like electric and heating bills as well as home mortgages and college loans?

If speakers urge the halting of foreclosures, do they acknowledge that they take place primarily in segregated neighborhoods, and do they propose to start there?

If speakers urge the creation of more jobs, do they acknowledge that many communities of color have already been in chronic “recessions” for decades, and do they propose to start from there?

Concert and rally in support of Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Portland.

Occupy Portland, Pink Martini & friends, Pioneer Ct. Sq.Oct. 28, 2011 from Peter Parks on Vimeo.

I See a Paradigm Shift - And That's Good

A teacher explains why she supports Occupy Salem.

I've read the Swanson and Krugman pieces posted here and think them both to be thoughtful and good. But I strongly recommend everyone reading the Zizek article from ITT to which a link is posted earlier here, because he gives a good radical left analysis of the current situation in the OWS movement and shows the way forward, the next step. It's very much worth reading carefully and attending to, and even using as a guide to action. (Originally, the article was given as a speech at Zuccotti Park.)

As for Paul Krugman, I read his blog ("Conscience of a Liberal") everyday on the NY Times website, and his columns in that paper on Mondays and Fridays. He's an excellent left liberal economist (even if he did win a Nobel prize two years ago), and well worth reading for his very sharp, extremely well informed jabs at the conservativerepublicanchristianhypocriticalrightwing. One can even learn some things from him.

We the 99% Demand a Totally Different Federal Budget

October 28, 2011

By David Swanson

We can fit our demands on a bumpersticker: “Majority Rule” or “People Over Profits” or “Love Not Greed.”  But we don’t want to.  Our government is doing everything wrong, and we should be allowed to present the full list of grievances.  We can, however, give the world a thousand words’ worth in an image, a pie chart to be exact.  Our federal budget funds the wrong things.  We want it to fund the right things.

Here are pie charts produced by some of us members of the 99%: gallery.

Here’s where you can make your own: start.

You’ll have to register and log in, which prevents spam. Then you’ll have a chance to fill in the percentage of the federal budget that you’d like devoted to various areas. This budget tool — the programming for which was done by Karl Anliot — will let you know if your total adds up to 100%. You can do this in 60 seconds, but I recommend giving it some thought and really making this into your vision for future activism.

After you create your own ideal budget pie chart, you can compare it with the actual government budget and with the ideal budgets created by the rest of us. I suspect the biggest gap is going to be between the government and everybody else. You can also go back in and edit your budget. You can link to it. You can facebook it and tweet it.


More: http://peaceworker.dreamhosters.com/2011/10/we-the-99-demand-a-totally-different-federal-budget/

The Path Not Taken

October 27, 2011

By PAUL KRUGMAN

REYKJAVIK, Iceland

Financial markets are cheering the deal that emerged from Brussels early Thursday morning. Indeed, relative to what could have happened — an acrimonious failure to agree on anything — the fact that European leaders agreed on something, however vague the details and however inadequate it may prove, is a positive development.

But it’s worth stepping back to look at the larger picture, namely the abject failure of an economic doctrine — a doctrine that has inflicted huge damage both in Europe and in the United States.

The doctrine in question amounts to the assertion that, in the aftermath of a financial crisis, banks must be bailed out but the general public must pay the price. So a crisis brought on by deregulation becomes a reason to move even further to the right; a time of mass unemployment, instead of spurring public efforts to create jobs, becomes an era of austerity, in which government spending and social programs are slashed.

This doctrine was sold both with claims that there was no alternative — that both bailouts and spending cuts were necessary to satisfy financial markets — and with claims that fiscal austerity would actually create jobs. The idea was that spending cuts would make consumers and businesses more confident. And this confidence would supposedly stimulate private spending, more than offsetting the depressing effects of government cutbacks.

Some economists weren’t convinced. One caustic critic referred to claims about the expansionary effects of austerity as amounting to belief in the “confidence fairy.” O.K., that was me.

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/28/opinion/krugman-the-path-not-taken.html?_r=1&src=recg

NO COMMENT REQUIRED!!!

The Violent Silence of a New Beginning -- In These Times

The Occupy protests are important, but soon the difficult question must be answered: What social organization can replace capitalism?

The Violent Silence of a New Beginning -- In These Times

OCCUPY TAIWAN!??!

Cliff Engelwood has written an interesting piece for Socialist Action that shows the depth of the Occupy Movement internationally. On the October 15th day of international protest, Taipei was an unlikely city to see hundreds of demonstrators. The country has no socialist or labor party, a weak trade union movement, and no history of political radicalism. If you travel to Taiwan and happen to have any Marxist literature it will be seized by Immigration and you will have to pay a fine. Currently the unemployment rate is half of that of the United States, has a growing economy and is increasingly seen by global capital as being a safe haven for investors.

