“STRIKE STORY” TO BE PERFORMED IN LITTLE FALLS: Readers’ Theatre Play March 2, 2013 at Masonic Temple

“Strike Story”, a play based on the events of the Little Falls 1912 Textile Strike, will be presented on March 2, 2013 at 7 PM at the Masonic Temple in Little Falls. First produced for the Strike Centennial in October, the play uses newspaper reports, government documents, and personal memoirs to tell the story of the strike in the voices of the participants.

The readers’ theatre format makes the immediate connection between the original language and the story of the strike. Written by Angela Harris of Little Falls, the play is directed by Matt Powers, also of Little Falls. Among the cast are local residents Katie Drake, Laura Hailston Powers, Tom Stock, Frank Wilcox, and Robert and Barbara Albrecht, and former resident Jeanne McAvoy.

The Strike began on October 9, 1912, with a walkout of women mill workers in response to a reduction of weekly wages. Lasting three months, the strike involved Polish, Italian, Slovak, and Slovenian immigrant workers who were assisted by national union organizers, including Matilda Rabinowitz, Big Bill Haywood, and Ben Legere. Helen Keller contributed to the strike fund. The Strike brought a national spotlight to the city; and locally, one hundred years later, there are still strong feelings about the implications of the strike for the long term economic health the area.

March is Women’s History Month, and “Strike Story” presents a piece of Little Falls history that shows the role of women in cultural, social, and economic history of the city.

Tickets are available at $5 at The Mustard Seed in Canal Place. Tickets will be available at the theater door, starting at 6:30 on Saturday, March 2 before the performance. The Masonic Temple is at 5 Prospect Street, Little Falls.

 

Feb 25 Event:The Black Panthers & the Civil Rights Movement

Monday, February 25
6:30-8:00pm
Utica Public Library in the Gallery

Free to the public!

The Black Panther Party has been vilified as extreme, violent and anti-white. This presentation will dispel these myths by showing the community organizing tradition of the Panthers, their coalitions with other groups and COINTELPRO – the government program created to destroy the Panthers and the New Left of the 1960s-70s. Special attention will be given to the community programs of the Panthers such as the free breakfast program and free community clinics. Come listen to this exciting history accompanied with a power-point presentation.

 

Occupy Utica’s Story Reaches Millions Worldwide

The French monthly publication Le Monde Diplomatique published an article about Occupy Utica in its January edition. According to Le Monde’s website, the French leftwing publication, which has seventy-two editions in twenty-seven languages, reaches an estimated 2.5 million people worldwide. The editors of the paper selected the article on Occupy Utica from fifty other articles from the book recently published by AK Press We Are Many: Reflections on Movement Strategy from Occupation to Liberation.

This publication comes at a time when Occupy Utica activists are strategizing over grassroots organizing in the community, with talk of launching a Freedom School, fighting for tenants’ rights and working with others to open a community organizing center. Although the Occupy Movement does not have the bite or momentum it did in its early days, and was suppressed by the FBI, many groups like Occupy Utica are still active across the US. Occupy Sandy Relief, Occupy our Homes and Strike Debt / Rolling Jubilee are some of the major campaigns launched out of Occupy that are still humming with activity.

The article can be viewed in the AK Press book We Are Many, available at http://www.akpress.org, or can be read in Le Monde Diplomatique. As the article states, “It is in small cities like Utica where the real power of a social movement is measured and where parallel grassroots power can thrive.” Perhaps the editors of Le Monde picked up on that and decided to share it with the world.

Brendan Maslauskas Dunn

This is part of the article in French

Pendant ce temps, à Utica

par Brendan Maslauskas Dunn, janvier 2013

Loin de se limiter à l’île de Manhattan, le mouvement Occuper Wall Street s’est répandu à travers les Etats-Unis, y compris dans de petites villes — telle Utica, Etat de New York — où il a revêtu un visage bien plus revendicatif.

