Fuzzytek

khushhh:

profits over people 
money over she who sustains us
some regression progression we have come to  

Just keep praying… it’ll get better, I know it will.
NOT!!
If your feet don’t hit the street and your voice ring out - NOTHING WILL CHANGE!
Your normal every day actions have lead to exactly where you are today… how do you like it? 

Dance Before the Storm - Levellers (by Levellers)

Its a fine morning for a REVOLUTION to gain its feet - hope to see you in the STREET!

I had a Dream Today…

The day you choose to be part of a revolution and find out the movement has come and gone past you …. 
and you look at what you have left, after conceding to offer so much just to continue on.

At what point do you stand up? Will it be before you find your legs cut off at the knees? Or will you be content even then and wait until you no longer have legs left to stand upon?

When you reach for something better will you reach soon enough that your finger tips grasp what you desire? Or will the effort be lost because your hands will have been cut off without your knowing? Perhaps even then you just sink back and say it’ll change, they will realize they removed my dreams from grasp.

But then you find it isn’t just your dreams… it has moved to your needs. And your reach has been limited even farther as your arms have been removed.

Government has this way of repressing if you don’t stand up, reach out, and speak out. If you see something is wrong - DO SOMETHING. 

You may find all you have left is your voice, use it! If you don’t you’ll be left watching the horror of being a spectator in your life as everything you dreamed of, desired, fought to have, and conceded loss to get by - GONE, a HOLLOW LIFE with just your eyes left to watch the walls come tumbling in around you as you no longer have a voice left to speak with.

WHAT DO YOU REPRESENT? 
WHAT IS YOUR STAND? 
WHAT DREAMS DO YOU REACH FOR?
WHAT WILL YOU SPEAK OUT AGAINST AND FOR?
WHAT TERRORS WILL YOU ALLOW YOUR EYES TO SEE BEFORE YOU DIE?
WHAT HOPE WILL YOU LEAVE YOUR CHILDREN?

… and then it was GONE

By Stephen Boyle - May 17, 2012
Printable copy at http://goo.gl/TEXrr 

Taryn Mychal Mai is working her way up the charts. Fuzzytek just held a
photo session with her… watch for some magic shortly! (via BO.LT)

Contact sunflowers@occupy-detroit.us to learn more about the Sunflower Brigade.

National Day of Protest Against Bank of America (#BOA) is May 9 (#m9boa). #Detroit demands suspension of $16.9 billion in debt collection servicing fees. BAIL OUT THE PEOPLE, not the banks! (via BO.LT)

Learn more at on the Free Detroit website.

Click the link to offer your opinion to the poll.

So far the numbers appear 55% saying that residency doesn’t matter. 26% saying a mix of residents and non-residents, and 18% requesting residency in Detroit.

This poll is proving a point that people outside the city of Detroit feel entitled to control its destiny. Claims that residents aren’t taking care of the city run rampant in trolling commentary to articles published.

The outcome from City Council today shall prove very interesting when they announce their selections from those interviewed.

PressTV coverage and Two Detroits

Detroit held a featured segment of the OWS Week broadcast on PressTV. The General Electric shareholder meeting brought over 2,000 people coming from across the country to protest at the Renaissance Center and the surrounding streets. Protesters blocking traffic for upwards of an hour as the march overtook Jefferson Ave.

Stephen Boyle from Free Detroit - No Consent spoke with the reporter and offered his view of how the representative government and corporations continue to distance themselves from the people at large. Reductions in social services are leaving Detroiters with an overwhelming desire to leave Detroit. Those in need can go anywhere else in the nation and receive benefits better than Detroit can offer. At what point do eliminations stop? Within our Declaration we see the emergence of two Detroits: one thriving, one abandoned.

If mobility is cut off and social services restricted, those who rely on society will die. Gentrification of the city will occur as a new populace moves into the core of Detroit. Gated communities will flourish in the core as the poor are placed into perimeter encampments. This is how Mayor Bing, Governor Snyder, and the corporate/bank interests behind them plan to create pockets of welfare-serviced communities around the core of the city. The perimeter which fails to receive welfare will be blighted waiting for demolition and replanted as corporate farmland.Monsanto, ADM (Archer Daniels Midland), and other agro-corporations will own or assist in growing genetically engineered crops in the newly formed corporate farms (reference Hantz Farms, a Monsanto affiliated farm planning to purchase 5,000 acres). This is the foreseeable future as it is showing up through privatization of transit, public lighting, education, water, and handing over Department of Human Services to state/corporate interests.

The people of the city have grown tired of fighting for human rights for centuries. Corporations have grown at the expense of the workers which sustain them. There is a due diligence to the people enabling their freedom and pursuit of happiness, which continues to erode as corporations globalize and leave a trail of waste they foist upon the society used to propel their success. Financial and political reforms are needed.

The Employees First Effect (by HCLTechtube)

This advertisement came up before watching another video on YouTube. It managed to appeal for me to watch beyond the 5 second window given to proceed to the video being watched and avoid the advertisement.

