Powerful words from Bill McKibbon and 350.org on Occupy Wall Street:
This morning, the folks standing up for the rest of us, and for a just and sustainable system, may be evicted from Zuccoti Square by a Canadian company, Brookfield Real Estate. Avaaz.org sent out a call yesterday to contact Mayor Bloomberg as well as Brookfield CEO Richard Clark, making it clear that their actions are under national and international scrutiny. The contact numbers are:
- New York mayor Michael Bloomberg: +1-212-772-1081 ext 12006
- Brookfield CEO Richard Clark: +1-212-417-7063
- Brookfield US headquarters: +1-212-417-7000
- Brookfield Canada headquarters: +1-416-369-2300
- Brookfield Australia headquarters: +61-2-9322-2000
If you’d like to report your call on the Avaaz website, click here.
*Update*: Zuccotti Park clean-up scrapped,
According to an email sent at 11:33 p.m. Thursday, Brookfield’s chief executive officer Ric Clark told Holloway, “Based upon input from many, we have decided to postpone the cleaning operation for Zuccotti Park which is currently scheduled to commence at 7 a.m. tomorrow morning. “We now plan on deferring this work for a few days while we attempt to work out an arrangement with the protesters.” Click here for the full story on DNAinfo.com
I’m so glad the protesters didn’t back down in the face of this tactic. It was both a strategic and rhetorical assault–the mayor was insinuating that the protesters are ‘dirty’, attempting to demean them at a basic level. Judging by yesterday’s events in New York (15,000-20,000 protester turnout, occupation of TImes Square, etc.), it looks like Bloomberg’s attempt didn’t net him much traction.