« Utica partage le destin de la plupart des petites villes de la Rust Belt [la « ceinture de la rouille », c’est-à-dire les Etats du Nord-Est industriel]. Jadis centre économique florissant — présence d’une industrie textile et de General Electric, en particulier—, elle a été, au cours des cinquante dernières années, désertée par la plupart des grandes industries ; sa population fut divisée par deux. Désormais, les principaux employeurs sont des prisons et un centre de distribution Walmart. La ville n’est plus que l’ombre d’elle-même. Le capitalisme n’a pas été tendre avec elle, mais Occuper lui a insufflé de l’espoir.

« Utica n’a pas, loin s’en faut, de tradition protestataire, mais quand le mouvement Occuper est apparu au beau milieu d’une nuit, (…)

http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/

http://mondediplo.com/

http://www.akpress.org/wearemany.html

 

Resistance Against Drone Warfare Heats Up

Resistance Against Drone Warfare Heats Up

While President Obama’s inauguration was underway, three antiwar activists sat in jail in a Syracuse, NY suburb for protesting the use of Reaper drones at Hancock Airbase, one of countless air bases that operate drones in the US. The three activists are part of a growing resistance to the use of drones by the US military. On December 16 they were sentenced along with nine others for protesting outside the base’s main entrance. Two other activists already spent time in jail for taking part in the actions.

Senator Chuck Schumer made a recent visit to Utica to address a pressing issue. It was not however the deteriorating local economy or public school budget cuts. The pressing issue of the day was the need to revive the F-16 fly-over at the end of the Boilermaker Road Race. A more pressing issue Schumer danced around was the reason why the F-16s no longer do the fly-over. Hancock Airbase in Syracuse switched its primary function from piloting F-16s to remotely pilot un-manned drones in 2010.

Schumer is a fervent supporter of drone warfare. In 2011 he pushed for the use of drones to fly over the Adirondack Park for testing and surveillance purposes. Drones are the unmanned military aircraft that have greatly expanded the theater of war. President Obama has greatly increased the use of drones for surveillance and targeted assassinations from his predecessor. Although the US military argues drones are safer than using troops on the ground, create little to no “collateral damage” (military speak for civilian deaths) and ultimately protect US soldiers, the reality on the ground is a drastically different situation.

President Obama has increased the use of drones in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. And although his administration claims the use of drones is to target al Qaeda militants, the majority of deaths have been civilian. The President personally signs off on the names of people to be assassinated on an ever-growing “kill list” that has human rights and civil liberties supporters worried.

In Washington D.C., social critic and author Cornel West and rapper Lupe Fiasco made statements critical of the President’s pro-war policies and use of drones. In a panel moderated by Tavis Smiley, Dr. West criticized President Obama for placing his hand on Martin Luther King’s Bible for the inauguration.

“You don’t use his prophetic fire as just a moment of presidential pageantry without understanding the challenge that he presents to all of those in power no matter what color they are,” said Dr. West. He distanced the pro-war President from Dr. King who called the US government “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world” in his famous 1967 speech “Beyond Vietnam: Time to Break the Silence” given at Harlem’s Riverside Church. West also challenged Obama for the use of drones in killing “our precious brothers and sisters” in Pakistan and other nations. Lupe Fiasco was thrown off a stage by security during an inaugural celebration he performed at after stating he didn’t vote for Obama and performing a piece highly critical of the president’s foreign policy. Fiasco has made statements in the past criticizing the use of drones.

The targeted assassination of US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki on September 30, 2011 was the first apparent targeted killing of a US citizen since the War on Terror started. Al-Awlaki was once viewed as a moderate imam and was an invited guest to the White House during George W. Bush’s presidency, but the War on Terror pushed him to more extreme views and eventual involvement with al Qaeda. The Obama administration took an even more extreme measure when Al-Awlaki’s 16-year-old American son was marked for assassination. He had never committed any acts of terrorism. He was looking for his father he had not seen for two years and was assassinated two weeks after his father.

The Obama administration stresses that the use of drones is legal but the entire program remains largely secretive, with the administration still refusing to divulge any details of the program or any legal justification for it. The use of the Reaper Drone, which operates out of Hancock Airbase, was called “al Qaeda’s best recruitment tool” by Syracuse antiwar activist Ed Kinane. Faisal Shahzad, who attempted to bomb Times Square, justified his terror plot against civilians by stating to his judge during his 2010 sentencing, “When the drones hit, they don’t see children.”

