In this Acronym TV report, host Dennis Trainor, Jr speaks with Selin, a 19 year-old female resident of Isthanbul, who recounts the physical and physiological abuse she endured after she was arrested during the Occupy Gezi protest last week. Occupy Wall street organizer, Justin Wedes, at her side in Isthanbul sums up the five immediate demands that have emerged from the Gezi occupation while Jenna Pope, photojournalist and OWS activist also reports from Gezi park that the protesters are well aware that the whole world is watching and drawing strength from their efforts. “Everything is connected,” Pope says, “people all over the world are fighting against these governments who are only interested in making the very rich even richer.” As one protester in Turkey puts it: “This is no longer about the trees.”
What started as a protest to protect green space in Istanbul has quickly morphed into the latest chapter in the Global Revolution for true Democracy. “We have more in common with the working person in Turkey than we have in common with the American ruling class,” says Occupy Wall Street Activist Joel Prentice Northam, who added that it is important to study the struggles in other nation states.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
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