by Nicole Capobianco

As a member of Occupy Wall Street since its beginning 7 months ago, I have been doing the balancing act between being enrolled as a full time student and being an activist. I find myself to be a small but important part of a much larger collective, one in which I believe in wholeheartedly. So what do you believe? Most of my classmates seem shockingly apathetic these days. Meanwhile, I’m keeping track of the latest right we’ve lost, the newest surveillance technique that is being used, and how the illusion of freedom melts away into an ugly reality. With that ugliness also comes my individual political will to act against injustice and instigate change for the betterment of society.

I have 25 hours of class a week. That’s 8 classes and 18 credits this semester. The work for those classes is an additional 25 hours, and my job takes up between 14-20 hours a week. Put that together and you quickly realize that even eating and sleeping healthily takes a hit from all of this activity. The rest of my time since September has been devoted to furthering the Occupy movement in various ways, as this cause has become a huge part of me. I therefore decided to compile some advice for my fellow students, in the hopes that they will use this as a tool to engage in activism while still keeping up with their commitment to academics.

The core of time management has been balance. When I began this journey in September, I had already chosen my semester’s schedule and my work schedule. Needless to say, it didn’t play to my advantage. I was doing too much, and I ended up being sick three times in a three month period. Winter break approached and I changed my schedule to one that would work best to accommodate my activism. I started cooking my food again instead of ordering out. I started to use my weekends as a time of flexibility to do school work, freelance work, or movement work. I told myself I wouldn’t miss class time to protest, realizing that I had been locked into mortgaging my future through loans that brought me to school. It sometimes seems like school is irrelevant when thinking about revolution, but this is my reality and so balance became an important part of how I manage to take the streets. And, hey, I still made the dean’s list!

The second way to be a productive student and activist is to treat campus as if it is an outreach hub. Students have a vested interest in the issues of Occupy Wall Street, even though many of them don’t know it. It’s about each person realizing that there are various things that oppress them, and that they have a stake in the future of this movement. Many students live in a bubble, with thoughts such as “I still have two more years till I graduate and have to get a job” and “This education will give me the connections and skills to pay off these loans easily” being paramount in their minds.

When challenged about Occupy, others say stuff like “My parents paid for my education upfront so I don’t have any loans to worry about.” Or, my favorite, “My parents are part of the 1%, and protestors don’t know what they are protesting about.” Whether it is subtle or loud, I can find one thousand and one ways to loop the conversation back into one about the various issues contained within Occupy and the general importance of dissent within groups of young people, like us, students.

One of the most important things you can do as a student activist is to be honest with your professors. You would be surprised how many of them will support you, even if you are involved in political actions that do not align with their personal politics. If you plan on going to an action that has the possibility of arrest, contact your professors beforehand – and ideally in person. Explain to them that you are going to the action because it is something you believe in and because it is your right to do so, and if an assignment is due, let them know that you have a classmate ready who can present your work so it is not late.

The professors that I have approached have been overwhelmingly positive with words of encouragement and support. When Liberty Plaza was evicted and I was out all night, I texted my professor at about 8 AM to let him know that I wouldn’t make my 9.30 AM class. He told me to simply get some sleep. Teachers are part of the 99% too, and they often respect your right to redress your grievances – and that you’re doing something for the greater good – even if it’s technically inconsistent with the rules of their higher education establishment.

Overall, the best advice I can give is to focus on the things that you can do. You could spend all day making up a list of things you can’t accomplish and things that can’t change, but your willingness to act will make a difference in the struggle. Know your power as a student, as someone who made the conscious choice to learn, and as someone who knows that education is a right of all human beings. Don’t wait until later. Later comes a full time job, more commitments, relationships, more excuses to justify apathy and indifference. Most importantly, do not be afraid.

On May Day I will be on strike during one of my final exams, and later that night when my 5 PM till midnight work shift is due to begin. We run the world that they own, and they enslave us with debt. As a student it is depressing to think that I haven’t spent one day of my adult life without negative dollar signs above my head. We have the power to change these structures. Join me, rise up, and occupy everything!

