TIME magazine has rightfully named ‘The Protester’ the Person of the Year for 2011. The symbol of the generic protester became the story of 2011. Protests that began in Tunisia, spread throughout The Middle East and brought down numerous dictators and continues to do so between the borders of Syria and Yemen. The #Occupy Movement which we have so closely followed continues to rage on and is sure to be heard in 2012. The streets of London and Athens were taken by riots and it now looks like Vladimir Putin has them knocking on his doorstep in Moscow. Even our home base of Vancouver was taken by riots, but for very different reasons – loosing a hockey game doesn’t really rank well.

The fantastic cover was designed by frequent TIME collaborator artist Shepard Fairey – who we have posted about on a variety of occasions. If you aren’t familiar with his work, you should really take your time and go through some of it.

Once upon a time, when major news events were chronicled strictly by professionals and printed on paper or transmitted through the air by the few for the masses, protesters were prime makers of history. Back then, when citizen multitudes took to the streets without weapons to declare themselves opposed, it was the very definition of news — vivid, important, often consequential. In the 1960s in America they marched for civil rights and against the Vietnam War; in the ’70s, they rose up in Iran and Portugal; in the ’80s, they spoke out against nuclear weapons in the U.S. and Europe, against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, against communist tyranny in Tiananmen Square and Eastern Europe. Protest was the natural continuation of politics by other means.

And then came the End of History, summed up by Francis Fukuyama’s influential 1989 essay declaring that mankind had arrived at the “end point of … ideological evolution” in globally triumphant “Western liberalism.” The two decades beginning in 1991 witnessed the greatest rise in living standards that the world has ever known. Credit was easy, complacency and apathy were rife, and street protests looked like pointless emotional sideshows — obsolete, quaint, the equivalent of cavalry to mid-20th-century war. The rare large demonstrations in the rich world seemed ineffectual and irrelevant. (See the Battle of Seattle, 1999.)
There were a few exceptions, like the protests that, along with sanctions, helped end apartheid in South Africa in 1994. But for young people, radical critiques and protests against the system were mostly confined to pop-culture fantasy: “Fight the Power” was a song on a platinum-selling album, Rage Against the Machine was a platinum-selling band, and the beloved brave rebels fighting the all-encompassing global oppressors were just a bunch of characters in The Matrix.

“Massive and effective street protest” was a global oxymoron until — suddenly, shockingly — starting exactly a year ago, it became the defining trope of our times. And the protester once again became a maker of history.

Continue Reading at TIME.

We aren’t really the publication to be lecturing on society’s materialistic concerns. We nearly exclusively hype street fashion products, high fashion photography and insanely expensive architecture. However there is something to be said for looking for better results from our daily lives and appreciating those amongst us who force us to do so.

Psychologist Tim Kasser discusses how America’s culture of consumerism undermines our well-being. When people buy into the ever-present marketing messages that “the good life” is “the goods life,” they not only use up Earth’s limited resources, but they are less happy and less inclined toward helping others. The animation both lays out the problems of excess materialism and points toward solutions that promise a healthier, more just, and more sustainable life.

Many of us became accustomed to watching Keith Olbermann in primetime each night on MSNBC. After leaving for greener pastures due to numerous back room fights with network executives he found his way to Current TV – leaving many to ask “what the hell is Current TV?” On tonight’s episode of the new Countdown with Keith Olbermann – found on the aforementioned Al Gore owned Current TV – he offered up a stern message for New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg in response to last evening’s midnight raid on #OccupyWallStreet.

“Democracy has been protected, not merely by the strenuous efforts of those of us who cherish it,” he said. “But mostly, and most profoundly, by the limitless stupidity of those who would ration it, keep it for themselves and themselves alone — or destroy it.”

“Who else but a cliche like Bloomberg could take a protest beginning to grow a little stale around the edges, and vault it back into the headlines, complete with mortifying scenes of police dressed up as storm-troopers, carrying military weapons, using figurative bazookas to kill figurative mosquitoes?” Olbermann added.

“Who else but an archetype like Bloomberg could claim a group of protestors were making too much noise in a residential area, then choose to try to disperse them by bringing out LRAD Audio Cannons, machines that send painful waves of sound indiscriminately over the very same residential area?”

“Who else but a cartoon like Bloomberg could have become rich creating a multi-billion dollar media company, and then authorize illegally preventing reporters from witnessing police actions he claims were utterly legal, and then authorize the arrest of four reporters at a Church?”

The popular Story of Stuff viral web-series has returned. In the past, The Story of Stuff Project has made animated mini-documentaries that dissect some of our social practices such as over-consumption and the role of money in politics. Past videos have looked at the mass consumption of electronics, cosmetics and bottled water.

