MEDIA ROOTS – On Thursday, November 17, 2011, Abby Martin of Media Roots spoke with Russia Today TV about the violent mass arrests by militarised platoons of local police, as they wage a coordinated national campaign to crush the Occupy Movement.  Abby reminds viewers that the banks are costing the City of Oakland far more than the justified civil disobedience of the Occupy Oakland Movement.  Indeed, civil disobedience is the only way to go for the Occupy Movement nationwide and around the world.

MR

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Abby Martin, Media Roots Founder, is interviewed in this RT segment.

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RUSSIA TODAY – Violent arrests have taken place in New York during a huge anti-Wall Street rally. RT correspondents as well as independent commentators bring the latest from the scene.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has marked its two month anniversary with coast to coast protests. Activists flooded US cities in what they called “A Day of Action”, all this as part of the protest against economic inequality.

In New York, the heart of the movement, tens of thousands of activists marched across the city, literally occupying streets.

All that was accompanied by brutal crackdowns and violent arrests, with almost 300 arrests being made in New York alone.

RT’s Marina Portnaya, reporting from New York, has said that an eyewitness told RT the police attacked one of the activists – whether the police were or were not provoked is not clear. According to the witness, five or more police officers jumped on a young activist and started to beat him.

Independent journalist Abby Martin, talking to RT from Oakland, does not agree that the police’s general approach has been helping to restore public order. Though she admits the rallies could cause some anger of the public, the response and support for the movement is stronger than annoyance by inconveniences.

“Civil disobedience is the only way to go. People are waking up to the fact that the police are now militarized, and these absurd methods of crowd control – tear gas into thousands of people if one person throws a bottle – [take place]. All this could potentially cause some anger as people are trying to get to work, but overall I think it’s a great response we are not going to take it anymore and we are not going to step back. If the cops kick us out of Zuccotti Park and outside downtown Oakland, we are going to reconvene and show up stronger”.

Martin also draws attention to the fact that, as she says, banks are actually costing the city more money than the OWS protests.

“If you look at the amount it has cost the broke city of Oakland for this heavy-headed police response, upward to US$ 500 000 for the latest raid. What’s costing the city so much? Banks were exempt US$7 million from taxes just last year.”

© 2011 [RT] Autonomous Nonprofit Organization “TV-Novosti”, 2005–2011

MEDIA ROOTS- Abby Martin of Media Roots discussed today the historic Occupy Oakland General Strike, rallies, and marches on KPFA’s “The Morning Mix with Project Censored.”  This general strike, the first in 65 years, drew tens of thousands of supporters to shut down banks as well as the Port of Oakland, the nation’s fifth largest port.

The Occupy Oakland segment begins at 31:00.

MEDIA ROOTS— On Thursday, November 3, 2011, Abby Martin of Media Roots spoke with Russia Today TV (RT) about the Occupy Movement, Occupy Oakland, the police-state response, and the historic general strike called by Occupy Oakland, which drew tens of thousands of supporters to shut down banks and the Port of Oakland, the nation’s fifth largest port.

Abby Martin, Media Roots founder, is interviewed in this RT segment.

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RUSSIA TODAY— Occupy protesters demonstrate resilience to crackdowns and cynicism in the media but it is still unclear what lies ahead for the movement. Abby Martin, founder of Mediaroots.org, says that Occupy can become a real political force.

While camping out and singing songs is one thing, getting the right politicians elected quite another. Martin says that the movement is unified and people are waking up to the two-party dictatorship, and realizing that the political system does not represent them anymore.

”A lot of people tried to paint this movement as not unified and we do not have a cohesive message, but as far as I can see we have one message and it is corporate greed and we are not standing for it anymore,” she declared. “No matter what your sign says, it all stems from the same source and that is corporate greed running amok.”

Martin believes it was a huge success for the movement when up to 20,000 people peacefully marched and successfully shut down the Port of Oakland. She says that getting their point across justifies shutting down America’s fifth largest port.

“It was almost necessary to get the point across, no-one is really listening to us. Mainstream media is trying to marginalize this movement. So maybe it will take something like that to really get people to recognize our force,” she said.

The mainstream media in US accuses the Occupy movement of being envious of the rich. Martin laughs it off arguing that it is about disenfranchisement and the extreme desperation that people are seeing.

”The rich keep getting richer. We are talking about corporations not paying taxes. Why should we? It is a two-tier justice system. We are held to a different sort of justice system in America. We are not standing for it anymore,” she says.

Allan Rivlin, co-editor of CenteredPolitics.com, says there is an explanation why people are demanding a change in the rules that have been in effect for decades.

“I think the success of the movement is the simplicity of the message,” he says. “They got it down to four words: ‘We are the 99%’. And that message, as simple as it is, really cuts to the heart of what a lot of people are experiencing, which is a tremendous inequality that has been growing for years. They are also seeing a system that is out of balance with respect to too much corporate influence over politicians and over Congress.”

© 2011 RT