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http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/312771
Occupy Wall Street wins round one of Zucotti encampment dispute
New York – UPDATE: A statement from New York City Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway explained that the park’s owners, Brookfield, were “postponing their scheduled cleaning of the park.” Some area news reports on police clashing with demonstrators this morning.
“Our position has been consistent throughout: the City’s role is to protect public health and safety, to enforce the law, and guarantee the rights of all New Yorkers,” Holloway explained. “Brookfield believes they can work out an arrangement with the protesters that will ensure the park remains clean, safe, available for public use and that the situation is respectful of residents and businesses downtown, and we will continue to monitor the situation.” “However, some area news was reporting Friday morning on police clashing with demonstrators near the protest site. Tension remains high, and it’s not clear what will happen next.”( Raw Story) As Colorado Republican Senator Greg Brophy viciously criticizes Governor John Hickenlooper for not removing the Occupy Denver “smelly hippies” from camping at the state Capitol since September 22, part of the Occupy Wall Street that is fighting capitalism and global economic depression is a member organization of the International Women’s Alliance (IWA) under the banner Gabriela USA, the Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FiRE), will now march with Occupy Wall Street on Saturday, October 15th. Original story on Oct. 14, 2011: A new organization, IWA is a global alliance of North America women’s organizations, alliances, institutions, and people who have committed to advancing national and social liberation. A major movement that is bringing in women’s solidarity from across the world, they represent the frustration of women who are now able to voice their protests against poverty and capitalistic abuse over the 99 percent of the world. According to the October 8th press release, the women’s organization had joined the movement’s mass rally and march to Zucotti Park, site of the 3-week-long Occupy Wall Street demonstration in Wall Street, New York City. The largest demonstration yet, thousands of demonstrators gathered in protest of Wall Street and capitalistic greed. With one of the main complaints about the demonstration being a lack of clarity on what it wants, the growing number of global cities and organizations now showing support all have one thing in common, they are tired of corporate greed—under many names. LIke one demonstrator said, “there is so much the matter with Wall Street, how can we label it under just one problem area?” According to the Nation article, the movement has moral clarity, something corrupt politicians and business people know nothing about—which is why Occupy Together all over the world wants corporate money out of politics. ” The movement also wants immediate meaningful solutions to the jobless crisis instead of continuous bickering between parties.. In short, it wants a system that works for the 99 percent—not just the 1 percent.
“The International Women’s Alliance (IWA) supports the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ actions and calls on women’s organizations, networks, and alliances worldwide to join and express their solidarity especially on the Global Day of Action on October 15.” (IWA)
Over 650 global cities have confirmed they will support “Occupy Wall Street” on Saturday, October 15. According to The Nation, Katrina vanden Heuvel’s article, Will Occupy Wall Street’s Spark Reshape Our Politics, “the Occupy Wall Street has the quality of an exploding star. It is gathering energy in enormous and potent quantities, and propelling it outward to all corners of the country.” Reuters states that activists in London will gather to protest outside the London Stock Exchange on October 15 on the same day that Spanish groups will mass on Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square in solidarity. However, the New York Wall Street Global Day of Action this Saturday may not happen, at least if the New York Mayor and NYPD has their way about it. Possible eviction by NYPD
Kelly Schott
Protesters in NYC for Occupy Wall Street
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According to the Gothamist, New York’s billionaire Mayor Mike Bloomberg has ordered the New York City police to evict the Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zuccotti Park beginning at 7 a.m. on Friday morning, October 14, for cleaning. The NYPD had received a letter from Brookfield, owner of the park, in regard to its condition and needing to clean the park immediately. Park rule changes force protesters to refuse leaving According to International Business Times, the cleaning would take place for four hours and then demonstrators would be allowed to return to the area “for lawful use consistent with [city] regulations.”
