Tomorrow is May Day, the true launch pad of the “99% Spring,” and the culmination of much hard work on behalf of “Occupy” activists, as well as their labor & immigration allies. OccupyFaithNYC will gather at 4pm at the Gandhi statue in Union Square Park tomorrow; several of us will arrive to welcome you as early as 3:30 pm. There will be a General Assembly beginning at 5pm at Union Square’s NW corner. Around 5:30, we march to Zuccotti Park which. It’s especially important for us to show up tomorrow as people of faith.

Several of us wear many hats, and have deep commitments on several levels to the work of economic justice as well as to Occupy Wall Street. Yet we believe our most effective testimony right now, particularly with the possibility of escalating police violence, is to provide a nonviolent, faith-based voice for justice. I encourage you, if you are clergy, to wear garb consistent with your faith tradition. If you are laity, I encourage you to wear faith symbols consistent with your practice. Most of all, I encourage you to bring with you the spirit of your tradition throughout this long and important day. We look forward to seeing you in the streets tomorrow.

Text @OccupyFaith to 23559 to receive live text updates. This will allow us to make quick decisions on how to proceed, based on how the day unfolds.

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April 30th, 2012 by Paul.Russell

What is Happening with Occupy?

by Charles Bayer

Occupy New York managed to toss a large rock into the middle of America’s stagnant lake. The original splash got everyone’s attention. In hundreds of large cities and smaller towns tents began to appear at city halls and local parks—and stayed there throughout the winter. In most cases these demonstrations were peaceful, but in every case they got the attention of the city’s officials. Municipalities employed a variety of counter devises, and the tents have now largely disappeared. In the city I know best, the government revised a camping ordinance which made the symbols of the demonstration illegal. While the local movement still occupies the steps of City Hall, it is now without tents. While it might appear that the phenomenon has ended and we are back to so-called normal, that is not the case. Those who opposed everything Occupy stood for might have claimed victory, but their gloating has been premature. Occupy is alive and well.

While the initial splash may have largely disappeared, the ripples which emanated from it are expanding throughout America’s lake. Many of us have pointed out how Occupy has radically changed the national conversation.  Now the concern about the mal-distribution of America’s wealth is continual front-page news. But if you want to find articles about the tea party you need to look in Section B at the bottom of page 6.

Let me reflect on what is happening in our small city.

·      In a three-week period almost half a million dollars was withdrawn from three of the super banks and deposited in either credit unions or locally owned banks.

·      A sizeable demonstration was held at the door of one of these super banks regarding its home foreclosure policy and practice.

·      City officials are now committed to move municipal accounts out of the super banks.

·      The City government has now sided with Occupy in its effort to keep families in the scores of local homes that are being foreclosed. City officials realize that foreclosures are bad for both the local economy and the tax base.

·      The Mayor and other City Council members are regularly showing up at “Occupy sponsored” events.

·      The City government has now asked Occupy to assist it in determining how best to work with the homeless street people only Occupy has been able to identify.

·      A memorial march and service were conducted for a homeless man who recently died on the steps of City Hall—just one of four others who have died within blocks of that site.

·      Almost 200 local seniors—“The Claremont Elders,” have signed a statement supporting Occupy.  This group meets weekly to plan ways to support issues Occupy has identified.

·      The City Council has now officially affirmed the important work the local Occupy group is doing..

I’m collecting similar information from other cities. Let me know what is happening in your community. While the style first generated by Occupy has continually been modified, the results flowing from the original encampments are having a startling effect all across the country.  As the influence of the Tea Party shrinks, the work of Occupy flourishes.

Next week we will look at the three directions various sectors of Occupy will probably be headed.

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April 16th, 2012 by Paul.Russell

Occupy Seder, Occupy Judaism

View images:

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer


“Judson Memorial Church invited me to speak in their Palm Sunday service, on a passage from the Gospels: Luke 19:40. Defenders of the status quo had been telling Rabbi Jesus to tell his followers to shut up. (It seems they had been urging people to “Occupy Jerusalem” and “Challenge the money-changers.”) And the Gospel says: “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep silent, the very stones will cry out.”

I commented that it would be easy to hear this as poetry and parable, but that in our generation, the stones are speaking. The rivers are speaking, flooding one-fifth of Pakistan and the City of New Orleans and washing out the sturdy bridges of Vermont. The rains are speaking by their silence, bringing unheard-of droughts to central Africa, Australia, Russia, Texas, Oklahoma. The frozen stones we call glaciers are groaning as they melt. And all of them are calling on us not only to speak but to act.

