Activism ows_pedal-main

Published on November 6th, 2011 | by Andrew Meggison

22

Occupy Protesters Pedal for Progress, Power, Heat

Pedal-powered bicycles equipped with electrical power generators are now supplying electricity to protesters at Zuccotti Park, the home of the Occupy Wall Street movement – just in time for the area’s first major snow of the season!

Yes, the first snowstorm has come and gone in the Northeast, and it was a big one, dropping 20″ of snow in some areas.  Other than asking when the power will come back on, many are a residents wondered if the cold and snow would break the Occupy Movements that started in New York City (especially since the NYPD and FDNY “conveniently” confiscated all of the protester’s generators as “fire hazards”).

Protesters with a cause are tough to push back, however.  Facing down the possibility of a frosty weekend without power and heat, the Occupy Wall Street protestors got down to business, and – less than 48 hours after having their generators taken away – the Occupy Wall Street group looked to some alternative ways to generate power, which led to bicycle powered generators being quickly purchased online, shipped to Zuccotti Park, and getting immediately put into service.

The bicycle powered generators are being used to power just about everything now, from cell phones and laptops (which allowed the group to maintain its keep live streaming and communications equipment) to area lighting electric heaters in the Occupy zone.  It is estimated that 6 hours of pedaling will charge the generators’ batteries for almost 100 hours of use, but with plenty of volunteers to keep the wheels spinning, there will hardly be any occasion to put that to the test!

In addition to powering up the Occupiers in Zuccotti Park, the pedal powered generators are also attracting a lot of positive attention, proving the movement to be plenty resourceful when faced with some of the very “real world” dilemmas that the movement’s detractors would like you to think they aren’t capable of overcoming.

That’s great news for OWS, and bad news for Wall Street.

Source | Images:  Inhabitat.com, David Shankbone under a Creative Commons License



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About the Author

Andrew Meggison was born in the state of Maine and educated in Massachusetts. Andrew earned a Bachelor's Degree in Government and International Relations from Clark University and a Master's Degree in Political Science from Northeastern University. In his free time Andrew enjoys writing, exploring the great outdoors, a good film, and a creative cocktail. You can follow Andrew on Twitter @AndrewMeggison


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  • http://www.GreenJoyment.com Juan Miguel Ruiz

    Good for them! If everyone waited around for change to occur naturally, we would wait a very long time. It’s a good thing these people are fighting for everyone’s rights. This really has become a movement for CHANGE. Even their power now comes from green technology. Bravo!

    Juan Miguel Ruiz (GreenJoyment)

  • Tim Cleland

    “The bicycle (made by the 1%) powered generators (also made by the 1%) are being used to power just about everything now, from cell phones (made and serviced by the 1%) and laptops (once again, made and serviced by the 1%) which allowed the group to maintain its [sic] keep live streaming and communications equipment (also manufactured by the 1%) to area lighting [sic] electric heaters (the 1% made those as well) in the Occupy zone.”

    I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the 1% for their hard work, financial risk, and ingenuity.
    They have enriched the 99 percent’s lives (including my own) in uncountable ways.

    • T Adkins

      even the 1% deserve their nod. The bicycle guys they may or may not be 1%ers but those guys who work for them and built those things most likely not in the 1%. Generator guys probably the same boat as the bicycle guys. The cell phones, laptops and communication equipment made for below minimum wage in Far-Off-istan then sold here by regular sales guys and maintained by regular guys.

      Then we have those occupy folks you mentioned who spent the money to buy those things, pretty sure they are not the 1%ers.

      So yeah a nod to those 1%ers and to all those other people involved in the buying selling and making of goods and services.

      -T

      • http://gas2.org Jo Borras

        Agreed – a sincere, heartfelt nod to to those involved in buying and selling and making of goods and services (1% or otherwise). A sincere, heartfelt “F*** YOU!” however, to crooked banks double-dipping from TARP funds AND going after bad loans.

        • http://phoenixwoman.wordpress.com Phoenix Woman

          But as a Randroid, Tim Cleland believes in a form of “might makes right” which means that the “strong” (or the “producers”) get to trample the weak (or everyone else), and down with things like democracy that attempt to give “moochers” a say when they should just die already.

          • Tim Cleland

            I’m not a Randroid. I happen to respect her, but I think she was incomplete in her thinking.
            Please see my response to you below. If you really think Rand believed “might makes right”, and that the strong get to trample the weak, you don’t know anything about Ayn Rand. Please come back after you’ve actually read something of hers. Preferably some of her non-fiction work.

    • http://gas2.org Jo Borras

      Keep trying to make this about “producers” and “corporations” against hippies and liberals and you may need an air hose to get enough oxygen to your brain (being as far up where it is, as it is). That 1% you’re defending isn’t the 1% being protested. Nobody is standing outside of the Ford offices and picketing the Ford family and their quasi-legal “A” stock nonsense – this is about companies that were bailed out with middle class tax money. Tax money that, it should be pointed out, was taken from them against their will … which is the very thing the Tea Partards are arguing against.