But on October 15th, prompted by a single Facebook post, young students, workers and retirees proclaimed Occupy Taiwan and gathered at Taipei 101, the second largest building in the world. It houses the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Several hundred marchers entered the shopping mall on the first floor chanting, "No To Capitalism" and "We Are The 99%". The building security staff could not stop them. There were no arrests.

One high school student explained the protest to the Taiwan Times: "The economic growth figures may look good on paper. But we are not feeling it because all the money is going into the hands of the capitalists".

All eyes on Oakland: Ride the tiger

Posted by kasama on October 26, 2011

Expressions of support and outrage are needed. And we all need to watch closely: How do we, how should we respond to decisions to just wipe the Occupations away? What is the role of Oakland’s “progressive” politicians (some of whom were leftists before they were Democrats)? And what does that show? What is the role of the police (here in the occupations and in the larger society)? Who rises to defend the people? Who falls silent? Who now steps up the attacks and demonization of the occupations (as violent, as crazy, as unreasonable)?

When your enemy throws down, it is important to respond — to hold the high moral ground, to articulate clearly both your purposes and theirs, to mobilize your core and your allies, to identify creative responses that retake the initiative, to expose and isolate those attacking, to help all those watching to understand the issues and the sides taken…. to grow under fire, and turn their attacks into new strength and clarity.

Ride the tiger!

For a photoblog of Oakland resistance:

Weekly Protest at New Seasons #2

Oct 29nd and every following Saturday.
Noon – 2pm, SE 41st & Hawthorne.

"SOME THINGS ARE SO OBVIOUSLY WRONG."
-­Brian Rohter New Seasons Co­Founder

Join us in reminding New Seasons that Apartheid is wrong.

Oct 29nd and every following Saturday.
Noon – 2pm, SE 41st & Hawthorne.

New Seasons stopped carrying Rockstar energy drinks because Michael Savage, radio personality known for anti-gay slurs and other hate speech, helped fund and develop Rockstar.

“Some things are so obviously wrong,” said Brian
Rohter, New Seasons Co-Founder and CEO.

New Seasons stopped carrying farmed Alaskan salmon and switched exclusively to wild salmon when the company learned of the environmental dangers that farming techniques were causing.

“Some things are so obviously wrong,” said Brian
Rohter, New Seasons Co-Founder and CEO.

But when New Seasons was told the Israeli products they carry help support apartheid and occupation, all they said was, "We're not the food police."

Come join us in reminding New Seasons that Palestinians are at least worth as much consideration as caffeinated beverages and Alaskan seafood.

Wall Street through the augmented eyes of “Rowdy” Roddy Piper

By Mike Davis at versobooks.com / 24 October 2011

Who could have envisioned Occupy Wall Street and its sudden wildflower-like profusion in cities large and small?

John Carpenter could have, and did. Almost a quarter of a century ago (1988), the master of date-night terror (Halloween, The Thing), wrote and directed They Live, depicting the Age of Reagan as a catastrophic alien invasion. In one of the film’s brilliant early scenes, a huge third-world shantytown is reflected across the Hollywood Freeway in the sinister mirror-glass of Bunker Hill’s corporate skyscrapers.

They Live remains Carpenter’s subversive tour de force. Few who’ve seen it could forget his portrayal of billionaire bankers and evil mediacrats and their zombie-distant rule over a pulverized American working class living in tents on a rubble-strewn hillside and begging for jobs. From this negative equality of homelessness and despair, and thanks to the magic dark glasses found by the enigmatic Nada (played by “Rowdy” Roddy Piper), the proletariat finally achieves interracial unity, sees through the subliminal deceptions of capitalism, and gets angry.

Very angry.

Yes, I know, I’m reading ahead. The Occupy the World movement is still looking for its magic glasses (program, demands, strategy, and so on) and its anger remains on Gandhian low heat. But, as Carpenter foresaw, force enough Americans out of their homes and/or careers (or at least torment tens of millions with the possibility) and something new and huge will begin to slouch towards Goldman Sachs. And unlike the “Tea Party,” so far it has no puppet strings.


Complete article: http://www.versobooks.com/blogs/766-mike-davis-wall-street-through-the-augmented-eyes-of-rowdy-roddy-piper

OCCUPY OAKLAND CALLS FOR GENERAL STRIKE NOVEMBER 2

Last night the proposal passed the Occupy Oakland General Assembly after the retaking of Oscar Grant Park. 1607 voted on the proposal and 1484 voted to approve it. Abstentions: 77 and in opposition 47. This means it passed by 96.9%. They use a modified consensus process which requires 90% for approval.

PROPOSAL:

We as fellow occupiers of Oscar Grant Plaza propose that on Wednesday November 2, 2011, we liberate Oakland and shut down the 1%.

We propose a city wide general strike and we propose we invite all students to walk out of school. Instead of workers going to work and students going to school, the people will converge on downtown Oakland to shut down the city.

