Category Archives: Occupy Oakland

Women Warriors Of The Global Revolution Part 5: Bella Eiko

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Occupy Savvy Exclusive! One of the coolest things about activism is that it doesn’t have celebrities – it has role models. Recently, we put 7 poignant questions to five of the world’s most inspiring women. These women hail from Iceland, Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and for their profound actions, deeds, words, generosity, heart, and perseverance, we deem them “wahine toa”.

In Aotearoa, New Zealand, we describe a fearless woman of soul and substance, as “wahine toa”. This very loosely translates to “woman warrior.”

The Maori dictionary explains it as;

wāhine: (noun) women, females, ladies, wives.

toa: (stative) be brave, bold, victorious, experienced, accomplished, adept, competent, skilful, capable.

But wahine toa is even more; to us she is;

kaitiaki: (noun) trustee, minder, guard, custodian, guardian, keeper.

She becomes;

ūkaipō: (noun) mother, origin, source of sustenance, real home.

She is “atua” in the sense of; “a way of perceiving and rationalising the world”.

If it were audible; we could almost hear our ladies blushing through the screen. The truth is; they deserve every accolade we can give them, as they live this wild journey called life to the fullest, inspiring so many of us to follow their path, by discovering our own.

This last couple weeks, you have seen the same 7 questions posted here, again and again. But we saw vastly different answers. All of a unique and immeasurable insightfulness that is a gift, as a reader, to absorb.

Part One saw us publish the heartfelt words of Turtle Island, Canada’s Min Reyes.

Part Two was an exclusive interview with Iceland’s very own Birgitta Jónsdóttir.

Part Three was an introduction to Aotearoa, New Zealand’s Marama Davidson.

Part Four covered Australia’s original “Tentmonster”, Sara Kerrison.

In Part Five, the series finale, we speak with Occupy Oakland livestreaming legend Jessica “Bella Eiko” Hollie.

Bella Eiko

(Photo by @ripperhollow)

Occupy Oakland spawned some of the greatest livestreamers in the world; brave, brutally honest eye witnesses who broadcast their on-the-ground experiences of local activism events, around the globe.

A quick scan of the 45 posts on this website about Occupy Oakland shows that they have endured just about every discomfort imaginable; from blatant state repression and suppression, to financial stresses and resource depletion; to the tear gas, rubber bullets, flash-bang grenades and other “non-lethal” (in reality possibly-lethal) weaponry sporadically employed by the Oakland Police Department.

Unwitting citizens on the butt end of such brutal tactics might never have their stories told were it not for the efforts of citizen journalists. Through them, we have witnessed corporate news media helicopters LEAVING the scene of protests immediately prior to weaponry being deployed.

We have witnessed ex-Iraq war veterans shot in the head by the police; we have witnessed incidents inside the halls of power that go under-reported, mis-reported or entirely blacked out by the conventional so-called “media”.

Much of what we have witnessed, has been thanks to the superhuman efforts of Bella Eiko.

Bella is part of a new media revolution that is the last vestige of public truth and record. It is impossible to overstate the historic importance of her very existence, or the sheer crap she endures to continue to play her part.

Having seen Bella take us places few, if any, corporate journalists would dare go; to see her as an orator, not just a livestreamer, added a new dimension to our appraisal of her. Watching the below video has made grown women cry. It is the epitome of speaking truth to power. Raw emotion and raw honesty. It is highly recommended viewing.

Don’t miss the last 30 or so seconds of occupiers chanting “the system has got to die! Hella hella occupy!“

(We covered the above video in greater depth in a May 2012 article)

From the halls of the Oakland City Council to the “Free Speech Zone” (read: media-confining pen) at President Obama’s visit to Oakland to the Anaheim “riots”, Bella has gone above and beyond to amplify the voices of the people.

As Min Reyes said in Part 1 of this series (paraphrasing); the movements come in waves, each a little bigger than the last, all blurring into each other until the individual banners are meaningless and meld into one.

In Part 2 Birgitta Jónsdóttir described the revolution as an ongoing process; where we needed to abandon ego-logy and embrace ecology.

Part 3 saw Marama Davidson deliver the stark reality; we can no longer attempt to be the human boss of Earth. Such wankery is running us into utter ruination.

In Part 4 Sara Kerrison reminded us that every single thing we require to liberate us exists already within ourselves and on our planet.

Without further adieu, here follows Bella Eiko’s heartfelt answers to the same 7 questions we put to the other wahine toa featured in this series.

Q1. Occupy Savvy: Strong women abound in the Occupy and Idle No More movements. Did you ever foresee that you would contribute as meaningfully as you have, to such momentous events?

Bella: I never expected that my contributions would even amount to anything, I just thought they were necessary. I knew that the Occupy movement would make its mark and during it I got majorly motivated to try and effect the type of change I always talked about. As the movement continues to evolve, I hope that I can continue to help and make a difference. Now more than ever as I come close to delivering my son.

Q2. Occupy Savvy: An ONZ admin says “Activism didn’t radicalise me; the state response to activism radicalised me.” Can you empathise with this statement?

