The Youth and Elders Project. Interview with Co-Leader
Erik Van Lennep by Willi Paul, PlanetShifter.com Magazine
http://planetshifter.com/node/2012
“Reaffirming our commitment to work through the heart, we also affirm the ability
to learn from everyone, and to share what useful knowledge and experience
each of us has to offer. This is not about age, it’s about being human.”
International Worker’s Day and Immigrants’ Rights Day. Occupy Los Angeles has called for a General Strike on May 1st, an action which Occupy Oakland has endorsed.
Posters and flyers here and here.
Synposis:
6AM: Support the Golden Gate bridge workers via pickets and rallies (appears that the Occupy the Bridge action called off as of 4-30-12 but buses will still leave from 19th & Telegraph to occupy the Golden Gate Bridge.) More info here and here.
9AM – NOON: 3-4 morning actions, Some events here.
NOON – 1PM: Everyone Converge on Downtown
1PM – 3PM: Themed Actions & Marches Around Downtown
3PM: March for Dignity and Resistance
All are encouraged to join the march starting at Fruitvale BART station at 3pm.
More info here and here and here.
6PM – 7PM: Reconvergence downtown to coincide with the march arrival
Ma Bell was notorous for corporate greed and customer abuse long before Lily Tomlin lampooned her on Laugh-In. And in today’s ATT Screw-U-Verse, the corruption continues.
IS AT&T U-VERSE (ATT UVERSE) SERVING THE PEOPLE OR FLEECING THE SHEEPLE?
Those of you still relying on mainstream media for news may be unaware of what Occupy Wall Street and the Global Revolution have planned for Tuesday, May 1 2012:
http://tinyurl.com/occupy-mayday-2012
MSIE users Google this: (occupy AND (“may day” OR mayday)) -site:facebook.com
But for those of you in the Occupy Movement looking for some last-minute May Day recruits, what appears to be a rapidly growing base of disgruntled AT&T U-Verse customers might be a target-rich environment:
http://tinyurl.com/att-screw-u-verse
MSIE users Google this: (“u-verse” OR uverse) AND (complaint OR complaints OR dissatisfied OR sucks OR sux)
The following is a classic example of how Ma Bell continues to treat her customers like chattel, cattle or worse. We are masking some names, dates and numbers, but everything else is as per the story and supporting documents we received:
A little over two months ago, an AT&T telephone and DSL customer we’ll call “PL” needed a wireless Internet solution for her new tablet computer, so she called the number on her phone bill and eventually wound up speaking to an AT&T sales rep. The rep offered PL an Internet access solution that would support her old notebook as well as her new tablet for $24.95 a month plus a one-time $100.00 modem charge, and promised PL two $100.00 gift cards if she agreed to transfer to the new plan. PL accepted. Installation was scheduled for sometime during the day on March 1X, and PL was told to expect UPS to deliver her new modem “a couple of days” before that. By March 1X-1 no modem had arrived, so PL made a followup call to AT&T. She was assured that UPS would deliver the modem that evening, and that the installation tech was still scheduled to come the next day.
Like many 99 percenters, PL has to work two jobs to pay for the greed of Wall Street and the wars and waste of Washington. She had taken unpaid time off from her day job to be home for the new Internet modem installation, but was hoping to still be able to work that night. By midday no installer had called or come by, so she made another followup call to AT&T. This time – and for the first time – she heard the word “U-verse”, was told she was supposed to either open the box and install the modem herself or pay an additional $160.00, that the technician was coming by to terminate her DSL not install her U-verse, and that she didn’t need to be home for that. That meant PL had sacrificed a day’s pay for nothing – and that AT&T expected a person with absolutely no IT training or experience to install their own cabling, configure a wireless access modem, and activate their own U-verse service!
PL didn’t have “an additional $160.00”, so she opened the box and did her best to follow the complicated instructions inside and configure the modem. It didn’t work. But after holding 20 minutes then spending an hour more talking to an escalation of U-verse support techs, she learned that she had done everything right but the problem was the U-verse activation software did not work with some major web browsers – including hers. The U-verse tech finally activated the service from his end, and began the process of creating an ATT email account for PL. PL told the tech she did not want an ATT email account, and there ended their exchange and – PL thought – her AT&T U-verse installation nightmare.