All banks and corporations should close down for the day or we will march on them.

While we are calling for a general strike, we are also calling for much more. People who organize out of their neighborhoods, schools, community organizations, affinity groups, workplaces and families are encouraged to self organize in a way that allows them to participate in shutting down the city in whatever manner they are comfortable with and capable of.

The whole world is watching Oakland. Let’s show them what is possible.

The Strike Coordinating Council will begin meeting everyday at 5pm in Oscar Grant Plaza before the daily General Assembly at 7pm. All strike participants are invited. Stay tuned for much more information and see you next Wednesday.

Occupy Movement Under Attack

In the last week or two we have seen some loosely coordinated attacks on the Occupy movement across the country.

On October 14, the Occupy Wall Street movement with strong union support successfully defended New York City's attempt to drive demonstrators out of New York's financial district.

Meanwhile, under the direction of Chicago Mayor, Rahm Emmanuel, hundreds of Occupy demonstrators have been arrested and jailed as the Chicago police continue with their almost daily assaults on demonstrators.

Likewise, On Tuesday October 25, the Oakland, California police staged an early morning assault on the Occupy Oakland sites. When demonstrators attempted to re-occupy their site later that day, they were again attacked by the police with tear gas, bean-bag shots and concussion grenades.

Meanwhile again, in Albany, New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo and Albany Mayor, Gerald Jennings ordered the Albany Police Department and the New York State Police to open an assault and clear out Occupy Albany demonstrators. Fortunately, police authorities refused to carry out this order on the grounds that the Occupy Albany demonstrations are not a threat.

Finally, here in Salem, the Occupy Salem site was the subject of a bomb scare when an unidentified person exploded a bomb across the street from the Occupy Salem site.

Disconcerting?

Many of the Occupy Salem protesters were alarmed following yesterday's explosion and I suspect many relatively new protesters who have joined the Occupy movement across the country are dismayed and frightened with the escalating level of police attacks.

However, those of us with the long memories are not surprised. We remember the vicious attacks launched against civil rights activists and anti-war protesters during the 1960s. Birmingham, Alabama, Chicago 1968 and Kent State are events many of us old-timers remember all too well.

Of course, we have to accept the fact that the authorities will try to repress the kind of dissent that the Occupy movement represents. It is an unfortunate fact, but those who engage in dissent and work for a just society will inevitably face opposition from those who are more than willing to use repression and violence to silence the dissent and put a lid on the movement for change. Here, 1st Amendment rights should not be taken for granted; we must accept that we must re-affirm these rights through our actions time and time again.

I think in the end we will prevail however. I think we will prevail as long as we:

1. Maintain our courage, principles and passion for equality and justice.

2. Agree to stay the course and not give in to the threats, attacks and fear.

THE DEMOCRATS PRESENT THEIR MEDICARE CUTS TO THE SUPER COMMITTEE

Oh, boy the Democrats just made their official "Presentation" to the nation via the televised (CSPAN) Super Committee. They call for $400 Billion in Medicare Savings (cuts). With $200 Billion coming from Medicare recipients. I guess that means 200B from payments to Providers (which does effect recipients) and 200B directly from the pocket of Medicare recipients.

Making like it was a big deal, the (anonymous) Democratic spokesman quickly pointed out that they did not want the Medicare eligibility age to increase from 65-67. And then, thinking it would be impressive, "The cuts are limited to those that Obama and Boehner had discussed and already informally agreed to." (Oh, what a relief!!). Of course, no specifics of those Medicare cuts they want were released. They have been coming out in drips and drabs. See my blog of September 26th.

Portland Action Against Wells Fargo

Saturday, October 29 at 10:00am
Location: 3782 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
Portland

Occupy Salem: Speak Out Against Corporate Anything!

Occupy Salem: Social Inequities Around the World

Amanda is a member of Occupy Salem's Education Committee.

Intro to Socialism at Occupy Salem

A team of three from Willamette Reds presented an historical review of American economic history from the perspective of socialism at Occupy Salem during the regular education session Oct. 24.

In the gathering dusk and cold, an engaged group heard about the socialist tradition in the US, an analysis of what led to the current crisis, comments on a few key persons (Eugene Debs, Henry Ford, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan) and socialist philosophy and solutions to various facets of the current economic and political situation.

This was the first in a series of educational presentations by Willamette Reds. If you would like to book a presentation for your group or class, please contact us via rjrossi (at) q.com.

Occupy Wall Street’s ‘Political Disobedience’

OCTOBER 13, 2011, 4:15 PMBy BERNARD E. HARCOURT in the New York Times

Our language has not yet caught up with the political phenomenon that is emerging in Zuccotti Park and spreading across the nation, though it is clear that a political paradigm shift is taking place before our very eyes. It’s time to begin to name and in naming, to better understand this moment. So let me propose some words: “political disobedience.”

