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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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Beautiful!
End corruption and restore democracy.
They fail to pay reparations to all who have been victimized in the USA and in foreign lands... such as the Native Americans, the decendants of slavery, those in countries we have bombed and occupy.
You do know that is never going to happen. Right?
John... "We do not protest to change them. We protest so that they won't change us." The failure to recognize the global harm caused by the USA would change who WE are.
I am confident that you never forget the harm the US has caused. Asking for reparations though is a waste of your breath.
Did you know that Obama (didn't pay reparations) did pay native tribes that have sued the United States for monies held by the interior department (12 billion dollars) for leases to the government of their sovereign lands. For the last to many years to count the interior department had lost the documentation and didn't know where the money was and well to make a long story short, Obama released 4 billion dollars. I think it must be snowing in hell...
Hmmm... I don't see this on CNN. I guess it is up to us to tell everyone we know, otherwise, this is just another public secret.
Indeed. I have emailed it to about 150-200 people and just Shared it to my Facebook wall. Let's spread it far and wide.
The biggest problem with this manifesto is the scatter-gun approach of blame. Who among the nation's richest 20% is not targeted by some of these missiles? We must have a far tighter focus on core issues that the vast majority agree with, and that will make a real difference in our future. Without a narrower focus, the media will turn against us. You all know the drill. The TV will only show us the most wild-eyed hippie-types saying things that the average American does not want to hear. Too much of that will be the death knell. Fox TV is already going down that ol' road. If the other networks do the same then expect the hearse.
Where you see a scatter-gun, I see a legitimate litany that is all too often scattered on different pages - forgotten. This will undoubtedly be honed, refined - but the idea of "narrowing" is one to approach with tremendous circumspection. This stage is valuable to recognize as a process.We're conditioned to expect "goal" rather than "process".
As far as the document does not speak everyone's grievance, it lacks relevance. Those who place their issues ahead of the others' do not understand where the movement draws its strength from.
Beware the agenda-makers.
Addressing Greg R is a waste of life. He loves the status quo, if a rich person went to jail for their crimes he wouldn't be able to sleep because of the tears. Don't waste your time with his DNC-loving behind...
I agree with both you and Greg LOL. As I posted to you on another article today, it is the Federal Reserve - Banking Cartel monetary system that is at the root of our enslavement. There was (at least) one protester holding a sign that read, "Debt is Slavery" and that is a meme of the "End the Fed" movement that includes The Zeitgeist Movement, and I have a feeling that some of the protesters are part of TZM.
___________________________________________________
Yes, all these problems are inter-related. On the other hand, Henry Ford once said that if the people truly understood how the monetary system works, there would be a revolution. For a history of the war waged against American democracy by the banksters AND a solution that is radically different from that of the libertarians and the Ron Paulistas, see the documentary "The Secret of Oz" along with the Zeitgeist films, all available for free on youtube.
Yea, I was hoping they would keep it simple. This is not encouraging at all. I think good political speech should follow something akin to Occam's Razor, in that it's preferable to use the simplest form of expression that captures the essence of the complaints and the demands and that focuses on the most extreme abuses that must be addressed (i.e., bankers and their control of the political process).
I just saw that Donna Smith wrote about this topic in another piece on today's CD.
The Declaration of Independence includes a similar litany of grievances against the British Empire, which obviously has not diminished its relevance. It's necessary to list these grievances in fact, if it is to have relevance. My only complaint would be that the antiwar component should be stronger. Otherwise, well done.
The Declaration of Independence was a document in support of a war by home-grown plutocrats against distant plutocrats, where the former could bully the little people into joining their cause. This document must attract little people of all stripes to the cause, and the long list of grievances will be found problematic by many and will allow the current plutocrats the opportunity to create divisions or to create confusion by co-opting parts of the agenda.
That is just plain Revisionism through an ideological lens. :(
The Declaration of Independence was very popular amongst the "little people" of the contemporary demos. Your issue (and Zinn's- where I'd bet ten bucks you are getting this from) is with the size and scope of that demos, not with the Declaration's popularity across lines within it.
The Occupiers are consciously resisting the idea of simple, short lists of demands.
See Willie Osterweil's article from yesterday:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/10/01-8
The Grievances need to be listed in full, the fact that there are so many more in this Declaration than in the 1776 one is just demonstration of how bad things are and how the demos has expanded.
Other, more elegant statements will surely follow.
Calling the founding fathers plutocrats in comparison to today's true plutocrats is a non-starter in my book.
George Washington was the richest man in the nation at the time, and he fought and slogged with the rest of his troops in grueling conditions during the Revolution, and was no elitist. Ben Franklin was not a poor man, and Jefferson was certainly of the upper class, but likewise these men were staunch revolutionaries risking all for the goodwill of their fellows, who they considered any colonist who wanted to throw off the yoke of British imperialism.
Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, FDR, JFK... these men all were 'rich', and they were also among the plutocrats, royalists and oligarchs truest enemies.
Exactly.
Well, maybe Franklin wasn't 'risking it all' for the revolution, unless we consider risking his moral reputation among the libertines of France. He is still a great hero of mine, but he was more of a superstar in his time than a warrior fighting in the trenches. But great thinkers, diplomats and innovators don't need to be fighting in the trenches to be revolutionaries, and Franklin couldn't be further from the definition of 'plutocrat'.
Comfortable, yes, plutocrat, no.
Just thought I'd put that in there for the record, before someone else here beats me to it...
In my mind Franklin sacrificed more for the revolution than Washington, Jefferson or Adams in that his commitment to the revolution cost him his relationship with his beloved son who was a royalist governor of NJ. After the declaration, Franklin never spoke to his son again. I'm ambivalent about the founders, but don't sell Franklin short on his commitment.
"Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, FDR, JFK... these men all were 'rich', and they were also among the plutocrats, royalists and oligarchs truest enemies."
Salusa; We now have intellectual moral midgets running the show for the oligarchs.
Actually it was the wealthy elite who created the Revolution and fought in the trenches. Washington was a great and brave leader who fought with his men, as did many others.
These visionaries along with Adams and Jefferson created the atmosphere and reality that the Revolution allowed them in framing the Constitution.
We should learn from them that nothing can change unless people are willing to stick their necks out and revolt. This current revolt about Wall Street has just begun to develop legs and this is how movements evolve. Leadership will emerge and we may see the people begin to effect real change no matter how difficult this is.
Seeing protest against the dreadful excesses and abuse of our system by the corporations and Wall Street is only a beginning. March On!!!!!!!
I'll stick with Zinn with regard to interpreting the US revolution, but that is really not on topic. The point is to focus on what works, what has worked, in political systems and with political propaganda, not what we wish would work in that best of all possible worlds.
The far right sophists have had amazing success, particularly Frank Lutz but others as well, by using simple descriptions of the issues that are designed to appeal to large numbers of people while not offending or upsetting the majority. Lutz uses his skills for deception and manipulation and deserves condemnation for that, but we should not ignore that the tactics are effective. Corporate power is the center of the problem, particularly in the financial sector, and if the protesters would focus on that they could possibly gain the allies they need to gain enough momentum to make a real difference. The other demands could be added once the momentum was there.
re: "I'll stick with Zinn with regard to interpreting the US revolution, but that is really not on topic."
Fair enough, and well said. Indeed, the topic at hand is much more important than distracting squabbles over nuances of historical interpretation.
re: "by using simple descriptions of the issues...Lutz uses his skills for deception and manipulation and deserves condemnation for that, but we should not ignore that the tactics are effective."?
Wholly agree with you — and a point I have been in full support of — effective language, and effective framing which 'undoes' the propaganda of the other side. I am specifically NOT in support of more propaganda which replaces current propaganda, but am in support of counter-propaganda, or messaging which *undoes* previous indoctrination. The opposite of propaganda is anything which encourages 'bottom-up' empowerment, and this requires potent messaging and creative use of language just as much if not more than the falsehoods, weasel words and distortions of the very well paid right-wing thinktanks.
We must be left-wing thinkA-10s, dropping bombs of truth across across the web and datasphere... focused and precision guided missiles of People Power!
Cheers kivals, and Long Live the Occupation of the USA!
Agreed, and reading your response, I just noticed that I misspelled "Luntz" as "Lutz." I hate it when I see mistakes just when it is too late to change them.
Lutz simply knows about word frames, memes, and propoganda that is effective. The GOP has mastered this. So did Hitler. The Democrats are poor at articulating and owning the debate through symbolic use of linguistics and word frames. Yes there is oversimplification but if you make it complex you lose the debate.
Lutz is just a political advertising operative. Every side has them, but the GOP knows to keep it super simplistic and use memes that can be repeated for effect. After that these frames become reality. So what else is new?
I think it's Fux who should expect the hearse. I am an OLD wild eyed hippie. My eyes are slightly wilder lately as I am pleased by the up tick of rationally minded folks. The focus, as you call it, is not narrow, can't be, those 'core issues' are multiple and very large in proportion. In case you haven't noticed the media turned against us 25 years ago when the Fairness Act was trashed. I have no fear of the media, just because 'the revolution will not be televised', doesn't mean a friggin' thing. We don't need them anymore. Their minions are run by slimelords that don't have the decency to off themselves. Screw the ReTHUGliCONS that watch Fux News, it's truly news for dumb fux. We shall overcome! Mark my words. 'One day you'll rise from your habitual feast, and find yourself staring down the throat of the Beast, they call the revolution'. Those words are from a Bruce Cockburn song.
