While 24/7 Occupy encampments have gone dormant for the winter in much of the nation (while General Assemblies continue in many places and more work goes on outside of public view), we here in Orange County are still, improbably, going strong. We've just passed 3200 hours of consecutive occupation in Irvine and Fullerton. Early this Thursday morning, it will be -- and this is not a joke -- 200,000 consecutive minutes during which Orange County Occupiers have been present and demonstrating or camping in those two cities.
And, today, we're celebrating -- with Occupalooza! If you are anywhere near North Orange County, you may want to come join us there today -- pretty much all day!
(Well, you've already missed the free breakfast.)
People from occupations all over the region (and in fact some from 1500 or so miles away) have gathered here today. You can read more at the story by my publisher/editor at the Orange Juice blog, musician and prankster Vern Nelson. Here's today's schedule:
Sunday Feb. 26, 8:30 AM till LATE in the evening!
8am Breakfast
9am meet @ North Justice Center
1275 North Berkeley Ave.,
Fullerton, CA 92832
Parking lot
10am March
11:30am Music and Interoccupy rally
3pm General Assembly
If GA ends early we can have open mic as long as the sun permits us to
8pm Dinner
We almost literally have too much to celebrate right now.
(1) We got the City of Fullerton (with a 4 to 1 Republican majority on the City Council) to pass resolutions to
- move city money to local community banks and credit unions (so far as feasible -- we're not completely unreasonable -- but a lot is feasible.)
- work with our local state university and community college to rein in marketing abuse by credit card companies trying to hook students on the debt treadmill before they know what hit them
and we came within 1 vote of getting the Council to pass a resolution opposing Citizens United and corporate personhood -- and we'll be trying again!
(2) We just had our first General Assembly for what will in time become the Occupy First Credit Union -- online only at first, and the details are being worked out, but the proposal by our J.B. Wagoner is out there and is being staffed -- and it was livestreamed and viewed by over 400 people yesterday.
(3) I am working with others to create a Occupy Slate of candidates for local, state, and national office this year. This will be a trans-partisan slate -- mostly progressive Democratic, but it will have at least one Green Party candidate, some without party preference, and even one or more libertarian Republicans!
(4) This Wednesday is the joint Southern California Occupy action called "Occupy WalMart: Here, read about it from Vern's story, taken from our friends a few dozen miles away at Occupy Riverside:
Wed. Feb. 29 – SHUTDOWN THE CORPORATIONS CALL TO ACTION: Occupy Walmart!
Mira Loma, California (in the Inland Empire)
Join Occupy Riverside, Occupy Redlands, Occupy San Bernardino Valley, Occupy Los Angeles, Occupy Long Beach, Occupy Santa Ana, Occupy Pasadena, and other Occupy groups in the region for the mass participatory direct action targeting Walmart’s largest warehouse and distribution center.
NO BUSINESS AS USUAL!
Occupy Riverside Calls for Action Targeting Wal-Mart on F29, 6am to 6pm.
The current economic system depends on exploitation of workers at every stage: production, distribution, and consumption. Here in the Inland Empire, our dominant industry is logistics–the storing and transporting of products. At warehouses throughout the region, workers are exposed to toxic chemicals and unsafe temperatures, and are often subject to wage theft. They work for giant companies like Wal-Mart, but indirectly. Wal-Mart contracts with warehouses, who contract with temp agencies, which allows Wal-Mart to deny responsibilities for the workers that earn them billions in profits. The workers have no unions to help them protect their rights, and every attempt to organize is squashed by the 1% at the top. Now, workers are being threatened with dismissal for nothing more than fighting for their rights. They must be defended!
We have heard Occupy Portland’s call to “Shut Down the Corporations” on February 29, and we are heeding it in the way that makes the most sense for our area. Many of us work at warehouses–the industry touches our lives in multiple ways, from the worker abuses mentioned to the pollution that the trucks and trains spew into the air we breathe. We are calling for a day of action at the world’s largest Wal-Mart warehouse to show the corporations and the 1% that we are fighting back, not only for the rights of workers, but also for citizens whose rights are infringed upon by legislative networks such as ALEC, of which Wal-Mart is a part.
We call on all area occupy movements and all people of conscience to join us on February 29 to take a stand for the human rights of workers, and against ALEC, Wal-Mart and the rest of the 1%.
More Details to come….
www.shutdownthecorporations.org
www.alecexposed.org
Below please find the resolution adopted by the IE General Strike Committee:
Resolution in Support of Non-Union Warehouse Workers at Walmart Contractor Schneider Logistics
Adopted January 27, 2012; amended February 6, 2012
WHEREAS Walmart is the largest corporation in the world, earning billions in profits from the sweat of workers worldwide, and
WHEREAS Walmart is one of the primary anti-union forces in the country and the world, and
WHEREAS Walmart makes use of its immense economic power to enact anti-worker legislation through networks such as the American Legislative Exchange Council, and
WHEREAS Walmart sets the ever-declining industry standard for treatment of workers, and
WHEREAS Walmart makes use of contractors, subcontractors, and temporary employment agencies to avoid its responsibility to uphold its own standards of ethics, and
WHEREAS Walmart refuses to adopt a responsible contractor policy that would benefit workers at the Schneider warehouse at 4100 Hamner Ave in Mira Loma, California, where workers for the temporary employment agency Rogers-Premier have had to wage claims and have suffered retaliation, and
WHEREAS the disempowerment of workers is an affront to the human dignity that is the cornerstone of all faiths,
BE IT RESOLVED THAT
In coordination with a 38-city national day of non-violent action directed at the corporations comprising ALEC, the General Assembly of Occupy Riverside calls for a legal, one-day community picket line in support of the just struggle of the warehouse workers. We ask all unions doing business with the Schneider facility on February 29, 2012, and all non-union workers as they are able, to respect the picket line by not crossing it. We request that all union locals and central labor councils endorse the picket line and support the effort as they are able, by encouraging rank-and-file participation in the picket, through in-kind contributions of materials such as water, food, banners, sound system, etc. for the workers and participating community members. We also encourage community groups and faith based groups to similarly join and support as they are best able.
Please write to maydaygeneralstrike@gmail.com to inform us if your organization adopts this resolution or is able to support this effort in any other way.
Have you thought that the leaves had fallen from the Occupy tree over the winter? Well, here in California, things grow all year round! I'll have more on these -- especially the Credit Union and the Political Slate -- before long; meanwhile, if you're around and feel like showing the Occupy presence, come down to Fullerton today!
1:01 PM PT: Friday morning, not Thursday. Can't edit it on my phone.