Occupy Wall Street is best understood, I would suggest, as a new form of what could be called “political disobedience,” as opposed to civil disobedience, that fundamentally rejects the political and ideological landscape that we inherited from the Cold War.

With the Cold War decades behind us, a new paradigm of political resistance has emerged.

Civil disobedience accepted the legitimacy of political institutions, but resisted the moral authority of resulting laws. Political disobedience, by contrast, resists the very way in which we are governed: it resists the structure of partisan politics, the demand for policy reforms, the call for party identification, and the very ideologies that dominated the post-War period.

Occupy Wall Street, which identifies itself as a “leaderless resistance movement with people of many … political persuasions,” is politically disobedient precisely in refusing to articulate policy demands or to embrace old ideologies. Those who incessantly want to impose demands on the movement may show good will and generosity, but fail to understand that the resistance movement is precisely about disobeying that kind of political maneuver. Similarly, those who want to push an ideology onto these new forms of political disobedience, like Slavoj Zizek or Raymond Lotta, are missing the point of the resistance.

Complete article: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/13/occupy-wall-streets-political-disobedience/

New Developments With HEM

We have done some writing on this blog about the Health Engagement Model (HEM) and many readers have responded.

Recently AOCE, the law firm that represents corrections workers in Oregon, filed an unfair labor practice charge with the Employment Relations Board (ERB) seeking to block HEM. AFSCME, the union which competes with AOCE in corrections, apparently filed a similar complaint. They could have saved time and trouble: under ERB this is a prohibited subject for collective bargaining. Not permissive--prohibited.

The rumor mill started and has been working overtime. Word had it that these were lawsuits, not unfair labor practice charges, and that HEM was blocked, either temporarily or permanently. None of that was true.

What this has done is given us an object lesson in how workers are exploited and oppressed through a specific rule-making and legal process. We can't bargain HEM through our unions, although labor has severasl seats on the PEBB board, and we're blocked by the Big Pharma and medical and political establishments for the time being from winning national healthcare which would take care of our healthcare needs. Our jobs are structured in ways which work to make us unhealthy but PEBB expects--demands--that we get fully healthy. It can be said that we're hemmed in.

It would be interesting if a group of state workers on the Capitol Mall who object to HEM were to begin a conversation with the Occupy Salem folks about common issues and a united strategy. What if the occupy movement moved into state worksites or into PEBB?

This is unlikely to happen, of course. But we need an occupy movement which reaches deep into workplaces and more deeply into the working class. Occupy Salem would be wise to approach state workers and look for points of agreement and solidarity.

In all of the talk about HEM some important details have been lost. For instance, some labor leaders and activists--and we have covered this on this blog--have done well in speaking out against HEM and have won some positive changes and more PEBB meetings. This is all for the good. Also, HEM has to be seen in the context of larger changes coming to public employee and Oregon healthcare over the next decade. We will see a more integrated system evolving if the Republicans and the economic crisis don't completely gut healthcare first. In the long run HEM could evolve into something positive that creates more skilled jobs and grows the public sector in positive ways. Right now it pretty much sucks.

What do socialists have to say about HEM? Read our blog. We oppose anything which rests on compulsion by the bosses, be they public or private sector. We oppose anything which divides workers, or has the potential to, as HEM does. We support the eloquent voices which have risen to publicly oppose HEM from among the workers. We supported the passage of the Local 503 DAS contract because it was a step forward and because it was not linked to HEM. We support the most integrated of all healthcare systems--national healthcare. We hope that in two years public workers will lead a united strike and win back what has been lost.

A Movement Too Big to Fail

October 20, 2011

By Chris Hedges

There is no danger that the protesters who have occupied squares, parks and plazas across the nation in defiance of the corporate state will be co-opted by the Democratic Party or groups like MoveOn. The faux liberal reformers, whose abject failure to stand up for the rights of the poor and the working class, have signed on to this movement because they fear becoming irrelevant. Union leaders, who pull down salaries five times that of the rank and file as they bargain away rights and benefits, know the foundations are shaking. So do Democratic politicians from Barack Obama to Nancy Pelosi. So do the array of “liberal” groups and institutions, including the press, that have worked to funnel discontented voters back into the swamp of electoral politics and mocked those who called for profound structural reform.

Resistance Comes in All Forms

Resistance, real resistance, to the corporate state was displayed when a couple of thousand protesters, clutching mops and brooms, early Friday morning forced the owners of Zuccotti Park and the New York City police to back down from a proposed attempt to expel them in order to “clean” the premises. These protesters in that one glorious moment did what the traditional “liberal” establishment has steadily refused to do—fight back. And it was deeply moving to watch the corporate rats scamper back to their holes on Wall Street. It lent a whole new meaning to the phrase “too big to fail.”

Full article:http://peaceworker.dreamhosters.com/2011/10/a-movement-too-big-to-fail/

Occupy Salem: Not a Recession

Another in a continuing series of interviews of Occupy Salem participants.

