WALL STREET TO THE 99%: DROP DEAD
OCCUPY WALL STREET PUSHES BACK FOR THE 99%

 ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY ACTIONS IN THE WORKS – SEPT. 15-17
ALL ROADS LEAD TO WALL STREET

         September 17, 2012 (#S17) marks the beginning of year two of Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and four years since Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, helping catapult our global economy into a new phase of disrepair and dragging millions of ordinary people down with it. No complaints from the rich 1% – they’re still rich. They’re insatiable unless we push back.

On September 15-17, Occupy Wall Street is planning three days of education, celebration and resistance to economic injustice with convergences and assemblies, concerts, and some of the famous OWS direct action. Much of our organizing happens behind-the-scenes, but you’ll see Occupy pop into view soon; and as we are sure you already know, we are bigger than the sum of our mass demonstrations (they just tend to get the most attention).

If you are planning a piece about OWS, let us know and we’ll connect you to organizers here in NYC and elsewhere.

Occupy Wall Street PR Team
Contact: 347-292-1444 | press@occupywallst.org | @occupywallstpr 

For more info on the #S17 visit www.s17nyc.org

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For Immediate Release
Contact: 347-292-1444, press@occupywallst.org
For This Action Only: Russell Lum, 707-301-7951, owseswg@gmail.com or Linnea Palmer-Paton, 860-898-0101

August 6 is always a day of remembrance of those who suffered and perished in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, as atomic bombs killed at least 225,000 and riddled the country’s populations with birth defects and cancers. Today, in NYC, San Francisco Bay Area, and Los Alamos, New Mexico, activists will be calling for a day to “Occupy Nukes” to: highlight the costly and continued development of nuclear weapons; reveal the very real human and environmental health hazards of nuclear power technology; expose the profitable alliance between the government and 1% corporations who are profiting from US nuclear capabilities.

Our government ignores radioactive pollution from the corporations that fund elections, and the people are unprotected from the nuclear threat. The actions planned around the country today, draw connections between nuclear weapons and nuclear power, Hiroshima and Fukushima, Japanese and US reactors. It calls attention to the hazards of nuclear waste and the peril in which corporate greed coupled with the US government’s backing puts us all.

New York City, 5:30pm, GE Headquarters, 30 Rockefeller Plaza
Demonstrators will hold a melt-in (like a die-in but soggier) at GE, builder of the melted-down reactors at Fukushima. In the wake of this disaster, GE is trying to build a new uranium enrichment facility in Wilmington, NC.

There is a day-long non-violent protest in Los Alamos, New Mexico, at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, ground zero for US nuclear weapons development. More info on the Los Alamos action can be found here (http://interoccupy.net/newswire/occupy-new-mexico-national-call-for-civil-disobedience-august-3-6-2012/)

Also, at the Japanese Consulate in San Francisco, 50 Fremont Street, 2 PM, followed by a march to northern California’s main power provider, PG&E. More about San Francisco’s action here (http://occupyoakland.org/2012/07/shut-down-not-melt-down-anti-nuclear-action/)

Groups participating in Occupy Nukes: OWS Environmental Solidarity, (Un)Occupy Albuquerque, Occupy Santa Fe, Occupy San Francisco Environmental Justice Working Group, Coalition Against Nukes, No Nukes Action, Green Action for Health and Environmental Justice, Nuke Free Now!, War Resisters League, Catholic Worker Movement, Shut Down Indian Point Now, Abolition 2000 NY Metro, Brooklyn for Peace, Pax Christi, Todos Somos Japon

Occupy Wall Street is part of an international people-powered movement fighting for economic justice in the face of disastrous neoliberal economic practices, the crimes of Wall Street, and a government controlled by monied interests. We are the 99% organizing to end tyranny of the 1%.
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A national consortium of law school clinics, lawyers, professors and other legal experts, including the NYCLU are launching their thorough assessments of the local, national, and global repression of the Occupy Movement by police and government agencies. The full press release and link to a 132-page report by the Protest and Assembly Rights Project is below. Additionally, tomorrow morning, the New York Civil Liberties Union will unveil their own ongoing monitoring project of NYPD’s heavy-handed policing of Occupy Wall Street as well as harassment of people engaged in protests and other First Amendment protected activities. That info will be posted at www.nyclu.org/protest. Continue reading →

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 10:50 AM; JULY 7, 2012

WHAT: Urban Farm Activists Re-Enter Gill Tract, Assert Access is the Issue WHERE: Gill Tract, Albany, CA at the intersection of Marin Ave. and San Pablo Ave.
CONTACT: Anya Kamenskaya (415) 812-4793; Effie Rawlings (415) 215-5464

At 9:40 AM on July 7, 2012, urban farm activists re-entered the Gill Tract in Albany, CA to harvest crops planted during the 3-week occupation earlier this spring. The action came in response to UC and Albany City officials organizing an invite-only harvest party of the same crops. This date marks the first re-entry of urban farm activists on the land since UC Berkeley reasserted private control of Gill Tract through a police raid on May 14, 2012.

