We are vagabonds from various nations involved with the Occupy movement and the Burning Man community and we are in Spain building rafts out of trash. We are going to sail the Ebro river to inform, educate and activate people living close to the river about solutions to the waste, water and environmental problems we are facing nowadays.

We are volunteers who live and work around the world. Most have been active in the community ‘burner’ (Burners) and are participants and volunteers in one or more of the events of the Burning Man Project, including Burners without Borders, Burning Man in Nevada, USA, Nowhere, AfrikaBurn, Kiwiburn and Burning Seeds, Australia.

We are looking for local support, media coverage, donations, translators…

You can watch some videos we have just made about what has been happening since we started here.

Please, share this and let us know if you can help !

Castellano presentation
French coverage
English (and a bit of spanish) website

Istanbul, June 14, 1201 hrs.

Dear people,

Every revolution needs its heroes. Ours is called Davide. He is the pianoman.

Yesterday and tonight he has been playing in Taksim for twelve hours straight, until ten o’ clock in the morning. When the rain started, people held a canvas over him and his piano, and he continued to play. ‘Imagine’, ‘Let it be’, ‘We are the World’, ‘Bella Ciao’, etc. etc. Fifty meters away there was a row of police buses and water cannons ready for the final attack. On the other side, candles were burning in honour of the people who died in the protest.

Same concert, next morning.

Throughout the night, livestreamers had to work in shifts to cover the marathon. People from around the world were touched by so much beauty. Messages of solidarity kept pouring in from every inhabited continent.

Davide is a Sicilian who lives in Germany. He came here with his piano on a truck to defend Gezi park. “This is what I can do,” he told me afterwards, “it’s not much, but it’s loud.” He intends to resist until the threat on the park is lifted.

That threat was reiterated earlier in the day by prime minister Erdogan. He appealed to the Turkish mothers to take their children out of the park, because things could turn very ugly.

In response, the Turkish mothers showed up to form a human chain around Gezi in support of their children. Afterwards, they swirled through the park by the hundreds, harvesting applause wherever they went.

The threat of brutality didn’t stop the people from gathering in the park. Once again, the place was packed by citizens of all ages determined to resist.

At the moment, Gezi is surrounded by police on all sides. In anticipation of an attack, the neighbourhood assemblies have taken extraordinary measures of defense. Everywhere, buckets of water have been placed, to drown out the tear gas cannisters. Giant Turkish flags and images of Atatürk have been raised to discourage the aggressors. Super strong laser beams were flashing from the walls of our fortress, ready to blind police forces should they receive the order to advance. And surely, we will be able to count on our elite troops, with their capacity to build barricades and launch rocks, fireworks, molotovs, and who knows what else.

Mothers in Taksim. Via @GlobalRevLive

During the night the prime minister met with two people from Taksim Solidarity to offer a referendum on Gezi park, but few of the Turks still trust him. Besides, this protest is not about the park anymore. It’s about human rights and freedom. Erdogan has to go.

Today, people will talk about the offer and about the future of the protest. Assemblies are taking shape, very slowly. Next to the neighbourhoods, there is the Taksim Solidarity assembly and one of independents who don’t feel represented by them. In Izmir, a General Assembly of the entire camp was organized yesterday. In Ankara, the clashes continue.

In support of them, people were chanting a modified version of one of their most cherished slogan. “Everywhere is Ankara, everywhere is resistance.”

Memorial for those who died.

All you need is love.

Gezi Park after the rain.

25 activists affiliated with 99 Pickets and other local solidarity groups staged a demonstration inside the Target store at the Atlantic Center Mall in Brooklyn, NY, calling on the company to sign onto the recently negotiated Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety.  The action drew a heavy police and security guard presence that eventually forced the group from the store after about 15 minutes. As they reached the store exit, repeated attempts were made to deliver a letter to the store manager on this issue, but nobody on staff would receive the letter.  The group continued the demonstration as they made their way to the mall exit, and along the way, a letter was successfully delivered to the Children’s Place, another company that sources apparel from Bangladesh and that has not signed the Accord.

