UPDATE: A picture of the throngs in downtown Providence!
From the Occupy Providence Facebook Page, a public service announcement…
On Saturday, October 15th at 5pm Rhode Islanders will gather in Burnside Park (Downtown Providence) to express a feeling of mass injustice and stand in solidarity with those occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square. This will be done as part of an international day of action in conjunction with the occupation of dozens of other cities around the country and the world.
If you feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world, the members of the Occupy Providence General Assembly (OPGA) are your allies. Members of the OP General Assembly have been meeting in Burnside Park everyday since Oct 1st, and are committed to non-violence; to maintaining a safe, alcohol free, drug free, and harassment/discrimination free space for all voices to be heard. The OP General Assembly does not endorse any political candidate or party in any way.
The Occupation of Burnside Park will begin at 5pm, followed by:
1. A rally & march against corporate greed and corporate crime2. An autonomous picnic: bring your own food but also consider that an unaffiliated group known as “Food Not Banks” suggested that it may be bringing enough share!
3. The October 15th Occupy Providence General Assembly (where folks share ideas, come to agreement, and vote on how to move forward)
4. Entertainment (songs, stories, dancing, meditation, music, and more)!!
5. Vigil
This is an inclusive event for people and families of all ages:
Drugs, Alcohol, Discrimination, Harassment, and Violent behavior are NOT WELCOME.The Occupation starts at 5p and will last, I hope, for as many days, nights, weeks, and months (?) as it takes to come to a consensus on how best to challenge corporate greed, which places profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality; the corporations which run our government, destroy our environment, and control our lives.
We are the 99%, standing in opposition to rule by the 1%.
Come to Burnside Park at 5pm on October 15th and let your voice be heard!
THINGS TO BRING:
lanterns, flash flights, batteries, video cameras, signs (your sign is your legal proof of political expression and your right to exercise free speech), writing materials, tarps, sleeping bags, blankets, pillows, warm clothes, food, water, games, yoga mats, books, patience, respect, ideas and information to share, friends who are lawyers, friends with CPR and medical training, friends with non-violence training, & other fitting supply donations for an indefinite occupation!THINGS NOT TO BRING:
bullhorns, amplifiers, amplification systems, generators, propane grills, gas grills, anything with an open flame, drugs, alcohol, weapons, excess garbage; anything the police can say violates a noise or other city ordinance or requires a permit we don’t have; any thing that will give the police leverage to disrupt the occupationOP GENERAL ASSEMBLY SAFE SPACE REQUIREMENTS:
*Occupy Providence is a completely non-violent movement; violence and property destruction/defacing are not welcome, and do not represent us.*Discrimination or harassment based on race, sex, gender, orientation, age, or anything else are not welcome. This includes any sexist, homophobic, trans-phobic, racist, or ageist behavior, speech, chanting, writing, etc.
*We are a drug and alcohol free assembly and occupation. Cigarette smokers are asked to please smoke at a respectful distance from non-smokers.
Please forward widely this invite WIDELY.
If you have ideas on how to help with press stuff, please contact: OccupyProvidenceMedia@gmail.com
Sincerely,
~Jared
(member of the Occupy Providence Direct Action Working Group)
The Providence Journal reports that organizers are coordinating with public safety officials…
PROVIDENCE — Members of the grass-roots group Occupy Providence met Thursday with Public Safety Commissioner Steven M. Paré for what were called fruitful and amicable discussions about a protest planned for Saturday in a downtown city park.
The city is willing to waive the $10 application fee for the park-use permit and a requirement that the group get $500,000 in liability insurance, as is typical for gatherings of 100 or more, Paré said.
“The thought is we’re going to accommodate them,” Paré said late Thursday. “They certainly have something they want to say. They are, in my mind, a peaceful group.”
Occupy Providence is an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street, a protest in New York City’s financial district that has stretched across a month and attracted thousands of supporters dismayed by the state of the economy and the political system. Protests, which emphasize nonviolence, are planned Saturday in 1,400 cities, including Providence.
As of this writing, the sun is up, the sky is blue– looks like good weather for a day in the park.
CIVIC: Today at 10am, a group from Occupy Providence is cleaning the park, and would welcome volunteers. Please carpool if you plan to attend any Occupy events today.
DON’T FORGET: Dr. Martin Luther King’s ‘nonviolence strategy’ was not just moral, it was pragmatic. Anyone trying to incite may be a provocateur, or just a loose cannon. Civility is the tool of the powerful, and we have the power.
Kmareka.com 
Do be careful out there.
Innocent people sometimes get hurt just for voicing their concerns and opinions. There are bullies everywhere, and some are unpredictable.
Good luck and be safe.
I’m always careful in Burnside Park, I’ll keep my eyes open.
