San Francisco Mayor Criticized for Visit to Occupy Camp
April 27, 2011
SAN FRANCISCO - It has been a month since the Occupy protest movement began. Since the March Down Montgomery that launched the movement on March 20, protesters in San Francisco have been continuously encamped at the proverbial heart of the Occupy movement, the Banker’s Heart sculpture in A. P. Giannini Plaza. While other protest camps have emerged at a couple other locations in the city, the Banker’s Heart has become viewed as the most notorious for its role in launching the movement and for its symbolism in the outrage against Wall Street’s role in the 2008 financial crash. Earlier this week, San Francisco mayor Matt Gonzalez paid a visit to the Banker’s Heart camp, a bold move for any politician but especially a big city mayor. This is not new for the mayor though. Gonzalez’s entire political career has been a string of bold moves, and typical to his career, Gonzalez’s visit sparked a strong reaction from others in not just San Francisco but in California and nationwide.
In the statement he made at Giannini Plaza on Monday, Gonzalez spoke from what seems to be an earnest place of support for the broader goals of the Occupy movement and from what he has referred to as a long career as a public servant “fighting for the little guy” in the public defender's office and as a Green Party county supervisor and mayor. He applauded the broader goals of the movement, calling on state and national officials to lower the cost of a college education, tackle income inequality, fight for social and economic justice, and make democracy more accessible. The mayor also reportedly talked with the ad hoc leaders of the Giannini Plaza camp and announced to the group of assembled demonstrators in front of the Banker’s Heart that he would be issuing an indefinite permit of protest for the Giannini Plaza camp as well as for protest areas in Embarcadero Plaza and in Civic Center Plaza in front of city hall. Gonzalez did not say conclusively whether he would okay further protests in Saint Mary’s Square, the larger park near Giannini Plaza where Occupy San Francisco has since made its headquarters, but there have been some concerns voiced by nearby residents over noise, safety, and cleanliness.
The mayor making a statement at the Occupy camp, talking to its local organizers, and his extension of indefinite protest permitting is a surprisingly overt gesture of support for the Occupy movement. Despite the general political support from many Democrats and Greens for the movement, there has been little of such support granted by any city or state official. Gonzalez is the first mayor to speak at an Occupy camp, a decision which came after Oakland police violently dispersed the camp in front of Oakland City Hall last week and sparked fears among demonstrators elsewhere that a nationwide crackdown on Occupy camps would follow. The alleged police brutality at the Oakland camp sparked condemnations from a number of prominent local politicians including former HUD Secretary Barbara Lee and former state assemblywoman Angela Davis, both of whom have since spoken at renewed Occupy demonstrations in Oakland. Oakland mayor Wilson Riles Jr. also condemned the actions of Oakland police and of police chief Anthony Batts in how the department handled the dispersal of the camp.
Mayor Gonzalez’s statement to Occupy San Francisco also echoed a continued commitment by the San Francisco mayor to “keep defending the civil liberties and right to protest of all Americans” that Gonzalez says he has maintained ever since his career as a public defender began. Many particularly on the left and in the Occupy movement applauded the mayor's statement, but others including fellow San Francisco and California leaders voiced a disapproval of the mayor’s visit to the Banker’s Heart. California governor Darrell Issa, who has taken a hardline stance against the Occupy protests since they erupted, roundly condemned Gonzalez for his visit and called the blanket issuing or permits “allowing groups in violation of San Francisco’s laws to run roughshod over laws the city’s voters overwhelmingly upheld” referring to the city's camping ban. Issa also questioned why Gonzalez would “enthusiastically endorse the noise disturbances and nuisances affecting his constituents.”[1] San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessey called Gonzalez’s visit “reckless and irresponsible” and lamented requiring the use of stretched police resources to ensure the mayor’s safety on “a purely political stunt.” Hennessey is currently running for mayor of San Francisco to succeed Gonzalez. Hennessey also said that Gonzalez’s visit gave tacit support to an impromptu defensive measure that the Occupy camps in San Francisco have put up to make police attempts to control any developing situation more difficult. Last year, the ban on overnight parking was lifted through a voter-approved change in the city ordinance. After the police raided the Occupy camp in Oakland, protesters at the Banker’s Heart parked cars along the streets adjacent to the plaza in a sort of makeshift barricade. The cars parked on the side of California Street through the night are technically not running afoul of city law so removing them cannot be legally enforced. Hennessey accused Gonzalez of routinely undermining police readiness in San Francisco through his actions in visiting the camp and in spearheading the recent changes to the city ordinances.
For his part, mayor Gonzalez reiterated that he never felt in danger during his visit to the Banker’s Heart. Gonzalez has also had the support of a majority of the county board of supervisors, including one or two Democratic members. A resolution in support of the Occupy Movement sponsored by John Avalos, a more moderate Green supervisor who is also running for mayor, passed the board of supervisors 8 to 3 a few days ago. One of the three opposing the resolution, Sean Elsbernd, said that while he supports many of the issues brought up by the Occupy Movement, the city should not be encouraging demonstrators to expand their actions with such resolutions[2]. Occupy Movement protesters in the Bay Area said they were thankful for the support of mayors Gonzalez and Riles in San Francisco and Oakland, but that cities are sending very mixed messages between the positions taken by the mayors, city councilors, and police. Despite this though, organizers at the Occupy camps across the Bay Area have said they will not be ending their fight any time soon.