Unfortunately, the NYPD and Mall Security decided to arrest one of the activists after the group had left the mall. 99 Pickets and friends and family will be providing jail support tomorrow.

JAIL SUPPORT @ 9AM, Friday June 14th

Dear people,

Not surprisingly, the day after the battle, the camp looked like a war zone. The water cannons, the gas attacks, the stampedes, and finally the rain had seriously damaged the peripheral neighbourhoods of Gezi Park. Our Audiovisual stand had been completely destroyed.

I had very ambiguous feelings walking around Gezi yesterday morning. On the one hand, I was so happy that we are still here. And I was so sad to see the camp in these conditions. I was immensely thankful that I had been there to participate in the resistance. For once in my life I really stood for something important, shoulder to shoulder with some of the most wonderful people I ever met. Right from the start I realized that if there’s anything worth fighting for, it’s the Free Republic of Gezi Park. But I was sad that we lost the square, that we lost the barricades. I was fond of those. They were so beautiful, so symbolic. Finally, I missed the excitement. Everything seems boring after a 21 hour battle in defense of freedom.

Gezi Photo opp.

Soon though, normal life resumed. People started an all out cleaning and reconstruction effort. Within hours, the whole camp was rebuilt and polished to shine. Many things had been broken during the course of the battle, but not our spirits. During the afternoon, supplies came in. Helmets, masks, goggles, donated by the thousands.

At the same time, some people from ‘Taksim solidarity’, the original organizers, met with Erdogan. I am a bit sorry did they didn’t tell the pm to fuck off after the attack he ordered. He cannot be trusted. On the one hand, he offered a referendum on Gezi Park, and on the other hand he said that the he will make sure the protest will end within 24 hours and that police will behave very differently this time. In practice, he announced a bloodbath.

The people weren’t intimidated. On the contrary, they invaded Gezi Park, ready for continued resistance. I have never seen the park as packed as I did yesterday. Around seven o’ clock, rumours went around that the police attack was imminent. So everyone put on their gear, calmly, expecting the worst. At the barricades the other morning, one of the anarchists told me that police may use live rounds of ammunition. But, he added, “ideas are bullet proof”.

Three livestreaming units were deployed, and broadcasting. Yet the attack didn’t come. Once again, people formed a human chain around the police, to avoid provocation from our side. Instead of the final apocalyptic battle between good and evil, something else happened. Something unexpected. A piano appeared, a big one, the one they use in concerts. It was decorated with lights, it stood right at the top of the main entrance to the park, ‘nineteen steps to the edge of fear’. Someone sat down, and started to play. “Imagine”, by John Lennon.

So people in the square started to sing. ‘Imagine there’s no heaven… Imagine there’s no countries… And no religion too… You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope some day you’ll join us. And the world will be as one.’

It was a magic moment. You should have seen the public. The old and the young, prepared for battle, listening to music. I see beautiful women wearing construction worker helmets and casually carrying gas masks instead of hand bags, tears in their eyes.   

At that point we expected the attack to happen early in the morning, but it doesn’t matter. We are here, we are free, rocking like there’s no tomorrow.

The sad news that comes in is that one of the injured has succumbed, taking the official death tally to five (four plus one). At the same time Erdogan adopted a lightning law that makes it a crime to use social media against the government. He bears a grudge against Twitter. We don’t care. We know he’s #runningscared.

In Ankara, our brave comrades keep defying police repression night after night. Our hearts and minds go out to them and everywhere else where people are resisting. Like they sing here, “her yer Taksim, her yer direniş”. ‘Everywhere is Taksim. Everywhere is resistance.’

Late in the evening, thousands and thousands of people remain on guard in case of an early morning attack. When dawn breaks we are awake. Once again, the attack doesn’t come. Instead, people have breakfast together with police. They share biscuits and coffee and chocolate freely with the same people who attacked them all day and night with water and gas. Try to imagine that. I wonder if you can.

