April 9th, 2012 Page 1

OCCUPY AUSTIN

MARCHES ON INTO A NEW

SEASON!

Above photo by: Kat Freedom

OCCUZINE

ISSUE #3

On Feb. 29th, 2012, OCCUPY AUSTIN combined

national calls for action (F27 Occupy Our

Food Supply and F29 Occupy the

Corporations) to participate in a shared,

decentralized Global Day of Action against

Monsanto. This event included screenings

of “The World According to Monsanto” and

occured simultaneously in Austin and

Lockhart, Texas. After the screening,

participants in Austin heard from Randy

Jewart of the small, organic farm

Resolution Gardens. Participants in

Lockhart heard from Don Ford a farmer

and rancher in Gonzalez County.

Center photo by: Jamie Rainbow-Warrior

All other photos by: John Jack Anderson

All other photos by: John Jack Anderson

The Grocery Manufacturers Association estimates that 80% of food in most grocery stores contains ingredients made from genetically modified organisms (GMOs). These foods have been shown to cause severe allergic reactions in humans, (especially

children, create antibiotic resistance in plants and humans, create immune suppression, and are linked to organ failure and cancer.

All photos this page by Jamie Rainbow-Warrior except top right by John Jack Anderson

Originally printed in Challenger Street Newspaper April 2012

My Dysfunctional Step Family By Nikki

Feb. 3rd, 2012- A night that will live on in fame (at least in the

minds & souls of those who were there!)

Setting: Occupy Austin (city hall).

Date: Feb. 3rd 2012

Time: Who the hell knows (it was dark)

Well allow me to break it down for you. It was a great nite at

occupy, an unusual sense of light spiritness & comeradity.

Someone had brought a stereo system & played D.J. While quite

a moulety crew of us were dancing, watching, laughing. It was the

best &worst nite I had at occupy (I hit the city hall stairs on

Dec. 14? 2011). Being of an advanced age (don't even ask! I am

over 21 yrs of age-ENOUGH SAID!!!) I crashed out early (after

wearing out a few youngsters on the dance floor! Yea' I did!). All

of the sudden my friend Cotton woke me up and said “Nikki,

wake up, they are making us leave now”. I thought “surely Cotton

must be 'F'ing with me”. Well I guess he must have had pity on me,

because he didn't try to wake me up again for about 15 minutes.

When I awoke this time I knew 100% that Cotton was in No Way

“f”ing around!!! I opened my eyes to the sight of the City Hall

Steps Being Swarmed By Police officers! They were handing out

two pieces of papers to everyone there. I asked the female

officer to please read the papers to me or please give them to

me in large print because I am legally blind and could not read that

size print without assistance. She informed me that “You can

come to my office on Monday and get assistance”. I asked her

“what’s going on?” Which she replied “it's all in the papers that I

just gave you!”. This was said in exasperated tone of voice,

which took on a connotation of tone which spoke volumes of

her feelings towards us! This has absolutely NOTHING to do with

this article, but enquiring minds would like know the I.Q. Score

Required to join the police Force these days?

Hum, Oh well Back to the story... After going and lining up at

I’d Like to Believe

I'd like to believe

that change is coming

and the next

'election'

will stave off

treachery and treason

for a while.

I'd like to believe

that the people of

tomorrow,

won't be pointing their finger

at the people of today

screaming,

"You knew and did nothing."

I'd like to believe

that we won't let

invisible or omnivisible

conglomerate

monstrosities

continue to

rape our souls.

I'd like to believe

that the true

grassroots revolution

of the mind

is building

and spreading -

wildfire.

I'd like to believe

eyes can be opened

and that ignorance

will no longer

be bliss

or

willful.

