San José, CA – On Dec. 22, the leadership of the Republicans in the House of Representatives said that they would sign on to a bipartisan compromise to renew federal Unemployment Insurance benefits. This compromise had passed the Senate by an 89-10 vote earlier in the week. The House Republican action came after intense pressure from the unemployed, Democratic politicians and even Republican Senators after the House of Representatives had voted down the compromise bill on a 229-193 vote on Dec. 20.
San José, CA – On Dec. 9, Republican Congressman Dave Camp of Michigan introduced a bill, H.R. 3630, that would cut federal extended unemployment insurance benefits from a maximum of 73 weeks to only 33 weeks. In addition, the bill allows for a number of new hoops for jobless workers to jump through in order to get unemployment insurance benefits, including mandatory drug testing.
San José, CA – On Friday, Dec. 2, the U.S. Department of Labor said that the official unemployment rate fell to 8.6% in November, from 9.0% in October. Despite being the lowest unemployment rate since March of 2009, the fall in the unemployment rate was mainly due to the more than 400,000 jobless workers who gave up looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed.
St. Paul, MN – Chanting “Money for human needs, not for stadiums,” members of the Welfare Rights Committee, the Minnesota Coalition for a Peoples' Bailout and supporters from OccupyMN gathered outside Senate Taxes and Local Government and Elections committee hearing, Nov. 29, at the State Capitol building. The committee was holding an informational hearing on proposals to build a new stadium complex for the Minnesota Vikings football team owner – a New Jersey real estate developer named Zygi Wilf.
Editor’s note: This is the second article of a four-article series. The first article was titled, “ Who are the one percent?” This article describes the working class, who make up most of the 99%. The next article will be about the rest of the 99% who aren’t part of the working class. The last article will talk about how the history of racism and national oppression is important to understanding what is behind the 1%-99% divide and how the 1% enriches itself while maintaining its privilege and power.
On Dec. 31, funding for extended federal Unemployment Insurance will expire. If funding is not renewed, almost 2 million jobless workers will be cut off from their benefits in January and almost 4 million more will lose their benefits by the end of May, 2012 – all at a time where the official unemployment rate is still 9%.
Minneapolis, MN – About 800 people blocked a major bridge here, Nov. 17 in a march demanding jobs. Police declared the protest to be an unlawful assembly and arrested 11 people who sat down in an act of civil disobedience. The 10th Avenue Bridge, which spans the Mississippi River, was closed for about an hour.
Milwaukee, WI – Protesters in Milwaukee occupied a bridge here, Nov. 17, as similar actions took place across the country. Roughly 200 people gathered in Carver Park in a working-class Milwaukee neighborhood, then marched to the Highway 43 bridge, where they met with about 100 other protesters intent on civil disobedience.
Minneapolis, MN – More than 50 union activists, as well as OccupyMN participants and others, rallied outside the University of Minnesota’s McNamara Alumni Center on Nov. 8 to protest a speech by Wells Fargo CEO Jon Stumpf.
Minneapolis, MN – Following a march on the banks here, October 29, more than 40 people attended a teach-in organized by Freedom Road Socialist Organization. Entitled, “How capitalism works, and why it doesn’t work for the 99%,” the event brought together activists for a serious discussion on what is wrong with the capitalist system.
Minneapolis, MN – Seven people were arrested as over 100 people from OccupyMN protested outside of U.S. Bank Plaza, Oct. 20. The seven arrested set up tents outside the bank and blocked traffic at a major downtown intersection. The protest highlighted the hypocrisy of big banks foreclosing people’s homes while U.S. Bank’s bosses’ pay doubled over the past year and the bank rakes in record profits.
Winston-Salem, NC – 200 people demonstrated on the sidewalk in front of the Bank of America branch in Winston-Salem on Oct. 15. For three hours the protesters rallied against Wall Street and the big banks, exposing the Bank of America’s misuse of bailout money, as well as the ongoing loss of jobs in Winston-Salem and the rest of North Carolina, where unemployment is over 10%.
Minneapolis, MN – Occupy Minnesota, which began on October 7 in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement, continues it’s ongoing protest presence in People’s Plaza in downtown Minneapolis (the plaza between 5th & 6th Street and 3rd & 4th Avenue). Each day brings more support and more actions. The main theme of OccupyMN is “people before profits.”
On Sept. 30, the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) publicly stated that the United States economy was tipping into a new recession. This adds to the growing evidence of a serious slowdown in the U.S. economy, including the zero job growth and falling personal income in August as well as falling prices and sales of homes in August.
Minneapolis, MN – With the theme of “People before profits” and inspired by the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York, a similar occupation will start on Friday, Oct. 7 at 9:00 a.m. in Minneapolis. The Minneapolis occupation will be at Government Plaza (300 South 6th Street, downtown Minneapolis). The Occupy MN movement has already renamed it “People’s Plaza.” This is one of many ongoing occupations that have sprung up around the country since the Wall Street occupation began on Sept. 17.
On Sunday, Oct. 3, the Greek Cabinet voted on a new budget proposal for 2012 that includes 6.5 billion euros ($8.5 billion) in spending cuts and tax hikes, including cutting 30,000 government jobs. This budget will go to the Greek Parliament on Monday, Oct. 4, in hopes of getting another 8 billion euros ($10.5 billion) from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) in order to pay back German, French and other European banks that own large amounts of Greek bonds.
New York, NY – In a city of nine million people, protesters aren’t supposed to shut down a major traffic artery on a Saturday afternoon. But on Saturday, October 1, Occupy Wall Street did just that, blocking the Brooklyn Bridge and sending a loud message to the bankers and politicians from Wall Street to Washington D.C. to California that a new day is at hand.
Problems with the government debt of Greece threaten the European Union. The United States would most likely be drawn in if the financial crisis gets big enough.
The Greek predicament exposes root problems of capitalism. Production is a highly organized process. It embraces the whole of society. Yet the means of production are privately owned. The aim is profit. There is no overall plan of development. Production leaps ahead here and falls apart there; it is uneven. The outcome is frequent crisis. The Greeks have a word for it – chaos.
On October 1, Occupy Wall Street continued to grow and attract support from new sectors. Thousands marched, and the NYPD arrested more than 700 protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge. These photos show some of the spirit of the occupation and the march, before the NYPD's mass arrests. All photos by Carolyn Riccardi.