Bella: Yes I can, as a matter of fact it was the horrible response to political dissidence that made me want to speak out more, to do more. Eventually all people reach a breaking point, I think seeing the state violence that many innocent activists were subjected to made a fire light inside of me unlike ever before.

Q3. Occupy Savvy: Activism messages appear to be increasingly penetrating the public consciousness. What is your experience of this awakening?

Bella: I see more of the public buying less of the empty political promises and expressing their anger and frustration towards biased media stories. However, I still fear that being too hopeful and in a rush to believe we are in an actual democracy are still major factors hindering the success of real significant social change. There is also an overwhelming sense of helplessness. Many times we simply don’t know what to do and pass the buck to governmental entities to tax us for “solutions”. This has got to be tackled by real community fueled alternatives. How do we do this? I wish I knew..

Q4. Occupy Savvy: What has been your most satisfying moment of the global revolution, to date?

Bella: Most satisfying is hard. I think at the top of that list is definitely Occupy the Farm. This action was not only positive and giving back to the community, it made a major statement, kept going on, had/has major support from both city officials and the community and was radical direct action! This made me very happy.

I was also pretty satisfied by the continued reemergence of Occupy Oakland, and how the response to the severe oppression in the streets was to defend head on. I loved the shields, and barricades along with the gas masks. Defending our right to protest in various ways & in turn publicizing the brutal means the state will use in an attempt to control.

Q5. Occupy Savvy: In what way would you most like to see the global narrative shift, from this point?

Bella: I would like to hear more solutions for community alternatives at this point. Viable ones that can successfully combat the abusive structure of the current government & economy. We have successfully highlighted many of the issues, lets start focusing on solutions.

Q6. Occupy Savvy: What advice would you give to a woman becoming involved in activism for the first time?

Bella: Have thick skin, be prepared to be vocal and be judged. No matter what, do not get so frustrated that you quit, find ways to fight against all forms of oppression and always keep your voice, not the one that others want you to have.

Q7. Occupy Savvy: In what way have you seen your country change, over the last 18 months? In what way would you see it change, in the next 18?

Bella: I have seen my country start to show more and more dissent and attention to the abusive and underhanded tactics of a corrupt government. Although I have not seen the same type of revolts that are happening in Spain or Egypt, I see the people starting to not only understand the injustices but also wanting justice for them. In the next 18 months I would love to see the government held more accountable and the people come together to actively replace this abusive power structure and the economic terrorism that has been unleashed because of it.

That concludes our first web series “Women Warriors Of The Global Revolution”. We thank Bella for repping the US of A in this series and for being such a fantastic role model for women in her country.

This site operates on a $0 budget & so if you love what you read here all we ask is that you share the articles with your friends and family. Help us spread the sentiments expressed here, around the world. Thank you to the thousands who have shared this series already. Every reader who gains a new perspective here, makes this all worth it.

OCCUPY NEW ZEALAND MEDIA TEAM

Help Occupy NZ Put #TPPA Under International Spotlight

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Occupy NZ have invited Political Fail Blog, CourtneyOccupy & OccupyEye to come to New Zealand and blow the lid on the “secret” TPPA multi-country “trade” negotiations being held at Sky City Convention Centre in early December.

Together, this TPPA Stream Team will broadcast multi-faceted live coverage of the events to an international audience.

Working in concert with both Occupy Auckland and Occupy New Zealand Media, the team will cover the week’s major broad-based Auckland protest actions, also attending the December 4th Wellington action and topping it off with a trip to Christchurch to hear from eye-witnesses of the devastating Christchurch earthquakes; to see first-hand the current needs of the residents and to amplify their voices to the world.

It will be a fantastic opportunity for New Zealand to show off our beautiful country and the best spirit of all the peoples of Aotearoa who are lifting their voices in protest against the many implications of the TPPA.

Our combined media reach is substantial, and the trip will result in copious amounts of livestream and still video footage, livetweets, blog posts on multiple different major Occupy-related websites, the opportunity to capture historic photojournalism, and the utilisation of Occupy’s vast social media network, across many platforms.

Many occupiers will be opening their hearts and homes to support the team.

You can support them too, by simply sharing this message.

Donating from New Zealand:

PledgeMe have published our trip project here. Please check it out! There is tons of links and further details in it.

Donating from elsewhere:

Please follow on Twitter: @Pfailblog @CourtneyOccupy & @OccupyEye and donate to them here

More info on the dangers of the TPPA:

From N.Z. perspective:

“TPPA Non-Transparency Has Hit New Low”
“It’s Our Future” website, full of topical info.

This short video is also a must-watch.

From U.S. perspective:

Important note: We have only one week to resource this trip! Please help spread the word!

Thank you! 

OCCUPY NEW ZEALAND MEDIA TEAM

Occupy Oakland: A Phoenix Will Rise From The Ashes #O25 #OO

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48 hours out from #O25 Occupy Oakland is in turmoil. It needs our help.

We, who have eye-witnessed on their behalf. As they in turn did for us, during the evictions of Occupy Auckland, here in NZ.

How can we help? By speaking the truth. Fearlessly.

By regurgitating the sum of our knowledge gathered over this past year and trusting in each other’s mutual sincerity enough to ALWAYS keep an open mind.

