The primal strength of the Occupy Movement from its inception, has been the ability to focus attention on the nexus of power. In the case of Occupy Wall St occupying Zuccotti Park, attention was focused on the nexus of corrupt financial institutions across the world, Wall St.
And then the Occupiers had the unmitigated gall to practice democracy amidst the hallowed halls of the New York Stock Exchange, Bankers Trust, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Goldman Sachs, further bringing attention to the corruption in those same hallowed halls.
MOT gets it right, telling us the tents were a distraction, Portland, Seattle and LA, do you hear that? Keep your eye on the target, the corruption, the 1% that put Congress in their pockets. Income disparity, the economic injustice we see everyday.
What better way to challenge the power of Wall St than to bring attention to wall St, after all 70% of Americans hold a negative view of Wall St. Continuing that theme Occupy Homes actually predates the Zuccotti Park evictions and represents a natural progression.
Occupy is about focusing attention on the nexus of power and corruption. This is the overall strategy.
These are different tactics that will help accomplish the strategy:
There are many ways to do this:
1) One way is to pitch tents @zuccotti Park, to focus attention on the corruption of Wall St.
2) Another way is to Occupy a house that is about to be foreclosed, to focus attention on the corrupt banks power to foreclose.
3) Another way to do this is to Occupy Congress and focus attention on the corruption of big money in politics.
So today 100's of Occupy protesters descended on a house, 702 Vermont Street, in Brooklyn New York to reclaim it for the Homeless family that used to live there. The house has remained vacant for 3 years.
“We'll be here all night and all week to defend this family's home — they deserve it more than Bank of America," said Eliot Tarver from the Occupy Wall Street eviction defense team. "It's criminal for big banks to sit on vacant homes when there are so many homeless families who need them."
The father of the family, Alfredo Carrasquillo, will be cleaning up and performing some renovations before Alfredos wife and two children will be movng in. Neighbors and protesters, about a thousand people all told, celebrated in a block party this afternoon, dining on Occu-pies from Johnnies Pizza which is just around the corner.
Tweeted by #OCCUPYWALLSTREET
Johnnie's Pizza is around corner from #Occupied House. Can u give a housewarming #OccuPie 2 Alfredo & fam? Call Jose @ 718-272-5755 #D6
http://twitter.com/...
#OCCUPYWALLSTREET:tweetpic of Johnnies Pizza
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This isn't the best picture, but NYC Councilman Charles Barron enters the house with Mr Carrasquillo: http://twitpic.com/... Councilman Barron has been an outspoken advocate for economic justice and is obviously down with Occupy.
According to #OCCUPYWALLSTREET the lights were turned on at about 5:30 pm, so I think they have electricity.
Protesters bout to start march to Alfredos house, 702 Vermont St. Brooklyn
This is what you're supposed to do when someone moves into the community
Occupy continues to rewrite our national conversation and has Bank of America is getting nervous about Occupy Our Homes:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
4:40 PM PT: Twitpic of the Bat Signal being beamed on the front of 702 Vermont St Brooklyn
https://api.plixi.com/api/tpapi.svc/imagefromurl?size=medium&url=http%3A%2F%2Flockerz.com%2Fs%2F162650113
4:47 PM PT: Try again, the Bat Signal
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4:55 PM PT: Occupy Oakland reclaims a home
http://twitter.com/...
5:06 PM PT: Tweetvideo of Family being welcomed
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5:28 PM PT: View from roof
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6:06 PM PT: Twitter: #702Vermont #D6