Organizing Protest; They Take the Money, We Take the Streets

As in Egypt the Spanish protest in Madrid rapidly developed into a social media phenomena, and shows how rapidly resistance can develop. In appears modern communication is very conducive.  In the first days after the creation of the Facebook page Spanish revolution -- https://www.facebook.com/SpanishRevolution-- the account had 1,000 supporters registering every hour. Now it has more than 146,000.  On micro-blogging site Twitter, the hash tags #acampadasol (Sol encampment), #notenemosmedio (we have no fear), #nosquedamos (we are staying) or #spanishrevolution have been among the most popular in Spain. Twitter account acampadasol had more than 50,000 followers.


Article: The Spanish Spring is the Real Thing

Some ideas emerged in Wisconsin on the ingredients required to get protest underway [The Atlantic].

1. Be flexible. Adapt your plans according to events as they happen.

That night was the first of 10 — and counting — that hundreds have occupied the Wisconsin state Capitol. The TAA hadn’t planned to stay there overnight. “It emerged rather organically,” explains Alex Hanna, the other co-president of the TAA. 

2. Keep the momentum going.

Not only did the recruits want to be heard, but the TAA also hoped to continue pressuring legislators, and stall the bill. If they had gone home, they would’ve lost that momentum. “If you go home and come back you’re going to have a lower turnout the next day,” explains Gibbons.

3. It takes all kinds of people…

As the night wore on, the TAA ensured the hearing continued, while others — TAA members, student groups, and volunteers — began organizing…encouraged people on campus to join;

4. doing all kinds of things…

They brought in food…”We made sure people were getting out here and told people to bring some pillows and sleeping bags,” explains Hanna. “We were staying.”

5. using all kinds of tools.

encouraged people on campus to join; sent notices out on Facebook and Twitter; and ran a phone bank

At a protest against JP Morgan's annual meeting mostly elder folks were manhandled and maced by police.  This may signal a difference between the US and say Spain, where police were sympathetic and showed some solidarity with mostly younger protesters.  Even that was touchy as this film shows. In Columbus one protester described the scene thusly:
"There must have been 10 police for every banker," Goehl told HuffPost. "JPMorgan Chase, they don't only own the government. They own the Columbus police department." [Huffington Post]

Protest in the US is largely ignored as the oligarchical controlled press would rather focus on other counties, Blogger Bill Quigley writes at Huff Post that perhaps 2600 have been arrested in US protests since 2009.; So far the list he provides of Us protests don't quite reflect the tenor of the anti-bankster, anti-kleptocratic tenor witnessed  in Europe.