Barricade on the East Side

Rebel cat, washing.

Community kitchen.

Brent Betterly, Brian Jacob Church, and Jared Chase (known together as the NATO 3) were brought in front of Judge Thaddeus Wilson on Tuesday, June 11th for another status hearing. They were accompanied by multiple sheriffs deputies and a court full of supporters watching closely over the proceedings. The proceedings provided more information on the Chicago cops failing to preserve their cell phones and text messages from the investigation, which appear to be significant pieces of evidence in the State’s politically motivated prosecution. The defense also introduced a couple more motions to dismiss charges.

Assistant States Attorney Matthew Thrun submitted the prosecution’s response to multiple ongoing discovery issues still standing from the court’s ruling four weeks ago. This response was accompanied by hundreds of photographs stemming from the pre-NATO Summit surveillance program spying on activist groups in Chicago planning protests last spring.

Contained within the prosecution’s answer to discovery was the revelation that officers involved in field intelligence team 7150 (the unit in charge of all pre-NATO surveillance and infiltration) destroyed or disappeared personal cell phones used during the investigation. It seems that multiple officers in the unit used their personal cell phones to exchange information between themselves and different officers as well as their supervisors in the course of the operation. According to the material offered up to the court today by prosecutors, the private cell phone service providers used by the officers did not store their text message data and the officers mysteriously (and conveniently for them) no longer have those phones in their possession. Thus, these crucial pieces of evidence will not be available to the defense.

Additionally, the prosecution failed to hand over the First Amendment worksheet and subsequent re-applications for this worksheet. The court had ruled four weeks ago that these internal police department documents were to be handed over to the defense, and on this issue Judge Wilson was clearly frustrated with the clear stalling tactics. Wilson instructed the prosecution to tell high-level police officials that “this court has a schedule and I intend to stick to it,” adding that he would issue a ruling to show cause if the documents had not been handed over to the defense before the next court date. He went on to say that “the federal court would be appalled to learn that [...these files...] are not in order to be presented.”

Defense attorney Michael Deutsch also noted that the State’s discovery submissions have been coming on the dates of court hearings (rather than before a scheduled hearing to give the defense time to review the info in advance). The State agreed to submit the info on Thursday, June 20th, five days before the next hearing. The judge said that, if the State plans to submit Brian’s post-arrest statement at trial, then they are to submit a list of the police officers who will testify no later than Wednesday, June 12th.

Finally, the defense issued another round of pretrial motions to strike down the ludicrous charges targeting these three activists. Attorneys for Brian Church issued a motion to dismiss counts 7, 8, and 9, all of which are arson charges. This motion challenges statements made by Brian immediately after being arrested and seeks to make them inadmissible, thus eliminating the arson charges. Attorneys for Brent filed their own motion to declare all his charges unconstitutional due to a violation of due process from the grand jury testimony being used against him.

On June 25th, the court will reconvene for further status updates and an evidentiary hearing regarding Brian’s latest motion. That means that officers involved in the field intelligence team will be called to the stand. Let’s pack the courtroom on June 25th and stand in solidarity with the NATO 3!

You can also show your solidarity by donating to the support fund. Donations can be made online or  by sending checks or money orders to: “8th Day Center/Nato 5 Defense Fund” in the memo line to:

8th Day Center for Justice
205 W. Monroe St. Suite 500
Chicago, IL 60606

To keep up-to-date, sign up for our announcements listserv by emailing nato-5-announce-subscribe@lists.riseup.net, find us on Facebook at Free the NATO 5! , and follow us on Twitter @FreeNATO5 .”

Dear people,

On the eve of the attack I was sitting in the International Corner, talking to Turkish comrades about the next phase of democratic escalation. At nine in the morning, every neighbourhood of Gezi Park would have organized an assembly. Until now the protest has been coordinated by the people who started it. They were the ones who issued the five demands. But they don’t represent everyone. And so the creation of an assembly in every part of Gezi would be a way to involve all the occupiers in the daily politics of the park.   