~Wendy Darling August 2007

Bathroom (had to pee), and then using the afore

mentioned, I proceed to pack my belongs like everyone else

was doing (which is why nobody at occupy that I asked

had the time to read those two damn papers to me!). At

this point I had 10 minutes to pack (the police were very

helpful in providing a running commentary of our time

running out! Thanks guys for all your “Protect & Serve”. I

keep asking people where they were going? I heard

answers everywhere from “under the Bridge, But there are

already too many people going, there won't be room for

you” to the flat out “I don't have any idea, just get on

the Bus Nikki”. I did not want to get on what I felt was

the “trader Bus From Hell” and wondered if we were going

to be put on a reservation or sent straight to a Friggen

concentration camp for ethnic cleansing of the 99%!!!

While waiting to get on the “trader Bus From Hell”(which

mysteriously appeared to be a harmless school Bus) I

asked a male police “Officer (I said), could you please read

these papers to me, I am legally blind and cannot read

them”. The officer kindly took them from me and told me

that “I don't have the time to read them to you, but I WILL

paraphrase them for you. This one says that

you must leave, and this other one tells you where you can

pick up your Belongings”, (Gee, it looked like more writing

than that!) There were 7 souls from occupy to board the

bus that night. I know every face, and most of the names.

They had been neighbors (I KNOW NOT A WORD NIKKI, but

check it out... In case a cop is reading this, they will know

that I paid attention when told to “tell me in your own

words”, well at the time that was said to me, I did NOT

have my own words!!! But I do…

TO BE CONTINUED!!!

THE NAKED TRUTH

FIRST THEY BEAT AND

ARRESTED THE BROWN AND

BLACK PEOPLE AND I DID NOT

SPEAK UP--

BECAUSE I WASN'T BROWN

OR BLACK.

THEN THEY BEGAN TORTURING

PEOPLE OPENLY

AND I STILL DID NOT SPEAK

UP BECAUSE I TOLD

MYSELF I WASN'T AFRAID,

THEY WOULDN'T DO

THAT TO ME.

THEN THEY PASSED THE NDAA

AND I DIDN'T SPEAK

UP BECAUSE I WAS AFRAID.

THEN THEY CAME FOR ME AND

NO ONE SPOKE UP

FOR ME BECAUSE THEY WERE

ALL AFRAID.

MOST TRUTHS ARE SO NAKED

MOST PEOPLE DON'T

WANT TO LOOK AT THEM LET

ALONE SPEAK ABOUT

THEM.

WE CANNOT MAKE GOOD

NEWS OUT OF BAD

PRACTICE.

WE CANNOT MAKE JUSTICE

OUT OF TYRANNY.

WE MUST BE STRONGER THAN

THAT.

WE MUST OCCUPY!

By: ClairE Hirschkind

Al

All photos by John Anderson except bottom left by Jeeps

Occupy Austin says,

“GO FLY A KITE!”

Zilker Park Kite Festival March 4th, 2012

All photos by Kat Freedom and Lainie Duro

Let It Please Mercy we grieve at the putrid well of famine we yield butchered pride stop loss sense of time blood all easily missed in conflict a casualty philosophical by design as sorrow never misses its intent we braves find no luck against copper tongued serpents spitting fire for them plow an anthill smear their bellies with honey our daughters still bleed let the pearled class know chaos seeks another kingdom

~Michael Sadler

Painting below by: Paul Beck

All photos by Jeeps except bottom

left by Heather Kafka.

All photos this page by Jeeps

Teach-ins during Occupy Southby covered a wide range of topics including: sustainable living, community building,

peace, faith traditions, accessibility and disability rights, homelessness, veterans rights, social media networking,

domestic violence, voting, political cartooning, Monsanto and food health issues such as GMOs, LGBTQ and gender-

identity issues. All photos this page by Jeeps

YOU CAN DANCE IN

THIS REVOLUTION!

All photos by Jeeps, except top right by Sarah Peralta

SXSW

2012

WAS

OCCUPIED! All photos this page by Heather Kafka

Photos @ left by Heather Kafka.

Photos @ right by Kat Freedom.

M17 – Million

Musicians March

for Peace begins

with a rally at the

Texas State

Capitol with live

music and

speakers. Thanks

to the speakers

and musicians

who donated

their time and

performances!

All photos by

Kat Freedom