Personal Democracy Forum: Hope for Us?

A couple of hours ago, @acarvin, aka Andy Carvin, aka 'crowd sorcerer' tweeted this:

Stop whatever you're doing and watch this video of a talk by Jim Gilliam. Trust me.

I trusted him and hit the link.



That's from a conference/gathering called Personal Democracy Forum 2011, happening yesterday and today.

I've been watching other videos. Like this one by Andy Carvin about the late Mo Nabbous, who was killed in Benghazi on March 19 while reporting on the Libyan uprising.

And this one, by Alaa abd el Fattah, Egyptian activist and organizer of the uprising there. (One highlight: at the beginning of his talk, he asks the tech-savvy crowd what tools they thought were most useful at Tahrir Square. 'Twitter'. 'Internet'. 'Facebook'. Nope. 'Rocks.')

And this, one of the keynote presentations by Lawrence Lessig about 'Taken for Granted Ideas'.

There are lots more and I'm about to go back and watch, but I wanted to share.

After more than a month of deep gloom, I feel ridiculously hopeful.

Spanish Revolution Update

Protest is growing in La Puerta del Sol in Madrid despite being told by an electoral commission that such activities are banned on the eve of an election.

There is an election looming between two main parties. The mainly young, mainly unemployed people don't care for either of them.

Does this sound familiar?

There is much talk on the plaza of electoral reform - to prevent power simply switching back and forth between two parties. Many also demand a ban on all candidates implicated in corruption.

Proposals for debate are posted in a suggestions box.

As at other people protests like Cairo's Tahrir Square and Madison, Wisconsin, things are being organized by the protesters themselves.

The camp in Sol now has its own tv station, called soltv.tv, which is live-streaming right now. (Warning: vuvuzelas.)

On twitter, one of the hashtags is #spanishrevolution. Some English, but mostly Spanish, natch.

As global corpocracy runs riot, we must get better at this. Watch and learn, fellow and sister Canucks.

ADDED: More insight. It's not as simple as it's being portrayed.

Spain's Tahrir Square

From 'Arab Spring' to 'European Summer'? Specifically Spain. (Good background at the link.)

Spain’s people’s movement has finally awoken. La Puerta del Sol in Madrid is now the country’s Tahrir Square, and the "Arab Spring" has been joined by what is now bracing to become a long "European Summer." As people across the Arab world continue their popular struggle for justice, peace and democracy, Spain’s disillusioned citizens have finally caught on with full force. Slow at first, hopeful that Spain’s dire economic conditions would magically correct themselves, the Spanish street has finally understood that democratic and economic justice and peace will not come from the pulpits of the country’s corrupt political elite.

Demonstrators are calling it the May 15 Movement for the day it started. Organized by a self-proclaimed 'peace movement' called 'Democracia Real Ya' (literally 'Real Democracy Now'), protests spread across the country on May 17 to more than 50 cities and towns.

More pictures and videos here.




We Canadians might wanna take notes.

No One Won the Debate

In fact, there was a gigantic loser.

Canadians.

The Fucking Useless Opposition® all got their shots in. Some of them were actually relevant to the topic at hand.

Evul Stevul was eerily calm -- some powerful combo of beta-blockers and tranks? -- while maintaining his aura of utter contempt for democracy, which he styled as mere 'bickering'.

And bickering is what we got. There were several opportunities for the FUO to pummel His Contemptuousness. But, no. They were too busy sniping at each other to do a proper pile-on.

And Gilles? Really? Did you need to get into Bill 101 for fuck's sake?

So His Contemptuousness lied and lied and lied. The FUO spluttered 'Nonsense' and 'That's not true'.

The Fucking Useless Opposition® is hopeless, people.

I've said it before and it's time to say it again: It is up to us to take our Canada back from these bozos.

What's Disgusting?

Union Busting!

First Wisconsin where union-busting won -- for the moment. Now it's breaking out all over the US.

The Ohio Senate has passed a bill that takes Wisconsin union-busting one step further, Reuters reports. The bill prohibits collective bargaining for nearly 62,000 workers and blocks 300,000 others (including firefighters, police, and public school teachers) from striking or negotiating about health care benefits. In Indiana, House Democrats, taking a cue from Wisconsin legislators, have left the state to prevent a vote on a bill that limits collective bargaining rights. Idaho has approved a measure to limit public school teachers' right to bargain collectively. Michigan is on track to approve a law that would allow the state to break union contracts. And union dues or collective bargaining are also on the line in Iowa, New Hampshire, Kansas, Tennessee, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada, Oklahoma, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Washington, Alaska, and Arizona.

