Occupy Sydney

A global movement is growing. From Egypt to Spain, from Greece to the United States, hundreds of thousands of everyday people are occupying. Occupy Sydney began on 15 October, with hundreds of people reclaiming Martin Place. Flanked by the imposing towers of the financial and political elites, where a handful of people make decisions which affect the whole society, a new democratic space was established.

Occupy Sydney created a non-hierarchical forum for open debate, where people began to have discussions and make decisions about things which affect our lives and communities. The occupy movement democratises the dominated and elitist spaces in our cities. Even if it is partly symbolic, it is immensely dangerous to the status quo. And although the structures of participation are in their early stages, this is still an extremely significant project - a playground of anarchism and democracy.

For the first time in years, the occupy movement has legitimised an anti-capitalist discourse - usually submerged in society and stifled by the media.

At Occupy Sydney, people developed relationships based on mutual respect, and voiced our shared outrage at the greed and illegitimate power of the 1% who rule us. People from diverse walks of life visited the occupation, painted signs, donated food and participated. Between 50 and 100 people stayed overnight for 8 nights.

In the early hours of Sunday 23 October, the police forcefully evicted Occupy Sydney from Martin Place. It was a clear reminder that State repression goes hand in hand with capitalism. Police took action to recapture the space for elites - symbolically and physically.

But within hours, an emergency meeting was organised, attended by over 200 people. And we made the decision to re-occupy. Occupy Sydney continues.

Who are we? We are the workers; we are the indebted; we are the immigrants and the indigenous; we are the homeless; we are the students; we are the unemployed; we are the under represented people of the world. We are the 99%.

And we invite you to join us.

At 12 midday on Saturday 5 November we will meet at meet at Town Hall and march to re-occupy. The Occupation is not over. It has only just begun.

-> Re-Occupy Sydney rally and march, 12pm Saturday 5 November, meet at Town Hall square.

Noam Chomsky recently visited Occupy Boston, and wrote, 'Just back from Occupy Boston, in its third week of occupation of a public square near the financial center, with a wonderful spirit of cooperation, lively discussions, and great promise, like many hundreds of others in the US, and a great many more elsewhere – though some are violently dispersed, as in Bahrain and, I read now, Australia.'

Next week Chomsky will be in Australia to accept the Sydney Peace Prize. Both of his speaking events in Sydney are sold out, however Jura has three tickets that we would like to offer to three people on this email list. The tickets are one full and two concessions to the event at 7pm on Wednesday 2 November at Sydney Town Hall. If you are interested, please reply to this email with your name, phone number, and whether you have a concession or not. We will allocate the tickets randomly to three people who email us by midday on Sunday 30th October. We'll let the winners know on Sunday afternoon.

The Chomsky forums have been going very well. Together, Jura, Mutiny and Cross Border Collective have organised 12 Chomsky events over the last three months. The smaller talks attracted between 10 and 20 people each, while the larger forums at UNSW, Sydney Uni and UTS were attended by 60, 80 and 100 people respectively! We have also handed out over 5,000 leaflets about Chomsky's politics (including his anarchist ideas) at 11 stalls, and put up over 1,000 posters around Sydney. We will be giving away 500 copies of Chomsky's 'Notes on anarchism' for free at Chomsky's speaking events. Dozens more gnomes have also been appearing around Sydney as part of the 'gnome rebellion'. For photos, check out http://www.chomskyforum.net/gnomes. To help us keep up this important work, please make a donation at http://www.jura.org.au/donate.

We have also been in touch with Noam himself, and he has agreed to meet with a few organisers of the Chomsky Forum to do a short interview with us. If you have a question that you would like us to ask Chomsky, please reply to this email with your ideas. We will be doing a debrief from this meeting and Chomsky's visit in general, where the interviewers will report back and play the interview. All welcome to come along and join the discussion.
-> Chomsky Forum report-back: What did Noam say and what does it mean for activism in Australia? 3pm Saturday 19 November, at Jura.

