Organized Suppression

If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what a people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. Men may not get all they pay for in this world; but they must pay for all they get. If we ever get free from all the oppressions and wrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and, if needs be, by our lives, and the lives of others.
-- Frederick Douglass

Why Your Voice Must Be Suppressed

The Occupy movement has sparked an extraordinary battle of ideas and is catching fire across the world. The movement has achieved a radical shift in the way we think about our politics. The massive level of public support for ending corporate and banker capture of our governments is growing, for obvious reasons: a growing number of the 99% are feeling the pain normally relegated to the most marginalized in our society.

Politicians and the police are continuously bought off to protect corporate interests. Today they are forcibly evicting the peaceful protesters from public spaces and discrediting the movement in the media as "dirty hippies" and "violent criminals" with no clear agenda. It's not hard to see why they're nervous: the occupiers have sparked a vital battle of ideas, and the corrupt, elite 1% stand to lose everything.

It's been three years since the financial crash exposed the greed and recklessness that drives our financial system and destroys our economies. We are losing jobs, homes, and benefits, yet politicians continue to throw public money to keep big banks afloat to speculate and hand out fat bonuses. The 1% get their way every day, through massive spending on lobbyists, revolving door networks with current and former politicians and using the media to spread threats and fear.

Enough is enough! We know ordinary people working together can shake even the most entrenched powers -- we've seen it over and over this year. In the last two months the occupiers' message has resonated in homes, bars, and workplaces everywhere -- people are speaking out against the rotten financial and political systems that wreck our democracies. Even the corporate-owned media is forced to examine some of the abuses of power that many thought would remain invisible and unshakable.

Change is in the air. From Madrid, to Rio, to New York, to Portland, ordinary people have rolled up their sleeves and jumped in to help wherever they can. Now it's time for the 99% to show that this movement is truly global and represents millions speaking with one clear and powerful voice.

When police come the occupiers chant "you cannot evict an idea whose time has come." The only way to silence the billions of us across the whole world who make up the 99% is if we allow our voices to go silent. That choice is ours.

See Also

• Un-Occupy Portland
• Cascade Policy Institute
• Astroturfing

Links

• How Wall Street really views the protesters

A memo from a prominent corporate lobbying firm to the American Bankers Association proposes an extensive public relations campaign — including opposition research into key movement figures and an elaborate media strategy — designed to discredit the movement.

• Exclusive: Lobbying Firm's Memo Spells Out Plan to Undermine Occupy Wall Street (VIDEO)
• Open Letter in Response to Coordinated Attacks on Occupy Camps by FBI, DHS and Mayors

"Recent statements from Mayor Sam Adams office deny collaboration between U.S. Mayors, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI to coordinate violent attacks on Occupy encampments last weekend. These statements are in direct contradiction to what Mayor Sam Adams told city and police liaisons during a liaison meeting with the City of Portland on November 7th."

• Crackdown on OWS camps coordinated by US city mayors

If you thought the recent crackdowns of Occupy encampments across the country was more than a coincidence, there is a good chance you were right...

• Update: 'Occupy' crackdowns coordinated with federal law enforcement officials

Over the past ten days, more than a dozen cities have moved to evict "Occupy" protesters from city parks and other public spaces. According to one Justice official, each of those actions was coordinated with help from Homeland Security, the FBI and other federal police agencies.

• Paramilitary Policing of Occupy Wall Street: Excessive Use of Force amidst the New Military Urbanism
• After NYC ouster, "Occupy" seeks new direction (CBS News)
• DC lobbyists' plan to undermine the OWS movement (PDF)
• OWS Camp crackdown coordinated by US city mayors (RT)
• A lot of media belongs to 1% that OWS rally against (RT)
• Recognise Occupy as a Global Movement (Huffington Post)
• Occupy movement now a global phenomenon (SGV Tribune)