Occupy Mastermind Stephen Lerner Reveals Next Steps: Student Loan Strikes & Crash Shareholder Mtgs
- Posted on March 19, 2012 at 7:41am by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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Regular readers of this site will know the name Stephen Lerner. For those who don’t, here’s a quick refresher: he’s the SEIU organizer who The Blaze revealed almost a year to the day as the man behind the early stages of the Occupy movement. Back then, he admitted to wanting to bring down financial institutions and collapse the system. Now he’s back with an op-ed in the liberal magazine The Nation, and he‘s outlining what’s coming next.
“Occupy has cracked open the door that lets us imagine that another world is possible,” Lerner writes, before bragging about the countless arrests of those within the movement. “Thousands of arrests, months of protest and acts of incredible personal risk and sacrifice have put inequality and Wall Street’s out-of-control political and economic power on center stage. As activity ratchets up this spring, the challenge is to get more people pushing that door open ever wider.”
So what does “pushing that door open wider” look like? How about organizing massive student loan strikes and crashing annual shareholder meetings.
Student loan strikes
Lerner justifies the strike idea like this:
Students and their families now have nearly a trillion dollars of debt, with average debt totaling over $25,000. The explosion in student debt is a direct outgrowth of the defunding of education in state after state. Unlike corporate and other debt, student debt is excluded from bankruptcy relief, strangling students for life. Reducing student debt load and the interest rates applied to it would save hundreds of billions of dollars in debt payments. It’s a first step to creating equal access to education and giving students a fair start without a lifetime burden.
Then he plants the seed:
There is growing interest in Occupy and student groups in a student debt strike. The banks can’t foreclose on a brain or a degree. If a critical mass of student debtors—a million or more—pledged to refuse to pay, it would create a collection crisis that could force negotiations about reducing student debt.
Key phrase: “it would create a collection crisis.”
Crashing shareholder meetings
Student debt strikes are just the beginning, however. Lerner wants more, and that “more,” not surprisingly, involves greater collaboration with the unions.
“Starting with GE on April 25 in Detroit and moving on to Wells Fargo, Bank of America and dozens of other corporations in May and June, tens of thousands of people from Occupy, community organizations, unions and environmental groups will show up at the annual shareholder meetings of major corporations,” he explains. “Some people will be on the inside with proxies, and others will be massed in the streets, all delivering the message that it is no longer acceptable for giant, unaccountable corporations to decide the political and economic fate of the country.”
Key points: It’s starting April 25; it involves “tens of thousands” from unions and even environmental groups; and it will even involve people “on the inside.”

A member of the Occupy San Diego movement protests in front of the California Democrats State Convention Saturday, Feb. 11, 2012, in San Diego. (AP)
A movement in need of direction?
Lerner’s direction comes as the movement is awakening with fury — 73 were arrested at the movement‘s epicenter in New York City’s Zucotti Park over the weekend. And top-down direction seems to be what the willing Occupy foot soldiers are in need of. Consider that after the weekend fracas, the same problems of blurry vision and a lack of uniformity that plagued the movement in the fall sprang up once again.
“I’m really grateful to be part of a generation that wants change, ’cause we should all want change,” said Jennifer Campbell, a graduate student in documentary filmmaking at Hofstra University. “But I’m not sure what that change is, or if they know what that change is.”
“We’re going to keep going,” said Christopher Guerra, who has spent many nights at Zuccotti since the movement started last Sept. 17. He added, “It’s going to get interesting during the election cycle. We’re going to be more of a presence in the political world. I know we have a couple of people running for office.”
According to Mother Jones magazine, 10 candidates for House and Senate seats in the November elections have made Occupy part of their campaigns. They include Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren and Hakeem Jeffries, who is running for Congress in Brooklyn. But some Occupy supporters consider themselves anarchists who abjure electoral politics.
Sandra Nurse, a member of Occupy’s direct action working group, said she expects college students will have “a huge role to play this summer organizing around student debt.” She noted that the issue resonates both with students and with their parents and has the potential to broaden the movement. It‘s straight out of Lerner’s playbook.
But Ted Schulman, an Occupy protester who lives near Zuccotti, said his focus is the upcoming United Nation Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. He said he wants to “challenge the U.N. on what their vision of a green economy is.”
