Updated with new cities and actions! This Monday, Feb. 20th, is the National Occupy Day of Action In Support of Prisoners. For information on events in Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Denver, Durham, Eureka, Fresno, Indio, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, SF Bay Area, and Washington, DC, see here. Prisoners at Ohio State Penitentiary will refuse food in solidarity on Monday.

The following statement was issued by a group of formerly-incarcerated members of All of Us Or None and Occupy For Prisoners. For more about why this protest has been called, see below.

To the Occupy Oakland family, all supporters of Occupy Oakland, and the larger Occupy Wall Street movement:

We are writing to appreciate everyone who has ever supported PEOPLE inside jails, prisons, and detention facilities throughout the country. We are also writing to ask for support from everyone planning to participate in February 20th National Day of Occupy in Support of Prisoners. PEOPLE in prisons – a nice name for cages – as well as formerly imprisoned PEOPLE, are one of the most marginalized and vulnerable populations in our society. We have been labeled as “offenders”, “criminals”, “convicts”, “ex-offenders”, “ex-cons”, and many other dehumanizing terms, and are scapegoated for causing society’s fundamental problems. We are PEOPLE, and not the labels they use. The real “criminals” are those who run Wall Street, who are responsible for genocide, racism, xenophobia, and all forms of discrimination. They lead the attacks against communities throughout America.

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The Brian Piccolo Specialty School in Humboldt Park, Chicago is currently Occupied by parents, teachers, and students. Occupy Chicago and other allies are outside the building in solidarity and have set up an encampment. Around one hundred people are present and are taking shifts to ensure the safety of the occupation. The Chicago Teachers Union has expressed support for the action. Piccolo, an elementary school with a student body that is almost entirely from low income communities of color, is one of 16 Chicago public schools slated to be closed by Mayor Rahm's service cuts to the poor.

Updates, 2/18

• 3:30AM Central Time: It is believed that Chicago Police have decided to leave and protesters have declared victory for Day 1 of Occupied Piccolo! If you are in Chicago, please come to 1040 North Keeler Avenue to show your support, and bring a tent! Follow #takebackourschools, #piccolo, @OccupyChicago and @TBOurSchoolsChi on Twitter.
• 10:30AM: The police are still not attempting to remove protesters inside. However, they will not allow anyone else inside, and will not allow occupiers to leave and return. Parents and occupiers inside are being denied food and medicine.
• 1:45PM: Chicago police have arrived on the scene. Around a dozen people remain inside the school, with a large crowd rallying outside. The occupiers have been holding the school since 5PM yesterday and are still being denied food and medicine by the police. Interviews to press are being given through windows. A busload of teachers have shown up to show solidarity.
• 4:00PM: Occupiers have emerged from the school to thunderous applause and declared victory! The demands have been met, proving that direct action and community power can be leveraged for real change! Parents will be given the opportunity to meet with the Board of Directors to submit a counter-proposal for local education. This is what real community control looks like.

Via Occupy Chicago Press:

Declaration #1 from Piccolo Occupation
11:49pm - February 17th, 2012

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Tomorrow, the people of Greece will take to the streets again to occupy Syntagma Square in protest of the extreme austerity measures being imposed on the backs of the Greek 99% to the joy and benefit of the European financial elite. The 99% everywhere are under assault by the same global banking interests. Greece is merely the most severe economic crisis yet to be imposed by the International Monetary Fund and other agents of the 1% in the Global North. People all over the world live under the tyranny of policies dictated by the IMF, the World Bank, and the G8. As demonstrated by the wholesale slashing of social services in the name of "debt reduction," New York City and the United States are not immune.

Our resistance to austerity will also be global. This weekend, the people of cities across the world will take to the streets in solidarity with the Greek protesters who have occupied their workplaces and public spaces to resist economic injustice. Demonstrations are planned throughout Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portgual, the United Kingdom, the United States, Sweden, and more. Click here for a partial listing of international rallies on Facebook. Occupy Chicago held a Greece solidarity rally yesterday. There is a rally today in San Francisco and tomorrow in New York City. See below for more information, the original call-out, and a statement of solidarity from Occupy Atlanta.

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From the National Lawyers Guild:

Date: Friday, February 17, 2012 Time: 9:30 AM

Place: Manhattan Summons Court, 346 Broadway (entrance on Leonard Street), Jury 7 on the fourth floor

On Friday morning, National Lawyers Guild Mass Defense attorney Jethro Eisenstein will be arguing for the dismissal of charges brought following the clearance of Zuccotti Park on November 15, 2011. In People v. Nunez, Attorney Eisenstein will be representing one of the many protesters who was charged with trespassing on that day. A favorable decision on Eisenstein's argument could benefit everyone facing trespassing charges resulting from the eviction, and could show that Brookfield Properties did not have the authority to have people removed from Zuccotti Park.

