13 October 2011

And we’ve got ourselves an “Occupy Canberra”

| johnboy
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With “Occupy Wall Street” spreading as a meme across the world it was only really a matter of time.

Facebook has the home for “Occupy Canberra”.

The occupy movement is a movement which is bringing attention to a corrupt system. You see, The RBA – Reserve Bank of Australia is not any part of the government. It is a corporation set up to loan money to the Australian govt (the Australians) after they take all the Australian Income Tax. The collateral is Australian’s Income Taxes. There is more connected to the RBA. it’s our Central Bank, but not a bank. It doesn’t do transactions, doesn’t provide ATMs, doesn’t have retail store fronts, or public staff. It sets the interest rate for the Banks, yet it takes over 60-80% of the interest of this country’s mortgages. And yes, remember the banks charge 1-2% on top of the ‘Reserve Rate’. Banks provide valuable services. What does this Australian corporation provide? And where does this debt collected money go? Not to the government. It flows the other way…

UPDATE: The RBA rant has gone from their info page and this is now what it’s about:

Firstly:

I think it’s important to add that people gather together in this group for all different reasons, as this movement has no leader and is grassroot movement. There will be many different views but we are here to respect one another, care for and show positivity toward each other and the group. We will stand together in Solidarity 🙂

With that being said here is a short intro on the way many people view this (but note this is only ONE view of many)

We face the same problems with our democracy here in Canberra and Australia as people face in most other developed nations. It is unwell. It’s not functioning how it’s supposed to be functioning. Our elected representatives no longer represent their constituents, instead their ears are turned by wealthy lobby groups, whilst the common interests of the people they were elected to represent, are ignored. Some levels of our government are also rife with corruption.

It’s time our elected representatives actually started representing the 99% of the population who don’t have enormous wealth and political influence. Who suffer the social, economic and environmental consequences of corporate greed. Who work to generate enormous wealth for a mere 1% of the population.

Inspired by the actions of those striving for democracy in all parts of the world including the United States. From these events, “Occupy Together”, a global social movement for real democracy, has grown. It is from this global movement that Occupy Canberra has grown. Our occupation will commence at Capital Hill on October 15 at 2:30 PM so it’s time for everyone to bring a sleeping bag/tent, some books and food.

It also appears to be moving to City Hill.

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Also an observation is that they changed they’re info page from the original one in the post.
It now reads

“Occupy Canberra is a protest taking place at City Hill on Oct 15th. (Tomorrow!) The general consensus stands against social injustice in the world today that has been a direct result of corporate greed and multinationals power who have created issues as diverse as assassination, torture, kidnapping, environmental degradation, abusing public funds, violently repressing political rights, releasing toxins into pristine environments, destroying homes, discrimination, and causing widespread health problems.

Along with these social injustices the 1% financial elite are also responsible for the global financial collapse which is occurring, through they’re reliance of debt and the manipulative use of central banks such as the Australian federal reserve.

In 2008 The Global Financial Crisis occurred and Australia escaped comparatively unscathed but right now as we continue to see banks bailed out for making poor risky business choices we can also see an asset price bubble just waiting to burst as real estate is drastically overpriced.

The Occupy movement is a grassroots movement and is one driven by the politics of the community. The creation of the movement was natural and spontaneous as people were inspired from recent protests on wall street.

The Declaration of the Occupation of New York City sets a clear agenda for what should be driving the Canberra and Australia-wide movement.

http://www.occupywallst.org/forum/first-official-release-from-occupy-wall-street/

The Occupation will be on City Hill, attracting the attention of by-standers and cars on the busy city road and uniting in solidarity. Please bring along warm clothes, some books, torches, camping gear and food.

Location:
City Hill on October 15 at 2:30 PM so it’s time for
everyone to bring a sleeping bag/tent, some books and food.”

Interesting to see where they are going with all this.

tallpoppy said :

did any of these people ever pick up an economics textbook….ever? these people clearly don’t know a damn thing about the RBA’s function. what a joke!

The ownership of the RBA is not so material – its function is the same as the Fed, which to to bastardize money supply and thereby bastardize interest rates. Banks have equity ratios of 5% unlike most corporates which have 50-60% equity in their capital structure. Banks are also hopelessly illiquid. This stupidity stems from the belief in the multiplier and the belief that banks should transmit fiscal and monetary policy. Banks have a rediscount window with the RBA and can borrow from it. Banks are heavily regulated and heavily subsidized (over here with Govt guarantees as well) and heavily protected both from insolvency and from bank runs. We need to end both the subsidies and the regulations.

tallpoppy said :

damien haas said :

Apparently the melbourne version of this also ‘occupied’ a Max Brenner. They posted an ‘eviction notice’ on it.

is that because it started in israel?