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Jack Layton Elected Canadian Prime Minister as NDP Surges To Majority
May 2, 2011
OTTAWA, CANADA - Canadian voters delivered an historic result in today’s election as, for the first time ever, the New Democratic Party won the most seats in parliament. On top of that, Canadians have given the NDP a majority and confirmed outright that Jack Layton will be the next Prime Minister of Canada. The NDP won 161 seats, a slim majority of seven, but still their first government formation in the fifty years of the party's existence. Tonight’s result demonstrates a meteoric rise for the NDP with an increase of 117 seats from the result of the 2009 election. The 2009 election result had already been hailed a success for the party and Layton's leadership with Layton netting the NDP their highest ever seat total in parliament two years ago. After tonight, however, Layton’s legacy is surely sealed as he brought the NDP from a low point of nearly losing official party status to becoming the first ever NDP Prime Minister.
Layton has been leader of the NDP since 2003 and has presided over a nearly steady rise in the party’s fortunes over the past decade. After taking over the party when they had just 13 seats in parliament from the 2000 election, Layton shepherded the party to a continuous rise during the Harper ministry to a previous high point of 44 seats after 2009. This year, Layton took the opportunity of timely Canadian dissatisfaction with both the Conservatives and Liberals. After Stephen Harper’s resignation from the Conservative leadership following his defeat in 2009, the Tories selected Rona Ambrose as the party's new leader. With the precarious position the Liberal government held given the makeup of parliament, the Tories were able to wield somewhat effective influence over Dion’s agenda in opposition both in opposing bills backed by the NDP and supporting more centrist bills that the NDP would oppose. When it came to campaign time though, the recent memory of Harper plus Ambrose’s continued message of austerity and tax cuts failed to give the Tories the boost they needed in a Canada still not recovered from the 2009 recession. This made Layton the more effective opposition to Dion during the election campaign. In addition, Layton led the NDP in a strong push for expanding the party’s presence in Quebec, something which Layton laid the groundwork for early in his leadership of the party. A surprise electoral collapse of the Bloc Quebecois also helped the NDP break through in the province. While Dion kept the Liberals afloat in Montreal, the NDP won a shocking 55 ridings in Quebec overall, nearly a third of their nationwide seat total.
For the Liberals and Prime Minister Dion, the loss may be a case of it being more difficult to be the one who was supposed to fix a mess than it is to be the one who got into the mess in the first place. Dion’s government with just 109 seats for the Liberals after the 2009 election was in an extremely tenuous position to begin with, and for some it was a surprise that the government lasted as long as it did before an election was forced. While opinions on the Liberal government were sympathetic to begin with as most Canadians saw Dion as at least better than Harper, that opinion quickly shifted as the sluggish economy continued and little was done to bring Canada meaningfully out of the recession. Come this year, it seems Canadians had enough of Dion, no matter how constrained a position he was in. Dion’s inability to act, coupled with the rise of the Occupy protests that spread to Canadian cities during the election campaign, led to a surge in support for the NDP.
The election also was good news for Elizabeth May and the Greens. After winning a surprising upset in Central Nova two years ago, May has been working to expand the Green base of support in Atlantic Canada. The effort has already created results as the Greens gained two seats today, both in the Maritimes. Along with May winning reelection, Mary Lou Babineau was elected in the Fredericton riding in New Brunswick, and Peter Bevan-Baker was elected in the Malpeque riding on Prince Edward Island. Baker’s win is part of a curious result in PEI. After twenty years of having only Liberal representation in parliament, Prince Edward Island will now send members of four different parties from its four ridings. Along with Baker in Malpeque, Cardigan has reelected Liberal Lawrence MacAulay, Charlottetown elected NDP candidate Joe Byrne, and in Egmont, Conservative candidate former MLA Gail Shea defeated former premier Keith Milligan, who was selected by the Liberal Party after MP Joe McGuire decided to retire from politics.
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“Occupy” Movement’s Spread to Seattle Brings Worrying Echo of WTO Protests
May 2, 2011
SEATTLE - It has now been six weeks since the fateful March Down Montgomery protest in San Francisco kicked off what is now known nationwide as the Occupy Movement. In San Francisco, the center of the protest movement and the site of the largest gatherings in the movement so far, protesters have set up a camp at the Banker's Heart sculpture in the city’s financial district that has remained for most of the time since the first protest, though a larger and more consistently occupied camp has been set up half a block away at the more spacious Saint Mary’s Square. In Oakland, the camp at Frank Ogawa Plaza has been cleared twice, but has since returned after the violent police action in the second clearance of the park led to a protest march and brief union-supported strike in the Port of Oakland and a reoccupation of the park site. Other large protests associated with the Occupy Movement have had hundreds of members present in cities across the country including Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C., New York, and Boston. Meanwhile, protests in other smaller cities have been smaller or have been successfully dispersed either by police or by a lack of staying power including in Seattle. Last week though, another attempt to launch an Occupy protest in the city gained a much larger and more organized following. Some Seattle residents have expressed a growing concern that with the new Occupy demonstrations, Seattle could be headed toward a situation similar to the 1999 WTO protests that rocked the city.