Reclaim the night! Rally at Town Hall at 6pm before marching to Martin Place for an evening of wonderful women speakers and performers canvassing issues of violence against women. Featuring investigative journalist Nina Funnell, Karen Willis from the Rape Crisis Centre, Sirens big band, Candy Royale. All welcome. http://www.jura.org.au/node/1659
-> Reclaim the night, 6pm Friday 28 October, at Town Hall.

Juracoustic is back and will enjoy the diverse sounds of Paul Mcadam (ukulele-slingin' acoustica), and Cameron Birt (folk punk), plus an open mic. It'll be Halloween too so get awesome and dress up! We'll have spooky jugs of iced tea and snacks by donation.
-> Juracoustic, 7.30pm Saturday 29 October, at Jura.

The Cross Border Collective, based in Sydney, works to create a world where people’s movement is not controlled in the interests of capital. Their reading and writing group gets together once a month to talk about a few articles they've read and to work towards writing articles, zines and other materials that they can use in the on-going campaign to break down borders at the nation-state level as well as other social, cultural, political and economic borders which operate to divide us. All welcome. The readings are linked at http://www.jura.org.au/node/1662. It's not essential to read these, although participants will gain much more from the conversation by having a look at them prior to coming.
-> Cross Border Collective reading group, 3pm Sunday 30 October, at Jura.

The Jura library has been going through an amazing transformation, with thousands of radical journals re-emerging from dusty storage. Lots of new books also need to be put on the shelves for borrowing. Help us to complete the process at our next library working bee.
-> Jura Library working bee, 12.30-6pm Friday 4 November, at Jura.

Jura is pleased to host a casual gathering for creative writing exercises and sharing feedback - the Inner Sydney Writers' Salon. Please inquire or RSVP via the Meetup group http://www.meetup.com/Inner-Sydney-Writers-Salon/
-> Inner Sydney Writers' Salon, 7pm Tuesday 8 November, at Jura.

Calling all Community Workers, Students, Activists and Thinkers! Can community organisations actually be a part of their community, instead of an arm of Government? Can our work contribute to transforming the social and economic realities that creates the need for ‘services’ in the first place? Community Work for Social Change invites you to take part in a collective process of reinvigorating our practice, from the bottom up. Speakers include Jack Mundey, Kate Lee, Christina Ho, Paula Abood, Lina Cabaero and more. http://www.jura.org.au/node/1642
-> Conference: Community Work for Social Change, 9am-4.30pm Wednesday 9 November, Hurstville Civic Theatre.

Come and party to celebrate Jeremy leaving the country and the coming global revolution! Featuring The Blast and others. http://www.jura.org.au/node/1649
-> Party, 7pm Saturday 12 November, at Jura.

All are also welcome to come to the next Jura Collective meeting to observe and/or get involved. We always need new ideas and new volunteers!
-> Jura Collective meeting, 4pm Saturday 12 November, at Jura.

Music can help build a better world: to express common and different values, dreams and stories through song. The 'Songs of Meaning and Power' weekend will create time and space for us to raise our voices and remember the songs that kept our ancestors and past social movements strong, including movements for peace, liberation and civil rights. The weekend will include a Friday night concert, theme-based music-sharing circles, workshops and a general music session on Saturday night. http://songweekend.wordpress.com/
-> 25 -27 November, Surry Hills and other locations.

Punk show at Jura, with Insepia, Intentions, Thorax, Zita Grimm.
-> 10 December. Check jura.org.au closer to the time for more details.

There are now 1,180 people on this Jura email announcement list, and 751 fans on facebook. Please sign up to the email list at http://lists.jura.org.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/specialannounce and like us on facebook. And keep telling your friends about Jura.

Love and rage from the Jura Collective.

440 Parramatta Rd, Petersham
(02) 9550 9931
http://www.jura.org.au
http://www.facebook.com/jura.books

Opening Hours:
Wednesday 2 - 7pm
Thursday 2 - 7pm
Friday 2 - 7pm
Saturday 12 - 5pm
Sunday 12 - 5pm