Revolution #260, February 19, 2012
“Stand With the Occupy Movement!”
Support Grows for February 28 Mass Action
Support is growing for the mass action on February 28 in New York City against the suppression and repression of the Occupy movement. (The Call for Mass Action Against the Suppression of the Occupy Movement is available online at dontsuppressows.org.) George Packard, a retired Episcopal bishop who was detained by the NYPD while bringing water to the occupiers at Zuccotti Park, and later arrested in an Occupy Wall Street action, said the action on February 28 “is the absolute preface to any other actions. It’s a question of process even before we take to the streets—how is it that there is this coordinated effort to stifle our free speech?! Mayors on conference calls simultaneously rousting encampments? Renegade cops taking aggressive initiatives because it makes superiors smile? Tear gas and rubber bullets fired into the ranks of Occupy Oakland? Enough!”
The General Assembly of Occupy Wall Street reached consensus on February 11 in support of the Call for Mass Action Against the Suppression of the Occupy Movement, and specifically in support of the February 28 mass action at Union Square in NYC. Occupy Cleveland also voted unanimously to support the Call. Occupy Oakland activist Scott Olsen, the Iraq veteran who was shot in the head by the Oakland police in October, and Boots Riley of The Coup signed the Call, as did former poet laureate of the United States and UC Berkeley professor Robert Hass. (The signatories list is online at dontsuppressows.org.)
Tuesday, February 28 (F28) will begin with a rally at Union Square. An online campaign to raise $10,000 for the effort has just been launched at www.indiegogo.com/Dont-Suppress-the-Occupy-Movement. Twitter hashtags for the event are #F28 and #Dontsuppressows. New York organizers of the Ad Hoc Committee Against the Suppression of the Occupy Movement are calling on other occupations to sign the Call, bring it to General Assemblies, and organize local events on F28, under the demands, “Stand with the Occupy Movement! No Rubber Bullets—No Beatings—No Tear Gas—No Mass Arrests. Drop All the Charges Against Occupiers.”
Contact the Ad Hoc Committee Against the Suppression of the Occupy Movement at dontsuppressows@yahoo.com, or go online to dontsuppressows.org.
Tuesday, February 28 • Union Square – NEW YORK CITY
4pm–Gather 5pm–Rally
6pm–March
If you like this article, subscribe, donate to and sustain Revolution newspaper.
