At the Occupy Together protest in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol plaza in honor of the October 15 global day of action, they played Beethoven’s 9th Ode to Joy, the crowd raised their empty palms chanting “these are our weapons,” and everything was golden and beautiful. [Via]
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In just a matter of months, Vallejo has been catapulted from anonymous student body president to Latin American folk hero with more than 300,000 Twitter followers. Type her name into Google and there are more than 160,000 results just from the past 24 hours. Brazilian students now parade her as a VIP guest at their marches, the Chilean president invites her to negotiate a settlement and when she calls for a show of strength hundreds of thousands of students throughout Chile take to the streets. As an adept and wildly popular social media phenomenon, Vallejo has risen to become the most recognisable face of the student protesters.
Throughout the six-month revolt, Chilean students – in many cases led by 14- and 15-year-olds – have seized the streets of Santiago and major cities, provoking and challenging the status quo with their demand for a massive restructuring of the nation’s for-profit higher education industry. In support of their demands for free university education, since May they have organised 37 marches, which have gathered upwards of 200,000 students at a time.
— Damn, Camila Vallejo is badass. So are these Chilean girls who have occupied their school for 5 MONTHS. Last week talks between the government and the student leaders broke down and the government crackdown left 250 people arrested and 30 injured. A general strike, supported by unions, is planned for October 18-19.
The Occupy Wall Street Protests
My name is Kelly Schomburg, I’m the girl with the red hair in these pictures. I was protesting at the Occupy Wall Street march yesterday when I and several other women were sprayed with mace and subsequently arrested. Many have already seen the video, which has been spreading like wildfire over twitter, Facebook, tumblr, and other video feeds, along with hundreds of other photos and videos. This is my recount of what happened.