We who have now, finally, become adept at picking out the true of heart and conscience, from the wolves in sheep’s clothing. For by their actions, they are known.

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The geographic difference between Oakland, CA & New Zealand belies the closeness of the socio-economic circumstances and the pop culture. Listening to the Port Shutdown II soundtruck on Oakfosho’s livestream, we knew (and raucously sung along to) every song played.

Whether it is the ‘Pac connection (revered as a deity in the NZ hip-hop/rap scene) or the fact that I, a white Kiwi woman, can rap the entire of Luniz “I Got 5 On It”; at street level we feel Oakland, like a distant older sibling. “Up in the O-A-K the town; homies don’t play around, we down to blaze a pound…” “Holla if ya hear me!”

Activists and musicians from Oakland have been naming all of our social ills and nailing the root causes of them for decades before Occupy spawned. They, and the newer generations of activists who collectively founded Occupy Oakland do have so much to be proud of.

Proud that people were fed, that people were housed, that people were roused from their slumber and reunited in community. Proud that because of the sheer determination of citizen media; the whole world IS watching.

We will never forget the night the chopper’s cut & ran.

We were screaming obscenities at the @ABC7newsBayArea “refuelling” lies, while watching both the CBS and ABC7 helicopters cut & run SIMULTANEOUSLY… from the livestreams on the ground.

We don’t need to retell that story… it was already done beautifully in this absolute must-read blog post, authored by an Oakland resident who witnessed the same sequence of events as us.

The writer talks of leaping out of their chair and running out of their house to join their community on #O25 ’11, explicitly because of what they witnessed through the livestreams. Yet another testament to the invaluable ability of People’s Media to reach an audience otherwise literally CUT OFF from participation, by the complicity and corruption of the mainstream media.

Witnessing the chopper cut-and-run & the events that followed, instantly turned us into by-proxy Occupy Oakland activists. As with activists the world over, we amplified & collated the media response and from sheer outrage at the injustices, absolutely hammered the public interfacing (read: P.R.) channels of the officials responsible for the debacle.

Mayor Jean Quan’s Facebook page was receiving 14,000 – 20,000 comments per post on her page, lambasting her (to put it politely). ABC7 was forced to pull their twitter feed off their website after it erupted into abuse at their obvious lies and omissions, bailing right as everyone was gassed.

The following are some of the tweets that transpired from our end, within the first 24 hours. (Note: 26th in NZ was 25th for OO)

The reference to “OPD lies” in one of the tweets above is due to the OPD holding a press-conference on #O25 itself stating to the corporate media that they had not used flash-bang grenades against the demonstrators. Once the deluge of citizen media came out proving them liars, the footage of their press conference was removed from the web.

The fall-out was immediate and swift. Mayor Jean Quan’s inner circle soon began to crumble.

Petitions sprang up; including a recall petition. A “Recall Mayor Jean Quan” Facebook page got thousands of likes almost instantaneously. Even, of all people, the police union, got on her case.

“Mayor Jean Quan In Big Trouble After Riot” claimed SFGate.com, as the resignations of Quan’s inner circle continued.

Astonishingly, Quan’s response (other than to shirk an appearance at a General Assembly for not being given priority in the speaking order) was to spill the beans about PERF‘s “18-city” eviction co-ordination.

This Oakland Tribune live-blog of O25 tells of the beginnings of the idea to shut down the Port of Oakland as part of a General Strike.

“Protesters are calling for a general strike in the city of Oakland on Thursday and are telling people to gather at 5 p.m. in Frank H. Ogawa Plaza. They say their hope is to shut down the city. They’re telling businesses to close their shops and will be going into businesses to promote the idea. Protesters say they are trying to mobilize unions and turn this into a strike movement.”

“An estimated 2,000 protesters are on hand, and they’re discussing the mechanics for a strike on the city next Wednesday. Protest leaders are trying to galvanize unions, students and businesses into taking part. Ideally, protesters want students to skip school, businesses to shut down and hundreds of thousands of citizens to mobilize at the City Center.”

One week later, on the day of the Strike:

You can tell when the 99% backs an action. Because it looks like this.

You can also tell who really backs the 99% and not just their own agenda, by their level of tolerance.

True Occupy Media amplify for all issues and for EVERY faction in a spirit of inclusion.

We cover the religious organisations that support the 99%; even though we do not personally ascribe to any of them. We cover the student movement, although we are not all students. We cover Rainbow Youth & LGBT issues, regardless of our own sexuality. We advocate for the elderly, the young, no matter what our own age.

We cover indigenous issues, because the mainstream media deliberately distort both history and the present, and above all we seek to give voice to those who often go unheard.

We cover the entire 99% to the best of our ability, and strive to strengthen the movement, to decentralise and grow the chorus of testimony horizontally across our society.

But the true mark of Occupy Media is that we never fucking quit sharing movement information. No matter what is thrown our way.

The drive to share the information and grow the awakening outstrips any personal discomforts we are forced to endure. Be it financial through deprivation, or through being targeted for bullying and derision by others.

Those who truly believe – who truly love Occupy – act to grow the movement. Not to pigeon-hole it into one fixed method or ideology.

Thus it was with shock and dismay that we witnessed the beheading of the Occupy Oakland Media team.