ALLIANCE FOR RETIRED AMERICANS WORRIES THIS MAY BE THE LAST COLA FOR SOCIAL SECURITY RECIPIENTS

Retiree Leader: Social Security COLA Announcement Clouded by Looming Threat on Capitol Hill

“Super Committee” Considering Drastic Cut to Future Benefits

For Immediate Release

October 19, 2011

The following statement was issued today by Edward F. Coyle, Executive Director of the Alliance for Retired Americans:

“Seniors are pleased by today’s announcement of a 3.6 percent Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) for Social Security beneficiaries. After two years of no increase, this will help retirees be better able to pay their bills and stay healthy.

“But today’s news is tempered by reports that the congressional “Super Committee” is considering changes to Social Security that will severely hinder retirees’ ability to keep pace with the rising cost of living. The panel may recommend a new statistical formula for future COLAs, one that would grossly understate the growing financial pressures on retirees.

“What the proponents of the change clinically call a ‘Chained-CPI,’ is what millions of seniors would call ‘food, shelter, clothing.’ A recent study showed that, if this change took effect, a worker retiring this year at age 65 would lose $6,000 in benefits by age 80.

“Social Security did not create our budget deficit – it is fully-funded by worker and employer payroll taxes. It is inexcusable for politicians who never met a tax break they didn’t like to try to balance the budget on the backs of current and future retirees.

“Today’s COLA is good news for retirees, but I worry that it could be the last one many seniors ever see. Workers and retirees must mobilize to protect the Social Security benefits millions of seniors count on to make ends meet.”


###

Contact: David Blank (202) 637-5275 or dblank@retiredamericans.org

Posted 16:08PM on October 19 2011 by David Blank

ILWU CALLS FOR DEFENSE OF OWS AND CALLS FOR "ORGANIZING IN OUR OWN NAME"

The Million Worker March (MWM) organizers and activists call upon all workers organized and unorganized and the unemployed to join and defend the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement. We extend the call to anti-war, immigration rights, environmental and social justice activists to join this movement which could replicate the "Arab Spring" here at home.

The MWM, initiated by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 on October 17, 2004 at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., advanced the slogan "mobilizing in our own name" independent of the two Wall Street controlled political parties to address the economic crisis of working people in which the vast majority are under siege financially.

All important social movements, which occurred in this country, were started from the bottom up (rank and file/grass roots) and not from the top down. The MWM's mission statement speaks to how ". . . a handful of the rich and powerful corporations have usurped our government. A corporate and banking oligarchy changes hats and occupies public office to wage class war on working people. They have captured the State in their own interests." They represent what the OWS activists call the 1%, otherwise known as the ruling class.

Like the MWM, the OWS has emerged at a time when the two corporate controlled political parties are preparing for the presidential election; a smokescreen where billions are spent to promote a top down and false ceremony of democracy.

Like the MWM, the OWS will be criticized for having demands that are too broad. We have endured more than 50 years of corporate assault on working people, social services, jobs, wages, pensions, health care, public education, and housing. The pursuit of endless wars, the lack of a comprehensive immigration policy and the erosion of the environment in pursuit of corporate greed, makes it impossible to address all of these issues in a sound bite. Yet one thing is crystal clear, OWS conveys a definite anti-capitalist message. It is being expressed to the entire world at the "temple" of American Capitalism, Wall Street. The OWS, while now a major protest movement against the capitalist elites, must continue to deepen, expand and become a direct challenge to corporate power. Class warfare demands fighting on multiple fronts and it all leads back to Wall Street. While the officialdom of labor has given verbal support to OWS, the rank and file possesses the real power of the labor movement. It is only through rank and file unity that labor's true power can be realized in this OWS movement. Workers can take action at the point of production and service as well as put people in the streets.

We must be mindful of attempts to co-opt this movement. Let us not forget the action of the Democratic Party and its surrogates within AFL-CIO to pressure Wisconsin unions not to initiate any General Strike actions in opposition to Governor Scott Walker's plans to eliminate collective bargaining for State workers. Wisconsin workers were limited to circulating petitions to recall targeted State republican elected officials. This took away labor's only real power, the ability to withhold its labor in defense of collective bargaining.

ILWU Local 10's Executive Board has adopted a Resolution to join and defend the OWS and called for other longshore locals to do the same. More importantly, Local 10 is connecting the OWS movement with the Pacific Northwest dockers struggle with EGT in Longview, Washington. (EGT is an international grain exporter which is attempting to rupture longshore jurisdiction.) The driving force behind EGT is Bunge LTD., a leading agribusiness and food company, which reported $2.4 billion in profits in 2010. This company has strong ties to Wall Street. This is but one example of Wall Street's corporate attack on union workers.

