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“Art is My Occupation”

“Art is My Occupation”: Rethinking the Role of Artists in the Movement

As a member of the self-identified “slash profession” – writer/organizer/educator/whatever pays the rent that month – I have learned how to wear multiple hats. How to move between different worlds and code-switch my headgear to meet a particular place and community. Alright, I got this big event coming up tonight…should I wear the Kangol, the fitted, or the yarmulke? (Correct answer: all three.) Sometimes, though, it’s a struggle figuring out which slash to bring out in which situation. Take Occupy.

I got back in Oakland full-time last month, and immediately jumped into the beautiful chaos that is Occupy Oakland. I joined the big West Coast port shutdown on December 12,

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Portland City Council approves anti-war and corporate-personhood resolutions

City Council vote follows on heels of N.Y. and L.A.

Portland, Ore., has followed in the steps of New York and Los Angeles in passing a city resolution denouncing the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which allowed unlimited spending by corporations and unions in elections. The resolution:

establishes “that corporations should not receive the same legal rights as natural persons do, that money is not speech and that independent expenditures should be regulated” in political campaigns…

“This is about what kind of electoral system we want to devise for ourselves,” [Mayor Sam] Adams said.

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Occupy Wall Streeters Aren't Republicans—Or Democrats

Attention, 2012 candidates: When it comes to party affiliation, 70 percent of Occupy Wall Streeters label themselves "independent."

We've had to rely on pundits and Flickr photos in order to approximate the makeup of Occupy Wall Street—until now. Fast Company just released an infographic charting the results of a survey from OccupyWallSt.org, the protesters' unofficial online hub.

 

www.good.is/post/70-percent-of-occupy-wall-streeters-are-independents/

Greed is Not a Virtue

Profit-centered market fundamentalism has become a national religion.

We humans are living out an epic morality play. For millennia humanity’s most celebrated spiritual teachers have taught that society works best and we all enjoy our greatest joy and fulfillment when we share, cooperate, and are honest in our dealings with one another. But for the past few decades, this truth has been aggressively challenged by a faith called market fundamentalism—an immoral and counter-factual economic ideology that has assumed the status of a modern state religion. Its believers worship the God of money. Stock exchanges and global banks are their temples. They proclaim that everyone does best when we each seek to maximize our individual financial gain without regard to the consequences for others.

In the eyes of a market fundamentalist, to sacrifice profit for some presumed social or environmental good is immoral. The result is a public culture that proclaims greed is a virtue and sharing is a sin.

>>Read full article here.