This news story seems to be receiving growing attention:
Standing amid 100 tents crammed on a small lawn on the Los Angeles City Hall grounds, Clark Davis is asked a simple question about the 200 or so people that have set up camp around him.
Are you the anti-tea party?
“I wouldn’t say that we’re the anti-tea party. I wouldn’t say we’re anti-anything. I would say we’re for things, we’re not anti-anything,” said Davis, the media director for OccupyLA, one of several protest movements around the country aimed at Wall Street and the wealthy. “We’re not really thinking about the tea party right now.” ...
Last week, amid the news reports and general hubbub, TAG got e-mails from members that ran like this ...
... I write to you today to urge that our union, The Animation Guild, lend its full support to the Occupy Wall Street, Occupy LA and Occupy Together movements.
The concerns that these demonstrations have expressed harmonize completely with our concerns. Declaring "We Are the 99%," these various "Occupy" movements are standing up for fairness, justice and working class values. ...
Being a due-diligence kind of guy, I sent the e-mails out to the Animation Guild Executive Board for review and comment. As you might expect, some board members agreed with the messages whole-heartedly, others did not.
Since we're getting inquiries, I wanted to put this out to let people know that the Animation Guild isn't now taking any position on the "Occupy" movement, just like it didn't take any position on the "Tea Party" movement. Our membership is diverse, and we generally don't take a lot of official stances on Political Candidates or Issues of the Day one way or the other *.
If you want to ignore the current street demonstrations, then ignore them. If you want to denounce them, you can do that. And if you want to support them and add your voice, a few key strokes on The Google should tell you where to go and what actions to take.
Since we've gotten questions and the e-board has been having internal discussions, I thought it would be useful to weigh in. Happy weekend.
* The last time we did any kind of "official" endorsement was way back when Gray Davis was running for office and the membership voted and endorsed his candidacy for the California governorship at the IATSE's request. That was like, what? One hundred and thirty years ago?
And please let's not start on what I write here, Kaplan writes here, or what TAG President Bob Foster puts up on the site. The blog is for the officers to spout off their viewpoints and positions, and states as much up there on the upper right. It doesn't necessarily reflect the position of the Animation Guild.
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18 comments:
Forget Wallstreet... Abolish the Federal reserve, protest the big megabanks that are share holders of the private federal reserve and support Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul newly introduced HR 2990 because this issue is not about being left or right is about being an american and putting and end of this scam that has devaluated the currency and the standard of living for the last 100 years when the treasonous federal reserve act passed on Christmas day on 1913 along with the IRS and the income tax.Reenact glass steagall to put a stop on the central banks printing monopoly money, abolish the free trade agreements and this country will be back to prosperity again. But be careful, you might get call a lunatic or a racist in the process...
I spent today with the Occupation in a small midwest town. It was mostly young students with virtually no knowledge of economics or labor history, and no real idea what they were doing. And that is a GOOD thing. This is not a political movement. It is an Occupation. That is an entirely different matter. Many groups have tried to co-opt the Occupation, and have been rejected. Everyone is welcome to join the occupation, and many labor groups have joined. However, please understand, you are not there to advocate for political parties or specific candidates. You are not there to advocate for a specific agenda. You are there to occupy a public space as a symbolic gesture. And you are there to share your story. If you have worked and learned hard lessons in life, there are young men and women there who are anxious to learn from you. These young people are tomorrow's leaders. Please be their mentors.
I highly recommend this article to all interested persons, to understand the Occupation more clearly, and to help you understand that what people think are its weaknesses, are really its strengths. Please read, "How To Occupy An Abstraction."
http://tinyurl.com/6dk6n3w
Unfortunately it is an attempt by the left to disguise their blatant attempt to stay in power.
I'm not a big fan of the banks either, but this paid for by progressives protest is just that, an attempt to stifle job creation and put everyone under their banner of governed.
"I'm not a big fan of the banks either,.."
I love how multinationals and banksters are but a footnote to the flabby white Howard Jarvis Tea Party neanderthals who just can't keep up with the rest of society. You are living in the past. I'm sorry you bought into the Reagan Revolution, but you were, um, WRONG.
^Says someone who obviously didn't live through the "Reagan Revolution" or the years prior.
Reagan brought back this nation's spirit. He was a tonic to a malaise created by Obama - oops, sorry, Jimmy Carter and his Washington Hillbillies. (It's so easy to confuse the two). The same people who question his fiscal policies are the same ones who believe socialism is the only way to achieve "social justice" (whatever the frag that is).
