BRANDYWINE PEACE COMMUNITY
P.O. Box 81,
Swarthmore, PA, 19081
(610)544-1818
OCCUPY WALL STREET/OCCUPY PHILLY
Photo: Fran Sheldon
Hundreds Gather On November 27th Eviction Deadline Threat Supporting Occupy Philly.
Tom Mullian, Ray Torres, and Bob Smith Hold Brandywine Peace Community banner at front of demonstration.
Photo: Sharon Gunther
View more photos by Melissa Elliott
What began with hundreds of people occupying Wall Street on September 17, 2011, grew to thousands of similar peaceful occupations and protest demonstrations and civil disobedience across the U.S., and around the world, challenging the toxic greed of Corporate America's 1% that profit at the expense of the rest of us - the 99%.
Occupy Philly began on Thursday, October 6, the tenth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, at Phila. City Hall's Dilworth Plaza, right in the center of the city's corporate and financial district.
At the very start of the encampment, the Brandywine Peace Community stood in support of the Occupy movement with "Welcome, Occupy Philly" signs and banners making connection between the corporate control of U.S. democracy and the corporate militarism of such war profiteers as Lockheed Martin, the world's #1 war profiteer and Pentagon weapons producer. Subsequently, at the entrance to Occupy Philly, we held Tuesday rush-hour demonstrations visibly protesting with large banners and displays, introducing to thousands of passersby the ‘top guns’ of the 1% super-rich.
Other encampments and demonstrations occurred throughout the greater Philadelphia area. A wide variety of Philadelphians of all ages, ethnic groups and religious affiliations, supported the occupiers in Philadelphia, with supplies, food, tents, medical supplies, sleeping bags, and many of these supporters also camped, marched and protested.
On Thanksgiving Saturday, November 26, behind the King of Prussia Mall, the Brandywine Peace Community, joined by people from Occupy Norristown nearby, held our annual day-long LOCKHEED-VILLE shanty-town demonstration in front of the Valley Forge, PA Lockheed Martin complex which, for the first time in our decades old nonviolent action campaign, had placed heavy cement highway dividers at each of its driveway entrances and wrapped cellophane around its large logo identification walls. Occupy Lockheed Martin/LOCKHEED-VILLE. Wall Street is War Street!
The city of Philadelphia issued its final eviction notice for the Occupy Philly encampment in order to make way for a multi-million dollar reconstruction of Dilworth Plaza. The deadline was 5p.m. on Sunday, November 27. Hundreds gathered in support of Occupy Philly and the occupiers who chose to stay. Police didn't move in at the threatened hour as anticipated, but rather chose to move in during the very early morning hours of November 30, arresting more than fifty occupiers sitting peacefully while others marched through the city.
The Occupy Philly encampment has been cleared, as have been most of the urban Occupy encampments, some violently, by police around the country. Hundreds have been arrested. Thousands evicted. The Occupy movement has just begun. The Brandywine Peace Community will continue to support this unparalleled protest movement and to bring the Occupiers voice for economic justice to Lockheed Martin, the Top Gun of the 1% Super Rich
Resources:
Watch: Meet the 0.01 Percent: The War Profiteers, http://warcosts.com/1percent/.
Read "War Is a Force That Pays the 1 Percent: Occupying American Foreign Policy" at http://vcnv.org/war-is-a-force-that-pays-the-1-percent-occupying-american-foreign-policy
Visit Occupy Philly for the latest news at http://occupyphillymedia.org/