MADE IN CANADA
All roads lead to Wall Street
President Obama, Tear Down the Wall
Two local filmmakers from the Sunshine Coast BC Canada, including acclaimed documentary director Velcrow Ripper from Gibsons, and freelance producer/director Ryan William White from Roberts Creek, find themselves in the heart of New York’s #occupywallstreet protests, catching the action in moving videos, and story.
Flash Mob Politics
It began as a revolt against big bank bailouts, corporate greed and political corruption as 1000′s camped out in New York’s financial district for weeks. There was no main stream media coverage, it was virtually a media “Blackout” but the protest just kept getting bigger and stronger thanks to social media like twitter and facebook.
Now they are calling it “flash mob politics” as it spreads from city to city, from coast to coast, as more and more people take to the streets. Suddenly the media has no choice but to take notice!
And to think it all started with a simple advertisement in an Adbusters Magazine.
#OCCUPYWALLSTREET is a people powered movement for democracy that began in America on September 17 with an encampment in the financial district of New York City. Inspired by the Egyptian Tahrir Square uprising and the Spanish acampadas, we vow to end the monied corruption of our democracy
Arne Hansen contacted me after this article was published. He told me he is the “founding editor” of Adbusters, which was started by himself, Bill Schmaltz and Kale Lasn in 1989. Arne served as associate editor and researcher until 1995.
Adbusters is a magazine based out of Vancouver, British Columia, a Canadian company that takes aim at corporate advertising, calling itself the ‘journal of the mental environment.’.
“The July Adbusters poster inviting people to occupy Wall Street was mostly tongue in cheek. But then it happened, more than 300 times so far across Canada and USA…”
CBC article Oct 14th 2011: Adbusters founders cheer their Occupy idea
With roots that reach as far as Cairo’s fertile Tahrir Square, the Occupy protests roiling Wall Street will finally come full circle this weekend as they blossom in Canada, where they were conceived by Vancouver-based Adbusters. Read more….
The Occupy Wall Street protests have now started to spread across Canada, with the facebook group @OccupyCanada spearheading and networking almost 10,000 fans.
All roads lead to Wall Street President Obama, Tear Down the Wall
In my neck of the woods, on the west coast of Canada, not far from the Sunshine Coast a Global rEVOLution Day – Occupy Vancouver protest is set to begin from October 15th to December 31st, 2011 at the Vancouver Art Gallery, 750 Hornby Street, which will be the base of operations. Organizers say on their facebook event page “Be Prepared to March to the Capitalist Hot Spots in the Surrounding Area.”
Check out the links at the bottom of the article on how you cant get involved. You don’t have to go to Vancouver or any city that might be too far away, just grab a sign and walk down main street in your town!
Our first video is by Director, Producer Ryan William White from Roberts Creek. He went to school at Elphinstone Secondary in Gibsons, and now lives in New York working as a freelance film maker.
Ryan tells me why he made his latest video:
“I wanted to know more about what was going on on Wall Street so I decided to go with my wife Holly to the protest to capture the essence of the day. I know that in the past there had been issues with the police but it seems like the two sides had come to terms and made peace. They had a whole food system set up, a media center and lots of tarps for sleeping on. It was a great day experiencing all the goings on!!”
Occupy wall Street protest
Video: Ryan William White http://www.firewindpictures.com
MUSIC by Nathan Michael Marcuzzi http://www.nmmusic.ca
Thanks for a great video Ryan and Holly. Nice, short, informative, and I just love the music that Ryan uses in the video soundtrack by Nathan Michael Marcuzzi, I’ve been a long time fan of his brilliant lyrics and songs.
The next video and story is by another coast filmmaker Velcrow Ripper who has won numerous international awards and accolades for his beautiful moving documentaries.
The revolution will be tweeted
By Velcrow Ripper (Re-printed with permission)
It has been an electric year for global change — the Arab Spring, the European Summer, the Israeli Summer and now — what shall we call it? The American Fall? The occupation of Wall Street began on September 17, and is expected to continue for weeks to come. According to Adbusters, who launched the action, 5,000 descended on September 17th, with three hundred camping out. It’s ten days later, and the numbers are growing in “Liberty Square,” where the protesters have camped out, as are solidarity actions in the financial districts of other cities.
#OccupyWallStreet is becoming a living laboratory for direct democracy. The cry is “we are the 99 per cent” — a reference to the fact that 1 per cent of the population of the U.S. is holding the vast amount of wealth. The gap between rich and poor is staggering, and cannot be sustained. It’s time we stopped letting the hopes and dreams, bellies and ecologies of the planet be controlled by a crazed gang of Wall Street gamblers obsessed with profit, fuelled by greed and caught in a myopic world view that can’t see beyond the next quarter, let alone seven generations. As artist-activist Noah Fischer, wearing an Abe Lincoln Penny mask emblazoned with the words “In Gold We Trust,” told me on Day 6, “it is the fall of the empire of greed.”
