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MERCURY MEDIA

 

 

OCCUPY - THE MOVIE

 

TRANSMISSION SCRIPT

 

JOB ID:     57315

 

 

CLOCK INFO:

DURATION: 01:25:45

(4% speed up to 25fps)

 

NATIVE DURATION : 01:29:20

(at 23.98 fps)

 

 

 

 

Cover Page

Transcripts provided by

 

 

 

Tel: 0800 0854418

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www.take1.tv


 

Time-codes & Captions

Dialogue

 

10:00:02:21

CAPTION

On September 17 2011 in New York City,

a group of activists ignited a global protest movement. 

 

10:00:08:14

CAPTION

This film documents who they are

and what they protest. 

 

 

10:00:14:00

 

10:00:26:19

CAPTION

Priscilla Grim

Occupy Wall Street

Web Outreach

Interviewer

If I was in town from an eight month excursion, I had no media access at all and I asked you, what is Occupy?  How would you respond? 

 

10:00:32:03

Priscilla Grim

Occupy Wall Street is a reaction to the toxic corporate culture in which we live.  It is a tactic in which people put themselves in inconvenient places to garner attention to the problem of wealth and resource and equality that is caused by a toxic relationship between big business and media and our government.

 

10:01:16:07

Interviewer

What was the actual genesis moment? 

 

10:01:19:22

Kalle Lasn VO

Around the time when Tunisia first happened after a lot of interesting anarchic stuff that had been happening in Greece and Spain to some degree and then of course there was regime change in Egypt. 

 

10:01:35:06

Kalle Lasn VO

We are really in a situation in America where there is also kind of a corporatocracy, I guess you could call it, or a regime there. 

 

10:01:43:05

 

10:01:53:11

CAPTION

Kalle Lasn

Adbusters

Occupy Founder

 

Kalle Lasn

And in our brainstorms we said to ourselves, we need a regime change in America as well.  And we came to the conclusion that there is nothing more sexy, there's nothing more exciting than occupying the very iconic heart of global capitalism, which is Wall Street and to start our revolution there. 

 

10:02:03:18

Newsreader

Mass arrests in New York today. 

 

10:02:05:17

Newsreader

What's being called a mass pay of action for the movement battling corporate greed. 

 

 

10:02:09:18

Newsreader

With protests planned in many Occupy cities, including LA, Portland, London and Madrid. 

 

10:02:14:10

Newsreader

New York City's Lower Manhattan still by far the largest. 

 

10:02:17:02

Newsreader

Will the demonstrations continue and will they remain peaceful? 

 

10:02:20:22

 

10:02:22:04

CAPTION

MOORE

ON THE STREET

 

Michael Moore

The reason it doesn't have to be violent is because there's millions of us and there's only really a few hundred of them. 

 

10:02:28:11

 

10:02:31:01

CAPTION

Chris Hedges

Journalist & Author

 

Chris Hedges

And I think it understood where power lay, that it was outside of Wall Street, not out of Washington.

 

10:02:33:13

Newsreader

Our country's biggest banks were, and I quote here, shoddy, risky and deceptive. 

 

10:02:39:05

Man in News Clip

But you get to keep $480 million, is this fair? 

 

10:02:46:09

 

10:02:47:17

CAPTION

Jesse LaGreca

Occupy Wall Street

Journalist

 

Jesse LaGreca

It's infuriating, because the banks look at you like you're lazy, the politicians look at you like oh, you just want a handout, I'm like, motherfuckers.  

 

10:02:53:15

Suited Man in News Clip

Take a shower and get a job. 

 

10:02:56:02

Jesse LaGreca

Here's my wage as stagnant, here's my cost of living going up, what did I fill the gap with?  Debt.  So I went into debt and then I got poor and I couldn't afford basic shit and you're gonna call me lazy? 

 

10:03:05:02

Man in News Clip with Red Tie

If you are envious of somebody that happens to be rich that you call a “fat cat”, go and get rich. 

 

10:03:11:17

Jesse LaGreca

I'm telling you, these guys need to start creating jobs or we're gonna start building guillotines and I only say that jestingly, but you know, if someone takes me up on it…

10:03:19:04

 

10:03:20:18

CAPTION

Cornel West

Philosopher

 

Cornel West

Of course, as you know, the Occupy movement's like a jazz or an orchestra, there's no one leader.  All the voices are lifted and it's a conversation. 

 

10:03:31:09

 

10:03:45:15

CAPTION

Vlad Teichberg

Global Revolution TV

Founder

 

10:03:50:08

CAPTION

Stephen Squibb

Occupy Boston

Organizer

 

Vlad Teichberg

You either go with the movement and you're pushing the movement forward or you stand in the way.  Well, if you choose to stand in the way the movement's like water, it just goes around you.  You can't really stop it short of extreme violence, because of the people who are perpetuating it and I think we've seen all these examples from the past where people try to suppress ideas with violence, it never works. 

 

10:03:50:16

Stephen Squibb

Its weaknesses?  Well, there are a lot!

10:03:54:12

 

10:03:55:03

CAPTION

Eli Feghali

Occupy Boston

Media

Eli Feghali

Historically fighting in social movements and been the number one cause of it falling apart. 

 

10:04:00:14

Kalle Lasn

Now a question mark is hanging over the movement, we're wondering where it's gonna go next and some people say it's dead. 

 

10:04:06:04

 

10:04:06:12

CAPTION

Occupy Wall Street

Organizer

 

Interviewer

If there's one threat to Occupy, what is it? 

 

10:04:21:05

 

 

10:04:22:21

MAIN TITLE

OCCUPY THE MOVIE

 

10:04:46:21

CAPTION

Chapter 1:

Kill the Bull

 

Sandy Nurse

I think it's ourselves. 

10:04:49:17

 

10:05:00:11

CAPTION

Cornel West

Philosopher

 

10:05:11:04

CAPTION

Aaron Black

Occupy Wall Street

Organizer

 

Cornel West

It's crucial that we understand the nature of this particular moment, the capitalist economist is not true just for the United States, this is true for the system as a whole and what this means then is that we have to be able to tell an analytical narrative, tell an analytical story of what some of the causes of the wealth inequality are. 

 

10:05:12:16

Aaron Black

There was one meme that really, really hits it home and we've all chanted it, it goes something like this, "banks got bailed out, we got sold out." 

 

10:05:35:02

Aaron Black

Enough said. 

 

10:05:39:08

 

10:05:51:22

CAPTION

Robert Monks

Author & Former Banker

 

Robert Monks

In terms of allocating public resources, the government's response to the financial crisis of 205 to now represents the largest commitment of public resources to any project since the beginning of the country. 

 

10:06:01:07

Rep. Peter DeFazio (Video Clip)

I thank the chair. 

 

10:06:04:03

Rep. Peter DeFazio (Video Clip)

Well, secretary Paulson has submitted a simple proposal to Congress, this is it, three pages.  It's about a billion dollars award and it is quite simple.  Secretary Paulson gets the key to the treasury and can start off by borrowing $700 billion in the name of the American people, maybe more later and it waives all laws, all laws.  No oversight, no one looking over his shoulder, no conflict of interest rules. 

 

10:06:32:18

 

10:06:33:18

CAPTION

The $700 billion pitch

 

 

10:07:01:22

CAPTION

The pitch worked

 

Henry Paulson (Video Clip)

I am convinced that this approach will cost American families far less than the alternative, a continuing series of financial institution failures and frozen credit markets unable to fund everyday needs and economic expansion.  Again, I'm frustrated.  The taxpayer is on the hook, the taxpayer's already on the hook, the taxpayer already is gonna suffer the consequences and so the best protection for the taxpayer and the first protection for the taxpayer is to have this work. 

10:07:03:00

George Bush (Video Clip)

Here in Washington we reached an extraordinary agreement to deal with an extraordinary problem in our economy.  Working closely with my administration, congressional leaders from both parties produced the emergency economic stabilization act. 

 

10:07:17:05

 

10:07:31:16

CAPTION

Amin Husain

Occupy Wall Street

Theory

 

George Bush (Video Clip)

Bold bill, this bill commits up to $700 billion taxpayer.  Every member of congress and every American should keep in mind a vote for this bill is a vote to prevent economic damage for you and your community. 

10:07:31:13

Amin Husain

I mean, that was a redistribution of wealth under Bush and it carried through with Obama and in the process of these bailouts was a redistribution of wealth upward. 

 

10:07:41:15

Amin Husain

Again, that was indicative of the people having to fend for themselves. 

 

10:07:47:20

 

10:07:49:02

CAPTION

Alan Greenspan

Federal Reserve Chairman

1987 - 2005

 

Alan Greenspan

There are firms in this country which are too big to fail. 

 

10:07:52:13

Jesse LaGreca

Too big to fail. 

 

10:07:53:05

Jesse LaGreca

Too big to fail. 

 

10:07:53:24

Newsreader

Too big to fail. 

 

10:07:54:19

Newsreader

Too big to fail. 

 

10:07:55:21

Man in Video Clip

The whole concept of too big to fail, that's disturbing markets all over the place. 

 

 

 

10:07:59:19

 

10:08:00:01

CAPTION

Reggie Middleton

Investor & Analyst

 

Reggie Middleton

The logic behind the too big to fail movement was that there's certain incidents and certain entities and certain banks that are so big they cannot fail without dragging down the rest of the financial world.  Absolute nonsense, you know.  Banks have been failing for the two or 3,000 years that we've been having banks, probably before 2,000 years when you had cavemen trading rocks, basically.  One caveman had too many rocks, he couldn’t carry, he fell, broke his leg, he's out of business.  Did cavemen stop existing?  Did rocks stop?  No.  They had another guy who picked up the rocks and started doing business. 

10:08:30:05

 

10:08:30:08

CAPTION

Douglas Rushkoff

Media Theory

Douglas Rushkoff

The banks actually got bigger, right?  And in the aftermath where we ended up now with institutions that are even too bigger to fail than they were before. 

 

10:08:40:18

Reggie Middleton

Now your JP Morgan, which in my opinion is nowhere near as big as is alleged and this one actually leaves it alone.  The problem is if you're healthy you're not gonna remain healthy if you consistently eat sick things.

10:08:55:08

Reggie Middleton

[UNSURE OF WORD], you know, the smallest of all by the way that was allowed to go bust, back in America both Countrywide and Maryland, like those two entities alone could have been enough to bring the system down, right?  Now you have Bank of America so involved with them, the Bank of America is having its own problems, the Bank of America is a walking zombie right now.

 

10:09:15:22

Mr Murphy

What would we do if we wanted to eliminate too big to fail?  What would be the steps that we would take? 

 

10:09:21:17

Alan Greenspan

Well, I think the first thing you have to say as a minimum you could raise capital charges or raise fees, but you cannot allow it to go on without very serious consequences. 

 

10:09:32:08

 

10:09:32:11

CAPTION

Jesse LaGreca

Occupy Wall Street

Journalist

 

Jesse LaGreca

We need to break up the too big to fail banks, we need to break up these big monopolies, because if we don't break them up at some point they break us up. 

 

10:09:39:13

Stephen Squibb

And that's why I don't think you hear a lot of people being angry about Bill Gates even, you know, Bill Gates is not a great enemy of Occupy, right?  Ben and Jerry's are not a great enemy of Occupy, Google is not a great enemy of Occupy yet, hopefully it'll stay that way. 

 

10:09:53:21

Stephen Squibb

Who is the enemy of Occupy?  The banks, because the banks are in Matt's legendary phrase, "a great vampire squid on the face of humanity, sticking its blood funnel in anything that smells like money." 

 

10:10:08:15

Interviewer

I guess where I wanna start is the bank, I think a lot of people, you know, when they talk of banks, corporations, they bundle them together.  What are these institutions?  How are they structured and are they structurally going to always lead to failure as they did in 2008? 