Harlem resident Kanene Holder said the movement is broader than any one issue. “This is not a beauty pageant,” she said. “We cannot homogenize this movement into one streamlined vision.”
“I understand the Occupy movement,” observer Brian Cummings of Iowa said. “I understand a lot of people’s frustration. I’m not sure how effective it is. … Nothing seems to be being accomplished.”
And that’s where Lerner comes in. In his conclusion, he embraced the confusion: “Emerging movements are complicated, exciting, messy, confusing and wonderful things to be a part of.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.





















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Comments (97)
angeleyes63
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:39amArrest this enemy of the state but not before a little stick action if you know what I mean. We all know this won’t happen when it is orchestrated from the Hell House (whitehouse).
Report Post »AvengerK
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 11:00amLet Lerner do his dirty work and the dirty work for people like Obama. Let OWS play it’s hand. We’ve seen what happens when the left is allowed to be itself..it implodes. History teaches us that when these “movements” reach a wall and cannot garner public support, they must become more controntational, violent and disruptive to warrant media attention. This is somewhat compounded by the fact that the media is rooting for OWS anyway. But it won‘t air OWS’s shennanigans because that’s bad publicity. Lerner is doing exactly what history has taught us…he‘s getting more disruptive and confrontational because OWS didnt’ do what he wanted it to do. It didn’t get popular support. It’s the same empty headed college freaks, marxists and anarchists you see throwing cinder blocks through bank windows at G20 summits (not surprisingly..Obama moved the G8 summit to Camp David because OWS would disrupt it and give him bad publicity if he had to comment on it). IT’S IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER..don‘t take OWS’s bait. They are salivating for confrontations and for the tea parties to join them. Keep OWS at arm‘s length and don’t be drawn into a confrontation with them. Let them implode on their own..and they will I have no doubt at all. Stay vigilant and keep them away. Remember Napoleon..”never interrupt your enemy while he’s making a mistake”.
Report Post »Unix
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 11:11amThe OWS is the the tip of the spear for … Communism! it is that simple people. Lerner, Van Jones, Fox Piven, Dorhn, Ayers, etc are all communists at heart, but we all know that already. We know their plans, their strategies and works now, thanks to Glenn Beck, Dr Savage and a few others…so it will be they will start a revolution in this country, much like the Arab spring, it is their incubator, to see how it will work out. I think we are in for much trouble this spring, summer and fall; all coming to a head around election time. It is time to chose sides, to wake up and stand up for a FREE America; something that has been under attack since the late 1800′s here! They have effectively moved the window an inch at a time, and America has been asleep at the wheel; NO MORE! We are awake now, and we have pickets formed, we will not be caught asleep at the switch as these mongrels think! If they start violence and revolt against the free market, a free America they will be very sorry. These people have power, emanating from the WH and down, but we have the numbers, and the might to stop them. Vote all Progressives (D and R) out of office this fall. March against the marchers, without any violence, to show them they are not the 99%…
Do you know what the 99% really means? It is the world 99% against America the 1%, as Soros said, America is the last impediment to a true free and open world. Open is the key, no more borders, no more American Constitution!
Report Post »smithclar3nc3
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 12:32pmIf lerner is orginizing illegal forfeit of tax payers funded government granded loans,or forfiet of tax payer backed FDIC protected private financial institutions that is innerstate corruption and a Federal offense. LOCK HIS A55 UP
Report Post »Therightsofbilly
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 3:48pmWhy do so many of these Owsholes hide their faces?
Are they not proud of their escapades?
Report Post »AvengerK
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 5:38pmRIGHTSOFBILLY…it’s to protect their good names and reputations.
Report Post »Mrtoohappy
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:35amOK student loan people don’t pay your loads, that’s OK. But don’t come crying when your credit score goes to 400. But wait you can go to Stephen Lerner and his friends I’m sure he will help. Noting is free people. Work for it!
Report Post »Shasta
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 2:47pmIf Lerner and OWS and Van Jones gets their way, there will be no credit or credit scores. Only the leftist elite will have access to anything that credit used to buy.
Report Post »crestar5020
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 5:04pm“The explosion in student debt is a direct outgrowth of the defunding of education in state after state.” Not true!!!!!!!!!!