On the ninth night of the encampment, it was moving to receive a message from Noam Chomsky, read out to the general assembly via the “people’s mic” — a technique in which the whole group repeats the words of a speaker, enabling everyone to hear. Imagine each of these lines read, and then chanted:
“Anyone with eyes open knows that the gangsterism of Wall Street — financial institutions generally — has caused severe damage to the people of the United States (and the world). That has set in motion a vicious cycle that has concentrated immense wealth, and with it political power, in a tiny sector of the population, a fraction of 1 per cent, while the rest increasingly become what is sometimes called “a precariat” — seeking to survive in a precarious existence. They also carry out these ugly activities with almost complete impunity — not only too big to fail, but also too big to jail. The courageous and honourable protests underway in Wall Street should serve to bring this calamity to public attention, and to lead to dedicated efforts to overcome it and set the society on a more healthy course.”
Velcrow Ripper is an acclaimed Canadian documentary filmmaker, who works with the National Film Board of Canada. He has won dozens of awards for his films, including two Genies (Canadian Academy Awards), for the feature documentaries Scared Sacred and Bones of the Forest — a film about native elders and the struggle to save ancient forests from logging. His latest film, Fierce Light, is about bringing together spirituality and activism. He has interviewed many of the world’s luminaries, including The Dalai Lama, Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu, Thich Nhat Hanh, Noam Chomsky, etc. His movies are seen widely around the world, broadcast on television, shown in movie theaters and used extensively by grassroots groups. For more info visit: www.velcrowripper.com and www.fiercelight.org
Other influential thinkers have been weighing in, including Professor Cornell West, who said, “you see what’s going on in Wall Street right now with the civil disobedience — this is the legacy of Martin King at work. That kind of King-like activity is necessary to wake the country up. This could be our last chance for democratic renewal.” While documentarian Michael Moore remarked, “This is the very first attempt, since the crash of ’08, to take a real stand. And it’s been powerful. And I gotta believe that even though it may only number in the hundreds right now, this is gonna grow — not only on Wall Street, but in communities all over America.”
And indeed, it is growing, especially in the info sphere, which is just as important as the numbers on the ground. As with the Arab Spring, the occupation has been all over Facebook and Twitter: a reported over 2 million Twitter hits so far. The revolution will not be televised — it will be tweeted.
As always in these situations, it takes a fair bit of discernment to really figure out what’s going on. Both the mainstream media and the various parties involved with the action tend to see things through their own specific filters. Forget any accurate head count — the mainstream media tends to under-estimate while the activists will over-estimate. But more importantly, you need to dig around to find the depth of the protest. During the people’s occupation in Greece, all I heard about initially through the mainstream news were stories of clashes between cops and protesters. Fortunately, a Greek Facebook friend shared news of the participatory democracy that was taking place, and a whole new lens on the actions was revealed to me. Alas, the fact of the matter is that when the police do step over the line, as they did this Saturday during a march from the encampment to Union Square, the whole world watches. The police reacted with mace and excessive force to the unauthorized march through lower Manhattan. Over 80 people were arrested and an iconic YouTube video of young women being maced, and sobbing as a result, has gone viral.
A young black man named Hero, who had just been released from jail after being arrested at the September 24th march, shared his experience with me, “Someone pushed a little red button and the police turned into adrenaline packed zombies. I found myself in the middle, I saw my friend go down, and when I tried to help her a cop punched me in the face, then dragged me over the barrier and threw me to the ground and told me to stop resisting arrest, as I lay there. It was a crazy experience. But I’m here today, and I’m blessed. And I’m back, stronger than ever.”
Perhaps as a result of the excessive use of force, and the fact that the occupation is not going away, the mainstream media have finally started to cover the story. I hope they spend enough time at the encampment to get below the surface.
Of course, we all have our filters, so let me be transparent, and let you in on my filter these days — it’s the love filter. What’s love got to do with occupying Wall Street? In my books, everything. I see the love when people come together to create a world that works for everyone, and that is at the real heart of these seasons of change. A new understanding of power is being realized around this earth, a power that is very different than the power-over models of the top-down hierarchies that are currently running the show. This new understanding of power comes from the bottom up. It is the horizontal power, the shared power, of the people. What else is that, if not love?
Summer of Change : Occupy Wall Street
A short doc about the current OCCUPY WALL STREET action, by acclaimed filmmaker Velcrow Ripper (Scared Sacred, Fierce Light). Shot on Wall Street, NYC on Sept 17, 2011. Ripper asks a giant dime, “how could the global crisis we are facing become a love story?’ for his upcoming feature doc, ‘EVOLVE LOVE: Love in a Time of Climate Crisis.’ In Theaters 2012. www.evolvelovelive.com
In this short video, which I shot on the first day of the encampment, I talk to a man wearing a mask of a Franklin D. Roosevelt’s dime (artist-activist Noah Fischer) about love, brotherhood and the parallels between the 1929 stock market crash and the current economic situation. He responds that this is what happens when people let greed run rampant and think only of themselves. He calls for a transition from a consumption-driven culture of “I” to one of “us.” He reminds us that we’re all connected, and together we can find a way to solve these problems.
