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Declaration of the Occupation of New York City
This document was accepted by the NYC General Assembly on September 29, 2011, with slight adjustments in wording on October 1, 2011:
As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.
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.
- Posted in
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181 Comments so far
Show All"no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power."
Pretty much says it all. Perhaps it might have been wiser to stop there.
I agree. And, the next, and perhaps last, item on the simplified list might be related to this:
"They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility."
Call for petitioning the Congress/Court to change the status of corporations as having the same rights as individual citizens.
Why?
How many time have we kept it simple and failed?
Maybe starting with a list of Grievances in full is a better idea.
It's not meant to be a bumper sticker after all.
But it's not a list of grievances in full: "*These grievances are not all-inclusive." And it's doubtful at best that it could ever be.
Anyhow, I just thought that perhaps capturing the root issue in a simple declarative statement might have more solid impact and also avoid some diverse quibbles over various symptoms, nuances and priorities. Just an opinion. Nothing more.
Good point.
I should have said that I think that starting with a List of Grievances that can never be complete may be the best road to the "root issue" and a simple statement of same.
Didn't mean to jump on you. ;)
But FAR too many seem to be assuming that the "keep it simple" concept that has failed us for decades will suddenly work here, AND that these Occupiers are merely forgetting to follow this advice. In truth, they are rejecting it consciously.
Check out Willie Osterweil's article from yesterday for more on this:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/10/01-8
Ahhhhh! Something to give us some hope, a very difficult thing to find in a world of political felons. It is about time we stood our ground if not take some back, a lot of it! We have had a 'lost' decade of intransigent thieves attempting to take the world by storm. We need to stop this large, Italian suited army of people that think their shit doesn't stink. The stench has finally gotten to us and we will 'sanitize' the world now against the malevolent odor of planetary destruction and take back what is rightfully ours. Step back, you overpaid, pissy slimebuckets that refuse to let your brethren live. The rest of the world looks down on your refutable actions and now sees the trash inside those high priced suits. Soon you will be able to launder you own ill-gotten suits because the cleaner lady will soon spit in your face.
Take Wall Street out of the White House. Wall Street is the dictator that needs to be driven from the country.
Highly destructive predatory Wall Street pirates corrupt our government and are a clear and present danger to all Life on Earth. We are in a Planetary Emergency; a World Wide ecological, social and economic death spiral caused by amoral global oligarchies and their fossil fuels, Nukes, and other poisonous industries. To halt this death spiral we need everyone on Earth fully employed rebuilding a sustainable future for all.
“Occupy Wall Street” is an International Action. What the Corporate Media doesn’t want you to know; “Occupy Wall Street” has the support of Activist’s from every part of the Globe. Organized Labor, People of Faith, and Wealthy humanitarians must be part of the Occupation. We must build a new Democratic Socialist System; which will automatically provide a Balance between extreme Free Market Capitalism, and Authoritarian style Communism.
ONE BIG THING MISSING (maybe assumed). It is the bedrock.The right of the people to have free, fair and OPEN elections. Dump the machines!
Good point. Paperless e-voting has been conclusively shown to be easily hackable, and new voter registration laws are discriminatory on their face.
Both sides are right -- the scattergun approach is both good and bad, for all the reasons listed so far in the commentary section.
But if we are listing grievances, this list could literally go on for pages and pages.
I would like to see a focus on HOW OUR SYSTEM HAS BEEN OVERTAKEN BY CORPORATIST FORCES.
The core issues of democratic derailing are:
* Corporate personhood
* Corporate control of campaign financing
* Corporate control of the media
* Corporate control of the voting equipment that counts our ballots
These four areas, if we could focus a massive national uprising to change them, would give the People the power in America, and then we would be able to pass the laws we need to pass to address ALL THE OTHER GRIEVANCES.
I do believe there is a need for strategic focus.
Nowhere in this list do they even mention our stolen elections. Do we want democracy or not? If we want it, we have to understand why we don't have it.
We are in the streets because our government is bought by corporations via campaign financing. If any really radical leaders rise up, they are denied access to the media, and finally they can be rigged out at the voting booth via corporate-controlled computerized voting machines that rig election undetectably using their secret, propriety software.
Why wasn't Obama rigged out? Because he isn't radical, and never was. No one can rise to the top ranks in American politics without playing the corporatist game. Obama was always their man, could obviously be controlled.