An antiwar activist for most of his life, Kinane was in Baghdad to protect civilians during the “Shock and Awe” invasion of Iraq in 2003 with the peace group Voices in the Wilderness. He said the experience was “terrifying” as he described in court the shaking of his hotel and having no idea when or where the next bombs would hit. It was not the first war zone he was in as a peace activist and would not be the last. He traveled to Afghanistan in 2011 where he witnessed the harrowing effects of the US occupation. He told the packed courtroom, which included three uniformed Air National Guard soldiers from Hancock, about the drone attack that killed an entire jurga, or political council, in Afghanistan.

In the aftermath of the mass shooting tragedy in Newtown, CT, author Vijay Prashad highlighted the deaths of children that the US public ignores and the US government sanctions. He wrote in the Daily Hampshire Gazette on December 17 that, “No memorials exist as well for the 178 children killed by U.S. drone strikes in the borderlands of Pakistan and Afghanistan.” He also lamented the loss of 83 children who were killed while in their school in Bajaur, Pakistan on October 30, 2006 from a US drone strike. There was no mass mourning in the US over that tragedy.

Eyewitnesses on the ground in Pakistan describe how drones attack people. The first hellfire missile is shot by a drone to kill its intended target. After neighbors and first responders arrive on the scene, a second hellfire missile is shot in a scene of indiscriminate killing. This pattern has led first responders to wait, sometimes hours, before going to sites suspected of being targeted by drones.

“Everyone is scared all the time. When we’re sitting together to have a meeting, we’re scared there might be a strike. When you can hear the drone circling in the sky, you think it might strike you,” said Dawood Ishaq (anonymized name) who lives in Pakistan. The fear of death is a reality and Ed Kinane and his fellow activists tried in court on December 16 for protesting Reaper Drones argue that because of what the drones operated out of Hancock are doing in Pakistan, Central New York, and De Witt in particular, are now part of the war zone and are at risk of future attacks.

John Hamilton was tried along with Ed Kinane and 10 other co-defendants. His family came from the South and grew up during the Civil Rights era. He learned about lynching growing up, an act of terror that had a profound impact in shaping his worldview. “Judges allowed extra-judicial murder in their jurisdictions in the South,” he told the packed courtroom. He drew comparisons between Southern judges that refused to go after whites who lynched Black civilians and judges today who refuse to do anything about the “lynchings” of Pakistani children.

De Witt Judge Robert Jokl was not swayed. Five of the activists were sentenced to 15 day jail terms each. But many agreed that their sentencing would not deter future actions at Hancock. A Ground the Drones, End the Wars weekend of education and action is planned for April 26-28. As the death count of civilians killed by drones rises, more resistance is inevitable at Hancock. As John Hamilton said in court, people need to “end lynching, not in some backwoods Alabama town, but here in De Witt in 2012.”

Brendan Maslauskas Dunn

For more information, visit:

http://www.peacecouncil.net/

http://livingunderdrones.org/

 

Occupy Sandy Relief: Rebuilding, Resistance and the Arson of a Church

Occupy Sandy Relief: Rebuilding, Resistance and the Arson of a Church

The historic Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew in Brooklyn’s Clinton Hill neighborhood was bustling with activity on a brisk, mid-December day. A convoy of vans filled with supplies for victims of Hurricane Sandy just left, volunteers were sorting through boxes of donations, and two dozen Occupy activists were stationed in a room upstairs, some hunkered over computers and others debating over organizing and outreach strategies for Occupy Sandy Relief.  The walls were covered with maps of New York City, a weekly schedule with the note “please take at least one day off” and a hanging Marine Corps uniform.

The owner of the uniform is Rob Zillig who served in the Marines from 2004 to 2008 in the Biological Incident Response Force; basically, his time in the Marines was spent learning about hazmat and disaster response. He is active with Occupy Buffalo and travelled down to New York City to help with disaster relief work after Hurricane Sandy slammed into the city. He tried to work with every organization and agency imaginable – FEMA, the Red Cross – but it was an uphill battle trying to cut through the bureaucracy. He arrived at the Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew accidentally after getting lost on the subway. He simply walked in the front door and went to work. One of the attractions of the model of Occupy Sandy Relief is the relative ease volunteers have to actually do relief work.