A few weeks passed, then PL received one of the two $100.00 gift cards AT&T had promised. Coincidentally perhaps, on that same day she received a letter from the AT&T Accounts Receivable Center which scolded and threatened her as follows:
“Did you forget to pay your bill? Our records show that your account balance is $164.95 which includes a past due amount of $164.95… If payment is not received by April 2X, 2012 your AT&T U-verse service may be temporarily disconnected. If your service is temporarily disconnected, in addition to paying all outstanding charges, a restoral fee may apply. The restoral charge is $30 per U-verse product and/or service on your account… For accounts that remain unpaid for ten (10) days after interruption, service will be permanently disconnected.”
PL was shocked. She’d paid every AT&T bill she’d received, so she called the number in the letter – 800.228.2020 – to find out what was going on. It was then she learned from AT&T U-verse’s Lavonne M. (employee number LM154X) that from now on she’d be receiving a U-verse bill separate from her AT&T phone bill, and that the reason she had never seen her U-verse bill was because it was being emailed to the ATT email account she never had access to. PL asked Lavonne M. to break down the $164.95 balance for her, but the only amount PL recognized was the $100.00 modem charge. PL paid that with her $100.00 gift card, and asked if she could wait to pay the remainder until she had a copy of the bill to review. Lavonne M. told her that would be fine, and assured PL that her U-verse service would not be disconnected.
Lavonne M. lied. At just after 8:00am on the morning of April 2X+1, U-verse disconnected PL. She called ATT Uverse and asked to speak to Lavonne M., and was told that “wasn’t possible”. She requested to speak to a supervisor, and after holding several minutes got one and shared her sad story. The supervisor coldly told PL her only option at this point was to pay the $64.95 balance plus a $30.00 reconnect fee. PL refused, and demanded to speak to a manager. She was again told that “wasn’t possible”, but she could leave a number and a manager would call her back. PL did. Six hours later, an AT&T U-verse manager who did not offer her name or direct extension did in fact call PL back. PL told her everything in agonizing detail, based upon which the manager restored PL’s U-verse service so long as PL settled her balance by May 1X. PL agreed, with the stipulation that she would not pay the bill if she did not receive a bill to pay.
Deciding not to wait, that evening PL set out to settle her affairs with ATT Uverse. She called 800.228.2020 and couldn’t get past the bots to a human, so she went online to “chat” with AT&T U-verse support here:
http://www.att.com/esupport/main.jsp?cv=812
She connected and started chatting with a support rep named Rajma-something whose English was not, in PL’s words, “American”. She said she had a billing issue, and Raj replied he could assist her if she gave him the details. PL typed away. Raj asked questions indicating he did not understand, and PL typed some more. After several exchanges with lengthy delays in between, Raj declared his role was actually Tech Support so he couldn’t help her. PL demanded to chat with Raj’s supervisor. He came online with another “Indian-sounding” name and had PL jump through the same hoops as Raj did before admitting he could do nothing to assist her either. Furious by this time, PL introduced the supposed Indian to some choice American expletives, disconnected and went to bed crying.
The following morning, PL called the 877.288.7973 number “Raj” had given her to track down her second and missing $100.00 gift card. Not surprisingly, it was the wrong number. She then found and called the right number – 800.288.9983 – and connected with the AT&T Rewards Center. Employee number EV2455 checked her account, apologized for their “input error”, and assured PL her second gift card would be on its way “in a few weeks”.
Finally, PL called AT&T U-verse Billing Support yet again to try to find out what the composition of her unpaid balance was. When she did, she was surprised to hear the balance was now $48.00 higher than she’d previously been told, the increment being one more month’s U-verse billing. She advised the billing rep that she’d been sold 6meg Internet service for $24.95 a month, and that she would not pay a penny more. The AT&T rep said that’s not what their records showed, and there was nothing she could do to correct it. PL demanded to speak to a supervisor again, and was placed on hold for several minutes. When someone finally picked up, it was not a supervisor but another billing rep! PL was ready to explode, but instead again declared that she’d been sold 6meg Internet service for $24.95 a month, and that she would not pay a penny more. Unlike the last rep, this one promptly reduced PL’s monthly rate to $24.95 and applied retroactive credits to correct the overbilling, which along with the “un-input” gift card PL now believes was intentional.
What do YOU think, America? Is AT&T U-verse serving the People, or fleecing the Sheeple?