“The ‘community inclusion’ rhetoric put forth by UC Berkeley and the City of Albany has shown to be full of hot air. Since the Farm was raided, they have not had a single public discussion, yet feel they can railroad the development process through by calling an emergency council meeting on July 9th.” said Effie Rawlings, a recent UC Berkeley graduate and Occupy the Farm organizer.

The farmers say that the City and UC’s attempts to exclude the public are unacceptable, and that today’s action will not be the last, unless the access to land and decision making process becomes public.

“The involvement of the community in the occupation got the UC and City to discuss the preservation of this historic farmland.” said Anya Kamenskaya, a long time advocate for agroecological farming at Gill Tract. “We’re going to have to continue to push for transparency and inclusion every step of the way. The fact that the UC cancelled their invite-only work party and issued a statement yesterday admitting that the public deserves access to this farmland, shows that they are responding to us calling them out.”

During the occupation, the farmer-activists sowed crops in over 70 two-hundred foot rows. Only 40 rows remain, after the rest were plowed under by UC Berkeley to make way for corn-based research.

“I’m bummed about the condition of the crops.” said Corey Scher. “The weeds are choking everything out, and the plants have bolted from not being harvested. If we tended the whole way through, we would yield a much better harvest.”

Nearly a hundred people were harvesting crops and weeding rows planted during the occupation. Organizers maintain that public access to the land is the issue and that they will steward the Gill Tract as farmland indefinitely through direct action; if necessary.

Ashoka Finley, an Urban Agriculture teacher at Richmond High School, “want[s] the gates open for public access all the time. If deer are the issue then close the gates but don’t lock them. We’ll just keep on coming back.”

Organizers are mobilizing again at 6 PM on Monday, July 9th, for the ‘emergency’ meeting of the Albany city council where the UC commercial development proposal of Gill Tract will be called into question.

By 10:50 AM, UC officials had yet to issue a response.

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For Immediate Release
Contact: Occupy Wall Street PR: press@occupywallst.org 347-292-1444
National inquiries: Anthony Newby, Occupy Homes MN newby209@gmail.com 612-327-9453

• New York, 1pm ET, vibrant rally at PNC Bank branch, 340 Madison Avenue between 43rd and 44th streets

• Pittsburgh, 1pm ET, the Cruz family delegation and local supporters will rally and march to PNC Headquarters at Market Square.

• Minneapolis, 6pm CT, supporters will demonstrate at the Cruz home (4044 Cedar Ave S, Minneapolis, MN)

“Despite assurances that they are working to resolve the situation, PNC Bank has refused to accept the documents necessary for the loan to be modified. So we are going with Alejandra and David Cruz to make a hand-delivery to PNC’s headquarters,” said Anthony Newby, a community organizer with Occupy Homes MN who will travel with the family.

“We’re standing in solidarity with cities around the country demanding justice for the Cruz family. There are 12 million homeowners with negative equity fighting against being thrown out of their homes while the banks we bailed out are making record profits,” said Michael Premo, an organizer with OWS and Organizing for Occupation (O4O), a collective of NYC housing activists.

For up-to-date information about events across the country visit: www.occupyhomesmn.org

Video of Alejandra and David Cruz: http://bit.ly/LC7zUe

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: press@occupywallst.org, 347-292-1444
For this action only: Aaron Bornstein, 617-216-6546

Justice (Not Sex) in the City: Occupy Wall Street & Housing Advocates
 Demand Accountability for Homeowners at Obama Fundraiser

Obama Campaign Fundraising at Home of Sarah Jessica Parker While Investigation of Wall Street Corruption Goes Begging

Tonight, members of F the Banks, Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and local and national housing advocate groups will demand justice be brought to the banks by confronting Obama with his broken promises and deceptive funding priorities. While the President raises campaign funds at Sex In the City star Sarah Jessica Parker’s West Village townhouse, the underfunded and understaffed federal Mortgage Fraud Task Force leaves big banks free from accountability and millions of American homeowners screwed.

The Administration’s failure to investigate crimes which brought on the financial crisis will be met with a vibrant (and loud) presence for the second time in 10 days; the disparity between the millions raised by the Obama campaign and related PACs and the slow pace of the investigation will not go unchecked.

When/Where: Thursday, June 14th, 6pm: Convergence begins under the Arch at Washington Square Park. “Teach-in” of Occupy tactics; 7pm: March to Obama Fundraiser. Great photo opps. Who: F the Banks and OWS, VOCAL, Campaign for Fair Settlement.

In January’s State of the Union address, Obama announced the new “special unit” to investigate and “hold accountable those who broke the law.” If they were actually carried out, the investigations could have serious results: Big banks held accountable (criminal penalties for executives) for crimes against the American people and our economy; meaningful settlements provided for millions of underwater homeowners.