Occupy Sandy organizer Alexandra Shwarzstein, like Rob Zellig was drawn to Occupy Sandy’s approach, but unlike him she had never been involved with the original Occupy Wall Street. “A group of people organized in this way can be so highly effective, considering there is no formal structure, no real central group,” she said. Shwarzstein’s background is in fundraising for non-profits, not quite the same thing as Occupy Sandy Relief work.

“I do medical canvassing, work in the kitchen, do dishes, coordination, demolitions,” said Zillig. Also active with Occupy Marines and an antiwar activist, Zillig dons his uniform from time to time and does “a lot of outreach with veterans and police,” emphasizing that much of his outreach is the simple yet important act of “listening to people.” Zillig’s approach echoes a core belief of Occupy Sandy Relief, one that sets it apart from most other relief organizations, non-profits and government agencies: mutual aid.

The orientation Occupy Sandy organizers give to volunteers emphasizes the bottom-up grassroots approach to relief work and the concept of mutual aid as it relates to hurricane recovery. An “Occupy Sandy FAQ” handout given to all volunteers spells it out in simple language:

Mutual aid is an act that seeks to transform relationships & society for the better. It is about      working with people towards their own liberation and security by providing concrete support to          ensure that people have the power to change the conditions of their own lives.

This bottom-up approach clearly contrasts the top-down nature of charity work. The slogan “Solidarity Not Charity” holds considerable weight with Occupy Sandy organizers and volunteers and it was this slogan emblazoned on the front of The Other Side next to Café Domenico when Occupy Utica used it as a donation drop-off site for relief supplies. Common Ground Relief, set up in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, operates on this same premise.

Occupy Utica joined a vast network of mutual aid in action that found its nexus at the Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew, which at one time was one of nearly 50 Occupy Sandy hubs and supply drop-off sites in New York and New Jersey. Volunteers in Utica sorted through donations, sent truckloads of supplies into Brooklyn and a few made it to the devastated neighborhood of Far Rockaway to gut houses that took in 8 feet of water from the hurricane. Some of the most active support came from those not usually seen working with Occupy – the veterans organization 40 and 8 and Tea Party supporters. The inability of the government to rapidly respond to the devastation of the hurricane was not just seen by those active in Occupy. The utter cluelessness of the Bloomberg administration in New York City could be seen in the meetings and orientations given by Occupy Sandy Relief where Bloomberg officials and other city representatives who months earlier had led the crackdown on occupy Wall Street in Zuccotti Park were now looking to Occupy for direction and answers.

In some neighborhoods like Far Rockaway in Queens and Sunset Park in Brooklyn, Occupy Sandy Relief was leading the relief work. In many cases Occupy Sandy Relief offered the first form of real assistance residents had received in days, sometimes weeks after the hurricane hit, leading many residents to ask why was it that Occupy activists were more organized than FEMA, the Red Cross and the New York City and US governments? Why, with only a shoestring budget was Occupy able to do what the richest and most powerful government in the world could not? Other questions arose and dots were connected between the storm and climate change, and government prioritization of funding wars and bailing out Wall Street while those who lost everything from the hurricane received nothing.

Recovery work quickly shifted to resistance. Residents in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood started to plan rent strikes, marches, lawsuits and other militant actions over the government’s complete failure in providing heat, electricity and water weeks after the hurricane. Occupy Sandy Relief organized marches on December 15 in Staten Island, the Rockaways and at the house of billionaire Mayor Bloomberg to demand more aid and immediate action from the government. With the coldness of winter now in place and thousands displaced by the hurricane, these actions may only intensify.

In the early morning hours of December 24, the unthinkable happened. The entrance of the Church of St. Mark and St. Matthew engulfed in flames. Three Occupy activists inside the church had to flee for their lives and it took one hundred firefighters to put out the flames. The arson is still under investigation. Many see it as politically motivated and a few are wondering who exactly is behind it. The same week that the arson occurred, it was revealed through public records released through FOIA that the FBI spied on Occupy and coordinated political repression against the movement.