Come out, pack the courtroom this Friday, and show your support for the Occupy arrestees!

Earlier today, a family who has been wrongly foreclosed upon occupied a Citibank branch in Los Angeles. Crowds of protesters, including Occupy LA, gathered in the lobby to show support. The family, including four children, are facing homelessness in spite of having enough money to make payments. The protesters refused to leave until Freddie Mac negotiate to keep the family in their home.

Children from the family held signs saying "Freddie Mac Give Our Home Back" and protesters chanted "We Are the 99%" and "Banks Got Bailed Out, We Got Sold Old!" Around 1:15 PM Pacific Time, dozens of armed police arrived and threatened to arrest the entire family. Legal observers with the National Lawyers Guild were on hand. The homeowner and father of the family, along with other protesters, was led away in handcuffs while hundreds chanted "save our homes, we want justice!" Today, police arrested the victim of wrongful foreclosure simply for demanding a place to live for his family. Follow @OccupyLA and @OccupyOurHomes on Twitter.

The Occupy Our Homes movement has continued to grow since it began last November. On Valentine's Day, Occupy LA disrupted a foreclosure hearing for an active duty solider and veteran and his family. This week, thousands of supporters helped Occupy Nashville save the home of a local 78-Year-Old Civil Rights activist. Occupy Minneapolis pledged to save a third home in response to the National Mortgage Settlement. Foreclosure defense actions have also occurred in Cleveland, Atlanta, Rochester, Chicago, Brooklyn, and across the country.

Also today, Occupy Denver disrupted a foreclosure auction:

Occupy Detroit, along with local labor and progressive organizations, has prevented four foreclosures - once by physically blocking a dumpster - and recently announced plans to save a fifth. In every case, banks backed down and agreed to negotiate with homeowners. Occupy Our Homes actions seek to expose banking practices, economic inequality, and corporate greed as the root causes of the housing crisis, while also taking direct action to prevent homelessness.

Update, 2/17: This morning, OWS shut down the NY-Queens Foreclosure Auction through non-violent direct action! 22 people were arrested. Also today, Occupy DC announced it will begin a foreclosure defense campaign. They will rally against Freddie Mac at 325 7th St NW on Feb. 27 at noon to protest its foreclosing on the home of Bertina Jones.

The Making Worlds forum starts today in Brooklyn and runs until Saturday (with additional events Sunday). The following is the schedule of events which will take place at:

The Church of the Ascension
122 Java St. (Greenpoint)
Brooklyn, NY

http://makingworlds.wikispaces.com/

THURSDAY, February 16

• 5pm: WELCOME: Sign-In, Food
• 6-6:45pm: OPENING
  Introductory words / Making Worlds Organizers Introduction to the Commons / Silvia Federici and Priscilla Gonzalez
  Dawn Diaz - Women Against Domestic Violence
• 6:45-7:15pm: Dinner
• 7:15-9pm: George Caffentzis.
  James Quilligan - Global Commons Trust
  Christopher Rude - Union for Radical Political Economics
  Alicia Godsberg - OWS Antiwar WG and Peace Action

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It’s Valentines Day, and Occupiers are showing our love. In New York, OWS held a bed-in and kiss-in against elected officials in bed with Wall Street. Others joined with social and environmental justice groups to break up with Bank of America for profiting from unjust foreclosures and the destruction of the environment. After Occupiers in Tacoma were unjustly tazed by police after shouting down presidential candidate Rick Santorum during a speech against same-sex marriage in Washington state, Occupy Austin brought same-sex couples to ask for marriage licenses in the Texas capital. Occupy Oakland is on the move chanting "We love Oakland!" Across the world, we encourage supporters to break up with their banks - Occupy Los Angeles is even marching to banks to break up in person.

Love is not a commodity that can be purchased. We show our love by fighting for a better world. Here are just a few ways Occupiers have been showing our love this week. Read More...

Earlier today, Occupy Atlanta, Atlanta Jobs with Justice, Communication Workers of America, and AFSC began occupying the AT&T Headquarters in Atlanta "and are refusing to leave until every single job cut is rescinded." Simultaneously, an occupation with tents is being set up outside of the building. A General Assembly will be held at 7pm EST at 675 West Peachtree St!

