Major Rally - High noon, Martin Place (top end)
Free BBQ, music, performers

Almost 1000 people joined the rally to launch Occupy Sydney on Saturday in Martin Place outside the Reserve Bank and the headquarters of the big banks. Since then activists have remained occupying at the top of Martin Place, with daily General Assemblies at 6.30pm, workshops and discussions. This Saturday there will be another major Occupy Sydney rally to show support for the global movement against corporate greed and the savage austerity programs being implemented worldwide in the face of the economic crisis.

Follow the latest from Occupy Sydney at:

Website www.occupysydney.org.au

Twitter @OccupySydMedia

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=122116297893189

Who are Occupy Sydney?
We all are! Inspired by the Arab Spring revolutions and the Occupy movement blossoming on Wall Street, across the US, Spain, Italy and throughout Europe, activists in Sydney intend to occupy indefinitely. We want to join a global movement to organise, discuss and build a better, truly democratic world. We want to raise awareness and support of the 99% of ordinary people to reclaim the massive power and wealth unfairly held by the the super-rich 1% of individuals and corporations.

Occupy Sydney unifying statement:
- We act in solidarity with protests and occupations that have occurred and are occuring in New York and other US cities, Spain, Greece, Egypt and other cities around the world
- We are the 99%
- The system is broken
- A better world is possible
- Human need not corporate greed!

Occupy Sydney activists encourage all who want a better world to come along and join the peaceful occupation.

How can you help?
- Drop in, stay, participate and show your solidarity
- Pass a resolution in your union/workplace/community group to support Occupy Sydney! (Resolutions have been passed by several unions, see our web site)
- Donate food/money to the occupation (The MUA and CFMEU have already donated $1000 each already)
- Spread the word about Occupy Sydney!

Two speakers will introduce Chomsky's radical ideas. Professor of Journalism, Wendy Bacon, will speak on Chomksy's ideas on the media, how they influenced thinking on the media, how they went out of fashion, and are they relevant today? James Goodman, Associate Professor in Cosmopolitan Civil Societies will speak on Chomsky's geopolitics: anti-imperialism from within.

Organised by the Sydney Chomsky Forum http://www.chomskyforum.net/

Facebook event - http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=228705040521024

Brian Martin, Professor of Social Sciences, will introduce Chomsky's political thought and highlight its continued relevance to social movements in Australia. Wollongong activist Lindsay Hawkins will speak on the Liberal government's attacks on the public sector and rank and file organising. Meet on the McKinnon Lawn.

Organised by the Sydney Chomsky Forum - http://www.chomskyforum.ne​t/

Facebook event - https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=122116297893189#!/event.php?eid=155557514537396

We are YOU. We are everyone. We are the ones who care about you. We are a peaceful, nonviolent movement.

Occupy Sydney is here to protest and fight the abuse, repression, thieving and infiltration by the Corporate Elite in solidarity with our brothers and sisters around the country and indeed, the world.

Our financial system should not be in the hands of private organisations or cartels. It belongs to us, the people. It is time to TAKE BACK WHAT IS OURS. THIS IS OUR COUNTRY, OUR MONEY.

We gather together in solidarity to exercise our human right to freedom of peaceful protest and freedom to peacefully assemble. We will not be intimidated.

We welcome support and unity from our fellow citizens across the nation and the world.

**************************​**************************​*****************

Our Explanation:

• We are the 99% of humanity. We are the human class. This is bigger than class politics and political factionalism.

• We seek the disempowering of Corporate Criminals, the 1% Global Elite. We hold them accountable for their crimes against humanity and the Earth.

• The Reserve Banks, International Monetary Fund (IMF), oil companies, major media houses, Macquarie Bank, the Federal Labor and State Liberal Governments who are puppets to these fraudsters, have proved to be the enemy of humanity and the Earth.

Our Enemy, 1% Elite:

• They orchestrated the Global Financial Crisis and are profiting from it (while people lose their jobs, face wage cuts, and lose their homes).

• They fund both sides of war and profit from it (while our brothers and sisters die).

• They destroy the Earth environmentally and profit from it.

• They control our media and the information we can access.

• They see YOU and I as mere masses to control, experiment on, refuse rights to, repress and thieve from.

Target:

Reserve Bank
Merchant Banks
Macquarie Bank (the bank that swallowed Sydney)
Federal Labor
State Liberals (for their new anti-worker laws)

Our Urgency:

This is about NOW and any chance of legitimate human liberty for our future in Australia and globally.

IMPORTANT WEBSITES

https://www.facebook.com/p​ages/Occupy-Australia/1203​25891405931?sk=info
http://www.occupysydney.wo​rdpress.com/
Ihttp://www.occupywallst.or​g/
http://www.15october.net/
http://www.october2011.org​/
http://nycga.cc/
http://www.occupytogether.​org/
http://www.facebook.com/Oc​cupyTogether
http://twitter.com/#!/Occu​pyTogether

WAYS TO HELP

1. Get down to the occupation site on the 15th October and peacefully participate.

2. Post any talents or interests you have that may be needed and of use.

3. Stay informed, find out what is happening on Wall Street through www.occupywallst.org and locally through the array of pages on Twitter.

5. Do NOT depend on major media outlets. They’re already blocking us, presenting misinformation or not sharing information at all.

4. Just spreading the word helps. There has been a huge media blackout that others are just beginning to shine some light on.

5. Make and bring banners, flags, megaphones, musical instruments, blankets, tents, food, water, peace, love, an informed attitude, family and friends, work colleagues, sports teams, unions, church / synagogue / mosque / temple family, surf clubs, political party members, activist groups, charity organisations etc. Remain anonymous or be yourself.

WE ARE THE 99%. WE ARE YOU.