Padded with power here they come
International loan sharks backed by the guns
Of market hungry military profiteers
Whose word is a swamp and whose brow is smeared
With the blood of the poor
Who rob life of its quality
Who render rage a necessity
By turning countries into labour camps
Modern slavers in drag as champions of freedom
Sinister cynical instrument
Who makes the gun into a sacrament --
The only response to the deification
Of tyranny by so-called "developed" nations'
Idolatry of ideology
North South East West
Kill the best and buy the rest
It's just spend a buck to make a buck
You don't really give a flying fuck
About the people in misery
IMF dirty MF
Takes away everything it can get
Always making certain that there's one thing left
Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt
See the paid-off local bottom feeders
Passing themselves off as leaders
Kiss the ladies shake hands with the fellows
Open for business like a cheap bordello
And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy
See the loaded eyes of the children too
Trying to make the best of it the way kids do
One day you're going to rise from your habitual feast
To find yourself staring down the throat of the beast
They call the revolution
IMF dirty MF
Takes away everything it can get
Always making certain that there's one thing left
Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt
I respectfully disagree with Greg. The media are going to turn against us, mock us, and create wedge divisions, no matter how focused our manifestos. The corporate media are at the core of our society's political corruption.
NBC, for instance, is owned by GE, which is involved in military aerospace and derives more than half its profits from financial "services" (i.e., usurious consumer credit scams). Jeffrey Immelt, the chairman of GE, is one of Obama's chief economic advisers. There's no limited, focused critique of corporate power or the political influence of the finance industry that won't directly threaten GE's power and profitability; therefore, NBC is certain to ignore or ridicule any meaningful critique. Similar considerations apply in the case of all the other mainstream media outlets.
One of the "off-message" provisions that has already been singled out by the media reads: "They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices." Greg is correct that this message will initially alienate or confuse much of the public. Is that a reason to ignore the truth behind the statement? The complete commodification of other species through factory farming is arguably, in terms of sheer misery caused, the worst offense on the list. Most of us aren't ready to hear that message, any more than most citizens during the American Revolution were ready to hear thorough, principled denunciations of slavery. But the issue needs to be raised. Ignoring one dominant type of oppression reinforces a set of mental habits that make it easy to ignore other dominant types of oppression.
If we're only willing to speak comfortable, acceptable truths, we're not going to get anywhere. Every time we censor ourselves for fear of being invalidated as "fringe," we reinforce the dominant paradigm of moral cowardice and cognitive dissonance.
Congrats to the NYC General Assembly. Tom Paine would be proud.
Very well said, Dreamer55. The issue of unnatural confinement of 'factory farmed' animals such as cows, chickens and pigs is a societal taboo. The corporate media facilitates people in remaining in denial of where the meat on their plates comes from, or the immense suffering and environmental degradation it causes. I don't harp on people to be vegetarian, in fact I don't push the issue at all. But you better believe the issue is a grievance when I look at a media that systematically ignores the issue.
Every day in my encounters, exchanges and interactions with animals, I am brought into keen awareness that these (especially birds and mammals) are complete beings, with emotional lives and needs, with a point of view, a story they could tell if we could listen. These are beings trapped by their lack of semantics and words, but they speak regardless, if we are able to listen. What they are saying is they want a full life, they do not want to be penned in, constantly corralled and confined. They want access to the biosphere, their home, and in the case of most, they want the company of their own species, companionship, meaningful and caring relationships (many birds naturally mate for life and will not replace their mates if lost) and in the case of domesticated animals, they need love in order to thrive.
For certain, the comparison to the tolerance for slavery is apt. A whole world of experience is missed when we simply exploit any living being for our own use, without deep consideration for the feelings and perspective of the life that is being exploited. A whole world of suffering that could be transformed by compassion and awareness is glossed over and tuned out. A potentially loving and mutually beneficial relationship between humans and Earth's others species — a relationship that is as spiritually nourishing as physically nourishing — simply becomes institutionalized predation, mechanical meat processing, mindless consumption of fear, adrenaline and bad karma.
ANIMAL RIGHTS ARE JUST AS VALID AS HUMAN RIGHTS!
Any movement that I am to fully endorse must also fully endorse this idea.
Cheers Dreamer55, and great point to raise!
"We raise them for us; that means we owe them some respect. Nature is cruel but we dont have to be.”
― Temple Grandin
"My theory is that the environment animals live in should activate their positive emotions as much as possible, and not activate their negative emotions any more than necessary. [...] All animals and people have the same core emotion systems in the brain.”
― Temple Grandin
BTW, since you mentioned Zeitgeist a few days ago. I just got a chance to see the 3rd film in the series, "Zeitgeist: Moving Forward" and am interested in hearing opinions on the solution to our planetary predicament presented therein. I really love the ideas, they make sense and have a solid logical argument to back them up, and yet...I still dont see how we get there from here. However, I still think I will participate in the movement.