_PaulS
Occupy Wall Street Protest: New York Financial District
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The protesters cleaned the park themselves, scrubbing and clearing their live-in areas with no intent to leave due to Brookfield’s updated rules, “People will have to remove all their belongings and leave the park. After it’s cleaned, they’ll be able to come back. But they won’t be able to bring back the gear, the sleeping bags, that sort of thing will not be able to be brought back into the park. No lying down will be allowed either.” At this time, NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly is planning on enforcing the eviction notice, prompting all park demonstrators to put out a call for help. If a confrontation occurs, the movement may possibly increase in size even more than simply the International Women’s Movement, teachers or union members. Reuters reports that “Tahrir Square in Cairo, Green Square in Tripoli, Syntagma Square in Athens and now Zuccotti Park in New York — popular anger against entrenching power elites is spreading around the world.” This also includes the International Women’s Organization from the Philippines.
Reuters continues with the fact Chinese newspapers splashed news about Occupy Wall Street with editorials blaming the U.S. political system and denouncing the Western media for playing down the protests. “The future of America stands at a crossroads. Presuming that effective measures to relieve the social mood and reconstruct justice cannot be found, it is not impossible that the Occupy Wall Street movement might be the final straw under which America collapses,” said a commentary in the Global Times. “This movement has uncovered a scar on American society, an iceberg of accumulated social conflicts has risen to the surface,” said the commentary in the tabloid, which is owned by the Communist Party mouthpiece, the People’s Daily.
According to Bloomberg News, “protests also are planned for financial districts in Madrid, Milan, London and Paris, according to a bulletin from the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center,” the authenticity of which has been confirmed. “The Occupy Wall Street movement is coming to Canada, with major cities like Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal participating in the solidary marches.” Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/312771#ixzz1ajJeWAVx PLEASE TAKE ACTION: 1) Call 311 and tell Bloomberg to support our right to assemble and to not interfere with #OWS. If you are calling from outside NY use this number 212-NEW-YORK. 2) Come to #OWS on FRIDAY AT 6AM to defend the occupation from eviction.
ACORN-flickr
Occupy Wall Street at Liberty Square in New York City, NY. October 09, 10, 12, 2011.
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UPDATE:
Public Advocate Bill De Blasio visited Zuccotti Park this afternoon in solidarity with the protesters, and issued this statement: “This has been a peaceful and meaningful movement and the City needs to respond to it with dialogue. We have an obligation to protect New Yorkers’ ability to freely exercise their First Amendment rights. “For weeks now, the police and residents have shown consideration to the protesters, and that respect has been reciprocated. I am deeply concerned that the City has upended this balance by trying to unilaterally remove protesters and their effects from Zuccotti Park. The City and Brookfield Management must engage this movement to find a suitable compromise.”
Meanwhile, organizations are requesting supporters to contact the Mayor and the owners of the protest park: • New York mayor Michael Bloomberg: +1-212-772-1081 ext. 12006 • Brookfield CEO Richard Clark: +1-212-417-7063 • Brookfield US headquarters: +1-212-417-7000 • Brookfield Canada headquarters: +1-416-369-2300 • Brookfield Australia headquarters: +61-2-9322-2000
News Release
October 8, 2011
References:
Irma Salvatierra Bajar, Chairperson, Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment-NYC, email: fire.nyc@gmail.com
Raquel Redondiez, Chairperson, GABRIELA-USA, email: gabrielawomen@gmail.com
FILIPINO WOMEN PROTEST WITH THOUSANDS IN OCCUPY WALL ST. MARCH ALONGSIDE UNIONS AND COMMUNITY GROUPS IN THE STRUGGLE AGAINST CAPITALISM AND THE PROTRACTED GLOBAL ECONOMIC DEPRESSION
NEW YORK, NY—On Wednesday, Filipino women of grassroots organization Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FiRE), under the banner of GABRIELA USA, a member organization of the newly formed International Women’s Alliance (IWA), joined a mass rally and march to Zucotti Park, the site of the 3-week-long Occupy Wall Street demonstration in New York City. The rally and march, organized by community organizations and labor unions, drew in thousands of participants and has been the largest demonstration since the launch of Occupy Wall Street. The rally commenced at Foley Square where more than fifteen public sector organizations and unions, including the United Federation of Teachers, United Auto Workers, and Transit Workers’ Union, gathered with other community and labor leaders to protest against income inequalities and poor public education in New York City.