Id guess that the whole ‘occupy’ movement has been hijacked by the usual suspects and their predicatable grab bag of complaints and enemies to be blamed for all mankinds ills. Anti-semitism is normal to these morons.

damien haas said :

Apparently the melbourne version of this also ‘occupied’ a Max Brenner. They posted an ‘eviction notice’ on it.

is that because it started in israel?

did any of these people ever pick up an economics textbook….ever? these people clearly don’t know a damn thing about the RBA’s function. what a joke!

Apparently the melbourne version of this also ‘occupied’ a Max Brenner. They posted an ‘eviction notice’ on it.

Yep. These people have Just Grounds for being upset. And confused.

I-filed said :

“SO WE MOVED ON and decided to triumphantly march on to the city. Armed with our voices and signs of protest we headed to Garema place and shortly over to the water fountain where several of us made our presence heard with a loud-speaker.

“Nicholas”

Surely this must be ironic? ‘Triumphantly march on to the city’ makes them sound like Napoleon and the Grande Armée entering Moscow. Although Napoleon found that the natives were largely absent too. Admittedly, there was less burning going on in Canberra on Saturday.

Waiting For Godot9:32 am 16 Oct 11

Chop71 said :

Convoy

The left wing version

HD for spin! Particularly the bit about it being too dangerous to camp after all …… I can think of a politician or two who could have treated Occupy Canberra as something of a draft camp – if it had happened!

“Wow what a productive day! So everyone arrived today at City Hill at 2:30 PM and introduced themselves along with they’re reasons for coming. Two different media groups arrived, took some short interviews and footage. All up we had about 25 – 35 people who brought along awesome signs for protest.

“About 5 of us brought tents but due to that small number we decided it would be unreasonable to occup…y as we could easily be out numbered, fined or arrested.

“SO WE MOVED ON and decided to triumphantly march on to the city. Armed with our voices and signs of protest we headed to Garema place and shortly over to the water fountain where several of us made our presence heard with a loud-speaker.

“In only one weeks time entirely over Facebook we have managed to gather enough support to get the attention of the Canberra times, ABC and other news groups. We stood today, gathered in solidarity to represent the 99%, our beliefs our values and to display courage.

“Because of us Australia can not say Canberra was the only state to not launch a protest.

“And for that we each did an amazing job. I want you all to give yourselves a pat on the back because you succeeded in demonstrating a peaceful protest.

“And for it we did some awesome work.
“Well done Canberra,

“(I will also keep everyone updated on the attendance list so keep an eye out for this page)

“Nicholas”

I agree with Johnboy, they don’t understand the point of the American protests and have been taken over by Larouche conspiracists

GardeningGirl11:46 am 15 Oct 11

I just followed an online news link to this website and I don’t see Canberra on the map. The Sydney listing doesn’t inspire me to join.
http://map.15october.net/reports/view/189
Also disappointing to read that the bottle throwing at police has started in NYC, can chairs through the windows of the nearest Macca’s be far off? I sincerely hope not. A peaceful and thoughtful protest about how all’s not right with the world I would support.

Dante said :

. . . people from around the globe who take issue with the immoral behaviour of banks and corporations need to make themselves heard.

+1

Excellent. It’s about time we had some balance.

Balance?

These guys don’t even know what they are protesting against.

The likes of Mr Passant do though.

Shame he can’t be arsed turning up though, just happy to make helpful suggestions.

Looks like it’s been hijacked by the like of John Passant.

Excellent. It’s about time we had some balance.

Holditz said :

I would suggest the organisers of Occupy Canberra would decry the Americanisation of Australian culture, media, music, etc., so why would they copy something American?

Adbusters, a Canadian anti-consumerist and culture jamming organisation are responsible for the date and place, but not responsible for the people that have shown up. This movement takes inspiration from uprisings all around the world… to suggest it’s American is just plain wrong.

Funky1 said :

I’m all for these guys or anyone having the right to protest but now they are re-posting article about the threat of police violence and public servants taking a pay cut to apease the big corporations!!

Ah, the dreaded “big corporations”! How much better life would be if all of our food, clothing, entertainment etc were supplied by government monopolies rather than companies competing against each other for our business.