The explosion is due to the the teachers’ unions forcing higher and higher salaries for the “socialist/Marxist professors left over from the 60′s ideology”. It is not the banks that raise tuition almost daily, it is the universities to “feed the pig” i.e. higher and insane salaries for teachers which create more revenue for the unions, which is just a “shady” money laundering scheme for the DNC anyway. Call a spade a spade here. Crestar5020
Report Post »freedoc
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 6:41pm@crestar
Bingo. Exactly.
Report Post »Fipper
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:35amSlackers and leeches -all of them.
Report Post »khutch1965
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:33amNo doubt this Steve person is a Soros troll cult member to destroy our system. I can’t wait until next year when these radicals lose all their power, they are such pests! All they want is money they don’t deserve or work for, they want to steal the American dream away from all Americans and are they are control FREAKS! Well most of the Americans won’t put up with it, we are Stubborn and fighters! We will keep our FREEDOM and vote Obama OUT of office this Nov. ! Then Obama can hang with radical buddies again and stop hiding who he really is.
A mirror shows a mans face, but who he really is , is shown by the friends he chooses.
Report Post »Obama is his Friends! MEDIA STOP HIDING OBAMA’S IDENTITY! Have some honor and dignity even if means you lose your millions of dollars you make a year being a LIAR!~
Square Dancer
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:31am“he admitted to wanting to bring down financial institutions and collapse the system. ”
Does that make him a domestic terrorist?
“Unlike corporate and other debt, student debt is excluded from bankruptcy relief, strangling students for life”
And just exactly how is the lending institution’s fault? They loan funds, establish a CONTRACT with the borrower, and expect a return of the funds in the form of a loan pay-off. If not, it a breach of contract…alegal problem.
“Lerner wants more, and that “more,” not surprisingly, involves greater collaboration with the unions”
Key word here is “wants”. A lot of people want things, but have the mindset to save for them. This person thinks that just because he WANTS, then it shall happen.
“I’m really grateful to be part of a generation that wants change, ’cause we should all want change,”
Really? ALL want change? What about those more insightful people who did not vote for Obama? They could see what the changes would be and that those changes would be in the wrong direction…which has turned out to be the case.
These people are all mis-guided semi-intellectuals who throw tantrums all the time. They demand and want expecting other hard-working individuals to care about their demands and wants. Why should we? If the protestors want to sleep outdoors, crap on police cars, live like hermits, clash with LEOs, fight rats, fleas, sanitation problems, smell bad, dirt…why should we care?
Report Post »khutch1965
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:23amI think our govt needs to arrest this guy and put him in Prison for being a Economic Terrorist (Marxist) Maybe later when Obama isn’t president they will get him.
Report Post »whereareyourbrains
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:18amThe community organizer’s leader (Obama) is in complete control. These people are everywhere.
Report Post »They are like fire ants. You put pesticide on the mound and it shows up in another area and bigger than the first one. We are our of DDT………………so how do we stop them? Getting rid of Obama is going to cause these fire ants to riots…………..community organizer was a joke. Now look who is laughing………………First thing is to make sure we have a FAIR election and we get rid of most of the Communistic style people in the White House. Both parties………………get rid of the same old same old. Deport all these people that hate America. Send them to Cuba……..thats how they want to live……free plane rides for all of them…………..no return air fare.
khutch1965
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:25amThe far left loons are roaches and rats! They infest, destroy, eat up our society! Thats why the rats live with in the streets where the “OWS CULT” Lives- they are attracting their own kind!
Report Post »hidden_lion
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 5:35pmyou mean fair like the maine OP caucus? The recorded several districts votes as zero to keep Ron Paul from winning. GOP and Dems are the two sides of the same snake. Both parties need to be crushed and recycled.
Report Post »Dismayed Veteran
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:05amThe Tree of Liberty is withering. If it is not refreshed by it’s natural manure, the Tree of Liberty will die.
We may be the last generation of Americans who experienced American exceptionalism and freedom.
Report Post »GO-FOR-LIBERTY
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 10:07amThey may have cracked the door open but most Americans have taken a peek and do not like what they have seen. If Bam Bam looses look for riots to go on for years~~~~maybe? Revolution and all the horrors that go with it.