I heard one of the organizers yesterday state that she didn’t know of any plans for toilet facilities.
Maybe adding Depends would be a good idea so the park isn’t contaminated by human waste.I’m not trying to be funny.
There will be 40mph winds tonight and considering what Blackstone Blvd.looks like after such weather,I wouldn’t be pitching my tent under any big tree limbs.
I guess this means Joyce Katzberg and the Stone Soup Brigade can feel relevant for a few days.
Actually, this kind of reminds me of the Bonus Army. Why don’t you come on down and see for yourself who shows up?
The Bonus Army?Are you hallucinating?
I hope this succeeds in remaining peaceful, in Providence it is very likely to, but in some cities provacateurs have saought disruptions, sometimes to discredit the protestors.
I think the movement has already helped change the conversation which previously had been all about public employees are bad, unions are bad, poor people are bad, government is bad, and deficits, cuts and austerity for working people, war on terror, to topics such as jobs, public services, environmental protection, social inequality, corporate abuse, the insatiable greed of so many of the rich, all of which better reflect our real problems.
The solutions are elusive, but one has to first identify the problem, build public awareness, and the politicians will come around to address it. Of course the right wing will do everything they can to protect the rich and discredit any protest. Go Occupy Providence!
The comment of the “insatiable greed of so many of the rich,” seems interesting. Does this include the greed of Steve Jobs, a billionaire; Bill Gates or Warren Buffett, or Barack Obama, now a millionaire. Not to be too obvious, but when did a poor man ever create jobs for people? The fact that 48% of our folks pay zero federal takes and the top 10% of income earners pay about 80% of the federal taxes collected, should stress the need for tax reform. Small business creates 60% of all the new jobs in America and small business is 50 employees or less and receipts of less than $30 million/year. More than 50% of “small businesses are less than $5 million/year and fewer that 10 employees.
Listening to the vapid and wonderfully uneducated folks gathering, one is astonished by the lack of education, defined skill sets or belief structure, perhaps the main reason for their lack of employment. One is also amazed at the attention paid to 2000 or so people in New York, less than.0001% of the metropolitat population of 28,000,000, who go to work every day and do what people need to do to get by. Hmmmmmmmmm.
‘When did a poor man ever create jobs for people?’
Are you kidding? When you go out to the store, or buy a cup of coffee, say hi to the person who is working for minimum wage. They spend their paycheck in the local economy. They keep small businesses going. They need a living wage.
It used to be that just the unemployed were held in contempt, now we’re supposed to despise all the working people who don’t earn enough to pay federal taxes– they still pay all the other taxes, but that doesn’t count I guess.
I have a bachelors in science. It’s a law of physics that you can’t create something from nothing. So why this faith in the ‘job creators’ who somehow whip up prosperity without workers? I think ‘job creators’ is code word for a new aristocracy that has rigged the system to socialize risk and privatize profit.
I never was a Steve Jobs fan.
Bill & Melinda Gates have earned my affection, as they will spend the majority of their fortune to help poor people and improve things for people worldwide.
I work 2 jobs, do the right thing everyday, and I’m still poor.
I stand with the protestors.
the most important work is not always the best paid.
People do create jobs by having purchasing power. Corporations are sitting on huge cash reserves they don’t use here because too many of us can’t afford to buy their products. A century ago Henry Ford understood workers have to paid well enough to buy his cars. 50-60 years ago when I was a kid and Eisenhower was President, tax rates went up to 91%, and Republican Governors like Warren and Rockefeller built up state universities, invested in infrastructure, created national parks. The county boomed.
Now all of that has been reversed, most of the upper class (not all I agree) is doing all it can to drive down wages and benefits for workers (succeeding, median household income has fallen almost 10%, median household wealth by over 16%46 million Americans are in poverty) off-shoring our jobs, neglecting our parks, turning their backs on public higher education, opposing infrastructure investment, and concentrating the wealth on themselves. The share of income of the top 1% in the US has gone up to about 50%. They done this by lowering taxes on themselves, not just personal income tax but corporate taxes too, once 32% of Federal revenue in 1950, now down to 6.6%, as the % of profits paid to taxes dropped from over 40% to 10.5%. Donald above looks only at income taxes, ignoring sales, excise, payroll, and gas taxes that add up for low income folks. On the state/local level, the lowest 40% of earners pay about 10% of their income on the various state and local taxes while the top 1% of earners pay under 5%. No wonder we have the highest level of income inequality. That this is leading to a declining living standard for so many and social unrest should be no surprise.
A psychologist friend tells me why there are so many defenders of the rich, people like to identify with the winners, as if it rubs off. Similarly I know people who used to root for the Yankees! But Donald’s unfounded attack on the protestors’ level of education and being “vapid” is parroting right-wing lines (which also can include protestors are over-educated elitists!) that really should be unacceptable.
