MOFOZ: Streetwear

Occupy: The Revolution will be Webcast.

I have been really interested in the movement that has grown on New York’s Wall Street in the last few weeks. “Occupy Wall Street” buzzed on our “social media” radar before last weekend, you know, about the same time that the weekends parties and multiple event invites for rookie rappers’ online mixtape releases hit my twitter/FB stream. It only peaked through a few streams though, and only from a few very liberal friends, and there wasn’t anything on mainstream media…and still hardly is. As I went looking into the movement I was really wary of the hype (same goes with those event invites), you know “the boy who cried wolf” effect. The online pictures and videos were strong and professionally composed so I was drawn into them more so from a visually composed aspect as opposed to the emotional outlet. This changed for myself throughout the week, however, and even moreso as I researched the movement for this blog..

Truth be told, though; unless you are the 1% of wealthy Americans, which I seriously doubt will ever come upon this blog- this should interest you. 1 in 6 Americans are living beneath the poverty line.

Photos and videos of fed up Americans in groves that were peacefully protesting on Wall Street to bring attention to the woes and evils of corporate greed and then being assaulted and arrested by city police for doing no more than documenting the event was enough to keep this “event” on my radar.

photo by gene taylor

The Occupy Wall Street movement is hard to define; there is not just one idea or demand. This is what probably most people and media are using to discredit the movement. The Occupy movement is more the understanding that there is not just one problem in today’s society; instead, it is opening discussion and protesting against the complex and numerous affinities that plague the current state of our union. It is the state that 99% of our country lives in spanning from judicial wrongdoings, rising higher education costs, poor health care, shaky economy, corporations running our government, the 2008 Banking bailouts, rise in unemployment….you know, pretty much everything that has resulted from corporate greed. This is why you have not seen or heard of this movement from mass media, not so much because of the “disorganization” of the protesters. This is also why the movement itself has been full steam ahead into the media of today’s generation; social media.
We are going into week 3 as Occupy Wall Street activists have been camped out in NY’s financial district and are being aided by volunteers and people from all over the world who have been sending supplies, food, encouragement, and coverage to the protestors. The Occupy Wall Street website blogs daily as well as offers a live feed from Wall street so that anyone could see and hear exactly what is going on without having bias of what a reporter may say.
This video from Democracy Now of Dr.Cornell West explaining the movement can perhaps be the best said reason of what is going on in our society right now. In reference to the revolutions and protests happening this past year from many Arab countries, “it’s the makings of a U.S. Autumn responding to the Arab Spring.”

The group has garnered support and some legitimacy from some NY union members including the United Federation of Teachers and the Transport Workers Union Local 100.

Here is another great video of rapper Immortal Technique visiting the movement at 2am on September 26th to drop knowledge on the current state and the movement.

…and a video of Immortal Technique’s rap poetry, “A Toast to the Dead”

September 26, Michael Moore visited Liberty Plaza to offer some demands for the protests such as corporate accountability and higher taxes for the rich as he explains that “The 400 richest Americans own more wealth than 150 million combined.”

On the 11th day of the protests, over 700 uniformed pilots representing the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) carriers also took to Wall Street to voice grievances as they protested for wages and benefits in light of a stalled merger between the airlines.

On Day 12 of the protest, hip hop mogul,  Russel Simmons lends his support as he explains that “The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer”

Through this weekend the movement in New York had protesters march over the Brooklyn Bridge which led to the eventual netting of and arrest of 700 peaceful protesters. Several sources write that the protesters were led by police to the bridge and then trapped and arrested. Here’s some video.

The “Occupy” movement has now seen a rise in protests and plans for protests in over 66 U.S.Cities, as well as in other countries including Canada, Mexico, and Japan that are standing in solidarity for the Wall Street protestors.

Occupy LA, over the weekend saw over 1500 protestors at City Hall,  Occupy Boston has seen well over 1000 (in the rain) in front of the Federal Reserve Bank. Most of the other cities are using October 6th as the date to protest in their cities, including our fair city of Austin.

Occupy Austin will occupy the Austin City Hall beginning at 3pm on October 6th