The value of that shouldn't be underestimated. Occupy Wall Street in New York and national actions and conferences brought together activists and often expanded their interest in a broader range of social causes.

On the local level, groups lke Occupy L.A. put on their website calendars not only their own sponsored actions, but also "affiliated group actions," so Occupiers were turning out for actions on NDAA, financial corruption and inequality, immigrant rights, home foreclosures, Walmart Black Friday, police brutality, sex workers' rights, Justice for Trayvon, and much more.

It was only natural that with or without encampments and general assemblies the networking, coordination and cross-participation would continue.

K&R!

I exist in a city that never filed a constitution on time, as required by state law; I reside in a residential development where a resident judge suggested that the best way to handle a troubling land dispute was to abandon the community's constitution; and I live in a homeowner's association which has been fraudelently managed, with the assistance of lawyers who have misled us.

We are, absolutely, without question, not a country of laws.

The other day, I saw an interview with someone involved in the New York City protests who said the participants were a mixture of Zuccotti Park veterans and new recruits. Of course, one of the most significant things about the current wave is that it mixes black and white participants in a way that Occupy never quite managed -- with the young black activists generally spearheading the movement. That's a very positive development.

But there's also a third piece -- which is the movement for environmental justice or climate justice or whatever the kids are calling it these days. The First Nations are rising up against pipelines and desecration of their sacred lands. The people of Pakistan and the Philippines and the Pacific are angry about what sea level rise and unprecedented storms are doing to their countries. American blacks are noticing that polluting industries are generally located in their towns and neighborhoods and not in the white folks backyards.

Everything is converging very strongly, and it's going to have a powerful effect. There's a new piece by Naomi Klein on this that's well worth reading.

http://earthfirstjournal.org/newswire/2014/12/16/why-blacklivesmatter-should-transform-the-climate-debate/