Proposals to disband entire media teams were surprisingly common across the movement. There was an asserted drive, especially in Oakland, to:

a) alienate livestreamers – even going so far as to accuse them of being “narks”, while outright ignoring/turning a blind eye to the vastly superior surveillance capabilities of the state

b) control the key infrastructure of the Occupy

c) usurp the resources of the Occupy

d) discredit the Occupiers and alienate the public from them

We suffered the same thing at Occupy Auckland, though by good fortune managed to mass block the destructive proposals to fire our media team and they never passed. Although it poisoned our G.A. process & succeeded to some extent in alienating people from the movement, those who pushed for it have since proven their colours many times over in the wider activist community, and we are now rightfully acknowledged for having, through fierce loyalty and dogged determination, kept Occupy Auckland alive, despite their constant claims that “Occupy is dead!”

To go through that experience immediately prior to witnessing the same proposal actually PASS at Occupy Oakland, was horrifying. On live chat on Oakfosho’s stream, the day of that fateful General Assembly, no less than a half dozen cities were screaming warnings that the same proposal had been made at their occupies. We were all begging Oak to warn the G.A. not to do it. No proposal should EVER be passed which undoes the work of dozens of people who have given so much of themselves and their lives to the movement. Sadly due to the absence of much of the already beleaguered media team and the first-in-history successful use of the word ‘terrorist’ as a deterrent to further investigation… it was all over.

I had a particular memory of said ‘terrorist’, from months prior. Where I had stumbled across a Kickstarter page that successfully fundraised $3,200 for the creation of a definitive “Oral History of Occupy Oakland“. (The project delivery date was January 2012 yet we cannot find any trace of it.)

The page makes the astonishing claim;

“Especially in the earlier period of the plaza, my reporting has been at times, and for most of this period, the only in-depth narrative work done on the camp, and by any estimate the most accurate.”  -Jamie Omar Yassin

It then lists a bunch of links to the apparently WePay-funded blog Hyphenated-Republic whose last update was August 27th, 2012.

However it does have a very active Twitter feed on it – one which is filled with daily hate messages about OOMedia, courtesy of @Hyphy_Republic.

Despite his account’s “protected” status (another sure sign of someone spreading the awakening!) his twitter feed populating on his dormant blog site means his vitriole is able to be witnessed live.

As of 5 hours ago Yassin says;

2 days ago, this bizarre statement:

Which seems to be a vast departure from the story told here most notably, in the comments section.

Ironically, one thing Occupy Oakland definitely DOES have is great websites. Both OccupyOakland.org & HellaOccupyOakland.org have high usability and polish.

Unfortunately the “official” website appears to have no news updates between August 8th and October 22nd. The official Facebook page, which has a huge reach with over 24,000 likes on it, has been dormant for months. Suggesting the “new” media team that “replaced” OOMedia is all but AWOL.

One of Jaime Omar Yassin’s anti-OOMedia Twitter compadres is @OccupiedOakTrib who appears to control the infrastructure of the media teams print publication. (Or at the very least its social media accounts). From which he has made very clear his public position, while continuing to, still seven months later, be snapping at the heels of OOMedia. Despite having personally announced the “Emergency GA” to present a proposal to depose them.

Watching that OO assembly all we could see was ourselves mirrored in it. The same ringleaders. The same stooge saboteurs. The same cat-calling, negativity-cheering, rent-a-mob. The same slanderous terminology slung about to inflate emotions and utterly DISTRACT everyone present from action-planning, instead making them unwitting participants in devolution.

Now, seven months later, the writing is on the wall. As we would say, “the proof is in the pudding”. HellaOccupyOakland is posting exponential articles from around the globe, to every 1 by the Occupied Oakland Tribune. Meanwhile Jaime Omar Yassin is blaming Occupy Oakland for his not having uploaded an audio file to the G.A. archive in forever, despite having gloated over the historical value of it on the Kickstarter page that apparently netted him $3,200.

For all the cries of “transparency” and “accountability” between the two of them; the online record IS transparent. It shows no uploads of G.A. minutes or audio for the “emergency” G.A. that voted to fire the media team. Nor any in the seven months since.

Twitter is also transparent. If you search “OOMedia” in Twitter, with no # or @ in front, what you will find is @oomedia relentlessly sharing and spreading movement info, while being blasted with constant time-wasting trolling, by the same group of people, over and over again.

It quite frankly sucks, but is no wonder, that those actively spreading the awakening are being hated on. By people whose timelines are filled with narcissistic, vitriolic bullshit by comparison.

While others claim credit for actions of the 99%; yet heap scorn upon the founding principles that brought the 99% together.

Non-Violence. Global Solidarity. Local Governance.

Thus the self-styled “Oakland Commune” appears to be a remanifestation of OO that is an attempt to mask the failure of those behind the firing of the media team, at doing any better.

The “O.C.” is now wearing the Port Shutdowns as a badge of honor while showing little interest in the original agreement to “mobilise the unions and make this a strike movement” as per the statement of the Port Shutdown Committee.

