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I’m going down to Foley Square shortly to deliver our Free Speech Kits thanks to the generosity and support of hundreds of Firedoglake activists.

I’ll also be livestreaming some of the events this afternoon, and will be back for the ‘main event’ tomorrow morning.

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Starting at around 10-10:30 AM, Occupy Austin will resume its livestream from the anniversary actions taking place in New York City for Occupy’s first birthday. Protesters arrived Friday and are gearing up for Monday’s big day of direct-action.

Here’s a look at today’s schedule http://s17nyc.org/schedule/s16/

I’ll be heading down there later today and most if not all of tomorrow to join in on the coverage, so stay tuned!

This month’s Occupy National Gathering in Philadelphia was the latest effort to recapture the national spotlight for Occupy after a winter plagued by raids, evictions and inclement weather.

May Day, NATO, and now NatGat paint a picture of a movement now coming together from disparate parts of the country to prove they are still going strong and ready to tackle issues on the national stage. These efforts also show how Occupiers are actively searching for a path forward to overcome the myriad challenges their unique protest has faced so far.

Over the course of the past 10 months, Firedoglake’s Occupy Supply Fund has worked closely with dozens of Occupy groups. After hearing of the challenges facing Occupy from our local member-liaisons stationed across the country, we were able to see the Big Picture obstacles facing this movement: fear of raids and eviction, fear of arrests and police violence from raids and eviction, destroyed personal property, rattled nerves and the need to start all over, from scratch, which was likely disheartening for many and inevitably led to the demise of many encampments.

At the time, FDL was helping by posting livestreams of raids for all to see, flooding city government switchboards with phone calls in opposition to police actions. We tried to provide whatever material support these brave protesters needed, but oftentimes the chaos was so great that there was not all that much we could do. It became clear that Occupy needed to pre-empt this tactic and develop ways to neutralize its effect on their ability to protest.

To us, that meant equipping Occupiers with the skills and supplies they need to be more mobile at a moments notice, and encourage each and every protester to be more self-reliant and not depend as much on the camp for their basic needs.

In the end, while I believe encampments are an important symbolic and organizing space for the movement, I think it’s time to re-assess their role. To be clear, I don’t think the movement should no longer encamp — I actually believe Occupations give this movement a leg-up on other past (failed) movements. But encampments need to be more flexible, without the requirement of endless defense and protection. If Occupiers are more mobile and rely less on the camp itself for their needs, protesters can expend less energy on defending their belongings at camp and dealing with the police and city officials and more on direct action, spreading their message and growing their base of support.

I was honored to speak on this topic at #NatGat, and I sincerely hope, whether Occupy embraces our suggestions or not, that the movement begins to consider a positive evolution that preserves their values, beliefs and ability to exercise basic rights without presenting such an obvious Achilles’s Heel for opponents.

Check out the video of my talk and consider chipping in $10 to help Occupy Supply continue to support the movement with quality supplies and innovative ideas.

Transcript

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Tomorrow is May Day, and Occupy groups have spent months planning a general strike. Organizers are calling on people everywhere to show solidarity by abstaining from commerce, staying home from school and work, avoiding the bank, and other activities as part of a ‘day without the 99%.’

As one of the only outlets to have continuously reported on OWS since Day 1, we’re proud, excited and a little bit anxious for tomorrow, and we will have ongoing coverage of May Day events. I just wanted to take a moment and preview some of what we will be doing tomorrow:

Kevin Gosztola will be joined at the Dissenter by Dustin Slaughter- an independent journalist, political photographer, activist and founder of the David and Goliath Project, which celebrates and examines protest culture. Dustin has also been covering the Occupy movement since it began, and we’re excited to have him and Kevin doing our live blog throughout the day.

We’ve also teamed up with The Media Consortium as part of the Media for the 99% campaign, which seeks to confront the inaccurate portrayals and lack of depth and analysis in corporate media reporting on Occupy by pooling together the coverage of independent media outlets including Firedoglake, The Nation, Truthdig, Yes! Magazine, Mother Jones and others.

Media Consortium put together some really cool tools for May Day and we’re so happy to share them with you all on our May Day 2012 coverage page. They include:

- Interactive Map that plots events, articles and arrests across the country.
- Live Broadcasting featuring reports from around the U.S. and in-studio commentary.
- Curated Social Media via Storify with breaking news from Twitter, Facebook, blog posts and more.

Head on over to our May Day 2012 page tomorrow for breaking news and updates on May Day activities from across the country.

Citizen Journalists: Planning on writing about May Day events here at myFDL? Tag your post “MAY DAY” or email it to me at brian@firedoglake.com and I’ll make sure it gets on our coverage page.

UPDATE 1:50PM EAST: ONH appears to have won a stay — more info from liaison Richard R.