Around four I walk down to see the sun rise over the barricades. There are two main roads leading down. One with fourteen lines of defense, and one with eight. Each of them is defended by different people from different backgrounds. There is a road of political barricades – the big one – with the communists in the first line, and the nationalists in the second, and there is a road of football barricades, with the Besiktas fans in the first line, and the Fenerbahce fans further up. I make a chat with the defenders of each line. They are among the friendliest and most generous people I met. They thank me for supporting them, they never fail to offer food, water, chocolate, whatever they have. At the moment, they are at ease. Nobody seriously expects an attack before Thursday, because there is bound to be a meeting with government officials the day before.

Still, around six, the camp is rocked by general alarm. People rush to the medical stand, where mouth caps and goggles are handed out against the tear gas. The defenders rush to the platform facing the square. Everything is quiet. The alarm was false.

At seven thirty it was for real. All the layers of barricades were useless. Police had come in through the back door. They are already in the square, on the West side and on the East side. You have to know that Gezi park is like a fortress, or an akropolis, to which you accede through stairs. It’s hard to attack if the defenders are determined to defend it. It doesn’t seem police are trying to make a frontal assault. Their primary objective is the Atatürk cultural center. They want to take down the banners with revolutionary slogans. Our elite troops – mostly football fans, anarchists and Kurds – pour into the square to engage them. But a great part of us is opposed to violence. They sit down in front of the panzers, they lock arms in front of police to prevent our people from attacking with stones. They succeed. A clash is avoided, but police do take the building. They throw down all the banners except for two. The Turkish flag and the image of Atatürk.

But on the West side, in the construction yard, they clash. Me and Jack are live, streaming from the front line. Police attack with water cannons, tear gas and flash bang grenades. Our boys respond with rocks, sling shots and fireworks, forcing police to adopt the defensive position of a Greek phalanx. The tear gas succeeds in making people scatter, but once the cloud rises, everyone reassembles. Barricades are built with amazing speed. The troops gather behind, banging their clubs on the metal to intimidate the enemy.

Police attack again. We keep defending. Molotovs are used. Pieces of cloth are ripped to shreds and used to throw stones. Another round of tear gas is fired. Actually, police use two different types of gas. The normal CS gas is a bit like the dense fumes of fireworks on new year’s eve, only much much stronger. The orange gas is nastier. It sticks to the skin, and starts to irritate in combination with water or sweat. Goggles and mouth caps provide some protection, enough for a temporary retreat. The only problem is that you can hardly see a thing with goggles.

The battle would go on all day and night, with pauses only for lunch and tea. As a tactical media team we would be rushing into the first or second lines to broadcast live, then return to the Audiovisual tent to recharge batteries as another team would take our place. Mixing is done in Izmir for the Turkish channel and in Portland for the Global channel.

During the second wave of attack, around nine thirty, one of the water cannons caught fire. Police had to use another water cannon to put it out. On the walls of our fortress overlooking the square people were clapping and cheering.

Police never managed to make a significant advance on the West side. After the third wave of attack, around eleven o’ clock, they were forced back when a crowd of people started to gather around them. So they attacked again. People scattered, and reunited in no-time.

In the camp there was constant traffic of stretchers going out and wounded going in. To facilitate their quick movement, people formed a line to open up the main road leading to the infirmary. All day long, ambulances kept coming and going.

At noon, we secured the West Side, and the greater part of the square. Hundreds of people locked arms to hold it as police retreated to the East side. It was amazing, the way they marched back in between two lines of people chanting that we all stand shoulder to shoulder against fascism, and that Taksim is ours, Istanbul is ours. It was a parade of shame, it made me think of captured barbarian soldiers being forced to march through the streets of Rome.

For a moment, it looked as if it would end there. Police held a corner of the square. They removed the barricades, we were waiting for their final retreat.