These protesters should check out how successful the alternative to free-market capitalism actually is, by visiting a place like North Korea.

As for the fabled “99 per cent” in the US, does that include the nearly fifty percent of Americans who pay no federal income tax? And does it take account of the fact that the top 10 per cent of American earners pay 73% of federal income taxes? Figures here.

Chop71 said :

Convoy

Occupy Convoy

I would suggest the organisers of Occupy Canberra would decry the Americanisation of Australian culture, media, music, etc., so why would they copy something American?

Gonna be huge seeing as none of the pollies are there.

Funky1 said :

I’m all for these guys or anyone having the right to protest but now they are re-posting article about the threat of police violence and public servants taking a pay cut to apease the big corporations!!

More police and media attention = boosts numbers.

Just remember the ‘convoy of no confidence’ last month where they threatened to “bring down the streets of canberra”. If they didnt make huge claims on what they can do, they wouldn’t have attracted the same amount of police and media attention.

In reality it looks like 4 kids, with a dream of changing the world, but don’t have any solid argument or beliefs. Its going to be a fail, and i suspect there will be more reporters and police than actual demonstrators.

I’m all for these guys or anyone having the right to protest but now they are re-posting article about the threat of police violence and public servants taking a pay cut to apease the big corporations!!

And still no solid statement of their purpose (but someone is bringing oranges and guy fawkes masks).

This is why Americans are protesting…

http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/

As well they should.

Also watch Overdose full length on Youtube to see what the government and banks’ “plan” is for recovery.

Fortunately for Australian’s unemployment is 5.3% not 17+%, our houses are still worth something, our money is still worth something and interest rates have room to move (personally I think we shold be raising them) and we aren’t crippled by health care costs, insurance premiums, pharmaceutical costs etc…

I fully support the protests and am glad that people are starting to realise the system is broken and about to blow it’s fuses in a big way. To keep jumping off a bigger and bigger cliff hoping not to hit the bottom one day is not a strategic financial plan.

devils_advocate said :

Skidbladnir said :

Strange.

The motivations for Occupy Wall Street may not be clear, but as they’re on about the american Economy and the way things are, at least they have some reasonable gripes.

Ocuupy Canberra on the other hand, has no such gripes. And are supporting a mistargetted message.

Agree. The Americans have legitimate complaints with the way the financial sector firms in the US have been bailed out at the expense of the 99 per cent.

Australia’s financial system is reasonably well regulated. Part of the reason the GFC didn’t hit us as bad (yes the mining revenue was also integral but our financial institutions weren’t engaging in out-and-out gambling).

Exactly. 4 out of the world’s 9 AAA rated banks are Australian.

Buzz2600 said :

However, it seems to me that if the organisers of this group were actually able to get their facts right, focus their attention on multinationals power, greed and profits, the inherent danges of reliance on debt and perpetual economic growth as the central pillar of capitalist model, we might all have something to support here.

If they could do that I’d join them.

devils_advocate2:39 pm 13 Oct 11

Skidbladnir said :

Strange.

The motivations for Occupy Wall Street may not be clear, but as they’re on about the american Economy and the way things are, at least they have some reasonable gripes.

Ocuupy Canberra on the other hand, has no such gripes. And are supporting a mistargetted message.

Agree. The Americans have legitimate complaints with the way the financial sector firms in the US have been bailed out at the expense of the 99 per cent.

Australia’s financial system is reasonably well regulated. Part of the reason the GFC didn’t hit us as bad (yes the mining revenue was also integral but our financial institutions weren’t engaging in out-and-out gambling).

Strange.

The motivations for Occupy Wall Street may not be clear, but as they’re on about the american Economy and the way things are, at least they have some reasonable gripes.

Ocuupy Canberra on the other hand, has no such gripes. And are supporting a mistargetted message.

Sounds like you’re all pretty happy with the way the international economy is going at the moment….?

The RBA is not the baddy here, agreed.

However, it seems to me that if the organisers of this group were actually able to get their facts right, focus their attention on multinationals power, greed and profits, the inherent danges of reliance on debt and perpetual economic growth as the central pillar of capitalist model, we might all have something to support here.

LootenPlunder said :

Spew.
This is going to be as successful as ‘Ban the Burqa Day’.
Who would care to join me for a Convoy of no Complaining Idiots around Capital Hill this Saturday afternoon? We can throw stuff at them as we drive past.