The biggest concerns arose from nearby downtown residents and businesses after the protests seem to have coalesced around a single location. While in the first weeks following the March Down Montgomery there were smaller protests in front of the Federal Building and Columbia Center and a brief camp in Westlake Park that dispersed after a few days, the new protest camp at Freeway Park seems to be more lasting. Last week, hundreds of protesters gathered at the park overlooking the I-5 tunnel next to the Washington State Convention Center. The choice of Freeway Park as a more permanent location for the Occupy camp in Seattle shows that the comparisons to the WTO protests does not seem to be lost on the Occupy Movement either. The convention center was in 1999 the host site of the WTO conference that led to the infamous anti-globalization protests. The three days of protests, vandalism, and clashes with police around the convention center became known as the Battle of Seattle and resulted in an estimated $3 million in cleanup costs for the city and $20 million in lost sales to local businesses[3]. The WTO protests also gave the city of Seattle a marked reputation for which some city officials argue it has still not recovered from as a place to do business.
With that in mind, the concerns expressed by residents of nearby apartment complexes and of the businesses surrounding the Washington State Convention Center are not to be taken lightly by city administrators. Many residents and businesses were here in 1999 and say they were victims of the five days of violent protests. Of additional concern to the surrounding business and business leaders across Seattle is the worry that a prolonged Occupy camp in the city could lead to strikes. The strike yesterday at the Port of Oakland shows that these fears are well founded. After the police dispersion of the Occupy camp at Oakland City Hall on April 21, a further protest against the alleged hard tactics used in clearing the camp was planned for May Day. The strike did go ahead yesterday at the Port of Oakland, blocking the gates and stopping trucks from entering or leaving the port. Multiple notable local politicians joined the Occupy demonstrators at the strike, including former Green state assemblywoman Angela Davis and former HUD Secretary Barbara Lee[4]. Many understandably feared that the Occupy Oakland strike would spread to other cities, and some of the support for Occupy shown by some city officials has not helped with concerns expressed by local business leaders and local chambers of commerce. In particular here in Seattle, the support for Occupy coming from mayor Mike McGinn has attracted a significant amount of pushback.
McGinn, one of the few elected Green Party mayors of a major American city, has strongly supported the Occupy protests since the March Down Montgomery on March 20 launched the nationwide demonstrations and protest camps. At first, McGinn only made statements of support and gave his signature to a resolution passed by the city council commending the overall policy goals of the Occupy Movement. This week, however, mayor McGinn escalated his level of support, visiting the Occupy Seattle protest camp at Freeway Park and giving a speech there. McGinn's visit follows similar visits to Occupy camps by San Francisco mayor Matt Gonzalez and Oakland mayor Wilson Riles Jr. in the past week. McGinn echoed the support of his fellow Green mayors, saying that he welcomes the Occupy Movement’s “fight for jobs and justice” and urged the protesters and curious onlookers to continue their activism. McGinn also took the opportunity to do a little naked politicking. In the speech, McGinn talked about the leadup to the Great Recession, saying that “a small portion of the population was doing their best to grab a bigger share of a shrinking pie”, and “politicians from both the Democrat and Republican parties didn’t then and still don’t have the guts to do anything about it.”[5] With this kind of rhetoric from Seattle’s Green mayor, the worries coming from business leaders and concerned citizens will likely not be going away any time soon. Recently, the demonstrators at Freeway Park have hung a banner where I-5 passes under the park reading what has become the most well known Occupy slogan, "Protect People Not Profits."[6]
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Clinton Gets a Primary Challenger in NAACP President
May 12, 2011
BOWIE, MD - In front of a packed auditorium at Bowie State University, Benjamin Jealous wove a story of family history that spans the breadth of America. He began with his white father’s ancestors, who fought at Lexington and Concord in the earliest days of the Revolutionary War. Jealous then talked about his mother’s ancestry, starting with Peter Morgan, a slave who purchased his freedom and after the Civil War helped write Virginia’s new state constitution. Jealous's parents lived in Maryland until they moved to Monterey, California to be able to get married. Jealous’s mother is black and his father is white, and at the time Maryland still banned interracial marriages. Jealous himself grew up in Monterey before going to college at Columbia. Since graduating from college, Jealous has worked on civil rights issues all across the country, from Harlem to Monterey to Jackson, Mississippi. In 2008, Jealous was chosen at just 35 years old to become the youngest ever president of the NAACP. He then moved from Jackson, where he had been an editor on the Jackson Advocate, a black newspaper in the city, to the Baltimore area. The move to Baltimore brought Jealous full circle to his parents’ home state nearly half a century after they left. As the story caught up to the present, the impassioned young leader announced to the crowd that he would be adding an ambitious new story to his family’s long legacy. Benjamin Jealous, at just 38 years old, announced he is running for the Democratic nomination for president in 2012.