HCL Technologies is based in India and seems to understand more about success than most US businesses.
Very well done advertisement for their Employees First methodology for corporate engagement. They even went so far as to say Customers Second. A valuable lesson because when employees don’t have pride in what they do, they are much less effective.

The civil disobedience action centered on political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal-OWS Week-05-02-2012 (by PressTVGlobalNews)

You’ll find a segment starting around 8:40 into the report that discusses Detroit.

Harvard Professor Joanna Guldi discusses the history of #MayDay

There are approximately 9,100 underground storage tanks in Michigan (LUSTs in environmental parlance) leaking fuel into the surrounding soils and water. While more than 13,000 such sites have been cleaned up over the years, Michigan’s current backlog is the second-largest in the nation. Half of the current sites fall under the responsibility of the state — and the fuel tax levy that’s long been used to fund cleanups is scheduled to expire at the end of 2012, barring action from the Legislature. Michigan’s cleanup efforts have, in fact, dropped by nearly 90 percent since 1997.

Article from The Center For Michigan, March 30, 2012

The following are my personal insights as responses to questions posed. Hopefully these will spur additional inquiry to understand more of how a movement is greater than the sum of the organizations and communities which support it or are affected by it.

My belief echoes many of the voices I’ve heard, from civil rights leaders, historians, and media pundits. The Occupy Movement is the single most engaging activist movement in the past 200 years. It adopts no fixed form, what it seeks is economic and social justice. It is malleable and can’t be contained or rigidly defined.

Q: In regards to Occupy Wall Street/the Occupy Movement, what do you know of its origins?

A: Occupy Wall Street grew from a global shift toward awareness that followed from the Arab Spring. We saw an area of the world typically at strife within itself unite against the ruling class. The people of Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Yemen, and more rose up and demanded democracy - the right to have a say in their lives. [ref: interactive chart] Mainstream media wasn’t covering the action very well, but nearly anyone on Twitter saw messages coming from the action. Al Jezeera and BBC were sources of news that US media simply weren’t offering.

Occupy Wall Street brought the class struggle to the US, the class struggle took aim at financial institutions which had received bail-out money and were allocating it as bonuses to the CEOs. These weren’t heroes being paid for a job well done, they were scam artists who had arranged with government that they would never be held accountable for their crimes against the people. Occupy movement spread into class rebellion because it was obvious that control of money wasn’t the only corruption the people were fighting for. Some might call it complacency with letting things go, but in fact the people were losing their rights week after week as bills were introduced and laws passed. Corrupt government was being lead around with a golden ring in its nose. Nearly half of the legislative body of the country are millionaires due to political action spending by corporations, organizations, and lobbyists protecting them. The passage of Citizens United vs FEC paved the way for unlimited spending with minimal reporting requirements. 

Q: The other pocket movements of the movement in cities other than OWS/NYC, do you think they’ve had this same impact as OWS? Why?

A: Many observers would say OWS/NYC has the majority of viewing. Considering the way money affects nearly all areas of interest and gross injustice by the financial sector - it warrants highlighted exposure. Localized cells of the movement target economic and social injustices as encountered where they are at. Some cells of the movement find unity across others on specific issues such as foreclosures, student debt, transportation, food, and more - uniting these across the country and globe creates new Occupy movement cells of interest. Creation of Occupy movement cells of interest becomes infectious because the middle class has been eroded by these various injustices. They aren’t seeing a way out other than through protest and rebellion.

Q: Do you feel as if the Occupy movement is sending the right message out, or do you think some divisions are sending the wrong message out? Why?

A: Protest and rebellion can take many forms - some healthy and others dangerous. The dangers can be both immediate and long term. You can’t quickly correct a juggernaut. Civil disobedience is a concept which can appear in many forms. Laws also vary across the country: federal, state, county, and municipal laws can create situations that are legal in one place, illegal in another. When news of how Occupy movement cells are holding protest or creating change, the listeners in other cells need to be aware of both their rights/laws and how they could be different from those reporting. Personal ethics, morality, capability and willingness to disobey in a civil manner contains a myriad of perspectives that lays outside discussing the Occupy movement.

Q: What do you think and know about the message We are the 99%?

A: The 99% statement is a familiar and easy way to indicate class struggle - those that control are small in number. The generality of the statement seeks to engage everyone in seeing gross injustices. When people identify themselves as 1% they can elect to make change happen and a few are making a difference, but even among the 99% those with incomes in the higher tiers are capable of being supportive of the 1% agenda which is not pro-democracy. True democracy would erode the differences between the classes. True democracy would instill accountability for injustices. If you look at how law is conducted in the Middle East you’ll find fewer situations of intense greed and division. I won’t say none, because extreme wealth and influence negate democracy by bullying those supporting it. 

Q: Do you think that the Occupy movement will have a strong impact on the November elections? If so why?

