We Are the 99%: Video of My Arrest & Subsequent Right-Wing Attack
The people who captured this footage were beaten, and one, Marissa, spent 30 hours in custody. I spent 27 hours in custody and was charged with disorderly conduct.
Here is the subsequent right-wing smear campaign:
http://www.theblaze.com/blog/2011/09/26/video-liberal-protestor-chokes-on-silver-spoon/
They called my mother, pretended to be a friend from Facebook, and ambushed her with questions. It is true, my parents are doing a short-sale in an attempt to prevent the forcible repossession of their house by the bank. If the house doesn’t sell, the house will be foreclosed on. My dad has cancer and is disabled, my mother lost her job. They have been under tremendous financial pressure for years now as they try to keep afloat, these recent events of disability and loss of employment were the final straw. Their mortgage became a “toxic asset”, just like the financial industries that traded mortgages that became “toxic assets”. Unfortunately, the financial industry got their toxic assets relieved, while millions of families got homelessness with no relief.
What Is Austerity? Why Anti-Austerity Movements Matter
Austerity is an economic policy that limits spending and eliminates public services with the purpose of reducing national budget deficits. In the United States, the plans to reduce or eliminate social security, Medicaid, unemployment benefits, education funding, and other programs are examples of austerity policy in the United States. When the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank gave Latin American countries loans, austerity measures were stipulated, this forced austerity is known as structural adjustment. Therefore austerity in developing countries is often attached to neoliberalism.
Woman at 2000 Water War Protest in Cochabamba, Bolivia
In Bolivia, neoliberalism and its austere social model, were overthrown by the “Water War” that began in 2000. The “Water War” was a rebellion against privatizing the public water company. Privatization of the water system was an austerity measure because the public water company burdened the national debt and was an expensive service, so in an effort to reduce the deficit, the program was sacrificed.
