Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Evidence that the oil price is killing the economy came by the tanker-load this week. The FT reported that the cost of oil imports to the EU has increased from $280bn in 2010 to $402bn this year. Meanwhile the newly created Office of Budget Responsibility for the UK named oil prices as a key factor in a drastic downward revision of its economic and fiscal outlook released this week…
– Millions of British Public Sector Workers Take to the Streets in Historic General Strike
– Lessons from Egypt: Occupy the Democratic Party
– Student Protests Spread Throughout Latin America
– 2012=1968? (good article)
– Organizing Principles for 99 Percent Clubs
– Arundhati Roy: ‘The people who created the crisis will not be the ones that come up with a solution’
– NYT: Camps Are Cleared, but ‘99 Percent’ Still Occupies the Lexicon
– Why Naomi Wolf got it wrong
They clearly do not want us in the parks. That much is clear after a national crackdown on park occupations throughout the United States. With violent police interventions from Portland to Oakland to Philadelphia to New York (and a lot of other places), this particular tactic may have run its course as the spatial organizing principle, at least for now. We’re also headed into December, and in New York at least, an outside occupation was going to go the way of Valley Forge. So rather than be demoralized, I’d like to see our removal from the parks as an opportunity. Don’t get me wrong, police beating people is never “a good thing,” but it forces us to imagine other ways to channel this energy. Here are some ways people have thought of occupations beyond the park.
Twenty Years ago, at the Earth Summit, the world’s Governments signed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to create a legally binding framework to address the challenge of climate change.
Today, the Green House Gas emissions that contribute to climate change have increased not reduced.
The Climate Treaty is weaker not stronger.
The failure to reduce green house gases is linked to following the flawed route of carbon trading and emissions trading as the main objective of the Kyoto Protocol to the Climate Convention.
Inspired in turn by Swift, I want to suggest that we put in motion a similar undertaking: on January 16th, Martin Luther King Day, citizens from around the country should gather at the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street. Let’s call this macabre gathering — with luck and even worse times, it should be mammoth — “We Surrender” or “Restore Debtor’s Prisons” or “De-Fault Is Ours” or “Collateralize Us.” And plan on a mirthful day of mourning.
This recent Bloomberg headline sums up just about everything that’s wrong with the UN climate negotiations, which get underway in Durban, South Africa tomorrow: “Saudis Seek to Ensure Climate Talks Won’t Hurt OPEC Oil Income.” Addressing climate change by definition requires countries to look beyond their national self interests, but in practice, a Darwinian “survival of the fittest” mentality has taken hold. And by “fittest” I mean major emitters from both developed and developing countries that apparently have all but stitched up an agreement amongst themselves to delay new binding international climate action until 2020.
A group of low-income San Franciscans has come up with a positive, long term solution to the housing crisis that is causing millions of Americans to be evicted and some to embrace the “Occupy Homes” movement: buy the buildings. In October 2011, residents of the Columbus United Cooperative (CUC) in San Francisco celebrated final approval of the ownership of their building as a permanently affordable, resident-owned limited-equity housing cooperative. The residents can now purchase “shares” in the co-op for only $10,000 in the heart of San Francisco (where housing starts at $500,000) to become cooperative homeowners, though most earn less than 50 percent of area median income.
– Resistance Takes Root in Barcelona
– Life after occupation
– New Yorker: profile of a man out of work who finds community at Occupy Wall Street.
– OWS is All Over The Media: But for How Long?
– OWS: The Will to Face the Arithmetic
The U.S. financial, economic, political, social, educational, health, religious, military, and other institutions seem to be collapsing. “They’re rotting out from the inside,” Ken noted. Occupy offers bold, intense, new national and international conversations that can help create alternatives that strive not to repeat the same mistakes, which have caused the growing gap between the super-wealthy 1% and the 99% rest of us.
The Occupy Wall Street movement has struck a chord with its protests against growing inequality in the United States. Suddenly, it is conceivable that policies may be enacted in the next Congress that would raise taxes on the rich and make the American dream more affordable. But if all the Occupy movement does is to restore middle-class demand for large homes and late-model automobiles, it will have been a failure.
I often don’t bother arguing with the “Drill, Baby, drill” folks – the reason is that while I think they are misguided and their lack of understanding of the possibilities of US oil are embarassing, they also have a point – as we get further down the energy curve, most of our available energy resources will be exploited if it is economically viable to recover the oil or the gas. It simply will happen – environmental sensitivity will not be a major factor.