It was lunch time by then, and everything seemed suddenly peaceful and quiet. Within the camp, most people continued their business as usual. Police had taken off their helmets, they were sitting in the shadow, chatting, eating, smoking. Some of them were sleeping on their shields, others playing cards. Seeing them like that was weird. The bastards almost looked like human beings.

But around two o’clock, just as the wailing voice coming from the mosque invited people to prayer, police attacked again. They fired tear gas directly into the camp. Our defenders put on their helmets and stormed into the square to meet them. Water cannons moved in. The battle on the West side started all over again. A tear gas cannister bounced of the pavement right between my feet while I was running for cover. We had to abandon Taksim and come back through another entrance. When I made it to the park, the atmosphere was becoming depressed. People started doubting if we would be able to hold the park.

One of my Turkish comrades turned to me. “Please, leave the park. I want you to be safe. This is not your revolution.”

I almost got angry. “Of course it is. We are one humanity. Every revolution is my revolution.” What he probably didn’t realize is that resistance of Turkish citizens in Gezi Park is a major source of inspiration for people around the world. For me it’s not only a pleasure to be here, it’s an honour.

Around four, I take a break. I manage to sleep a few precious minutes as the police start bombing the park with tear gas again. The fumes wake me up. I pick up my mouth cap, my goggles, my camera, and I rush to the West Side, where the troops continue to clash. They hold their ground. A barricade is set one fire. A van is burning. And what’s more, the wind has changed in our favour. Tear gas and smoke now blows right back to the police lines. As the hours drag on, we beat them back into one of the side streets. A barricade is built and torched, to avoid them from returning. I take a tour around and see how police is getting some rest inside one of the bars, drinking coffee.

The afternoon ends, straight from work people converge on Taksim, to defend the park. Around seven o’ clock, the square is full. We are well over fifty thousand people, singing, chanting and celebrating. Police are in a corner. They have six water cannons ready. It’s the highlight of the day. Everyone is united, left to right, against Tayyip Erdogan. Around eight, the Internet signal get jammed, and thirty seconds later police start throwing tear gas into the dense crowd. It was an unprovoked criminal act that caused a stampede and might as well have caused a massacre. It was the only time during the day that I feared for my life, as the crowd was pushing its way up the stairs and into the park. Adding to the chaos was the fact that many people including me were not expecting a gas attack, and hadn’t taken any precautions against it. Blinded, choking, crying, coughing, spitting and vomiting we made our way back to the relative safety of the park. Fortunately, there are always people ready to spray your eyes with a milky substance against the worst effects of the gas.

The ferocious gas attack on the 50k crowd made people completely furious. As darkness fell they started burning whatever they could burn. And because the street lights were turned off, the only thing you could see was the apocalyptic view of bonfires and the silhouettes of demons dancing around them. The air filled with smoke. The drum band played their music to lift up our spirits. And yet again, Internet was jammed and police attacked the square with gas.

We left to look for Internet connection. On our way out we were met by thousands of people moving in to reinforce the square, fully prepared with helmets and gas masks.

The clashes went on at the West side throughout the night. Around midnight, people started evacuating part of their stuff in case the park would fall. Ambulances were pulling up one after another to take the wounded from the infirmary to the hospital. Next to it, the Commons was serving tea.

As Audiovisuals we also decided to evacuate our gear at half past midnight and make a strategic retreat to the Politechnical University to set up a new Media Centre. It was just in time. At one in the morning, police began attacking the East side with water cannons. The defenders who rushed down here to meet them ravaged almost the entire neighbourhood to put up a barricade. Police intentionally gas bombed the infirmary three times as they tried to make way on the East side. It’s by far not their only crime of the day. Earlier on, authorities have made massive arrests of human rights lawyers.

We left the park shortly after 1 AM. We barely avoided arrest by pretending we were tourists, and we made it to safety.

Over a thousand people were injured in yesterday’s clashes, At least sixteen with broken skulls. This morning, when we returned to the park, the fumes of battle had lifted. The rains had come to wash away the traces. The barricades were gone, we lost the square, but we hold the park.