On October 12th, the vice-president and secretary-treasurer of ILWU Local 21 in Longview, WA, who are engaged in battle with EGT, were allowed to speak by the organizers of "Foreclosure on Wall Street West". They explained their struggle to several hundred people attending the rally that took place in the San Francisco financial district. This is an important and strategic show of solidarity between labor and OWS.

It was Black trade unionists that conceived and launched the MWM. Black workers and other workers of color should play an integral role in expanding the power and influence of OWS. The Black unemployment rate is 24% and growing. This needs to be a part of the discussion of the peoples' assemblies as it concerns empowering this peoples' movement.

Working people need to have a political expression of our own which is an alternative to the U.S. corporate sector that both the Democrats and the Republicans represent. The timing of the MWM in Washington was to prepare the beginning of a fight-back precisely because the agendas of two political parties, acting as one, the corporate agenda of permanent war, destruction of all social services, Jim Crow and a relentless assault upon working people.

This is an opportune moment for rank and file working people to forge a mass movement for fundamental change. Rarely has the importance of unity in struggle been more compelling along an axis of class independence.

Only by our own independent mobilization of working people (99%) across America, can we open the way to addressing a peoples' agenda. The MWM and OWS are both about building grass roots and rank and file anti-racist unity "forging the fight-back" on all governmental and corporate policies influenced and or directed by Wall Street.

Let's take it to the corporate state, Let the 1% take the weight!

-- October 17, 2011

Clarence Thomas

ILWU Local 10, Executive Board

Co-Chair MWM

Leo Robinson

ILWU Local 10, Retired

National Convener

Chris Silvera

Teamsters Local 808, Sec-Treasurer

Co-Convener MWM East Coast

Trent Willis

ILWU Local 10, Executive Board

Conceiver, MWM

Saladin Muhammad

Black Workers for Justice

Convener MWM Southern Region

Gabriel Prawl

ILWU Local 52

Co-Convener MWM Pacific Northwest

Jerry Lawrence

ILWU Local 8

Debby Stringfellow

ILWU Local 8

* * * * *

Website: www.millionworkermarch.org

Ecosocialism

From Monthly Review:

When we say revolution, we are talking about a profound change in the way humans relate to the earth, in how we produce and reproduce, in almost everything humans do and how we do it. What we're aiming for is not just a reorganization of capitalism, and not just changes in ownership, but for what Fred Magdoff, in an article in a recent issue of Monthly Review, calls "a truly ecological civilization -- one that exists in harmony with natural systems." Magdoff lists eight characteristics that such a civilization would have. It would:

•stop growing when basic human needs are satisfied;
•not entice people to consume more and more;
•protect natural life support systems and respect the limits to natural resources, taking into account needs of future generations;
•make decisions based on long-term societal/ecological needs, while not neglecting short-term needs of people;
•run as much as possible on current (including recent past) energy instead of fossil fuels;
•foster human characteristics and a culture of cooperation, sharing, reciprocity, and responsibility to neighbors and community;
•make possible the full development of human potential, and;
•promote truly democratic political and economic decision making for local, regional, and multiregional needs.

As Fred Magdoff says, a society with those characteristics would be "the opposite of capitalism in essentially all respects."

Read more here.

STATEMENT FROM THE ANTI-CAPITALIST LEFT IN GREECE

It’s enough! The hour of the rising has come!

Antarsya

The government has crossed all limits. It’s not enough that the workers, the unemployed, the young people, pensioners and professionals are plunged into misery—Finance Minister Venizelos went so far as to announce in Parliament—we should also be happy to be “under control”! The PASOK government and the interests of capital that it represents, in absolute harmony with the Troika, felt extremely positive shortly before announcing their slaughter package! The humiliation is almost perfect. At the same moment as their policy becomes bankrupt, and as working families are driven into bankruptcy, the holy alliance of government, the EU, and the IMF want to make us believe that there is no other way to save the country from bankruptcy. In reality they are the ones who lead us into bankruptcy under the control, and according to the terms of, the banks and multinational companies, the EU and the Greek industrialists (SEV).

There is another path, the path of the anti-capitalist break with the ruling order, in order to impose the interests of working people: by stopping the payments to the bankers and the cancellation of debt, by withdrawing from the euro zone and leaving the EU, by the nationalization of banks, state-owned enterprises and enterprises of strategic importance under workers’ control and without compensation, through a radical redistribution of wealth, by increasing wages, pensions and public spending in order to cover social needs and to create jobs by an adequate capital tax and the redistribution of profits through the cancellation of bank debts for those without vast fortunes, and for the unemployed.

We wont pay your poll taxes!

