How to Identify an Agent Provocateur

By Occupy Taketothestreets Asheville in Occupy Asheville INFO Group

As governments around the world, including our own, face more and more popular resistance, we’re witnessing a revival of the use of agent provocateurs. An agent provocateur is the well-used tactic of using undercover military or police to join a dissenting group or protest in order to provoke others in the group to carry out illegal actions and violence. The goal is to discredit the group from the inside. Sometimes the group gets discredited with those outside. Other times the group is enticed into internal divisions and collapses.

-Drawing from several sources, experienced observers have suggested some tips for identifying such agents. They’re not foolproof, but they’re a start.

-Agents will often lack background connections or references. No one in your circles or related groups will know them.

-Agents try to keep discussions and action unproductive and still. They’ll spend plenty of time debating issues, with little action. They focus on ideas over people.

-They tend to create messes in groups and between group members. They leave chaos in their wake.

-They tend to gravitate toward people in the group who are dissatisfied. Once relationships with those folks grow, the dissatisfaction spreads.

-Some agents have been former prisoners who do this work as part of a deal. These folks tend to jump from organization to organization in a relatively short time.

-Agents don’t have known sources of income. They might have a job that doesn’t match their spending or claim their money comes from prior savings.

-They tend to provide gifts for key figures at first. This helps them build trust with the group.

-When confronted, they will get defensive and start making their own accusations.

-They act like zealots, but they don’t have the fruit of it. They have passion but don’t truly care.

-Of course, good but immature people can do all these things. Discernment involves sound judgment calls. Protection from agent provocateurs increases as your group matures. If your group has rich relationships and trust, you won’t as easily fall prey to cheap provocateurs.

For more info on Agents Provocateurs Please see our other links on ALGG that discuss Anarchists and their tactics such as vandalism and attempts to hijack the marches etc.

#OCCUPY POSTERS: NIXON STYLE

Click through each image to download hi-res versions! Based on the Poster Issues by OBEY/GIANT. Remixed by Psychological Industries. Do what thou wilt with them in a non-profit way!

Original OBEY Posters Here

Portland Pisses off Anarchists trying to incite violence

Excerts from the Occupy Seattle Forums:

We just got back from the opening march for Occupy Portland, and were even more disappointed by how liberal, reformist, and nonthreatening it was than we had expected. The website for Occupy Portland had promised that "proper actions" would be taken against "instigators" of any "illegal activity (property destruction etc.)," which we can only interpret as a threat to snitch to the cops, so we went with low expectations, but this was by all means a massive disappointment even taking into account our pessimism from the get-go.


We attended the opening march for Occupy Portland because we are some angry-ass proles who really hate capitalism. Although Occupy Wall Street (and the various off-shoot occupations) have few official defined goals or positions, there is a general opposition to "corporate greed" and "corrupt politics". As anarchists, we seek to expose and destroy the roots of these problems - as long as capitalism and the state exist, there will be greedy corporations and corrupt politicians. Capitalism and the state cannot be reformed into something kinder, gentler, or more humane, it is exploitative by nature. We wished to push the discourse at Occupy Portland in a more radical, explicitly anti-capitalist and anti-state direction.

Why are these guys always trying to take over while complaining about how no one should be in charge in the same breath? Dont you just love cognitive dissonance?

Although Occupy Wall Street and the offshoot occupations are supposed to be leaderless movements, we found that there were most definitely leaders who managed everything, from the route to the chants to who was allowed to be at the front of the march to who was allowed up on the microphone at the rally at the end of the march. To be clear, this was a hierarchical, authoritarian event. These leaders/organizers, especially the wannabe-cops wearing blue "peacekeeper" armbands, are not our comrades in any way, shape, or form. When the march stopped at Pioneer Courthouse Square, the "peacekeepers" (whose role it was to de-escalate any conflict should it arise) chanted to the bike cops something along the lines of "Thank you cops, we love you!" It should be self-evident to anyone who doesn't have their head stuck up their ass that the police are not our allies. The police protect property over people and enact violence daily along lines of oppression. The police exist to protect and serve capital. The police uphold the very institutions that the Occupy movement is supposedly fighting. When we brought out the usual anti-cop chants ("All cops are bastards, ACAB" and "No justice, no peace! Fuck the police!") we were shouted over and told to calm down. One of the peacekeepers called out on the megaphone, "we need volunteers to block the anarchists because they're being negative and this is a positive event!" We were repeatedly told that "cops are the 99% too!", which made us very sad that so few people have any understanding of how class society functions. Cops are class traitors and the enemy.