In the new series titled, ‘The Story of Broke,’ they do a phenomenal job of dispelling the absurd notion that the world’s largest and robust economy is somehow “too broke” to do the things it should be doing to – as President Obama said – “own the future.” For the better part of his term in office, the flat Earthers or should we say the Republican party has made it a priority to gut the social services that made the nations of the western world strong. The conservative myth that somehow you can cut taxes and pay off deficits is just that – a myth. These animated short films do a great job of explaining these issues in real-life terms. They act as just another way that the creative, educated populations can fight back against the greed and corruption in our system. Perhaps they can even work to educate the “useful idiots” who blindly do the work of the greedy and corrupt by voting against their own economic interest.

The United States isn’t broke; we’re the richest country on the planet and a country in which the richest among us are doing exceptionally well. But the truth is, our economy is broken, producing more pollution, greenhouse gasses and garbage than any other country. In these and so many other ways, it just isn’t working. But rather than invest in something better, we continue to keep this ‘dinosaur economy’ on life support with hundreds of billions of dollars of our tax money. The Story of Broke calls for a shift in government spending toward investments in clean, green solutions—renewable energy, safer chemicals and materials, zero waste and more—that can deliver jobs AND a healthier environment. It’s time to rebuild the American Dream; but this time, let’s build it better.

Today in Oakland, the #Occupation movement took to a general city-wide strike in protest of contemporary corporate greed. Many businesses closed down in support of the movement and  including 18 percent of teachers who also bowed out of work to show their solidarity. This coming weekend, November 5th another step in the movement is set to play out.

Over the past few years there has been momentum building to hit the corporate infrastructure where it hurts most – their pockets. You may have noticed grumblings of various potential tactics being orchestrated. One tactic that continues to gather support is the Move Your Money project. They plan to take charge of the financial establishment, by organizing a universal, simultaneous bank withdrawal from each of the major banks. Huffington Post Founder and Editor, Arianna Huffington was one of the earliest champions of the Move Your Money campaign. She enlisted help from many of her go-to liberal buddies to create awareness earlier this year. Fellow Atheist and Liberal voice, comedian Bill Maher was chosen to become one of the most prominent faces of the movement.

It looks like this coming weekend the movement may really make an impact. 60-100,000 people have said to have joined already. If you’d like find out more about how to support the movement, here is the official release. Feel free to support the project’s Facebook page as well.

On November 5th, also known as Guy Fawkes Day, hundreds, potentially thousands will withdraw their money from the nation’s largest Wall Street banks and move to small community banks and credit unions. What started out as just a Facebook event page by Kristen Christian of California, quickly went viral and garnered national media attention. Now the Facebook event for Bank Transfer Day hosts more than 72,000 attendees and has inspired other events including College Bank Transfer Day and a “Move Your Money” day hosted by the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York. Progressive organizations such as the PCCC and MoveOn have begun their own campaigns, as well as the New Bottom Line launching their own “Move Our Money” campaign. Even groups small and large are hosting their own events, getting their friends, colleagues, relatives and more to join in on the movement.

While the Move Your Money Project is not organizing any specific event, we strongly encourage individuals to host their own and provide resources via our resource page: http://moveyourmoneyproject.org/resources. We also encourage individuals and groups to tell us about their events so that we can promote them via our Facebook and Twitter pages, along with out calendar by emailing us via our contact page here: http://moveyourmoneyproject.org/contact.

Whether you chose to Move Your Money on November 5th, with another group event or on your own, you can find solace in knowing that you are no longer helping finance a corrupt system that has led our country astray. Don’t forget to tell us your story after you move your money! For more reasons on why you should move your money, check out this list prepared by the New Rules Project on our website.

Thanks for your support and happy switching!

For our American readers – who do make up the majority of our daily viewership – you may not be familiar with comedian Rick Mercer, he is the Canadian version of Jon Stewart or Bill Maher. His political comedy show airs on the CBC which is the home of his ongoing series RMR Rant. We’ve posted up previous rants which include encouraging young adults to vote and battling against censorship, now he takes on same-sex equality and bullying. As a gay man himself, the topic hits home for him as it should any decent straight person. As a liberal hetero-sexual male with an enormous amount of respect for the creativity that has come out of the gay community, this message is an importnt one and nobody delivers it better than Rick.

Every year in this country 300 kids take their own lives. It is a mind-boggling number. And this past week one of those kids was Jamie Hubley. He was 15, he was depressed and he happened to be gay.