Contact: OccupySydney[at]hotmail.com

Plan: Meet outside the Reserve Bank, corner Macquarie St and Martin Pl, City. Conduct our protest peacefully. We can always move toward Hyde Park. Remember - represent the cause and yourself with respect, peace and openness. Stand tall.

******* WHAT YOU WILL NOT SEE FROM US *******

No requests for donations.

Volunteers only.

We exist solely to organise and increase awareness for this cause.

CRITICAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT::

We acknowledge the Traditional indigenous Eora peoples' custodianship of the land upon which we now live and work – the place the world knows as Sydney – and the genocide perpetrated against that people by the colonists from whose occupation the current governments claimed right to govern descends. We also acknowledge that such #humanrights crimes of genocide continue to be committed against aboriginal peoples across Australia today- in particular the Northern Territory Intervention, a racist bilaterally supported denial of #humanrights and cultural genocide which continues today.

ALSO: http://occupysydney.wordpr​ess.com/

Please email us at OccupySydney[at]hotmail.com if this page is hacked or deactivated.

CRITICAL VIEWING FOR THE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE:

https://www.facebook.com/p​hoto.php?v=101503352100980​73

Facebook event - https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=122116297893189

Strategies of Struggle from below is an experimental documentary exploring diverse forms of social organisation in different regions in the beautiful, unique but complex country of Colombia.

Street art, technology, education, direct action and international solidarity are some of the tools used by artists, students, indigenous groups, unions and other social grassroots organisations to challenge the dominant social relations of neoliberal policy- lowering of working conditions, generalised repression, impunity, individualism and competition.

This screening of this new documentary by local activists will also be a fundraiser for one of the community struggles in the film. Don't miss out on seeing this inspiring and informative documentary!

https://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=240638282655708

As well as being a world-famous activist and thinker, Chomsky is a libertarian socialist - an anarchist. His ideas issue a revolutionary challenge to the illegitimate systems of the State and capitalism. This forum will explore Chomsky's libertarian socialist politics and what they might mean for revolutionary social change in Australia today. There will be two speakers followed by discussion

www.chomskyforum.net

Essential Reading

Notes on Anarchism - http://www.chomsky.info/articles/1970----.htm

Untangling the Knots - http://terrornullius.noblogs.org/post/2011/06/28/untangling-the-knots/

Extra Reading

Anarchism, Marxism and Hope for the Future - http://struggle.ws/rbr/noamrbr2.html

Solidarity and Sectarianism - In The Wolves at the Door - http://zinelibrary.info/wolves-door

Last week (19 July) was the 75th anniversary of the Spanish Revolution. Between 1936 and 1939, more than eight million workers and peasants participated in a revolution that turned anarchist ideals into a reality in their factories, farms and schools.

Factories were run through worker committees, agrarian areas were collectivised and run as libertarian communes. Hotels, barber shops, and restaurants were collectivised and managed by their workers. Free healthcare and education were organised. Women formed autonomous groups to fight for their rights.

The workers and peasants raised barricades in the streets and took up arms in voluntary militias in order to defend their collectivised areas from the fascist military forces of Franco (directly supported by Hitler and Mussolini). They died by their thousands for the ideal of 'libertarian communism'.

This revolution was spearheaded by rank-and-file anarchist militants. The CNT was an anarchist union that numbered over 700,000; the FAI was an anarchist political organisation that coordinated the struggle. There were hundreds of anarchist papers, with a readership of hundreds of thousands, and hundreds of workers' centres where people would meet to learn and debate politics. This community had a strong sense of solidarity and a well-developed culture and ethics. These anarchists informed their spontaneity with theory, structured organisation and purposeful activity.

So why do we hear so little about the Spanish Revolution? Then and now, both liberals and Stalinists have acted in shameless complicity to conceal the facts about this inspiring upsurge. For them, it's a terrifying spectre: workers in control of their own revolution fighting for libertarian socialism. The Stalinists undermined the revolution from the rear, while the liberal 'democracies' stood by while Hitler and Mussolini gave arms, soldiers and resources to Franco.

Today, capitalist culture churns out representations of anti-fascist struggle where the liberals are the heroes, and the revolutionaries are authoritarian failures (usually Russian). Che is on t-shirts and selling beer, but the Spanish Revolution remains impossible to commodify.

But does anyone remember?

In 2011 Spain, millions have been protesting around the demand, 'real democracy now!' This movement demands radical change in Spanish politics: they reject mainstream political parties along with banks and the capitalist financial system. They fight for 'basic rights' - home, work, culture, health and education. Tens of thousands camped out in Madrid's main square, in an explicit echo of the Arab Spring. Placards read 'Welcome to Revolution 2.0' and 'Nobody expected the Spanish Revolution either'. They remember.

The Spanish Revolution of 1936 is still alive. It is not someone else's revolution, to be consigned to history. It belongs to the current generation of revolutionaries all around the world. It is our revolution. The Spanish anarchists grappled with issues that are still pressing today: How to respond to State power? How to organise democratically among workers and non-workers? How to put anarchism into practice?

The Spanish Revolution is well worth learning about. There are dozens of books in the Jura bookshop and library and even more information online. You could start with this short article in Wikipedia, which is pretty good:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Revolution

An even better way to learn about the Spanish Revolution is to talk about it with fellow activists. Come along to an upcoming discussion, organised by Jura and the Sydney Chomsky Forum. We are reading Chomsky's classic article on the Spanish Revolution, 'Objectivity and Liberal Scholarship' available online here:
http://www.ditext.com/chomsky/1968.html
You'll get more out of the afternoon if you read the article, but if you don't, come along anyway - Sid Parissi will give short talk on the Spanish Revolution to get the discussion started.
-> Spanish Revolution reading group and discussion, 3pm, Sat 6 August, at Jura.