occupy oakland protesters have had enough with police brutality and called corporate corruption and tonight they are standing strong shutting down the city with a general strike from broken windows to graffiti on the walls and ninety nine percent is making sure their message is loud and clear we will take you to the place historically known for sticking it to the to the man and being on the forefront of the apex of american change. and they put their lives on the front lines to protect americans and are banding together once again this time for

a different cause taking down the man will take you to the picket lines to show you their weapons their strong voices. as the world lies in global on rest some surprising developments are coming out of france tonight just ahead of the annual g. twenty summit what will this mean for greece and in turn will the economy bring you the very latest information on can. and from one call for a systematic change to another is it time for the u.s. to drop an age old tradition we'll debate the relevance of the electoral college. is wednesday november second eight pm in washington d.c. i'm christine frees out here watching our team. well we are keeping our eyes on oakland california tonight where it is getting mighty intense protesters with the occupy oakland movement have organized

a general strike first of all i want to underscore the importance of this what happens today has the potential to be a dramatic escalation of the occupy wall street movements around the country now on their forty seventh day thousands right now are taking to the streets in oakland trying to shut down the city we're getting reports of protesters breaking windows and banks and of banks and other businesses and protesters are warning the banks covering their a.t.m. machines with police caution tape this signaling they've really had enough the biggest strike out of the city is taking place right now and it seems history may be in the making or they're essentially doing they're using a tactic that hasn't been used for sixty five years it's called a general strike this was last used after world war two in one thousand forty six by workers many of them world war two veterans who wanted more jobs and higher wages according to some historians listen to this this is interesting it was about working class that anger high inflation and outsized corporate profits sounds

familiar right in oakland in particular all it took was a few store managers getting the police involved to help them get goods delivered while retail clerks were striking hundreds of police with riot gear and tear gas showed up to help those trucks push past the picket lines in response to more than one hundred thousand workers walked off their jobs because all ended well when the city valve to stop sending nonunion trucks to cross picket lines. the port of oakland was the site of violent clashes between police and antiwar activists back in two thousand and three they were protesting shipping companies they believed were profiting from the war and protesters failed to clear the street police fired non-lethal projectiles into the crowd valley injuring at least a dozen protesters as well as nine longshoreman who were standing nearby but.

this was also in oakland fast forward a few more years to two thousand and ten this was the scene people here protesting the ruling in the case of an officer who shot an unarmed black man into oscar grant but officer you're one of the most really was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and not guilty of second degree murder or voluntary manslaughter this ruling caused riots and people complaining of a very broken system of justice that's a little history for you now let's get to the scene in oakland today earlier i spoke to our own lucy catherine our shoes on the ground there and she told me what was shaken down all earlier. well i'm standing in the renamed ransom law at the center of the occupy wall street occupy oakland movement here in california. right now and that is because. that's where they are mobilizing one of their one of the marches that. they're specially

holding several more rounds of their thank you. general strike. day and all of. the protests against sort of oh just in the edge of your. country in fact. just. shut down the courts by first really. i thought you. said that their power and their ability. to commerce here the last thing the poppy . crop the country punished. walking down. and saw that. shuttered a lot of. their floats. all in sort of. like call it.

right to say i lose you you went straight from occupy wall street in new york i know you spent weeks in zuccotti park and now you're in oakland to talk to me a little bit about the difference i feel like it's safe to say today all eyes are on oakland but a lot of his movement the heartbeat of this movement still very much in new york talk a little bit about the differences of what you've been seeing. whether we might rethink bulk of california whether but no i. think that really struck. to do did you even see the occupy wall street movement. part. the former a lot more careful of. rushing out. when challenged.

aren't sure to watch radical much more militant. but a lot of. products. they are not. a lot more militant. and the way to be approached. lucy's early we i think it's fair to say they. got a little bit of trouble with your with your audio there bill but let me just ask you i know that part of the reason you say people are in oakland people in oakland are a little more militant than we've seen i know certainly part of that stems from what we saw that incident last week where police were told to come in and clear protesters out of the where they had been staying that resulted in one of the protesters an iraq war veteran scott olsen being severely injured critically injured with a fractured skull i want to ted put up really quick

a picture that you took this is a photo a memorial for scott of you continues to recover in the hospital i believe this was made there in oakland where you are just wanted to quit the photo op for viewers to see but talk a little bit about how that incident sort of propelled this movement really much faster and farther in oakland disappear the last few days. have been the everyone here is very much aware of that went out years ago. sharing files or. adding on. that was our senior producer lucy calf and lucy has been giving up to the minute tweets complete with photos and quotes she is in the thick of things and if you want to know what's going on on the frontlines of oakland as things are changing their rapidly if you follow her on twitter she is aunt lucy cafe mom but now let's move on to the occupy