 

10:10:25:22

 

10:10:26:10

CAPTION

Robert Monks

Author & Former Banker

 

Robert Monks

I think the bank really can be understood as being two things.  One is a utility, it is like water, light, air, it's something people have to have in order to maintain anything like the level of civilisation that we now do. 

 

10:10:46:18

Eli Feghali

Banks are critical, they're critical for economic growth, small business, big business,  home ownership, they're an essential institution. 

 

10:10:56:14

Robert Monks

The other part of what people call a bank is a gambling casino and the difficulty that we've run into is that we conjoin the gambling casino with the bank and when the casino gambled and lost the money came out of the guarantee by the government of the utility function of the bank. 

 

10:11:16:08

Interviewer

Historically what led to that conjoinment? 

 

10:11:20:21

Robert Monks

Well, historically it's quite strange and I can speak with a certain amount of passion and experiences, I used to be chairman of a bank and I ultimately sold the bank to perhaps the single individual who most well explains the rise of the bank and he's a man named Sandy Weill. 

 

10:11:41:10

 

10:12:26:06

CAPTION

Lloyd Blankfein

CEO, Goldman Sachs

Robert Monks

As is so often the case in both democracies and in large corporations, a single individual explains most everything and Sandy Weill essentially was a man who understood power and he had the impression that by building the thing that was the biggest he could build the thing that was the best and that was the most enriching and ultimately being able to induce virtually all of the governmental officials at the end of the Clinton administration and they overruled it and so he ended up with the ultimate institution.  It provided every kind of financial service to everybody everywhere, you know.  One stop shopping. 

 

10:12:26:18

 

10:12:35:12

CAPTION

PARTNERSHIP MODEL

 

Robert Monks

In order to meet the competition that Weill's bank presented, Blankfein had a difficult problem running Goldman Sachs, because at that time while Sandy Weill was building this Goldman Sachs was a partnership and a partnership is very, very, very different than a corporation. 

 

10:12:46:16

Reggie Middleton

Well you have partners who pool together, they took their capital, they put it into a partnership, they did business, they made money and then they reinvested their money. 

 

10:12:55:18

Robert Monks

Goldman Sachs then became a corporation, it then became a public corporation, then it became a very large public corporation and they thereby changed their character really violently.

 

10:13:10:17

Reggie Middleton

The risks that you see going on in investment banks being blown up was unheard of just a few years ago, the reason why you have that now and you didn't have it back then is because investment banks are using OPM, other people's money.  They are able to lever up and take risks, because the risks they are taking now is primarily public stockholders' money.  When you're using someone else's money you can be extremely, extremely risky, which brings in the investment bank cartel, pardon me, the investment banking industry. 

 

10:13:35:02

Robert Monks

So what Sandy Weill had done through guts and perseverance and just playing [UNSURE OF WORD] now became legal for anybody to do. 

 

10:13:43:12

Lady in Purple Top

I wanna get to that high unemployment, because that is one of the things driving these Occupy Wall Street protests that have been happening all over New York City.  What is your thought about these protests?  Do you think that the anger towards big bank, like City Group, for example, is merited? 

 

10:13:59:10

 

10:14:12:16

CAPTION

Nine months after this interview

 

10:14:15:11

CAPTION

Something changed his mind

 

Sandy Weill

What I really think is that it's time to stop pointing fingers about the past.  If we are so possessed with thinking about the past and pointing fingers we're not gonna get moving and that's bad. 

10:14:16:00

Newsreader

Former CEO Sandy Weill now says he would support breaking up the biggest banks.  His comments touched off a firestorm across Wall Street. 

 

10:14:25:10

Sandy Weill

What I think mostly is that there is such a feeling among people all over the world against the banking system and I don't think that's gonna change so soon, so I think what we should probably do is go and split up investment banking from banking and have banks do something that's not gonna risk the taxpayer dollars, that's not gonna be too big to fail. 

 

10:14:52:24

Newsreader

You would never expect something like that to come out of Sandy Weill's mouth, I mean, the person who created the animal now wants to kill the animal. 

 

10:15:00:04

Newsreader

That's a pretty radical idea though, the idea of breaking up the investment banks and the banks, were you suggesting going back and really breaking these companies up? 

 

10:15:07:02

Sandy Weill

That's exactly what I'm suggesting.  I wanna see the United States be the leader and we're not gonna be a leader if we keep on trashing our institutions. 

 

10:15:16:18

 

10:15:34:14

CAPTION

Chapter 2:

Utopian Theater

 

Sam Seder

I don’t know what happened to this guy, maybe he had like one of those like, near death experiences or something.  Or he just figured “I've made all my money!”  

10:16:18:22

VO

Manhattan has a very cloistered pedestrian vibe.  You walk down the street and you look forward and you don’t talk to anyone, like that's how this works. 

 

10:16:30:14

VO

There's 20 million people living in this metropolitan area and no place for us to mass assemble. 

 

10:16:40:20

 

10:16:50:14

CAPTION

Andy Bichlbaum

Yes Men

 

Andy Bichlbaum

And we started hearing about it from various people in New York and I just remember thinking well, yeah, good luck, like you're gonna occupy Wall Street, ok, totally impossible and I've got other things to do and then it happened. 

 

10:17:02:07

 

10:17:08:17

CAPTION

Kalle Lasn

Adbusters

Occupy Founder

 

Kalle Lasn

The core impulse behind Occupy is this feeling that hundreds of millions of people around the world have that the future, their future just doesn't compute.  Their life is going to be full of ecological crisis and climate change and tipping points and financial crisis and an ability to pay off your loans and you're never going to be able to live the kind of life that your parents lived and if you want to have any kind of a future then you have to fight for that future. 

 

10:17:30:04

Michael Levitin

This was the outburst, this was the tantrum, the rebellion that had to happen, you had to take over, physically occupy parks and spaces and ignore beatings from police telling you, you could not do it, we had to do that as a tactic to wake this country up. 

 

10:17:46:01

Man in Grey Jumper

This is my fourth night, I've gathered kind of a roommate kinda. 

 

10:17:51:01

Man On Street in Tie

I've been here since 12 o' clock last night.  I intend to stay for 30 hours, since I've got class 12 o' clock tomorrow. 

 

10:17:59:03

 

10:18:06:02

CAPTION

Mattathias Schwarz

The New Yorker

Journalist

 

Mattathias Schwarz

It was a kind of utopian theatre, but it was a place where people could just go and act out what they thought a revolutionary society would look like on a very small scale. 

 

10:18:11:00

 

10:18:23:19

CAPTION

Nathan Schneider

Waging Nonviolence Blog

Editor

 

Nathan Schneider

And I think that's part of why it was able to sustain the attention for so long of the media, it provided so many interesting and rich questions and so many interesting answers, it was kind of like a reporter's playground. 

 

10:18:27:03

 

10:18:33:08

CAPTION

Pete Dutro

Occupy Wall Street

Finance

 

Pete Dutro

The kitchen went very quickly from feeding, you know, doing a few hundred meals to doing thousands of meals a day.  We were actually at that point where the largest soup kitchen in New York.

 

10:18:37:04

Medic on Wall Street

I'm with the medic crew here in Occupy Wall Street.  I've treated some basic things - cut fingers, coughs and colds. 

 

10:18:45:10

 

10:18:45:00

CAPTION

Molly Crabapple

Artist

 

Molly Crabapple

And I've lived across from Zuccotti Park, there was nothing going in that park before Occupy. 

 

10:18:49:23

 

10:18:55:01

CAPTION

Priscilla Grim

Occupy Wall Street

Web Outreach

 

Priscilla Grim

And I et you any money that all of, you know, all the business immediately around the park experienced huge jumps in, you know, in profits during that time. 

 

10:19:01:06

Cory

I'm Cory.

 

10:19:02:16

Sam

What's your name?

 

10:19:02:24

Cory

I'm Cory. 

 

10:19:03:13

Sam

Sam. 

 

10:19:04:06

Cory

Sam, nice to meet you. 

 

10:19:05:12

 

10:19:06:20

CAPTION

Sam

Sam's Hotdogs

 

Sam

Nice to meet you, buddy. 

 

10:19:07:22

Cory

Just wanted to know what did you think about Occupy when they were here? 

 

10:19:10:17

Sam

I don't know, I don't speak English, sorry about that. 

 

10:19:13:01

Cory

Yeah you do. 

 

10:19:16:16

Cory

Were they good for business or bad for business? 

 

10:19:19:12

Sam

I don’t speak English, I'm eating. 

 

10:19:21:13

Newsreader

The Occupy Wall Street protestors continue to call Lower Manhattan "home". 

 

10:19:25:15

Newsreader

There are questions about exactly what it wants and more importantly how it plans to get it. 

 

10:19:31:04

 

10:19:32:18

CAPTION

Mark Beissinger

Social Movement Theory

Princeton 

 

Mark Beissinger

Occupy, by standing for so many things and really refusing to strategise in some ways may have missed the boat.

10:19:42:13

 

10:19:58:17

CAPTION

September 24, 2011

New York City

 

Kalle Lasn

And now this Occupy movement, which last year felt like it would never fizzle out, all of a sudden even that movement is in danger of fizzling out, so I think the real trick to learn is how to be energised, how to be spontaneous and how to play jazz.

10:19:59:23

Stephen Squibb VO

Right at the beginning of Occupy there was a moment I think that really was the birth of Occupy more than any single moment and that was the second weekend of Occupy Wall Street.  During a march up to Union Square the police decided that enough was enough after occupiers had taken the street and kettled the marchers with orange nets, surrounding them and trapping them and one officer, Officer Bologna, came up and sprayed, pepper sprayed the women in the face. 

 

10:20:42:17

Stephen Squibb

The days after that were really interesting at Liberty Plaza at Zuccotti Park, because suddenly a lot more reporters were there. 

 

10:20:52:06

Stephen Squibb VO

Well on October 1st there was a big march called and it began in Liberty Plaza in Zuccotti Park and a couple thousand people rallied there and began marching and the plan was to cross the Brooklyn Bridge.  The plan that the Direct Action Working Group had made and publicised was primarily to go over the pedestrian walkway, but then another group of people decided actually to go onto the road. 

 

10:21:24:23

 

10:21:28:21

CAPTION

Stuart Applebaum

RWDSU Union

President

 

Stuart Applebaum

What happened on Brooklyn Bridge is going to be a stain on this city for a long time to come. 

 

10:21:31:16

Stephen Squibb VO

They got about a third of the way across the bridge, they were stopped by police nets and a blockade and the NYPD proceeded to arrest everyone who was there, including journalists, including children. 

 

10:21:48:00

Stuart Applebaum VO

People of New York who were trying to express peacefully a point of view were attacked for having that point of view.  

 

10:22:03:11

Priscilla Grim

I think it was three or four weeks in, I woke up, it was Sunday morning and I opened the New York Times and I realised half the paper literally was dedicated to Occupy.  It was setting everyone's mind on fire. 

10:22:18:07

 

10:22:26:17

CAPTION

Tim McCarthy

Social Movement Theory

Harvard

 

10:22:37:11

CAPTION

Chapter 3:

The Fed

 

Tim McCarthy

Then the next thing you know it's all over the place, it's in Boston, it's in Philadelphia, it's in Oakland, it's in a whole range of places all over the country, it proliferated pretty quickly and that's when I really began to  think oh, this is something.

10:22:40:21

Protester

There is nowhere left to run.  If we lose America we lose the world to the elite.  The one percent will continue to get rich as we all live like slaves.  If you think the way of life is bad now you will all be living in projects like Hoovervilles.  We need to end the Federal Reserve.

 

10:23:03:17

 

10:23:04:00

CAPTION

Reggie Middleton

Investor & Analyst

 

Interviewer

What is the Federal Reserve? 

 

10:23:05:12

 

10:23:22:17

CAPTION

What Is The Fed?

Ben S. Bernanke

Chairman, Federal Reserve

 

Reggie Middleton

The Federal Reserve is a quasi private or a private bank that basically acts as a bank to the banks.  I follow this stuff very well and I'm not sure I know what the Federal Reserve is.  It's basically a big guy box. 