To act against the money-changers, the corrupt banks and other corporations that were NOT created in the Image of God. I also led the Freedom Seder at Judson, after our march to pharaonic power-points. Today is the yohrzeit (death-anniversary) of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His death led to my creating the original Freedom Seder, and his wisdom — reborn — is encoded in the New Interfaith Freedom Seder that we used.” ~Rabbi Arthur Waskow

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April 11th, 2012 by Paul.Russell

Video; Governor Cuomo: All Budgets Are Moral Documents

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March 13th, 2012 by Paul.Russell

Faith Leaders Arrested Protesting Immoral Priorities in Budget

Parables of an Immoral Budget

For Immediate Release:

New York, NY- Seven faith leaders led a total of 15 people arrested outside Governor Cuomo’s New York office (633 3rd Ave) at noon. The faith leaders kneeled in prayer before five beds to symbolize the real impact his proposed cuts to human services budget will have on the homeless and other communities in need. Declaring the budget a moral document, leaders demanded that the loopholes letting the wealthiest corporations off the hook over a billion dollars from the treasury must be closed. Under our current system, Goldman Sachs and News Corporation pay lower rate of tax than the neighborhood. Faith leaders demanded that the billion dollars be put directly back into services that serve the homeless, the elderly, and youth who are struggling to stay afloat.

Click here to see images from the day’s action.

 

Quotes:

“Let’s think about Taxes with me. In any country that pays taxes, it’s the only thing we all do together. We don’t all worship together, think alike or sleep in the same places. We’re all supposed to pay taxes. But not in this country.”
-Sr. Minister Stephen H. Phelps of Riverside Church

“We of the faith community we remember that there were prophets who governed. David, Solomon, Muhammad each governed….and they did it with morality. They used justice, fairness and held the highest regard for the ‘least amongst us.’ So we say to Gov Cuomo, tax the rich corporations. Close the loopholes. Don’t let politics stall your sense of morality.”
-Imam Al-Hajj Talib ‘Abdur-Rashid of The Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood

“We are people of faith and in every religious tradition, we are called on to demand justice. It is our duty to speak to the governor and to the mayor to stop playing games with numbers. And remember that behind those numbers are real human beings who will not eat, who will sleep in the street, will not read and may die. People think this is dramatic or an exaggeration but that’s only if you have a place to sleep tonight.”
-Sr. Minister Rosemary McNatt of the Fourth Universalist Society

“Corporations are back to making billions. Our government is not bankrupt, but cutting services for those who need it most is morally bankrupt. I am getting arrested because our political leaders are taking care for those of us with the most, rather than those of us with the least. ”
-Rev Michael Ellick, Minister, Judson Memorial Church

“Today, on the Jewish holiday of Purim, we honor the ways use our bodies in struggle. In the Purim story, two Queens engaged with struggles for autonomy, survival and dignity which is why we’re here today. Today we fast in honor of Queen Esther. And we gain the strength to struggle with our bodies. We offer our bodies as testament to the immorality of this budget and the way it disposes of our bodies.”
-Alana Krivo-Kaufman: Beith Simchat Torah Congregation

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March 9th, 2012 by Paul.Russell

Action: March 7th, “Parables of an Immoral Budget”

This is a friendly reminder that next Wednesday, March 7th, NYC faith leaders will be gathering outside of Governor Cuomo’s NYC office to protest the more than $20 million in cuts to services for the homeless in our city, money that is going directly to corporations like Goldman Sachs, American Express, Verizon, News Corp through tax loopholes. Join us as we demonstrate with “Parables of an Immoral Budget” (as so many beds have been cut out of the budget, we will be bringing our own beds to lay out on 3rd Ave.). Corporations don’t need any more beds, but there are many real people who actually do. Our service of prayer, reflection, and song, will remind the Governor that all budgets are moral documents. Sign up today.

Training for Action

Join us for an orientation/training meeting on March 6th, 10a, at Judson Memorial Church. We will go over the details for Wednesday, outline the where/what/how/why plus legal trainings for those interested in participating in civil disobedience. If interested in the training, please RSVP.

Day of Action

March 7th, 11:45am, at the NE corner of 39th St. & 3rd Ave. If you can join us for the action, please RSVP. (Civil disobedience NOT required to participate.)