They are instead writing angsty teenage revolutionary would-be manifestos, advocating “smashy smashy” and deriding “pacifists” as lesser beings, completely ignoring the roots of Occupy; of Tahrir and the Battle of Qasr Elnil Bridge that turned the tide of the Egyptian Revolution and brought down Mubarak.

As in other examples of recent successful revolution, it was achieved by large-scale acts of non-violence.

We watched it live, thanks to brave Egyptian livestreamers.

It is not possible to claim to be Occupy, or to lay claim to Occupy’s support base, if you do not believe in using peaceful methods to obtain societal change.

You will never convince the 99% to support the use of violence. The second you do, you EXCLUDE the elderly. The young. The disabled. Those with children. The 99%!

The enemy of the 99% is the banks. Not the police, not the Councils, not the Mayors, not the myriad of distracting middle-layers of the pyramid: but the TOP OF THE PYRAMID!

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No-one knows what is coming this #O25 though it is bound to be historic. We will witness, support & amplify regardless. For as was done for us, so shall be done for you.

Two of the final sources for this article are filled with memories for those who ate, slept and truly lived, at Occupy Oakland.

This gorgeous look at the real camp; as it was. A blogpost to treasure.

This comparison of the “Before” and “After” images, pre & post eviction.

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Bella doesn’t know it, but she made a grown woman on the other side of the world, cry her eyes out. Not just any woman. A woman that had survived years in prison. Who said about it; “they should have just put me in the men’s prison. I would have been better off.”

I showed the woman the video of Bella speaking at #OakMtg. She couldn’t even get through the entire video without breaking down. She got about two thirds the way through then turned it off and made a hasty and teary departure.

And this ain’t no spring chicken; she is a staunch lady. Just like Bella. But the truth rings so true to those of us who have been trying to tell it our whole lives, that to hear your every thought, feeling and wish come out of another person’s mouth, saying all the things you’ve ever wanted to but couldn’t, is a profoundly moving and emotional experience.

The recognition that at our core we all have the same wants and needs, just varying ability to express and achieve them. Within a system weighting itself wholly against our success.

Well that system is formulaic. It isn’t able to apply different methodologies at a micro level, everything must always be centralised and all instruction uniform. That is its inherent weakness.

For it means that with effective communication between the Occupies; we can connect the dots and learn from each others mistakes, with the omniscience of a hive mind.

Knowledge based on experience is our greatest asset, along with each other.

For a year now, OOMedia team have provided us with support and covered issues that were of no direct benefit for them to, other than in pure solidarity for a fellow Occupy.

For that we are so grateful to them.

Solidarity EVERYONE at Occupy Oakland. Wishing you a safe #O25.

COINTELPRO & Occupy: The War Within

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THE INFILTRATION OF THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT IN NEW ZEALAND, AND THE WORLD.

FOIA responses from the DHS have revealed exactly that which we feared in earlier days of the Occupy movement; the existence of a federally/nationally and likely internationally coordinated (probably through co-operation agreements) attempt to dismantle Occupies from the inside and otherwise infiltrate and sabotage related non-violent democratic groups.

This counter-democratic practice extends to the use of private contracting corporations performing traditional police and military intelligence functions, is now undeniable and even more sophisticated than we “conspiracy theorists” had dared suspect.

It is unsurprising considering the scale of the opposition to the success of Occupy; but our nemeses are moles of superior resources and co-ordination, spreading constant disinformation and infiltrating organisations of social change, to disrupt and subvert.

We watch in horror as the tales of the sabotage of various international occupations emerge – and in 99% of cases the events parallel precisely what occurred here in New Zealand.

Any who still doubt that the methods employed against Occupy overseas were used here, need only look at the surrounding political landscape.

Specifically;

* the timely training of our police forces by the U.S.A.
* the presence of the FBI during the Kim Dotcom raid and during the two evictions of our four Auckland occupations, where police were proved to be wearing fake badge numbers, perfect replicas of real ones;
* the May Day “visit” by Janet Napolitano, head of the Department of Homeland Security
* this week’s “visit” by, of all people, Leon Panetta;
* the recent stationing of 2,500 U.S. military troops in Northern Australia;
* a suggestion by the United States to establish a military base here in New Zealand, a Commonwealth Country; in surplus to the Waihopai Spy Base we already host;
* the latest development; further illegal conduct against Kim Dotcom by the GCSB, currently under retributive attack by Anonymous (multiple reports of gcsb.govt.nz down);

collectively set the dramatic backdrop to this monumental phase of New Zealand’s sociopolitical history.

With the benefit of hindsight & the FOIA releases a more clear picture of how methods of suppression are applied globally, and of what Occupy has endured and still is enduring, is emerging. The end result of these methods, can be analysed by their narcissistic echoes in social media; open destruction and negativity in a movement entirely based on the opposite – a new possibility; positivity. Creation. Change.

These historic internal sentiments within the movement can be mapped by repeated fixed narrative or attitude shifts at a given time. Attitudes that in retrospect, are without merit.

While initially triumphant and embracing its quick spread to nearly 2,000 cities and towns worldwide, the Occupy movement was rocked by the month-and-a-half-late emergence of the “Oakland Liberation Front” Black Bloc leaflets, shown in countless You Tube videos to be the tactics of infiltrators. This time in Occupy history represented the first major effort by the 1% to tar Occupy as a violent movement; prior to the forceful violence inflicted upon it during the evictions that occurred later.