10:23:26:03

Ben S. Bernanke

Hi, I'm Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve system. 

 

10:23:29:23

Steve Meyer

Hello, I'm Steve Meyer.  I'm an economist here at the Federal Reserve in Washington. 

 

10:23:34:24

Ben S. Bernanke

The Fed, as it's often called, is the central bank of the United States. 

 

10:23:38:24

Steve Meyer

The congress created the Fed and made it responsible for monetary policy

 

 

10:23:43

 

Richard Parker

That is the government-controlled bank or government related bank that will be the standard for issuing the pieces of paper that will be the substitute for carrying around inordinate numbers of gold coins in order to conduct business. 

 

10:24:00:16

 

10:24:07:16

CAPTION

Jamie Dimon

CEO, JP Morgan

 

Board of Directors

New York

 

Ben S. Bernanke

The Federal Reserve also helps to supervise and regulate   nation's banks and works to promote a stable financial system. 

10:24:07:21

 

10:24:19:20

CAPTION

Jesse LaGreca

Occupy Wall Street

Journalist

 

Jesse LaGreca

Jamie Dimon is on the governing body of the Federal Reserves, so let me get this straight, the guy who's in charge of one of the big banks is also in charge of the organisation that's supposed to be applying oversight to the big banks?  Yeah, it's kind of literally like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse. 

 

10:24:26:10

VO

That Jamie Dimon is on the board of the New York Fed is just very consistent with the origins of the Fed, which was this bargain that created a semi government, semi private central bank. 

 

10:24:40:09

VO

The Federal Reserve was set up in the wake of an enormous financial crisis in 1905 in which Wall Street melted down, the economy started to melt down and there was no Federal Reserve. 

10:24:53:17

VO

At the time of that crisis the policy response came solely from private bankers cantered around JP Morgan. 

10:25:02:12

VO

One of the most influential banker, most powerful banker in the country, essentially rallied other large banks in New York to provide the emergency landing needed to get the economy back on its feet. 

 

10:25:17:15

 

 

Richard Parker

That drew the attention of lots of people who asked the question, "why are we turning over the health of the economy in terms of its recovery to JP Morgan and a handful of other wealthy bankers?  Because it's quite clear that Morgan made an enormous amount of money in the way that he structured the recovery. 

 

10:25:36:01

Richard Parker

When the Federal Reserve was then set up, the republicans and democrats, you may have heard about this, didn't trust one another enough to believe that if it was a directly supervised entity that politics wouldn't enter in and the bankers were very reluctant for their own reasons to join a system that risked that kind of political pressure on them from elected officials in Washington, so the bankers set up as nominally independent. 

 

10:26:09:15

Ben S. Bernanke

As we learned during the financial crisis, financial instability can pose a severe threat to the broader economy. 

 

10:26:15:17

Steve Meyer

So the Fed reduced short term interest rates sharply, about as low as possible.  Even so, output and employment continued to shrink.  The Fed decided it needed to do more. 

10:26:28:04

 

10:26:33:06

CAPTION

Richard Parker

Mother Jones Magazine

Co-Founder

 

10:26:39:18

CAPTION

The term "toxic mortgage asset"

was coined in the financial crisis of 2008

 

10:26:43:17

CAPTION

DEFINITION

A stock that bases its value

on high-risk sub-prime mortgages. 

 

10:26:48:17

CAPTION

When too many homeowners default,

the stock has no buyers on the market. 

 

Richard Parker

And what is does is it's been going out to the banks and it's saying all right, we'll buy those toxic mortgage packages from you and we'll give you cash for them. 

 

10:26:54:02

 

10:27:00:13

CAPTION

$1,700,000,000,000

 

Steve Meyer

The Fed bought a large amount of bonds and other longer term securities, about $1.7 trillion in total. 

 

10:27:01:24

Richard Parker

Because in effect, in 2008 and 2009 nobody wanted to buy any of those packages and their effective net worth was zero. 

 

10:27:10:05

 

10:27:13:18

CAPTION

(actual Fed animation)

 

Steve Meyer

You may wonder how the Fed pays for the bonds and other securities it buys; the Fed does not pay with paper money.  Instead the Fed pays the seller's bank using newly created electronic funds and the bank adds those funds to the seller's account.  The seller can spend the funds or can simply leave them in the bank. 

 

10:27:32:04

Protester

That's fake money that they printed out of thin air.  FIAT money, that’s FIAT currency!  

 

10:27:40:04

 

10:27:44:04

CAPTION

TRANSLATION

 

 

10:27:47:09

CAPTION

a risky trader

that can print money

who answers

to no one

 

10:28:03:18

CAPTION

Chapter 4:

I Am Not Moving

 

Reggie Middleton

Seven years ago the Federal Reserve was a totally different animal than it is now.  Right now the Federal Reserve, the closest approximately could be a gigantic dynamic hedge fund with unlimited leverage capability and the inability to be taken to task by its shareholders and investors. 

10:28:08:09

Stephen Squibb

In every movement there are acts of resistance and there are acts of alternative building.  For Gandhi, for instance, the alternative building was far more important and took up far more of his energy actually on a day to day basis than the resistance, and he thought they were far more important.

So I think that the occupiers' emphasis on the occupations and on creating the life there, you know, is not out of keeping with the tradition of effective resistance movements.

 

10:28:39:13

 

10:28:46:06

CAPTION

Gideon Oliver

National Lawyer's Guild

President, NY Chapter

 

Gideon Oliver

The city has taken the position that none of the activities that really formed the heart of the physical occupation, aside from the mere fact of gathering, are protected under the first amendment.  

 

10:28:51:22

Molly Crabapple

So he announce that the park was gonna be cleared and that night thousands of people, teamsters and party promoters from Brooklyn and homeless street kids and old ladies, they cleaned the park, on their hands and knees they cleaned it and then they stood in solidarity all night and said no, you're not gonna clear the park and Bloomberg backed down. 

 

10:29:12:03

Newsreader

In New York Zuccotti Park all morning long, a confrontation between police and Occupy Wall Street protesters was avoided after the park owners cancelled cleanup and decided that the protest can stay.

 

10:29:22:10

 

10:29:35:16

CAPTION

2 weeks after the failed eviction,

an early snow storm hit New York

 

Pete Dutro

The real heroes of Zoccotti Park was the sanitation team.  They worked harder and longer hours than most of the other working groups and really got very little credit.  I mean, they saved us from getting evicted.

10:29:38:15

Pete Dutro

I was in bed with like, 104 degree fever and the snow hit and then it just started going wild and everybody was getting hypothermic.  I thought to myself, you know, people could actually die out here. 

 

10:29:51:05

Stephen Squibb

Occupation is the central tactic for the Occupy movement, it's what put it on the map, it's what people did all over the country in order to identify with this movement and to unite their goals and aspirations.  Of course, sometimes the means has become mistaken for the ends. 

 

10:30:11:13

 

10:30:19:18

CAPTION

Pete Dutro

Occupy Wall Street

Finance

 

Pete Dutro

From after that first, you know, real attempt to evict us it,was kind of a waiting game, you know, like we knew that they were gonna try it again, we just didn't know when. 

 

10:30:23:13

 

10:30:37:20

CAPTION

George Machado

Occupy Wall Street

Organizer

 

Michael Bloomberg

Over time I'd become increasingly concerned that the occupation was coming to pose a health and fire safety hazard to the protestors and to the surrounding community, but make no mistake, the final decision to act was mine and mine alone. 

 

10:30:38:03

 

10:30:42:19

CAPTION

November 15 2011

Zuccotti Park

 

George Machado

Well, the raid was brutal. 

 

10:30:43:09

Protester

What's going on?  What's going on? 

 

10:30:44:19

Protester

The police are beating the people with billy clubs now. 

 

10:30:47:09

 

10:30:53:18

CAPTION

Nicole Carty

Occupy Wall Street

Organizer

 

Nicole Carty

It's just the space that was so much to so many people and home to friends being wiped off the face of the earth. 

 

10:30:56:21

George Machado VO

I had left with Nicole. 

 

10:30:59:10

Nicole Carty

Just even coming off of a really exhausting day period. 

 

10:31:02:12

George Machado VO

So when you decide just to go home and get some food and relax.

 

10:31:06:04

Nicole Carty

We were just like, I'm so tired, I'm like so stoked to like, sleep, you know, I'm gonna sleep.

 

10:31:12:06

George Machado VO

Around 12 o' clock we get a text message that the park is being raided, we were like, oh my god. 

 

10:31:17:00

Nicole Carty

We just hopped in a cab and went back to Zuccotti Park. 

10:31:20:05

George Machado VO

It's completely locked down, four block radius. 

 

10:31:22:22

Nicole Carty

And George is like, running around and had all this energy and I was like, are you kidding me? 

 

10:31:27:05

George Machado

I booked it and just sprint inside and it was great, the sanitation workers like, were defence for me.

 

10:31:33:09

Nicole Carty

Somewhere they just got orders to like, start pushing people doubt.  Then like, I saw them take it out and like, start spraying it and it was like this very surreal moment before we were like oh, I'm being pepper sprayed right now. 

 

10:31:43:05

George Machado VO

And as soon as I get there I sit down, I put a U lock around my neck, lock myself down to the rest of my friends and just wait. 

 

10:31:50:13

Nicole Carty

We rushed to this convenience store and like, Sandy was there and she like, made this concoction of water and milk and like, doused us with it so that we could see again. 

 

10:31:58:23

George Machado

I was livid watching these garbage trucks just destroy everyone's property. 

 

10:32:03:12

George Machado

I just picked up a booklet, brave new world revisited by Alous Huxley.

 

10:32:08:14

Interviewer

What did they do with everything? 

 

10:32:10:11

Nicole Carty

They trashed it, they trashed everything.  :

 

10:32:12:16

Protester

Where are you taking this stuff? 

 

10:32:14:22

SUBTITLE:

I guess to the dump!

 

10:32:15:04

Police Officer

I guess to the dump. 

 

10:32:15:18

SUBTITLE:

say that again

 

10:32:15:24

Man in Grey Jumper

Say that again. 

 

10:32:16:20

SUBTITLE:

don't say nothing

 

10:32:16:21

Police Officer

Don't say nothing. 

 

10:32:19:02

 

10:32:24:16

CAPTION

Gideon Oliver

National Lawyer's Guild

President, NY Chapter

 

10:32:33:00

CAPTION

November 16 2011

Zuccotti Park

 

Gideon Oliver

Because it happened literally in the middle of the night and without any meaningful warning, you know, those of us who wanted to provide some legal support were left in a position where we had to scramble and wake up a judge. 

10:32:36:19

Gideon Oliver VO

Judge Lucy Billings issued a court order, an injunction basically, a restraining order on the NYPD, but the NYPD refused to adhere to the court order. 

 

10:32:58:07

Pete Dutro

The city thought that if they evicted us before our N17 that this was going to get us to stop protesting and really what it did was I think swelled our ranks on N17. 

 

10:33:12:14

George Machado

Experiencing the eviction the night before and having that be on like, the lashing that it was and having to see that, people came that morning with a lot more anger. 

 

10:33:23:09

SUBTITLE:

Mic check

 

10:33:23:13

Protesters

Mic check.

 

10:33:24:04

SUBTITLE:

Mic check

 

10:33:24:07

Man Chanting

Mic check. 

 

10:33:24:21

SUBTITLE:

Mic check

 

10:33:24:23

Protesters

Mic check.

 

10:33:25:02

SUBTITLE:

Mic check

 

10:33:25:22

SUBTITLE:

Look at you now

 

10:33:26:13

Man Chanting

Look at you now. 

 

10:33:26:19

SUBTITLE:

Look at you now

 

10:33:26:24

Protesters

Look at you now. 

 

10:33:28:02

SUBTITLE:

Look how strong we are

 

10:33:28:01

Man Chanting

Look how strong we are.