There will also be a rally outside the building tomorrow, so be sure to show support. For live updates, follow #occupyatt on Twitter!

via Jobs With Justice:

Multinational corporations like AT&T have been undermining workers standards of living for decades. If we stand up for union jobs with AT&T we can stand up for a future where there's enough for everyone, a future that creates space for all of us to thrive. Lift up the South, lift up this nation.

Let's not get it twisted. There's enough resources to go around. The crisis isn't about resources. It's about economic priorities. It's time that the 99% stand up to the unprecedented wealth consolidation that has been robbing our communities. Together we can take these 740 jobs off the chopping block. Let this action be the beginning of a movement to put human need above corporate greed in a very real, tangible way.

Under pressure from creditors, the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank, and the EU, the Greek government is forcing through unpopular austerity measures. The Greek Prime Minister threatened to remove any government minister who objected to the policies.

Wages are to be cut by more than 20 percent, thousands of civil servants will be laid off, and vital social programs will be severely cut. These laws punish the Greek 99% to repay the debts of the ruling class. The government has sold out sovereignty, the poor, and the working class in the interest of foreign creditors and the demands of the 1%. Bankers continue to make millions and corporations pay fewer taxes. The rest of society, having done nothing wrong, is being punished for the failures of the market.

In response, thousands have taken to the streets and occupied the square in front of Parliament. For the second time this week, Greek workers began a general strike for today and tomorrow. Most transportation has been shut down - limited-service trains will allow protesters to attend demonstrations in Athens. Protesters around Parliament have been attacked with stun grenades and teargas by riot police. Similar protests and strikes are underway across Europe, including in Belgium, where firefighters opposed to cuts in their retirement plan broke through police lines with water hoses.

Students also occupied a school and held General Assemblies for protesters. The occupiers released a statement:

The health structures, the educational spaces, the “welfare” benefits and anything making us productive in the dominant system are now a thing of the past. After squeezing everything out of us, they now throw us straight into hunger and impoverishment.

For years, Greece has been wrecked by the very same policies of austerity also underway in the United States and other countries. From Athens to Oakland, the 99% have awoken - and we refuse to be sold out.

Today (Feb. 10th, 2012) in Washington, DC: Occupy CPAC!
12noon and 5pm at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel
2600 Woodley Rd. at Connecticut Ave. N.W - metro: Woodley Park

All this weekend, the right-wing Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is happening in Washington, DC. The event - deemed the "summit of the 1%" - features a range of powerful conservative groups and politicians like Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Scott Walker, and more. The one thing they share in common: Their pockets are lined with corporate money and all of their agendas disproportionately benefit the 1% at the direct expense of the rest of us.

Labor groups like the Metropolitan Washington, D.C. Labor Council and local progressive organizations like the Washington Peace Center are organizing a variety of actions today. The AFL-CIO has promised "giant puppets, inflatables, chants, songs and of course tents to Occupy CPAC." Occupy DC and supporters plan to be out in full force, as well - demonstrating their commitment to the struggle for economic justice following their recent removal from their homes at McPherson Square. Follow #OccupyCPAC on Twitter.

Also today, Occupy San Francisco plans to march against police repression:

Occupy demonstrators nationwide have faced brutal police crackdowns, near lethal force, indiscriminate use of chemical weapons such as CS Gas, constant police violence & harassment and the illegitimate repression of our natural rights to assembly and free speech. Poor people, people of color and the homeless have been facing cruel and unjust police oppression and brutality on an everyday basis for decades. As an institution, the police stand between the 99% and the 1%, protecting the interests of the governments, banks and corporations that foreclose on our lives and homes, destroy our Mother Earth, and send us off to illegal wars for profit. If we are to liberate our commons, reclaim vacant buildings and unused homes, and occupy public spaces for social change, we must, one way or another, overcome the violent state repression that manifests itself as the Police. Join us this Friday, Feb. 10 at 6pm at 101 Market St, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, near Embarcadero BART station. RESIST.

Later this weekend, Occupy Town Squares returns to New York City:

Saturday, Feb. 11th 2012
1pm - 7pm at West Park Presbyterian
165 West 86th St

On February 11th, come visit the second Occupy Town Square, at West Park Presbyterian. For one afternoon, Occupy Wall Street will fill the beautiful old church on 86th & Amsterdam Ave with teach-ins and trainings, speeches and discussion, pamphlets and performances. Come help us revive the great democratic tradition of public discourse and civic engagement. Whether you consider yourself a supporter of the movement or not, we want to meet you. Share our food and warmth; bring your stories and ideas; learn, argue, debate, coordinate, collaborate!