The "Occupy Wall Street" stunt is nothing more substantial than street theater. It's just a bunch of whiners whose actual battle cries are "Life's not fair!" or "I'm in debt and it's somebody else's fault!".
America is not about life being FAIR. It's about opportunity. People who do stupid things like having kids they can't afford to take care of, or getting deeply in debt achieving their degree in liberal arts, or lose a business through bad business practices, are going to suffer no matter WHAT system of government they live with. Funny thing is, the real winners are people who suffer setbacks but don't blame others for their misfortune. They're the ones who get up, examine their own mistakes and try again. Walt Disney did that countless times. So did most of those evil millionaires the Dems are once again trying to blame for their own stupidity in creating an entitlement-based society.
Most people are laughing at Occupy Wall Street. Just a bunch of whiners. The end.
"Most people are laughing at Occupy Wall Street."
You left out "on FoxNews," as in "Most people on FoxNews are..."
"^Says someone who obviously didn't live through the "Reagan Revolution" or the years prior."
I lived through every sad moment of it, and I found believers like yourself to be overly-optimistic and unrealistically nostalgic, way too willing to paper over the truths of the new economy that Reagan's administration fabricated, to all of our eventual undoing. It was not morning in America, you moron, it was evening. And you bought every sad line of that old mans fantasy. The so-called Reagan Revolution was nothing but an opening up the front door of DC to Wall Street to begin pumping up the country and the world with the magic of limitless credit and the miracle of oil priced in US dollars. You are a fool, and a colossal one at that to have been on this kick of yours for thirty years. Wake up already, the country desperately needs you to wake up. You are the perfect stooge for the tyranny of the multinational corporation. Please, God Almighty, wake the f up.
reagun raised taxes, ran up the deficit (percentage wise almost TWICE what our President Obama has been forced to do because of the bush economic disaster), and illegally sold arms to terrorists to fund a secret, and illegal war in Central America based on trumped up lies.
He was one of the worst things that ever happened to America, and his misguided deification has led directly to the woefully ignorant and misinformed gNOp/teabagger generation.
OWS is not a confused statement. If, as bush and co. did, government can bail out Wall Street, how about some help for the middle class? If company profits are up, why aren't they reinvesting in American business? With corporate tax rates lower than they've been in 50 years, why is anyone believing their bullshit? Facts are facts, and OWS participants are on the RIGHT and GOOD side of this argument.
Have you heard about Fast and furious, The Obama administration selling guns to drug cartels directly in mexico...Do you guys see the pattern here. The Obama white house is pack with the Goldman sash people that engineer the bubble and the collapse...
Can you guys stop fighting about right and left and recognise the common enemy that we are facing here. There´s continuation of agenda no matter who is in the white house and the people that you don´t vote for that control the rigged system enjoy to watch you argue everyday with each other in the old left and right paradigm
I love how both sides point out how shitty their opposition's presidents were, when in reality THEY WERE ALL SHITTY. None of the presidential candidates nor the incumbent give a crap about small business owners or workers. If you think any of them are then you need to wake up!!!
One party is owned by Corporate America while the other can't wait to kiss Corporate America's ass just to keep their positions.
Reagan and Grover's darling Milt Friedman and his neoliberal economic argument has died the most massive public death you could ever conceive, and you have speeches at the Reagan library that STILL praise the wasteland this man created. The moron left the barn door wide open....
Its a bunch of hippies that don't want to work and feel entitled to everyone elses hard earned money.
Yes, because your 'hard work' earned you a billion dollars last year.
Instead of bellyaching about businesses, do what they do, form a business and make billions of dollars. Then make sure you donate it all to the government.
That is built on the ability to get loans, which no one can get. Big business is hanging on to their money, more interested in spending it overseas on cheap child labor than investing in America's future.
It never ceases to amaze me to read comments from the pseudo conservative mental midgets with their bag of cliches who frequent this blog.
>>That is built on the ability to get loans, which no one can get. Big business is hanging on to their money, more interested in spending it overseas on cheap child labor than investing in America's future. <<
There are other ways to start a business than getting a loan. Finding investors right now is easier than it has been in years. There are people sitting around with cash that don't want to leave it in the bank cause it returns almost nothing. They'd take a risk on a well conceived plan.
All evidence supports that fact that the movement is disillusioned with both neoliberalism and social democracy. That is why they are in the street to be heard. The message is pretty clear. I hope they do not fall into the same trap that the Tea Party did, selling out to a party, ending up with a wildly perverted result being pushed in their name. We will get further dreadful politics from this, and more deadlock, if that happens. I don't think it will, as they appear much smarter than their mirror image on the far right.
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