The person who spoke on the microphone before us said something along the lines of "this is a revolution that started in Egypt and is now sweeping the globe!" The Occupy Portland organizers conveniently forget that in Egypt, they actually fought the cops. Again and again, past movements are rewritten as nonviolent and nonconfrontational, and anyone who dares to draw clear lines in the sand with the cops on the other side is silenced and branded divisive and a threat to the movement.

Obviously these cats think they can rail road the movement to obey their twisted demands to go against all civilized actions straight to murder, arson, and depraved chaos. But as you can see Seattle organizers dealt with the situation properly.

http://forum.occupyseattle.org/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=36

Kate Danley on OCCUPY Wall Street

What They did not want you to ever find out is that your generation, the gener...ation born between 1980-1995, actually outnumbers the Baby Boomers. They knew that if you ever turned your eye towards political reform, you could change the world.

They tried to keep you sated on vapid television shows and vapid music. They cut off your education and fed you brain candy. They took away your music and gave you Top Ten pop stations. They cut off your art and replaced it with endless reality shows for you to plug into, hoping you would sit quietly by as They ran the world. I think They thought you were too dumb to notice.

Indeed, I thought They had won.

But I watched you occupy the capital of Wisconsin. I see you today as you occupy Wall Street. And I see a spark, a glimmer of the glorious new age that is yours. A changing of the guard, a guard that has stood for entirely too long and needs your young legs to take his place.

I watch you turn away from what is easy and stand up for what is right. I see you understand we as a society are only as strong as our weakest link. I see you wise beyond your years. And I am proud. Give ‘em hell, kids. You are beautiful. -Kate Danley

#OCCUPY Support Team U.S. Branch - Donate to the Cause and get cool stuff!

These items and More are available now!

We also have a Pure donations page where you can donate fund so we can produce stickers, buttons and more to ship out to Media Teams across the Country!

THX

OCCUPY Support Team [U.S. Branch]

Click here to Support OCCUPY Wall Street with your Donations and purchases!

Henry Rollins on OCCUPY Wall Street

Progressive Counter-balance to the Tea Party movement born out of #Occupywallstreet

Today when I was checking my Facebook feed I stumbled across an episode of Up w/ Chris Hayes on msnbc.com and he had Van Jones on his panel and Jones gave an interesting plug. Van Jones's Rebuild the dream movement is planning to launch a Progressive Campaign movement in 2012 out of the #Occupywallstreet protests.

To me this is music to my ears how great would it be if we had a government with values like putting kids through college, actually stopping climate change so we don't get screwed like in the Day After Tomorrow. Make the outsourcing corporations bring their jobs back to America. I think if Occupy Wall St. & Van Jones rebuild the dream movement succeed we could be on the verge of a new America and a better one for the good of the people.

http://rebuildthedream.com/blog/2011/10/06/lets-make-history-solidarity-with-occupy-wall-street/

We Are the 99%.

#OCCUPY: Cool Photo by Lee Ranaldo

SOURCE LINK

#OOCUPY Update: Anarchist's try to PWN OWS Movement, epic fail imminent

Anarchists: trying to steal everyone else's thunder again as usual. You dont own any activist movements you just like to get stomped and arrested at everyone else's movements in order to steal headlines. Thanks but no thanks...

Why should you listen to us? In short, because we’ve been at this a long time already. We’ve spent decades struggling against capitalism, organizing occupations, and making decisions by consensus. If this new movement doesn’t learn from the mistakes of previous ones, we run the risk of repeating them. We’ve summarized some of our hard-won lessons here.

Don’t fetishize obedience to the law. Laws serve to protect the privileges of the wealthy and powerful; obeying them is not necessarily morally right—it may even be immoral. Slavery was legal. The Nazis had laws too. We have to develop the strength of conscience to do what we know is best, regardless of the laws.

Dont fall for the provocateurs hype. Thats all they ever have to contribute to any movemnet they have tried to co-opt and disrupt, hype and nothing more.