We shall bring about your downfall

The unified mass political movement will open the way, an uprising of all workers and of the entire population is needed here and now! With unlimited strikes and a nationwide general strike, with occupations as they have already begun in the ministries, with militant demonstrations, and with the democratic coordination of the branches that started fighting and of the rank and file basic trade union units, things can move beyond the bureaucratic leaderships of GSEE (private sector) and ADEDY (public service). Through the united struggle of student occupations and unlimited strikes we can win! It is time for a popular uprising that will lead to the overthrow of the government of shame, that will unshackle the rule of EU, IMF and capital and that will seal the defeat of the black bloc of PASOK, ND and LAOS. All the forces of the Left and the movement involved in the struggles must contribute through their joint action to an unprecedented revolutionary movement.

ANTARSYA fights for the abolition of capitalist barbarism as a whole and is involved with all its forces in the current conflict.

ANTARSYA, 21 Sep 2011

ANTARSYA is an alliance of the anti-capitalist revolutionary left in Greece.

"organizing, an alternate cultural model": what's wrong with Parecon?

Parecon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participatory_economics, http://www.zcommunications.org/znet) has a relatively detailed prescription for an alternate cultural model. Some of the ideas seem feasible and much of it seems consistent with the ideals of socialism. To all of you much more experienced than I, what is missing or mistaken in their program? (If this has been argued here before, send me there.) Thanks

I agree with Ethnicguy's point that socialists should participate in the OWS movement with an eye toward helping with organization and coherence. However, I disagree about the desirability of a vanguard party, either now or in the foreseeable future. It is important to help organize so that the movement, which we admire, can persist and grow, keep its energy, and develop as it goes a more coherent agenda. I believe that, as socialists, we should be willing to learn from the movement at the grass roots level, and not assume that we have all or most of the answers for them, although we do have much to contribute in terms of organizational skills, commitment, experience, and ideas--all in due time. And there will be (already have been some) moments of struggle or contestation when the movement's direction is or seems to be at stake, and at such times we can offer guidance (and of course participation) as long as we are trusted. In fact we need to do this. At times we must speak up. Ethnicguy has already run into one such difficult moment (and person). It is not easy. We all want authentic democratic procedure to prevail and thrive.

We can offer ideas about democratic governance, and democratic control of the economy and workplaces--Wall Street must pay Main Street. We can speak up for the need for a single-payer universal health care system. We know that everyone everywhere has the human right to decent housing, adequate nutrition, free public education of high quality, and fulfilling work. We know that gender, ethnic, and racial equality are socially necessary, and that society has to be thoroughly pro-choice. We also know that all living things have the right to a sound natural environment. And that all of these are intertwined, and are needed now, at this moment, not in some distant future. We also know that all of these rights apply to all people everywhere. Socialism has to be international as well as democratic.

I'm sure there's more. But maybe this, with Ethnicguy's and other posts, will help make a start.

Occupy Salem: Why I Am Here, continues

Last night's General Assembly was attended by 60+ people, in the light of a street lamp.

We are forming and re-forming groups and committees. The kitchen and medical tent are permanent. The search is on a permanent (indoor) location for  important functions. Medical care is available on site 24/7 for anyone at no charge.

A march and rally will be held every Saturday at noon. This Sunday, Oct 23, http://www.facebook.com/OccupiedConcerts at the Capitol will feature Sol Seed and Boy Eats Drum Machine.

Photos of General Assembly (evening) Oct 17: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/116291326634916181002/albums/5664713393676128033?hl=en

More video interviews: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL87AC3F881281C82D&feature=viewall

Occupy Salem And Occupy Portland Give Me a Lot To Think About---Part Two

Yesterday I posted the first part of this article and I tried to use it to direct readers to a very important article in the People's Voice and to raise some of the questions Occupy Salem and Occupy Portland are leaving me with. I attempted to do this by talking about my own experiences as young person on the left in the early 1970s. My first article was, to be sure, somewhat idealized, but it also captured the feeling of the times I lived in.

The movements I mentioned in my first article did not succeed for the most part. The reasons for this lack of success are complex: a lack of leadership and the absence of a true vanguard political party, internal divisions, the hangover of McCarthyism, police and government repression, the lack of a unified program at the end of the Vietnam war, the lack of a working class base, the racist attack by the right on the civil rights and independence movements (Puerto Rico, Azatlan, the Black Belt, etc.) and the recession which hit hard in 1975 are to my mind the main reasons why our movements did not go further than they did. Still, this gives those of us who were active then something to say to the occupation movement today. We also have much to learn from this new movement.

I want to repeat the themes I raised yesterday in a more concise and less narrative form for the new movement.

First, socialism is the only solution to the problems capitalism has created. The occupation movement has raised and exposed all of these problems in one way or another. We need to project the socialist alternative as the only practical alternative. The occupation movement, or a portion of it, will come to this view in its time.

A socialist movement in the US will not be a movement of the 99%. The working class, which is the only class capable of building socialism, is not 99% of the US population, and within that class even fewer people work and are exploited at the points of production and distribution. These people are the logical leaders of the socialist movement and the revolution needed to get us there. A revolution depends more on political will and the model and hope of an alternative culture than it does on majorities and minorities. The working class neeeds to lead the other oppressed social classes and groups to socialism.