What will this movement do, if it doesn't take control of the democratic system itself?
www.votescam.org
www.blackboxvoting.org
www.bradblog.org
www.countedascast.org
I welcome this declaration and its indictments.
Even though the list of grievances cites colonialism, I regret that the corporate dictatorship's imperialism (its phoney War on Terror being the latest manifestation of such) and its armament industry (the U.S. is the largest weapons seller in the world) are not properly identified and denounced by the declaration.
The crimes of the corporatocracy should of course be publicly cited, just as a prosecutor does in a court of law.
Agree 100 percent. If this movement doesn't include anti-imperialism as a central focus, it will be no better than the Israelis crying about "social justice" while ignoring the plight of Palestinians. We musn't forget who surfers the most by US capitalism and imperialism.
NIce list, but you've left out the primary mechanism by which all of this has been accomplished...election theft!
If you still believe that your vote counts, you have not been paying attention.
Here in Wisconsin, we have watched the theft of our April State Supreme Court race, the subsequent recount intentionally bungled by the authorities and several of the August Senate recall races stolen. All with veritable impunity.
Those in office, more often than not (and more and more often with each succeeding year, as electronic vote counting machines are introduced in more and more precincts), were not duly elected. This is why they do not represent us and do so with relative impunity. Currently, there is no cost to our "elected representatives" for their actions in defiance of the electorate, because they cannot really be voted out.
Secure the vote!!! We need PAPER BALLOTS AND HAND COUNTING with a secure chain of custody. Or else we might as well just pack up and go home.
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both."
- Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis (served on Court from 1916 to 1939)
This "little" declaration is the most hopeful thing I've seen in this country in 34 years. I think it will echo louder in history from this point forward than people now realize. That is because it focuses upon the true present source of most of the country's and world's ills: Run amok, unaccountable, increasingly exclusively self-serving corporate power. I hope and pray that this will prod people to explore the true history of corporations in this country, how they changed in the 1880s and moved onto the socially, politically and economically aberrant path towards the legal fiction of "corporate personhood" finally fully consolidated in the fascistic 2010 Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United vs. FEC.
We do need these people's occupation assemblies in every state and long-term encampment protests with large numbers participating and a gradual coalescing of concrete demands. But simultaneously with that we urgently need to develop our own peoples mass media to get out a pro-working-class, pro-environment, pro-environmentally sustainable economics, pro-organized labor message.
Low power FM radio station licenses for non-profit organizations to operate such stations in medium and large cities will be made available by the FCC next summer for the first time in 30 years. The time to start planning to get one of those licenses is now. People should be writing affluent liberals and progressives to ask their support for authentically progressive non-profit groups to help fund the continual operation of those stations along with local grass roots funding.
Cente-millionaire and billionaire ostensible liberals and progressives tend to only spend a little towards their politics during election cycles, while right-wing cente-millionaires and billionaires spend lavishly on their mass media and think-tanks and student organizations and candidate development and astro-turf groups and bogus political Parties YEAR ROUND, YEAR AFTER YEAR to the annual tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
It's time for the Warren Buffets, Ted Turners, George Soroses, etc., to start putting their money where their mouth is in a BIG, DEDICATED way or shut the hell up because shoring up the failed Democratic Party to keep their taxes low while "free trade" bleeds out the middle-class and deepens the assault on parts of the upper-middle-class won't cut it anymore. We need to build some serious opposition politics in this country and we need their help and THEIR sacrifice. We of the working-class have sacrificed enough and know we will be forced into more sacrifices in any event.
I propose that the people who support this movement, and who have the monetary means do to so, do just as you recommend — begin the process NOW of coordinating a powerful and truly bottom-up media infrastructure to counter the mainstream's steady flow of LIES.
But even before this, those with the means could do the following:
Buy good books, and lots of them, such as 'Web of Debt' by Ellen Brown, 'The Shock Doctrine' by Naomi Klein, 'Confessions of an Economic Hit Man' by John Perkins, Butler's 'War Is A Racket', anything by Comsky ('Manufacturing Consent'?), 'It's the Media Stupid' by Nichols & McChesney, '1984', 'Brave New World', etc etc.
A) Books are inexpensive. Buying them used brings money to people who are in need of it, B) These authors could use the boost in sales to propel their careers, helping them continue and expand their important work and C) This is a great way to encourage people to come to these rallies to get FREE BOOKS, more education about critical ideas and issues, and to become the informed activist base and listenership who will support left wing radio, and an ongoing movement.