Despite this, the founding principle of Occupy that brought people together was in fact non-violence. This was stipulated time and time again in the founding documentation of Occupies throughout the world. It was the basis for the solidarity occupations. Those who claim Black Bloc are a core component of the movement, forget the founding premises.

They similarly need to question the gap in time between the inception of the movement in September 2011, and the appearance of organised Black Bloc immediately prior to the 1st West Coast Port Shutdown/General Strike in November.

The targeting of livestreamers for suspicion was one of the many minor successes of the counter-Occupy COINTELPRO. With Black Bloc they neutralised the “peaceful protester” images from their Antony Bologna/Brooklyn Bridge P.R. disasters; which had recruited countless thousands more occupiers to the cause.

However with the attacks on livestreamers, saboteurs in several cases successfully dismantled some Occupy Media groups or sufficiently pressured key members of legitimate Occupy Media into dissipating, or turning away from the movement.

The Twitter hash-tag #WithoutLivestreamers was our community response to attacks on Occupy Live-streamers as perpetuating “surveillance” or “supplying evidence”. The anti-Live-streamer attacks came from a sector of false-Occupiers within the movement, proven the greatest of folly in light of the #TrapWire revelations, that indeed, security cameras are being actively used against democratic protesters.

Not only by civil and police authorities, but by third parties including corporates/”private” contractors and potentially their subcontractors, as revealed in the TrapWire scandal that implicated “corporate intelligence”, “market intelligence” and “asset tracking” agencies like Cubic Defense, Abraxas Corp, and potentially countless other similar military-industrial-complex interfacing companies around the globe.

We have seen proof that yes, modern surveillance cameras can zoom. Yes, they can pan. Yes, they can tilt. Yes they can target specific individuals/groups for both audio and visual reconnaissance and yes, their footage is potentially going off-shore and/or circulating around private & governmental intelligence agencies worldwide.

Yes, it is all happening on public dollars. Happening TO the public. We are the unwitting purchasers of technology that turns us into international commodities for the incestuous trading of for-profit intelligence agencies.

In this light, the idea that Joe Bloggs filming on his cellphone is going to be of any more use to law enforcement than their military-grade state-of-the-art capabilities, is ironic at best.

The truth is, Livestreams are Occupy’s single greatest recruitment tool.

Droves of new occupiers are brought into the movement by the viral nature of the live-streams, which allow us to eye-witness what the corporate media do NOT put in their made-for-TV fairy-tales dressed as news broadcasts.

Occupy Wall Street was suppressed by the global corporate media for over three weeks.

Those of us eye-witnessing the live-streams then visiting corporate news websites only to discover the blackout, were irrevocably shown that our conventional world view of the status quo is wholly malleable; and indeed is manufactured by corporations.

It appears that blackouts are created whenever events on the ground outpace the information systems that the elite 0.1% rely on, to maintain societal control.

The blackout occurred because the international media monster took time to be fed tactical instructions on how to dress and package what was unfolding in a way that would inhibit or prevent its further growth, creating an information vacuum that was filled by ordinary people.

This was a golden period of time for Occupy, one reflected in its high intake of donations and its fast growth around the globe.

However, the corporates-that-be soon got a handle on the situation and out came the Reuters and A.P. faxes to the international media who used untold thousands of outlets to saturate media markets with suitably derogatory soundbytes and vacant stereotypes, simultaneously.

The constant “24 hour news echo-chamber” post-eviction monotone drone of “Occupy is dead, Occupy is dead, Occupy is dead“, wasn’t just a voice that came from the corporate media. It was a voice which came from within the movement itself. Upon reflection, we notice the individuals who most fervently purport that the movement is over, are the same people who made and/or supported proposals to G.A.’s to deconstruct & not to construct.

To constrain and not to free. To centralise, and not to decentralise. To usurp key infrastructure. To fire media teams wholesale. To control and usurp finances.

Their malignancy flew in the face of the resources, time, care, love and attention poured in by genuine Occupiers around the world.

These subversives are people with names (albeit often fake ones), and often self-styled titles, who court an obviously corrupt corporate media for their own ends. Who stage Astroturf events, who create new media that ostracises participants, derides/degrades the movement or violates its core principles.

Sometimes even the alternative media that we love so dearly and promote with such fervour, and in all fairness have largely legitimately served us well under the most trying of circumstances, still, in some cases fail us.

Our most early experience of this was back in November of 2011, when the first photos were emerging of DHS presence at Occupy events and evictions.

We had a tweet exchange with Alternet editor Joshua Holland who called it a “non-story” and Mother Jones contributor Gavin Aronsen thought the situation confined to PERF. The general overtone from Joshua was that the fears were unfounded, despite the tweets of pics and videos from eye-witnesses on the ground.

Photos like this make it unlikely DHS participation was limited to an advisory role.

Joshua Holland subsequently publicly raked Naomi Wolf over the coals for suggesting as much, then after she responded over the sourcing of an article questioning DHS in an Occupy context, he did so again, through Alternet.

