META PROCESS- Photos from Occupy Convergence on Burlington

In addition to the police violence and use of force against Occupiers and other protesters, the weekend was comprised of mostly peaceful actions and events.  Highlights of those photos, though not appearing on Vermont Commons, now appear here.

Oakland School Fights Austerity

From the Oakland Unified School District, images of a community fighting to save its school from austerity closure as well as occupying Obama's campaign headquarters.  Then, of course... there's Chalk-u-pie.  Oakland was a remarkable place with remarkable people fighting for their dreams and the dreams of their children.

Read the original Vermont Commons article here.

A brass band arrives in solidarity with "dreamers" that occupied Obama's campaign headquarters

Chalk-u-pie, a tactic begun in New York with sidewalk chalk reaches a new level in Oakland

Parents and community members done yellow shirts for a press conference announcing a people's reopening of Lakeview Elementary School

A young student enthusiastically writes "justis" on the white-board upon re-entering the classroom

 Community member and parent scolds officers of the Oakland Police for their repeated tactic of attempting to enter the campus via its rear entrance, startling parents and children

May Day 2012!

May Day!  The following images are from the 2012 May Day celebration in Montpelier.  Despite the rainy Tuesday that this workers' holiday fell on the wonderful organizations who managed to attend were Occupy Central Vermont, Occupy Burlington, Vermont Workers' Center, United Healthcare Professionals, Migrant Justice, Bread and Puppet Theater, and a variety of others.

Marchers rally in front of the Capitol on Tuesday for the international workers' holiday

Bread and Puppet Theater Company performing on the steps of Montpelier City Hall

A drummer and marcher plays to the photographer while warming up

Members and supporters of Migrant Justice rally on the steps of City Hall

Red Clover Climate Collective performs their "False Solutions Circus"

A supporter of the Put People First campaign

 Musicians march in the streets of the state capital

"Capitalism" has its hands bound after being tried and found guilty of crimes against humanity

Student Strike at BHS

On the morning of Thursday, April 19th, a group of English Language Learner (ELL) students from Sub-Saharan Africa went on strike to protest rampant racism, discriminatory discipline, and the "Outlier Policy" of evaluating standardized test scores. They organized themselves and made their own decisions. In the process, they shattered the silence hanging over the great shame of the Green Mountain State: institutional racism in Chittenden County schools. Here are the photographs.

Education Day at Statehouse

Here are some photos from a day of photographing a rally and protest at the Vermont Statehouse. About 400 people descended upon the corridors of power to demand that their elected representatives address the increasingly crippling debt that many Vermont students are facing as well as pass House Bill 97 that would allow early educators and childcare professionals to unionize.

For the accompanying article, visit Dylan's blog at Vermont Commons here.