The choice of Bowie for Jealous’s presidential campaign announcement may seem a bit out of the way from Baltimore or Washington DC, but it holds a strong significance to the kind of message Jealous wants to send in his campaign. Bowie State University, founded in 1865, is the oldest historically black college or university, or HBCU, in the United States. As with his stories of how civil rights activism and fighting for justice runs deep in his family, Jealous is tapping into an increasing frustration among both progressives and African-Americans with the Clinton administration’s record on economic, social, and environmental issues. The country may be slowly recovering from the Great Recession, but the effects of the recession and the rate of recovery is incredibly lopsided according to studies by economists, with black workers being much more heavily affected in the short and long terms. Overall unemployment has finally dipped below 10 percent in the US, but among black workers that rate is still over 18 percent. For white workers, the rate is around 8 percent. Among young workers the disparity is even more stark. Unemployment for white workers between the ages of 18 and 24 fell under 15 percent as of March. However, among black workers the unemployment of the same age group is still over 33 percent, or one third of those who are actively seeking jobs. Additionally, over half of unemployed black workers have been unemployed for over six months, a similar feature for all groups throughout the Great Recession but one that has been falling for other populations. The passage of the economic recovery package and healthcare overhaul by president Clinton, while lauded by the president as a strong step toward universal healthcare coverage, has not done much to alleviate these concerns for groups still heavily affected by the lasting impact of the recession. The employer mandate for health insurance may be significant, but it leaves unemployed people still without guaranteed access to health insurance. Additionally, the public option is still in the early stages of its rollout and many people have reported difficulty finding coverage networks or healthcare providers in their area due to a reluctance of hospitals and doctors to sign onto the public option.
The first statements by the Jealous presidential campaign and his recently launched campaign website have given a clear intent to tap into this growing frustration with the reforms of the Clinton administration not reaching the people who need it the most. According to political observers, it also may be trying to tap into a tinge of buyer’s remorse from many Democratic voters looking back with hindsight and thinking that Barack Obama was the better choice in 2008. Polling earlier this year found that Senator Obama was the strongest of several potential primary challengers against president Clinton. There was also speculation, while it has now proven unfounded, after the midterms that Clinton would dump vice president Tom Daschle for her reelection campaign and pick Senator Obama as her running mate for the 2012 elections. The regret of Clinton rather than Obama is small but not insignificant with as many as 21 percent of Democrats in one recent poll saying they would rather have Senator Obama as president now. While Jealous’s campaign is still a long shot, data like this and the strength of the Occupy Movement in the past months does indicate there might be room for a progressive lane in the 2012 primaries as a challenge to Clinton.
The workings of launching a Benjamin Jealous presidential campaign have been going on for months. Ever since Al Sharpton launched his own campaign for the Democratic nomination in March, it has been an open question of whether a more serious candidate would also step in. Jealous is at least trying to be that candidate, and his launch endorsements do show the typical starts of a more feasible campaign. The highlights of the launch endorsements are probably those from former HUD Secretary Barbara Lee, former congressman Dennis Kucinich, and from two sitting members of congress, Sam Farr and Donna Edwards. Farr, a Californian, represents the district that includes Pacific Grove and Monterey where Jealous and his parents grew up. Edwards, a Maryland congresswoman whose district now stretches from the DC suburbs in Prince George's County to parts of the Western Shore outside Annapolis, is also one of the several initial home state endorsements for the Marylander hopeful. Jealous's endorsements include Maryland delegates Jamie Raskin, Paul Pinsky, Tiffany Alston, Joan Conway, and Joanne Benson. However, two major potential Maryland endorsers are missing from Jealous's list; the mayors of Baltimore and Annapolis. With Baltimore mayor Sheila Dixon currently embroiled in an embezzlement trial and attempting to run for reelection despite her plummeting approval rating in the city, the endorsement of the Baltimore mayor may not be desired at the moment. Annapolis mayor Zina Pierre’s lack of endorsement, however, is more telling and looks like a case of Clinton loyalty. Pierre previously worked in the Bill Clinton administration as director of the SBA’s Welfare to Work initiative. She was speculated as a possible nominee for SBA Administrator after Hillary Clinton was elected president, but was passed over for Karen Mills. Pierre was elected mayor of Annapolis last year and has already endorsed Clinton for reelection. Jealous has also been endorsed by former Senator Carol Moseley Braun, who earlier this year came second in the runoff election for Chicago mayor to then lieutenant governor Pat Quinn.
[1] Issa took a similar stance on Occupy Wall Street in OTL: https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...c-encampment/2011/12/13/gIQAzC3csO_story.html
[2] San Francisco passed a similar resolution on OTL Occupy Wall Street, and Elsbernd was one of the votes against. http://sfappeal.com/2011/11/supes-approve-resolution-in-support-of-occupysf/
[3] The numbers might be inflated some from what I could find, but hey what's a little rounding up when you're trying to make the concerning thing sound more concerning.
[4] Angela Davis was at the Port of Oakland strike in November 2011 in OTL, and Lee expressed strong support for the Occupy camp.
[5] Quotes taken verbatim or only slightly modified from McGinn’s speech to the Occupy protest at Westlake Park in OTL.
[6] "We Are The 99%" first appeared in August 2011 on tumblr as a slogan for the preparation for the original Occupy Wall Street protest, so I wanted to have something different become the main Occupy slogan ITTL.
