bookmark_borderOccupy Philly Events

Mon Feb 10, 6:00pm Act-UP Weekly Meeting – St Luke’s Church Basement – 330 S. 13th St Between Pine and Spruce

Tue Feb 11, 7:30pm Books Through Bars Packing Cafe – The A-Space 4722 Baltimore Ave

Sun Feb 16, 5:00pm Long Term Organizing MDU working group – Ethical Humanist Society, Rittenhouse Square

Tuesday, February 11, All day, The Day We Fight Back

On February 11th 2014 thousands of websites and tens of thousands of people will come together for a day of online protest mass surveillance.

Sign up to take part here: https://thedaywefightback.org/

What will happen on February 11th: If you’re in the US: Thousands of websites will host banners urging people to call/email Congress. Plans may change, but we intend to ask legislators to oppose the FISA Improvements Act, support the USA Freedom Act, and enact protections for non-Americans.

If you’re not in the US: Visitors will be asked to urge appropriate targets to institute privacy protections.

How to get involved

– RSVP and invite everyone you know to join.

– Go to https://thedaywefightback.org/ and sign up to take part.

– Scroll down and sign up to add the banner to your website.

– Join the discussion at http://www.reddit.com/r/thedaywefightback/

– Be creative, help spread the word however you can!

The People’s Hearing on Prison Expansion has been postponed due to unsafe driving conditions. The People’s Hearing on Prison Expansion is rescheduled for 1:00 pm on Wednesday, February 12th. This is the date of the Appropriations Hearing for the Department of Corrections, who, according to Corbett’s budget proposal, will receive an additional $78 million in the 2014-2015 budget. It is the first time that Pennsylvania has ever spent over $2 billion on the DOC budget with state funds. This will be a great time for us to come to Harrisburg with our own message that PA should build communities, not prisons. Pennsylvania is currently embarking on the second-largest construction project in state history by building two new prisons in Montgomery County.

The Hearing will still be in the Rotunda at the Capitol Building in Harrisburg, and buses will be leaving at 10am sharp from the Youth United for Change offices at 1910 N. Front Street (Berks Station on Broad Street Line).

If you registered for the free buses to the People’s Hearing, please let us know if you can still make it on February 12th by emailing us at decarceratepa@gmail.com or calling (267) 217-3372.

If you have not registered for buses, please do so at the link below as soon as possible. Space is limited! http://decarceratepa.info/peoples-hearing-registration

Wednesday, February 12, 6:00pm – 8:00pm, ItAG Kickoff Event, Science Leadership Academy, 55 N. 22nd Street

Join TAG for the start of our annual Inquiry to Action Group series! Sign up for an ItAG in advance — some may fill up before the event!

Thursday, February 13, 6:00pm, May Day 2014 Planning Meeting, PhilaPOSH Office, 5th Floor of AFSCME DC 33 Bldg., 30th & Walnut Streets, Philadelphia

Cosponsored by PhilaPOSH and the Pennsylvania Labor History Society to o honor U.S. Labor’s “hidden history” of “May Day” – the Life and Death Struggle for human rights and the eight hour day – celebrated throughout the World.. ALL ARE WELCOME!

Please RSVP your attendance to Jimmoran2008@verizon.net

Thursday, February 13, 3:00pm, Rally to Raise The Minimum Wage in Pennsylvania, 200 South Broad St. Philadelphia, PA

195,000 Pennsylvanian workers suffer earning wages at or below $7.25/hour.
In fact, 140,000 of these workers earn wages below the Federal minimum wage and almost all of them are restaurant workers who live primarily off of tips. They earn only $2.83/hour in Pennsylvania.
These are economy harming jobs. Despite the best effort of these workers, many of them have to seek state or federal help for healthcare, food, housing and child care. In other words, your taxes are subsidizing the profits of corporations such as Taco Bell, McDonald’s, Olive Garden and Pizza Hut.
We need to turn these jobs into economy building jobs. That is why the Restaurant Opportunities Center is calling on Governor Corbett to abolish the tipped minimum wage.
Sign this petition- http://www.change.org/petitions/tom-corbett-raise-the-minimum-wage

