Occupy Washington DC/Stop The Machine!

(Freedom Plaza) and Otpor/CANVAS

Posted by ajmacdonaldjr on February 27, 2012

Egyptian social media activist Ahmed Maher at Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC Occupy Washington DC/Stop The Machine!(Freedom Plaza) and Otpor/ CANVAS The same non-violence non-profits who take CIA money when they can get it (Im not talking about ICNC, which just shares an accountant, has parallel goals, and whose president used to work there; ICNC has enough junk bond money to operate on its own) also give non-violent communication trainings and are inserting themselves wherever they can in the OWS movement. In DC, this is particularly worrisome, since the think-tank/lobbying/pro-USG logic is so hegemonic. And Ive received four email invitations this week to attend think tank and right-wing academic seminars on What the Occupy Wall Street Movement Means and Why it Should Matter to Me. Framing is everything. Who gets to speak, what they get to say, whether their whole movement can be invalidated because somebody got justifiably angry and threw a rock. We dont need to be tackling the rock-thrower. People throwing rocks doesnt explain or justify the police violence I saw and felt in Oakland last Tuesday. We need to be tackling the derivative Christian logic of nonviolence (but lacking the possibilities of liberation theology) that chastises the oppressed for rising up against the oppressor, using fictitious narratives about Egypts and Eastern European countries revolutions as legitimation. And when people come to town claiming to speak for a revolution and making their way into lefty media with the same bland lies, we need to be asking who is paying for

their plane ticket, and why the hell are they not back at home, where their revolution is not in great shape at all ~ Professor Adrienne Pine American University, Washington, DC (emphasis added). Source: Resisting the Cult of Non-Violence SALON.COM SUNDAY, OCT 23, 2011 8:50 PM EST At OccupyDC, Egypts revolutionaries chide U.S. Social media activists say U.S. has abandoned their cause BY JEFFERSON MORLEY Egyptian social media activist Ahmed Maher at Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC TOPICS: OCCUPY WALL STREET Three of Egypts so-called Facebook revolutionaries told a crowd of 100 people who gathered Sunday afternoon in Washingtons Freedom Plaza that the U.S. government has abandoned their peaceful revolution in favor of an alliance with the countrys stillpowerful military. (Video here.) We hoped U.S. policy would change said Esraa Abdel Fatah, known as the Facebook girl for creating a social media page that helped mobilize a general strike over workers rights in 2008. We hope they would support the people, not the government. But U.S. policy supports the military now, the same way it was supporting Mubarak. Fatah spoke to a OccupyDC crowd that seemed hungry for advice from activists who have seen tremendous, yet mixed results in the past year. Egypts revolution of last January has taken a worrisome turn in recent months the military brutally cracks down on those it views as enemies of the state, while backtracking on promises about the transition to civilian rule. Despite the objections of Egyptian civil society, the Obama administration has mostly refrained from criticizing the countrys Supreme Council for the Armed Forces (SCAF). Were disappointed the administration didnt get the lesson, said Bassem Fathy, a founder of April 6 Youth, which used Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to detonate a social explosion that swept away Mubaraks government last January. The U.S. supported Mubarak because he offered stability. Now the U.S. is again choosing stability by backing the SCAF. That might be Americas short term interest but we dont think that is Americas long-term interest. Blogger and activist Ahmed Maher, who visited the capitals other occupation site in McPherson Square earlier in the week, said, we want to make a change from the U.S. policy to supporting the people, not support businessmen.

