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Occupy Portland is a nonviolent movement for accountability in the United States government. At 12PM on October 6th, 2011 we will assemble at Tom McCall Waterfront Park, 1020 Southwest Naito Parkway in Portland, OR. We will gather in solidarity with the ongoing protest in New York City, Occupy Wall Street, and the growing number of cities whose people will no longer sit back watching corporate and special interests run their government. We are citizens of the United States, and this country is ours. We will take it back. It is no longer enough to vote and to participate in the political system because our political system has been altered drastically from its intended and proper function. Currently, we are allowed to pick from a few candidates whose campaigns are funded more and more by large organizations, corporations, and special interests. The success of their campaigns depends entirely on how the corporate mass media presents them. When our elected officials enter office they then pander to the small groups responsible for their election. Even good men and women cannot make real improvements that benefit the American people. We are one city in a growing national movement of people who no longer feel that their government works in their best interest. We will assemble on October 6th to demonstrate peaceful, substantive democracy and work for real change. Our government is divided. We, the people, are united.

In my last column, I argued that the real significance of Occupy Together is not its effectiveness in pressuring the 1%'s state to enact reforms, but rather in showing the 99% our own strength. We're an entire society in ourselves, the producers, and we don't need the 1% - it's they who would starve without us.

An online call for a European Revolution was heeded en masse today as over 100 cities throughout the continent witnessed tens (if not hundreds) of thousands 'indignants' mobilizing to demand real democracy now.

Documentary about how propaganda is being used to manipulate your mind. Sources for this film: -Beder, Sharon -- Consumerism: an Historical Perspective -Chomsky, Noam -- What Makes Mainstream Media Mainstream -Darwinia -- WWI Propaganda -Ewen, Stuart -- Captains of Consciousness: Advertising and the Social Roots of the Consumer Culture -Lazere, Donald -- American media and mass culture -Lutins, Allen -- An Eclectic list of Events in US Labor History  -Millies, Stephen -- The Ludlow Massacre and the Birth of Company Unions -Parenti, Michael -- Super-Patriotism -Simpson, Christopher -- The Science of Coercion -Smith, Sharon -- Subterranean Fire: A History of Working-Class Radicalism in the United States -Snow, Nancy -- Propagnda, Inc., Selling America's Culture to the World -Stauber, John and Rampton, Sheldon -- Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq ; Toxic Sludge is Good For You -Tye, Larry -- The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays & The Birth of PR Film created by: http://www.metanoia-films.org/index.php

From time to time, someone under 30 will ask me, "When did this all begin, America's downward slide?" They say they've heard of a time when working people could raise a family and send the kids to college on just one parent's income (and that college in states like California and New York was almost free). That anyone who wanted a decent paying job could get one. That people only worked five days a week, eight hours a day, got the whole weekend off and had a paid vacation every summer. That many jobs were union jobs, from baggers at the grocery store to the guy painting your house, and this meant that no matter how "lowly" your job was you had guarantees of a pension, occasional raises, health insurance and someone to stick up for you if you were unfairly treated. Young people have heard of this mythical time - but it was no myth, it was real. And when they ask, "When did this all end?", I say, "It ended on this day: August 5th, 1981." Beginning on this date, 30 years ago, Big Business and the Right Wing decided to "go for it" - to see if they could actually destroy the middle class so that they could become richer themselves. And they've succeeded. On August 5, 1981, President Ronald Reagan fired every member of the air traffic controllers union (PATCO) who'd defied his order to return to work and declared their union illegal. They had been on strike for just two days.

The Whole F**king Thing's Coming DownLYRICS BY PUNK PATRIOThttp://punkpatriot.blogspot.com/MUSICAL PERFORMANCE BY THE FRANK FACTORhttp://TheFrankFactor.comUsed with permission - creative commons attrib. remixhttp://october2011.org/ Hedge funds, derivatives, tea pot domewall street gambling, using your homecongress isn't gonna do a single fucking thingbecause their campaign contributions all come attached with stringsThe Democratic Party is a failing institutionwhat we need now is a real revolution But the whole fucking thing is coming downYeah the whole fucking thing is coming down The United States is a global empireCorporations, well they're fucking vampiressucking wealth from the poorcommitting wage theftHey, who will work for you when we've starved to death? But the whole fucking thing is coming downYeah the whole fucking thing is coming down I've got me full time J.O.B.but that doesn't mean I can afford to eatI've got student loans, but no degreeso I'm gonna die working at this J.O.B.No health insurance, we're all temporary hiresso if we get sick we'll just hurry up and die But the whole fucking thing is coming downYeah the whole fucking thing is coming down wages so low we can't afford the rentso we have to rely on the governmentbut the rich man doesn't want to pay his taxesso the social programs, they''re the first to get the axewe don't complain, we don't bitchthe only thing we've got left to eat is the rich But the whole fucking thing is coming downYeah the whole fucking thing is coming down Used with permission. Creative Commons attribution.Category:News & PoliticsTags:obama corporations criminals revolution reform freedom democrats republicans tea partyLicense:Standard YouTube License

If, as Lessig conclusively demonstrates, Congress is indifferent to the will of the people and to democratic debate - because it has been captured by monied interests to whose interests it exclusively attends - then the people lose the ability to affect what government does in any realm. It doesn't make much difference which problem you believe is most pressing: this is the dynamic that lies at the heart of it. Inaction on climate issues is due to the power of polluters and energy companies; the power of the private health insurance industry blocks fundamental health-care reform; endless war and civil liberties abuses are sustained by the power of the surveillance and National Security State industries; and a failure to achieve real Wall Street reform is due to the fact that, as Sen. Dick Durbin amazingly acknowledged about the institution in which he serves, "the banks frankly own the place." Without finding an effective way to address that overarching problem, the only recourse for citizens becomes either passive acceptance of their powerlessness (i.e., apathy and withdrawal) or disruption and unrest fomented outside of the electoral system (the driving ethos of OccupyWallStreet).

It's hard to think of another time when there has been such a gulf between intellectuals and activists; between theorists of revolution and its practitioners. Writers who for years have been publishing essays that sound like position papers for vast social movements that do not in fact exist seem seized with confusion or worse, dismissive contempt, now that real ones are everywhere emerging. It's particularly scandalous in the case of what's still, for no particularly good reason, referred to as the 'anti-globalization' movement, one that has in a mere two or three years managed to transform completely the sense of historical possibilities for millions across the planet. This may be the result of sheer ignorance, or of relying on what might be gleaned from such overtly hostile sources as the New York Times; then again, most of what's written even in progressive outlets seems largely to miss the point-or at least, rarely focuses on what participants in the movement really think is most important about it. As an anthropologist and active participant-particularly in the more radical, direct-action end of the movement-I may be able to clear up some common points of misunderstanding; but the news may not be gratefully received. Much of the hesitation, I suspect, lies in the reluctance of those who have long fancied themselves radicals of some sort to come to terms with the fact that they are really liberals: interested in expanding individual freedoms and pursuing social justice, but not in ways that would seriously challenge the existence of reigning institutions like capital or state. And even many of those who would like to see revolutionary change might not feel entirely happy about having to accept that most of the creative energy for radical politics is now coming from anarchism-a tradition that they have hitherto mostly dismissed-and that taking this movement seriously will necessarily also mean a respectful engagement with it. I am writing