wall street movement in new york and a little change to it this you may remember was once a coin a protest filled with dirty hippies well a new group of people is joining up and mass military veterans are saying something interesting i want to show you a poster this is smedley darlington butler a major general in the u.s. marine corps he was born in eighty one and died in one nine hundred forty he was an outspoken critic of the u.s. military and wrote quote i spent thirty three years in the marines working as a high class muscle man for big business wall street and the bankers in short i was a racketeer for capitalism on this poster i also the quote wall street hasn't changed you see that on the bottom at the time of his death he was the most decorated marine in u.s. history complaining about some of the very things and that so many people are angry and frustrated about today seventy years later so let's take a look at how that plight is manifesting itself on occupy wall street r.t.

correspondent on a southeast churkin shows us what changed today. a marine outraged with police treatment of occupy wall street protesters yes like that yet again. it. has inspired a movement america's war veterans have come out on to the streets of new york to publicly support the occupy wall street movement let's find out what has led them out here to our constitutional rights are being curtailed and we'll search for them . another catalyst for anger former iraqi war veteran scott olsen unconscious after being injured in occupy oakland protest last week but you know if you. hit with a moment of silence the veterans show this brutality just move fly with them what do you think about veterans joining occupy wall street do you think it's a strong message it's got also that one hundred. veterans of all ages who have served their country at war are now fighting for change at home

veterans definitely do represent many of the struggles that all americans are going through we have extremely high unemployment rates low these veterans also see themselves as the ninety nine percent the very wealthy are not paying their fair share and so forth. i believe that and i think most people do here to support that traditionally these veterans have been standing up against america's wars but to date the past the stock exchange calling for a complete revamp of america's financial system what makes you angry about the system right now i feel like corporations and banks and wall street currently have a disproportionately large voice in our government as compared to the citizens i feel like the citizens of america deserve a government that would listen to them how to be transparent and right now we don't have that. iraq veterans against the were marching through the streets of new york

city's gets a car to park the biggest occupy wall street encampment in the u.s. . we're going or into greeted acts the obvious i want to know your jam with here the people here believe that veterans joining the crowd will get more credibility to the management. back there they're ready now to really open their voice to let it be heard. because it credible and i think it's really going to help with the movement in a huge way and as a world trade center first responder i'm right up there with them as a matter of fact as like them i myself have got literally spit on by the system even though it's not active in the protests are supportive he's going to be a veteran of much though and i'm not surprised that they would do that since. they are very conscious of what's happening in this country right now so i didn't know they were joining them so very happy to hear that tens of thousands of soldiers are supposed to return from iraq which are the people here say this will only amplify the number of countries that are in the united states to say they have

a car but. it's the first time that americans can buy the two thousand and eight meltdown have reacted and you can just feel that small with the still maybe it's large enough it's supported by an enormous percentage of americans to some degree or another i think it's a real change of mood in america constitution no a change of mood increasingly difficult to ignore those who fought for the us abroad now forced to fight for the us at home especially churkin asked archie new york. well some are calling it the declaration of an economic war major news tonight out of cannes france where moments ago german chancellor angela merkel and french president nicolas sarkozy announced that greece will no longer receive any more european bailout aid until it has put an end to uncertainty and agrees to meet its commitments to the euro zone this comes after an emergency meeting held today

called in response to the greek greek prime minister george popping derails announcement on monday of a referendum on a bailout deal the news tonight is the strongest of knowledge made yet that greece pulling out of the euro zone is a possible outcome of the g twenty summit which kicks off in just a few hours in the french city of can is set to begin with what's become something of a tradition there massive protests suppressed by police the rage behind the banners remains the same this year economic hardship and seeming disconnected leaders and those artes daniel bushell reports there is a growing sense that corporate interests are taking precedence over the public's wellbeing. each when she was wrong says it wants this summit on its picturesque mediterranean coast to reflect the stephen merging nations in the world but this financial crisis deepens in both the u.s. and european union economy sports self interest behind claim pleasure to involve more right economies is really to try to convince those right economies to put

money on the table. and sustainable currency union of europe in the first place developing countries which the west quick to back civil unrest among their population they no see those same western countries coming don't hold on public movements in the room backyard and she was like to describe double standards the primary powers within the g twenty united states germany britain france their real economic and military powers they want to show a world order and a system of states that still has the ability when in fact there is instability this summit is an attempt to put out i shine a face on what is really a failed system there's a scene of chaos not just from the side of protesters but also from the police because there's helicopters overhead at the moment you can hear police sirens also the police really have mounted this military style operation to shut down and stop any of the protesters going where they don't want them to go one former diplomat