A federal judge in Bridgeport ruled yesterday the city of New Haven can evict Occupy demonstrators from the New Haven Green at noon today.

Attorneys for ONH are going to try and appeal the decision this morning. According to our liaison Richard N, Occupy New Haven has some nonviolent civil disobedience planned to resist the eviction. We’ll keep you updated as we hear from folks on the ground at ONH.

From the Hartford Courant:

Earlier Monday afternoon, Kravitz ruled from U.S. District Court in Bridgeport that although the Occupiers have a right to free speech, that right must be balanced with the city’s right to regulate the use of the green. The judge noted that the Occupiers could apply for a permit to protest on the green, but he said if the city granted such a permit, the Occupiers would only be allowed to demonstrate without tents and during the day because park regulations prohibit temporary structures and use of the park in the dark. Otherwise, the Occupiers could apply for a permit to occupy another public space just as they’ve done since October on the Green — with tents, 24 hours a day, Kravitz said.

Kravitz rejected the Occupiers’ motion for a 14-day extension “to digest the decision and comply, as well as to seek appellate review if necessary,” said lawyer Kevin Smith. The city of New Haven filed a motion against the extension request.

“I’m not surprised but I think the decision was wrong,” said Occupier Ray Neal.

We had another fantastic Occupy Supply webinar last night, titled, Occupy the Food Supply: Food Sovereignty, Justice and Activism. Jill Richardson, Rosetta Star and Jess Hardy joined us for an insightful chat on Big Agriculture, food sovereignty and how the Occupy movement can use food and farming as an act of resistance.

We began with Jill Richardson, an old friend of FDL who blogs at LaVidaLocavore.com and is the author of Recipe for America: Why Our Food System is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It. Jill laid out the current crisis in our food system and some of the ways in which individuals are reclaiming their connection to the food supply. Stepping back to give a global perspective of issues of food sovereignty, Jill spoke of her travels, interviewing families in different parts of the world living under the virtual fiefdom of mega corporations like Del Monte and Monsanto. Jill dissected the various points of impact these massive, GMO crops have on health, food quality and safety, politics, the environment, trade and more.

For example, Jill talks about the quality of life of the farmers who make our food with an example from Del Monte’s pineapple crops in Kenya:

Meanwhile, the small farmers in this area, I was meeting people, they raise their families on maybe a fourth of an acre or a fifth of an acre.

Imagine raising seven children on a quarter-acre farm. Average size is about one acre of a farm.

So, in terms of a lot of what you hear us talk about is ‘food security’ is, you know ok, we need to help these people, you know, you’ve got a quarter-acre: how do we help you grow more food on your quarter acre? Well, that’s important, but then lets look at this injustice here: you’ve got this one enormous corporation that owns five thousand acres. How is that fair that everyone else has to feed their families on a quarter-acre?

Jill also details how growing your own food and becoming self sustaining is an excellent way to resist and reclaim your ‘food sovereignty,’ and she gives several more examples that are worth checking out.

The presentation Jill put together has a wealth of information and included recommended reading and more points we didn’t have time to cover. You can see her slideshow here.

Jill’s last point about reclaiming food sovereignty segued into a fascinating discussion with Rosetta Star and Jess Hardy from Occupy Asheville in North Carolina. Rosetta is a restaurant owner and food activist who is also our Asheville Occupy Supply liaison. She talked about Asheville’s new Food Policy Council which she described as “some of the more radical things I’ve done in my life, especially without getting in any trouble for them.” She discussed Asheville’s Lord’s Acre, which is a huge garden in Rosetta’s neighborhood that strives to educate the community on how to be food independent by growing and preparing your own food, regardless of your socioeconomic level.

Finally, Jess came on to talk about guerrilla gardening and growing food as a form of activism and resistance:

Communities building gardens together is a really safe way to resist this nonsense that we tend to run ourselves into and stay positive because we’re still producing something, we’re still putting something creative into our landscape, supporting diversity in things like coming home and finding their roots, and to make friendships and not always be so antagonistic and run ourselves into this brick wall.

Jess discussed the model for society they are building at Occupy Asheville, and how they are using spaces in artistic and spiritual ways to confront issues of gentrification and class conflict.

All in all, it was another fantastic discussion and we thank all our guest panelists and attendees who came out to listen. Here are our upcoming webinars:

4/04: Occupy Research: How to investigate stakeholders in local issues, feat. Occupy Buffalo’s Sam Colon, Occupy Monterrey’s Collin Gallagher and ACORN founder Wade Rathke
4/11: Beyond Signs & Fliers: Media and Marketing for the Occupy movement, feat. author Andrew Boyd and others TBA
4/18: Occupy May Day Part 1: History of May Day Activism, panelists TBA
4/25: Occupy May Day Part 2: Occupy May Day General Strike, panelists TBA

Our members’ support allows Firedoglake to have the freedom and flexibility to provide programs like Occupy Supply and host exciting, innovative webinars like this one. If you enjoyed the discussion and our work with the Occupy movement, please consider getting more involved as a member for as little as $5/month.

