Monthly Archives: November 2011

More, Miley!

I didn’t think I’d be writing about Miley Cyrus again, but: Patricia Grim, identified as an “influential leader” in the Occupy movement, has endorsed Miley’s video, but challenged the singer to put her body on the front lines.  According to … Continue reading

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MILEY! Music!

Surely one of the one percent, Miley Cyrus has released a remixed video of “It’s a Liberty Walk,” dedicated to “the thousands of people who are standing up for what they believe in.”  While the dedication praises sincerity and commitment … Continue reading

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Vacating Occupy LA

LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has consistently praised Occupy LA, camped out on the lawn in front of City Hall for two months.  (The most interesting achievement, according to an environmental activist, was destroying the environmentally unsound green lawn.)   Throughout the … Continue reading

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Occupy unbound

Zuccotti Park, home for Occupy Wall Street for two months, is completely irrelevant to the future of the Occupy movement.  Now that the activists have been cleared out, we’re watching to see what the most important place will be. In … Continue reading

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The Occupation trap in history

Occupation isn’t a new tactic.  Protesters have established permanent encampments to make political claims and support activism many times in the past.  (See our Veterans Day discussion of the Bonus Army.) The camps, dramatic demonstrations of commitment, provide an ongoing … Continue reading

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Occupy without the Occupation

The police in Oakland and New York City have cleared out their local Occupy encampments.  Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, who claims to be a supporter of Occupy efforts, saw the downtown encampment as unsustainable–and dangerous.  The shooting death of one … Continue reading

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Veterans Day, Occupy, and the Bonus March

Occupation isn’t a tactic that started this fall. In 1932 US military veterans of the Great War (now World War I), facing a job market even worse than today, demanded that the Federal government pay them their promised bonuses–no more … Continue reading

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Occupy is not an island (I)

How does sleeping out in an urban park do anything about income inequality?  I get this question at least a few times a week, often from one of my kids. One answer is that social movements work when dramatic action … Continue reading

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Elizabeth Warren: Occupy’s Michele Bachmann?

Take a minute before you get offended.   Of course, there are differences–more below. Elizabeth Warren, candidate for the Democratic nomination for the US Senate from Massachusetts, is the closest thing to an institutional face of a movement that has, … Continue reading

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Occupy, sexual assault, and internal control

An ABC News reporter called me yesterday to ask about the spate of sex crimes taking place in the Occupations (here’s Alyssa Newcomb’s story).  I didn’t know anything, but a moment of online searching generated plenty of stories. A lot … Continue reading

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