If you react you’ll only encourage them. Ignore them and they’ll go away

So protests in foreign countries are commended, but Australian participants who are disenfranchised in the banking system are lazy hippy stoners/students who need to get a real job?

Wake up people.

Agreeed that the RBA slant is the wrong tack to take, but people from around the globe who take issue with the immoral behaviour of banks and corporations need to make themselves heard.

Those born between 1980 and 1995 OUTNUMBER the baby boomers, even though they’d like you to feel like you’re useless and unimportant. Time to stand up and have your collective voice heard.

Their fb page hasn’t grown much in numbers in the last 24 hours.
And having moved to City Hill for their camp-out, they better watch out for possums and drunks from the nearby nightclubs.

LootenPlunder11:56 am 13 Oct 11

Spew.
This is going to be as successful as ‘Ban the Burqa Day’.
Who would care to join me for a Convoy of no Complaining Idiots around Capital Hill this Saturday afternoon? We can throw stuff at them as we drive past.

http://www.chadlelliott.com/banking/fractional-reserve-banking
nice little explination of hwo the money (debt) system works… pretty interesting really.

My 2 cents is as follows (somewhat point form):
The economic system that we live in is designed for growth and based on generating debt. Without this growth the debt generated by the banking system can not be serviced. We live in a world with finite resources therefore growth will not alway attainable. This is a fundamental error within the system which people are starting to realise therefore are protesting that it is time for an economic change. In essence, the system has been broken since its inception.

I for one agree with the occupy movement.
Oh and politics has nothing to do with the system..

So basically this has come from a RBA protest, to “just protest about anything you feel like”.

All we need is socialist alliance to hijack it, and we might have more than 4 people attending.

Is this the Infantry division of the mob of idiots that were behind that convoy, recently

yellowsnow said :

I can see it now – Ghost of Mulley statue (Jebediah Springfield size), standing next to jumble of metal representing fatal car crash, strategically placed next to GDE point to point cameras, to distract drivers from forthcoming fine / remind them of consequences of speeding. He could have those spooky eyes that follow you wherever you go.

With just a little (more) redecoration the semi-flaccid penis of Belconnen could be the core of this!

If you check the description on the Facebook page itself, they have dropped the references to the RBA, and brought it more into line with the other Occupy protests.

I think their first point of discussion should be to move it to another location. Somewhere closer to the CDB would be far better and more visible than Capital Hill.

I’m watching this all with interest though.

johnboy said :

I’m not sure they’ve entirely grasped the point of the american protests.

Nor of the English language.

Sounds more like the Tea Party than OWS.

54-11 said :

yellowsnow said :

If the protesters added ‘Increase GDE speed limit to 90kmh’ to their list of demands I suspect they’d get a lot more support from Riot Act posters.

How about a statue to Mully as well? The list of RA demands could be endless.

LOL! +1.

I can see it now – Ghost of Mulley statue (Jebediah Springfield size), standing next to jumble of metal representing fatal car crash, strategically placed next to GDE point to point cameras, to distract drivers from forthcoming fine / remind them of consequences of speeding. He could have those spooky eyes that follow you wherever you go.

yellowsnow said :

If the protesters added ‘Increase GDE speed limit to 90kmh’ to their list of demands I suspect they’d get a lot more support from Riot Act posters.

How about a statue to Mully as well? The list of RA demands could be endless.

If the protesters added ‘Increase GDE speed limit to 90kmh’ to their list of demands I suspect they’d get a lot more support from Riot Act posters.

Do these people not understand Canberra is already Occupied? A couple of hundred more lefties isn’t going to make much difference to the place.

I think the “what to bring” list should include:
– iPhone with latest anonymous social media client (to get alerts about Kettling)
– Hackey-sack and/or Fire-twirling sticks
– Soap

Perhaps they could broaden their protests Carbon-Tax-protester style to raise objections to:
– Climate change deniers
– Housing affordability
– local markups on Apple hardware

Bramina said :

Shhh nobody tell them about fractional reserve banking.

+10 (+9+8.1+etc)

anonymoose said :

Trolling has been taken to a new level.

I’ve got to start up one of these facebook groups and see how many ill informed idiots can be stirred up into a mob.

Actually yeah, sell some t-shirts and stickers and stuff and it could be quite profitable.

screaming banshee10:33 pm 12 Oct 11

Are they bringing trucks or what??

Trolling has been taken to a new level.

I’ve got to start up one of these facebook groups and see how many ill informed idiots can be stirred up into a mob.