And because this is 2011 we don’t just read about a kid like Jamie, we can Google him and then the next thing you know, you’re sitting at home watching his videos on YouTube. And he was gay all right. He was a great big goofy gay kid singing Lady Gaga on the Internet. And as an adult you look at that and you go, you know what, that kid’s going places. But for some reason, some kids, they looked at that and they attacked. And now he’s gone.

And because this story is all too familiar we know exactly what’s going to happen next. Grief counselors will go into the school, as they should. But what about the old fashioned assembly? You know, where the cops show up and there’s hell to pay and they find out who’s responsible. You know like when the lunchroom is vandalized. Because the kids who bullied this boy, they know who they are. And more importantly other kids know who they are.

It’s no longer good enough for us to tell kids who are different that it’s going to get better. We have to make it better now, that’s every single one of us. Every teacher, every student, every adult has to step up to the plate. And that’s gay adults too. Because I know gay cops, soldiers, athletes, cabinet ministers, a lot of us do, but the problem is adults, we don’t need role models. Kids do. So if you’re gay and you’re in public life, I’m sorry, you don’t have to run around with a pride flag and bore the hell out of everyone, but you can’t be invisible either. Not anymore. 300 kids is 300 too many.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are teaming with Barcelona FC to cure Polio. The current La Liga and European Champions are combining forces with one of the world’s most generous philanthropists to finally put an end to Polio. Today is World Polio Day, Gates’ has been working tirelessly to fully eradicate it across the globe. While populations throughout the western world have been removed from such concerns there are still new cases every year in developing countries which could come to an end thanks to these efforts.

In the latest video from The More Than a Goal campaign Bill actually dawns the iconic navy and burgundy stripes. The Gates Foundation site has an enormous amount of great information which includes further instructions for how to participate in such a worthy cause.

Yesterday President Obama spoke at the official dedication ceremony of the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial. nearly half a century after Martin Luther King, Jr. led the historic March on Washington for equality, tens of thousands came to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. for the Memorial Dedication. The memorial was unveiled in August, but the dedication was delayed due to Hurricane Irene. As President Obama said, though delayed, “this is a day that would not be denied.”

President Obama spoke at the dedication ceremony in honor of Dr. King’s work to make his dream a reality for all. During his speech, President Obama reminded us that the progress towards Dr. King’s vision has not come easily and there is still more to do to expand opportunity and make our nation more just:

Our work is not done. And so on this day, in which we celebrate a man and a movement that did so much for this country, let us draw strength from those earlier struggles. First and foremost, let us remember that change has never been quick. Change has never been simple, or without controversy. Change depends on persistence. Change requires determination. It took a full decade before the moral guidance of Brown v. Board of Education was translated into the enforcement measures of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, but those 10 long years did not lead Dr. King to give up. He kept on pushing, he kept on speaking, he kept on marching until change finally came.

And then when, even after the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act passed, African Americans still found themselves trapped in pockets of poverty across the country, Dr. King didn’t say those laws were a failure; he didn’t say this is too hard; he didn’t say, let’s settle for what we got and go home. Instead he said, let’s take those victories and broaden our mission to achieve not just civil and political equality but also economic justice; let’s fight for a living wage and better schools and jobs for all who are willing to work. In other words, when met with hardship, when confronting disappointment, Dr. King refused to accept what he called the “isness” of today. He kept pushing towards the “oughtness” of tomorrow.

And so, as we think about all the work that we must do –- rebuilding an economy that can compete on a global stage, and fixing our schools so that every child — not just some, but every child — gets a world-class education, and making sure that our health care system is affordable and accessible to all, and that our economic system is one in which everybody gets a fair shake and everybody does their fair share, let us not be trapped by what is. We can’t be discouraged by what is. We’ve got to keep pushing for what ought to be, the America we ought to leave to our children, mindful that the hardships we face are nothing compared to those Dr. King and his fellow marchers faced 50 years ago, and that if we maintain our faith, in ourselves and in the possibilities of this nation, there is no challenge we cannot surmount.

The President addressed some of the issues that continue to challenge our country and how Dr. King’s “constant insistence on the oneness of man” encourages us to see through each other’s eyes as we face disagreement:

If he were alive today, I believe he would remind us that the unemployed worker can rightly challenge the excesses of Wall Street without demonizing all who work there; that the businessman can enter tough negotiations with his company’s union without vilifying the right to collectively bargain. He would want us to know we can argue fiercely about the proper size and role of government without questioning each other’s love for this country — with the knowledge that in this democracy, government is no distant object but is rather an expression of our common commitments to one another. He would call on us to assume the best in each other rather than the worst, and challenge one another in ways that ultimately heal rather than wound.

