FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 30th, 2013
Contact: OWS Press Team, press@occupywallst.org, 347-292-1444

New York–On Wednesday, May 1st, International Workers Day, Occupy Wall Street Members will join Labor, Immigrant Rights and Student Activists in New York City to stand in solidarity for economic justice for the 99%, opposing corporate greed and exploitation. Most actions are centered around Bryant Park, Union Square and the Financial District.

Schedule of Events (all events in Manhattan), for more maydaynyc.org/schedule/:

10:30 AM, Bryant Park (6^TH Ave & 40^TH St.) - TWU Young Workers March
TWU [Transit Workers Union] Young Workers and allies take the streets to visit offices of union busters and companies with which TWU members have contract disputes.

12 PM, Bryant Park (6^TH Ave. & 40^th St.) – Immigrant Worker Justice Tour
The tour will visit several workplaces in [Midtown] midtown to demand an end to exploitation of immigrant workers, ending at U.S. Senator Schumer’s office for a speak-out on real immigration reform.

11-2:30 PM, Cooper Square (6^th St. & 3^rd Ave.) – The Free University of NYC
A radical education experiment to make education as it ought to be, Free U will reclaim the commons with free education, culminating in a city-wide student convergence.

2:30 PM, Union Square (NE Corner) – 99 Pickets Solidarity Swarm
A roving band of picket lines, along with the Rude Mechanical Orchestra, will march on employers around Union Square to demand fair pay and justice for all workers.

3 PM, Cooper Square (6^th St. & 3^rd Ave.) – Student Convergence and Speak Out
After gathering on their respective campuses, students from around the city will converge for a speak out against the current unsustainable higher education system that exploits teachers and saddles students with debt, while a few grow richer.

4-7:30 PM, Union Square Rally, March down Broadway, Closing Rally @ City Hall
4 PM, Union Square – Joint rally with the May 1st Coalition; the Alliance for Labor Rights, Immigrant Rights and Jobs for All; immigrant rights groups; and Occupy Wall Street. The rally will be a mix of speakers and entertainment drawing attention to the struggles and victories of labor unions, workers, immigrants and the 99%.

For more information visit: http://maydaynyc.org/ #maydaynyc #ows #mayday

Occupy Wall Street PR Team members will be onsite at events listed above. Please call 347-292-1444 or emailpress@occupywallst.org with any questions or press inquiries. Follow @OccupyWallStPR @owsmayday for updates throughout the day.

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Contact: Jane Brennan, 914-471-2576

NEW YORK – Hundreds of students from across the city will unite Wednesday to protest the out-of-control cost of college education that has resulted in unprecedented levels of debt.

In honor of May Day, student groups from numerous major city-based colleges and universities also will stand in solidarity with workers from across the nation by vilifying exploitative employer and corporate practices at these institutions, while pledging support for the full legalization of all undocumented immigrants.

Students specifically will denounce the imposition of tuition at Cooper Union, which effectively has ended a century-long tradition of free schooling; the union busting and corporatization of education at Columbia University; tuition hikes and harmful administrative practices at Medgar Evers College; the unfair treatment of student workers at The New School; and the debt-driven 2031 expansion plan at New York University.

The protesters seek to shine a light on the increasingly privatized and inaccessible American education system that is often enabled by unskilled and unscrupulous administrators driven by self-interests.

After individual campus actions in the early afternoon, hundreds of city students will converge at 3 p.m. at Cooper Square park for a rally whose goal is to erect a long-term, citywide student movement. This will be followed by a May Day coalition action in Union Square. Afterward, students will gather at 9 p.m. in Washington Square Park for a “Dance Your Debt Away” party.

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Contact: Daphne: 646.398.0869, @owsguitarmy
Linnea: 860-898-0101
Email: music@nycga.net | Website: http://guitarmy.org

 First Anniversary of the Popular Ensemble that “Turns the Revolution up to 11”

This Wednesday, May 1st, the Occupy Guitarmy will gather in Bryant Park to celebrate their one-year anniversary and kickoff May Day with the Immigrant Worker Justice Tour that will wind its way through midtown stopping at corporations that are exploiting their workers.

The Guitarmy will continue their march to Union Square for a May Pole dance at 3PM, join the 99% rally at Union Square at 4PM, and then march down Broadway with the Fair Pay Ensemble: a group set to inspire and educate musicians and audiences about the deplorable working conditions in New York City live music venues. They will end their celebrations by singing the opening song with all Occupy at the People’s Assembly in Foley Square.