Friday, February 14, 4:00pm Phila. PM Rush Hour Leafleting w/banners and signs at Bellevue Hotel, (SE PA Office of PA Gov. Corbett, head of PA Air Guard), 200 S. Broad Street, Broad & Walnut Streets, Phila., PA 19102/

YO Gov! Pull the Plug on Drone War Command Center…Not In Our Backyard (or anyone else’s). Bring whistles, noisemakers, and big hearts. Broad Street Subway Stop: Walnut & Locust.

Saturday, February 15, 10:00am – 9:00pm, KXL Pledge of Resistance Direct Action Training feat. Hands Off Appalachia Reportback! The MAAS Building 1325 Randolph Street Philadelphia, PA

Tens of thousands of people across the country have signed the CREDO KXL Pledge of Resistance. They will use civil disobedience to protest at the State Department if the Keystone XL pipeline is approved by the Obama Administration. But what happens after that? And what happens if Obama doesn’t approve the last portion of the KXL pipeline? Tar sands extraction will continue in Canada. Fracking will continue along the Marcellus Shale. The Mariner Pipeline is coming through our area, and vulnerable neighborhoods and the Schuykill River are still threatened by the Bakken Shale oil being transported across Philadelphia by rail.

This training will present tactics that go beyond those that are part of the planned action at the Federal Building as organized by CREDO and Rainforest Action Network, and trained by Earth Quaker Action Team. With trainers we will explore forming an affinity group for direct action, security culture and group roles, and fun with technical skills for extraction resistance.

But wait, that’s not all! In the evening, friends and comrades on the from UBS: Hands Off Appalachia Campaign will be giving a report back from their action in Stamford, CT in November. Folks from Hands Off Appalachia challenged UBS’s funding of mountain top removal coal mining with several actions targeting the UBS headquarters.

Saturday, February 15, 2:00pm, Lets Build $15 Now in Philly!, 112 N. Broad St. Philadelphia

Philadelphia is one the poorest large cities in the US. We have endured decades of cuts in public services, our neighborhoods left to rot, schools and firehouses are closed and our children thrown onto the street while the state spends hundreds of millions to build more and more prisons.

They tell us the city and schools are broke and we must all share the pain while billion dollar corporations like Verizon and Comcast use legal loopholes to avoid paying taxes. Walmart and McDonalds reap massive profits, but their employees are forced to work two or 3 part time low wage jobs and rely on public assistance to make ends meet.

But across the country low-wage workers are rising up, protesting, and striking for a $15/hour minimum wage! Lets get together to build a campaign in Philadelphia!! We’ve had enough – it’s time to fight!!

Saturday, February 15, 3:00pm, The Way Forward: Huey P. Newton Seminar 2014, Peace Spot, 1652 Ridge Avenue

A conversation with our Brother Comrade Tommy Joshua, leader of the Revolutionary Assembly.

With Special Guests: Brother Mujahid Abd Azeez, Chairman, Jr. LIFERs Committee and Brother Chaplain Mahdi El, Chief-Magistrate, International Interfaith Court

Special Performance by Iam Victorious, Pili X Music, The Radicans, Skurban Vintro Music

Donations Welcome. Sponsored by Dr. Huey P. Newton Ideological Institute , Revolutionary Assembly of Philadelphia and the Hip-hop The Hip Hop Party for the People

Wednesday, February 19, 5:00pm, Know Your RIGHTS – Know The LAW, OIC of America, Inc. 1415 North Broad Street, Suite 227

FLASH (Future Leaders Advancing Self Help) teams up with UATL! Come join us for a Know Your Rights/StopSnitching on Yourself (KYR/SSOY) training with Up Against the Law Legal Collective on Wednesday February 19, 2014 at 5 pm.