 

10:33:29:09

SUBTITLE:

Look how strong we are

 

10:33:29:11

Protesters

Look how strong we are. 

 

10:33:31:06

Newsreader

We're about three hours into this day long Occupy Wall Street event marking the two month anniversary of this movement that began here in New York, dozens of people have been arrested, sound cannons have already been used, women tackled to the ground and hauled off in vans. 

 

10:33:49:24

George Machado

At first it was like, a few dozen of us and a few hundred came behind us and I stood in front of a wall of police, like walls and walls of police with no fear.  There was one point where like, this cop's face was like, literally an inch from mine, his scooter wheel was in between my legs and I'm just up there with two peace signs yelling in his face "we are peaceful, I am not moving."

 

10:34:14:00

Tim Pool

Brendan, a bunch of blue shirts jumped the barricade and ran up to him and they knocked him on the ground, bashing his head on a curb.  They were stomping on his head, they were kicking him and when they picked him up just his whole face is covered in blood, you can see his teeth are knocked loose and he's totally out of it. 

 

10:34:30:07

 

10:34:39:07

CAPTION

November 18 2011

Zuccotti Park

 

Man in Blue T-shirt

I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it was not blood on the Occupier on MSNBC, but rather ketchup or stage blood. 

10:34:41:19

 

10:34:53:14

CAPTION

Jen Waller

Occupy Wall Street

Organizer

 

10:35:07:23

CAPTION

Chapter 4:

Corporatocracy

 

Jen Waller

My main feeling was, you know, we're gonna get through this and hopefully this will make us stronger as activists and as people and hopefully this will make our movement stronger, hopefully we can do the press work after this to, you know, show people that look at what we're trying to do here, we're trying to sit in a park and talk. 

 

10:35:12:24

Mitt Romney

We have to make sure that the promises we make in social security, medicate and Medicare are promises we can keep and there are various ways of doing that.  One is we could raise taxes on people, that's not the way… corporations are people, my friend.  We can raise taxes.  Of course they are, everything corporations earn ultimately goes to people.  Where do you think it goes? 

 

10:35:34:22

Audience

It goes in your pockets. 

 

10:35:36:16

Mitt Romney

Whose pockets?  Whose pockets?  People's pockets.  Ok, human beings, my friend. 

 

10:35:42:00

 

10:35:42:17

CAPTION

Aaron Black

Occupy Wall Street

Organizer

 

Aaron Black

I could probably grab any of these people off the sidewalk and say "what do you think of corporate personhood?  Do you think that's a good idea?  Do you think corporations should have the same rights as people?  Do you think money is free speech?"  What do you think they'd say?  I don't think they'd yeah, yeah that's a really good idea.

 

10:36:08:04

VO

The corporation has been evolving toward personhood, you know, since the very beginning, that was its destiny, you know, it kind of flipped into personhood in the Lincoln era. 

 

10:36:22:15

 

10:36:35:08

CAPTION

money = speech

 

VO

After the civil war corporations were defined as individuals in court cases in the law as a way to think about the kind of legal identity of a corporation, of a business.  This idea of money is speech I think is really something that's fairly new and we're already beginning to see just how horrible it is. 

 

10:36:43:17

 

10:36:53:04

CAPTION

Robert Monks

Author & Former Banker

 

Robert Monks

The law of the land was that a corporation is a person, that it is unconstitutional to restrain corporate speech, now what is corporate speech?  I don't know, but the supreme court said corporate speech turns out to be money. 

 

10:37:01:03

 

10:37:03:17

CAPTION

speech = free

money = speech

 

Jesse LaGreca

Naturally what the heard of citizens united comes down to, if speech is free then money should equal speech.  Well it's not free speech if someone paid for it. 

 

10:37:09:24

Lisa Fithian

The brazenness by which they're doing this is really quite stunning. 

 

10:37:16:12

 

10:37:17:07

CAPTION

ALEC

THE AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE EXCHANGE COUNCIL

 

Cenk Uygur

Now if you don’t know this, there's a group called ALEC, it's the business community which gets together and says how can we basically buy all the politicians on a state and federal level and then actually hand them the piece of legislation and have them submit it and go huh, golly gee, I got this great idea to crush unions, where did I get that from? 

 

10:37:33:07

 

10:37:34:03

CAPTION

Rachel Burgin

 

Cenk Uygur

We've got a Florida State representer, Rachel Burgin, who put in a bill and forgot to take out the part that was actually in the memo about ALEC itself, ok?  Get a load of what she submitted into the legislature, quote, "House Memorial.  A memorial to the Congress of the United states urging congress to cut federal corporate tax rate.  Whereas, it is the mission of the American Legislative Exchange Council to advance Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government, federalism, and individual liberty, and…

 

10:38:07:20

Cenk Uygur

You understand?  That's the thing that they wrote, gave to the politicians saying this is why it is our position and that's of course ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council.

 

10:38:18:16

Cenk Uygur

You understand?  They don't represent us at all.

 

10:38:23:11

Cenk Uygur

When she realised her mistake 24 hours later she pulled it in a panic, like I didn't mean that, I didn't mean that and then she resubmitted the same exact thing just with that sentence about ALEC taken out. 

 

10:38:37:04

 

10:39:09:18

CAPTION

Ian Murphy, editor of the BEAST

online newspaper

 

10:39:14:11

CAPTION

prank calls Wisconsin

Republican Governor, Scott Walker

 

10:39:19:07

CAPTION

posing as New York's richest man,

David Koch

 

10:39:23:24

CAPTION

The Koch empire has donated over

$196 million to Republican front groups

 

 

Robert Monks

We've had what I call a capture by the business round table, chamber of commerce, large companies of the power to control the allocation of resources in this country.  And so resources that in the past might have been directed in ways that enhanced the public welfare are now being directed to industries that have participated in this capture of the governmental process. 

 

10:39:30:12

 

10:39:31:24

CAPTION

Gov. Scott Walker

Real David Koch

 

Scott Walker

Hi, this is Scott Walker. 

 

10:39:32:02

Ian Murphy

Scott, David Koch, how are you? 

 

10:39:34:08

Scott Walker

Hey David, I'm good and yourself? 

 

10:39:36:22

Ian Murphy

I'm very well.  Little disheartened by the situation there, but what's the latest? 

 

10:39:42:13

Scott Walker

We're actually taking it pretty tough, you know, amazingly there's a much smaller group of protesters, almost all of them are in from other states today. 

 

10:39:50:10

Ian Murphy

Now who could we get to budge on this collective bargaining? 

 

10:39:54:19

Scott Walker

Well I think in the end one, the paycheque will have an impact. 

 

10:39:59:09

Ian Murphy

Beautiful, beautiful, gotta crush that union. 

 

10:40:03:04

 

10:40:09:01

CAPTION

Chris Hedges

Journalist & Author

 

Chris Hedges

Politicians are essentially corporate employees, they run errands for corporate lobbyists, they pass legislation written by corporate lobbyists and when they get out of office they become corporate lobbyists. 

 

10:40:16:01

 

10:40:16:23

CAPTION

Douglas Rushkoff

Media Theory

 

Douglas Rushkoff

It's funny, my friends on the, I don't know if you call them on the right, is Kissinger on the right?  I don't know what he is… now tell me that it's well established in their circles that democracy didn't work. 

 

10:40:29:24

 

10:40:37:15

CAPTION

Richard Parker

Senior Economist, Harvard

 

10:40:46:11

CAPTION

Wall Street Donors

 

10:40:49:05

CAPTION

Bank of America

$421,242

 

10:40:52:01

CAPTION

Morgan Stanley

$512,232

 

10:40:54:24

CAPTION

UBS

$532,674

 

10:40:57:20

CAPTION

citibank

$736,771

 

10:41:00:18

CAPTION

J.P. Morgan

$808,799

 

10:41:03:15

CAPTION

Goldman

Sachs

$1,013,091

Obama's Biggest 2008 Donor

 

Richard Parker

The Obama administration, for its own reasons, was very reluctant to begin a cycle of prosecution during its first term of office and I can just imagine what the arguments are that the president heard.  His economic advisers would have said to him they will punish you badly in return if you try to prosecute some of them.  Then as they group they will recognise that you are a threat to them and when the 2012 campaign comes around, Monday that you, President Obama, actually raised on Wall Street, which was not insignificant, will go to your republican opponent. 

 

10:41:14:15

 

10:41:20:02

CAPTION

Amin Husain

Occupy Wall Street

Theory

 

10:41:39:13

CAPTION

Chapter 6:

Occupy 2.0

 

Amin Husain

The status quo's untenable.  People that get elected are responsive to people that elect them, but they're responsive to global capital and I think that was the break. 

 

10:41:44:05

 

10:41:49:14

CAPTION

Sandy Nurse

Occupy Wall Street

Organizer

 

Sandy Nurse

Losing the park propelled us into this two to three month window where people were just like, falling off, because they no longer had a place to stay and they no longer had a constant food source. 

 

10:41:59:10

 

10:42:10:18

CAPTION

Comel West

Philosopher

 

Comel West

I can understand a person becoming pessimistic or becoming more despairing, because they want to go back to those first moments, those moments of unbelievable enthusiasm and intensity and passion and no, you can't go back.

 

10:42:14:19

Suited Man in News Clip

So, the Occupy Wall Street movement is dead, finished as a legitimate political force in this country and that's a good thing. 

 

10:42:21:24

 

10:42:21:14

CAPTION

Stephen Squibb

Occupy Boston

Organizer

 

Stephen Squibb

No one can keep a camp going at this point for longer than two and a half months, whether that's in a denial camp in Spain or an Occupy camp in America.

 

10:42:29:03

 

10:42:30:19

CAPTION

Nicole Carty

Occupy Wall Street

Organizer

 

Nicola Carty

In a way losing the parks liberated the movement, in a way it confused it. 

 

10:42:36:10

 

10:42:50:08

CAPTION

Mark Bessinger

Social Movement Theory

Princeton

 

Mark Beissinger

One of its unique aspects is its absence of leadership structure.  In fact, social movement theory would tell you that a social movement that doesn't have clear leadership, doesn't have clear goals probably won't persist over a long period of time.  In some ways Occupy has defied the odds. 

 

10:42:53:04

Mattathias Schwarz

One thing I think that you saw in Occupy is leaders who deny that they were leaders. 

 

10:42:59:03

 

10:43:00:00

CAPTION

Aaron Black

Occupy Wall Street

Organizer

 

Interviewer

So let me just ask you, what is it like being a leader in this movement?  I know that's a really tough word, but let's be honest, man, I've seen you at work, I've seen the people asking you for advice. 

 

10:43:10:12

Aaron Black

A little uncomfortable.

 

10:43:14:23

Aaron Black

We don’t have a leader.  But there are people steering the ship.  I'm not gonna lie to you, there are people who have influence in this movement. 

 

10:43:27:03

Barack Obama

Well before I came to school today I had coffee. 

 

10:43:30:00

SUBTITLE:

Mic Check!  Mic Check!

 

10:43:30:14

Audience

Mic check, mic check. 

 

10:43:34:12

Newsreader

And more recently we have seen another new process tactic gain some traction across the country and that is the human mic, an Occupy Wall Street innovation.  In the absence of a microphone it's a means of communicating to a large group of people. 

 

10:43:46:23

Human Microphone

We amplify each other's voices. 

 

10:43:49:12

Protesters

We amplify each other's voices.  

 

10:43:51:24

SUBTITLE:

Mic Check!  Mic Check!

 

10:43:52:02

Audience

Mic check!  Mic check. 

 

10:43:53:04

SUBTITLE:

Mr. President

 

10:43:53:24

 

Audience

Mr President, over 4,000 peaceful protesters have been arrested, while banksters continue to destroy the economy with impunity. 