Nicole Capobianco is a freelance photographer and web designer, facilitator of the Radical Education Collective, and a student at the Pratt Institute seeking a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Photography. She lives in Brooklyn, NY. She considers herself a collaborator with an aesthetic eye for composition and design. Nicole is an artist, a thinker, and a revolutionary who has been involved with Occupy Wall Street since day one. She enjoys reading, dialogue, good food, making art, and being by the ocean. Her photography can be seen on her website: nicolecapobianco.com/. Her Twitter handle is: @nbcapobia

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by Blogbot / Photography: Zach Roberts

On the second Tuesday of each month, the ladies and gentlemen of Geek Girl Burlesque take over the Bowery Poetry Club in NYC for a night of naughty ‘n’ nerdy fun. April’s Geek Girl performance was dubbed “Pasties and Popcorn,” and paid tribute to some of the troupe’s favorite movies. The evening, which did indeed feature both pasties and bags bursting with popcorn, included performances inspired by classics such as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Sweeney Todd, Nightmare on Elm Street, Hocus Pocus and Saw.

The show was compered by Whit Leyenberger and Jilli Puff, who were in character as the under-age couple at the heart of Diablo Cody’s Academy Award-winning tale of teenage pregnancy, Juno. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the evening came at the end, when, after a quick costume change Jilli Puff returned to the stage as Penny Johnson from Dirty Dancing and revealed her bump was no stage prop while doing a turn appropriately enough to the tune of “Be My Baby.” Another highlight was watching Little Miss Rollerhoops, as Wednesday Addams, having a little too much fun with the disembodied hand from The Addams Family. Who knew The Thing could be so, errr, handy?

The next Geek Girl performance is on May 8th and will be steampunk themed in anticipation of the Steampunk World’s Faire, held May 18-20 at the Radisson in Piscataway, New Jersey, where the ensemble will also be making an appearance.

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by Nicole Powers

We’ve been busting out editorial for the SG Blog out of investigative journalist Greg Palast’s NYC office for the past few weeks and the continuing story of BP’s Deepwater Horizon blow-out has literally been blowing up around us after a whistleblower has come forward with damning new evidence against the oil company.

In a previous SG interview with Greg, we learned that the oil rig incident that occurred in the Gulf on April 20, 2010 wasn’t an unforeseen accident, as BP claimed, but was almost identical to a blow-out that occurred on BP’s rig off the coast of Azerbaijan in the Caspian Sea in September 2008. The cause was the same in both cases: the use of cost-saving quick dry cement.

If BP had been more open about the incident in 2008, and had stopped using this “penny-pinching cement process” the worst oil spill in US history would probably never have happened and the eleven oil workers who perished on the Gulf rig as a result of the blow-out would most likely still be alive.

In a post published today on Ecowatch Greg writes:

We have learned this week that BP failed to notify the International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC) about the failure of the cement. (British companies report incidents as minor as a hammer dropped.) Notification would have alerted Gulf cement contractor Halliburton that the process of adding nitrogen to cement posed unforeseen dangers.

In fact, this past December, BP attempted to place the blame and costs of the Gulf disaster on Halliburton, the oil services company that injected quick-dry cement into the well under the Deepwater Horizon. BP told a federal court that Halliburton concealed a computer model that would show that, under certain conditions, the cement could fail disastrously.

Following the Deepwater Horizon explosion, it became clear that nitrogen-laced mud can leave “channels” in the cement, allowing gas to escape and blow out the well-bore cap. However, that would have become clearer, and risks better assessed, had Halliburton and regulators known of the particulars of the Caspian blow-out.

We have also just learned that the cement casing itself appears to have cracked apart in the Caspian Sea. The sea, we were told, “was bubbling all around [from boiling methane]. You’re even scared to launch a life boat, it may sink.”

This exposed another problem with deepwater drilling. BP had promoted Blow-Out Preventers (BOPs) as a last line of defense in case of a blow-out. But if the casing shatters, the BOPs could be useless.

BP has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal the story of the first blow-out, and for good reason: If the company deliberately withheld the information that it knew “quick-dry” cement had failed yet continued to use it, the 11 deaths on its Gulf rig were not an unexpected accident but could be considered negligent homicide.