Report Post »bob223
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:04amCrazy me, I racked up 35k in student loan debt getting a computer science degree. Got the degree, got a job and paid it off in 5 years.
Report Post »JQCitizen
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:46amKudos to you:)
This is the point of an education isn’t it? To pay off your loans and become a self-sufficient adult? My daughter will owe about 30K when she finishes her Masters in Child Psych this fall. She is graduating with a 4.0, worked a part-time job as a personal assistant all during her internship,(that job pays her $20.00/hr), and she will earn $45.00/hr if she gets a job offer from the place she’s interning( which is likely, because her mentor says she is the best intern she has ever mentored, better even than many therapists on staff). She plans to work both jobs part-time, and live off the one, and pay the loans off with the other. If you apply yourself, there is always a path to excellence and responsibility.
These BOOBS just don’t want to put forth the personal effort.
Report Post »Carol1955
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:03amWhy is it that those screaming the loudest, have gone to some of the most expensive schools in the country?
Report Post »bob223
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:05ambecause their parents told them they were entitled to those schools. Then they took womens studies and are shocked they cant get a job with that garbage degree.
Report Post »qpwillie
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:13amDuring the time 0bama claims his mother was on foodstamps, she was sending him to the most exclusive middle and high school in Hawaii.
Report Post »hersey10
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:01amLerner posts his intentions on Twitter every couple of weeks . @StephenLerner
Report Post »wakeus_com
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 8:39amSatan’s useful idiot.
Report Post »robinakilt
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 8:37amHow has this guy not been arrested yet? How is openly organizing, not talking about but organizing the collapse of the American economy not treason?
Report Post »qpwillie
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:04amThis is the new USA. Those people don’t get arrested for things like that anymore. It’s a totally different type of government from what the USA had up to 2008. People need to think back and remember; many of the things that we are seeing now would have resulted in prison sentences in 2007. In less than four short years, most people barely pay attention to these things now.
Report Post »Shasta
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 2:52pmHe is doing the work of Soros, Obama, Van Jones, most democrats and some republicans. Why would Holder arrest him for doing a good job for our dear leader.
Report Post »johnpaulkuchtajr
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 8:22amPlans revealed just like Obama!
Obama tells you what he wants to do to you, when he‘s going to do it and how he’ll make it happen.
That‘s what I find troubling about Obama’s wet dream, the National Civilian Security Force, first introduced to stunned conservative voters in a July 2008 Obama campaign speech.
Paraphrasing a truly great American, “We don‘t need no stinkin’ “NCSF!”
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 8:36amIndeed, and just like Van Jones declared as well: Top down, bottom up, inside out.
Take all of this in addition to the fact a few days ago that Napoletano announced the creation of FEMACorp, just like Obama’s AmeriCorp for the youth of the nation; and we are once more seeing the loose threads being bound tighter and tighter one by one.
Obama’s latest exec order as of 3/16/2012 allows for him to on a whim nationalize everything across the board for any kind of ‘national defensive emergency reasons.’
These people of Occupy movements are nothing more than economic terrorists. They should be treated as such in the courts.
Report Post »SoupSandwich
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 8:22amWhere is the problem? The toads don’t get their covetted piece of paper, and have bad credit like the other slackers in OWS. Fluke them and the Prius’ they road in on.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 8:38amAgreed, we are seeing the true leadership behind the Occupy bands rising from the shadows now. Watch for Van Jones to emerge, become a ‘peace maker’ at the last minute and aid Obama at the next election – stolen of course as that is the only way Obama can win.
Report Post »vox_populi
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 4:00pm“and have bad credit”
Won’t really matter once the People control the banks, will it?
Report Post »oldguy99
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 5:54pmFluke them? Where have I heard that name before? Comics use it, singers use it at the WhiteHouse and libs tell me to Fluke off . Bad time to be a “Sandra”.
Report Post »scrapadapolis
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 8:22amThere is more to these mindless idiots.Unions are making a fortune with police overtime,store owners are paid up front to feed the slugs,And if the store refuses they are bullied by the union thugs.Back door meetings with trumpka and obama.theres more to this than a free ride mentality.
Report Post »BehindBlueEyes
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 8:44amYes there is more to it. The OWS are a tool of the Obama/Soros agenda. They will provide the “bottom up” chaos, supply disruption and destruction this spring, summer and fall. This will give Obama his excuse to apply his nefarious “top down” tactic to complete his fundamental transformation of America.
