Los Angeles Indymedia : Activist News

Los Angeles residents have been laying siege to the Central City Association for nearly a month. The people have been dutifully operating within the law, pitching tents at 9 p.m. and breaking down camp by 6 a.m. right in front of the "1%'s" lobby here in Los Angeles. In the day, we occupy Pershing Square and outreach, rest, and build our community. The people involved have been arrested and harassed, and it is escalating each day we camp at the doorsteps of corporate power.

Who exactly is the CCA? Their clients include Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Boeing, Target, US Bank, Verizon, Chevron, Walmart, and AT&T. They have the ear of the City Council and mayor as they push pro-business, anti-people regulations and laws. They are the shockingly overt bridge between money and politics.

Full story: Arrests & Terror at #626 Wilshire by RyanRiceLA

A series of demonstrations drew attention to one of the biggest (and least-discussed) government welfare programs: the Military Industrial Complex. Although Boeing was the main target, demonstrations also occurred in front of Northrop Grumman and Raytheon. By late afternoon, there were about 50 participants. That number increased to approximately 75 by early evening. Most response from vehicular traffic seemed positive.

Emphasis was placed on the staggering amounts of public money spent on weapons (over 50% of government spending) while people here and abroad suffer from hunger, disease, and illiteracy. And despite the huge Military budget, various demonstrators observed that they do not feel any safer. Various participants also spoke out against the current U.S. military build-up in the Pacific--against America's greatest trading partner, China. There was considerable emphasis, too, on flying drones. "We are in secret wars in Yemen [and] Pakistan," read a widely-distributed leaflet. "There will soon be thousands of weaponized predator drones in the United States airspace."

Story and photos: Occupy the Military Industrial Complex (report back) by Rick Panna

[Editorial by The Journal of Aesthetics & Protest] Issue 8 of the Journal of Aesthetics & Protest is out. Its forward, recently written but conceived in the afterglow of the 2009/2010 UC occupations looks into the broad strategy of occupying everything.

The chart shows how we editors understand how each writer's article functionalizes distrust/trust of institutionality in relationship to how much mediation they understand is useful in reflecting on the complexity of culture.

With increased institutionality, the work transforms from an isolated autonomous actor towards more socialized formations, be the formations consciously organized community groups or general mass cultures operating with less conscious collective arrangements.

With increased mediation, the project of sharing dreams, ideas, critiques and meaning goes from something very intimate (a kiss, a whisper or a slap in the face) to something that is milled through various representational machines.
Full article: Towards Occupying Everything by the editors of the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest

PASADENA - Occupy joined this year's New Year celebrations by marching at the end of the Rose Parade. They carried float-sized props of the Constitution, the "corporate Constitution," and the Occupy Octopus, made entirely of recycled material rather than the plant material the Tournament of Roses requires.

As Rose Parade spectators dispersed, the Occupy movement held a rally outside Pasadena City Hall with speakers, including Cindy Sheehan, the "peace mom."

Despite recent setbacks for the economic justice movement, including the breakup of all the major encampments, occupiers in the US and the outraged worldwide are hopeful that 2012 is the year of great change.

From the newswire: Occupy the Rose Parade by Rockero | | Did Occupy the Rose Parade Get Air? by nobody | | OCCUPY roses and constitution showed up in media by one of many

LONG BEACH, California - Heeding the call of Occupy Oakland, which called for a shutdown of west coast ports in response to the brutal eviction of occupy encampments nationwide, and in solidarity with expolited port workers and truckers, about 500 militant occupiers and their friends shut down Terminal J of the Port of Long Beach, the home of SSA Marine, an investment of the criminal enterprise Goldman Sachs and the main stakeholder of the US government.

The marchers were eventually split off from each other by the Los Angeles Port Police. However a group of 300 to 500 people successfully blocked a road that led to one of the SSA piers for a few hours causing traffic snarls and the like. At this point the police phalanx declared the march an unlawful assembly and threatened the Gandhian / King-inspired demonstrators with possible bodily harm from batons, percussion weapons, tasers and finally......nonlethal dog bites.

The Port Police eventually physically pushed the people back for 100 yards or so, at which point the nonviolent protesters turned and walked back to Harry Bridges Park. The rain began to fall heavily as the crowd of now about 200 began to disperse.

Some arrests were made. One for failure to disperse, one for resisting and a number of pedestrian traffic violations were issued.The well known Los Angeles organizer Kwazi Nkrumah was arrested and charged with failure to obey a police officer and walking in a roadway. He is out on bail of 10,000 dollars.

Full report: Occupy the Ports - A Day without Goldman Sachs by Rockero

Occupy The Ports Long Beach, part 1 by Robert Stuart Lowden

Occupy The Ports Long Beach, part 2 by Robert Stuart Lowden

UPDATE: Interview with Nathan, arrested at Long Beach Port shutdown by Rockero