from Revolution Newspaper

These past several months have witnessed something very different in the U.S. People from many different walks of life came together to occupy public space in nearly 1,000 cities in the U.S. They stood up to vicious police violence, they broke through the confines of “protest as usual,” and in the middle of all that, they built community. Even in the face of media attempts to ridicule, distort, and demonize these protests, their basic message began to get through. People throughout the U.S.—and even the world—took notice of and took heart from these brave and creative protesters.

The political terms of discourse began to shift; the iced-over thinking of people in the U.S. began to thaw. Standing up to the unjust brutality and arrests became a badge of honor. People began to listen to and read the stories of some of the victims of this economic crisis, and to share their own. And most of all, as the protests spread to city after city, the fact of people occupying public space forced open debate and raised big questions among millions as to what kind of society this is, and what it should be. Why does such poverty and need exist in the face of a relative handful of people amassing obscene amounts of wealth? Why do the political institutions of society seem only to serve that handful?  Why do so many youth feel they face such a bleak future? Why does the insane destruction of the environment continue to accelerate?  And what is needed to overcome all this?

By Dennis Loo 

Early Wednesday morning 1,400 police streamed out of their hiding places in City Hall and converging from the nearby streets, quickly encircled and forcibly removed the encampment and the protesters.

The Mayor and LAPD had backed off from their earlier threats to evict the encampment as of 12:01 AM on Monday morning, seeing the large number of protesters (close to 3,000). They instead waited until a much smaller number of people were present on early Wednesday morning, arresting some 300 demonstrators.

from CBS News:

Protesters in Los Angeles defied the mayor's early Monday deadline to vacate their encampment near City Hall, with about 1,000 flooding into the area as hundreds of tents remained standing as they have for nearly two months.

A celebratory atmosphere filled the night with protesters milling about the park and streets by City Hall in seeming good spirits. A group on bicycles circled the block, one of them in a cow suit. Organizers led chants with a bull horn.

"The best way to keep a non-violent movement non-violent is to throw a party, and keep it festive and atmospheric," said Brian Masterson.

Police presence was slight right after the 12:01 a.m. PST Monday deadline, but it began increasing as the morning wore on. At the same time, the number of protesters dwindled.

By Kathleen Kirwin, Esq. 

In the late afternoon of October 6^th, 2011, I flew into Washington DC and headed straight for Freedom Plaza at the corner of 14^th and Pennsylvania.  Months before that date, and as so many others already had, I “pledged” to be there to participate in an occupation of Washington entitled “October 2011: STOP THE MACHINE—CREATE A NEW WORLD.” On its website, and in solidarity with those who had already signed, I too pledged as follows:

“I pledge that if any U.S. troops, contractors, or mercenaries remain in Afghanistan on Thursday, October 6, 2011, as that occupation goes into its 11th year, I will commit to being in Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., with others on that day with the intention of making it our Tahrir Square, Cairo, our Madison, Wisconsin, where we will NONVIOLENTLY resist the corporate machine to demand that our resources are invested in human needs and environmental protection instead of war and exploitation. We can do this together. We will be the beginning.”

It now comes as no surprise that Dorli Rainey had also signed the pledge to be at Freedom Plaza on October 6^th, and she was.  

by Debra Sweet

Yesterday, Occupy Oakland was evicted, again, from Oscar Grant Park at Oakland City Hall, after the unprecedented general strike on November 2. See Occupy Oakland: Police Tear Down Camp in Early Morning Raid.

This morning, beginning at 1:00 am, NYC police massed to remove everyone and everything from Occupy Wall Street's home at Zuccotti Park.  From Sarah Seltzer:

According to reports on Twitter, an OWS press release, and emails over internal OWS listservs, downtown subways and the Brooklyn Bridge were shut down, airspace was blocked off, and a barricade was erected to prevent supporters who were alerted by text from entering.

by Scott Morris  

Police began withdrawing from Broadway at around 6:30 a.m. , after blocking off Oakland's Frank Ogawa Plaza and arresting people remaining in the plaza. Police are in the process of dismantling what remains of the Occupy Oakland camp that has occupied Frank Ogawa Plaza for most of the last month.

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