Furthermore, had BP fessed up to the past failure of their drilling methods when seeking permission to expand their drilling operations in US waters, their activities would more than likely have been somewhat curtailed. So instead, they lied by omission to our government under oath:

BP and the industry conducted a successful lobbying campaign to expand deep water drilling. BP’s Vice-President for operations in the Gulf, David Rainey, testified before Congress in November 2009, five months before the Deepwater Horizon explosion that, “Releases from oil and gas operations are rare.” Rainey assured Congressmen that reliable “well control techniques” such as cement caps will prevent a deep water disaster.

Rainey made no mention to Congress of the blow-out in the Caspian Sea which occurred a year before his testimony.

In the two years following the spill, BP has dumped a lot of resources into a public relations effort to clean up their reputation as opposed to the actual ongoing effect of the spill (we’ve all seen those very expensive and slick looking TV ads). It’s therefore no surprise that this week Al Jazeera posted a story about how the high incidence of “horribly deformed” fish found in the Gulf is alarming fishermen and scientists alike. Eyeless shrimp or clawless crab for dinner anyone?

About Greg Palast
Greg Palast’s reports can be seen on BBC Television’s Newsnight. He is a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow for investigative reporting, and is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Armed Madhouse.

His latest book, Vultures’ Picnic: In Pursuit of Petroleum Pigs, Power Pirates and High-Finance Predators, which he describes as “a tale of oil, sex, shoes, radiation and investigative reporting,” is available now. Visit GregPalast.com and VulturesPicnic.com for more info.

Greg Palast and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are the co-authors of a comic-style voter guide called Steal Back Your Vote. They are also collaborating on a new book and DVD entitled Election Games: Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, which will expose the one percent’s attempt to steal the 2012 election through “hidden cash and vote heists.” Support their investigation via Kickstarter here.

Related Posts:
Greg Palast – Steal Back Your Vote 2012 Part 1: Understanding Super PACs
Vultures’ Picnic: We Figured Out Who Murdered Jake
Uber-Vultures: The Billionaires Who Would Pick Our President
Tokyo Electric To Build US Nuclear Plants: The No-BS Info On Japan’s Disastrous Nuclear Operators
Stick Your Damn Hand In It: 20th Birthday of the Exxon Valdez Lie
Obama is a two-faced liar. Aw-RIGHT!
Why An Asshole Is Always In Charge
The Steal You Won’t See
SG Interview: Greg Palast – Steal Back Your Vote
SuicideGirls Steal Back Your Vote

by Blogbot

Born of the internet age, 25-year old flame-haired Laurie Penny aka @PennyRed is front and center of the new guard of left wing activist journalists. Having made substantial waves in the UK with her outspoken opinions on politics, feminism and gender, the London born provocateur is currently putting the cat amongst the pigeons in New York City where she has been reporting on the Occupy movement, among other things. A self-identifying utopian, the revolutionary writer fearlessly makes use of the word socialist. Another word Penny would like to see rehabilitated and restored to the common vernacular is cunt. Here she explains why…

Laurie Penny: In Defence Of Cunt
2 February 2011

It is, according to Germaine Greer, the one word in the English language that retains the power to shock. This week, after the third BBC newsman in two months – this time the revered Jeremy Paxman – dropped the c-bomb on live television, it appears that the world’s best-respected broadcasting operation is in the grip of a collective and extremely specific form of Tourette syndrome, whereby presenters can’t help but slip the worst word of all into casual conversation. One is reminded of those playground horror stories of cursed words, infectious words that, once read or overheard, niggle away in the forefront of your brain until, like poison, you’re forced to spit them out, with deadly consequences. But what – ultimately – is so terribly offensive about the word ‘cunt’?

The word shocks because what it signifies is still considered shocking. Francis Grose’s 1785 A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue defines ‘cunt’ quite simply as ‘a nasty name for a nasty thing’. All sorts of people have a problem with ‘cunt’, even those who normally consider themselves progressive and enlightened: last week, for example, I was invited to speak at a public meeting where I happened to use the word in reference to a member of the audience.