Go Occupy Providence!
So Barry,when are you pitching your tent?
Providence is so out of it as a power center that I wonder what there is to “occupy”?
Maybe the activists here don’t want to feel left out of things.
At the price of being redundant, I’m going to put this here, too.
Please, please click the link. Actually take the time to find out what has happened to our country, and what why we should all be angry.
This isn’t ‘vapid’. It’s facts, hard facts, stuff that used to be called ‘evidence’ and ‘proof.’ Anybody who thinks the protests are wrong, and who doesn’t click the link, and look at chart after chart is simply a coward, afraid of facts that clearly and convincingly prove their world-view might have some holes in it.
http://www.businessinsider.com/what-wall-street-protesters-are-so-angry-about-2011-10?op=1
Corporations exist for one reason: to make as much money as possible, by any means possible that are–however just barely–within the bounds of legal. And to expand the limits of what is legal in their own favor whenever and wherever they can.
Boy, that sure sounds a lot like a definition of ‘greed’.
Great link klaus.
So is your income corporation free?
You are too cowardly to give your name even though I know exactly who you are and you’re also not willing to explain what it is you do to put the fromage on the table for your family so you can “dine”as you put it.
Why should anyone pay the least attention to you?
If you believe in this protest “movement”you should get your sorry a** out there in a sleeping bag.
I see the neo-Nazis joined the protest in NYC-it figures with all the poison about the “jooos”being thrown around down there.
If they were at a tea party demonstration you’d be yelping as usual.Phony.
“Corporations” used as if the word had no content. Most public pension funds, fro school teachers to firement are invested in these corrupt corporations. Most private sector pensions, 401K plans, etc., depend on investments in these corrupt corporations. The cell phones used by folks protesting corporations emereged fro corporations.Again, this is a nation of 310 million souls. Less than .0001 % seem to be on the streets protesting corrupt corporations, those “bankers” (who hire about 2 million people), and those unknown corrupters of life. The first snow or winter chill will end the “vapid” silliness. The fact is 47% of Americans pay zero taxes. Even GE a corporation favored by Mr. Obama, although paying zero taxes, employs perhaps 300,000 people, al of who spend money and pay taxes, thanks to Mr. Obama’s favorite corrupt corporation. Perhaps if these folks spent more time acquiring competitive skills that can sell in the narket place of skills, they might just find other things, to occupy themselves. Corrupt corporations have lots of job opportunites with not enough skilled folks to fill them. One wonders, which set of ideas are more corrupt.
That 47% of Americans pay zero taxes is not a fact, it is a factoid. Among them are working people who pay 100% of their paychecks to their local economies, some in sales and property tax, and keep small business going while providing essential services. They still don’t earn a living wage. Others are our retired parents and veterans.
It’s sad when despising the unemployed doesn’t suffice and now low-wage workers are branded as freeloaders.
Why are so many defending the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few?
Well,in spite of the self important ignoramous “klaus”,who seems to think I’m a clone of Rush Limbaugh(yech!!)I am not disturbed by the fact that low wage earners don’t pay income tax.
They pay sales and excise taxes,and older retirees or even some low wage earners have to pay real estate taxes.
I have no desire to cut Medicare,Medicaid,Social security,EBT,or to do away with the EIC.So maybe that’s why I’m not in the Tea Party,although I like a lot of what they say on other issues.
I personally never made dime one from a corporation,but unlike the protesters and the “klauses”of this world I acknowledge that corporations have changed our standard of living upward for the last 150 years or so.Not without some bad stuff going on,but still,who made “klauses’s”computer?A neighborhood artisan who provided the raw materials themselves?
I never invested in the stock market because I lacked the knowledge to do so.
Just as taking care of some people is a fact of life,so is some degree of environmental impact.Neither do we need hordes of freeloaders unwilling to break a sweat or corporations dumping toxic waste wherever they care to.we have to achieve a certain balance.
Now I do agree with geting corporate,banking,and PAC money out of elections.
“Bundling’too.
Just as long as unions can’t decide for members who they’re going to give funds to.Unions have to be barred from contributions along with corporations,and “Mr.Clean”Jack Reed is a shameful example of a political whore inlight of his acceptance of banking industy money while he had oversight authority over that very industry.Whitehouse could’ve taken it-there was no blatant conflict of interest for him.
I try to lok at things fairly and for that I get accused of being a near mental case(sekanblogger)and a Fox pundit clone(“klaus”),but I see no balance in ether of their contributions,albeit sekanblogger is much less obnoxious than “klaus”.He’s more of a curmudgeon(like me).