"Declaration of Occupation": Occupy Wall Street movement's statement of purpose.

[bleever]

Via RawStory:

"The New York City General Assembly — the decision-making body for the “Occupy Wall Street” protest in lower Manhattan — approved a statement of purpose on Friday amid concerns that the movement lacked a clear message."

...

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.

They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.

They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.

They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.

They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.

They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.

They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.

They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.

They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.

They have sold our privacy as a commodity.

They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press. They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.

They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.

They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.

They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.

They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.

They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.

They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.

They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.

They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad. They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.

They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts. *

To the people of the world,

We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.

Join us and make your voices heard!

*These grievances are not all-inclusive.

(Mods: the main portion of this post is non-copyrighted material.)

ed: Full link to RawStory article is here -- http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/10/02/wall-street-protesters-approve-declaration-of-occupation/

[elleng]

1. Fine. Huge job to 'organize' such;

wonder how it came about.

[bleever]

2. From the article:

The NYC General Assembly describes itself as a “horizontal, autonomous, leaderless, modified-consensus-based system.” The body tries to achieve the most agreement possible and prioritizes under-represented groups. The general assembly keeps track of its meetings on its website.

The website mentioned is: http://nycga.cc/

[elleng]

3. Thanks

:thumbsup:

[truedelphi]

4. I suggest that any of us who are activists copy this and fax to CNN -

Today, their big talking point against the Wall Street protesters is to frame the movement with "What do these people want? Will they stay there forever?"

And the reply from the other news caster was "They will stay there till the cows come home - and none of them know what they want."

Let's stop this "spin" that this is just a bunch of rowdy bored people without any real purpose.

Let's all send them the Manifesto.

[bleever]

6. Also from the article:

The New York Times had described the protest as a “noble but fractured and airy movement of rightly frustrated young people” whose purpose was “virtually impossible to decipher.” Other media outlets repeated the criticism that the protest had no specific purpose or demands.

Fox news co-host Kimberly Guilfoyle bashed the protest, saying it was composed of “people with absolutely no purpose or focus in life.”

[Owlet]

10. I'm sure the protesters have a purpose in mind

but it doesn't seem clear from reading the manifesto, which is self-described as a list of grievances. I whole-hardheartedly agree with all of the complaints, but what I think is missing is a set of "therefores" spelling out some remedies. Without some defined goals the occupation leaves itself open to the criticisms quoted in the previous post. I don't mean to be flippant, but the whole thing sort of reminds me of the old camp song: "We're here because we're here because we're here because we're here...etc" Sung to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne.

[truedelphi]

22. But isn't it a travesty that the BIG Shock EVENTS of our times, that have scared us into war,

Scared our legislators in Bailouts and Other Huge Monetary commitments to the Upper One Percent, that the TV Talking Heads never question any of that.

That each time, when one of the SHOCK EVENTS lowers our nation from democracy into tyranny, from economically viable into This Greatest of Depressions, that like our Wars seems to be without any end -

No TV TALKING HEAD EVER asks what the motives are of
Those who continually bring us the SHOCK EVENTS?

Who are those people? What are those people's motives?

Why don't they get questioned as harshly as the young people occupying Wall Street?

Wall Street Occupier's sign:

The corrupt fear us

The honest support us us
The heroic join us

[Davis_X_Machina]

5. When the Continental Congress...

...finally issued the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Army was already a year old.

[bleever]

7. Note to first unrec, and all others to come:

You have more of a chance of flying by jumping off the roof and flapping your arms than you do of having the slightest effect on an awakened, mobilized citizenry who want to see America brought back in line with its true and original purpose and principles.

But thanks for playing.

[WheelWalker]

9. What you said. +1

[pintobean]

16. Unrecced for this comment

I think your mind reading abilities are flawed.

[bleever]

20. Can you be more specific?

I'm not sure which part you're referring to.

[Ghost Dog]

8. "no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power"

Superb work is being done by this Assembly.

The entire world must surely feel very grateful for this fine example of what we really expect from the best people of America.

:thumbsup:

[jschurchin]

11. K&R

I just wish I could vote it up a million times.

Very well written and right on point.

[JaneQPublic]

12. Purpose: a simple, short list

Found this circulating on Facebook:

In response to those pretending not to understand the purpose of Occupy Wall Street, here's a simple, and short list: 1. Place a fee on all Wall Street transactions and tax capital gains the same as income 2. End corporate personhood and overturn the flawed Citizens United decision 3. Get big money out of politics through substantive campaign finance reform 4. Jobs through investment in the public sector and infrastructure, not tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.

[bleever]

13. Those objectives follow neatly from the above declarations.

Thanks.

[JaneQPublic]

14. Yes, kind of the "sound bite" version. (nt)

[bleever]

15. Nicholas Kristof sees parallels between OWS and Tahrir Square, and suggests objectives:

¶Impose a financial transactions tax. This would be a modest tax on financial trades, modeled on the suggestions of James Tobin, an American economist who won a Nobel Prize. The aim is in part to dampen speculative trading that creates dangerous volatility. Europe is moving toward a financial transactions tax, but the Obama administration is resisting — a reflection of its deference to Wall Street.

¶Close the “carried interest” and “founders’ stock” loopholes, which may be the most unconscionable tax breaks in America. They allow our wealthiest citizens to pay very low tax rates by pretending that their labor compensation is a capital gain.

¶Protect big banks from themselves. This means moving ahead with Basel III capital requirements and adopting the Volcker Rule to limit banks’ ability to engage in risky and speculative investments. Another sensible proposal, embraced by President Obama and a number of international experts, is the bank tax. This could be based on an institution’s size and leverage, so that bankers could pay for their cleanups — the finance equivalent of a pollution tax.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/opinion/sunday/kristof-the-bankers-and-the-revolutionaries.html?_r=2&ref=opinion

[truedelphi]

21. In termsof the banking and financial relam, we need to re-impose

Glass Steagall, and also to impeach Tim Geithner for lying to Congress.

[ncguy]

17. I like their entusiasm

and support their general push, but . . .

If they want any real traction is a world with a short attention span, that needed to be focused into 2 or 3 salient points and a plan of action / demands that would alleviate the problems.

What you have is the limiting effect of a crowd-sourced manifesto. It saps the organization of the power held by a single issue group like the NRA, or the sound-bite worthness of an astro-turf group.

[Tsiyu]

18. A fine notification of the problems

Wall Street and Washington need to get it together.

It's only the beginning, as people all over the nation have their backs up against the wall with no other means of escape.

We rise or fall together....

[itsallhappening]

19. They have also started selling smaller Reese's peanut butter cups.

And not dropped the price.