Programs like Occupy Sandy Relief, when launched by radicals on the Left have been viewed as considerable threats by the US government in the past because they show people just how incapable the US government is in caring for those affected by disasters. If radicals can provide the most basic needs then people start to question altogether the role that the government actually plays. In the case of Occupy, unlikely organizations like the Tea Party and 40 and 8 locally, start to warm up to the concept of Occupy and work in affinity with it. This is why FBI informant Brandon Darby infiltrated Common Ground Relief, established in New Orleans by a Black Panther and anarchists in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

J Edgar Hoover viewed the free breakfast for children program of the Black Panther Party as the biggest threat to US national security in the 1960s and 70s. Under his leadership, the FBI waged a low-intensity war against the Panthers that included targeted assassinations and ultimately destroyed the organization. The FBI threatened and harassed countless priests and congregations who had opened their doors to the free breakfast program of the Panthers. If the FBI has done this in the past, what would stop them from doing this now? Of course it is only speculation at this point, but like Common Ground and like the Panthers, Occupy Sandy Relief is showing people that the primary concern of this system is to bail out the rich while a bailout for those affected and displaced by Hurricane Sandy are still suffering. Mutual aid may become a more attractive model to people as Occupy Sandy gears up for a long-term plan of recovery and resistance.

Brendan Maslauskas Dunn

 

Justice for John McDevitt: How an Afghan War Veteran and Occupy Utica brought Bank of America to its Knees

(This article was first published in The Utica Phoenix in print and online in April 2012. Unfortunately, the paper’s website was hacked into oblivion months ago and this article was one that disappeared. If supporters of John McDevitt, who is still active with Occupy Utica, want to nominate him to be this year’s grand marshal for the Utica St. Patrick’s Day Parade, please email info@gaif.us saying so.)

Occupy Utica delivered a major public relations blow to Bank of America last week and won a victory for the Occupy movement. Master Sergeant John McDevitt of Clayville, in an epic David versus Goliath battle with an institution too big to fail, took national media by storm after he and a few Occupy Utica activists picketed the Bank of America branch on Mohawk Street. Every Occupier has their own story of why they joined the movement. This is the story of John McDevitt.

John McDevitt has been in the Army for most of his life. He joined in 1978 and saw combat in the first Gulf War, Bosnia, and most recently in Afghanistan where he was sent to Kandahar in 2010. While there he worked as a budget analyst with the first unit deployed to Afghanistan tasked to analyze and monitor money being spent by the military. He acted as an internal watchdog to see why so much money was spent so quickly and where it all went. Both on the job and off he was meticulous with tracking money – an attribute that would eventually haunt Bank of America. While stationed in Afghanistan he went on two weeks Rest and Relaxation in November 2010 to a place he had always wanted to visit – Athens, Greece.

While in Athens he took some time to relax from the war zone and visited ancient ruins, temples and walked the winding streets of the historic city. One night he asked a taxi driver to bring him to a night club and was dropped off at one called Palia Plaka. He stayed for a little over an hour at the bar and bought a few drinks, charging them to his Bank of America debit card. He left the nightclub, never to return for the duration of his trip. When his two weeks were up and he flew back to Afghanistan he checked his Bank of America account online and was shocked to discover that over $25,000, $25,243.71 to be exact, was charged to his debit card. A red flag should have gone up to Bank of America but if it did the bank did not bother to temporarily close his account. When asked if he spent that amount of money he said, “I wish. No one spends that kind of money in one day except the one percent.”

He immediately notified Bank of America and found himself struggling to get his money back for the next year and a half. He was eventually able to secure sales drafts from the club with signatures that were clearly forged. Although McDevitt pointed this out to the bank they sided with the merchant. He diligently kept track of all the correspondence he had with bank representatives. The paperwork continued to pile up. Bank of America’s position was that it was not their responsibility to protect their customer; rather, it was entirely the responsibility of Palia Plaka and McDevitt to find closure in the case. His claim went all the way to the Office of the CEO and President of Bank of America only to be shot down.