And you probably won't hear a peep about it from the corporate media.

So, while other bloggers are on important stories about Japan, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, and Canadian politics, I'm trying to follow events in the US. It's not easy, but now that the action has moved to Michigan, Michael Moore is helping a lot.

A couple of days ago, he published an open letter to his fellow Michiganders. It's titled: Do Something.

Friends and neighbors,

The call has gone out and I'm asking everyone who can to take Wednesday off and head to the State Capitol in Lansing to protest the cruel and downright frightening legislation currently being jammed down our throats.

What is most shocking to many is that the new governor, who ran against the Tea Party and defeated the right wing of his party in the primaries -- and then ran in the general election as "just a nerd from Ann Arbor" who was a moderate, not an ideologue -- has pulled off one of the biggest Jekyll and Hyde ruses I've ever seen in electoral politics.

Governor Snyder, once elected, yanked off his nice-guy mask to reveal that he is in fact a multi-millionaire hell-bent on destroying our state and turning it over to his buddies from Wall Street.

He lists what Snyder has done in the past eight weeks. Then calls for a rally today.

Yesterday, however, AARP, American Association of Retired People, bussed in about 1,000 seniors to protest at the state capitol.

Tuesday's rally organizers said Snyder wants to provide a $1.8 billion tax cut for businesses and make up the lost revenue at the expense of seniors, low-income workers and children. They don't like his idea to end a tax break for the working poor or to deeply cut services such as public education.

I mean, really, you do not piss off the wrinklies.

Last night, some people tried to occupy the building, but left peacefully when they were asked.

Today's rally has just begun. And of course the corporate media is lalalala-ing its ass off. But you can watch a shitty live feed here.

On Twitter, I'm following the hashtags #MIUnion #MadMI #MadNation and #1u (one union).

The speaker now just said: 'This is just one battle in a very long war.'

Yup. And it may get scary fast if it spreads further.

UPDATE: Oh dear. I didn't know they were going to do this. They are going to try to get into the building. Numbers range from 2,000 to 5,000. Speaker warning about provocateurs, telling people to take photos with their phones.

UPPERDATE: It's still going on. More and more people. They go outside and listen to speeches for a while. Then they come back into the building. Amazing energy.

Wisconsin Update (March 12/11)

Yesterday photographer Phil Garlic tweeted:

So anyways #wiunion tweeps, help me get high tomorrow. Helicopter, balloon, airplane, zepplin, or tall buildings. Will deliver serious win.

Have a look. I'd say that's a serious win.



Numbers for participants are flying around of course, but none lower than 100,000.

The UpTake is now showing the press conference the now-returned Fab 14 held earlier today. I hope it will return to the protest and stream it live.

More later.

Tractorcade: The Video

Tractorcade!

Live stream here. Soon. Right now talking to a couple of Canadians.

Or live traffic cam.

Wisconsin Update (March 4/11)

A lot has happened in Wisconsin. I'll try to catch interested readers up but first, an emblematic moment of what has to be the most civil civil uprising in history.

Back here I reported on Fux News's hilarious lie about 'union thuggery' -- with the oopsie! of palm trees in the background. (Watch video here.)

Almost instantly, palm trees did sprout in Madison, captured by matt_is_a_nerdj.



To recap a little: the Capitol building was occupied -- perfectly peacefully -- for about two weeks. Before Scott Wanker Walker's budget speech on March 1, the building was mostly cleared -- again perfectly peacefully -- and cops were letting people in on a one-for-one basis. One out, one in. People had to show ID, get searched, be accompanied at all times, etc. Much confusion about which entrances were open to whom, what the new rules were.

The state Constitution has a bit in it about the Capitol and its grounds being open to the people. So, one of the big unions filed an injunction to get it open again. A judge who heard the initial pleadings ordered the building opened.

Which was promptly ignored.

Another judge took up the matter more fully. There were a lot of witnesses so the hearing continued the next day.

The proceedings were live-tweeted by two observers: Analiese Eicher and ACLU Madison.

On the open-'er-up side, witnesses said stuff like: no damage, no mischief, no problems.