The main part of my article, however, was concerned with some movement basics. No social movement can grow without theory and clear thinking, organizing, an alternate cultural model, opposition to racism and sexism, making going into the streets seem necessary and desireable, transformed individual and social relationships which show solidarity and love, class consciousness and class anger and networks of organizations which both take care of people and organize them for power simultaneously. And this is still not enough, because out of each struggle must come leaders who can unite and create and maintain a lasting political organization, a revolutionary political party, which speaks to the very best in the hopes of the exploited and oppressed people and gives them hope.

As I said in the first part of this article, our Old Left language sounds foreign to the occupation movement. This will probably bounce off of the activists who read this blog.

Let's approach it another way. These are the questions the occupation movement leaves me with. I'll address these questions directly and in solidarity to the movement.

*You say that you don't have leaders, but I see people leading every general assembly and others following. How do you account for that?

*You say that you are not political, but everything you do has a political edge and political content to it. How do you account for that?

*You say that you will not make demands because that admits that we cannot do something ourselves. How then can we free the political prisoners or improve the standard of living?

*What are your class, race and gender politics?

OCCUPY LONDON FINDS A FRIEND IN JESUS AND ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL

FROM THE GUARDIAN:

In their stand against mammon, protesters occupying St Paul's churchyard to vent anger at reckless bankers found heartwarming support emanating from the house of God.

Far from requesting that the 300-strong crowd be removed from the cathedral steps on Sunday , the Rev Dr Giles Fraser, canon chancellor of St Paul's, requested that the police themselves move on as theOccupy London Stock Exchange protest entered its second day.

A line of officers had taken up position at the top of the steps to "protect" the building. "Which was very good of them," explained the canon. But then he had asked them if they would leave, "because I didn't feel that it needed that sort of protection".

And so those attending Sunday mass found themselves picking a path through the makeshift camp of around 100 tents erected at the foot of the cathedral's steps after Saturday's global day of action inspired by the US's Occupy Wall Street movement.

With the sermon of the day appropriately including a gospel reading about "God and money", the regular congregation was joined by some of the protesters. The canon had warned them the cathedral bells were "really loud", so it was an early start to their first full day of occupation.

An attempt on Saturday to set up camp outside the London Stock Exchange in nearby privately-owned Paternoster Square had been thwarted by police. But all the indications on Sunday were that a hard core of dedicated protesters were digging in for the long haul at St Paul's.

A field kitchen was being erected, offering basics donated by wellwishers. A first aid point was set up in front of a poster renaming the area as Tahrir Square. A media area, powered by a generator, was aiming to stream activities from the camp live on to the internet. A line of seven portable toilets had also been installed. "Pick up your litter" was one of the continual announcements over the camp's megaphone.

A spokesman said the purpose of the occupation was "to challenge the bankers and the financial institutions which recklessly gambled with the economy. This and 20 other occupations all around the UK have been directly inspired by what's happening all across America and especially in Wall Street."

Roy Alexander, 39, from Surrey, said: "We're planning to stay here indefinitely, we'll stay here and make a stand. I think we'll have more people join."

The protest indeed appeared to have struck a chord with many who were new to demonstrating. "I'm 40. Never been on a protest before. But I found myself here," said one man, who asked not to be named, from Sheffield. "I'm pretty middle of the road politically, so I wasn't sure about all the Socialist Workers placards at first. But this issue has attracted people from all walks of life. I'm a diehard atheist – there's a woman over there with a 'Jesus is Calling' placard. It's all of us."

Another on his first protest was Ollie Taylor, 23, from Aldershot. "I feel really, really strongly about this issue. I really think it is going to snowball." He, like many others, was having to leave the protest to return to his job, working in a photographic studio. But many pledged to return.

Police appeared relaxed, keeping a visible but low-key presence, and chatting and mingling with protesters. It was a different situation on Saturday, when an estimated 3,000-4,000 protesters converged on the cathedral. Supporters claimed a disproportionate amount of force was used and people were "kettled, grabbed and thrown off the steps forcefully".

The Metropolitan police said some "containment" had been in place to prevent a breach of the peace. Eight people were arrested, of whom six were charged with offences including affray and cannabis possession.

How long the camp will be allowed to stay remains to be seen. Asked about the impact it would have on businesses in the area, one shop supervisor said: "I can't imagine the shops in Paternoster Square are too happy about it – they haven't been able to open since yesterday."

As for the cathedral's blessing, the canon stressed that while he had not given specific backing to the occupation of St Paul's churchyard, he supported the democratic right to protest peacefully. "It's cold, isn't it going to be cold tonight?" he said. "We'll see how it goes. We're taking one day at a time and it's really good it's all worked out well for us today."