FiRE marched with fellow BAYAN USA Northeast member organizations, Anakbayan New York, Anakbayan New Jersey, and the New York Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, as well as with member organizations of the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON). This Filipino contingent joined the “New York Communities Contingent” which included People’s Justice, Nodutdol for Korean Community Development, Picture the Homeless, and FIERCE. FiRE members chanted “The banks got bailed out. We got sold out,” carrying signs reading “No to Imperialist Globalization. End U.S. Economic Intervention.”
Malou Logan of GABRIELA Australia, which is also a member organization of the International Women’s Alliance, is visiting New York City and joined the march. Of the march she stated, “I joined the march in New York as an expression of my support, and to represent the voice of the Filipino women of GABRIELA Australia and MIGRANTE Australia. Wall Street is the financial capital of the world, the epitome of corporate greed that sucks all the profits labored by the immigrants and citizens of third world countries. We as immigrants in the U.S. and in Australia are forced to leave the Philippines to look for decent jobs for our families and the women workers bear the brunt of the financial crisis.”
Monica Moorehead, an organizer with the Women’s Fightback Network, and a steering committee member of the International Women’s Alliance says, “The Occupy Wall Street actions amount to a growing mass rebellion against the global capitalist economic crisis which has already devastated the lives of millions of people, especially women, and promises to destroy the future of the youth. This radicalization of youth must continue to open up political space for the workers, who are losing their jobs, their homes, their health care and their pensions, and the most oppressed, who face political repression in the form of police brutality, cutbacks in social services, and the prison industrial complex. The Occupy Wall Street actions must be wholeheartedly supported and continue to flourish throughout the globe until ‘Occupy the World’ becomes a reality, not just a slogan. This dynamic movement inside the U.S. has been inspired by righteous occupations in Egypt, Tunisia, Greece, Spain and Wisconsin–many of them led by women.”
Irma Bajar, Chairperson of FiRE-GABRIELA USA, stated, “Women in the U.S. and all over the world have been fighting against capitalist exploitation, patriarchy, and multiple intersecting oppressions and discrimination. The enemy is this unfair capitalist system and imperialism. People across various immigrant communities and people of color have been standing in solidarity with Occupy Wall St. because people are fed up with the injustices and unfair systems.” Bajar continues, “As a Filipino American woman, I can connect the reasons why my mother had to leave the Philippines to the Occupy Wall Street struggle because of the economic conditions and joblessness there. Women are forced out of the country and legally trafficked by the Labor Export Policy that benefits imperialist countries like the United States and big corporations like Dole and Nestle.”
The International Women’s Assembly (IWA) successfully held its First General Assembly on July 5 and 6, 2011 in Quezon City, Philippines under the theme, “Advance the Global Anti-imperialist Women’s Movement! Strengthen the International Women’s Alliance!” FiRE-GABRIELA USA urges other anti-imperialist organizations to join us in fighting against capitalism and imperialism from the level of grassroots organizing expanding to global networks. Class consciousness becomes the basis for women to fight for economic equity, political rights, freedom of association, and to oppose colonial and imperialist wars.
 
###
For Immediate Release
August 6, 2011
Reference: Raquel Redondiez, Chairperson, GABRIELA-USA, gabrielawomen@gmail.com
Filipino Women Stand in Solidarity with PGCPS Teachers in Their Struggle Against Joblessness, Labor Law Violations, and The Broken U.S. Immigration System
The women of GABRIELA-USA send warm militant greetings of solidarity to the teachers of Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) in Maryland who are currently waging a struggle against joblessness, labor law violations, and a system designed to divide workers and exploit migrants of the United States. There are an estimated 19,000 migrant teachers currently employed in the U.S. public school system, most of whom are women recruited from the Philippines. Since 2005, the PGCPS district recruited 1000 out of its 9000 schoolteachers from other countries, the majority from the Philippines. As a national alliance of progressive Filipino women’s organizations, we understand how unfair U.S. labor laws and Philippine economic policies influenced by U.S. interests collude to create exploitative conditions for thousands of Filipino migrant worker women from all sectors.