Horrified silence fell in this roomful of hardened activists, followed a few seconds later by nervously appreciative laughter. The incident later exploded on the internet, with some complaining that I had had no right to use such a provocative and shocking word at a meeting; that the word is too aggressive, too graphic. These, for context, are people who are currently cheerleading calls for a general strike and/ or the overthrow of the government, but they still consider a young woman saying ‘cunt’ in public a little too, too much.

What is it about that word? Why, in a world of 24-hour porn channels, a world with Rihanna’s ‘Rude Boy’ playing on the radio and junior pole-dancing kits sold in Tesco, is the word ‘cunt’ still so shocking? It’s a perfectly nice little word, a word with 800 years of history; a word used by Chaucer and by Shakespeare. It’s the only word we have to describe the female genitalia that is neither mawkish, nor medical, nor a function of pornography. Semantically, it serves the same function as ‘dick’ or ‘prick’ – a signifier for a sexual organ which can also be used as a descriptor or insult, a word that is not passive, but active, even aggressive.

There are no other truly empowering words for the female genitalia. ‘Pussy’ is nastily diminutive, as if every woman had a tame and purring pet between her legs, while the medical descriptor ‘vagina’ refers only to a part of the organ, as if women’s sexuality were nothing more than a wet hole, or ‘sheath’ in the Latin. Cunt, meanwhile, is a word for the whole thing, a wholesome word, an earthy, dank and lusty word with the merest hint of horny threat. Cunt. It’s fantastically difficult to pronounce without baring the teeth.

It is this kind of female sexuality – active, adult female sexuality – that still has the power to horrify even the most forward-thinking logophile. Despite occasional attempts by feminists such as Eve Ensler to ‘reclaim’ the word cunt as the powerful, vital, visceral sexual signifier that it is, the taboo seems only to have become stronger. Media officials avoid it with the superstitious revulsion once reserved for evil-eye words, as if even pronouncing ‘cunt’ might somehow conjure one into existence. The BBC wouldn’t be in half so much trouble if James Naughtie had called Jeremy Hunt MP a ‘prick’ or a ‘wanker’ or a ‘cold-blooded Tory fucker’.

For me, ‘cunt’ is, and will always be, a word of power, whether it denotes my own genitals or any obstreperous comrades in the vicinity. The first time I ever used it, I was 12 years old, and being hounded by a group of sixth-form boys who just loved to corner me on the stairs and make hilarious sexy comments. One day, one of them decided it would be funny to pick me up by the waist and shake me. I spat out the words ‘put me down, you utter cunt’, and the boy was so shocked that he dropped me instantly.

Ever since then, ‘cunt’ has been a cherished part of my lexical armour. I use it liberally: in conversation, in the bedroom, and in debates. I only wish I could hear more women saying it, more of us reclaiming ‘cunt’ as a word of sexual potency and common discourse rather than a dirty, forbidden word. If the BBC continues its oily pattern of vulgar logorrhoea, I’d like to hear Julia Bradbury saying it on Countryfile. I’d like to hear Kirsty Young saying it on Desert Island Discs.

Men have so many words that they can use to hint at their own sexual power, but we have just the one, and it’s still the worst word you can say on the telly. Let’s all get over ourselves about ‘cunt’. Let’s use it and love it.

In Defence Of Cunt is excerpted from the book Penny Red: Notes from the New Age of Dissent, and is reprinted with the kind permission of Pluto Press.

by Blogbot

Since April 9, Occupy Wall Street protesters have been physically occupying Wall Street. Armed with sleeping bags and a copy of the 2000 Metropolitan Council Inc. v. Safir court ruling – which sets a precedent for legal overnight street vigils – protesters have been camping out on the sidewalk at the intersection of Broad Street and Wall Street, in the shadow of the New York Stock Exchange and the Federal Hall National Memorial, which stand cater-corner to one another.

With temperatures rising from nighttime lows of 43 °F earlier in the week to 66 °F on Sunday evening, sleeping outdoors has been transformed into a positively pleasant prospect, which no doubt has the NYPD on edge. As one protester put it when we visited last night, sleeping on the street under these balmy conditions was actually preferable to spending the night in the confines of her dank and dusty Brooklyn basement residence.