      • Tim Cleland

        Not according to their “demands” which include things like a $20/hr minimum wage (whether employed or not), student-loan debt forgiveness, etc. All that amounts to redistribution of wealth from the makers to the takers. There is a small libertarian faction of the OWS movement that is primarily (and rightly) protesting the TARP bailouts, the “stimulus”, the FED, etc., but the majority of them just want something for nothing.

        • T Adkins

          The group has made no official demands but if a reporter walk into a crowd and asks what changes would people like to see, They will tell you what they want. Honestly paying off the schools loans would have done more to help the economy than most of the actions we have taken.

          Just picture it gov pays off the debts, those with the debt will believe they have more money (or a fair percentage will) and they will spend it. The banks get paid back for the loans and they get to do what banks do with their money. Another good use of the money would have been to pay back part of people’s mortgages say up $30k-$50k of it. It will keep people in their homes take some of those toxic assets down, and again the people helped at least some of them will feel they have more money to spend and they will spend it.

          Tax-payer left holding the bag you bet but it would have helped alot more than TARP.

          Minimum wage does need to come up to a livable standard. We live in a country where the average CEO makes 142 times as much money as the average worker. we aren’t counting the full 1% in that or even the unemployed in that. In contemporary countries but also places with better medical and schools than we have, England CEO v. worker is 69 times and in Sweden it is 34 times, both places have a higher living wage. Am I saying we need a $20 an hour min I am not sure but I do know our min is less than $10 an hour.

          If we want to cut spending we can do that real quick we just take our boys and girls out playing in the sand and bring them home. We got rid if Sadam, Osama and that Lybian guy. Why are we still out there?
          -T

          • Tim Cleland

            “If we want to cut spending we can do that real quick we just take our boys and girls out playing in the sand and bring them home. We got rid if Sadam, Osama and that Lybian guy. Why are we still out there?”

            Good point. I couldn’t agree more. I commend Obama for announcing he’ll be bringing
            home the troops from Iraq by Christmas. We should also be bringing our troops home from Afghanistan, Korea, Japan, Europe, etc. Let those places defend themselves. We can’t afford to be the world’s police any more.

          • Tim Cleland

            “The group has made no official demands but if a reporter walk into a crowd and asks what changes would people like to see, They will tell you what they want.”

            Wrong. Here is the list from occupywallst.org:
            http://occupywallst.org/forum/proposed-list-of-ows-demands/

          • T Adkins

            @Tim- So in my post I write “The group has made no official demands but if a reporter walk into a crowd and asks what changes would people like to see, They will tell you what they want.”

            Then you post a link claiming I am mistaken but The 1st few lines of your link read as:
            “Forum Post: Proposed list of OWS Demands
            Posted 2 weeks ago on Oct. 23, 2011, 11:21 p.m. EST by bchang1987
            –This content is user submitted and not an official statement– ”

            It is that 3rd line there the one that read:
            –This content is user submitted and not an official statement–

            As amusing as some of those demands are that 3rd line just gets in the way of taking even half of it seriously.

            -T

    • http://phoenixwoman.wordpress.com Phoenix Woman

      The bicycles are made by the 99%. The 1%ers might own the company that employs the 99%, but unless they’re custom builders no 1% bike company owner has picked up a welding torch.

      There are a number of 1%ers out there who are good and forward-looking. There are unfortunately a number of them who didn’t get to be 1%ers on merit, no matter what Ayn Rand told them about how they deserve to screw over the inferior 99%ers.

      • Tim Cleland

        “…no matter what Ayn Rand told them about how they deserve to screw over the inferior 99%ers.”

        Great. Another person who has no idea what Ayn Rand stood for, but believes the left’s caricature of her. Ayn Rand believed in individualism and rational self-interest. The word “rational” is used by Rand as a synonym for “honest”. Cheating, stealing from, hurting, or “screwing over” other people in the pursuit of self-interest was as deplorable to her as rape or murder. Most of the cheating and “screwing over” of other people comes from corporations and unions that are “in bed” with government (i.e. corporatism) and use the government’s power to either subsidize their risk or hobble their competition.

        • T Adkins

          Unfortunately Ayn Rand’s ideology has been twisted and some of those following or claiming to follow her train of thought were responsible for the hows and when and why of the current economic mess that the occupy movement is upset with.

          After making corporations legally people and then using tort reform to make corporations nigh immune to the only legal recourse we have against a non-corporeal person. It just just turns corporations into nearly unstoppable psychopathic sociopaths with less than zero regard for people or lives and just has an unending appetite for more money and power. Thru their share holder’s whims they just become the embodiment of self-interest and avarice. It is just like nightmare given form equal parts of pride, greed and gluttony bound together in legalese and set loose upon the world.