In the case of the PGCPS teachers, over 800 teachers are in danger of losing their H-1B working visas and facing deportation due to a recent decision made by the Department of Labor. In 2007, the DOL began investigating a claim that the PGCPS district was forcing its migrant teachers to pay exorbitant placement and processing fees that should have been handled by the district itself. It is common for U.S. employers to bypass local and international labor laws by hiring foreign workers through third-party employment agencies. The DOL found the PGCPS district guilty of financially exploiting migrant teachers and ordered the district to pay the workers back wages that amounted to $4 million. However, the DOL also barred the district from renewing these migrant teachers’ visas, leaving hundreds of them facing lay-offs and deportation. The Filipino migrant teachers of PGCPS are in a crisis, because their prospects are slim. With mass budget cuts in education, not enough teaching jobs are available for the growing reserve labor force of teachers in the U.S. In addition, the reason many of these migrant teachers chose to leave their families and work in the U.S. public school system is that no jobs are available to them in their home countries as well.
In the Philippines, the people face rampant poverty, landlessness, and joblessness caused by corrupt governance and relentless intervention of U.S. imperialism in the country. The Philippine state has been subservient to the economic and political interests of the U.S., often upholding policies that violate the basic rights and freedom of the Filipino people. One such policy is the Labor Export Policy, launched during the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship in the 1970s. This policy has been in effect even today, under the current administration of President Benigno Aquino III. It maintains a systematic exodus of Filipino workers abroad into countries who promise better opportunities in economic niches unfulfilled by the receiving countries’ labor force. Despite the positive rhetoric attached to this process, the Philippine state requires these migrant workers—who often face employer abuse, wage theft, unfair working conditions, and human trafficking—to send mass remittances back home, not only to support their families, but also to keep the dwindling Philippine economy afloat. Over 4000 workers, more than half of who are women, leave the Philippines everyday in search for work abroad. This is good news only for the Philippine state that benefits from the backs of these workers, and for the U.S. that has historically desired a cheap, exploited labor force to drive its capitalist expansion.
In the current global economic crisis, we can see that the United States government has only been interested in preserving the livelihood of its rich elite and the private sector. Nationally and locally, it has slashed the budgets of the public sector—including that of public education and health care—at the expense of the masses of U.S. workers, native and foreign. This DOL decision, if not overturned, could negatively affect the PGCPS migrant teachers’ means of surviving and supporting their families in the U.S. and in their homeland. Not only do they lose their jobs, but they lose their homes, access to health care, and opportunities to care for their families. GABRIELA-USA is inspired by the migrant teachers who, despite facing such injustice, are steadfast in their fight for their basic rights and livelihood. We unite and stand in solidarity with the PGCPS migrant teachers and all exploited migrant workers until justice has been served!
Join GABRIELA USA and other organizations in support and solidarity with the PGCPS teachers at a White House Rally. Tell the Dept. of Labor NOT to deport migrant teachers who have excelled in servicing our youth and communities!
Picket Rally @ The White House
When: Tuesday, August 9th @ 2p.m.
Where: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500 (btw East & West Executive Streets in front of Lafayette Park facing the White House)
Metro: Closest stop is Farragut North or Metro Center on the Red line & McPherson Square on the Blue line
There’s Still TIME to Sign Petition! Tell DOL Don’t Deport Filipino Teachers After School System Failed Them!
MGA GURO NG BAYAN, NGAYON AY LUMALABAN!
THE TEACHERS UNITED WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED!
EDUCATION NOT DEPORTATION!
PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF MIGRANT WORKERS!
MABUHAY ANG MIGRANTENG PILIPINO!
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