April 27, 2011
SAN FRANCISCO - It has been a month since the Occupy protest movement began. Since the March Down Montgomery that launched the movement on March 20, protesters in San Francisco have been continuously encamped at the proverbial heart of the Occupy movement, the Banker’s Heart sculpture in A. P. Giannini Plaza. While other protest camps have emerged at a couple other locations in the city, the Banker’s Heart has become viewed as the most notorious for its role in launching the movement and for its symbolism in the outrage against Wall Street’s role in the 2008 financial crash. Earlier this week, San Francisco mayor Matt Gonzalez paid a visit to the Banker’s Heart camp, a bold move for any politician but especially a big city mayor. This is not new for the mayor though. Gonzalez’s entire political career has been a string of bold moves, and typical to his career, Gonzalez’s visit sparked a strong reaction from others in not just San Francisco but in California and nationwide.
In the statement he made at Giannini Plaza on Monday, Gonzalez spoke from what seems to be an earnest place of support for the broader goals of the Occupy movement and from what he has referred to as a long career as a public servant “fighting for the little guy” in the public defender's office and as a Green Party county supervisor and mayor. He applauded the broader goals of the movement, calling on state and national officials to lower the cost of a college education, tackle income inequality, fight for social and economic justice, and make democracy more accessible. The mayor also reportedly talked with the ad hoc leaders of the Giannini Plaza camp and announced to the group of assembled demonstrators in front of the Banker’s Heart that he would be issuing an indefinite permit of protest for the Giannini Plaza camp as well as for protest areas in Embarcadero Plaza and in Civic Center Plaza in front of city hall. Gonzalez did not say conclusively whether he would okay further protests in Saint Mary’s Square, the larger park near Giannini Plaza where Occupy San Francisco has since made its headquarters, but there have been some concerns voiced by nearby residents over noise, safety, and cleanliness.
The mayor making a statement at the Occupy camp, talking to its local organizers, and his extension of indefinite protest permitting is a surprisingly overt gesture of support for the Occupy movement. Despite the general political support from many Democrats and Greens for the movement, there has been little of such support granted by any city or state official. Gonzalez is the first mayor to speak at an Occupy camp, a decision which came after Oakland police violently dispersed the camp in front of Oakland City Hall last week and sparked fears among demonstrators elsewhere that a nationwide crackdown on Occupy camps would follow. The alleged police brutality at the Oakland camp sparked condemnations from a number of prominent local politicians including former HUD Secretary Barbara Lee and former state assemblywoman Angela Davis, both of whom have since spoken at renewed Occupy demonstrations in Oakland. Oakland mayor Wilson Riles Jr. also condemned the actions of Oakland police and of police chief Anthony Batts in how the department handled the dispersal of the camp.
Mayor Gonzalez’s statement to Occupy San Francisco also echoed a continued commitment by the San Francisco mayor to “keep defending the civil liberties and right to protest of all Americans” that Gonzalez says he has maintained ever since his career as a public defender began. Many particularly on the left and in the Occupy movement applauded the mayor's statement, but others including fellow San Francisco and California leaders voiced a disapproval of the mayor’s visit to the Banker’s Heart. California governor Darrell Issa, who has taken a hardline stance against the Occupy protests since they erupted, roundly condemned Gonzalez for his visit and called the blanket issuing or permits “allowing groups in violation of San Francisco’s laws to run roughshod over laws the city’s voters overwhelmingly upheld” referring to the city's camping ban. Issa also questioned why Gonzalez would “enthusiastically endorse the noise disturbances and nuisances affecting his constituents.”[1] San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessey called Gonzalez’s visit “reckless and irresponsible” and lamented requiring the use of stretched police resources to ensure the mayor’s safety on “a purely political stunt.” Hennessey is currently running for mayor of San Francisco to succeed Gonzalez. Hennessey also said that Gonzalez’s visit gave tacit support to an impromptu defensive measure that the Occupy camps in San Francisco have put up to make police attempts to control any developing situation more difficult. Last year, the ban on overnight parking was lifted through a voter-approved change in the city ordinance. After the police raided the Occupy camp in Oakland, protesters at the Banker’s Heart parked cars along the streets adjacent to the plaza in a sort of makeshift barricade. The cars parked on the side of California Street through the night are technically not running afoul of city law so removing them cannot be legally enforced. Hennessey accused Gonzalez of routinely undermining police readiness in San Francisco through his actions in visiting the camp and in spearheading the recent changes to the city ordinances.
For his part, mayor Gonzalez reiterated that he never felt in danger during his visit to the Banker’s Heart. Gonzalez has also had the support of a majority of the county board of supervisors, including one or two Democratic members. A resolution in support of the Occupy Movement sponsored by John Avalos, a more moderate Green supervisor who is also running for mayor, passed the board of supervisors 8 to 3 a few days ago. One of the three opposing the resolution, Sean Elsbernd, said that while he supports many of the issues brought up by the Occupy Movement, the city should not be encouraging demonstrators to expand their actions with such resolutions[2]. Occupy Movement protesters in the Bay Area said they were thankful for the support of mayors Gonzalez and Riles in San Francisco and Oakland, but that cities are sending very mixed messages between the positions taken by the mayors, city councilors, and police. Despite this though, organizers at the Occupy camps across the Bay Area have said they will not be ending their fight any time soon.