Wealthy progressives: Buy more books now to distribute at gatherings and occupations across the nation!
More good ideas!
How is the "chant sheets" idea you had already going down within the Movement?
The only thing I would add to this is that perhaps efforts should be made to select publishers that are not Corporatist outfits -wherever possible.
Thanks for your positive feedback matti. I agree about the publishers and hope anyone taking up this idea would be very cautious and aware of where their money is going.
Btw, this is not something only the wealthy can help with. Anyone with good books to share, trade and give away should be bringing them to the occupations and handing them out. This must be a revolution not only of feelings, but knowledge, and a better way. Information —Good Information — will be key.
As for the chant 'cheat sheets', I hope people are passing them out as much as possible, but I haven't been able to implement the idea myself yet — I've been pretty occupied between yesterday's post up until now, but have been trying to get the message out though email, posting here etc. Hopefully others will pass the idea around!
Cheers matti... I may have misjudged you. Looking back through google at some old threads, I saw you get into the exact reverse-race-baiting nonsense with a 'readbetweenthe_lies' that I did. If that doj/nsa pos was trying to take you down, you must not be so bad... Anyway, thanks again for your words of encouragement!
No prob at all! ;)
My take on things can be grating even to my allies, I'll own that for sure.
And remember that the discussion here is also filtering out to the Occupations everywhere. Sometimes, a post on CD really is enough effort to get things rolling.
I think the key upshot of the book distribution concept is that it can facilitate the "teach-in" aspect of this thing without requiring the "teachers" and "taught" to be full-time Occupiers.
Example:
One person or a small group with a box of a hundred copies of Shock Doctrine to hand out, calling to all comers:
"Wanna know what this is all about? Wanna find out what is going on? Start with this book, FREE TO ALL! Remember to share!"
Position them or similar groupings at the likely exit places from a gathering, to give coherence to the break-up process at the end of a large meeting, encourage returnees (gifts make friends), and encourage extra-Occupation networking (through sharing).
Exactly!
That is a very good idea. Another way to go at this would be for people like Keith Olbermann, Stephen Colbert, John Stewart, Michael Moore and Rachel Maddow do on-air book recommendations like Oprah did with her book club (that drove serious sales), or announce they are posting recommended book lists or creating book club/discussion forums on their websites.
It's sickening seeing the right wing use this tactic regularly — buying up truckloads of books just to help them jump onto the best-sellers list, and to prop up the perception of the 'mainstream popularity' of their ideas.
But this tactic could backfire against the right if used in the opposite direction... if all those who you name, as well as every 'professional leftist' and all other progressives of means were to purchase a crate of books to be donated... how could it do anything but help? As matti pointed out, it would be the perfect way to explain to onlookers and media pundits what the movement stands for.. "Just read Shock Doctrine" or "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" or "Web of Debt".... perhaps an officially endorse booklist is called for?
But think of all the funds, and where they'd go... right to where we need them. The authors, and yes, the publishers who should be encouraged by the sales to pick up more left-wing exposés, and to the book recipients themselves who can use the books for inspiration, education, and even barter. This makes me start thinking that items like books, and protest art and accessories must act as types of 'Occupation currency' or barter fodder among the activists. Is an idea like this being batted around yet?
One of the tricks of major advertisers is this: Give the potential customer a gift, or even a perceived gift, and they feel a tinge of obligation to give back. Handing books out to curious passers-by and to fence-sitters is a way to win them over to the cause and into joining ranks with the activists...
I'd love to see the authors themselves donate a few thousand copies as well to the cause. They should consider it free publicity, and a way to make their books a more deeply ingrained piece of popular history.
Cheers and highest regards metal
Wish one of the points was about the willful destruction through neglect and confiscation of public infrastructure, public libraries, schools, museums, power systems, water systems, and so on. Privatization is one of the scourges of modern politics.
Oh yeah. 100% agree. Privatization is THEFT of the commons.
All resource exploitation, whether coal, air, water, petroleum, plants, animals, dirt, etc, etc, etc, are all derived from Earth, the COMMONS, not from human ingenuity, but simply humans harvesting and profiting from what is rightfully already everyone's common possession. I do not agree with Proudhon that all property is theft, but when companies are reaping billions of dollars, harvesting the commons, and privatizing their profits and wealth from it, IT IS MORALLY INDEFENSIBLE.
