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Category: Occupy Wall Street

Upcoming Zine: Beyond The Concrete MilkshakePhoto: A chocolate milkshake in a mason jar, garnished with whip cream and chocolate sauce. The shake is artfully photographed in a moodily lit room, with a streak of light behind it.
Kit's upcoming zine "Beyond the Concrete Milkshake," due out in late March or April 2020 will detail nonviolent techniques for dealing with media trolls and grifters at protests and other movement events. (Vince Fleming / Unsplash, public domain)
February 24, 2020
Kit
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Upcoming Zine: Beyond The Concrete Milkshake

Posted in Journalism, Occupy Wall Street, and Zines

I’m pleased to announce the upcoming publication of a new zine, “Beyond the Concrete Milkshake: Tactics for Dealing with Media Trolls & Grifters.”

At the beginning of the year, I announced on Patreon that one of my goals for 2020 was the creation of a zine. I’ve made great progress and intend to publish by late March or early April.

One side effect of the first few years of the Donald Trump administration, with all its associated increase in far-right activity, is a hijacking of Leftist tactics for use by fascist causes. One clear example is the banner drop. Once beloved primarily by far left activists, this technique now sees regular groups by nazi and hyper-nationalist fascist groups. So too it is with the media grifter.

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Activism & Shared Social Media: How Can We Close The ‘Occupy Hole’?An activist waves a yellow and black Occupy Wall Street flag in New York City on March 23, 2012.
An activist waves a yellow and black Occupy Wall Street flag in New York City on March 23, 2012. (Flickr / B.C. Lorio, under a CC NC ND license)
February 17, 2020
Kit
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Activism & Shared Social Media: How Can We Close The ‘Occupy Hole’?

Posted in Creative Commons, Journalism, and Occupy Wall Street

I got quoted in an article about Micah White, the self-styled “Occupy Founder” that recently spent time hob-nobbing with the 1% at Davos. In passing, the article covered another issue: the problem of stolen shared social media accounts during the Occupy Wall Street movement.

During the national Occupy movement, it became routine to hear about camps with a stolen Facebook or Twitter account. One person would get into a disagreement with the rest of the social media working group and run off with the whole account.

When this happens with a commercial business, or a nonprofit or any undertaking that’s conventionally organized under capitalism, the owner can prove ownership of the account and get Twitter to give it back. With a leaderless movement like Occupy, you and your comrades are on your own.

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Livestreaming Ethics With Reb Z: Citizen Journalists Must Take SidesA person in a yellow jacket films an event. Livestreaming ethics means always being aware of what is and isn't in your frame. It means showing what the mainstream media ignores.
A person in a yellow jacket films an event. Livestreaming ethics means always being aware of what is and isn't in your frame. It means showing what the mainstream media ignores. (Morguefile, public domain)
July 27, 2018
Kit
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Livestreaming Ethics With Reb Z: Citizen Journalists Must Take Sides

Posted in Creative Commons, Journalism, and Occupy Wall Street

“I started as a journalist to show, during the Occupy protests, what wasn’t being shown.”

In the first part of my interview with Jon Ziegler, also known as Rebelutionary Z, we shared some tips for livestreaming. This time, I wanted to go a bit deeper and urge citizen journalists and streamers of all kinds to consider their personal livestreaming ethics.

There’s a misconception that livestreaming is always about simply showing what’s happening in an unedited, raw form. While most streamers aren’t altering their footage as it goes online in any way, they’re still making choices about what to film, who to interview, and how to frame the footage with their commentary.

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Livestreaming Tips With Reb Z: Be A Better Journalist On Facebook Live & BeyondJon Ziegler's top livestreaming tips include holding your phone in landscape mode and holding your hand steady when moving or turning.
"Kettled" activists film and livestream on their smartphones as they await arrest. St. Louis, October 3, 2017. Jon Ziegler's top livestreaming tips include holding your phone in landscape mode and holding your hand steady when moving or turning. (RebZ.tv, used with permission)
June 14, 2018
Kit
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Livestreaming Tips With Reb Z: Be A Better Journalist On Facebook Live & Beyond

Posted in Creative Commons, Journalism, and Occupy Wall Street

Want to be a better livestreamer? I asked indie journalist Jon Ziegler, for his top livestreaming tips when we recently spoke.

Jon, better known to his fans as Rebelutionary Z is one of the most experienced streamers today. He began covering footage of protests and activist events during Occupy Wall Street. Unlike most of the people who started then, he’s continued to report from liberal and radical left events. He credits the Black Lives Matter protests in Ferguson and St. Louis for bringing him back to the field after Occupy ended. Since then he’s traveled around the continent, including reporting on the Standing Rock protests where he sustained a serious injury from a rubber bullet. He also streamed the nazi attack in Charlottesville that killed Heather Heyer.

I asked Jon for his top livestreaming tips. I’ve divided them into two sections, one for newcomers and people who only stream occasionally. He calls these “Johnny On The Spot reporters,” people who were in the right place at the right time to catch a breaking event. In the second section, I’ve included some further tips for more experienced citizen journalists.

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Nonviolent Activism And Police: Nonviolent Activism Means Never Working With The Cops
A helmeted and armored riot cop from the California Highway Patrol grimaces menacingly as he brandishes his nightstick. Oakland protest for Freddie Gray, May 1, 2015. (Flickr / Thomas Hawk, CC-BY-NC license)
January 25, 2018
Kit
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Nonviolent Activism And Police: Nonviolent Activism Means Never Working With The Cops

Posted in Creative Commons, Journalism, and Occupy Wall Street

The recent first anniversary of Donald Trump’s inauguration got me thinking about nonviolent activism and police.

My thoughts brought me back to 2011. Occupy Wall Street was a nonviolent movement, but when we started collaborating with other movements and activist groups, we quickly learned that one definition of nonviolence rarely matched another.

It seems simple on the surface: nonviolence means not physically attacking another person. Beyond that, things quickly break down. Is swearing at another person a form of verbal violence? Does a nonviolent person run from the police or does “nonviolent civil disobedience” mean staying to face the charges for whatever laws you might have broken? Is destruction of property also a form of violence, or is it another type of action which should be evaluated separately?

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Security Culture And Punching Nazis In Texas (Kit O’Connell On Radical Underground Podcast)
Colorful graffiti on an urban wall reads "Antifa Rythm." Photographed in Hamburg, Germany on August 5, 2015. (Flickr / txmx2, CC NC ND license)
October 14, 2017
Kit
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Security Culture And Punching Nazis In Texas (Kit O’Connell On Radical Underground Podcast)

Posted in Act Out!, Audio, Austin, Creative Commons, Journalism, and Occupy Wall Street

I really enjoyed talking with the Radical Underground podcast and the episode turned out great, full of lively conversation and fab music.

In our conversation, we talked about security culture and the ways our smartphones turn us into snitches against ourselves — but also touched on the human element, which is just as vital as technology when it comes to staying secure.

We also talked at length about the Oh Shit What Now collective, the recent incident at my “Punching Nazis” class in Houston, and other fascist and antifascist activity in Austin, Texas (including copwatching).

Read moreSecurity Culture And Punching Nazis In Texas (Kit O’Connell On Radical Underground Podcast)