Witnessing the exchanges on-line, a member of Occupy Auckland Media Team made a short video questioning the vitriolic nature of Joshua’s “articles”, and noting the stark discrepancy between the 24/7 Occupy info spread by Naomi, by comparison to the relatively benign “going to walk my dog”-esque timeline of Joshua Holland.

Indeed, search @NaomiRWolf on Topsy.com then sub-search “DHS” and you’ll find a wealth of fascinating related information, whereas if you search @JoshuaHol then “DHS” you’ll see 6 total tweets, three of which are denials of stories. Search @JoshuaHol then “Dog” & there’s 6 pages.

Mysteriously, our direct Twitter exchanges with him from that time, have disappeared from Topsy entirely. So has his most recent tweet on the subject; a 180 degree turn that suggested he had been somehow vindicated by the March & May 2012 FOIA responses.

Time warp back to this Counterpunch article: “there was and is a nationally co-ordinated campaign to disrupt and crush the Occupy movement.” A far cry from Joshua’s original position; spot on Naomi’s.

Well Joshua is right that the FOIA’s cleared up the issue. Indeed they did. With the added bonus of exposing that even some members of the alternative media were involved in suppressing what was happening, as it was happening.

That even the most extreme of “tin-hat conspiracy theorists” couldn’t concoct the full extent of the reality on the ground.

Yesterday’s Vinny “GuerillaMedia MrNews” Eastwood interview of activist Penny Bright in the wake of her expulsion from several major Auckland movements, is another example of the alternative news that should represent us, being used to promote a personal agenda that is ultimately detrimental to the interests of the movement as a whole.

The interview with Penny is billed as “Exposing NZ Cointelpro”. Unfortunately it does nothing of the sort. Just harps on about her beef with one woman. Completely ignoring the larger geopolitical picture, and wasting the opportunity to inform listeners of it.

As with Holland’s Alternet pursuit of Naomi Wolf, Penny Bright’s use of an alternative media source postured as friendly to Occupy, as a tool of revenge in her personal crusade against Occupy and the uber-successful “Aotearoa Is Not For Sale” campaign, completely and utterly misses the wider plot.

Occupy does not face the work of singular saboteurs; unless they are of the unwitting variety. What it faces is the systemic application of state-sanctioned public-funded anti-terrorism networks and resources; whole “Fusion centres” co-ordinating teams of operatives infiltrating meetings and surveilling activists’ convergence points, staging events and arrest situations, and reporting back to the central government hive for resources and further instruction.

Whether Occupy is infiltrated by these teams of paid saboteurs is no longer a debatable question. Whether or not we can re-embrace our core concepts of non-violence and decentralisation sufficiently to (non)combat it; is.

Chris Hedges said that as high as it was, the ratio of Stasi informants to genuine protesters couldn’t prevent the fall of the Berlin Wall. In articles like this, Hedges defines Occupy with every fibre of his being.

Hedges, Wolf, and Occupy New Zealand share something in common. All are compelled to speak, spread and share the messages of Occupy. To awaken others as we ourselves awoke. Therefore related information bursts from us at every possible opportunity.

The infiltrators demonstrate no such compulsion.

They live by sound bytes, endlessly self-promote and betray themselves in their own speech and actions.

It takes less than 2 minutes of the Vinny Eastwood interview for Penny to give herself away. “I’ve never been treated this way by police. By local or central government. These are people who want to have a better society? I think I’d rather have what we’ve got now actually.” Penny Bright. Self-styled #1 NZ anti-corruption campaigner and ex mayoral candidate.

Sound anything like Chris Hedges? Or Naomi Wolf? Or Occupy Media? Or even, as she claims to be, “a professional protester”?

Not even slightly.

Hopefully reading this article will bring her up to speed with what Occupy has REALLY been facing, and we will include the rest of the Cointelpro links we harvested at the end of the article for reference.

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Occupy needs to leave the “anti-livestream”-type whining in the dust. To stop giving traffic and hits to corrupt corporate/MSM news sources. Even when they outrage us with their widespread and all but transparent self-hypocrisies.

We must find a way to re-engage the purity of our original mission – to find and institute a better societal framework for humankind and for the sake of the entire Earth, in order to attain lasting progress for Occupy.

We have long-since said that Occupy is a “true truth-and-reconciliation process” due to its ability to bridge massive social, racial, ideological and geographic divides.

We have also long said: “Global Solidarity – Local Governance”.

The decentralisation of power and control guarantees sovereignty at a local level & the rights of the inhabiting peoples as being above the rights of corporations. It also insulates against a “One World Government” scenario, while we break down the walls of prejudice and competition, built by our corrupt modern materialist/consumer social conditioning.

Global Solidarity is what has ultimately held the Occupy movement together. It is the super-glue that once experienced cannot be unstuck. It pushes the snowball of the awakening, and makes Occupy invincible to the types of pettiness above.

Because Occupy is not a single person; who can be pressured to quit. Permanently smeared or culled.

Occupy is an idea that never stops evolving. An idea that belongs to all of civilisation.

An idea that has spread like a virus. An idea which cannot be killed.

An idea whose time has come.