When he found that his bank would not stand up for him, he reached out to lawyers and government agencies for help. He went all the way up to the newly formed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) for assistance. The CFPB was established by the Obama Administration for the very purpose of helping people like McDevitt but was unwilling to do so. Every bank, corporate and government official he went to either denied his fraud claim, or ignored him outright. He felt that he had exhausted every avenue of seeking justice and getting his money back. He had nowhere else to go and much of this money was saved up for his daughter’s wedding which was rapidly approaching. Then he heard about Occupy and it changed everything.

Finding Occupy

McDevitt stumbled on an article online about a group calling itself Occupy Atlanta. He had never heard of Occupy Wall Street, the occupation of Zuccotti Park in Manhattan, the mass arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge, or even Occupy Utica. In December, Occupy Atlanta activists occupied the home of Iraq War veteran Brigette Walker when she was fighting an imminent foreclosure of her home by JPMorgan Chase. McDevitt recalls hearing this story. “This poor girl was fighting Chase. Chase was so cold hearted, [but] Occupy Atlanta put them on the spot.” In the end, Occupy Atlanta was able to get JPMorgan Chase to offer a loan modification and the home was saved. Occupy Atlanta continued to occupy abandoned homes and fight foreclosures but had no idea their action would transform an Army veteran in rural Upstate New York.

The message Occupy Atlanta sent was clear: Occupy helps veterans. McDevitt discovered Occupy Utica online, found the group’s nightly internet radio program Occupied Radio, called in and told his story. Occupy Utica was quick to respond, meeting him at his house to make sure his fraud claim was accurate, interviewing him, setting up the website JusticeforJohn.org, spreading awareness and working with him every step of the way to develop a strategy to get his money back. The group took tactics of escalation borrowed from Seattle Solidarity Network, a grassroots organization of workers and tenants that takes direct action to fight for the rights of those wronged by abusive bosses and landlords.

Direct Action Gets the Goods

Occupy Utica decided to start small and simple in a series of escalating protests against Bank of America. On March 10th several occupiers accompanied McDevitt into the Bank of America branch on Mohawk Street. The group split up with some outside with signs and two accompanying McDevitt in the bank. A demand letter was given to the acting manager of the branch with the “one simple demand” that John McDevitt be given his money back. The letter ended by informing the bank that “this issue no longer solely belongs to Mr. McDevitt: it belongs to Occupy Utica and Occupy Wall Street.” John was no longer alone. He now had the backing of the big bank’s rival. A two week deadline was given.

The manager notified his superiors of the demand letter and said he was not responsible to handle this matter. McDevitt had heard this story numerous times before. He again got a letter in the mail from the bank telling him that the case was closed. On March 31st, with the intent to start small and escalate in the future, a very modest four person picket stood outside of Bank of America with signs, flyers detailing the Justice for John campaign, and brochures from First Source Credit Union so the picketers could urge customers of the bank to move their money to a sane financial institution. The police were immediately called and four cops arrived on the scene, leaving shortly after they learned what the situation was. John’s sign stated, “A Soldier that Puts his Country First, Should have a Bank that Puts the Soldier First” and grabbed the attention of WKTV news. Within only a few days the story was covered by ABC News, Good Morning America, Forbes, the Huffington Post and countless internet sites. Even the Fox News program Fox and Friends is planning on bringing McDevitt to their studio. The story took the nation by storm.

A mere four days after the picket Mcdevitt got a very unexpected call. Jeffrey Cathey, Senior Vice President, Senior Military Affairs Executive of Bank of America told McDevitt he had just gotten out of a meeting and wanted to talk. It took a bit of arguing on McDevitt’s’s part. David was face to face with Goliath and Goliath, for a moment, blinked. He hung up the phone and calmly told those with him that they were giving his money back in full. Who would have thought a four person picket would lead to that outcome? He was ecstatic. “They don’t know who they’re messing with! I’m a radical now! I’m with Occupy!” The old IWW union dictum that “direct action gets the goods” rang true in Clayville that night and soft whispers of the story travelled to Occupy groups, to active duty soldiers, to those robbed and cheated by big banks across the country. A small committed group was able to do what corrupt banks, and government bureaucracies failed to do – find justice and find it quickly.

