The May Day Celebrations Here in NYC Were Full of Joy!
To give you just a taste of what transpired, many Occupiers helped organize and took part in a Free University in Cooper Square Park, outside of Cooper Union, the art school besieged by their greedy and inept Trustees who have decided to charge tuition for the first time since its founding, against the express conditions under which Peter Cooper set up the school. Courses included “Organizing a NYC Student Movement,” “Understanding Basic Economics and Finance,” “Imagining a Student-Worker Run University,” “Climate Debt/Climate Justice,” and “Building a Commons in NYC.”
The OWS Screenprinters Coop were busy at work in Union Square during the May Day rally, screenprinting t-shirts and upcycled materials brought by the public. The design, from the 1968 French student riots - “Beauty is in the Street.”
Want more May Day coverage?
Check out this piece on the Guitarmy with video and songs to play in your community, and read on below!
-- from the ‘Your Inbox: Occupied’ team
Watch these ‘Vines’ for Visuals of OWS at #MayDayNYC
- A taste of OWS May Day activities in Union Square
- https://vine.co/v/bQmQLMwFewV
- Sandy Survivors and Occupy Sandy leading a chant
- https://vine.co/v/bQm0wDV79O9
- The People’s Puppets march down Broadway
- https://vine.co/v/bQKptAOKiig
May Day in the News
- May Day Protests: Occupy Sandy's Fight to Restore New York is Still Going Strong
- Occupy Wall Street, Immigration Rights Activists Carry Messages To City Hall
- May Day Protests Hit Greece, Spain, Turkey, Bangladesh And Tokyo
More Occupy in the News
Slate covered last Thursday’s Occupy the N.R.A. action in D.C. Activists brought around large checks to the lobbyists who “[shot] down common sense gun laws” and spoke out about their reasons for taking on this life or death topic: “...the violence happening across this country...[is] unacceptable, and to Occupy Wall Street, and to every Occupier, it should be unacceptable because these deaths are profitable. It’s profitable to the groups whose names you see on these checks here.”
At interoccupy.net you’ll also find a comprehensive run-down of press coverage of Occupy the N.R.A.
Featured Occu-Project
As part of May Day, Occupy Museums held a special meeting at Judd Foundation's office at 101 Spring Street, the home and studio of artist and community activist Donald Judd, to discuss their next action: Debt Fair. This planning meeting comes at the cusp of the 1% arriving in New York over these next few days to attend the Frieze Art Fair, infamous for not hiring union laborers, and to attend the Modern and Contemporary sales at the big auction houses - the ultimate vanity shopping events for the 1%. Last year, an alternative art event--Free Art for Fair Exchange--was held in protest on Randall's Island, public parkland bartered out for an exclusive 1% spectacle.
This year, Occupy Museums are using the occasion to announce the September launch of a transformative new model of art exchange that will directly alleviate an artist's student debt, reinvigorating the relationship between artist and buyer, removing the middlemen from process, and activating direct solidarity and community between artists and their audiences.
For more information or to get involved, please sign up on the Occupy Museums website for updates. Keep an eye on www.debtfair.jux.com for updates.
Occupy These Actions & Events
Friday, May 3rd
- Theatrical Launch of "Occupy Love" at Cinema Village
- 22 E. 12th Street
- Join acclaimed director Velcrow Ripper (Scared Sacred, Fierce Light) on a journey deep inside the revolution of the heart that is erupting around the planet, as he asks the question, “How could the crisis we are facing become a love story?” The film connects the dots in this era of rapidly evolving social change, featuring captivating insider scenes from the Egyptian Revolution, the Indignado uprising in Spain, Occupy Wall Street in New York, Indigenous activists at the Alberta Tar Sands, the climate justice movement, and beyond. Woven throughout the action oriented backbone of the film is a deep exploration of public love, and compelling stories of an emerging new paradigm.
Saturday, May 4th, 9-10:30am
- ‘The Secrets of Death Avenue’ Walking Tour
- Next to the Pain Quotidien kiosk located at the southern end of the small, triangular plaza just north of 14th Street at 9th Avenue, Manhattan
- Through conventional exposition, street theater and song — your participation is welcome! — you will learn about how the clash of commerce with humanity once earned a West Village street the name "Death Avenue". Now an unseen danger lurks beneath that same street. What would Jane Jacobs do? What can you do? Join us and find out. This is the kickoff to an ongoing series of educational walks that Occupy the Pipeline will be planning to educate residents and visitors about the pipeline and its context in NYC history.
Tuesday, May 7th, 6:30pm
- After May Day-Occupy Wall Street in Action/Open House
- 60 Wall Street
- Please join the Labor Outreach Committee of Occupy Wall Street for our post May Day series of meetings, and strategy sessions to build upon the mobilizations around May Day and to keep the focus on Wall Street as the source of the problems the 99% face on a daily basis. Please note that our regular meeting starts at 6:30pm and Open House starts at 8:00pm.
Wednesday, May 8th
- Thousands Picket Bank of America
- Nationwide #M08
- OWS organizers in every state are organizing a picket at Bank of America branches. Nothing has changed, the banks are too big to fail, their executives are still criminals and our demand is uncompromising: Break Up Bank of America! Check out Occupy News on Facebook for another tool to make organizing your own local picket simple.
Last Week, On Occupy Wall Street Radio
Tune in to Occupy Wall Street Radio, 6:30PM every M-F, on WBAI (99.5FM in NYC, streamed live www.wbai.org. Recordings are available for 90 days at www.owsradio.org).
Click the dates below to listen to each 25 minute episode from last week.
- Tuesday, April 23rd - Angad Bhalla, director of the documentary "Herman's House", about Herman Wallace, who is believed to be in solitary confinement longer than any other prisoner in the USA. Angad also discusses his work in OWS, including the preparations he had helped put together in anticipation of the eviction from Zuccotti Park. http://hermanshousethefilm.com
- Thursday, April 25th - Part 1 of a panel on Bradley Manning featuring independent journalist Alexa O’Brien, FireDogLake’s Kevin Gosztola, FAIR’s Peter Hart, and Icelandic parliamentarian Birgitta Jonsdottir. Moderated by Sam Seder.
- Friday, April 26th - Part 2 of the panel on Bradley Manning. See http://www.bradleymanning.org/ for more information.