The meeting of the movements in Freedom Plaza was free of the controversies that have shadowed the Egyptian revolutionaries as their influence has grown. Fathy and his colleagues have been criticized in Egypt and in Al Jazeera for their participation in the Egyptian Democratic Academy, which was funded by the U.S. governments National Endowment for Democracy. At the same time, the Republican party has lionized Fathy as one of democracys heroes in Egypt. But one strength of the Egyptian movement is that it refuses to be categorized by religion or even ideology. Fathy doesnt deny U.S. support or influence. Nor does he hesitate to criticize U.S. policymakers. The U.S. is now saying that the military will be the protector of democracy against the Islamists, he told Salon. Myself, I am totally secular and I dont agree with the Islamists. But I think democracy is the best protector of democracy. When a woman in the crowd asked Fathy for the Egyptian movements views on U.S. support for Israel, Fathy was even more pointed. Our common mood is that we should have at the least the two statesone Israeli, one Palestinianbased on the 1967 borders, he said, a view that proved deeply controversial when expressed by President Obama earlier this year. Myself, I would like to see a solution like South Africa: One country for all the people who live there. I know that is a dream. As the crowd plied their guests for advice about how the U.S.-based occupation movement should proceed, the Egyptians responded by voicing the unorthodox tenets of a global movement without leaders or unified set of demands. People will want to know who your leaders are, said Fatah, wearing a traditional head scarf. Your demands must be your leaders. My advice, said Maher, an exemplar of cosmopolitan cool with his shaved head and sunglasses is not to accept any advice. Source: http://www.salon.com/2011/10/24/ at_occupydc_egypts_revolutionaries_chide_u_s_policymakers/

VIDEO REMOVED - Keven Zeese: Egyptian revolutionaries teach Freedom Plaza Stop The Machine!/Occupy Washington, DC (Freedom Plaza) VIDEO REMOVED http:// october2011.org/blogs/kevin-zeese/egyptian-revolutionaries-teach-freedom-plaza. See: CANVAS: http://www.canvasopedia.org/ VIDEO - The Revolution Business [Otpor] See: Fake Democracy Revolutions CANVAS, USIP/ICNC, Washington, Egypt, and OWS Plus: Israel did 9/11 VIDEO Egyptian Activist Speaks At Occupy Wall Street General Assembly

Kevin Zeese says Otpor/CANVAS NOT involved with the Occupy Movement and Freedom Plaza in DC. He only uses their books, strategy, and Egyptian agents (?!) Facebook and People Power: The View From Tahrir Square June 8, 2011 6 p.m. Thomson Reuters Building 30 South Colonnade Canary Wharf London E14 5EP In the space of 18 days in January and February, the people of Egypt overthrew the 30year rule of President Hosni Mubarak in a peaceful uprising that transfixed the world, and whose consequences are still reverberating. Behind this revolution was a group of

young activists with the courage, tactical skill, and mastery of 21st-century social media to mobilize a whole society in opposition to an authoritarian ruler. Please join us for a special event at the London office of Thomson Reuters as we peer inside the engine room of the Egyptian revolution with the help of some of those most closely involved. And with the Arab world in ferment, we ask where the road from Tahrir Square will lead. Panelists: Dr. Sally Moore, an Egyptian-British psychiatrist who was closely involved in the strategic planning, publicity, and logistics of the protest movement. 2 Mahmoud Salem, aka Sandmonkey, an irreverent blogger and tweeter whose commentary became a must-read for everyone watching the dramatic events unfold. 3 Srdja Popovic, executive director of the Centre for Applied NonViolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS), a Serbian-based group that grew out of the struggle to overthrow dictator Slobodan Miloevi? and has worked with activists from 46 countries, including Georgia, Ukraine, Lebanon, and Egypt to advise on the tactics and strategy of peaceful protest. 4 Wael Ghonim (by video link), Googles marketing manager for the Middle East and Africa, who was arrested and interrogated for 12 days before emerging as one of the heroes and symbols of the Egyptian revolution. Watch on live Webcast at www.trust.org Contact: Sean Harder 653-264-6880 sharder@stanleyfoundation.org Source: http://www.stanleyfoundation.org/events.cfm?id=335 1

Stop The Machine!/Occupy Washington, DC say they want to engage in nonviolent resistance similar to the Arab Spring and have the intention of making it [Freedom Plaza] our Tahrir Square (see: http://october2011.org/ statement). Take the pledge and sign up to attend here. Let America know you are coming to make history and a new world! I pledge that if any U.S. troops, contractors, or mercenaries remain in Afghanistan on Thursday, October 6, 2011, as that occupation goes into its 11th year, I will commit to being in Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., with others on that day with the intention of making it our Tahrir Square, Cairo, our Madison, Wisconsin, where we will

NONVIOLENTLY resist the corporate machine to demand that our resources are invested in human needs and environmental protection instead of war and exploitation. We can do this together. We will be the beginning . Source: http://october2011.org/ statement See: Why would anyone wish for America to become another Egypt? (Kevin?) VIDEO - Arab Spring a western ploy to control Eurasia