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Jack Layton Elected Canadian Prime Minister as NDP Surges To Majority
May 2, 2011
OTTAWA, CANADA - Canadian voters delivered an historic result in today’s election as, for the first time ever, the New Democratic Party won the most seats in parliament. On top of that, Canadians have given the NDP a majority and confirmed outright that Jack Layton will be the next Prime Minister of Canada. The NDP won 161 seats, a slim majority of seven, but still their first government formation in the fifty years of the party's existence. Tonight’s result demonstrates a meteoric rise for the NDP with an increase of 117 seats from the result of the 2009 election. The 2009 election result had already been hailed a success for the party and Layton's leadership with Layton netting the NDP their highest ever seat total in parliament two years ago. After tonight, however, Layton’s legacy is surely sealed as he brought the NDP from a low point of nearly losing official party status to becoming the first ever NDP Prime Minister.
Layton has been leader of the NDP since 2003 and has presided over a nearly steady rise in the party’s fortunes over the past decade. After taking over the party when they had just 13 seats in parliament from the 2000 election, Layton shepherded the party to a continuous rise during the Harper ministry to a previous high point of 44 seats after 2009. This year, Layton took the opportunity of timely Canadian dissatisfaction with both the Conservatives and Liberals. After Stephen Harper’s resignation from the Conservative leadership following his defeat in 2009, the Tories selected Rona Ambrose as the party's new leader. With the precarious position the Liberal government held given the makeup of parliament, the Tories were able to wield somewhat effective influence over Dion’s agenda in opposition both in opposing bills backed by the NDP and supporting more centrist bills that the NDP would oppose. When it came to campaign time though, the recent memory of Harper plus Ambrose’s continued message of austerity and tax cuts failed to give the Tories the boost they needed in a Canada still not recovered from the 2009 recession. This made Layton the more effective opposition to Dion during the election campaign. In addition, Layton led the NDP in a strong push for expanding the party’s presence in Quebec, something which Layton laid the groundwork for early in his leadership of the party. A surprise electoral collapse of the Bloc Quebecois also helped the NDP break through in the province. While Dion kept the Liberals afloat in Montreal, the NDP won a shocking 55 ridings in Quebec overall, nearly a third of their nationwide seat total.
For the Liberals and Prime Minister Dion, the loss may be a case of it being more difficult to be the one who was supposed to fix a mess than it is to be the one who got into the mess in the first place. Dion’s government with just 109 seats for the Liberals after the 2009 election was in an extremely tenuous position to begin with, and for some it was a surprise that the government lasted as long as it did before an election was forced. While opinions on the Liberal government were sympathetic to begin with as most Canadians saw Dion as at least better than Harper, that opinion quickly shifted as the sluggish economy continued and little was done to bring Canada meaningfully out of the recession. Come this year, it seems Canadians had enough of Dion, no matter how constrained a position he was in. Dion’s inability to act, coupled with the rise of the Occupy protests that spread to Canadian cities during the election campaign, led to a surge in support for the NDP.
The election also was good news for Elizabeth May and the Greens. After winning a surprising upset in Central Nova two years ago, May has been working to expand the Green base of support in Atlantic Canada. The effort has already created results as the Greens gained two seats today, both in the Maritimes. Along with May winning reelection, Mary Lou Babineau was elected in the Fredericton riding in New Brunswick, and Peter Bevan-Baker was elected in the Malpeque riding on Prince Edward Island. Baker’s win is part of a curious result in PEI. After twenty years of having only Liberal representation in parliament, Prince Edward Island will now send members of four different parties from its four ridings. Along with Baker in Malpeque, Cardigan has reelected Liberal Lawrence MacAulay, Charlottetown elected NDP candidate Joe Byrne, and in Egmont, Conservative candidate former MLA Gail Shea defeated former premier Keith Milligan, who was selected by the Liberal Party after MP Joe McGuire decided to retire from politics.
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“Occupy” Movement’s Spread to Seattle Brings Worrying Echo of WTO Protests
May 2, 2011
SEATTLE - It has now been six weeks since the fateful March Down Montgomery protest in San Francisco kicked off what is now known nationwide as the Occupy Movement. In San Francisco, the center of the protest movement and the site of the largest gatherings in the movement so far, protesters have set up a camp at the Banker's Heart sculpture in the city’s financial district that has remained for most of the time since the first protest, though a larger and more consistently occupied camp has been set up half a block away at the more spacious Saint Mary’s Square. In Oakland, the camp at Frank Ogawa Plaza has been cleared twice, but has since returned after the violent police action in the second clearance of the park led to a protest march and brief union-supported strike in the Port of Oakland and a reoccupation of the park site. Other large protests associated with the Occupy Movement have had hundreds of members present in cities across the country including Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C., New York, and Boston. Meanwhile, protests in other smaller cities have been smaller or have been successfully dispersed either by police or by a lack of staying power including in Seattle. Last week though, another attempt to launch an Occupy protest in the city gained a much larger and more organized following. Some Seattle residents have expressed a growing concern that with the new Occupy demonstrations, Seattle could be headed toward a situation similar to the 1999 WTO protests that rocked the city.
