Occupy Everywhere - Sept 17th - Day of Rage Against Wall Street and what it stands for!

[Ed Jewett]

Bloomberg Drum Circle

This resonates with http://www.rayraphael.com/First_American_Revolution.htm and the phrase from it: "with staves and musick".



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WEEKEND EDITION, NOVEMBER 19-20, 2011
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CounterPunch Diary
Are Drum Circles Protected Under the Constitution?

by ALEXANDER COCKBURN
From Manhattan, to Nashville, to St Louis, to Portland, Oregon, to Oakland, California, the police this week moved in to clear out the Occupy Wall Street protesters from the various downtown plazas or squares where they'd established their peaceable focos. The mayor of Oakland, Jean Quan, had earlier acknowledged a conference call between 18 mayors, (at obvious federal instigation from the Justice Department) across the US discussing strategy, and the mode elected was clear enough. Get them out, by any means necessary.
These marching orders were taken most seriously in where else? the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement back in 1964, at Sproul Plaza, entry way into the University of California at Berkeley. FSM's birth was prompted by the arrest of Jack Weinberg for soliciting money for the civil rights movement. He was put into a police car, but a spontaneous sit-down trapped it. Eventually the roof was used as a FSM platform.
Last week hundreds of students massed in Sproul Plaza to protest proposed fee hikes of 81 per cent that would bring UC tuition from $13,000 to over $22,000. The students pointed out that the banks caused the financial crisis, which in turn caused the budget crisis. So the banks, not the students, should pay for it. The students set up their own small encampment on the lawn outside Sproul Hall.
An eyewitness, Michael Levien, described on this site what happened at around 9.30 pm this Monday night:

"A phalanx of police in riot gear turned the corner of Sproul Hall and rapidly charged, thrusting their batons with violent force into the crowd. Chanting non-violent protest' and stop beating students,' student after student took fierce baton thrusts to their chests and limbs.
"Then the police started swinging, brutally beating people's chests, arms, knees, and backs. They were swinging to hurt. With the crowd behind and the police in front there was no way for people to leave even if they wanted to. A few people tried to escape in the narrow gap between the students and police. They were savagely beaten. Throughout what can only be described as a terrifying physical attack that has left many with serious injuries, the students stayed entirely non-violent."

Enter Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, who often likes to reminisce about his Freedom Rider days. At the fortieth anniversary of the founding of FSM, they had a mock police car and platform and Chancellor Birgeneau spoke from it, reminiscing warmly about the birth of FSM and the importance of free speech. I spoke at the same anniversary, giving measured praise for subversive free speech in an event organized by Lenni Brenner, "FSM and the Sixties: Lessons for Today."
Chancellor Birgeneau seems to be a man changed from...
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