Photo via @DavidVitali

My brother in arms

Edward Snowden is the latest American hero and patriot to come forward and expose the widespread abuses of the US government. In this latest spate – the NSA has quietly developed a system that can ingest enormous amount of data and can, according to Snowden, “derive suspicion from an innocent life”.

He is now ensconced in a Hong Kong hotel and may seek asylum in Iceland with the help of Birgitta Jonsdottir.

Read Glenn Greenwald’s article on The Guardian and the fascinating and terrifying interview with Edward Snowden here.

This is the natural maturation of the Patriot Act. If Bush was the theory and beta testing, then Obama is the application and expansion of that theory.

Like Bradley Manning and Daniel Ellsberg, Edward Snowden has joined the ranks of whistleblowers. Men with privileged technological access who were exposed to the rote inner workings of our government who saw profound abuses occurring as a matter of course and decided that the American people’s need to know this information trumped the price they would pay for exposing these secrets. In speaking out they lay themselves bare to extreme mental, and physical punishment, their entire lives are changed forever, their worlds are ruined.

Since Edward Snowden dropped a dime on the NSA and their accomplices (Google, Facebook, Apple, Skype, Verizon, Yahoo, PalTalk, Microsoft, AOL) members of the US Intel community have responded rather characteristically and “joked” that Snowden and Glenn Greenwald should be disappeared.

This is a false system, one that will never work for anyone who isn’t a dyed in the wool plutocrat. The government will pursue men like Snowden, like Bradley Manning; they are not held up as examples of how to behave when everyone around you keeps their mouths shut, eyes closed and heads bowed. Because the government values obedience to the exclusion of everything else. Meanwhile the men and women who have rigged our economic and political systems leaving millions of people out of homes, out of jobs, forced into hunger, money laundered for drug cartels and terrorists – y’know the actual traitors to this country – are rewarded with more money and more access and not even a whiff of accountability or consequences.

In response to this gross abuse of power and privileged access, in response to their demonization of Edward Snowden –

Let’s Jam the NSA Scanners This Wednesday, June 12th @ 7pm EDT

If millions of us, all at the same exact time, call or email someone with our “Keywords of Terror” Script, we can give our nation’s impressive surveillance apparatus the kind of test it deserves.

They say they don’t read or listen to the contents of our messages. Why not test it out?

It’ll be fun.

FB Event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/532908896770059

Info and Call/Email Script:
http://trollthensa.com/

Edward Snowden’s Support Page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Edward-Snowden-Support-Page/341149745987400?fref=ts

SUBMITTED BY: AN INDIVIDUAL

]]> http://interoccupy.net/blog/lets-jam-the-nsa-scanners-wednesday-612-7p-edt/feed/ 15 http://interoccupy.net/blog/gezi-international/ http://interoccupy.net/blog/gezi-international/#comments Tue, 11 Jun 2013 00:47:34 +0000 spaanserevolutie http://spanishrevolution11.wordpress.com/?p=3733 ]]>

Barricade in front of the Intercontinental Hotel

Istanbul, June 11, 0048 hrs.

Dear people,

The tanks didn’t come this morning. We are still here. It has been another day of freedom.

Those of you who ever participated in one of the big occupations will know what it’s like. Freedom is intoxicating. The revolutionary vibe is contagious. There is so much energy whirling around. There is so much to do, and people are so happy to do it.

The priority of the International Brigade is to connect the park directly to the rest of the world. We already have a handful of streamers deployed using mobile hotspots. Soon we will install a wifi network covering the entire square.

Raising the banner

In the meantime, I was one of the proud founders of Gezi Park’s International Corner. We need a place for foreigners to plug in. We need to diffuse information in languages other than Turkish. So what starts with an idea, quickly turns into practice. Tables appear, a banner is painted, people drop in to ask what they can do. I love to inspire them, and be inspired in return. We are Turks, Georgians, Germans, Israelis, Spanish, Mexicans, Dutch. A couple of local school girls show up to lend a hand. They ran away from home to join the revolution.