On the keep-'er-shut side, witnesses had horrifying tales of intimidation (too many Dem reps wearing orange t-shirts!), debauchery (women and men using the same bathroom!!), imminent danger (buncha live bullets found on the grounds somewhere!!!), and wanton destruction (blue painter's tape holding signs on marble walls!!!!).

That witness claimed that clean-up was going to cost $7.5 million!!!!!!

Hilarity ensued on Twitter. Several people quipped that it would cost that much only if the evil Koch Industries did it on a no-bid basis. Others said that demonstrators had consulted with officials about what kind of tape to use and were told that blue painter's tape was fine.

In other words, totally typical lying bullshit.

Meanwhile, in another lovely piece of political theatre, some Dem representatives moved their office furniture out windows so they could meet constituents who couldn't get in to see them. Remember, this is March in Wisconsin.

Back at the hearings, the lawyers were getting all constitutional in their final arguments. First amendment rights vs. safety and health, blahblahblah.

The lawyer for the union, Peg Lautenschlager, herself a former Attorney General, was quite splendid.

The judge made a sensible decision that the union and demonstrators were able to accept. Building to be open during the same hours as before the ruckus, with some security measures to be negotiated. No more camping out. But reasonable access.

This was yesterday. The remaining occupying demonstrators left last night.

The big drama this morning was whether or not the building would be open and under what circumstances at 8 a.m.

It was!

Watch live-feed from a volunteer here.

No more drums or vuvuzelas though.

The 'Wisconsin 14' (the Dem senators who are denying the ReThugs a quorum on the supposedly minor bill that set this all off) remain on the lam. They've been found in contempt by the remaining senators.

The Senate resolution calls for the Senate sergeant at arms to, with or without force, and with or without the help of any law enforcement officers, take missing members into custody and bring them to the Capitol - any time of the day or night.

Beside the point of how the hell this can be done, there are questions of the very legality of the order.

Gov. Wanker has threatened 1,500 state workers with layoff notices as early as today if the delinquent senators don't return. One tweep pointed out that this is classic spousal abuse strategy: 'Look what you've made me do'.

Today there's going to be a rally with Jesse Jackson in attendance. That'll get up the Tea Baggers' noses.

More demonstrations are planned for tomorrow. No doubt with out-of-state union goons.

Speeches! Drums! Lawyers! Palm trees!

Meanwhile, the corporate feudalist agenda continues to be advanced elsewhere, including Ohio, where the Tea Baggers also have an unstoppable majority.

Excellent piece from Mother Jones on how the Wisconsin Pizza Revolution was organized.

And previous DJ! reports: here, here, here, here, and here.

Wisconsin Update (March 1/11)

I'm torn, I'm torn. Got things to do, but want to continue to witness the awesome people power on display in Wisconsin.

So, for those who might also be obsessed interested, here are a few links.

First, an interview with someone who's still occupying the Capitol and has been from the beginning.

Next, an illuminating read on why the Right is attacking unions, ACORN, and Planned Parenthood.

And here's some very good news. The tide may be turning in favour of the unions.

By a modest margin, more say they back Wisconsin’s public employee unions rather than the state’s governor in their continuing dispute over collective bargaining rights. Roughly four-in-ten (42%) say they side more with the public employee unions, while 31% say they side more with the governor, Scott Walker, according to the latest Pew Research Center survey, conducted Feb. 24-27 among 1,009 adults.

To catch you up on overnight developments: There are about 100 people still inside. More wanted to get in but weren't allowed, so they pitched tents outside. They were then told they couldn't pitch tents there. Tents were taken down and about 50 people slept outside in February/March in Wisconsin with just sleeping bags and blankets.

They are using pizza boxes from donated pizza for insulation.

Those Sconnies, as I now know to call them, are some tough mo-fos.

UPPERDATE: Judge has issued an order to have the Capitol open to the public! Effective immediately. The people are winning. A little.

The Pizza Revolution

Again, I'm transfixed by a revolution being tweeted, only this one isn't in North Africa or the Middle East.

It's in Wisconsin.

Here's some background by Joshua Holland.

What's happening in Wisconsin is not complicated. At the beginning of this year, the state was on course to end 2011 with a budget surplus of $120 million. As Ezra Klein explained, newly elected GOP Governor Scott Walker then "signed two business tax breaks and a conservative health-care policy experiment that lowers overall tax revenues (among other things). The new legislation was not offset, and it turned a surplus into a deficit."