Don’t assume those who break the law or confront police are agents provocateurs. A lot of people have good reason to be angry. Not everyone is resigned to legalistic pacifism; some people still remember how to stand up for themselves. Police violence isn’t just meant to provoke us, it’s meant to hurt and scare us into inaction. In this context, self-defense is essential.


Assuming that those at the front of clashes with the authorities are somehow in league with the authorities is not only illogical—it delegitimizes the spirit it takes to challenge the status quo, and dismisses the courage of those who are prepared to do so. This allegation is typical of privileged people who have been taught to trust the authorities and fear everyone who disobeys them.

See, they can tell we are on to them....

No government—that is to say, no centralized power—will ever willingly put the needs of common people before the needs of the powerful. It’s naïve to hope for this. The center of gravity in this movement has to be our freedom and autonomy, and the mutual aid that can sustain those—not the desire for an “accountable” centralized power. No such thing has ever existed; even in 1789, the revolutionaries presided over a “democracy” with slaves, not to mention rich and poor.


The occupations will thrive on the actions we take. We’re not just here to “speak truth to power”—when we only speak, the powerful turn a deaf ear to us. Let’s make space for autonomous initiatives and organize direct action that confronts the source of social inequalities and injustices.

They cant be serious...they admit that petitioning the Government for grievances is pointless while trying to lay claim on every social movement of the last hundred years?


The cognitive dissonance in that statement is deep enough for a psychosis...

SOURCE LINK

Even Alex Jones could tell you this statement is total bullshit...

Screen Capture from Prisonplanet.com

Corporate boot licker tries to delegitimize #OCCUPY Movement

Beware the "agent provacteurs"...there are unfortunately....people he'll bent on destroying this movement....so they behave badly for their own personal motivations whether its for the police to step in or bankers etc. Bottom line - there will be attempts to delegitimize this movement. Do not let them. No violence.

The conservative writer then went on to explain what exactly he was doing leading the charge past museum guards into the building itself:

[A]s far as anyone knew I was part of this cause — a cause that I had infiltrated the day before in order to mock and undermine in the pages of The American Spectator — and I wasn’t giving up before I had my story. Under a cloud of pepper spray I forced myself into the doors and sprinted blindly across the floor of the Air and Space Museum…

The liberal blog Fire Dog Lake, used a detail of a photo shot of the protesters just inside the entrance, and lined it up with Howley’s Facebook profile.

True to his admitted purpose, Howley mocked the 99 Percent Movement for a disorganized meeting at Freedom Plaza, the base camp for D.C.’s “Occupy Wall Street” franchise, derided the bulk of protesters for not disobeying the museum guards (“all of a sudden liberal shoes started marching less forcefully”), and said he was “proud” to get pepper sprayed:

I deserved to get a face full of high-grade pepper, and the guards who sprayed me acted with more courage than I saw from any of the protesters.

The evidence doesn’t seem to show that Howley incited protesters to do anything they weren’t already primed to do, but his stated intention to “undermine” the 99 Percent Movement and associated demonstrations — and his position leading the charge of protesters at the museum entrance — indicate a little more activism than simply an attempt to get a close look at protests, as Howley says, “for journalistic purposes.”

SOURCE LINK

#OCCUPY Update: DONT OCCUPY WALLS POSTER

A warning to Graffiti writers from the ANONYMOUS / Occupy Wall Street Movement / International Occupation Movements / Revolutionaries World Wide:


We will assume you are Rigth-Wing Tea Party haters, Anti-Labor operatives, Corporate Banking Thugs, or City Police disguised as Anarchists.


You will be dealt with if we have to turn you over to the Police ourselves.


We will not permit vandalism of city property during demonstrations or areas surrounding Occupation Camp Sites.


We will not allow our movement to be disenfrachised for your props.


We have invested our lives for the poor and disenfracnised everywhere who are counting on us.


Dont be jerks. Respect is a two-way road.

You are welcome to Join Us and paint signs with us.

DOWNLOAD VIEW POSTER HERE

BLACK AND WHITE VERSION HERE

#OCCUPY Wall Street Journal - PDF Download

Direct PDF Download Here

Update on #Occupy Seattle from Very Cool Mayor

We understand that Occupy Seattle wishes to have a sustained presence in Westlake Park for the purpose of expressing their views. From the outset we have been trying to work out a solution that meets the city’s needs and Occupy Seattle’s need to protest against wealth inequality in our country.