Shhh nobody tell them about fractional reserve banking.

wildturkeycanoe9:30 pm 12 Oct 11

It’s great to see that Uni students know how to beat the world’s corrupt fiscal system, by camping reading and eating food. If it only worked that easily for the centuries past what a world we’d be in!
As for all the mumbo jumbo they tried to explain under that beautiful pic of Parliament House, didn’t make a bit of sense.
“You see, The RBA – Reserve Bank of Australia is not any part of the government. It is a corporation set up to loan money to the Australian govt”
Fair enough, okay, so what about
“What does this Australian corporation provide? And where does this debt collected money go? Not to the government. It flows the other way…”
What other way, back to the people? If it is indeed an “Australian corporation” lending money to our government and judging by the apparent profits made, isn’t that keeping money in Australia and not sending it overseas like the rest of the corporations selling us old orange juice, cars, phones, help desks and the same steel we just sold them as raw mineral last month??? Can’t see a problem until they tell us where the profits went.
Creative_Canberran – hit the nail on the head. why do they need liability insurance? Camping fees, possible damage to the grass on parliament house lawns due to burns from excreted ammonia?
Nothing to see here, 15th October will just be another day I’ll be at work paying 60-80% of my tax to this Australian owned business, who will lend more money to me in the future when I decide to put an extension on the back of the house.

Is this satire?

arthwollipot8:34 pm 12 Oct 11

Indigenous people did this almost forty years ago.

Shouldn’t they occupy Sydney instead, given that’s where the RBA operates from?

johnboy said :

Just because things haven’t gone horribly wrong yet doesn’t mean out politics isn’t being hollowed out for the benefit of a few.

Absolutely. Pity that this group fails to target anything of any substance.

creative_canberran7:39 pm 12 Oct 11

Loving some of the comments on the page:

Great to hear the updates. Look forward to a peaceful rally to send out a clear message that love, peace and the human spirit are more powerful than money. Solidarity! -Mahesh Radhakrishnan

Help us educate ourselves and each other -Mark Matthews

http://www.greenleft.org.au….. -Duroyan Fertl (I was surprised how many posts it took before they popped up)

And from the organiser:
Right now we are having problems finding organizations/groups who are willing to provide liability insurance. If any body knows of any activists groups that they could contact please reply to this status.

More than anything could you please share this, we need to make this happen in Canberra ASAP.

They’re on a different plane of logic.

Wayne Swan will be thrilled to discover that the RBA are the recipients of 60-80% of the interest paid on this country’s mortgages. Who knew?

Wayne needs to up the RBA dividend pronto – we are being robbed.

What a bunch of frootloops.

Oh and good to see they still like the Raiders, the Cavalry, Scotty and Nige and music festivals (just not the RBA)
🙂

They have no real idea do they? Obviously a little information can be dangerous.

btw, there is no proof that UC endorsed this on their Facebook page. These guys have themselves put the post onto the UC page.

lol, what a joke, they have no idea.

sexynotsmart7:10 pm 12 Oct 11

I call for change of venue!

From Capital Hill to Tuggeranong. They can camp out at my place if they promise to weed the garden.

Morgan said :

Do they realise that the RBA is a Commonwealth Owned Corporation under the CAC Act, and pays a dividend to the Government each year?

Must be Uni holidays.

agreed the RBA whinge is out of their tree.

Do they realise that the RBA is a Commonwealth Owned Corporation under the CAC Act, and pays a dividend to the Government each year?

Must be Uni holidays.

My first thought was also that this is a bit inappropriate in australia.

But in many ways our financial sector is even more out of control thanks to compulsory super.

Just because things haven’t gone horribly wrong yet doesn’t mean out politics isn’t being hollowed out for the benefit of a few.

What a bunch of whining idiots. If they’d ever experience genuine hard times, they wouldn’t be trying this crap on. Australia has a fantastic standard of living and more opportunities than many countries will ever have.

I notice the University of Canberra has endorsed the protest on Facebook …. interesting!

That post makes no sense.

Pathetic. This country hasn’t experienced a tenth of the woes that Americans have experienced. Mark Latham’s “conga line of suckholes” epithet comes to mind.

Man that is one retarded group description. “We don’t like the RBA because it is evil and has something to do with money or something and protesting it is trendy” is what I gather they are about.

Having an independent (sort of) reserve bank is da bomb.

I’m not sure they’ve entirely grasped the point of the american protests.

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