The President has the power to instruct the Department of Justice to allocate existing resources to press forward with this investigation since the requests for funding have been denied by Congress. More information can be found at: www.fthebanks.org

Occupy Wall Street is part of an international people powered movement fighting for economic justice in the face of croney capitalism, the crimes of Wall Street, and a government controlled by monied interests. #OWS is the 99% organizing to end the tyranny of the 1%. 
For more info www.occupywallst.org and press.nycga.net

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**UPDATE**

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 11, 2012

Contact: Nick Espinosa, 612-432-8888, espinosa.nick@gmail.com
Anthony Newby, 612-327-9453, newby209@gmail.com

Video profile of Colleen’s Story: http://youtu.be/OMrxF6F78Eo

Minneapolis—For months, Colleen McKee Espinosa, a single mother of three—including Nick Espinosa, a volunteer organizer who has helped other homeowners fight foreclosure—has repeatedly asked Citibank officials to allow her to catch up on her mortgage and keep her home. But Citibank still has the home scheduled to be auctioned off at a sheriff’s foreclosure sale this Wednesday, June 13th, at 9am.

McKee Espinosa, a registered nurse, has been in her home for 16 years. Last year, she attempted to pay her Citibank mortgage to catch up on two past-due payments on the indicated due date. The bank told her the home had already been sent into foreclosure.

After media coverage in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the blog Crooks and Liars, and other outlets, Citibank officials contacted the family, and assured them they were doing everything they could to resolve the case, assigning them a contact in the “executive response unit.” Despite this, the bank is moving to auction the home at a sheriff’s sale this Wednesday at the Hennepin County Government Center, after which time the bank would have no legal obligation to work with the family.

“My mother has struggled her whole life to keep our family afloat, while teaching my siblings and me about hard work, fairness, and giving back,” said Nick Espinosa. “I’ve dedicated the last 8 months of my life to helping families fight against unjust foreclosures and the greedy banks that would rather leave homes vacant than work to keep families in their communities even after being bailed out with our tax dollars. Citibank won’t be stealing the home I grew up in from my mom—it stops here.”

The family has seen a huge outpouring of support from the community since the campaign started. McKee Espinosa’s union of 20,000 nurses statewide, The Minnesota Nurses Association, St. Anthony East Neighborhood Association, and hundreds of neighbors have called for Citibank to negotiate with the family, signing an online petition asking Citibank to work out an agreement with the family. Most neighbors on the block have sent letters to Citibank and display yard signs in support of the family.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: press@occupywallst.org, 347-292-1444
contacts for specific events available upon request

Battle with Wall Street’s billionaire church continues
Occupy Wall Street pressures Trinity as criminal court trial looms

New York —Trinity Church faces continued pressure about the use of its property – not just the fabled church and yard at the foot of Wall Street but over its corporate subsidiary, Trinity Real Estate, a cash cow of commercial real estate (valued at $1 billion) that makes it one of the largest landowners in Manhattan and the richest parish in the Anglican world. Last year Occupy Wall Street (OWS) along with allies in faith communities pleaded with Trinity for sanctuary at an unused vacant lot on Canal and Sixth Avenue known as Duarte Square, for an organizing base after being violently evicted from Liberty Plaza (Zuccotti Park). A December 17 clash over use of the lot resulted in 49 arrests, including several priests (Catholic and Episcopal), Bishop Packard (Episcopal), and one Catholic religious sister; a consolidated trial of 20 defendants is set to begin June 11.

Preceding the trial are two events that will put Trinity Church/Real Estate on the spot about its values. Trinity is being asked to stop prosecuting a group of OWSers and members of the faith community, and commit itself to economic justice.

Thursday, June 7, 11am Liberty Square – Justice for the 99% Rally
Featuring author/journalist Chris Hedges and peace activist, Fr. Daniel Berrigan, a public event to remind all land rich religious institutions that their faith calls their loyalty to those at the losing end of economic disparity.

Sunday, June 10, 7pm Steps of Trinity Church (B’way & Wall) – Vesper Service

On the eve of the trial Rev. James Cooper and Trinity Wall Street will be asked in this service to embrace forgiveness, drop the charges, and re-consider use of the empty lot at Duarte Square.

Monday, June 11th 9 am Trial – Manhattan Criminal Court, Jury Part 7, 346 Broadway at Leonard Street, 4th floor 20 defendants face trespass-related charges.
The vestry of Trinity Church has recently been racked with divisions over the tenure of Rev. James Cooper. Ten of the church’s 22-member vestry–its board of directors which includes worshipers, local business, political leaders–have either been forced out or quit. Cooper’s compensation of over $1 million a year, including a lavish SoHo townhouse, has become a lightning rod for criticism. Much like its Wall Street neighbors, Trinity gives money to charitable causes but refuses to challenge dramatic income inequalities right outside its doors.

Occupy Wall Street is part of an international people powered movement fighting for economic justice in the face of croney capitalism, the crimes of Wall Street, and a government controlled by monied interests. #OWS is the 99% organizing to end the tyranny of the 1%. For more info www.occupywallst.org and press.nycga.net

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