At the moment, Gezi International can be found on Twitter (@Int_Gezi). Tomorrow we hope to expand our operations. In the evening, the International Corner has all the likes of an expat bar. But there’s nothing wrong with that. With all the restrictions being imposed, even drinking is a revolutionary act.

In between my the unending activities, I take some time to walk around and enjoy the beauty of it all. We have a concert stage next to the fountain, where the local jazz choir sings adapted versions of classic songs. We have our own radio station (101.9 FM), we have screenings of movies, news, and pictures of the rebellion all night. And we have our own daily newspaper, the Gezi Gazette, available online in English as well.

The news that goes around between the tents, is about the 628 tons of tear gas that Turkey imported over the past 12 years, mainly from the United States. They spent 21 million dollars of tax money to poison their own tax payers. And they keep on doing so, every day in Ankara.

The good news is that tents went up in the town Mersin. All over Turkey, resistance continues. You can rest assured, at Gezi we remain vigilant. The revolution never sleeps.

Taksim in the evening light

Bunk beds are the new fashion in Gezi Park. The text says. “Gone to the mosque. Be right back.”

Map of the Park. From today’s Gezi Gazette.

10 June Taksim Square – Jenna Pope

There were solidarity events in support of the Turkish demonstrations in many  cities over the weekend of 8-9 June.  There were many media blackouts leading up the events, with facebook consistently blocking promotion of the events.  Tell your story of being blocked by facebook at http://pastebin.com/GbYYcpZP.

Following are some videos of solidarity actions:

8 June, Rome

9 June, Madrid

And a well done video in English with interviews of people on the streets, excellent footage of make-shift hospitals, and general protest footage -  covers the first week of the uprisings.

The unrest in Turkey all began with a protest against a shopping mall. NO 7-Eleven: Resisting Chains and Corporate Control shares a lot with Istanbul’s Right to the City and its call for community self-determination. Our goal is a zoning amendment to require that all chain stores and banks get approval from the local community board. We don’t believe we need to turn the entire nation upside down to succeed but NO 7-Eleven needs your help with contacts!

We want to hold a big event — a picket-rally in front of the doubledecker super store 7-Eleven on 5th Avenue @ 23rd Street opposite the Flat Iron Building. But we can’t draw a big crowd without city-wide attention and excitement. Our list of contacts alone can’t draw those numbers or create that excitement. So NO 7-Eleven needs to expand!

We need to find support from many organizations and activists to help us create that excitement. Do you have any organizational contacts? Speak to them. Do you know any organizations or activists that you think would be interested? Send those suggestions to us.

7-Eleven Corp has delayed its 11th & A store opening from May 15 to November 15, there’s still no franchisee, their grocery-beer license application expired last month and the contractor no longer says he’s constructing a 7-Eleven — it’s just a generic box, he says. We won’t know for sure that we’ve won until 7-Eleven takes the site off its website as an available store, but it looks good for us. No doubt the corporation wants to keep a neighborhood-friendly image and doesn’t want any bad press.

IF WE CAN WIN ON AVENUE A, WE CAN GO ALL THE WAY

Our goal is basic community self-determination: let the local community choose where chain stores are welcome and how many. It’s an opportunity to push back against the giant corporations and to control their access — tell them where to go, instead of them telling us. Here’s a great article from Robert Reich, Clinton’s labor Secretary about the economic and political importance of restricting giant corporate access. NO711′s community self-determination effort is a bottom-up means towards restricting corporate access.

PLEASE SIGN OUR ONLINE PETITION AND SEND IT TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW

The petition allows us to contact the signers for events, so it’s an important tool to spread the word. Here’s the url:

http://www.change.org/petitions/to-the-new-york-city-planning-commission-and-city-council-allow-community-self-determination-to-resist-chain-stores

In Turkey it all began with a protest against a shopping mall.

https://www.facebook.com/no7eleven

no7eleven.com