Occupied-The Second Summer or damn u Jesse.

So from a request we get a shit load of work to do.
The Occupy Movement.....what are they up to?
This will be something I have to research, damn you Jesse Byrne.
Today is the 9th of May on the 11th I leave for Lethbridge let's hope I get some stuff down if not posted by Saturday morning.

The movement is still going but it has become stale to most news outlets so unless you are trolling the web you aren't hearing or reading much about the clashes and standing of ground, yet it is happening.

There veiled by profit growth stats and requisite pay raises for the captains of industry and hidden behind the dull glimmer of barely improving employment figures are the little battles of this quiet riot. My first impression of this second summer is that there is fuel that has not been yet poured to the fire. More on that later

The folks who are occupying the Gill Tract which is administered by the UofC Berkeley are being sued.
A court injunction has been given but so far the police are letting the Occupants in and out of course the road has been blocked but at least they can walk water in to the farm that they have cultivated on this 10 acre site of which they occupy 2 acres. It is a research facility which has a public component but these Occupants are not taking the best land or much if any infrastructure. So the 2 acre plot is used to feed the movement? I hope so I'd also hope that the writer who provided the story would've given a bit more in the way of back ground.

So the movement is still moving in California what about Canada?

In my opinion Occupy Winnipeg is a sign of commitment to something that doesn't seem to resonate in the same way it does down south.

This is a problem of any movement, it must have a good amount of disparity to have a good amount of people join it.

Although there are few visible participants Occupy Winnipeg still maintains a presence in the province and this under lines the way this movement will continue and grow with the fuel of a disenfranchised population or flounder and sink under a wave of apathy generated by a public trying and succeeding to hold on to what they have.

For most of us westerners it is a pretty clear argument,
the banks fucked up and the public of the USA
are paying through the auspices of their
corrupt financial and governmental systems.
That doesn't play well here in the economic
climate of Canada much less in the heat of the
Alberta economy.

But  again I mention that specter of doom unemployment when it rises so does the discontent but our jobless rate is still not close to the states or Europe at least not as a national average. The Occupy movement in Canada to many minds should not exist but it does that is in part due to the lack of a well defined and focused charge or complaint and the come one come all invitation which brought all sorts of people with all sorts of agendas together.  

Canada had a smallish turnout but that makes sense, we are still working add to the distracted busy-ness an image of Occupy being against Wall Street and the bailout and you see that the idea doesn't transfer well. we don't think Canada had the same things going on and by and large they are right. Still we as a nation see what has happened down south and do see disparity within our own borders so we have a passing solidarity with Occupy.

Our biggest problem is that we tend not to complain and from that we become complacent. This is why we ignore the good old boy school of doing things which is not as bad as else where but still permeates political financial dealings in awarding contracts, permits,grants and I'm sure other stuff in our own country. But I doubt that the movement will get much traction in Canada so it will probably fade away and might return if things get bad enough.

What is the summer going to look like for the occupy movement in the USA? I think we will see them raking coals trying to start a fire under the diddle classes asses that are still on a payroll. If the economy picks up the whole thing will be forgotten as fast as a Big Mac is digested more so if Obama is out of the house.

When I first wrote about this movement I viewed it in an American context and it made sense. It was time for the American public to deal with social systems which were now dysfunctional to the point of being destructive. However even to this day it's hard to pin someone down on what are the points of contention and what is seen as a solution. That might be due to there being so much deception and things being so fucked up that the whole thing has to be scrapped. Maybe it's because this was supposed to be a roots up democracy, so there is no leader so things are done by committee and then you have no continuity from one Occupy site to another. Yet the basic charge is echoed by all and that is where this movement is clearest where everyone knows what is being said that is rein in Wall Street and the lobbyist of capitol hill.
Unfortunately that is a time sensitive story so even if the economic climate stays in the doldrums the movement will lose it's momentum and slowly fade away. In American terms slowly fade should take a month.

So am I in favor of the Occupy movement? Yes I am but in my head and heart know that for change to be reckoned by the general public it has to be radical. I have said it before the system we have is not creating as much good as it should so we must look at the system as a whole. 

Ya good luck with that.