says western leaders can't continue to just block criticism this whole idea that they can simply ignore popular protests against what's happening could come back to bite the leaders of the g seven energy twenty summit this protest different from summits of the post was bill james nixey of the latest western bank to get bail dealt with public money growing numbers here worry there's something fundamentally wrong with the current set up we have basically a financial system where corporations and financial institutions are able to write themselves favorable legislation when. pro quo will be a corporate lawyers police roadblocks all demonstrators getting from me to the told of the g. twenty takes place but it's becoming a holder to start world leaders hearing the voices of protest the new cultural altie nice france again a look there at the unrest going on and anger at some of the world leaders

gathering at the g twenty and as we mentioned just a little while ago the next round of rescue loads will not be paid to greece and till after greeks vote on whether to accept the terms of the bailout package but here's something to remember that vote scheduled as of now in early december and greece says that it will run out of money sometime this month so people tonight are very concerned one of those people is cost us twenty one tarkus he is an associate professor of sociology at the city university of new york he is also the other of this book remaking scarcity from the capitals and efficiency to economic democracy we spoke earlier and i asked him what are some of the key things for people to keep their eyes on at the g. twenty in terms of what will happen. well i think part of what would have been he's there will be a lot of pressure on the greek brain prime minister perhaps to reconsider his decision he has been invited he greece is not part of the g twenty but he was

invited because well the crisis the reason he's calling there for around them is because there is growing resistance increase i guess these measures that are taking a great call on ordinary creaks with addressing the crisis in fact between making the crisis deeper and deeper making it harder for greece to pay its saw the speciousness in greece by the way is part of a growing movement of resistance around the world in the united states and of course in cannes itself thirty's there were demonstrations big demonstrations against trying to make the point that when you compare a place people over the profits of the of the of the fuel and the interests of the financial sector yeah i think i found out ten thousand people protesting there let me ask you something from paul and you tell me whatever you think probably an

opinion question is the european union stealthing if it can't. well. he perhaps the larger one of the largest market in the world they believe it's a larger market doesn't know than the united states by the way it's being monitored stuff. it's basically. undermining the socialist model. or the european social model that causing the boss being based on what first aids and. the project is being used to undermine basic. rights and we see the pain be so in these crises were the attempt to deal with this crisis through a state measures is proving counterproductive and he's deepening the crisis and spreading the crisis around the continent because as you know with the occupy wall street movement taking place that we've been talking

a lot about the inequality gap here in the united states that growing space between the rich and poor in this country this country of course not alone in that regard i want to show you something that we found i want to put up a map of the rest of greece this is a modest city the capital of the agricultural i grew cultural reason region of the sollie i'm two hundred fifty thousand people live here and guess what there are more porsche cayenne here per capita than in london or new york in fact there are more ports high and registered in greece and then there are tax payers declaring an income of fifty thousand euros or more that is according to a recent economic study they are so here's a question how does greece convince a company a country rather like germany for example where people take paying taxes very seriously how do they convince germany to continue to bail out greece when so many people are still living so large. well basically

inequality in greece is very high it's probably higher than in the united states with even the inequality. itself so the people who have these luxury cars are not the ordinary critics these are people who haven't been paying taxes their governments have not been willing pool. them or have not been able to but you see the. taking place right now they're not rescuing i mean saying that . greece is is a little very good i mean. measures are making how the life of ordinary greeks in pool. and we have the same kind of and whether people who have a lot of income and wealth are not contributing and this is why most of the recent taxes and spending crowds affect ordinary greeks have not benefited

from such a konami growth as has existed in the past that most people of people are angry and that was because the prime targets associate professor of sociology at the university of new york he also wrote the book remaking scarcity from capitalizations economic democracy. well believe it or not we are just about one year away from the presidential election and there is a growing movement in this country to have the system in which people are elected change the gallup poll from a few weeks ago that shows sixty two percent of people now support a constitutional amendment that would make the presidential race contingent simply on who won the popular vote with only thirty five percent in favor of keeping the current system with the electoral college i found this to be pretty interesting so we sent our adriano set on to talk to people i go to people on the streets of washington to hear what they think. as the twenty twelve campaign season continues