Walker then used the deficit he'd created as the justification for assaulting his state's public employees. He used a law cooked up by a right-wing advocacy group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC likes to fly beneath the radar, but I described the organization in a 2005 article as "the connective tissue that links state legislators with right-wing think tanks, leading anti-tax activists and corporate money." Similar laws are on the table in Ohio and Indiana.

Walker's bill would strip public employees of the right to bargain collectively for anything but higher pay (and would cap the amount of wage hikes they might end up gaining in negotiations). His intentions are clear -- before assuming office, Walker threatened to decertify the state's employees' unions (until he discovered that the governor doesn't have that power).

In short, Walker is union-busting.

And looky at whose behest. The über-evil Koch brothers who have a lot at stake in the state as well as an irrepressible urge to harm people. (Mother Jones has been all over this story and has a reporter on the ground, tweeting like mad.)

There have been growing protests. People have been peacefully occupying the state capital building all week. DJ! reported on the arrival of the firefighters -- exempt from this legislation, by the way -- a few days ago.

Then 'The Mubarak of the Middle West' made a bad situation worse. He went on CNN and claimed he had received 19,000 emails from the quiet majority -- where have we heard that before? --backing his position.

He also got his TeaBagging buddies to organize a counter-demo. The Teabaggers were bussed in and held their rally yesterday. The most generous estimate of the number was 1,000 people, described as all white. One tweep reported that s/he was standing 20 feet from their bleating bullhorn and couldn't hear any of it over the real protesters' noise.

But the good, progressive people of Wisconsin weren't having any of this crap. Yesterday, they turned out for what can only be described as a MASSIVE demonstration. Teachers, nurses, snow-plow drivers, students, firefighters. Working people. Ordinary people.

Numbers were bouncing around yesterday, but today there seems to be a consensus on 80,000.

And it was a party. The signs were hilarious. (My fave: 'If you can read this, thank a teacher'.)

And, not surprisingly, spelled correctly. Unlike this classic from the Tea Baggers. It reads: 'Your fired!'

A protester in Egypt's Tahrir Square sent his message of support: 'Egypt supports Wisconsin. One World. One Pain'.

Protesters were angry, but also good humoured.

Mahlon Mitchell, the president of the Wisconsin Professional Firefighters Association, which has been a high-profile participant in the demonstrations, surveyed the crowd while recounting Walker’s boast about the 19,000 e-mails.

“I think I have 19,000 people behind me,” said Mitchell.

Pointing to one edge of the massive audience arrayed before him, he said: “And 20,000 there.”

He pointed to the other edge of the crowd: “And 20,000 there.”

Finally, he pointed down State Street, the thoroughfare that stretches from the Capitol to the University of Wisconsin campus, which was packed with students who have backed the unions: “And 20,000 there.”

On Twitter, Tea Baggers were spreading lies about violence, doctors signing sick notes for protesters, homeless from Chicago bussed in (the 'outsiders' dictators love to invent), and so on.

Today, the City of Madison issued a statement, saying that there had been not one single arrest and thanking the people for their good order. It included this:

As previously indicated, the goal of law enforcement has been to provide a safe environment for democracy to take place. That goal has been realized for yet another day.

(If that statement were a brick, I'd throw it through Toronto Chief Bill Blair's window.)

So, the pundits are punditting: Will this movement of real, working Americans take fire as in North Africa and the Middle East? In Ohio or Indiana, maybe, where similar legislation is pending.

Obviously, I dunno about that, but it certainly captured the imaginations of a helluva lot of Americans, Canadians, and at least one Egyptian.

For me, the most heart-warming part was this. Someone had tweeted that two restaurants -- one a pizza place -- had been delivering food to the protesters occupying the legislature. The phone number of the pizza place was posted. People from around the country and at least three other countries, Canada among them, ordered and paid for $2,500 worth of pizza to be delivered.

People power! Solidarity! Social media! Pizza!

All great and important and exhilarating.

But the most important part is that the Tea Baggers are totally exposed for what they are: bigoted idiots in thrall to evil billionaires who pay them to protest FOR government, specifically for Republican government, AGAINST working people. They can never be taken seriously -- if they ever were -- again.