Schedule of Occupy Guitarmy Events:

12 PM              Bryant Park, Immigrant Worker Justice Tour

3 PM                Union Square, May Pole Dance for Justice

5:30 PM           Union Square to Foley Square, Solidarity March down Broadway

7 PM                Foley Square Opening Occupy Wall Street People’s Assembly

The Occupy Guitarmy is an open, participatory musical group that was born out of Occupy Wall Street music working group. Last year, hundreds joined the Guitarmy in their May Day march and hundreds more participated in the 99 Mile March from Philadelphia to New York for economic justice.

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MEDIA ADVISORY
PRESS CONFERENCE TO DISCUSS SETTLEMENT OF OCCUPY WALL STREET LIBRARY CASE INVOLVING THE DESTRUCTION OF BOOKS

A press conference will be held today April 10, 2013 at 11 AM to discuss the settlement of the Occupy Wall Street Library case. This lawsuit, which was filed in federal court on May 24, 2012, sought a declaration that the City of New York violated Plaintiffs’ rights under the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution when it seized and destroyed OWS’s books and library furnishings and equipment during the November 15, 2011 raid of Zuccotti Park. The lawsuit also sought damages for the books that are missing and were destroyed.

WHAT: Press Conference

WHEN: Wednesday April 10, at 11 AM

WHERE: Law offices of Siegel Teitelbaum & Evans, LLP
260 Madison Ave, 22nd Floor (between 38th & 39th Streets)

PARTICIPANTS: Members of the Occupy Wall Street Library Working Group (Plaintiffs in the lawsuit), Norman Siegel (Attorney), Herbert Teitelbaum (Attorney), Sharon Sprayregen (Attorney), and others

For further information please contact Norman Siegel at 347-907-0867 or nsiegel@stellp.com or Herbert Teitelbaum at 212-455-0300 or hteitelbaum@stellp.com

Access to health care is in danger of becoming a luxury for the rich and those with top dollar insurance, or those lucky enough to simply not get sick. If you don’t fall within those lines, you are at risk of falling into debt just to stay alive and healthy. In the US, millions are struggling with outrageously inflated medical bills and as a result, 62% of bankruptcies are linked to medical debt.

Two events in NYC (http://strikedebt.org/#get-involved for other cities) with Strike Debt, Healthcare for 99%, Physicians for a National Health Program, Occupy Town Square:

•    March 21: Rally & Protest Against Private Insurance Companies
4pm,  Bryant Park at 41st St. at Sixth Ave.

•    March 23: Free Health Fair & March to Highlight Hospital Closings
9:30am-1:30pm, Health Fair, Judson Church, 55 Washington Square South
2-5pm, March begins (2pm assemble) at Washington Square South
5:30-7pm, Health Fair with Art and Music at Judson Church
* Online: Practitioners on call answering medical questions! strikedebt.org/lifeordebt

The facts about medical debt (life or debt?):
•   Our private, for profit health care system buries the 99% in debt, all to enrich the 1%.
•   Of those who are driven to bankruptcy by medical bills, over 75% had health insurance when they incurred those bills.
•   Nearly all doctors, 86%, start their careers with medical school debt; that debt burden makes it harder to serve those who need their help most.
•   Hospitals are being closed because of the high debt loads, leaving many without access to healthcare.

This is the second in a series of major purchases by the Rolling Jubilee (RJ), which has already abolished over $100,000 of debt in late 2011.   Rolling Jubilee is a campaign of Occupy Wall Street offshoot Strike Debt. Since its Nov 2012 launch, Rolling Jubilee has received almost $600k in contributions from people who want to not only see debt cancelled but spread awareness of how debt is controlling the lives of average people while the 1% gets richer. The effort has garnered attention in major media outlets.

CONTACT: Occupy Wall Street Press Relations Team, 347-292-1444, press@occupywallst.org

Human and corporate “person” to unite in exuberant protest/celebration – “Get Money out of Politics”

New York—A Financial District wedding on Saturday, January 19, will mark the 3rd anniversary of Citizens United, the infamous 2010 US Supreme Court case. 

The event will creatively spotlight the impact of Citzens United — how elections and democracy are corroded with big money from rich people and corporations.  The wedding will join in (un)holy matrimony a real human being to a non-human corporate “person.”

At 3:30 PM the wedding party will gather at 60 Wall Street and then proceed to the steps of historic Federal Hall at Wall and Broad St. for the ceremony.   Officiating will be Rev. Billy accompanied by the Stop Shopping Choir.

Members of Occupy Wall Street and other civic-minded groups will be in attendance to cheer the perfect coupling.  Interlopers are also expected, to jeer and cry out, “Get money out of politics.”   Wall Streeters and the 1%, of course, cheered the Citizens United decision in 2010. 