Before any change can take place, a widespread awakening of ecological and social consciousness must take place. Whether this will be a forced awakening through worse and worse political and ecological conditions, or whether it will occur spontaneously and preemptively through people realizing the stakes they confront, we will see.
Currently our problems are deeply systemic, and therefore can only be fixed once we collectively understand that our systems themselves are the failure, not human nature, not mother nature, not 'bad-actors'. People must embrace the fact that our 'Freedoms' and 'Way of Life' are not what we thought they were. A dawning of awareness that what we were sold, and what we shelled out for were NOT what we got.
The rest really is EASY. People power, when freed of exploitative systems, and when given real truth and understanding to organize around, is insanely potent. If half the population of Earth were activated and aware, and ready to transform the Earth into a natural, balanced and sustainably producing paradise, we could do it, I'm certain within a generation.
So I think the solutions are less of an issue — they will present themselves naturally, organically — if we could only first free ourselves of the burden of lies, false systems serving the few, and of old, outmoded concepts of a material, mechanical universe — if we could only awaken a critical mass of the populace....
Like a dam bursting, the answers would come.
Cheers and Namaste Kitaj... perhaps a good dosing of entheogens in DC's water system would do the trick ; ) I know that's what we've always been fantasizing about happening. Hell, it'd have to have a better effect on people than propane and fracking chemicals in our drinking water!
It is not 20%, it is 0%, as the manifesto targets corporations, not persons. The common denominator here is the corporations.
yes, this is a good point - thanks for the reminder. The whole issue of repealing corporate "personhood" is definitely a root issue.
The occupation is being charactertized by msm as poor people bitching. It is then easy for msm to characterize the occupation as poor people wanting welfare & foodstamps because they are lazy, as drug-crazed hippies, etc.
The occupation will indeed have more ligitimacy if we are more focused. By focusing on the complete corruption of OUR government and OUR society by Corporations and Wall Street, the msm spin will be neutered.
Specifically, the occupation of Wall Street & financial districts across the world needs to focus on "A Corporation is not a Person" and "Tax the Rich."
The symptoms of the corrupt system can be bitched about, but it may be more powerful to coalesce around simple solutions.
Willie Osterweil's article explaining the Occupiers resistance to such simple sloganeering:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/10/01-8
Tell a Russian that poor people bitching never resulted in anything. Or a French citizen. Watch them instantly disregard you as an idiot.
My comment was intended to emphasize only that any argument or position is strengthened by proposing a solution. Also, unlike Europe, "the American dream" feeds denial and spin in the US, where folks watch fuxnews and believe it. By proposing a few solutions, The People are less vulnerable to being demonized by the spinmeisters of Biggie Corporations. I'm on your side, so save your name-calling for the bad guys.
I disagree, Greg. The crimes and corruptions of corporate empire are many, and must be listed to be relevant. As for the corporate media, it is sheer delusion to think they will not 'turn against us'--no matter how focused or broad our list of grievances.
The point is, showing how the whole monetary system is completely fraudulent is an issue that could unite a lot of different people and create a real revolution in this country. Opposition to the US acting as an Empire also has broad appeal. The idea would be, let's reform the monetary system and end the wars first, and then we can debate the other issues. I am not arguing that this POV is absolutely right, just saying that it is something to consider.
Kitaj: You have it right.
Greg
This is after all about the 99% and our issues and there are many issues as we are many. The biggest basket carries the bigger load. Look around. These issues are everywhere effecting everyone. Some have more effect on a few but they are our issues and we need to support all the 99 and all the issues. As we support others in their need they will help us with ours.
Greg R,
Scatter gun approach? Tell me Mr. Greg R(eptilian), what part of a LONG TRAIN OF ABUSES do you not understand?
Oh yeah, I know you understand alright. You always show up along with pjd412 and some others to run interference for the status quo loving predators that don't want the "rabble" to disturb the continued predatory capitalism on behalf of Wall Street in this country.
We've got your number, pal.
Is this sort of thing really helpful?
I don't trust you either, pal. You pretend to be a good guy/gal but always end up siding with the status quo. I think you are one of those judas goat types tasked with steering the herd. I keep track of who posts what here.
My what big teeth you have, grandma.
You need to trust more then. ;)
What I find lacking in your take is that you seem to think you know so much, but you can't even be bothered to do a quick search of my name and find out that Matti is Matthew -a man's name- in Finnish.
Seems like a bit of a hole there to me.
Maybe it would be better to fill in such holes with actual facts rather than strange fantasies?
What "status quo" have I sided with, for instance?
Please quote any post of mine you wish to prove your wild accusation. :)
(also, am I a judas goat or the Big Bad Wolf? Because there is a bit of a difference there y'know!)
It's a good start, but it looks like a hurry-up job. It needs more work in the grievance section.