The Earth, its resources, and all who profit from them AUTOMATICALLY OWE THE REST OF US a large chunk of the largess.
Cheers drosera, and sorry for the all-caps. I'm getting fired up!
The government is just as much to blame as the corporations and the corporations created the government we have today from the Federal Reserve to the social services. In the 60's the New Left intellectuals referred to liberals who believe too much in the government as "corporate liberals" because they were just giving power to the corporations through naively supporting the government. The real left in the 30's and the New Left in the 60's considered FDR's programs to be a scam and government agencies and regulation to be a big corporate price-fixing monopolistic fascist scam. The politicians and the corporate leaders were all in it together. The big centralized government and the big centralized corporations are the same corrupt power. Real democracy is local.
Here's the White Panther's Declaration...
( I don't know if the revolution meets CD's comment guidelines, we'll see... or if not then the revolution will not be televised or posted in CD's comments!!! )
We are the mother country madmen in charge of our own lives and we are taking this freedom to the people of America, in streets, in the ballrooms and teen clubs, in their front rooms watching TV, in their bedrooms reading underground newspapers, or masturbating, or smoking secret dope, in their schools where we come and talk to them or make our music, in their weird gymnasiums — they love it! We represent the only contemporary lifestyle in America for its kids and it should be known that THESE KIDS ARE READY! They are ready to move but they don’t know how, and all we do is show them that they can get away with it. BE FREE, goddamnit, and fuck them old dudes, is what we tell them, and they can see that we mean it.
The only influences we have, the only thing that touches them, is that we are for real. We are FREE. We are a bunch of arrogant motherfuckers and we don’t give a damn for any cop or any phony-ass authority control-addict creeps who want to put us down. For the first time in America there is a generation of visionary maniac white motherfucker country dope fiend rock and roll freaks who are ready to get down and kick out the jams — ALL THE JAMS — break everything loose and free everybody from their very real and imaginary prisons — even the chumps and punks and honkies who are always fucking with us.
We demand total freedom for everybody! And we will not be stopped until we get it. We are bad. There’s only two kinds of people on the planet: those who make up the problem and those who make up the solution. WE ARE THE SOLUTION. We have no problems. Everything is free for everybody. Money sucks. Leaders suck. School sucks. The white honkie culture that has been handed to us on a silver platter is meaningless to us! We don’t want it! Our program of rock and roll, dope and fucking in the streets is a program of total freedom for everyone. We are totally committed to carrying out our program. We breathe revolution. We are LSD driven total maniacs of the universe. We will do anything we can to drive people crazy out of their heads and into their bodies.
1. Full endorsement and support of Black Panther Party’s 10-Point Program.
2. Total assault on the culture by any means necessary, including rock ’n’ roll, dope and fucking in the streets.
3. Free exchange of energy and materials — we demand the end of money!
4. Free food, clothes, housing, dope, music, bodies, medical care — everything free for everybody!
5. Free access to information media — free the technology from the greed creeps!
6. Free time and space for all humans — dissolve all unnatural boundaries.
7. Free all schools and all structures from corporate rule — turn the buildings over to the people at once!
8. Free all prisoners everywhere — they are our brothers.
9. Free all soldiers at once — no more conscripted armies.
10. Free the people from their “leaders” — leaders suck — all power to all the people! Freedom means free everyone!
Given the incredible difficulty of organizing and maintaining this young movement in the face of powerful forces to weaken it, this list of facts is a great start. And it appears to be a spontaneous and collaborative effort. Criticism at this point with respect to a "lack of focus" observed in some posts above is ridiculous.
The focus is clear. It's Wall Street, despite some critical, pedantic lamentations.
I am encouraged. POWER TO THE PEOPLE
The evidence of the urgent and long-overdue need to secure the vote is on display right here at this very site, commondreams.org:
"Was the 2004 Election Stolen?" by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., published Thursday, June 1, 2006 by Rolling Stone magazine: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0601-34.htm
Why isn't the issue of free and fair elections on this list?
Even if we had "free and fair elections" it still would not address most of the issues we face. Does anybody seriously think an Al Gore presidency would have brought us to a much different place than we are at today? If so, you are probably still a big believer in Obama as an agent of progressive change. Good luck with that.