Up Against the Law Legal Collective is a collective of activists, organizers, law students, legal workers and lawyers. We have knowledge of the legal system, its value and limits, and how it can be used for and against us.

Up Against the Law Legal Collective feels there is a need for legal resources offered from an activist perspective. To this end, they provide legal and jail support, facilitate trainings on rights and legal issues, and make sure that the concerns and goals of activists/grassroots groups are heard in the legal community.

This training will consists of 6 parts: KYR in the streets, in your home, in your car, when you are in custody, online/internet/FB, and how to safely/effectively CopWatch (film the police).

This will be an interactive, role-playing, getting down to the dirty details of how to protect yourself legally during interactions with the police.

Please join us and bring friends! Please RSVP so we have a sense of size.

Wednesday, February 19, 6:00pm, DVLF Wonder Women Film Screening – Mountains that Take Wing,

First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia, 2125 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19103

Doors open at 6:00pm, Film Begins at 6:30pm. Donations accepted at the door. There are no ticket sales; we believe in giving as you can and helping how you can.

Wonder Women is a DVLF Committee focused on developing programming for LGBT Women and philanthropy. We are connecting and promoting women and facilitating opportunities for emerging leaders. Join us as we launch our film screening program with ‘Mountains That Take Wing’ (Featuring Angela Davis and Yuri Kochiyama), a 97 Minute feature with Community Discussion to Follow.

Thursday, February 20th, 6:00pm, Grassroots mobilizing and Electoral Campaigns, TBA

Ty Moore, Occupy Homes Minneapolis activist and Socialist Alternative candidate for Minneapolis City Council, will speak on building grassroots movements and independent electoral campaigns to fight the 1%.
At the national level, both the Democratic and Republican parties are controlled by big business. Working people will remain locked out of political power, left to protest on the sidelines, until we create our own political voice. one that refuses corporate donations, has genuine democratic structures, and is held accountable to our social movements.

Wednesday, February 26, Actions to Remember Trayvon Martin.

4:30pm, LOVE Park, 15th and JFK, This event honors the second anniversary of Trayvon Martin’s killing. It will involve a reflection, reading, single, and candle lighting, and a silent march for Trayvon and all the young people harmed by police officers, security guards, and vigilantes and fueled by a system of racially coded violence against people of color.

5:30pm, Malcolm X Park on 52nd and Pine Street, West Philadelphia. If you remember the tragic death of our brother Trayvon Benjamin Martin and are still sickened by the widespread acceptance of the Zimmerman verdict, please join PURP to rally against discriminatory violence against our generation!

bookmark_borderProtest Arrest

THE LIBERTY BELL, PHILADELPHIA, PA — During an anti-war demonstration at the Liberty Bell, a veteran was allegedly arrested. The first of two demonstrations took place while President Obama was making a speech on Syria. That is when Emily Yates (an Iraqi war veteran) and other musicians were playing music in a section of Independence Mall.

The second demonstration started to gather. Fish And Game officers, along with US Park Rangers, began getting militant about the National Park.

While Emily was playing her banjo under a shade tree, U.S. Park Rangers fenced her into a confined area. Then, they told her she could not be inside the fence. Upon questioning why, she was surrounded and attacked by the officers.

At this time, Emily Yates is believed to be in Federal Detention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Concerned citizens are asking for support.

Many questions remain as to why she was man-handled in the presence of female officers. Also disturbing to those at the event — why was Emily assaulted by Park Rangers in the presence of the Philadelphia Police?

Police Brutality at the Liberty Bell
Police Brutality at the Liberty Bell

bookmark_borderProtests At The Liberty Bell

On a monthly basis, N.A. Poe’s “Panic Hour” show and Philly Norml hold a protest at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, PA. These pictures are from July 26, 2013.

Related articles:
Protestors Released From Jail
Protestors Arrested At Liberty Bell