Looking towards the future, President Obama spoke to the inspiration Dr. King instills in us to this day to continue his legacy:

He would not give up, no matter how long it took, because in the smallest hamlets and the darkest slums, he had witnessed the highest reaches of the human spirit; because in those moments when the struggle seemed most hopeless, he had seen men and women and children conquer their fear; because he had seen hills and mountains made low and rough places made plain, and the crooked places made straight and God make a way out of no way.
And that is why we honor this man –- because he had faith in us. And that is why he belongs on this Mall -– because he saw what we might become. That is why Dr. King was so quintessentially American — because for all the hardships we’ve endured, for all our sometimes tragic history, ours is a story of optimism and achievement and constant striving that is unique upon this Earth. And that is why the rest of the world still looks to us to lead. This is a country where ordinary people find in their hearts the courage to do extraordinary things; the courage to stand up in the face of the fiercest resistance and despair and say this is wrong, and this is right; we will not settle for what the cynics tell us we have to accept and we will reach again and again, no matter the odds, for what we know is possible.

That is the conviction we must carry now in our hearts. As tough as times may be, I know we will overcome. I know there are better days ahead. I know this because of the man towering over us. I know this because all he and his generation endured — we are here today in a country that dedicated a monument to that legacy.
And so with our eyes on the horizon and our faith squarely placed in one another, let us keep striving; let us keep struggling; let us keep climbing toward that promised land of a nation and a world that is more fair, and more just, and more equal for every single child of God.

There have been few greater champions of the people than former Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and current candidate for United States Senator from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren. Dubbed recently the “Sheriff of Wall Street,” Elizabeth Warren was a special adviser by President Obama to oversee the development of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

In a new #OccupyWallStreet video created by DC Douglas, Warren’s words are being used to educate and motivate those interested in the populist movement. Warren has possibly been the greatest warrior of the middle class in modern times. She is currently rising by leaps and bounds in her neck and neck senate race against Republican Scott Brown – for the former seat of the late Ted Kennedy. This video is rapidly gaining steam for her campaign as it makes its way around the net and throughout the #OccupyWallStreet protests. It will help to explain the protests and offer ways in which they can achieve their collective goal. Listen to her words at the end of the video, her words absolutely inspire.

Kanye West and Russell Simmons were the latest pop culture icons to take a trip down to New York’s financial district. The appearance has led many on the internet at least to question the sincerity of the hip hop mogul from Chicago. Russell Simmons has always been attached to a #OccupyWallStreet political ideology but Kanye’s appearance has left some scratching their heads. Simmons has been linked to the Warren Buffett tax plan which favors a tax hike on his fellow richest one percent. His appearance down at the protests should surprise nobody.

An extremely silent Mr. West appeared next to the Co-founder of Def Jam. Kanye does seem to keep silent of late as he always seems to get it from all angles regardless what he does. His latest album Watch The Throne is undoubtedly the furthest thing from the “We Are the 99%” message. It is luxury rap at his finest and fine it most certainly is. Those who question his sincerity, need to first understand the message within the movement. The message is not against all rich people. It is against the excessive greed within the broken system. It is against those who are the wealthiest one percent, who refuse to pay their fair share as part of a democratic society. That is the message. It is not against obtaining wealth honestly.

Russell Simmons has stated publicly that he would like to see his taxes raised. I would suggest waiting to see what Kanye’s opinion is on that before tearing away at him. The majority of Yeezy’s music is far closer to the movement than it is for the Lloyd Blankfeins of the world. People are far too quick to attack him for wearing a gold rope when people are out of work when they themselves don’t even understand the mission of the protests. Kanye’s wealth is nothing compared to the wealth of Walmart, or Bank of America or even the CEO of Goldman Sachs. Nobody has anything against making money honestly. What they want to put a stop to is the absolute rape of the system by the riches one percent on the remainder of society. Kanye West is indeed part of the richest one percent but it is the system that enrages the 99%. The same system which signs Kanye’s checks.

Russell’s office released a statement to clear up Kanye’s intentions.

Today, Russell brought none other than Kanye West down to take part in the #OccupyWallStreet protests. Both of these men are showing that they take their jobs as leaders of our generation seriously by participating in the peaceful protests.

Russell says of Kanye joining him today:

“It was amazing to see how people loved seeing Kanye West at Occupy Wall Street. His music and his art has always been about the voice and the power of the people. Kanye just wanted to come down and experience the growing movement that has opened the eyes of many around this country and around the world of the struggles of poor people. The energy at Liberty Plaza was electrifying and the momentum to get the money out of politics is growing quickly.”