Category Archives: Wall Street

Community, Economy, trade unions, Wall Street, Youth and students

‘Occupy!’ Wakes Us Up from Our ‘Zombie States’ of Mind!

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Occupy The Rust Belt:

Notes From The Pittsburgh Protest

Occupy Pittsburgh crowd massed at Freedom Square in the Hill District. (Photo © Karen Lillis)

By Karen Lillis

Annalsofamericus.com

On October 15, I marched with Occupy Pittsburgh, the city’s first action in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. I watched excitedly as the crowd grew throughout the day, building from a modest gathering when my partner and I arrived at Freedom Corner at 10:00 a.m., to a rally in the low thousands by the time the march reached Market Square at 1:00 p.m.

In sharp contrast to national anti-Occupy jeers against the “dirty hippies” and stereotypes of black-clad anarchists, a broad spectrum of the population showed up to march. College students and parents with small children. Union members and nine-to-fivers. Retirees and laid-off workers. Voters and tax-payers. The underclass and the working class and the middle class and self-identified members of the 1%. At one point I found myself between an old man in a motorized wheelchair and a young girl being pulled in a wagon.

I also noticed who didn’t show up to the march. My friends and many acquaintances in Pittsburgh are artists and writers, musicians and freelancers, actors and librarians, small business owners and academics. Most are progressives and free-thinkers who exist well left of the current Democratic party. But I saw less than 20 people I knew in the four hours I spent with the demonstrators. The first two folks I recognized were a barista and a waiter who have both served me food and drink.

“Hurray for service workers!,” I thought, having spent almost two decades of my working years in restaurants or retail.

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Banks, labor, unemployment, Wall Street, Youth and students

One, two, three, four … WE DECLARE A CLASS WAR!’

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Occupy Pittsburgh Protesters

Assail All Manner of Enemies

By Sadie Gurman and Jonathan D. Silver
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Oct 16, 2011 – A disparate group of Occupy Pittsburgh protesters in tents and sleeping bags settled into Mellon Green on Saturday night after a day in which about 2,000 protesters peacefully crisscrossed Downtown and far fewer readied to stay put for as long as they could.

The events were one of several regional offshoots of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which began in New York City and has inspired protests in Philadelphia, Denver, Seattle and other cities. Those involved decry what they describe as a number of social, political and economic ills spawned by corporate greed and governmental corruption.

"When you spend four years in the military and you come back and you see the way things are being run, you get pretty angry about it," said Joshua Heidecker, 28, of Erie, a U.S. Marine who said the majority of veterans he knows are fed up with corporate influences in government. He was with several other young veterans in partial uniform.

In the afternoon, the demonstrators set up camp on Mellon Green, a stretch of grass at Grant Street and Sixth Avenue that’s owned by BNY Mellon. The Green turned to mud within a few minutes of their arrival just after 4 p.m. They gathered around a loudspeaker, where a man faced the towering BNY Mellon building and announced, "We are not below you, as we are today. We are above you. We are the 99 percent!"

He looked back at the cheering crowd.

"Thank you for occupying Pittsburgh! Do not give up the fight!"

Some of the protests in other cities have ended in mass arrests, but in Pittsburgh, police reported no major incidents, property damage or arrests by day’s end.

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Economy, trade unions, Wall Street, Youth and students

‘Occupy Pittsburgh’ Joins Growing Global Movement

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Photo of Oct 15 Rally in Pittsburgh. Leo Gerard of the Steelworkers in lower right corner.

‘Occupy’ Anti-Finance Capital Protests Spread Around the World

Thousands march in Rome, Sydney and Madrid as Occupy Wall Street protests go global

The Guardian, UK, Oct 15 — Protests inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York and the "Indignants" in Spain have spread to cities around the world.

Tens of thousands went on the march in New York, London, Frankfurt, Madrid, Rome, Sydney and Hong Kong as organisers aimed to "initiate global change" against capitalism and austerity measures.

There were extraordinary scenes in New York where at least 10,000 protesters took their message from the outpost of Zuccotti Park into the heart of the city, thronging into Times Square.

Only 36 hours earlier, police were preparing to evict the protest from Zuccotti Park. On Saturday they escorted thousands of marchers all day as they made their way uptown through Manhattan, and looked on as they held a rally at a New York landmark.

Occupy Wall Street protesters take part in a demonstration at Times Square in New York. Occupy Wall Street protesters take part in a demonstration at Times Square in New York. Photograph: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters

Dave Bonan, who was at Occupy Wall Street on the first day of the protest a month ago, said it was "a little surreal" that the protest had spread. "I didn’t expect it to last more than 15 minutes," he said. "The fact it lasted more than a day inspired people all over the world to capitalise – no pun intended – on our success."

In Madrid, tens of thousands of people take a part in a demonstration in Puerta del Sol square in Madrid, home of the "Indignants" movement, which has been building through the summer as Spain’s economy faltered.

Demonstration in Puerta del Sol square in Madrid Tens of thousands of people take a part in a demonstration in Puerta del Sol square in Madrid on Saturday, part of the global movement against corporate greed. Photograph: Arturo Rodriguez/AP

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budget crisis, Wall Street

Turn the Tables on a Rigged Game

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By Carl Davidson

Beaver County Blue

Our local conservative newspaper, the Pittsburgh Business Times, carries an instructive story this morning, July 21, 2011, about how to solve our revenue problems, only it fails to make the critical point. So I’ll lend a hand. It says:

“Pennsylvania casinos brought in $81.4 million in tax revenue from table games during the fiscal year that ended last month, according to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. Of that, about $71.3 million went to the state’s general fund and another $10 million went to local municipalities and counties that host the state’s 10 table game casinos.

“The Rivers Casino on the North Shore was responsible for $8 million in state tax revenue and $1.2 million in local payments through its table games operations during the past fiscal year.”

It goes on to break the numbers down even more.

Now I can enjoy a day at the Casino. I recently took my Mom and stepfather, a retired J&L worker, to the Rivers for his 84th birthday. I hit the nickel slot for $1.50 on my first try, but ended up leaving $5 in the hole.

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