AFL-CIO Calls on Members to Defend Occupy Wall Street

AFL-CIO Calls on Members to Defend Occupy Wall Street
By Misery Xchord

In a emailed statement, the AFL-CIO has called on its New York area members to travel to the Occupy Wall Street encampment in lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Square and spend the night in solidarity with OWS standing guard against a planned eviction and police attack expected to be carried out on the orders of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Earlier today, Occupy Wall Street organizers called for a mass protest against the proposed eviction, launching a preemptive cleanup effort in hopes the city and Brookfield Properties, owners of Zuccotti Park, might relent and allow them to stay.

Update: Following a huge and rapid public outcry that included hundreds of thousands of online petition signatures—including yours—the threatened clean-up/eviction of Occupy Wall Street protesters was called off early this morning.

We’ve scored an amazing victory thanks to a massive outcry. But New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg could try find evict the protesters at any time. Sign the petition in defense of the protesters and their First Amendment rights and then spread the word to everyone you know.

Statement by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka On Occupy Wall Street and Mayor Bloomberg

October 13, 2011

“Mayor Bloomberg runs the risk of standing on the wrong side of history tomorrow. It is clear that what is being threatened in Zuccotti Park is nothing but silencing the voices and stomping out the rights of Americans. Participants in Occupy Wall Street are now in their fourth week of declaring that “we are the 99 percent” because our system is desperately, decisively out of whack—the top one percent is pocketing massive profits and dominating our politics while everyone else struggles to make ends meet. It is shocking that Mayor Bloomberg feels like that’s a message that needs to be silenced. The AFL-CIO stands with Occupy Wall Street and the 99 percent of Americans just trying to level the massively unequal playing field.”

The AFL-CIO message reads,

From: “Manny Herrmann, AFL-CIO” <peoplepower@aflcio.org

Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2011 19:52:47 -0400 (EDT)

To:

ReplyTo: peoplepower@aflcio.org

Subject: Go to Wall Street. NOW.

To find out more about the AFL-CIO, please visit our website at www.aflcio.org

Dear , At 7 a.m. tomorrow, New York Mayor Bloomberg plans to effectively evict the Occupy Wall Street protesters.Mayor Bloomberg is ordering Occupy Wall Street protesters out of Zuccotti Park for a cleanup at sunrise, and his new rules for their return would effectively shut down the occupation. Will you consider coming out to Zuccotti Park to support the protests?

Since the protests are a truly organic movement, and aren’t organized by the AFL-CIO, we can’t tell you exactly what will be happening. But what we can tell you is this: the more people who can stand in solidarity at this critical moment, the better.

As I write this message, Occupy Wall Street is asking people to show up at midnight. But whether you are reading this message before or after midnight, I encourage you to get the latest details here: http://www.occupywallst.org

To find Zuccotti Park on Google maps, click here.

Thank you for coming out to stand with the 99 percent.

In Solidarity, Manny Herrmann Online Mobilization Coordinator, AFL-CIO

P.S. Can’t make it? Please try. But if you can’t, sign our emergency petition.

More #OccupyWallStreet coverage and photo galleries on DOOM! Magazine