“The problem is not civil disobedience. The problem is civil obedience.”
—Howard Zinn
North of Center is seeking motivated journalist-writer-activists to cover the growing stories of the American protest movement.
There is much to cover. Nationally, as the paper goes to press between 500 and 3000 activists have been encamped for over a week at a park nearby New York City’s financial district as part of a movement to occupy Wall Street. Modeled after the nonviolent democratic uprisings that took hold in the Middle East in places like Egypt’s Tahrir Square, the Wall Street occupation continues to grow despite draconian police tactics (arrests for using sidewalk chalk and setting up tarps to keep dry, pepper-spraying of peaceful demonstrators, and the use of giant orange nets to make mass, indiscriminate arrests) and a nearly complete media blackout by large corporate media outlets. (This city’s local paper, the Lexington Herald Leader, has devoted a single 200 word article to the growing demonstrations.)
The Wall Street occupations are not the only uprising around. On October 6, things will move to the Freedom Plaza in Washington D.C. Like the Wall Street demonstrations, the October 2011 protests in the nation’s capital will be long-term non-violent occupations featuring acts of civil disobedience. October 2011 is part of a string of recent gatherings in D.C. Just last month, to cite one example, thousands of activists protested in front of the capital to pressure corporate stooge Barack Obama to say no to an oil pipeline slated to run through the country’s midwestern states, bringing low-grade dirty oil from Canada to Gulf ports for transport to the highest-bidding countries across the globe.
More locally, Eastern Kentucky activists have led the way in resisting the destruction of their homes and communities for cheap profits by out-of-state corporate coal companies. River-keepers have resisted the plundering and destruction of the Kentucky River watershed. Kentuckians for the Commonwealth have been campaigning for re-enfranchisement of Kentucky felons; UK students have started to become fed up with the n0-education corporate policies of their education administrators and management/faculty.
As the current conditions deteriorate and our public leaders–global, national, regional and local–are uncovered as frauds whose interests lie with the already-rich and well-off, we here at NoC are guessing that dissent will increase. We would like somebody to research, attend, participate in, interview and otherwise immerse themselves in these growing protest movements.
Coverage should reflect the Howard Zinn truism that one can’t be neutral on a moving train. Mass protests have not yet hit the slackwaters of Lexington. For whatever reason, citizens here have not created the critical mass necessary to pressure leaders. (Perhaps they are too busy worrying about who Coach Coal signs in the next recruiting class, or which downtown bar will be the next ‘hot-spot’ for rich out of towners.) NoC sees this reporting as vital in both informing and demonstrating to Lexington citizens that alternatives and outlets for engagement do exist.
Anyone interested should contact Danny Mayer at Mayer.Danny@gmail.com. We can help provide contacts for regional activists and will do our best to help facilitate any travel.
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