Report Post »Then Soros can proceed with the NWO (code for world wide communism).
SpankDaMonkey
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 8:17am.
Report Post »Can we shoot them? We’ll call it After Birth Abortion. I used to think Spay & Nutter was the answer, but with mans impact on the environment. I think the Green Approach of thinning the heard will do more for the environment………….
flntlok1949
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 8:29pmIt will come down to that before it is over! Nothing else sane folks can do will make these idiots go away. This is why Republicans are pushing RINO Romney. They obviosly feel that any changes he makes to Obama’s agenda will be slight, and therefore, less prone to stir up trouble with the leftists. He can, perhaps, reach across the aisle and shake hands with them on many issues to avoid trouble. Why else would Republicans be so down on Ron Paul – who has plans for a really serious course correction in the direction of the Constitution! Under Paul, the Left would literally take up arms to prevent the loss of their bread and butter, government handout, guiding hand on our shoulders agencies!
Report Post »sbenard
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 8:12amWe had better pray for God to cleanse America. It’s going to get ugly very soon.
Did you read about Obama’s new Executive Order over the weekend?
http://www.examiner.com/finance-examiner-in-national/president-obama-signs-executive-order-allowing-for-control-over-all-us-resources?render=print#print
Tyranny is here!
Report Post »CLG 4
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 8:20amWE are watching the destruction of america, the socialist democrate party is behind this, this administration belives this is the HOPE and CHANGE that was fortold to us by the great one. Our defense is to VOTE VOTE VOTE.
Report Post »johnpaulkuchtajr
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 8:26amClinton and “W” signed similar Executive Orders. Read about it on WND.
But, I feel your pain. Any US President willing to sell over 2,000 high caliber weapons to Mexican drug cartels to escalate violence on the border to justify curtailing 2nd Amendment rights, can’t be given any slack!
If Obamma and Holder are to be tried for treson against the United States, I’ll gladly buy the rope.
Report Post »jcldwl
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 8:32amyes I did and I linked it and sent it to all in my email along with the video from the blaze of the former East German woman telling about the horrors of communism from her first hand experience. It is coming quickly. There won’t be an election. There will be martial law.
Report Post »NHwinter
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 8:42amWe are a Nation of 300 million. Can we not defeat this? Will we end up giving up our lands, farms, etc. for the government? Can we stand against this if it is implimented? Or will we end up like East Germany and be sent to work camps and made to live in cramped apartment buildings. How can this happen in America? We are too large, surely we can fight this transformation can’t we?
Report Post »Psychosis
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 8:00ambunch of lazy irresponsible babies
Report Post »Inlandmar2
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 7:59amOWS= Mindless dumb masses. Lerner is a one percenter.
Report Post »DetritusScreener
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 7:58amWhat is their point? What are they really trying to do? The only thing they seem to be accomplishing is bothering everyone else trying to make a living and minding their own business. They keep costing the tax payers a small fortune with their vandalism and for public servants having to chaperone them. The Occupy movement needs to be shamed out of existence.
Report Post »qpwillie
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 8:07am@DetritusScreener
“What is their point? What are they really trying to do?”
“Hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government with a flood of impossible demands thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.” – Richard Cloward – Frances Fox Piven
Report Post »whgt
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 7:58amI literally cannot stand people who take on debt then decide it isn’t theirs. The problem is these student loan companies offer so much money that students don’t NEED but they WANT so they take it. Schools know they can raise tuition because they know student loans are so readily available.
Report Post »piper60
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 7:57amWe need to put this guy on a non-electrified farm in North Dakota,, and make him try to get along with those evil electric company corporations. Wouldn’t last a week, I’m thinking.
Report Post »RJJinGadsden
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 7:56amDon’t hold the outrageously over priced schools responsible, but rather the companies that made it possible for the students to gain access. Yeah, that makes so much sense.
Report Post »drago
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 7:52amIsnt it time to round up all these commies, and have one big public hanging for treason?………..
Report Post »sbenard
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 8:19amAfter their trials, of course! So many Rosenbergs these days!
Report Post »vox_populi
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 3:58pmYou‘re going to be really disappointed when we all aren’t killed, huh?
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