A: If there is one change that those true to an Occupy movement agenda would like to see, I would say it is erosion of the two party system.  Partisan politics unites and divides - it is my belief that in doing so it is anti-democratic by being influential of individual/representative votes. The US is a representative democracy and more options would be welcome by the people. It would require them to become informed and aware of who their representatives are and insist on a voice by that representative that echoes their interests. Justice in democracy requires the people making it so - if not we either protest or remain apathetic as slaves to a system by accepting it. 

Q: Where do you think the Occupy movement will go from here?

A: I believe it is the precursor toward rebellion and revolution. Ideas are being presented and some stick and others fall away. People are learning they can have a voice, and that it takes being active for it to be heard. One thing that will come from this movement is a growth in the number of people willing to speak about human rights, injustice, and we hope discussions and actions that are results oriented. When a seemingly rigid system has pressure applied both within and outside it is likely to weaken - this is what the Occupy movement is doing. Where it goes from there depends on formative, creative influence applied. 

Q: Do you have any opinions not discussed in my questions?

A: Signing petitions and getting things on the ballot for a vote makes a difference. Legislation that is introduced through public petition is what our legislators need to see more of. It is a demonstration of the people making their interests known. We need more options rather than fewer. A narrow path offers few a destination they desire.

Detroit’s biggest food truck rally to date is scheduled Friday by the Fisher Building, featuring 12 trucks and carts serving everything from ice cream and pierogis and tacos and tapas.

Sponsored by the Farbman Group real estate company, which manages the Fisher and New Center One buildings, the “Drive and Dine in the D” rally will be on Third Street between Lothrop and West Grand from 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. 

Admission to the family-friendly event is free. Each truck handles its own sales; tips will be donated to local charities. 

Participants are Treat Dreams ice cream, Jacques’ Tacos, El Guapo Fresh Mexican Grill, Taco Mama, Franks Anatra, Concrete Cuisine, Ned’s TravelBurger, Taco Mama, The People’s Pierogi Collective, Cheese Dream, Debajo del Sol and Cheese Wizard, which will make its metro debut.

The rally is hosted in partnership with the non-profit Michigan Mobile Food Vendors Association.

Farbman Group CEO Andrew Farbman announced the event. “Mobile food trucks are an exciting local trend that we think adds an additional level of vibrancy to our great city,” he said. “We know that hosting the largest and longest food truck rally to date will be a great way to gather the community and celebrate these businesses growing in Detroit.”

Contact Sylvia Rector: 313-222-5026 or srector@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @SylviaRector.

I AM THE 99%

I worked 20 years in corporate IT jobs. In 2004 I wanted to make a difference at work - I was fired.

I lost my home to foreclosure in 2006 and unemployment with no vehicle.

I moved from friend to friend 2006-2009. The last place was an abandoned home with no utilities. I would take a bus to college and borrow a student’s id to get online.

My hours of travel are 24 hours, but Detroit bus service was eliminated late night, many routes removed.

I was apathetic to politics, economy, and activism, until Occupy Detroit began.

I OCCUPY DETROIT TRANSIT and I use my skills in technology, publicity, and organizational background to fight for human rights and social justice.

MOBILITY IS A HUMAN RIGHT.

CELEBRATE 6 MONTH ANNIVERSARY - OCCUPY DETROIT - APRIL 14, 2012 

The day begins at 10am assembling at Eastern Market, at noon we will conduct a General Assembly of everyone present. ALL ARE WELCOME! The assembly will break around 2pm and head to the Ox Roast that follows…

YES WE ARE ROASTING AN OX - A WALL STREET BULL 

From 3pm-11pm please join everyone at the 5900 Activist Center, 5900 Michigan Ave, Detroit 48208. This is an all ages event with games, artwork, stories, and more going on. Come out and let us know what is happening in your neighborhood by attending and extending an invitation!

APRIL 29, 2012 - Citizen Reporter Workshop 

Fuzzytek from the Occupy Detroit media working group is holding a monthly series of workshops on how to be a citizen reporter. Bring passion into embracing your 1st Amendment rights of speech, press, and petition.

This workshop will cover a broad range of topics in an introductory mode. Your admission provides printed materials, food and beverage during the event. The venue will be setup with a streaming video feed of the event, and documentary footage afterward. Watch for twitter hashtag #ireportduring the event.

• Establish the background for your story
• Publish into a listening audience
• Tools of replication
• Learn the tools of live journalism 
• Teamwork and why it matters

Workshop Series

A survey available before and after the course on what topics to feature in the monthly workshop series. No two workshops will be alike and some topics may be presented in different manners.

Some of the topics during the workshops may stray into related areas such as planning, promotion, and organizational tools. You are being prepared with a toolkit of technology and techniques.

About the Workshop Leader

When Occupy Detroit sprouted Stephen was on-board as soon as he heard of it - before the first march and coming into planning understanding the purpose of presence. 

We the citizen reporters will be heard most clearly during this revolution known as the Occupy movement.

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