          -T

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  • http://gas2.org Jo Borras

    Also (while I’m at it) Ayn Rand is great young adult fiction, but – after much more reading and critical analysis – really actually does NOT deserve a place in the ranks of “brilliant” thinkers. I’d say same level as Twilight, but for douchebags instead of fat goth girls.

    • Tim Cleland

      You can spew all the nonsense you want, but just because you don’t agree with Ayn Rand doesn’t mean she wasn’t a brilliant thinker. It’s more likely that you’ve never even read any of Ayn Rand and are just using the caricature of her that your fellow lefty loonies created as your basis of understanding.

      • http://phoenixwoman.wordpress.com Phoenix Woman

        Oh, we obviously *have* read Ayn Rand. We also operate in the real world, where things like facts are important. Here are some facts about Ayn Rand:

        1. She was a “moocher” in her later years, surviving off of Social Security after she received medical treatment for the very sort of smoking-related lung cancer she had earlier claimed was a “hoax”:

        http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/149721/ayn_rand_railed_against_government_benefits,_but_grabbed_social_security_and_medicare_when_she_needed_them/

        http://firedoglake.com/2011/01/27/tea-party-patron-saint-ayn-rand-applied-for-social-security-medicare-benefits/

        (Remember, Rand herself railed against hypocrites and compromisers: “There can be no compromise on basic principles. There can be no compromise on moral issues. There can be no compromise on matters of knowledge, of truth, of rational conviction.”)

        2. Ayn Rand’s ideal man was a serial killer named William Hickman, whose last killing — the murder and dismemberment of a twelve-year-old girl — horrified the nation but not Rand, who said admiringly of Hickman (on whom she was to base the male heroes of her writings, particularly Danny Renahan, John Galt, and Howard Roark):

        What did Rand admire so much about Hickman? His sociopathic qualities: “Other people do not exist for him, and he does not see why they should,” she wrote, gushing that Hickman had “no regard whatsoever for all that society holds sacred, and with a consciousness all his own. He has the true, innate psychology of a Superman. He can never realize and feel ‘other people.’”
        This echoes almost word for word Rand’s later description of her character Howard Roark, the hero of her novel The Fountainhead: “He was born without the ability to consider others.”

        http://exiledonline.com/atlas-shrieked-why-ayn-rands-right-wing-followers-are-scarier-than-the-manson-family-and-the-gruesome-story-of-the-serial-killer-who-stole-ayn-rands-heart/

        • Tim Cleland

          It sounds like you have read a lot ABOUT Ayn Rand, but not read Rand herself.
          Rand had personal issues, no doubt. Personally, I think she was a bit** and I wouldn’t have wanted to be her friend, but that doesn’t change the fact that her philosophy has a lot of merit.

          BTW, I don’t live my life constantly referring to Rand and what she said about this and that.
          I just know that I go through life taking care of my family and don’t expect others to. I paid for my own education by working crappy jobs. I majored in Chemistry (when I would have rather been a Physicist) because it was a field with better job prospects. Now that I have a career, I live way below my means and I save, save, save so that if I ever lose my job, we’ll be okay until I can find another job. I expect others to live similarly. If they choose not to, that’s not my problem and I refuse to pay for it. I vote accordingly.

          As to Social Security and Medicare, there is a good argument to be made that “since you paid into it, you should at least get back what you paid”. I don’t know if that’s how Rand viewed her collection of benefits, but I do know that the existence of that argument is what keeps the left from wanting to impose means testing to those programs. Once means testing is implemented, SS/Medicare will be seen as a welfare program.

          • T Adkins

            @Tim- you seem to be defending Rand pretty hard there, even though you a rather indifferent to her as a person. She said and wrote some stuff that moved people and made them think, but even a stopped or broken clock can be correct twice a day. In your post I am replying to pretty much from “BTW” on in your post that is where the 99% are for the most part.

            A lot of those in government are either the 1% or in the pocket of the 1% or both. Most of those who sit in the congress and the senate are lawyers writing laws for other lawyers. over 54% senate and congress are millionaires those who aren’t are fairly close. So we have part of 1% being paid off by the rest of the 1%. They have lost touch with the rest of us.

            We have folks losing their homes, when John McCain while running for president couldn’t remember how many houses he owned. That is how out of touch we can be.

            It is worse when some folks come from money say your grand parents die when you are 3 and they leave each of their grand kids $10million. That kid can do nothing with their life and just spend $100k a year for the next 100 years, how in touch will that kid be with a person, who went to school and works a hard 9-5 making $40k-$60k. How in touch is that person gonna be with people making minimum wage or just living off of social security?

            Now say this person gets to be in office, as out of touch as they are, they now write laws for and governing those people they are so out of touch with. It just feels as though those people elected to represent us are no longer really representing 99% of us, but seem to be representing people and corporations with money, some of which are not even paying taxes, more than they represent regular folk or say the bulk of the nation.

            -T

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