Debit or Credit?

The story that was lost in the mainstream coverage of McDevitt’s and Occupy’s victory is how this could have been avoided. Corporate media outlets did not put the blame entirely on Bank of America – it was made out to be an individual consumer’s poor choice. Forbes was quick to jump on the story and point out that had McDevitt used credit he would not have been in this situation. But credit is a major contributor to the recent mode of our economic system and of the current economic crisis. Instead of creating an economy where people make a living wage and have all the necessities of life, we have one based largely on money that is not there – credit. And it’s the inability of millions to pay off this credit which chains them to debt. This is not an issue of whether credit is more secure than debit; it’s an issue of the type of financial institution Bank of America is. An institution that is too big to fail and, as Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibii called it in a Bank of America article, “too corrupt to fail” has cheated John McDevitt and millions of others like him out of money, out of homes, and out of livelihoods.

Occupy was successful in helping John McDevitt and it may be successful, if the cards are dealt right, in doing something our government will not – bust up the bank and break it down into smaller ones on the scale of state banks, credit unions and local banks. After all, if McDevitt had banked with a credit union like First Source he would have never been in this situation to begin with. All over the country Occupy groups are protesting Bank of America, having sit-ins, pickets and are encouraging people to move their money to local banks and credit unions.  A recent meeting was held in Utica dubbed the 99% Spring where over thirty people cheered when they heard about McDevitt’s victory and committed to take future action against Bank of America.

McDevitt Looks to the Future

McDevitt finally got his check in the mail and is excitedly planning on opening a new account with First Source Credit Union. He can finally give the money to his daughter for her wedding, thanks in no small part to Occupy Utica. While he was fighting his own battle, he also found time to help out Proctor High School students in planning the recent demonstration against education budget cuts.  John McDevitt and the students that protested the budget cuts are just a handful of people that have for the first time in their lives stood up and taken action against economic injustice. McDeviit put it simply: “I’m excited I finally see people caring. They realize the destruction that the financial system is imposing on us… it’s financial terrorism.” Justice for John was found but for millions of others it has yet to come. John McDevitt is more committed than ever to continue the struggle against those that profit at the expense of others and that includes Bank of America. He made a direct hit at Goliath and if enough people like him do the same, we can take Goliath down.

Brendan Maslauskas Dunn

 

The End of the World that Never Happened

While some anxiously awaited the end of the world that Mayan Indians had supposedly prophesized to take place on December 21, 2012, 40,000 Mayan Indians held silent demonstrations in Chiapas, Mexico. These Mayans, known as the Zapatistas, a name taken from Mexican Revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, marched to celebrate not the end of the world, but the beginning of a new world.

The Zapatistas marched through the streets of towns that they had taken over in a rebellion launched on January 1, 1994, the same day that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed into law. They called NAFTA a “death sentence” for Mexican Indians. NAFTA ushered in an era of deregulation, welfare for the rich, and an organized attack on workers and the poor in the US, Mexico and Canada. Then local Representative Sherwood Boehlert was said to have cast the deciding vote that passed NAFTA in a shady deal with the Bureau of Indian Affairs that thrust Ray Halbritter into the role of “CEO” of the Oneida Indian Nation. Halbritter spearheaded the privatization of the sovereign Oneida Nation and attacks on traditional Oneidas.

Chiapas is one of the poorest states in Mexico but also the richest in terms of natural resources. The Zapatistas have greatly expanded the rights of Indians, women, farmers and workers in Chiapas and helped launch what is known as the global justice movement. In some ways, Occupy Wall Street has some of its roots in the Zapatista rebellion. The enigmatic mask-wearing Zapatista spokesperson Subcomandante Marcos sent a short communique to the world on December 21 stating, “DID YOU HEAR? It is the sound of your world collapsing. It is that of ours rising anew. The day that was the day, used to be night. And night will be the day, that will be the day. Democracy! Freedom! Justice!”

Murmurs of this new world can be seen in the indigenous sovereignty and environmental justice movement Idle No More in Canada. A recent Idle No More protest was held in Syracuse. The Zapatistas may be on to something.

Brendan Maslauskas Dunn