Rogue Media

Are the people of Greece being set up “economic hitman” style and could the US be one of the next victims?  About seventy-five of us gathered Friday February 17 at 101 Market Street in front of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, our home-base.  Green signs dotted the sidewalk with messages such as “IMF out of Greece” and “The people of Greece are sovereign.”  Cars, buses and trolleys passed by, some honking in support.  But today was different than a typical Friday evening at OccupySF, because a speaker from Greece, Maria, stood with a megaphone describing the economic tragedy that Is unfolding for the Greek people, “Children are fainting in schools due to lack of food…this austerity package sets up the country for privatization where the people will have to sell off their water, their sewage, their telecommunications and their natural resources which includes coal and oil.  It will lead to the country’s resources being pillaged.”

As we munched on delicious Greek dolmas donated by a local Café, an Occupy speak-out began on the plight of Greece, and some of our homeless occupiers exhibited knowledge of economics far surpassing the average US citizen.   Mike spoke about the involvement of Goldman Sachs in the derivative swaps that set the country up for failure, and how the signing terms of the austerity measures “literally sell off Greek democracy to private banks and corporations.”  Rob spoke about the parallels with Iceland, a great example of what should happen, and how Wiki-leaks releases showed the corruption and fraud of the bankers, prompting the Icelandic people to denounce the debt.  “We need to prosecute these bankers and get our sovereignty back,” he said.  Derek spoke about how we need alternative structures such as a time-bank/skill-share system to challenge the currency-based system so people can take direct responsibility for what their actions produce, and Nick, a Veteran for peace compared the oppression of the Occupy movement which led to the breaking of his ear-drum by police, to the oppression of the people in Greece. Read the rest of this entry →