So while I support a return to paper ballots, and hand counting, and having secure elections, we must recognize that the sheer quantity of corporate funding that goes into elections now makes it impossible for the citizens' interests to be heard over the special (corporate) interests. Until we have publicly funded elections, and a media that gives voice to the progressive values of the people, we will never have elections that can meaningfully be called free--regardless of whether ballots are hand counted, "secure" or not.
Al Gore offered few if any solutions, in my opinion. He was part of the problem.
Not a fan of Obama here.
Next question.
And I mean, really...if you're not intending to dismiss the election fraud issue and agree that it is the bedrock of the democracy we don't have, why would you then launch an ad hominem attack on my (unknown-to-you) politics?
That is just inappropriate in so many ways.
It is not 'the bedrock of the democracy we don't have'--for the reasons I stated, that is an oversimplification. And how did I make what you call an 'ad hominem attack'? Do you know what an ad hominem is?
Actually, my 'ad hominem' was conditional, and hence not an ad hominem. Viz.: if you believe a Gore presidency would have made a tremendous difference in where we are as a nation now, you are deluded, and probably voted for Obama believing his "hope and change" nonsense too.
Indeed, on the subject of stolen presidencies, I've heard no one allege that Obomber was not "legitimately" elected (i.e., all the ballots were counted). Yet his presidency is remarkably similar to the GW Bush presidency, who had to get to the White House via electoral fraud. So, as a 'bedrock' of democracy, accurate vote counting doesn't seem too reliable. We may call accurate vote counting a necessary precondition of democracy, but it is far from *the* main ingredient. Equally fundamental is getting the corporate monies out of elections.
If we are the 99% then who is the 1% ? The banks??? The banks are controlled as well and who is controlling the banks??? The 1% . The Oligarchs that's who..... they need to be on trial for the death of our rights as humans.... the heads of corruption need to be addressed as it has a trickle affect. After that everything would fall into place organically as it always does. No more Oligarchs !! This needs to be the number 1 demand !!! Oligarchs brought to trial.
On another note
In the declaration of occupation where it reads, "but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth" rubs me wrong. What does that mean exactly?
Our election process has to be a major priority - there is solid evidence that computers have stolen our elections for years. We need and demand an honest and transparent vote count with hand counted paper ballots! www.votescam.org
I don't care how unspecified the movement's demands are at this point in its development. But I still think the #1 priority MUST BE:
END CORPORATE PERSONHOOD!
Here is the sign I will be making and carrying at the closest opportunity:
PRIVATIZATION IS THEFT!
DEREGULATION IS CORRUPTION!
CORPORATE PERSONHOOD IS -A WEAPON- AGAINST WE THE PEOPLE!
A lot of good work on your part...Salusa. Long may your sign wave. Cheers!
Thank you clearbluesky. My hope is that someday all our skies may be clearer and bluer, and free of radioactive isotopes, exhaust fumes and factory plumes. We're all in this together!
Holy crap. These people are out there actually talking to each other and wrangling a mainfesto, whilst being pepper-sprayed, beaten, arrested and god only knows what else and ya'll are bellyaching because your pet peeve doesn't get on it? You do know that their names are now on a government/corporate list, and they are risking their very lives to get this out to us?
It seems like one fine document to me: it lists as many important issues as possible, while reflecting on the model that we have long loved of the founding of this country. A model that demands better of our institutions. But more than that, it is an example of drawing a line in the sand. Drawing the line and putting your life, home, future on it.
May the powers and gods bless them all, and protect them from the Hell of the rich man's wrath..
That sounds like not questioning the military because they are making such a sacrifice for our freedoms. Anyway, I posted a comment giving my input but I've been beaten up by the police several times in my life so does that give me a right to speak up? Or do I need to just keep my mouth shut and listen to the authority of the people who wrote this? Isn't this about fighting fascism not creating a new form of fascism?
The critics here are totally LAME. And, they apparently can't read, as the Declaration clearly states the list of grievances is NOT ALL-INCLUSIVE.
You complainers are lame. You should be ashamed.
I challenge you to go out and do it better.
If you had been alive in 1776, you would have been Tories, supporting the status quo of English Rule, because Jefferson, Madison, Adams didn't get it right.
Tories!
Grievances agreed upon.
Therefore, those who continue to promote breeding without concern for resources do hereby vow to get themselves spayed and neutered to show solidarity for all who suffer from above grievances.
The population of the planet increases at three additional people per second, and we live on a finite planet.