Further information online at:  https://www.facebook.com/events/313891162046444/

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CONTACT: Occupy Wall Street Press Relations Team, 347-292-1444, press@occupywallst.org
For Rockaways action only: Virginia Deer 347-733-8887, Gayle Grantham 917-701-5337
For Staten Island action only: Amin Husain 917-407-1226, Sandy Nurse 917-678-5395
For Manhattan action only:  Bill Dobbs 917-822-5422

New York—With winter closing in and anger rising at Mayor Bloomberg’s foot-dragging, New Yorkers hard hit by Hurricane Sandy will be on the streets on Saturday, Dec. 15 in the Rockaways and Staten Island, with many converging Saturday PM outside the mayor’s Manhattan home. Thousands of New Yorkers are still without power or heat and are fighting for survival against black mold and bureaucracy.

Saturday will be a first – New Yorkers taking collective action to protest the government’s glaringly inadequate response to the storm, and to demand:  emergency local housing, immediate mold remediation and an end to red tape and delays in deploying critical resources. Community residents and activists from groups including Occupy will raise the question, how, in this great city, can thousands still be without electricity, living with mold creeping up walls and getting sicker in an emerging public health crisis.

As the weeks have gone by, many of those hit by Sandy’s fury sense betrayal and are now raising their voices, leafleting and standing together; hundreds are expected to join the protests.

Rockaways 12:00 Noon
Community members gather at Mott Ave. and Beach 21st St. (Thriftway parking lot), and in a show of solidarity, will “March for Health, Housing and Just Recovery” to Beach 29th St. (bet. Seagirt and Boardwalk) while getting a close-up view of homes devastated in the storm including those contaminated by black mold and still without utilities.

Staten Island 12:00 Noon
Residents will gather outside 1128 Olympia (across from St. Margaret Mary’s Church) for a community speakout, and then depart as a group for a ‘Tour of Destruction” of damaged and mold-plagued houses in the area with a public health expert from Hunter College. A statement from Staten Islanders is online at: http://pastebin.com/Q3gBV2ja.

Manhattan 5:00 PM
Rally at Bloomberg’s townhouse, 17 E. 79th St (bet. Madison and Fifth Ave.) – those still suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane will gather, taking their plight to the door of the mayor’s private residence. Staten Islanders, Rockaways residents, community allies will join together for an action in the darkness, emblematic of thousands who are still without power.

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E

Who is really paying for the Sandy Recovery? An important and little understood question. Strike Debt, an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street, has just released a detailed and scathing report about the state of hurricane relief around New York City. Post-Sandy, loans are being used as the main form of federal “aid” to disaster-impacted communities and the financial burden lies on individuals, many who are already struggling with debt. Read the report, entitled “Shouldering the Cost”, which includes assessments and recommendations from grassroots responders about the state of Post-Sandy recovery.

Other findings include:
FEMA and the Red Cross have been incredibly slow in responding and haven’t been able to meet basic needs of affected communities; thousands of residents are still living with inconsistent power, heat and hot water, even a month after the storm hit.

EMERGENCY PROTEST AS SPECTRA PIPELINE TAKES CRUCIAL CONSTRUCTION STEP IN WEST VILLAGE

This Saturday, December 1, at 1 PM, residents and activists will protest construction of the Spectra Pipeline, a high-pressure gas pipeline being built at Gansevoort Street and the West Side Highway.  If completed it will bring ‘fracked’ gas from Pennsylvania and New Jersey into densely populated NYC.  The emergency protest was called because organizers learned construction, which had been halted for the season, will resume for a crucial ‘pullback’. During this step, the pipe is pulled back through a hole under the Hudson River in one long continuous, uninterruptible operation.

Over four months, a coalition of residents, artists and activists called Occupy the Pipeline has waged a multi-tiered campaign to stop the pipeline’s construction because if it is completed the pipeline poses serious health risks to all of NYC from possible explosions and increased exposure to radon. The construction of the pipeline will also increase reliance on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a controversial method of shale gas extraction.

Spectra was given permission to start construction despite a pending state-level lawsuit pending challenging the construction’s legality, and despite a pending federal-level lawsuit that will get underway in several weeks. Thousands have expressed opposition via comments to the federal agency in charge [Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)], letters to state, federal and local government, and continuous actions and protests at the site that have resulted in eight arrests.

“Spectra Energy Corporation and their government allies are trying to rush this through without listening to the people,” said Monica Hunken, an organizer with Occupy the Pipeline. “They think we’re not paying attention; they’re wrong — we will not let one drop of gas flow through it.”

The protest will be highly visual: participants will have images and mementos to symbolize what they are protecting, such as photos of friends and lovers, or their pets.

www.occupythepipeline.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/OccupyThePipeline
@occupy_pipeline
Text @fracked to 23559 for action alerts