It's Time to Form "99 Percent Clubs" in Your School or Neighborhood

It's Time to Form "99 Percent Clubs" in Your School or Neighborhood

by Mark Naison | special to NewBlackMan

If you part of a large and growing number of Americans who support the Occupy movement, but  may  or may not be able to “Occupy” yourself, you might want to form a 99 Percent Club at your school, your workplace or in your neighborhood, to organize financial, legal and political support  for the Occupy movement and educate people in your community about what it stands for.

The idea for these 99 Percent Clubs came from renowned educator Ira Shor  and they are modeled on the “Friends of SNCC” organization that mobilized support for the non violent Southern civil rights movement in the early 1960’s. Given that the Occupy movement is under assault from elected officials and university presidents around the country, and that people in this movement, like their counterparts in the southern civil rights movement, face arrest and beatings, along with more modern police weaponry such as pepper spray and rubber bullets,  it is definitely time to create  a support group to raise funds and educate the public about these brave activists.

A 99 Percent Club is one vehicle that can do just that.  We have called for a first meeting of such a club at Fordham and the response, from students, alumni, and staff has been overwhelming.  Our Fordham group does not have a program- just a commitment to support the Occupations. So far, nearly 30 people are committed to attend.

Occupy Wall Street and its counterparts around the nation have put the questions of economic inequality on the nation’s agenda for the first time since the 1960’s. And the response from policy makers has been ferocious as that of southern segregationists confronting a challenge to their way of life.

It’s time for Americans who support the goals of the Occupy Movement to mobilize in behalf of popular democracy and economic justice, even if they don’t feel they can participate in the movement directly. Forming 99 Percent Clubs is one way to do so.

If you would like to start a 99 Percent Club in your area, please email Ira Shor at irashor@comcast.net with a cc to me at Naison@fordham.edu.

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Mark Naison is a Professor of African-American Studies and History at Fordham University and Director of Fordham’s Urban Studies Program. He is the author of two books, Communists in Harlem During the Depressionand White Boy: A Memoir. Naison is also co-director of the Bronx African American History Project(BAAHP). Research from the BAAHP will be published in a forthcoming collection of oral histories Before the Fires: An Oral History of African American Life From the 1930’s to the 1960’s.

Vijay Prashad: Hip Hop Occupies

November 14, 2011

 

It's Politics Time Again

Hip Hop Occupies

by VIJAY PRASHAD

For Heavy D, 1967-2011.

I. We the 99.

“Nobody got more welfare than Wall Street /Hundreds of billions after operating falsely/And nobody went to prison that’s where you lost me /But my home, my job, and my life is what it cost me.”– Jasiri X, Occupy (We the 99).

The students at UCONN invited Jasiri X to headline their “Political Awareness Rally” on November 4. Jasiri is a rapper from Pittsburg, PA., who burst on the scene with his powerful, political music, such as Free the Jena 6, What if the Tea Party Was Black, I Am Troy Davis and most recently Occupy (We the 99). Shortly before he was to come to the event, Jasiri received an email from the Chief Financial Officer of the Undergraduate Student Government at UCONN. The student wrote that Jasiri could perform most of his songs (“they all promote social justice and ending racism”), but the Student Government could not allow him to perform songs “that contain obvious political statements (such as Occupy – We the 99) – as referring to the Occupy movement.”

I asked Jasiri what he made of this curious distinction between his other work and the Occupy song. “I do political songs,” he said. “How can they say Occupy is a political song and not I Am Troy Davis?” At the event, Jasiri followed Ken Krayeske, who is running for U. S. Congress on the Green Party Ticket. Krayeske made his name through an interview with UCONN’s star basketball coach (he asked Jim Calhoun if he’d give back some of his millions as austerity struck the campus, and Calhoun barked, “Not a dime back”). At the Rally, Krayeske invoked Occupy. Jasiri recalls looking out at the students and thinking, “they have got to hear the song.” He went for it despite being warned that if he did the song he might not get paid.

Later Jasiri wrote, “At some point in this movement all of us are going to have to make sacrifices, if we truly want to see real change. The 1% control the 99% with promises of money, access, and comfort; we have to put our own souls above all three.”

II. Contagious Struggles.

When I asked Toni Blackman, a rapper with the Freestyle Union, what she thought of the Occupy dynamic, she said that it brought her “a sense of relief. I exhaled and thought ‘finally.’ I believe the energy will be contagious.” “Hip Hop is inching closer and closer to the Occupy movement. Soon singing about your riches and your bitches will be less and less acceptable. The Occupy movement has agitated the stagnant air just enough for artists who felt powerless to begin acknowledging their power again.”

It is not just the artists. Nor is the contagion going in one direction.

Read the Full Essay @ CounterPunch

Is Occupy Wall Street Lacking Diversity? James Braxton Peterson Responds

Lehigh University professor James Braxton Peterson looks at claims that the Occupy Wall Street protestors lack diversity.

Jasiri X: "#Occupy (We the 99)" [Video]

Free Download http://jasirix.bandcamp.com/track/occupy-we-the-99

Filmed live at Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Pittsburgh by Director Paradise Gray, Jasiri X reconnects with super producer Cynik Lethal to provide a soundtrack for this growing movement that has taken the world by storm. We gonna Occupy!

LYRICS 

Verse 1
The Power's with the people don't let these cowards deceive you
and be the next mouse in the talons of a eagle
this country's wealth gap isn't unbalanced it's evil
we celebrate access while the people have less
in poverty abject madness
while the economy collapses add stress
that's the last straw
you want class war well give you what you ask for
the have nots at the have's door
we came to crash your party
and we aint leaving until we're even
the Constitution guarantees these freedoms
any one against that's committing treason
your not a real patriot unless you stand for what you believe in
and nobody got more welfare than Wall Street
hundreds of billions after operating falsely
and nobody went to prison that's where you lost me
but my home, my job, and my life is what it cost me

Verse 2
Remember when police beat the Egyptians who were defiant
even president Obama condemned the violence
but when NYPD beat Americans there's silence
it's apparent that there's bias
sticks for the people but give carrots to the liars
those crooked cops just for embarrassment should be fired
and if you want to see terrorists then look higher
they in them skyscrapers with billions from my labor
forcing people out of there homes with falsified data
so we either unify now or cry later
1% got the wealth but the 99's greater
so in every city we gone occupy major
cause nobody got more welfare than Wall Street
hundreds of billions after operating falsely
and nobody went to prison that's where you lost me
but my home, my job, and my life is what it cost me

#OccupyWallStreet Hip-Hop Anthem

The Grounded TV Network teamed up with Hon. George Martinez of Ground Zero and The Global Block Collective to produce this music video. Please share and help this go viral!

http://www.globalblock.org/

The Global Block harnesses the spirit of innovation, creativity and activism at the core of the Hip-Hop movement to empower youth and transform communities across the globe. Through its leadership, expertise and financial support it aims to inspire individuals to become agents of change in their communities.

Developmental Action Areas:

• Cultural Diplomacy
• Social Enterprise/ Economic Development
• Youth Development

Sustainable Community Building:

We believe that building sustainable communities is possible through holistic, creative and non-paternalistic approaches that incorporate Green Technologies, Social Programming, Accountability, and Research and Development.