As long as people continue to breed more kids in a world where resources are running out, those who control the resources will continue to use violence and increase oppression to maintain control.
Since there is no way that a group of protestors is going to overcome the US military and prison system, this is one way of expressing personal power in the face of oppression.
Bringing more children into the world at this time is child abuse, knowing that they will have to suffer all of the above grievances.
Perhaps we could start a spay and neuter program for humanity and so, as Scrooge famously remarked, "decrease the surplus population." Only thing is that I'm not sure I'd trust any of the current global regimes to make the appropriate choices for that "solution" to the problem.
RV,
I think a spay and neuter program for humanity has already been started. It's called nuclear power.
If you don't believe me, just look at the population growth rates all over the planet and you will see an exact correlation between the presence of one or several nuclear power plants and reduced population growth. There are other factors like industrial toxins and female education levels but I believe nuclear power is number one.
I'm sure queerplanet is quite pleased with developments in Japan. :>(
Highly destructive predatory Wall Street pirates corrupt our government and are a clear and present danger to all Life on Earth. We are in a Planetary Emergency; a World Wide ecological, social and economic death spiral caused by amoral global oligarchies and their fossil fuels, Nukes, and other poisonous industries. To halt this death spiral we need everyone on Earth fully employed rebuilding a sustainable future for all.
A+ indeed!
One criticism: "They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press."
The American Press is completely complicit in the situation(s) we find ourselves. You can start with the insulting 'presidential debates' that they pass off as 'democratic', while they limit third and forth parties from participating. (Thanks to the corporate 'sponsors' like Anheuser-Busch). The American Press is just as guilty as the rest of these fascist a-holes.
I don't have the right to criticize this manifesto. While they spent the last 14 days living and meeting and marching and sleeping outdoors, in some unpleasant weather, I was comfortable in my home. While they ate whatever was available from donations, I had the pick of my fridge and pantry. And while they braved police batons (that's the modern and more effective version of the old nightstick) and pepper-spray and arrest and prosecution, I was safe at home. No one who wasn't there has the right to criticize.
Yes we need a Revolution including one for elections and voting. Voters have to Wake Up to the very real problem of Election Integrity in the US. We are told that in Democracy and a Democratic Republic that elections are an expression of our voices in matters of Peace, Economic, Social and Environmental Justice. However, our voices are being silenced by easily hacked and manipulated with malware electronic vote counting machines. (Please look at the sites listed below and take action for Hand Counted Paper Ballots if you truly would like to see real and lasting change.)
The support of and fight for peace, environmental, social and economic justice is not an either/or but a complex coming together of those that care. I think that those that care about and work for peace, social, economic and environmental justice would do well to also work for honest verifiable elections where our votes are actually counted as cast. All across the country and in DC, laws that are destructive to all life(except "corporate") are being passed by those selected to govern. There is a high probability and likelihood that many politicians are selected by the machines, not elected by the voters because there is too much documentation of problems with electronic vote counting machines. We must stop allowing our votes to be counted in secret by electronic voting machines that are manufactured, programmed and serviced by hard-right-wing supporting companies with an agenda. Yes, Occupy Together, come together and demand that your voices are also heard by demanding elections where votes are counted by hand. For more information, please, please check out:
http://bradblog.com/
http://www.handcountedpaperballots.org/
http://electiondefensealliance.org/
http://votescam.org/Votescam/Front_Page.html
http://electionintegrity.org/about/
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Peace
Repost from: OCCUPY WALL ST.: FAQ
I'm reposting here as the original thread got little traffic, and because I continue to see others here complaining that the NYC General Assembly's demands (or lack-of therein) aren't specific, succinct, or complete enough. I believe I have distilled many of the disparate concerns and presented them in consolidated, presentable form, below.
I do agree there must be time where movement building takes precedence over demand issuing. We do want this to be a bottom-up movement, where all voices matter — but there will need to be a consolidation of our message eventually if we are to gain any success at getting the masses' full attention, and getting real solutions into a place of political viability.
"Beware the agenda setters". Indeed. But we should beware just as much those who obfuscate or fragment legitimate organization around valid pursuits. I do not offer this list as a directive from on high, but at a starting point for discussion, more powerful messaging, and unity building. And if these 'demands' do become our final demands, would it be such a problem? This is a not a rhetorical question. Let me know if you think so!