Help boost turnout

Please invite all members of your faith communities through your websites, internal listserves, facebook, etc. We’re building up to an exciting spring for the Occupy Movement, and it is only through all of us participating that our voices will be heard.

Parables of an Immoral Budget

Every year shrouded in secrecy politicians in Albany gather behind closed doors to cut deals around how the state will spend our money. They may not like to say it but they are deciding how caring a society we want to live in, how we will treat those with plenty and those without. This year, as people of faith, we want to make the moral choices they make more visible. Governor Cuomo has proposed more than $20 million in cuts to services for the homeless in our city to services for the homeless in our city. This at a time when the need for these services is actually increasing and a record 40,000 New Yorkers are facing homelessness.

The governor, like many politicians, say we have no money and that we need to live within our means. But there is money in our state. Using loopholes, corporations that make billions in profits in our state including Goldman Sachs, American Express, Verizon, News Corp, and Travelers Insurance pay less State tax on their profits than the 4% paid by family of four making 58,000. Just closing these loopholes for corporations could give us the money to help those who find themselves homeless. Many of these corporations benefited both directly and indirectly by government’s bailouts when their profits were threatened. But now that people’s livelihoods are threatened, we ask the homeless for sacrifice.

Our proposed action outside the Governor’s NYC office would make this hypocrisy visible. Occupy Faith clergy will demonstrate the immorality of the cuts to NYC housing needs, which are especially needed for LGBT youth in this city, by presenting the Governor with an ad hoc shelter of their very own: 5 made beds laid out in front his office at 633 3rd Ave. In addition to speaking opportunities, clergy will have the option of practicing civil disobedience by actually lying in these beds until removed by police.

Partners for this action will include our friends from IAHH (Interfaith Assembly for Hunger & Housing) and Picture the Homeless. If this action is empowering and useful for all interests involved, our second “parable” could focus on education, replacing beds with small school desks for the actual spectacle. This would happen later in March, but before “Occupy Seder/Passover.” The hope will be to create actions that establish community and momentum within Occupy Faith, building our capacity as we head into the Spring..

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February 29th, 2012 by Paul.Russell

Media Release: Leaders Gather to Discuss Role of Faith in #OWS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA CONTACT: Rev. Jeremy D. Nickel
revnickel@gmail.com
510-936-1632
Occupyfaith.com

National Coalition of Interfaith Leaders GatherTo Discuss Role of Faith in Occupy Wall St.

PANEL GUESTS WILL INCLUDE:

Feminist Activist Theologian Dr. Rev. Rita Nakashima Brock, Veteran Civil Rights Leader Rev Phil Lawson, Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Activist in the Jewish Renewal Movement and other veteran movement activists!

Berkeley, CA – On Tuesday, March 20th, faith leaders supporting occupy encampments from across the country will gather at the Ecumenical Center at the Pacific School of Religion.

We have learned that at every occupy encampment, faith leaders have been supporting the movement. And although acceptance by other occupiers has sometimes been grudging, the role of faith leaders in many places has taken on crucial dimensions, especially in advocating strongly for non-violence.

In the past several months the Occupy movement has experimented with democracy in radical ways, and continues to be our best hope for the kind of change so many people feel our country needs: away from corporate control and back in the hands of the human citizens and our interests.

Come listen to a panel of faith leaders from across the country discuss the crucial and complex role they have played in the Occupy Wall Street Movement and how they see their work in support of it continuing to unfold!

WHO: Faith leaders from across the country involved with Occupy encampments
WHAT: Panel Discussion: Occupy and the role of faith
WHERE: Ecumenical Center at the Pacific School of Religion
1798 Scenic Ave
Berkeley, CA.
WHEN: Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 7 PM

CONTACT: Rev. Jeremy D. Nickel revnickel@gmail.com

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February 22nd, 2012 by Paul.Russell

Dear MSNBC: Tony Perkins Does Not Represent Us All

On February 14, Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson led a group of clergy in personally delivering our first 20,000 signatures to MSNBC studios in New York. With MSNBC so far refusing to commit to taking Perkins off the air, we need to keep the pressure on!

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February 16th, 2012 by Paul.Russell

Left Forum

“Should Labor and the Left Propose a Global Green Jobs Alternative to Austerity and Climate Change?”