 

10:43:55:13

SUBTITLE:

Over 4,000 peaceful protesters

 

10:44:00:20

SUBTITLE:

have been arrested

 

10:44:03:17

SUBTITLE:

While banksters continue 

 

10:44:07:01

SUBTITLE:

to destroy the economy with impunity

 

10:44:12:10

Barack Obama

No, no, it's ok. 

 

10:44:13:10

 

10:44:14:04

CAPTION

Kevin Zeese

Occupy DC

Organizer

 

Kevin Zeese

We also want to show them alternatives to governance, the general assembly, with its participatory nature, with listening to everybody's voice, even minority voices get heard, so that the majority, which is often wrong, can hear a minority perspective and maybe change its view. 

 

10:44:29:07

Mark Beissinger

There are rules about speaking that are enforced by, you know, particular people who are trained in mediating this discourse. 

 

10:44:37:04

 

10:44:37:19

CAPTION

Lisa Fithian

Occupy Wall Street

Facilitator

 

Lisa Fithian

I have not become a big advocate or fan of how the general assembly process has manifested, particularly in New York and in fact it's really not even working anymore. 

 

10:44:45:11

Protest Organiser

Put your finger in the air, put your finger in the air, we'll be given a chance to speak.  

 

10:44:50:20

Group of Protesters

You'll be given a chance to speak. 

 

10:44:53:15

Protester

I'm concerned…

 

10:44:54:20

Group of Protesters

I'm concerned… 

 

10:44:56:14

Protester

That our general agenda…

 

10:45:00:05

Group of Protesters

That our general agenda…

 

10:45:01:17

Protester

Usually takes quite some time. 

 

10:45:03:10

Group of Protesters

Usually takes quite some time. 

 

10:45:05:08

Protester

The working groups… 

 

10:45:06:13

Group of Protesters

The working groups… 

 

10:45:07:12

Protester

Have quite a few important things to get across. 

 

10:45:09:19

Amin Husain

We would have GAs at church and we would have meetings at E5 and so it was just like you go to work in the morning and you go straight there.  Wow, I do not feel like going to GA today at all, is this doing anything? 

 

10:45:23:09

Amin Husain VO

The danger is that people are just trying to do too much and that they're gonna burn themselves out.

 

10:45:31:00

Interviewer

Like, what's the mechanics, man?  What's the day to day of being a leader in this movement?  What you gotta do?  What do you do every day? 

 

10:45:41:13

Aaron Black

Well first of all, I don't like being in this position, it sucks.  I wanna go out on the road and take pictures again, but there's a lot of work to be done and I don't know if I'll ever do that again.  I'm on the phone most of the day and answering emails and settling rifts between different groups and often times I'm doing 20 things at once and I haven't been home to see my father or my mother in almost a year and it's hard to have a relationship with somebody.  It's a paradox, because on one hand I'm saying that it sucks, but I think it's the best thing I've ever done and I love it too.  After the eviction I spent like, the whole winter in an office with 30 or 40 people, trying to keep this thing alive and we figured out how to organise outside of a centralised location and we starved and a lot of us didn't have anywhere to go and, you know, we cried and we comforted one another and, you know, those guys are my family. 

 

10:47:09:07

 

10:47:16:14

CAPTION

George Martinez

Global Block Foundation

Founder

 

George Martinez

We find in Occupy that our family can be involved.  For us this is literally about not only us as individuals, but what will the world for our children look like? 

 

10:47:20:01

 

10:47:33:15

CAPTION

Priscilla Grim

Occupy Wall Street

Organizer

 

Priscilla Grim

My relationship with my daughter for the past year has been really tough.  The year prior her father and I split up and then this started and it was me being away, I mean I thought it was literally gonna be like a week and I kept telling her ok, next week I'll be done or next week I'll be done. 

 

10:47:37:13

George Martinez

And early on in the park, in the Zuccotti Park, my wife and my son came down with me, my son is three years old, what we told him was that this was the people taking over what's already theirs. 

 

10:47:51:11

Priscilla Grim

She doesn't like activism right now; she was all for it until it started getting really messy and we were actually on a march one weekend and almost got corralled by the cops, her and I.  Since then every time she sees a police vehicle or police person in the subway she gets very jumpy. 

 

10:48:11:14

George Martinez

And then he was in the video and you know, there's a part where we're singing "I'm Free," the chorus and we're putting our fists up and it turns out that so was he in the video and he's putting his little fist up.  People say to us when they saw us doing it like yeah, that was beautiful, your baby was so great and I had no clue. 

 

10:48:30:15

Priscilla Grim

Our friends were taking care of her, she's doing a lot of overnights during the week until finally in December her father said to me, you know, maybe it'd be best if we just switched primary custody for six months or so and so we did that in December and it's been really hard, because, you know, I'm a mom, she's my kid. 

 

10:48:56:16

George Martinez

The words "power to the people" to him have a picture in his mind now, there's a picture of what that means and what that means is that people can come together, that a lot of people can come together and have fun and share and have a lot of love in the environment and that in and of itself is power to the people.  Just people sharing space and love is power to the people in my son's three year old mind. 

 

10:49:25:06

 

10:50:05:17

CAPTION

Chapter 7:

Propaganda War

 

Priscilla Grim

I want this world to be better for her when she's older, but I also don't want her to lose me and both could happen, neither could happen.  I don't know.  Right now the only thing she thinks about Occupy Wall Street is that it took her mom away, so that's hard. 

 

10:50:12:13

 

10:50:18:23

CAPTION

Lee Camp

Comedian

 

Priscilla Grim

Corporate media is the devil, because it's only run by five to six organisations. 

 

10:50:19:03

 

10:50:22:19

CAPTION

CBS

CBS News

CBS Sports

CBS TV Network

CNET

Showtime

TV.com

CBS Radio Inc.

CBS Consumer Products

CBS Outdoor

CW Network

Infinity Broadcasting

Simon & Schuster

Westwood One Radio

Network

 

10:50:25:17

CAPTION

Disney

ABC Television

Disney Publishing

ESPN Inc.

Disney Channel

SOAPnet

A&E

Lifetime

Buena Vista Home

Buena Vista Prod

Buena Vista Records

Disney Records

Hollywood Records

Miramax Films

Touchstone Pictures

Walt Disney Pictures

Pixar Studios

Buena Vista Games

Hyperion Books

 

 

10:50:27:23

CAPTION

NBC

Bravo

CNBC

NBC News

MSNFC

NBC Sports

NEC TV Network

Oxygen

SciFi Magazine

Syfy (Sci Fi Channel)

Telemundo

USA Network

Weather Channel

Focus Features

NBC Universal TV Dist.

Paxson Communications

Universal Parks & Resorts

Universal Pictures

Universal Home Video

 

10:50:29:21

CAPTION

VIACOM

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Home Ent.

BET

Comedy Central

CMT

MTV

MTV Canada

MTV2

Nick Magazine

Nick at Nite

Nick Jr.

Nickelodeon

Noggin

Spike TV

The Movie Channel

TV Land

VH1

 

10:50:31:12

CAPTION

Time

Warner

Cable

HEC

Time Inc.

Turner Broadcasting

Warner Bros.

CW Network

TMZ

New Line Cinema

Time Warner Cable

TBS

TNT

America Online

MapQuest

Moviefone

Castle Rock

Sports Illustrated

Fortune

Marie Claire

People Magazine 

 

Lee Camp

So you'll have six people essentially, the CEOs of these corporations, six entities deciding everything we see and hear. 

 

10:50:32:02

 

10:50:32:23

CAPTION

News Corporation

Fox Television Stations

The New York Post

Battlenet

Fox Business Network

Fox Kids Europe

Fox News Channel

Fox Sports Net

Fox Television Network

FX

My Network TV

MySpace

News Limited News

Phoenix InfoNews Channel

Phoenix Movies Channel

Sky PerfectTV

Speed Channel

STAR TV India

STAR TV Techno

STAR World

Times Higher Education

Times Literary Supplement

Times of London

20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox International

20th Century Fox Studios

20th Century Fox Television

BSkyB

DIRECTTV

The Wall Street Journal

Fox Broadcasting Company

Fox Interactive Media

FOXTEL

HarperCollins Publications

The National Geographic Channel

National Rugby League

News Interactive

News Outdoor

Radio Veronica

ReganBooks

Sky Italia

Sky Radio Denmark

Sky Radio Germany

Sky Radio Netherlands

STAR

Zondervan

 

10:50:41:03

CAPTION

Chris Hedges

Journalist & Author

 

Chris Hedges

Publications like the New York Times have a kind of unwritten credo, which is do not significantly alienate those on whom we depend for money and for access and I worked there for 15 years. 

 

10:50:44:23

 

10:50:45:03

CAPTION

Tim Pool

Livestreamer

 

Tim Pool

You have, you know, in some instances MSNBC being way too nice. 

 

10:50:51:22

Newsreader

Our history as a country founded by and invigorated by and reinvigorated by protest. 

 

10:50:57:04

Tim Pool

And then you have Fox News saying they're a bunch of crazy drug addicts doing ridiculous things. 

 

10:51:02:19

Newsreader

Big government anarchists. 

 

10:51:03:23

Newsreader

Spitting on a woman in a coastguard uniform. 

 

10:51:06:01

Newsreader

They even have ties to terror groups. 

 

10:51:08:01

Tim Pool

It's really just people, you know, there's a bunch of different kinds of people, good, bad, you know, whatever. 

 

10:51:13:20

 

10:51:20:16

CAPTION

On January 18, 2012, a wave of

online protests occurred against SOPA -

the Stop Online Piracy Act

 

 

10:51:24:23

CAPTION

The story dominated the airwaves. 

 

10:51:29:06

CAPTION

Yet in the months before the SOPA protest,

there was a media blackout. 

 

10:51:33:00

CAPTION

TV News Segments of SOPA

VS

Other TV News Segments

October 26 - January 12

MSNBC, Fox News, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN

 

10:51:38:22

GRAPHICS ON SCREEN

Graph of News Segments

 

Chris Hedges

But generally it's what they don't tell you and this is especially true on the airwaves, where news is only judged for its entertainment value. 

10:51:42:12

Newsreader

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, gave her first public address as a royal today. 

 

10:51:47:20

Man in Shop

Everybody at the wedding will be wearing a hat. 

 

10:51:50:04

Lady in Shop

Everyone wears a hat. 

 

10:51:51:08

Man in Shop

You have to wear a hat. 

 

10:51:54:07

Newsreader

My goodness, have you watched the video yet on YouTube?  Unbelievable.

 

10:51:58:23

Newsreader

I'm extremely excited that I'll be able to Skype.

 

10:52:02:18

Newsreader

Mine, mine, mine, that is Casey Anthony. 

 

10:52:08:06

Newsreader

Well Kim and Kris fought over just about everything from a naked yoga instructor in their apartment to Kris' clothes being all over the floor, that fight led to a ripped toenail. 

 

10:52:17:16

Kim Kardashian

He fell in love with me and I fell in love with him and now my feelings have changed.  At 30 years old I thought I'd be married with kids and I'm not. 

 

10:52:31:21

 

10:52:34:00

CAPTION

Noam Chomsky

Philosopher

 

Noam Chomsky

The media has concocted the illusions which are indescribable.

 

10:52:40:00

 

10:52:43:04

CAPTION

Comel West

Philosopher

 

Comel West

Kim Kardashian's, they do sell, these things generate tremendous attention, tremendous titillation, tremendous stimulation, tremendous distraction, but generate big cash. 

 

10:52:53:09

 

10:52:53:08

CAPTION

Michael Levitin

Occupied Wall Street Journal

Co-Editor

 

Michael Levitin

They are the same channels that have the interests of not changing our system and the same Wall Street interests that elect our government, our presidents, our congressmen, that write our laws are the same ones that run our media. 

 

10:53:04:15

Douglas Rushkoff

Well, Erin was on the opening night of her show out front, you know, she's from the banking community, that's her world.  

 

10:53:11:22

Erin

That's down 110, your financials are obviously leading it, utilities are down, transports are down, drugs are down, retailers are down. 