My staff has been reaching out to and communicating with members of Occupy Seattle. Here’s how we are proceeding:

* We are providing a permit for protest activities at Westlake Park which will allow them to have an organizing tent that can remain overnight. As a condition of the permit, protestors will have to allow for cleaning of the park, protect park property, accommodate the other existing permitted events, and protect access to businesses.
* We are making City Hall Plaza available for those that wish to stay overnight, with reasonable restrictions on the tents so as to allow free use of the plaza during the day. Unlike Westlake, City Hall also has restroom facilities available. Both the permit and the ability to set up tents at City Hall Plaza would last for two weeks, at which point we can assess whether the arrangement is meeting everyone’s needs and should be extended.

These are extraordinary times. We have seen the Occupy Wall Street movement take off in cities across the country, and there’s a reason for it. There is real anger about the unprecedented concentration of wealth and power in this country and the inequality it has produced. I share the values and the message of the Occupy Wall Street movement. We want to provide the opportunity for the people of Seattle to express their views. And we are.


Posted by: Mayor Mike McGinn

SOURCE LINK

Right Here All Over - A film from #OCCUPY NYC

Right Here All Over (Occupy Wall St.) from Alex Mallis on Vimeo.

A new angle on Occupy Wall Street reveals the strong micro community that has formed there.

Alex Mallis

#Occupy Update: iPhone and Android Apps for Activists

Here is a short but very effective list of Apps for phones that can really save you alot of toruble when attending Rallies, Conventions, and many other Security related events in your life. Esspecially ones that involve the Law...

Audioboo: This application allows you to record sound and then publish it to your Audioboo account directly from your iPhone. The application is supported by Audioboo.com where you need register for a free account. It has its own categorized community of others’ boos you can listen to, follow and favourite. In addition the site provides you with embed codes for audio players for each boo so you can embed them anywhere the code is supported.

The application comes in handy when you want to conduct a vox pop or perhaps record what is being said at a rally or in a meeting with politicians. However, it is limited by the fact that you cannot edit the audio before it is uploaded, so it is important to know what you want to ask or say before you begin. An additional limitation is that there is no way of saving the audio file to upload Audioboo application and site registration is free.


Documents 2: This application lets you use your iPhone as a storage device so you can carry documents with you. In addition to having a storage device you can download documents from your Google Documents account, through a WiFi connection or an FTP account. It’s handy when you can send emails with the necessary documents when you’re not at your desk or in front of your laptop. Not having the right documents at hand could cause a delay in distributing key information through email or even through blogs and social media.

The application however is limited by the iPhone’s capabilities. You can download a free version but it comes with advertisements, which are not overly annoying.


Flickr (or Photobucket): Sharing your photos through Facebook and Twitter is great but it probably isn’t reaching your entire network; or even the widest possible audience. Using applications like the one from Flickr to upload photos to your account can help increase the visibility of your photo(s). The application gives you the option of adding a title, description, tags and assign pictures to albums; as well as the picture size. There is the option to upload multiple pictures. The interface is simple to use however, it can be confusing as to how you upload a picture the first time you try.

The application is free but requires a Flickr account, which is also free. If you’re using Yahoo!7 mail or have an account then you’re ready to go.

Photobucket is another photo sharing and networking site. It’s application is sophisticated and easy to use, with options to add a title, description, tags and assign pictures to albums. Like the Flickr application, you need to have a Photobucket account to use the application. It’s free to download and to register a Photobucket account.


Qik Video: lets you record video using the iPhone's camera. It's also possible tostream the video live to the Internet.

There are a range of video modes to select from before shooting your video. For example youshoot video in sepia, black and white or with frost, among others. The application alsoincludes zoom and light-balance functionalities. It's an easy-to-understand and easy-to-useapplication.You can connect the application with your Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter accounts to helptell all your followers about the video.

This application is great for activists while they're out attending a rally or demonstration. Itcan also be a great tool to interview different people involved with the campaign to add toyour blog or share with friends on Facebook and Twitter; including in real time, as it'shappening.


