Community Currency - 10/06/11

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Stop the Machine - Freedom Plaza - DC

In addition to the occupation of Wall Street to protest the ongoing transference of wealth from the many to the few, people have been organizing to challenge DC politics as usual that favor military and corporate interests above human, environmental, moral concerns. This show is a live feed from Freedom Plaza on the ten year anniversary of the attack upon Afghanistan. Ten years ago, was the last time I was in DC protesting (See here for the story of that experience.) I was in DC with Starhawk and the Reclaiming Activists in solidarity with the national and international mobilization against militarization and corporate globalization which values profits over planet and people.

See October2011.org for details. When we arrived in DC, we discovered that in addition to the activities at Freedom Plaza, Occupy DC and Occupy K Street were taking place at nearby MacPherson Square.

We Stand With the Majority of Americans: Human Needs, Not Corporate Greed

A large majority of the American people consistently support the following agenda:

Tax the rich and corporations
End the wars, bring the troops home, cut military spending
Protect the social safety net, strengthen Social Security and improved Medicare for all
End corporate welfare for oil companies and other big business interests
Transition to a clean energy economy, reverse environmental degradation
Protect worker rights including collective bargaining, create jobs and raise wages
Get money out of politics
The government, dominated by elite economic interests, is going in the opposite direction from what the people want.

The American peoples agenda is our agenda. For more see: The American People Could Rule Better than the Political and Economic Elites.

The broad agenda for Stop the Machine: Create a New World is to end corporatism and militarism and shift power to the people, so necessities can be met. In addition to stopping the machine we also want to show the new world we want to see.

While our agenda is based on fact, science and the type of world we want to see, not on polling, it is useful to know that the American people are in favor of the types of reforms October2011.org is advocating. There is a convergence of social movements taking place.

This show included the voices of many people at Freedom Plaza, transmitted live and unedited. They included Ann Wright, a former United States Army colonel and retired official of the U.S. State Department, best known for her outspoken opposition to the Iraq War, Robert Poteat and Jules Brouillet of the American Monetary Institute, Shahid Buttar of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Noel Ortega of the Institute for Policy Studies, George Ripley Director of Americans for Social Justice, Michelle Buscemi and Christopher Davis. They all speak about their own beliefs and passions which drove them to take part in the collective effort to challenge the fusion of corporate, military and financial power.