So, from the FAQ article:
"What are the demands of the protesters?... Ugh—the zillion-dollar question."
MY *SUGGESTIONS*
1. REVOKE CORPORATE PERSONHOOD. -Move to amend- the constitution. Corporations *should not* be covered under the protections of the 14th Amendment! This revocation will automatically also undo the results of the 'Citizens United' case. We need corporate mega-money to remain separate from our political process.
2. INSTITUTE A NATIONALIZED INFRASTRUCTURE REINVESTMENT BANK This will be the first step in undermining the corrupt influence of the private for-profit international banking cartel on our monetary system and the global market, and MUST lead eventually to a true nationalization of the US financial system, (i.e. a FINAL dismantling of the Federal Reserve) and a crossover from debt based currency to a fully CREDIT BASED currency.
3. REPEAL OF THE GRAMM-LEACH-BLILEY ACT, and REINSTATEMENT OF THE GLASS-STEAGALL ACT. Basic and -essential- legislation to shut down the Wall Street gambling casino for good.
4. INSTITUTE A CAPITAL GAINS TAX, AND APPROPRIATE DIVIDEND, DERIVATIVE, AND TARIFF TAXES. CLOSE TAX LOOPHOLES AND OUTLAW OFFSHORE TAX HAVENS. Time for the rich to pay their FAIR share, and bring our jobs back home!
5. BREAK UP MEDIA CONSOLIDATION AND CORPORATE MONOPOLIES. We already have the Sherman Anti-Trust act. Time for it to be properly enforced! We must demand a congressional investigation and a committee which will determine which of the giant multinationals and trusts must be broken up into manageable and regulatable entities.
6. ELECTION REFORM: We must demand a level playing field for candidates that are working to represent and serve the public good. Politicians must be -forced to reveal their corporate sponsorships-, and public funding must be able to reach financially unprivileged candidates. IRV or Instant run-off balloting (also known as 'ranked choice voting') must be implemented, and ALL VOTES MUST HAVE A PAPER TRAIL, and be essentially separated from the rigged voting machines of Diebold, et al.
These would be MY demands. Any thoughts?
"The hours men and women worked, the wages they received, the conditions of their labor — these had passed beyond the control of the people, and were imposed by this new industrial dictatorship. The savings of the average family, the capital of the small-businessmen, the investments set aside for old age — other people's money — these were tools which the new economic royalty used to dig itself in. [...] Throughout the nation, opportunity was limited by monopoly. Individual initiative was crushed in the cogs of a great machine. The field open for free business was more and more restricted. Private enterprise, indeed, became too private. It became privileged enterprise, not free enterprise."
—FDR
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable.”
—JFK
Écrasez l'infâme! —Voltaire
My one comment would be that I think what you are getting at will be the way forward that the Occupiers find.
Meaning that some folks are looking for a bumper sticker to sum it all up, and other folks are looking for the list to expand to include all the specifics.
While I think that both will soon happen, I also think that the history of Revolutions demonstrates that what also happens is a process where the list of Grievances/demands gets both shorter and more elegant, while never quite getting down to the bumper sticker sound bite level.
Salusa Secundus,
Agreed. Specifically in regard to election reform, we need to get back to 30,000 per congressional district and the original ratio of senators to representatives of about one senator for every three reps of 1789. That would give us about 11,000 reps and 350 senators. Combine that with a real paper trail on voting and elimination of all restrictions beyond citizenship for voting and getting on the ballot and the people would once again run this country.
We could then make sure the rich never get in the driver's seat again.
For those who still believe that elections for Representatives matter and Corporations have not totally destroyed our republic, I have this to say: If, in 1789, we had the same level of "representation" that we have today, the first Congress wouldn not have had 65 Representatives. THE FIRST CONGRESS WOULD HAVE HAD THREE REPRESENTATIVES!
For those that fear the "tyranny of the masses", I say, if you can't trust a pluraity of a population to vote for their best interests, you can't trust anyone.
FDR tried to gain power over the power of supreme court justices by attempting to "pack" the court in the 1930s. He was stopped. It was deamed "unconstitutional". It wasn't anything of the kind. Sure, he wanted to push his agenda but the end result would have been a supreme court with more members. More members means less elite infuence and more responsiveness to the will of the people. We need to do the same thing in Congress. Are you comfortable with a vote that is worth about one twenty third of what it was worth in 1789?
Watered down democracy = NO democracy. THINK!