Written by Mauro Vanetti Friday, 10 February 2012 15:51
The Stop Only Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (PROTECT IP Act, PIPA) are two bills that were put before the US House of Representatives and Senate in 2011. The two bills are supposedly designed to defend owners of copyrighted content, trademarks and pharmaceutical patents in their long-standing struggle against “pirates”. But there is a lot more to it than that!
Written by Mark Rahman Monday, 06 February 2012 02:32
It’s official; with Obama’s State of the Union address, the 2012 election race is underway. But does this really mean that "the era of the 1% is over," as AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has asserted? The U.S. today finds itself in a situation where the gulf between rich and poor is absolutely impossible to ignore. A super majority of Americans now believe that income should be more fairly distributed. But Obama’s revived "progressive" rhetoric is too little, too late. He trying to gloss over the divide between the top 1% and the rest of society.
The violent actions of the police in response to the Occupy movement, especially in New York, Denver, Atlanta and Oakland, are one component of the ruling class’ attempt to stifle dissent. These actions cannot in any way be justified. To its great credit, the movement has responded to these acts of intimidation by getting even more organized and coming out in even greater numbers. 
On Tuesday, November 8th, Ohio workers went to the polls and repealed Gov. John Kasich’s (R-OH) infamous, anti-union Senate Bill 5 (SB5). The lopsided 61%-39% vote represents a major victory for organized labor, which harnessed its significant resources to help achieve the victory. Labor spent $2.6 million to send out 825,000 pieces of mail, flyer over 3,000 worksites with over 4.1 million leaflets, and knocked on over 1 million doors. 
On November 2, Oakland saw one of the biggest demonstrations in years with different sectors of the working class coming together to make their voices heard and successfully shutting down one of the biggest ports in the United States. It was a clear indication that the U.S. workers are reaching the limit of what they can take. However, the media did very little to report on these actions; instead it focused on the graffiti, smashed windows and confrontations with the police that involved a small minority, a small and unaccountable group at its fringes. This is a blatant attempt to demonize the movement and to present a violent image of it as a movement headed by anarchists and ruffians.
On October 25, people on the streets were confronted by hundreds of riot police launching anti-riot grenades. Plumes of tear gas rose as protesters fled from the rubber bullets of the police. The scene we have described was not in the streets of Tunis, Cairo or Homs, but occurred in the streets of Oakland, California in the United States. On that Tuesday, the police forcefully evicted the occupation taking place in Oscar Grant plaza, renamed so after the police killing of Oscar Grant on New Year’s Eve 2009 in the city of Oakland.
The #Occupy Wall Street movement has garnered much momentum and support among the unemployed and working class. Among these growing numbers, especially in Los Angeles, is an increased presence of former and current gang members who are slowly developing a degree of class consciousness. This has created a split in the unelected leadership of the #Occupy LA movement in how to approach and integrate these occupiers into the movement.