 

10:53:17:16

 

10:53:18:04

CAPTION

Douglas Rushkoff

Media Theory

 

Douglas Rushkoff

Understandably she looks at Occupy movement as a bunch of wealthy, angry children complaining about all these bankers and people who are trying to do right by them. 

 

10:53:30:08

Erin

Seriously?  The Occupy Wall Street protest entered its third week today, but what are they protesting?  Nobody seems to know, so this afternoon we went to Wall Street to find out.

 

10:53:41:22

Man with Dreadlocks

The media that we're used to being indoctrinated with uses techniques. 

 

10:53:47:17

Douglas Rushkoff

And they start looking for what they consider to be inconsistency.

 

10:53:51:10

 

10:53:51:01

CAPTION

Jesse LaGreca

Occupy Wall Street

Journalist

 

Jesse LaGreca

What they do for the first question is to set you up. 

 

10:53:53:11

Erin

What do you do for a living?

 

10:53:54:23

Software Developer

I'm a software developer. 

 

10:53:56:09

Erin

Software developer, so currently employed or unemployed? 

 

10:53:58:15

Software Developer

Unemployed.  Funemployed, we like to call it. 

 

10:54:01:18

Jesse LaGreca

The second question is to make you look bad. 

 

10:54:03:21

Erin

So do you know that taxpayers actually made money on the Wall Street bailout? 

 

10:54:07:06

Software Developer

I was unaware of that. 

 

10:54:08:22

Jesse LaGreca

And the third question is to blame democrats. 

 

10:54:10:19

Erin

In fact, the only reason we haven't made all the money back is actually GM. 

 

10:54:14:01

Douglas Rushkoff

Which isn't true.  She was running around to people saying "do you know that the bailout was paid back?" and kids will go no idea, see. 

 

10:54:20:23

Erin

Seriously?  That's all it would take to put an end to the unrest? 

 

10:54:25:04

 

10:54:42:02

CAPTION

Justin Wedes

Occupy Wall Street

Media

 

Justin Wedes

The mainstream media represents the largest distraction from the real issues in our country that exist today.  They've prewritten the fate of Occupy.  In their book it's all done and it's not going to be depicted the way that it needs to be depicted if we rely upon those old institutions, those old structures, they're not going to inform people in the way that we need them to.  So we build our own.

 

10:54:52:22

Vlad Teichberg

What we are trying to do globally I think is empower the citizens to become journalists just using their cell phones and are training people how to take that immediate real time narrative from the streets and explain it and the people who know how to explain it are going to be able to speak to the whole world. 

 

10:55:09:18

Tim Pool

So this is my light setup, I have a heavy, I have a medium and I have a light setup.  Our live streaming is pretty simple.  The simplest way to put it is I take my phone, I download the uStream mobile app, you know, you sign in to your account and then you literally press play as if you're recording on your phone normally, but it uses your data service to send the video over the internet to anybody who wants to watch it. 

 

10:55:35:14

Tim Pool

So this is pretty much just I've got a threaded cable to my phone. 

 

10:55:40:03

Vlad Teichberg

The big limit for streaming is that the batteries in the phones are very small, so if they stream for like, one hour your phone is dead, so people usually have these little things attached to give them like, five or six hours for streaming. 

 

10:55:50:12

Tim Pool

And then I use an external battery, it's a USB energiser deal that keeps everything going.  This is a defender case, this is the case that I had when I was attacked. 

 

10:56:01:06

Protester

Turn off the camera or you'll loose your fucking camera. 

 

10:56:06:24

Tim Pool

You guys are attacking me right now. 

 

10:56:08:16

Protester

I'm not attacking shit. 

 

10:56:09:21

Tim Pool

Dude, stop advancing on me. 

 

10:56:11:07

Tim Pool

They come at me, one guy puts his, you know, hands at my face, one person swings at me, hits my hand and I'm backing up the whole time. 

 

10:56:19:19

Protester

Put your fucking camera away, put your fucking camera away, get the fuck out of here. 

 

10:56:23:18

Tim Pool

When I thought, you know, this is one of the only windows into what's actually happening right now and because these four people want to air out some tyres they think the world should not know what's about to happen, you'll get some kind of death threat and then I've gotten the veiled Mafioso threats like hey, yeah, like what you're doing, you might wanna consider getting some protection for this next action I'm gonna be at, you know what I'm saying?  And I'm like uh huh.  But I'm not worried about it. 

 

10:56:48:10

Newsreader

And all night last night we heard from dozens of protesters and independent journalists about raids and traffic stops taking place across this city.  Now, that kind of allegation is hard for us to confirm unless or until we see the kind of video that came into us from around two this morning.

 

10:57:10:05

Police Officer

Hands off, fucking hands. 

 

10:57:12:05

Tim Pool

We're being raided right now, for those that are watching we are being raided by the CPD as we speak. 

 

10:57:16:12

Tim Pool

The car pulled out of nowhere from behind us, the unmarked Convictoria, grey cut us off and we're surrounded by 12 cars. 

 

10:57:24:15

Tim Pool

What is this for, officer?  What is this for? 

 

10:57:27:19

Tim Pool

And we were interrogated, car numbers were taken down, they banged our hard drives against the ground. 

 

10:57:34:23

Newsreader

We contacted CPD about this incident, but we've not yet heard back.  Danielle and Stefan, back to you. 

 

10:57:40:10

 

10:58:06:05

CAPTION

Chapter 8:

Diversity of Tactics

 

Vlad Teichberg

It makes it harder for them to lie, because every time now they're lying about what happened it becomes very easy to say "oh, you're right."  Basically we're creating an object that uses everything the movement's creating, so to speak, to fight the propaganda war. 

 

10:58:30:01

 

10:58:31:14

CAPTION

MAY DAY

May 01 2012

International Worker's Day

 

Tim Pool

May Day was pretty intense, I had no idea what was gonna happen.  There was a lot of suspense building up to it, you know, people were worried, they're talking about the wild cat march and that there's gonna be, you know, people thought it was gonna be a lot of chaos. 

 

10:58:46:17

Newsreader

Police say if you can avoid downtown Seattle and Portland you should. 

 

10:58:51:07

Newsreader

We were warned that May Day protests could spin out of control today and that is exactly what happened. 

 

10:58:56:14

 

10:58:57:10

CAPTION

Seattle, May Day

 

Newsreader

We got there in time to see flares thrown up onto an upper tier and then rocks thrown at the big Nike windows.  The panes came down. 

 

10:59:03:15

Newsreader

Wells Fargo downtown sustained severe damage, windows shattered, glass showering upon the crowd.  Police finally arrive, self proclaimed superhero Phoenix Jones tries to calm the crowd. 

 

10:59:15:23

Newsreader

Published reports indicate the Black Bloc worldwide is synonymous with what many also called anarchists, that it is not an organisation, but a tactic. 

 

10:59:25:24

 

10:59:32:15

CAPTION

Andy Bichlbaum

Yes Men

 

Andy Bichlbaum

There's a moment when a lot of people in Occupy were debating, you know, non-violence versus diversity of tactics, whether it was ok to break a window every once in a while, it started getting really over intellectual. 

 

10:59:39:14

 

10:59:39:22

CAPTION

Chris Hedges

Journalist & Author

 

Chris Hedges

I wrote a column that called the Black Bloc the cancer of the Occupy movement, because the power of the Occupy movement is precisely that it is a mainstream movement. 

 

10:59:59:04

Chris Hedges

The tactics of the Black Bloc, because it embraces petty vandalism and taunting the police, are not palatable within the mainstream and are gift therefore to the security and surveillance state.  

 

11:00:13:15

Interviewee

I don't even know what to say, I don't even know what the protests are for, it's stupid. 

 

11:00:17:13

Interviewee

I think it's crazy, I think it's insane, like everybody who probably did it had a pair of Nikes on. 

 

11:00:23:02

 

11:00:27:13

CAPTION

New York, May Day

 

Chris Hedges

And I think taunting the police is very short-sighted. 

11:00:34:22

Tim Pool

The biggest threat to the Occupy movement in my opinion would be the inability to reconcile the reformists with the revolutionaries and, you know, there's been an ongoing debate about the diversity of tactics.  You have the revolutionaries who think…

 

11:00:50:22

 

11:00:51:13

CAPTION

Amin Husain

Occupy Wall Street

Theory

 

Amin Husain

The diversity of tactics is necessary to maintain the broad coalition that Occupy has to have to be successful. 

 

11:00:58:07

Tim Pool

You have the reformists who actually make up the majority who think…

 

11:01:01:12

 

11:01:05:01

CAPTION

Kevin Zeese

Occupy DC

Organizer

 

Kevin Zeese

If your goal is for mass movement you wanna do things that pull people toward you.  The problem with breaking windows and looking for conflicts with the police is that does the opposite, it pushes people away. 

 

11:01:11:20

Tim Pool

You know, the revolutionary faction is the one that kept the movement going, but the reformist is the one that makes the movement large and so they need to come together and find a way to work together. 

 

11:01:25:08

Nicole Carty VO

The May Day march in Bryant Park was at the same time as the wealth cat march. 

 

11:01:31:08

 

11:01:32:00

CAPTION

Bryant Park

Lisa & Nicole's March

 

Lisa Fithian VO

It was a rainy morning, we weren't sure what it was, we grew slowly, slowly, but yeah, when we rolled out at two o' clock I think we were close to three, four, 5,000 strong. 

 

11:01:41:11

 

11:01:42:07

CAPTION

Nicole Carty

Occupy Wall Street

Organizer

 

Nicole Carty

My group actually got saddled with leading that march.  Our plan was just to go on the sidewalk and just do an march that was very low risk and, you know, family friendly and everything, there was like, this leaked communicate that the police department had sent out, they were really worried about this wildcat march and so there was like a predicted huge mobilisation for it and so I think that pulled a lot of the cops. 

 

11:02:10:10

 

11:02:10:12

CAPTION

Lisa Fithian

Occupy Wall Street

Facilitator

 

Lisa Fithian

We did a fabulous march from Bryan Park down to Madison Square Park when the police were like, you know, you have to stay on the sidewalk, which was really putting, you know, pedestrians in a hard place, because if you're trying to run thousands of people down a sidewalk it's not safe and the police refused and ultimately the people just couldn't be contained and ultimately took the lane and all of Fifth Avenue. 

 

11:02:31:16

Nicole Carty

Lisa Fithian comes running up to me and she's like, just so you know, like, the whole middle of the march has taken the street and we're like, ok, alright. 

 

11:02:41:15

Nicole Carty

Thinking tactically about what it takes to take this street and where in the march that should come from, we've gotten better about that.  Usually you'll have the front of the march take the street and then you have the cops that are always there. 

 

11:02:58:03

Nicole Carty

So having it come from the middle, where they are usually thin was just the way to go. 

 

11:03:19:02

Lisa Fithian

You know, it was this beautiful cacophony of resistance that was room for lots of stuff. 

 

11:03:24:04

Nicole Carty

It was beautiful.  The wildcat march I heard was in the press, so I think it's kind of a combination of the wildcat march happening and also practice and, you know, evolution of our tactics. 

 

11:03:36:01

Tim Pool

You know, on May Day we found the wildcat, there was a little bit of paint drawn on cop cars, a couple of garbage cans, it was a hostile aesthetic, if you will, but there was definitely no secret vandalism, they agreed, they said no windows, that was the first thing they all agreed on, they said no windows. 

 

11:03:51:20

Interviewer

If the Black Bloc, you know, pulled that back do you think that they could be rehabilitated as an ally of Occupy?

 

11:04:01:01

Chris Hedges

I think the secret of the success of Occupy, as Lisa Fithian and others have pointed out, is this one, transparency, which means don't cover your face and two, non-violence and if there are Black Bloc elements that can live with that there's certainly room for that. 

 

11:04:23:17

Interviewer

Did you read Chris Hedges' article on Black Bloc?