In a later interview at Liberty Square, on Day 9, Noah explained, “I’m here because I think that the future of our country looks really hopeless right now. That’s true in my life — for example, I have a lot of student loans, and a lot of aspirations, but the kind of jobs that are available, and the kind of funding for the arts — ’cause I’m an artist — makes it really impossible for me to ever pay back my student loans. I’m also aware of the larger picture: I’m in a country where millions of people are unemployed, and millions of people don’t have health care. I think right now there is a real sense in the spirit of Americans of hopelessness. A lot of people are actually losing their houses and losing their jobs. It doesn’t feel good to be an American right now. That’s why I’m here — to be part of something new, to be part of the seeds of change.”
When I asked Hero why he was here, he said, “My family has been the epitome of the struggle — foreclosure, unemployment, tuition costs, my mother struggling to feed me and my sister — so I wanted to come out and empathize with these people and stand in solidarity.”
The many converging crises we are facing, from the economic to the ecological, are forcing us to re-imagine everything. Business as usual is clearly not working. The occupation of Wall Street is just beginning, but it is already sending a powerful message, a challenge to the old world order. And now, the #occupy meme is spreading to cities all over the world. Another world, a just and compassionate world, is possible and we need to keep working hard to discover just what that looks like. We have a long ways to go, but here at Liberty Square the people are putting themselves on the line to create that new world right here, right now.
More photos are available on Velcrow Ripper’s Occupy Wall Street Flickr set.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/evolvelove/sets/72157627633226069/
Watch photo slide show
#occupyvancouver “Statemet of Unity – First Working Draft”
by Harsha Walia, Occupy Vancouver.
This is a working statement that we know will evolve as #OccupyVancouver grows and flourishes. Our demands and our dreams are not limited to this statement as we have many ideas and solutions. As stated by #OccupyTogether, no one group, person, or website could ever speak for this diverse gathering of individuals. However, the General Assembly on October 8th reached consensus to accept these broad principles as a starting point and there will be further discussion on October 15th at 10 am at the General Assembly at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
We, the Ninety-Nine Percent, come together with our diverse experiences to transform the unequal, unfair, and growing disparity in the distribution of power and wealth in our city and around the globe. We challenge corporate greed, corruption, and the collusion between corporate power and government. We oppose systemic inequality, militarization, environmental destruction, and the erosion of civil liberties and human rights. We seek economic security, genuine equality, and the protection of the environment for all.
We are inspired and in solidarity with global movements including those across the Middle East, Europe, and the Occupy Wall Street / Occupy Together movement in over 1000 cities in North America. Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.
We humbly acknowledge that Occupy Vancouver is taking place on unceded Coast Salish territories.
We are committed to an inclusive and welcoming space, to addressing issues of oppression and discrimination, and to creating an environment where all the 99% can be heard and can meaningfully participate. We are also committed to safeguarding our collective well-being – including safety from interpersonal violence and any potential police violence.
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Thanks to both Velcrow and Ryan for sharing their awesome videos and thoughts on this historical political flash mob. I love the photo of the protest sign that highlights the word LOVE in the word revolt!
Get involved with a planned event or make one yourself. I talked to a friend about walking through town with an #OccupySunshineCoast sign or two. You can do it too! : D
What do you think about the Occupy Wall Street movement? Post a reply below. Thanks!
It’s Always A Good Day on the Sunshine Coast! Duane Burnett
LINKS:
Video: Ryan William White http://www.firewindpictures.com
MUSIC by Nathan Michael Marcuzzi http://www.nmmusic.ca
Video: Velcrow Ripper http://www.velcrowripper.com
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/velcrow-ripper/2011/09/revolution-will-be-tweeted
Get Involved
- OCCUPYWALLST.ORG for news and logistics
- NYCGA.net for General Assembly Updates
- OccupyTogether.org join occupations across America
- Reddit Page organizing tool
- Facebook Event Page for facebookers
- Tumblr for clippings and links
- Livestream from the global revolution
- Antibanks for international actions
#OCCUPY VANCOUVER
http://www.occupyvancouver.com/
Use the official website to join/start a committee, stay informed, and join discussions.
http://www.facebook.com/groups/210959558971734/
Join us in the official #OccupyVancouver group to help us prepare for October 15th.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/occupyvancouver/
New Flickr group for high res posters/videos.
Bonus Video from GetGrounded.TV
Occupy Wall St. Hip Hop Anthem:
Occupation Freedom, Ground Zero And The Global Block Collective
QUESTIONS about Wall Street protest..
Global National News historic turning point or passing fad?
[...] to Sharon in Vancouver for sending along this link to a number of great videos from the Wall Street [...]