However, the increasingly idyllic vigil got a rude awakening at around 6 AM this morning, when the NYPD apparently decided to move in and remove the protesters – despite the fact that the law appears to be on their side in this instance. Indeed, campers had taken care to ensure they complied with guidelines suggested by the National Lawyers Guild. These included taking up no more than 50 percent of the pavement so as not to block it, and not utilizing any kind of cots or structures, which might easily attract the contention of authorities.

When we left the Wall Street “Sleep-In” at around 4 AM, the atmosphere was distinctly jovial and relaxed, with protesters noting that unlike the President they were actually making a positive difference as they slept. However, less than two hours later, the NYPD apparently broke up the OWS slumber party.

OccupyWallSt.org reports:

At least four people have been arrested and Occupiers are currently assembled on the steps of Federal Hall (which is under jurisdiction of National Parks police), where they are discussing whether or not to reject demands they submit to a daily permitting regime. Consensus at this point favors delaying until additional legal help arrives on scene. For the moment, National Parks police appear to be tolerating a limited Occupy presence on Federal Hall steps, but mass arrests may be imminent. A motion for an emergency injunction against NYPD disruption of our sidewalk protests on Wall Street was reportedly filed this morning.

And New York Magazine, which carried more detail on specific arrests, noted that:

Controlling the narrative seems important for the city in the wake of last fall’s turbulent clearing of Zuccotti Park: Stamping out this new trend before it grows — and gains widespread media attention — is ideal, lest an Occupy Wall Street renaissance seem possible to not just the protesters, but to the public. For the city, fighting a few demonstrators in court might be preferable to facing growing numbers of them on the streets again.

Photography: © Nicole Powers 2012

by Blogbot

A gathering of the Occupy tribes was held in NYC’s Central Park on Saturday, April 14th. The event, which was intended to serve as a Spring Awakening for the movement, succeeded in its goal, attracting a large and diverse crowd. Among them was Christopher Sean Grosek and his Occupy Lego Land miniature friends.

Photography: Nicole Powers
For more Spring Awakening images visit our gallery on SuicideGirls.com

by Blogbot

SuicideGirls recently met up with Lego artist Christopher Sean Grosek and a delegation of his Occupy Lego Land denizens, who were attempting to reoccupy New York’s Union Square.

Following Occupy Wall Street’s eviction from Zuccotti Park late last year, in recent weeks protesters have been looking for another space to call home. Much of the action has therefore been centered on Union Square, a location which – until the occupiers arrived – had traditionally remained open 24/7. However, the NYPD – intent of preventing OWS from regaining a permanent foothold in the city – has been clearing the park at midnight and forcing protesters behind barricades. This nightly pantomime has been dubbed “Eviction Theater” by occupiers.

Having been kicked out of the park with the protesters at just past midnight (an action that resulted in a couple of arrests the night we were there), the Occupy Lego Land crew regrouped across the road to avoid incarceration in something more severe than a toy crate. As they began re-staging their protest in earnest, the Legotti Park veterans were joined by photographers, videographers, livestreamers – and a brand new member of their ranks.

Brickette is a wannabe SG, who is enthusiastic in her support of the 99%. Unfortunately, she’s also enthusiastic about liquor that is 90% proof, as we found out earlier that evening…After being bowled over in a bar by a handsome member of the opposite sex, who was carrying a rather bold sign saying he was “Too Big To Fail,” Brickette proceeded to hook up with him while getting fall-down intoxicated on alcohol rather than love.

Despite disgracing herself in public with her drunken antics, Brickette ultimately redeemed herself. Bolstered by a little Dutch courage of the kind best produced in Scotland, she charmed the NYPD officers guarding Union Square with her big…personality, and got them to agree to let the Occupy Lego Land protesters reenter Union Square. Lego it seems, is a uniter rather than a divider, and Occupy Lego Land’s army is a powerful ally to spread the love for the 99%.

After being invited to many other occupations across the country, and across the globe, Occupy Lego Land has started a WePay fundraising campaign for travel expenses. You can help them out by donating here.