###
NO MORE LEFT. NO MORE RIGHT. TIME TO UNITE. STAND AND FIGHT!
IronBoltBruce via VVV PR ( http://veritasvirtualvengeance.com | @vvvpr )
Related Image: http://veritasvirtualvengeance.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/att-uverse-att-screw-u-verse.jpg
Related Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSIpOM9WZ3s
Related Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9e3dTOJi0o
Show Your Support: https://www.wepay.com/donate/ironboltbruce
Tag: #mayday, #att, #uverse, #corporategreed, #sheeple, #fascism, #fascists, #occupywallst, #occupy, #ows, #vvvpr
Key: may day, at&t, att, u-verse, uverse, corporate greed, sheeple, fascism, fascists, occupy wall street, ows, vvv pr
###
FLOCKUPY HR658: GEESE BRING DOWN JETLINERS. CANNOT DOVES BRING DOWN DRONES?
http://occupywallst.org/forum/flockupy-hr658-geese-bring-down-jetliners-cannot-d/
###
This document may contain links shortened using http://tinyurl.com to facilitate emailing. If you are concerned we might use them to cloak phishing or malware, we recommend you open them with this: http://longurl.org. Also our thanks to the website design miami, website designer miami and website developer miami that support our efforts.
We should be able to find out easily if the 99%Spring people are band aid reformists or will they see that systemic changes are what are now our task. From what Arun Gupta said today on KPFA (http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/80043. ) they are putting out press that Occupy is dead and expect a chance to drain the revolutionary energy Occupy has instilled
into the Democratic party. We have an appealing and correct analysis of Amerikkka’s
sickness(s) let’s focus and spread it.
Ya Basta
WHAT IS SPANK THE BULL?
Spank the Bull! is a 570 page 8.5×11 Occupy Your Mind Art Manifesto
Spank The Bull! will become available to the public for free download in PDF formet. On July 4th 2012
Hard copies of Spank The Bull! will be delivered to New York’s Occupy Wall St. General Assembly and other Occupy locations in other states on July 4th 2012
To view teaser of Spank the Bull! please visit…
http://www.occupywallstreetmanifesto.org/
or
http://www.spankthebull.org
The Facilitation Committee needs help! We can’t keep up with necessary behind-the-scene logistics, much of it on the website, unless we get new committee members. The GA is a crucial community activity. Please help it to run smoothly by volunteering with the Facilitation Committee. You can contact us at occupyoaklandfacilitation@gmail.com.
Tasks we need help with, which should be shared by several people, include:
–responding to emails
–updating the proposal queue when we get proposals by email
–attending meetings on Wednesday at noon and Saturday at 4 to receive additional proposals and vote on emergency status
–updating the proposal queue after those meetings
–formatting and printing out the agenda script for facilitators
–printing out the quarter-page agendas to distribute at GAs
We also need more people interested in doing GA facilitation, including crowd advocates, stack balancers, note takers and time keepers as well as facilitators.
Please e-mail us at occupyoaklandfacilitation@gmail.com if you can help support the crucial work of the Facilitation Committee and the GA. Thank you!
Sunday, May 6, 2012. 4:00pm
QUALIFICATIONS: * Socially Conscious * Experienced in any phase of construction * Phone donations campaign * Or desire to learn
SPECIFIC SKILLS : * General or stucco contractor * Phone/online donations * Plumber, carpenter, electrician * Roofer * Mechanical Engineer
The goal: To bring together the resources, skills and materials to complete the renovation of the Uhuru House in East Oakland.
UHURU JIKO (FREEDOM KITCHEN): The campaign to renovate the Uhuru House will create a cutting edge meeting space as well as a licensed commercial kitchen accessible to the African community.
The project is addressing the conditions, such as the fact that 75 cents of every retail dollar leaves East Oakland.
UHURU HOUSE: The Uhuru House represents more than 30 years of campaigns led by the Black Power Movement to win African community control of the economy, housing, health care, education and police. The Uhuru House represents the interests of the working class African people, putting in place programs for self-reliance and community economic development.
Uhuru House 7911 Macarthur Blvd, Oakland, CA 94605-3361
The Uhuru House is the site of the Uhuru Community Garden!
http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/395082673848097/
Saturday, May 5, 2012. 12:00pm until 6:00pm.