full steam ahead it seems sixty two percent of americans are in favor of doing away with one alexion staple the electoral college so are the trustee mike hit the streets of d.c. to ask what you think it is a surprise me i think a lot of people also don't know what the electoral college is i think that's which is a bit of a problem that is sort of i think there needs to be change that the popular vote needs to be i think more important than the electoral college i think it should go by the populace well the electoral college causes problems and i'm a believer in the popular vote so that's all it itself makes no sense because electors themselves are. more or less useless the electoral college was you know an idea from the eighteenth century very different demographics communication transportation everything has changed so i think it's now dated model for the first time since the two thousand election republicans were in favor of also botching man but is that city. well i agree with them because i am

a republican so there we go it's great there's bipartisan support for that i'm not sure what their solution if they want to get a popular vote which i don't think is the way to go if this is jim is it you know it's not broken so why. isn't it worked was the popular vote didn't seem to prevail two thousand is an early indication of the trouble that's good that might come in the future as time goes on there will be several more cases in which the majority of people will like a president that won't take office and i think that's problematic and if you know we're a country that brags about being the world's greatest democracy and i don't think that's accurate at all there's no reason to have the electoral college vote let the people decide i think we have to find out. surgically change the things that are not working rather than just. starting all over we really need to look at what is the point what is it serving us is it serving the country is it for the betterment of our electoral process or not well there you have it these americans can agree on

one thing when it comes to getting their government elected they want to make sure their voices are heard reporting from washington and i genocidal i think so should the united states of america become an electoral college dropout earlier i posed that question to a conservative political commentator and strategist heather ceremony and executive director for fair vote rob richie here's what i thought. the reality is a thousand different bills that would have done something like that have been considered by congress and it hasn't made any any. and i've read thank you i'm a little bit worried so you know and i think there needs be a lot of education on the history of electoral college and why the founding fathers actually establish it in the first place when you compare direct vote versus like total college vote lobby what they were that sounds antiquated what you when you get right down to the nitty gritty details and they're complicated while we have natural collets i think a lot would say it's worth preserving and certainly

a lot of i think it's a good point a lot of people i don't quite understand it it's that one lesson in history class that a lot of people are confused about rob what about you do you think that the electoral college is necessary or should there be changes but those two answers to the question what is the policy of a national popular vote versus having this current state by state system where whoever wins the states gets all of the states a look rowboats which we assume means the electoral college but in fact is just based on current state laws governing the right for cars. the voters and i should say is that sixty two percent includes majorities of both major parties this is something that really is a bipartisan issue in congress when it did come up as a special moment back in the sixty's it got eighty one percent of the house to vote for it and gerald ford george herbert walker bush and a lot of. republicans voted for it a lot of democrats did too today the problem with the current system and we're seeing it in each election is getting more and more severe is that with the sort of

the partisan breakdown only a few states are seen as competitive where where. i could be the candidates might change to win some state so all these other states are going to say state friendly red and blue and they because of this winner take all rule or there's no need to campaign in basically forty or fifty states i want to talk about that especially as we are if you can believe that just about one year away from the twenty twelve presidential election a lot of other elections going on to. of course but there is a common perception and that is that many of the early voting states iowa new hampshire. are every election cycle showered with tons of money because of where they fall in primary voting and like you said so many the majority of other states are cutting their issues as well are kind of ignored that that is one perception out there what do you think about that perception i mean is that accurate i actually don't think it's accurate i think the whole reason that we had electoral college and whether you keep it is to have this balance of power to have this

federalist doctrine preserved we don't want you know california and texas and these other big states to have more of a prayer because they they definitely would if we have a whole lot about you know like montana and wyoming and other small states i mean it seems like iowa and their issues are certainly given so much more so i clarify what you know so we have the primary process the nomination process which we're all following right now on the republican side and that's where whichever state gets to go first like i would my answer gets a lot more attention with the general election we're talking about a different dynamic where it's not a matter of going first because we all vote in every state at the same time it's whether your state is competitive and that's where almost every small state is not competitive right so wyoming idaho delaware action twelve of thirteen smaller states no presidential attention whatsoever in the popular vote elections and we're quite familiar with them because we use them for everything we know that it's a free market of voters and any candidate that ignores potential consumers of that

you know voters is making a mistake right so you go out and you get. whatever you can and that's why the reform proposal of the day it's really moving is actually a state based plan and it's one that would establish a popular vote for president through action in the states and that was executive director for fair vote rob richie and conservative political commentator and strategist how they're scared now. and it looks like we are out of time but for more on the stories we covered good r.t. dot com slash usa or check out our you tube pave you tube dot com slash r.t. america you should also follow me on twitter at frowsy i'm christine for zero hope you have a great night. give us some closure see a story at the scene so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else in here see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't.