The biggest concerns arose from nearby downtown residents and businesses after the protests seem to have coalesced around a single location. While in the first weeks following the March Down Montgomery there were smaller protests in front of the Federal Building and Columbia Center and a brief camp in Westlake Park that dispersed after a few days, the new protest camp at Freeway Park seems to be more lasting. Last week, hundreds of protesters gathered at the park overlooking the I-5 tunnel next to the Washington State Convention Center. The choice of Freeway Park as a more permanent location for the Occupy camp in Seattle shows that the comparisons to the WTO protests does not seem to be lost on the Occupy Movement either. The convention center was in 1999 the host site of the WTO conference that led to the infamous anti-globalization protests. The three days of protests, vandalism, and clashes with police around the convention center became known as the Battle of Seattle and resulted in an estimated $3 million in cleanup costs for the city and $20 million in lost sales to local businesses[3]. The WTO protests also gave the city of Seattle a marked reputation for which some city officials argue it has still not recovered from as a place to do business.
With that in mind, the concerns expressed by residents of nearby apartment complexes and of the businesses surrounding the Washington State Convention Center are not to be taken lightly by city administrators. Many residents and businesses were here in 1999 and say they were victims of the five days of violent protests. Of additional concern to the surrounding business and business leaders across Seattle is the worry that a prolonged Occupy camp in the city could lead to strikes. The strike yesterday at the Port of Oakland shows that these fears are well founded. After the police dispersion of the Occupy camp at Oakland City Hall on April 21, a further protest against the alleged hard tactics used in clearing the camp was planned for May Day. The strike did go ahead yesterday at the Port of Oakland, blocking the gates and stopping trucks from entering or leaving the port. Multiple notable local politicians joined the Occupy demonstrators at the strike, including former Green state assemblywoman Angela Davis and former HUD Secretary Barbara Lee[4]. Many understandably feared that the Occupy Oakland strike would spread to other cities, and some of the support for Occupy shown by some city officials has not helped with concerns expressed by local business leaders and local chambers of commerce. In particular here in Seattle, the support for Occupy coming from mayor Mike McGinn has attracted a significant amount of pushback.
McGinn, one of the few elected Green Party mayors of a major American city, has strongly supported the Occupy protests since the March Down Montgomery on March 20 launched the nationwide demonstrations and protest camps. At first, McGinn only made statements of support and gave his signature to a resolution passed by the city council commending the overall policy goals of the Occupy Movement. This week, however, mayor McGinn escalated his level of support, visiting the Occupy Seattle protest camp at Freeway Park and giving a speech there. McGinn's visit follows similar visits to Occupy camps by San Francisco mayor Matt Gonzalez and Oakland mayor Wilson Riles Jr. in the past week. McGinn echoed the support of his fellow Green mayors, saying that he welcomes the Occupy Movement’s “fight for jobs and justice” and urged the protesters and curious onlookers to continue their activism. McGinn also took the opportunity to do a little naked politicking. In the speech, McGinn talked about the leadup to the Great Recession, saying that “a small portion of the population was doing their best to grab a bigger share of a shrinking pie”, and “politicians from both the Democrat and Republican parties didn’t then and still don’t have the guts to do anything about it.”[5] With this kind of rhetoric from Seattle’s Green mayor, the worries coming from business leaders and concerned citizens will likely not be going away any time soon. Recently, the demonstrators at Freeway Park have hung a banner where I-5 passes under the park reading what has become the most well known Occupy slogan, "Protect People Not Profits."[6]
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Clinton Gets a Primary Challenger in NAACP President
May 12, 2011
BOWIE, MD - In front of a packed auditorium at Bowie State University, Benjamin Jealous wove a story of family history that spans the breadth of America. He began with his white father’s ancestors, who fought at Lexington and Concord in the earliest days of the Revolutionary War. Jealous then talked about his mother’s ancestry, starting with Peter Morgan, a slave who purchased his freedom and after the Civil War helped write Virginia’s new state constitution. Jealous's parents lived in Maryland until they moved to Monterey, California to be able to get married. Jealous’s mother is black and his father is white, and at the time Maryland still banned interracial marriages. Jealous himself grew up in Monterey before going to college at Columbia. Since graduating from college, Jealous has worked on civil rights issues all across the country, from Harlem to Monterey to Jackson, Mississippi. In 2008, Jealous was chosen at just 35 years old to become the youngest ever president of the NAACP. He then moved from Jackson, where he had been an editor on the Jackson Advocate, a black newspaper in the city, to the Baltimore area. The move to Baltimore brought Jealous full circle to his parents’ home state nearly half a century after they left. As the story caught up to the present, the impassioned young leader announced to the crowd that he would be adding an ambitious new story to his family’s long legacy. Benjamin Jealous, at just 38 years old, announced he is running for the Democratic nomination for president in 2012.