 

11:04:26:03

 

11:04:28:06

CAPTION

George Machado

Occupy Wall Street

Organizer

 

George Machado

I did, I did read Chris Hedges' article on Black Bloc. 

 

11:04:31:21

Interviewer

What did you think of it? 

 

11:04:33:12

George Machado

It frustrates me, honestly. 

 

11:04:36:15

Interviewer

Just one sec.  Are they coming this way?  Sorry man, just one sec. 

 

11:05:06:14

Chris Hedges

Well, the single biggest threat to Occupy is without question the security surveillance state. 

 

11:05:30:01

Newsreader

In these stage demonstrations, the men dressed in black will typify hardcore professional agitators. 

 

11:05:39:10

Protestor

They don't tell me what to do, man, I'm a civilian, you get that? 

 

11:05:41:10

Newsreader

When the group refuses to disband, action must be taken.  Note that the reinforcements approach in formation, organised, in tact and formidable. 

 

11:05:51:24

Newsreader

Since the people have no real interest or involvement in the issue they fade away quickly, depriving the agitators of their most valuable weapon, the crowd. 

 

11:06:01:11

Chris Hedges

Well the power lead has always attempted to crush movements, anything that threatens their ability to dominate both political and economic systems. 

 

11:06:11:18

Newsreader

Fire extinguisher can be utilised when men and equipment are in short supply.  Spread on a corridor floor the foam or a substitute high concentration of soap suds can work wonders, watch. 

 

11:06:27:12

Newsreader

For the problem of an aroused, belligerent mob a riot control agent is a practical, humane solution.  A disperser provides the wider coverage necessary for such a large group. 

 

11:06:46:04

Chris Hedges

We've seen externally the resources that they have employed to physically eradicate the cameras.  What we don't see are the massive internal effort that they are making to subvert and destroy the movement and I think sometimes the Occupy people are a little naïve about what they're up against. 

 

11:07:02:16

 

11:07:02:13

CAPTION

Aaron Black

Occupy Wall Street

Organizer

 

Aaron Black

And those of you listening on the phone that don't like what I'm doing you can go fuck yourselves, but what are you… yeah, my phone's being tapped too, by the way. 

 

11:07:14:10

 

 

Chris Hedges

There's been a steady erosion under the Obama administration of basic civil liberties, they've created all sorts of mechanisms to shut out all but the elite, whether that is the FISA amendment act, a warnless wiretapping, monitoring and eavesdropping of tens of millions of American citizens, whether that is the refusal to shutter Guantanamo and end our offshore penal colonies, whether that is the decision to serve as judge, jury and executioner and order the assassination of American citizens, such as we saw with the [UNSURE OF WORD]. 

 

11:07:54:12

 

11:07:54:14

CAPTION

National

Defense

Authorization

Act

December 31, 2011

 

Chris Hedges VO

And of course the national Defense Authorisation Act, signed on December 31st 2011, which section 1021 and section 1022 permit the US Government to hold or seize an American citizen. 

 

11:08:08:05

Cornel West

Can be detained without due process, can be detained without judicial process and in fact can also be assassinated. 

 

11:08:17:13

Chris Hedges OV

Someone who substantially supports, whatever that means, al-Qaeda, the Taliban or something called associated forces. 

 

11:08:26:09

Man in Red Jumper

And there is the problem, it says "associated forces", what does that mean? 

 

11:08:31:12

Kevin Zeese

It also talks abut what actions would be deemed a threat and one of the words they use is belligerence, belligerence?  I mean, I get belligerent when I'm at a traffic light I got stopped at. 

 

11:08:43:23

Chris Hedges

To hold those people in military facilities until, in the language of the bill, the end of hostilities, which in an age of permanent war is forever.  You don't wanna hand that kind of power to the state, because eventually they'll use it. 

 

11:08:57:01

 

11:08:56:17

CAPTION

CHRISTOPHER HEDGES

- v -

BARACK OBAMA

 

Moore

Chris Hedges brought a complaint, it's really a suit against the federal government. 

 

11:09:01:13

Chris Hedges

I sued Barack Obama and [UNSURE OF WORD], I had a trial in a federal court. 

 

11:09:06:13

Man in Red Jumper

Chris' situations are unique, because he's a columnist writer, he's travelled all over the world. 

 

11:09:11:20

Kevin Zeese

He has actually dealt with al-Qaeda, dealt with what are labelled terrorist groups, so he would fit perfectly with the kind of person who could be challenged by this. 

 

11:09:21:06

Chris Hedges

You know, I'm not naïve about the corporate dominance of the judiciary, especially the supreme court, but I think that, you know, we shouldn't take pieces of legislation like this lying down. 

 

11:09:34:14

 

11:09:35:14

CAPTION

CHRISTOPHER HEDGES

defeats

BARACK OBAMA

 

Newsreader

A federal judge Wednesday struck down part of a controversial law signed by Barack Obama that gave the government the power to indefinitely detain anyone it considers a terrorism suspect, including US Citizens.  Judge Catherine Forest of the Southern District of New York struck down the indefinite detention provision, saying it likely violates the first and fifth amendments of US citizens. 

 

11:09:55:22

Newsreader

And five times Judge Forest asked the US Attorney, "will you agree that first amendment activates will not bring someone under the scope of this law?" and the government five times said "we can't answer that question." 

 

11:10:06:21

Newsreader

What is the significance of this judge's ruling? 

 

11:10:10:10

 

11:10:26:01

CAPTION

Chapter 9:

Death by Complexity

 

Chris Hedges

Well, it in essence invalidates that provision, section 1021, so it's monumental, because she threw the whole thing out. 

 

11:10:31:23

Robert Monks

Well I always fantasised and said if I were him, what would I do?  And he comes in and there's an enormously collapsing situation and the difficulty is that it appears as if this is a system that can break and nobody really knows what to do not to have it break, but you know if you break it you're gonna have a wasteland.  

 

11:11:00:24

Richard Parker

Wall Street now lives in complexity and hides behind complexity and is in fact undone by complexity.  I mean, I don’t think that any of these big banks wanted to go through the last four years.  They have fought their way through, they've fought ferociously like Spartan warriors, but none of them wanted this experience. 

 

11:11:21:23

Reggie Middleton

How do you make that complexity?  It's my opinion that you cannot successfully regulate complexity, because you have financial engineers whose sole job is to work around regulation. 

 

11:11:31:21

Man in Blue Shirt

And so often times policy makers don't understand the markets that they're trying to regulate. 

 

11:11:38:18

VO

One of the things that happens in financial markets is that they're so interconnected that oftentimes we don't know who is on which side of which trade and so the impacts of a faulty product are not just between me and the person who sold it to me, but they might be between me and someone else that I've transacted with and the people that they've transacted with.  

 

11:12:03:04

VO

The fact of the matter is those instruments are very complicated and it's the case that neither the purchaser nor the seller truly understands what's in them to the degree that prudent judgement would expect. 

 

11:12:17:14

 

11:12:29:13

CAPTION

WHAT IS A

DERIVATIVE? 

 

Man in Blue Shirt

They're developed in many cases not to be transparent, yet, you know, regulators have to understand them well enough to know when they're making a valuable contribution to the economy and at which point they get dangerous. 

11:12:30:19

 

11:12:37:19

CAPTION

DERIVATIVE

 

11:12:40:10

CAPTION

1972

 

11:12:52:15

CAPTION

WHAT MAKES

DERIVATIVES BAD? 

 

11:13:06:23

CAPTION

4th Derivative of:

 

11:13:37:10

CAPTION

WHO TRADES

DERIVATIVES? 

 

Reggie Middleton

A derivative is an instrument that derives its value from something else.  For instance, the dollar bill was a derivative up until 1972, '73.  If you take a dollar and say a dollar's backed by 1/8th of an ounce or a 16th of an ounce of gold, you know, it's a very simple formula, you know one correlation, easy for everyone to understand.  But what makes derivative a bad thing is once you start making contents with derivatives you start losing the ability to value derivatives, ok.  If you change this derivative and say a dollar is based upon the 4th derivative of some complex formula based on the colour of the book bag behind you, only if the colour of the book bag behind you matches the colour of the book bag on the guy sitting in the corner of 42nd street who won't tell you his name, because it's a proprietary formula and then that is based upon 1/5th the value of gold, as long as the value of gold is the average of gold sold in 15 countries, of which we're only going to reveal four of those countries, because the other 11 countries are a part of our proprietary formula. 

11:13:38:23

 

11:13:40:08

CAPTION

96%

 

Reggie Middleton

In the US 96 percent of the derivative market is shared between five individual entities, five banks.  96 percent of the risk and they do business the exact same way, with each other. 

 

11:13:51:05

Interviewer

What banks? 

 

11:13:52:17

 

11:14:11:20

CAPTION

To simplify the derivatives market,

the Obama government introduced the

Dodd-Frank Act

 

11:14:18:08

CAPTION

It is 848 pages long

 

Reggie Middleton

JP Morgan, Citibank, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America.  So that's the biggest problem with derivatives, ok, complexity and a lack of transparency in reporting. 

11:14:23:20

Richard Parker

The reforms under Dodd-Frank themselves have oftentimes been so complex that their complexity will provide a legal defence for those who don't abide by them, which is surely what will happen when the next meltdown comes. 

 

11:14:42:13

Man in Blue Shirt

As we've already seen with the major losses at JP Morgan, where they were attempting to comply with parts of Dodd-Frank, yet they were still able to lose $2 billion in a very quiet market. 

 

11:14:58:17

Newsreader

We learned on Thursday that JP Morgan Chase lost $2 billion, that's billion with a B from the derivatives trading desk. 

 

11:15:05:21

Newsreader

It was a shocking announcement from JP Morgan Chase, the United States' largest bank based on assets. 

 

11:15:12:09

Newsreader

Several news reports today also reveal that the FBI and the justice department are beginning their own investigations. 

 

11:15:18:22

 

11:15:27:18

CAPTION

Emergency conference call between

Jamie Dimon and shareholders

 

Dawn Kopecki

Generally when the department of justice and FBI gets involved it's generally because they suspect there's some sort of cover up going on.

 

11:15:27:23

 

Jamie Dimon

Regarding what happened, the synthetic credit portfolio was a strategy to head the firm's overall credit exposure, which is our largest risk overall in a stress credit environment.  We We're reducing that hedge, but in hindsight the new strategy was flawed, complex and poorly monitored.  It could cost us as much as a billion dollars or more. 

 

11:15:46:24

Man in Conference Call

Just in real simple terms, in six weeks you lost $2 billion, as simple as you can explain it, what went wrong? 

 

11:15:54:24

 

11:16:07:19

CAPTION

in the following weeks,

the derivatives did more damage

to JP Morgan

 

11:16:32:23

CAPTION

CEO Jamie Dimon was summoned

to explain the huge derivatives losses

 

11:16:45:18

CAPTION

May 10 2012

Washington DC

 

Jamie Dimon

You already mentioned there's huge moves in the marketplace, these are complex, we made these positions more complex and I can repeat it 800 times, I'm not gonna get into more specifics than that. 

 

11:16:57:18

SUBTITLE:

Mr Dimon

11:16:57:11

Deborah Harris

Mr Dimon, I was doing the paramedic for the fire department for 23 years, my name is Deborah Harris and you stole my house from underneath me. Why don't you face the people that you foreclosed on?  Stop foreclosures now.  Stop foreclosures now!  You can gamble and lie like hell with 2 billion dollars and you can't give her a modification Dimon?  There's your day coming.  Stop foreclosures now. 

 

 

 

11:16:59:06

SUBTITLE:

I was doing the paramedic for

the fire department for 23 years

 

11:17:02:03

SUBTITLE:

My name is Deborah Harris

 

11:17:03:14

SUBTITLE:

and you stole my house from underneath me

 

11:17:05:17

SUBTITLE:

Why don't you face the people

that you foreclosed on?

 

11:17:08:22

SUBTITLE:

Stop foreclosures now!