PhotoShop Express: This application is a god-send. Having looked at a large range of photo-editing applications, this is by far the best one. There will be those that argue thatInstagram is the better application, I find the fact that membership to a site not be necessary to be a major advantage.

PhotoShop Express is from those wonderful folk at PhotoShop. The application is a very simple, cut-down version of the PhotoShop. It gives you a limited range of functionality butit does deliver is powerful and effective.

The application also allows you share your edited pictures with your online social networks.There are no limitations on the number of pictures you can edit and it is free to download.


Bambuser: is a popular app already used by many Middle Eastern activists.

The sheer power of Bambuser came to light when Egyptian activist Tarek Shalaby was arrested during a protest outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo. In the harrowing recording, which streamed live at the time of his arrest, you can clearly hear Egyptian security forces attacking protesters.

In addition to live streaming video, you can automatically connect the service to your social networks, sending a notification to Facebook, Twitter and 10 other sites, that you’re video is live.

Bambuser is available as a free download and is compatible with over 260 phone models, including all iPhone models, Nokia phones and a wide variety of Android phones.


AndroidLost: Activists in the Middle East face a serious risk of being arrested by governmental security forces. Their smartphones, while an essential weapon in protests, can easily become a weapon used against them when detained. One way in which activists can protect themselves, and their contacts’ identities, is by wiping their phones and restoring them to factory settings.

AndroidLost is available as a free download from the Android Market. After you’ve installed and activated the app on your phone, you can log into the web interface where you can remotely control your phone.

You can share your log-in information with a trusted friend, or under Security you can add their phone number so they can SMS commands to your phone, which will come in handy if WiFi or data has been disabled. You can also enter a passcode to lock your phone, and most importantly if you have sensitive data on your phone, you can wipe the SD card or reset the phone to factory settings.

Total F*cking Idiots trying to spread Disinformation fail miserably

Whoever wasted their time making and posting this image is an idiot. I cant say that any better.

The movement is not an anti-capitalist nor an anti-corporation movement, its a Movement against a corrupt financial system that has stolen from the American people to line its pockets. The housing crisis was a manufactured attack on the people in an effort to take their homes. And when America was forced to bailout the banks the banks used the funds to give themselves raises, buy private jets and other crap you would expect from crooks and thieves.

I keep seeing the news talkingheads confused about what the movement is about... it's not AGAINST corporations, it's about ending their disproportionate influence on political policy via financial contributions. 

Politicians no longer represent 'the governed', they represent whoever gives them the largest campaign contributions (read: bribes) and unfortunately us common working folk cant afford to 'lobby' (read: bribe) them to preserve OUR interests so companies prosper at the expense of the 99%. 

It would take anyone 2 seconds of research to find that our for themselves, Olbermann read the Occupy Wall Street Statement on the air earlier this week! I guarantee you these kids are doing the right thing based on a simple observation technique you can test for yourself. Listen to RUSH, Glenn Beck, any Right wing politician, and any other corporate mouth piece you can dig up and see if they are for or against this movement! Then you will know for sure that, whatever the goals of this movement may be, it is righteous!

So we also have some 'Sock Puppet' action on Social Networking Sites trying to spread lies and scare people from gathering in new cities, so be on the lookout for this kind of garbage. Of course its no real surprise when you have your typical asshat bootlicking Commentators posing as politicians and 'Reporters' standing up for the 1% en masse.



Eric Cantor (Merrill Lynch-R) is now calling the protesters across the country a "mob" and is very upset that people are standing against this huge income inequality and legalized corruption. He is the House Majority Leader...the 2nd highest leadership post in the House. Its safe to say that he speaks for the whole of the Republican party. Interestingly...he was and is a HUGE supporter of the "Tea Party" protesters.

And then there is this shit passing for News...

#OCCUPY Wall Street updates from The Young Turks

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99% in DC

Obama make statement about #OCCUPY Wall Street Movement

“What I think is that the American people understand that not everybody has been following the rules, that Wall Street is an example of that, that folks who are working hard every single day, getting up, going to the job, loyal to their companies, that that used to be the essence of the American dream,” Obama explained. “That’s how you got ahead, the old fashioned way. And these days a lot of folks who are doing the right thing aren’t rewarded and a lot of folks who aren’t doing the right thing are rewarded."

FOLLOW LINK TO VIEW VIDEO