You can also support Occupy Supply by making a donation here. 100% of your contribution to Occupy Supply will be used to purchase and distribute supplies and materials to Occupy movement protests across the country.

This past Wednesday, Occupy Supply hosted a webinar on Racism and the Occupy Movement – the latest installment in our online discussion series featuring journalist and editor of “Re-Defining Black Power” Joanne Griffith and Occupy Detroit media coordinator Lee Gaddies.

In my opinion this was one of the best presentations we’ve had and we were so fortunate to finally be able to work out the kinks and get a recording of the entire talk. We hope to continue to be able to provide recordings of our Occupy Supply webinars so that these conversations, ideas, and strategies can be shared for the benefit of the entire movement.

Joanne Griffith provided an excellent backdrop for our conversation by outlining the state of race and racism in America today. Covering the impact of racism on youth, police relations, our education system, and the media, Joanne painted a vivid picture of what “post-racial America” really looks like – a country in which minorities continue to suffer from brutal stereotypes and portrayals as sub-class citizens all the while bearing the brunt of systemic prejudice on a daily basis.

Following Joanne, Lee Gaddies delivered a powerful presentation on race relations at Occupy Detroit and the ways in which his group had to overcome the challenges of building a unified movement in an extremely segregated environment. Occupy protests serve as models for better societies, and as I mentioned in my preview post, there can’t be be credible voices for all people unless they first look inward and address issues of race and racism in their own encampments.

Lee began with a brief history of race relations in Michigan, a state where 7 of the most segregated cities in the entire country call home, and how his occupation grappled with the very same problems of privilege and prejudice that have divided the city since the 1940′s and even earlier. He also discussed what he called ‘the soft bigotry of liberals’ – the paternalism of white, affluent activists from the suburbs who would come to Detroit with the attitude that they were there to help folks who could not help themselves.

But Occupy Detroit did not let race relations tear their camp apart. Lee noted that “the occupy movement is set up to build power in communities” and that the goal is to empower individuals to stand up for themselves. Occupy Detroit held listening tours throughout the city to figure out the problems and needs of its residents; and most importantly, how the occupation could empower them to make change in their own lives, rather than having a bunch of activists show up and, as Lee says, “[save] black people who can’t help themselves.”

That’s only a small sampling of what was covered in this excellent talk, so I encourage you to take a listen and share this video with your friends and fellow activists in the Occupy movement.

And a HUGE thank you to Joanne, Lee, and everyone else who joined us on Wednesday – we hope to talk with you again next week!

Occupy Supply holds weekly, free online discussions about the Occupy Movement every Wednesday night at 8pm eastern. Upcoming talks include:

• • 3/28: Occupy the Farm: Food Activism & Guerrilla Gardening, feat. Jill Richardson and others TBA
  • 4/04: Occupy Research: How to research local issues, feat. Sam C from Occupy Buffalo and others TBA
  • 4/11: Beyond Signs & Fliers: Media and Marketing for the Occupy movement, panelists TBA
  • 4/18: Occupy May Day Part 1: History of May Day Activism, panelists TBA
  • 4/25: Occupy May Day Part 2: Occupy May Day General Strike, panelists TBA

At 8pm eastern tonight, I will be joining Michael Whitney (formerly of FDL, now of Change.org) to give a training on online activism for the Occupy movement.

We really hope you’ll join us, and you can do so by signing up here.

Many of you may remember Michael, who directed the activism program here at FDL before I took over for him last fall. I worked with Michael for two years and can honestly say he is a genius when it comes to online activism, leading many successful battles on issues from the environment to civil liberties to drug reform to health care and beyond. Together, we would like to share our knowledge of online activism and organizing for the benefit of the Occupy movement.

The Occupy Movement has already done a masterful job of harnessing the power of the internet to support their actions in communities across the country and the world, and it’s clear that having a base of online supporters has been critical to their ability to not only promote their actions but to protect their camps as well. Firedoglake, Change.org and other groups have been host to several campaigns to both further the goals and ideas of the movement as well as ward off evictions, raids and anti-Occupy legislation.

We believe these essential tools, tactics and strategies should be at everyone’s disposal, and thought it would be a good idea to hold a primer on some of the basics of online organizing. We’ll be covering a lot, from formulating your ‘theory of change,’ to writing a campaign email, to building your base of support and getting your message out there as far and as wide as possible.

We hope to have you on tonight’s webinar at 8pm eastern: click here to RSVP.