 

11:17:10:16

SUBTITLE:

Stop foreclosures now! 

 

11:17:12:17

SUBTITLE:

You can gamble and lie like hell

with 2 billion dollars

 

11:17:15:06

SUBTITLE:

and you can't give her a

modification Dimon? 

 

11:17:17:19

SUBTITLE:

There's your day coming

 

11:17:23:02

SUBTITLE:

Give Deborah her home back Dimon

 

11:17:23:09

 

11:17:33:04

CAPTION

Deborah went to jail for the day

 

11:17:38:01

CAPTION

Jamie did not

Man in Court

Give Deborah her home back, Dimon.  She is a paramedic, she spent 23 years saving lives.  Stop foreclosures now. 

 

11:17:25:03

SUBTITLE:

She is a paramedic

 

11:17:26:20

SUBTITLE:

She spent 23 years saving lives

 

11:17:42:08

SUBTITLE:

There's a day coming

 

11:17:42:10

Man in Court

There's a day coming. 

 

11:17:44:04

 

11:17:52:05

CAPTION

Epilogue:

When Dissent is Duty 

 

Jamie Dimon

We'll see. 

 

11:17:58:09

Comel West

Jesus made his way to Jerusalem, ran out the money changers and said "you will not make this house of prayer a den of thieves." 

 

11:18:09:23

Man in Red Jumper

Jesus confronted the Pharisees, who were the lawgivers that kept everything in order all along the way. 

 

11:18:18:19

Comel West

He was going up against not just organised religion, at that time the temple represented Wall Street, Hollywood, White House and Congress, because they were all together. 

 

11:18:26:13

Man in Red Jumper

The system itself, when it makes a fetish of its own existence, that's an idolatry and that's what's happened in the corporate life today. 

 

11:18:35:03

Comel West

So when he ran out the money changers they were all tied to those elite institutions, so you knew he was going to the cross. 

 

11:18:42:07

Man in Suit

One of my favourite quotes is a quote by Gandhi, where he says "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians, they are so unlike your Christ." 

 

11:18:53:09

Stephen Squibb

All that we are, including our rights, everything that we cherish, everything that we privilege, everything that we like best in ourselves has its origins in dissent. 

 

11:19:06:03

VO

The long history of the United States has been a struggle on the part of populist movements to widen the space within the democracy.

 

11:19:14:18

VO

When the United States was founded it was founded by people who were being occupied.  The founders were essentially insurgents. 

 

11:19:20:13

VO

Right, the Declaration of Independence is what I like to call the founding document of American protest literature, it's the first act of dissent that created the nation.

 

11:19:28:15

Lisa Fithian

All of the rights, all the privileges, everything we have was never given to us, people had to fight for it. 

 

11:19:36:14

Comel West

And yet, you know, as we know it, it is oftentimes the case that people are fearful of those who are visionary and courageous. 

 

11:19:46:08

 

11:20:04:08

CAPTION

April 4 1968

Comel West

I think occupy is the most significant social effort to build on Martin King's poor people's campaign, which was a massive sit in, in Washington DC.  Now, he was able to execute it, because he was assassinated. 

 

11:20:06:07

Newsreader

Good evening, Dr Martin Luther King, the apostle of non-violence in the civil rights movement has been shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee.  Dr King was standing on the balcony of his second floor hotel room tonight when, according to a companion, a shot was fired from across the street.  In the friend's words, "the bullet exploded in his face." 

 

11:20:28:02

Noam Chomsky

In fact, he did have  dream, he talked about it in his last speech in Memphis, Tennessee the evening before he was assassinated and his dream was, he said…

 

11:20:42:18

Martin Luther King (Archive)

I just wanna do God's will.  And he has allowed me to go up to the mountain and I've looked over and I see the promise lands.  I may not get there with you, but I want you to know the night that we as a people will get to the promise land. 

 

11:21:12:23

Martin Luther King (Archive)

So I'm happy tonight, I'm not worried about anything, I'm not fearing any man.  My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the lord. 

 

11:21:26:10

 

11:21:37:24

CAPTION

Resurrection City

May 12 1968

 

Noam Chomsky

He was killed, the march took place after his death from Memphis, it was led by Coretta King, his wife, set up at Tent City in Washington, Resurrection City, it was called. 

 

11:21:40:11

Comel West

Martin knew that if he could bring those folk to Washington DC and engage in a dramatic action of staying there and maybe even shutting the city down for a day or two there had to be a public conversation about the rich humanity and dignity of poor people. 

 

11:22:02:01

Coretta King (Archive)

This is the last chance, I think, for this country to respond to the quiet and peaceful petitions of people who are asking for very, very just solutions to very, very real problems.

 

11:22:13:10

Man in Protest (Archive)

We are gonna plague the [UNSURE OF WORD] of this nation with plague after plague until they decide to give us some meaningful jobs and a guaranteed annual income. 

 

11:22:29:04

VO

They sent the security forces in, smashed up the Tent City, drove them out of town.  They had to flee Washington.  

 

11:22:36:23

Lady in White Top

It is working down in Resurrection City and please listen to that, that beautiful thing down there is just the top of a movement that stretches from coast to coast. 

 

11:22:58:14

VO

People have to think of the story of the monarch butterfly.  The monarch butterfly flies from Mexico all the way up north to Canada or Alaska. 

 

11:23:11:19

 

 

VO

A butterfly that starts the journey is not the same butterfly that ends the journey.  In fact, there are generations of butterflies that complete the journey, I think that's what we do with social change.  Our role is to move social change forward.  We may not get to Alaska or Canada, but we make it possible for others to get there too and that's what we should be about. 

 

11:23:48:14

END CREDITS:

written, directed & produced by

Corey Ogilvie

 

produced by

Andrew Halliwell

 

co-producer

Liam Leahy

 

associate producer

Jeffrey Van Rens

 

music composed by

Andrew Halliwell

 

cinematography & editing by

Corey Ogilvie

 

additional cinematography by

Liam Leahy

Iva Radivojevic

Martyna Starosta

Anna Leah Jacobson

David Sauvage

Dennis Tralnor Jr

 

cartoon animations

Simon Streatfield

 

Infographic segments by

Bran Dougherty-Johnson

 

Executive Producer

Corey Ogilvie

 

CAST

Aaron Black

Anim Husain

Andy Biclebaum

Comel West

Chris Hedges

Douglas Rushkoff

Eli Feghali

George Machido

George Martinez

Gideon Oliver

Jen Waller

Kesse LaGreca

Justin Wedes

Kalle Lasn

Kevin Zeese

Lee Camp

Margaret Flowers

Marianne LeNabat

Mark Adams

Mark Beissinger

Mattathias Schwartz

Michael Levelin

Michael Preno

Nathan Schneider

Nicole Carty

Noam Chomsky

Nolan McCarty

Pete Dutro

Priscilla Gryn

Reggie Middleton

Richard Parker

Robert Monks

'Sam'

Sandy Nurse

Stephen Squibb

Stuart Applebaum

Tim McCarthy

Tim Pool

Vlad Teichberg

 

2nd Unit Cinematographers

Liam Leahy

Anna Leah Jacobson

 

Additional Cinematographers

Syd Woodward

Dennis Trainor Jr.

Casey Neistat

David Sauvage

Iva Radivovic

Marlyna Staresta

Mary Notari

NewYorkRawVideos

Luke Radkowski

 

Additional Research & Archival Acquisition

Jeffrey van Rens

 

Casino Footage courtesy of

Juan Riedinger, director, "Shark Out of Water"

Strangeways Media and Made in the Shade Productions © 2009

 

Butterfly Footage Provided by

John Pascuzzi of HapiTones

 

Location Sound Mixers

Andrew Halliwell

 

Colorist

Achim Kapitza

 

Color Correction Supervisors

Todd Garous

Carey Dickson

 

Sound Design & Final Mix

Keith White

 

Producer's Assistant

Tina Aslanyan

 

Web Development

Strangeways Media

 

Clearance Counsel

Lisa Callif, Esq.

Michael Denaldsen, Esq.

Callif & Donaldson

 

Production Counsel

Aaron Altman, Esq.

 

Citizen Journalists

Tina Poul

StruggleVideoMedia (youtube username)

anhurkr222 (youtube username)

StephenHannardADGUK (youtube username)

12160info (youtube username)

adamsjonathn30 (youtube username)

WhereisZEMBLA (youtube username)

Joseph Finton

SocialMediaChimps (youtube username)

jamieinpictures (youtube username)

thleenzo (youtube username)

O4ONY (youtube username)

SaveLibya (youtube username)

MrSteeper33 (youtube username)

THEDUMBPLANET (youtube username)

MrThezxz (youtube username)

MaghnaKhana (youtube username)

Elaisha Stokes

Robert Strype

Austin Hill

NakedEyeFilms (youtube username)

 

Crowd-funding Supporters

Andrew Peacock

Joseph Henderson

Janie Della

Ryan Cowie

thenuskrat69 (IndieGoGo user)

Yann Lallenant

danil3 (IndieGoGo user)

Marcie Monroe

Bobbie Countryman (IndieGoGo user)

eatingoatmeal2 (IndieGoGo user)

Mark Horowitz

Bran Dougherty-Johnson

Dan Marker

James Bell

Vincent Verzat

Dave Caykendall

June hunt

John & Carol Halliwell

 

Special Thanks to:

Nicole & Tom Maertens

Barbara Gabriel at CUNY

David Savage of Occupy.com

Michael Parsons

Elisa

John & Carol Halliwell

Sarah & Todd Gerecke

Syd Woodward

 

Archival Video Footage Courtesy of:

Greenpeace Canada

Roland Faust of Wierdo Video

CSPAN

CNN

Associated Press

Gettys

Reuters

RT News

MSNBC

PBS

FOX

CBS

CNBC

Bloomberg News

Federal Reserve

Democracy Now

MM Flint YoutubeChannel

Rush Limpaugh Show

The Young Turks / Current TV

The Beast News

ABC

HLN Prime News

NBC

NWCN Seattle

King 5 news Seattle

Kiro News Seattle

US ARMY video archives

Al Jazera

Sam Seder - Radio Majority Report - Majority.fm

 

Archival Photographs Courtesy of:

Getty Images

David Shankbone

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

Daniel Aguilar / Reuters

Roger L. Wollbenberg / UPI

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

Vivyan Tran / Reuters

Win McNamee / Getty Images

AFP Photo / Karen Bleier

Amanda Gordon / Bloomberg

Lukas Keapproth /Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

Jule Skarralt

Muhammad ud-Deen

Lt. Col. Leslie Pratt / Air Force

Mark Wilson / Getty Images

Pete Souza / The Official White House Photostream

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images News

 

Additional Music Credits

 

Sturnum (Kein Wort)' performed by Frank Brettschneider,

written by Yolker Bertdmann,

published by La Chunga Music Publishing

© 2012 Karaoke Kalk

 

'Talk Radio', performed by Jason Collett,

written and composed by Jason Collett

published by Arts & Crafts © 2012

 

'Birds Fly by Flapping Their Wings', 'Dissolving Clouds',

'Uva Ursi', 'The Club', performed and written by Biosphere,

published by Touch Music Publishing (UK). © 2012 Touch

 

Cotom', Sous Marin', 'Bidec, 'Subaquatic',

'Resurgence', 'Wandless', and 'Status from album 'Stasus',

performed by Loscil, published via

netlabel under creative commons, permission

acquired from Scott Morgan composer.

 

'Folie a Deaux' & 'Odd From Every Angle',

performed by Tipper, written and composed by Dave Tipper,

published by Dave Tipper Publishing c/o ASCAP © 2012

 

'Diverse Tactics', custom song by Crispin Hars

of Lionshead Entertainment Inc © 2012

 

'Upward Beat', custom song by Ian Somers

of Ian Somers Music © 2012

 

Post Production Facility

Robot Post

 

Robot Post logo

 

Ogilvie Film © 2012

All rights reserved

 

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