On Saturday, May 5th the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement will hold the March for Black Justice, followed by the Tribunal (court) for Reparations to African People at which we will put the Oakland Police Dept on Trial for crimes of genocide against the African community. If you have been a victim of police brutality, extortion, frame up, kidnapping, rape or any other violation of your rights in the streets OR in prison we need you to testify! The Oakland Police Dept has a long history of brutalizing African people in this city. In the 1940’s and 50’s Africans were brought to Oakland from the south for the same reason we were taken from Africa: to be slaves for forces like Kaiser. The police have always played the role of “overseers” in our community to make sure Africans remain under the control of white power. The police have the license to kill, brutalize, frame up, kidnap, extort, rape and distribute drugs in our community. The cop who executed Oscar Grant is walking free today because the U.S. govt will never punish itself. To get justice African people must take power in our own hands and build our own court! The only difference between our court and the U.S. colonial court system is that we do not yet have state power (police and prisons) through which we can enforce the people’s sentence.
March to begin at 12PM in front of the McDonald’s at Eastmont Mall (73rd and MacArthur). Tribunal to begin at 2PM at the Uhuru House, 7911 MacArthur Blvd. For more info call: 510-569-9620
Visit: uhurusummerproject.org http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/322729461116097/
I reject the pledge put forth by the SF working group “Be The Change Nonviolence”.
I reject the characterization of the “diversity of tactics” as an embrace of violence. I reject the notion that damage to non-sentient objects which may occur in the course of or as a result of struggle is categorically “violent” or immoral.
I reject any attempt to create schisms within the occupy movement by launching ad-hominem attacks meant to derail the movement from gaining momentum and support from the public.
I believe that restricting protest and struggle to voicing dissent validates the memes of a corrupt and spiritually bankrupt system which has validated unconstitutional police-state measures.
I believe that the attempt to exclude those who embrace a diversity of tactics is an self-aggrandizing attempt to knowingly channel the momentum of the Occupy movement into a self-defeating set of tactics suitable only for voicing dissent and making symbolic statements. We cannot limit ourselves to voicing dissent in full knowledge that doing so is not sufficient to challenge the power of the corporate police state.
I believe that a counterproductive effort to demean others who are risking life and limb and freedom to challenge the system is creating a negative and toxic environment.
I believe that when people stand firm in their principles and convictions, they gain respect.
I believe that we are faced with a necessity of challenging the system imposed by the 1% in a material manner and that we must do so effectively.
I believe that mass-action is the key to success in gaining tactical and material victories for the movement. These actions must send a clear message that escalation by the forces of the corporatocracy such as those precedented by COINTELPRO and the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Judi Bari will be met with a determined response.
I believe that a decent regard for human life is compatible with crafting effective responses to state terrorism.
If the Occupy movement cannot come to terms with itself on this issue, it should split into “Actual Occupy” and “Symbolic Statement Occupy” factions; neither speaks for the 99% as each represents only a fraction of the overall population.
Here’s the text from the “Be the Change” wg: What We Do: Our primary mission is to help transform ourselves and our society into truly nonviolent and compassionate individuals within a community dedicated to the common good of all humanity. We actively support and participate in the Occupy Movement.
Our Pledge: As a participant in the Occupy movement, I hereby commit my whole self to nonviolence. Therefore to the best of my ability: I am firmly committed to nonviolence as a way of life, not merely as a tactic. I meet violence with compassion for others and myself. I walk, talk and act in love and nonviolence. I refrain from verbal and physical violence. I do not accept “a diversity of tactics” when those tactics are violent or damage property. I am open, respectful, and kind with everyone I encounter. I invite the 1% to join us and will not insult them. I seek justice and reconciliation so that we are all winners. I avoid both selfishness and power trips. I strive to be in good spiritual and bodily health as we work to build a just and democratic society.
I’d like to know what “diversity of tactics” are being promoted if its possible to quantify them. I don’t have the capacity to do much more than argue cantankerously as I’m actually extremely careful as an individual about which tactics I would use under which cirucmstances. My involvement with Occupy is limited as I have not been involved with any affinity groups and I don’t want to wind up being ass-raped and waterboarded in some black site prison somewhere. Still, I feel the need to confront those that want to march around and feel better about themselves but can’t do so because they feel guilty about not putting their ass on the line like others do and so they have to shut them down.