Expect us. :)

OCCUPY NEW ZEALAND MEDIA TEAM
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Further related links:

The Freedom Archives - Documentary

The Freedom Archives – Cointelpro Resource list

Cointelpro Documentary Circa Dr Martin Luther King+

Anonymous Hack Reveals LEA’s Spied on Occupy & Shared Info with Stratfor

FBI Training Classifies Animal Rights Activists, Environmental Activists, Anarchists, As “Domestic Terrorists”

FBI Vs. Indigenous Movements & The Black Panther Party

“The War At Home: Covert Action Against Activists And What We Can Do About It”

“How Your Government Destroys We The People”

Sabotage At Occupy Sydney

Thompson Clarke Investigations Ltd Involved In Subversion Of Climate Change Movement

& 1000s more if you web & video search. The truth is out there.

Occupy NZ’s Gorgeous A9 Chalkupy Solidarity Slideshow: Pics From 3 Continents

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Among the first countries to see each new day, Occupy New Zealand kicked off #A9 Chalkupy: Chalkupy The World, on Thursday, with members of the public chalking public and private space throughout the country.

The following is our first attempt at inserting a slideshow (rather than our usual slew of raw pics resulting in a kilometre long post), hope you like it :)

One of the most positive changes for Occupy New Zealand post-evictions has been the continued international solidarity experienced by us and in which we have participated, in the chain of global solidarity action days.

From our May Day actions to Chalkupy, as several have commented, “it makes the world seem a lot smaller!”, and it also diminishes the differences between us, allowing us to feel akin to all humankind.

As we chatted with members of the public who stopped to admire our work, and handed out chalk to the youngsters soon swirling around us, each witness to the chalking was able to also feel that kinsmanship. We told them of what had happened to Occupy Los Angeles chalkupiers – and their faces fell. We told them of what we were doing in solidarity; their faces beamed.

One passerby was so excited to see the Syria image that he was exuding to his wife, “Syria! Syria! They know about Syria!” The relief and excitement on his face palpable.

For some people, the acknowledgement is profound. For their heritage, for the truth of what is happening in those countries, to be aired openly, is the first step in the ladder to fixing it once and for all.

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Must-Watch Video: Occupy Media Legend BellaEiko Destroys Oakland Council In Chambers

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This is the most important video of the entire Occupy movement in my opinion. The truth has a certain ring to it and especially coming from a pillar of Occupy media/livestreaming like BellaEiko, who we have followed from her first streams way back when.

The beginning of this video will be shocking to some, as will the end. Especially if they don’t know Bella and don’t realise what she has seen and been exposed to; her friends and fellow occupiers shot with rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades; beaten, gassed, arrested en masse by the notoriously vicious and unforgiving Oakland Police Department.

As “radical” as some may interpret it; what she says is true. On all counts. Despite being the opposite of her in race & location; our experiences are very similar. We have both spent 8+ months battling a massive corporate media that flat out lies & omits critical information, slandering us – politicians who go to extreme & dodgy lengths to inconvenience and silence us – police who infiltrate and assault and arrest us.

And we both know that the Earth can and should provide, for free; that which we are charged “money” for in a broken “capitalist” system.

Occupy is not about prescribing to a specific political ideology. No matter what it may be. Occupy is about learning to recreate a sustainable culture where NO PERSON is left behind, or at want for basic human needs.

If we could have, we would have stood up to Auckland Council and had a similar outpouring of our experiences, but we have been repeatedly denied the opportunity to seek redress. They literally lock us out of public meetings in open defiance of protocol & civil law.

One day we very may well get that chance because many of us NZ Occupiers have equally important and poignant, albeit stinging, words to deliver to OUR so-called “public SERVANTS”.

*** As featured in tonights edition of The Occupied NZ Herald! Please like/share/subscribe (FREE) & bookmark the link: http://paper.li/OccupyNZ/1336702243

Global Spring 2012 – The Call To Worldwide Action Is Out

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takethesquare.net, a site inspired by the Occupy movement has put out a call for a global day of action on May 12.

The call is out to chapters of the Occupy movement worldwide to march in solidarity with the countries in which uprisings are currently taking place (Syria, Greece, Egypt, Tunisia, Iceland and India to name a few).

http://takethesquare.net/2012/03/04/call-for-a-global-spring-in-may-2012/

Cigna Denial of Care Results In Deaths

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An occupier from Oakland films a fellow occupier talking about life insurance company Cigna denying care to its customers, resulting in their deaths.

http://campl.us/hZHQ

Activists & Anarchists Speak For Themselves At Occupy Oakland

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Here’s an article explaining, to some degree, the reasoning behind Black Bloc Tactics in Oakland… While dismissing an article done by left wing journalist Chris Hedges.

http://www.truth-out.org/occupy-oakland/1328726021#.TzLUsJM6IC4.twitter

Worth a read, until you then watch the following video and realise that there is likely far more sinister origins to the so-called “Black Bloc” than we knew…

Anonymous Targets Oakland City Officials

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Continuing their campaign of publicly outing those who perpetuate violence & brutality against unarmed peaceful protesters, Anonymous have released another info dump, this time targeting complicit officials in the city of Oakland, California.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-57372789-52/anonymous-targets-oakland-city-officials/

Source: Twitter