Campaign for Peace and Democracy Left Forum panel March 2012

http://www.cpdweb.org/letters/20120125.panel.shtml

CPD believes that peace, global justice and ecology are intertwined. This year we are sponsoring a panel at the Left Forum entitled “Should Labor and the Left Propose a Global Green Jobs Alternative to Austerity and Climate Change?” We invite you to attend the event, which will be held at Pace University in Manhattan, March 16-18. You will be notified when the exact day and time for the panel are set.

We have an outstanding group of panelists:

  • Jeremy Brecher of the Labor Network for Sustainability
  • Greg Albo, who teaches political economy at the Department of Political Science, York University, Toronto and is co-editor of the Socialist Register
  • Elaine Bernard, Executive Director of the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School and the Harvard Trade Union Program
  • Robert Pollin, Professor of Economics and Co-Director, Political Economy Research Institute, Univ of Massachusetts
  • Chair: Joanne Landy, Co-Director, Campaign for Peace and Democracy (brief panelist bios at the end of this message)

PANEL DESCRIPTION

The aim of this panel is to explore and debate the question of whether it is productive for labor and the left to propose “transitional programs” to address the growing global ecological and economic crises. What types of proposals can move the agenda in the right direction? In particular, we will talk about how a global green jobs alternative might be defined and presented in a way that is convincing and attractive to ordinary people around the world. Is there a danger that such a proposal could end up reinforcing rather than weakening the power of elites and their institutions? If so, can this pitfall be avoided?

We will discuss what a progressive global green jobs proposal might actually look like. Can and should a jobs program be international? How can such a program be paid for? How would it realistically address the issues of climate change, pollution, development and conservation of energy resources, migration, poverty, inequality, democracy, and the world-wide race to the bottom in wages and working conditions? Furthermore, we will ask how, if at all, a movement for this kind of reform relates to achieving the goal of socialism.

More information about the Left Forum is available on their website. For more information about the Campaign for Peace and Democracy, where you will read about CPD’s opposition to U.S. wars against Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and elsewhere, and our support for democratic struggles in Bahrain, Iran, Syria, Egypt and around the globe, see our website www.cpdweb.org

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February 16th, 2012 by Paul.Russell

Bishop Gene Robinson, NY Faith Leaders to Deliver 20,000 Petitions to MSNBC Demanding They Take Religious Right Hate Group Off the Air

Faithful America Members Outraged by Family Research Council’s False, Hateful Claims About Gay Community

New York City— Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson and New York pastors will hold a press conference and small rally at Rockefeller Center tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb. 14 at 11 a.m. EST to call on MSNBC to stop providing a platform to Religious Right leader Tony Perkins, head of Family Research Council (FRC).

FRC has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for using dishonest, incendiary rhetoric about gay and lesbian Americans, but MSNBC has continued offering a friendly venue for Perkins, neither informing their viewers of FRC’s status nor including any rebuttal from progressive religious leaders. Perkins has appeared on MSNBC more often this year than on any other cable news network.

The group of clergy, including Bishop Robinson, a prominent progressive Christian leader who delivered the invocation at President Obama’s inaugural ceremonies and is the first openly gay bishop in the Anglican Communion, will deliver 20,000 petition signatures from members of the online action network Faithful America. The delegation will remind MSNBC that the hateful views of Perkins and the Family Research Council aren’t reflective of the faith community and demand that the network stop inviting him on the air to represent the views of Christians and other people of faith.

WHAT: Press conference and petition delivery to MSNBC demanding they stop inviting hate group leader Tony Perkins to speak on behalf of Christians and other people of faith

WHO: Prominent national and New York clergy, including:

The Right Reverend V. Gene Robinson, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire
Rev. Jacqui Lewis, Senior Minister, Middle Collegiate Church, New York, NY
Rev. Michael Ellick, Minister, Judson Memorial Church, New York, NY
Rev. Chloe Breyer, Executive Director, Interfaith Center of New York
Rev. Earl Kooperkamp, Pastor, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, New York, NY

WHEN: Tuesday, Feb. 14 at 11 a.m. EST

WHERE: Rockefeller Plaza, New York, New York (northeast corner of the plaza, at W. 49th Street)

Faithful America’s petition reads:

The Family Research Council is a hate group, and journalists ought to treat it as such. MSNBC must stop inviting Family Research Council spokespeople on the air to represent the views of Christians and other people of faith.

For more information about Faithful America, an online community of over 132,000 people of faith taking action on pressing moral issues of social justice and the common good, visit www.faithfulamerica.org.

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February 14th, 2012 by Paul.Russell
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