The choice of Bowie for Jealous’s presidential campaign announcement may seem a bit out of the way from Baltimore or Washington DC, but it holds a strong significance to the kind of message Jealous wants to send in his campaign. Bowie State University, founded in 1865, is the oldest historically black college or university, or HBCU, in the United States. As with his stories of how civil rights activism and fighting for justice runs deep in his family, Jealous is tapping into an increasing frustration among both progressives and African-Americans with the Clinton administration’s record on economic, social, and environmental issues. The country may be slowly recovering from the Great Recession, but the effects of the recession and the rate of recovery is incredibly lopsided according to studies by economists, with black workers being much more heavily affected in the short and long terms. Overall unemployment has finally dipped below 10 percent in the US, but among black workers that rate is still over 18 percent. For white workers, the rate is around 8 percent. Among young workers the disparity is even more stark. Unemployment for white workers between the ages of 18 and 24 fell under 15 percent as of March. However, among black workers the unemployment of the same age group is still over 33 percent, or one third of those who are actively seeking jobs. Additionally, over half of unemployed black workers have been unemployed for over six months, a similar feature for all groups throughout the Great Recession but one that has been falling for other populations. The passage of the economic recovery package and healthcare overhaul by president Clinton, while lauded by the president as a strong step toward universal healthcare coverage, has not done much to alleviate these concerns for groups still heavily affected by the lasting impact of the recession. The employer mandate for health insurance may be significant, but it leaves unemployed people still without guaranteed access to health insurance. Additionally, the public option is still in the early stages of its rollout and many people have reported difficulty finding coverage networks or healthcare providers in their area due to a reluctance of hospitals and doctors to sign onto the public option.
The first statements by the Jealous presidential campaign and his recently launched campaign website have given a clear intent to tap into this growing frustration with the reforms of the Clinton administration not reaching the people who need it the most. According to political observers, it also may be trying to tap into a tinge of buyer’s remorse from many Democratic voters looking back with hindsight and thinking that Barack Obama was the better choice in 2008. Polling earlier this year found that Senator Obama was the strongest of several potential primary challengers against president Clinton. There was also speculation, while it has now proven unfounded, after the midterms that Clinton would dump vice president Tom Daschle for her reelection campaign and pick Senator Obama as her running mate for the 2012 elections. The regret of Clinton rather than Obama is small but not insignificant with as many as 21 percent of Democrats in one recent poll saying they would rather have Senator Obama as president now. While Jealous’s campaign is still a long shot, data like this and the strength of the Occupy Movement in the past months does indicate there might be room for a progressive lane in the 2012 primaries as a challenge to Clinton.
The workings of launching a Benjamin Jealous presidential campaign have been going on for months. Ever since Al Sharpton launched his own campaign for the Democratic nomination in March, it has been an open question of whether a more serious candidate would also step in. Jealous is at least trying to be that candidate, and his launch endorsements do show the typical starts of a more feasible campaign. The highlights of the launch endorsements are probably those from former HUD Secretary Barbara Lee, former congressman Dennis Kucinich, and from two sitting members of congress, Sam Farr and Donna Edwards. Farr, a Californian, represents the district that includes Pacific Grove and Monterey where Jealous and his parents grew up. Edwards, a Maryland congresswoman whose district now stretches from the DC suburbs in Prince George's County to parts of the Western Shore outside Annapolis, is also one of the several initial home state endorsements for the Marylander hopeful. Jealous's endorsements include Maryland delegates Jamie Raskin, Paul Pinsky, Tiffany Alston, Joan Conway, and Joanne Benson. However, two major potential Maryland endorsers are missing from Jealous's list; the mayors of Baltimore and Annapolis. With Baltimore mayor Sheila Dixon currently embroiled in an embezzlement trial and attempting to run for reelection despite her plummeting approval rating in the city, the endorsement of the Baltimore mayor may not be desired at the moment. Annapolis mayor Zina Pierre’s lack of endorsement, however, is more telling and looks like a case of Clinton loyalty. Pierre previously worked in the Bill Clinton administration as director of the SBA’s Welfare to Work initiative. She was speculated as a possible nominee for SBA Administrator after Hillary Clinton was elected president, but was passed over for Karen Mills. Pierre was elected mayor of Annapolis last year and has already endorsed Clinton for reelection. Jealous has also been endorsed by former Senator Carol Moseley Braun, who earlier this year came second in the runoff election for Chicago mayor to then lieutenant governor Pat Quinn.
[1] Issa took a similar stance on Occupy Wall Street in OTL: https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...c-encampment/2011/12/13/gIQAzC3csO_story.html
[2] San Francisco passed a similar resolution on OTL Occupy Wall Street, and Elsbernd was one of the votes against. http://sfappeal.com/2011/11/supes-approve-resolution-in-support-of-occupysf/
[3] The numbers might be inflated some from what I could find, but hey what's a little rounding up when you're trying to make the concerning thing sound more concerning.
[4] Angela Davis was at the Port of Oakland strike in November 2011 in OTL, and Lee expressed strong support for the Occupy camp.
[5] Quotes taken verbatim or only slightly modified from McGinn’s speech to the Occupy protest at Westlake Park in OTL.
[6] "We Are The 99%" first appeared in August 2011 on tumblr as a slogan for the preparation for the original Occupy Wall Street protest, so I wanted to have something different become the main Occupy slogan ITTL.
