Tag: occupy

MAR 22, 2012 - There is more praise for Bruce Springsteen's new album "Wrecking Ball", this time by Leonard Pitts Jr. on NationalMemo.com, saying that Bruce "captures the state of America". He goes on to say that Bruce is "one of the elder statesmen of American popular music," and with the songs on the new album "delivers what might fairly be called a State of the Union Address. And if that sounds grandiose for a rock album, so be it. But know that, for all the manicured eloquence of the constitutionally mandated report President Obama delivered in January, the new Bruce Springsteen album, "Wrecking Ball," captures more raw emotional truth about the state of the American Dream than any politician ever could."

Read more on NationalMemo.com here.

FEB 27, 2012 - Willie Nelson, along with author and Rainforest Action Network board member Anna Lappe, recently wrote an Op Ed and in it they laid out their reasons for why we have to occupy our food system. This is all part of Willie's campaign "Occupy the Food System" which we have been blogging about a lot recently. OTFS is an coalition of over 90 organizations and Occupy groups from around the world fighting uber-large corporate agri-businesses such as Monsanto who they feel are destroying our food system and making us unhealthy. They write, “Corporate control of our food system has led to the loss of millions of family farmers, the destruction of soil fertility, the pollution of our water, and health epidemics including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and even certain forms of cancer. More and more, the choices that determine the food on our shelves are made by corporations concerned less with protecting our health, our environment, or our jobs than with profit margins and executive bonuses.” You can read the entire HuffPo Op Ed here.

Today they launch a campaign to occupy unused, vacant bank-owned lots and start community gardens and set up small seed exchanges in front of the Stock Exchange. They want to fight for “labeling products on grocery store shelves that contain genetically engineered ingredients" and build "community alliances to support locally owned grocery stores and resist Walmart megastores; and fighting back against industrial giants Monsanto and Cargill.” To take part and learn more, check out the Rainforest Action Network's website here.
 

FEB 21, 2012 - Music has always been a part of activism and social change, and the Occupy movement is no exception. Recently, many activist bands have kicked out the jams at Occupy locations often to raise funds, and the word everyone is using is Roccupy! Just do a search for "Roccupy" on the Internet, and a myriad of local Roccupy groups and events come up from small towns and big cities across America. There are also tons of Roccupy Facebook Pages popping up, so check to see if there is a local chapter of Roccupy near you. For those of you living in the Virginia Beach area, there will be a Roccupy Virginia Beach benefit concert this Saturday, February 25, 2012 to help the activists out there Occupying Virginia Beach, read more here. Many Occupy musicians have even Roccupied public locations such as a Taco Bell (watch below).

FEB 20, 2012 - Coming off the heels of his great performance on the Grammys singing his new song from his new album "Wrecking Ball" titled "We Take Care of Our Own", Bruce spoke to a small group of reporters in France and said about Occupy and the broken promise of the American dream alluded to in the song, "Previous to Occupy Wall Street, there was no push back at all saying this was outrageous—a basic theft that struck at the heart of what America was about, a complete disregard for the American sense of history and community. Nobody had talked about income inequality in America for decades—apart from John Edwards, but no one was listening. But now you have Newt Gingrich talking about 'vulture capitalism' - Newt Gingrich! - that would not have happened without Occupy Wall Street." Watch a video of the event below.

FEB 15, 2012 - The Zak Smith Band has sent us one of their new music videos containing footage of Occupy Wall Street at Zuccotti Park of his new song, "Brand New Party", which pays homage and supports the Occupy movement. Zak hails from New Jersey and in an email to us he says he is a "musician who has a passion for writing about political views and his love of people." Watch the video below, and check out Zak's website here.