Here it is, thank you, Nation of Change, for emailing it to me. Reprint and share with your friends, family, co-workers, contacts! Use the language herein when talking about injustice.
This is only the beginning! I’m excited and I’m hopeful for the future.
- Please note that when the writers of this statement use “they” at the beginning of a sentence, they are referring to “corporations.” – JA
What follows is the first official, collective statement of the protesters in Zuccotti Park:
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 ontracts.*
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!
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Can I also add….they have forced our children to get vaccines and cancer treatments that we as parents do not wish for them to have. We have a right to our bodies and our children’s, and are not quinea pigs for the pharmaceutical companies. Thank you….
I want back my freedom to choose whats best for me and my childrens health…government can not mandate that. Please add this to the list….this is soooo important…thank you from my heart.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Tjoumakaris
Ocean City, NJ USA
I had hope for this protest, then I read this unfocused mess of a statement. Maybe Fox News is right. Focus on specifics….then I read the anti-vaccine kook comment and I get even more depressed. Not saying all the sentiments are wrong but when you are protesting something–make it about SOMETHING SPECIFIC.
Otherwise it becomes just another protest social event of the kind that happen all the time, the same old (or young) protestors, slapping each other on the back and accomplishing absolutely nothing.
What is it you are really trying to accomplish? If it is ALL these things. Just go home.
Just a final thought… Ask yourself what is it you are protesting? Specifically. If you get more answers than you can count on one hand…you have a problem. If you are protesting neo-colonialism, overseas wars, environmental issues etc etc etc. You just muddy the waters. What is THIS protest about? Don’t include everything that needs solved. As I said, the sentiment is fine, but in practice you need an aim for this protest you could put on a bumper sticker–or it will not work.
Just a final thought..since I am adding my voice to the online babble… Ask yourself what is it you are protesting? Specifically. If you get more answers than you can count on one hand…you have a problem. If you are protesting neo-colonialism, overseas wars, environmental issues etc etc etc. You just muddy the waters. What is THIS protest about? Don’t include everything that needs solved. As I said, the sentiment is fine, but in practice you need an aim for this protest you could put on a bumper sticker–or it will not work.
Patrick, I agree the message needs to be concise. Hopefully over time this will coalesce a bit, as it is, it’s all over the map. But I do agree with the direction. JJA
check this concise list…hard to disagree with it.
http://warmowski.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/submitted-to-occupywallstreet-for-consideration-new-and-improved-messaging/
thanks….I don’t mean to be a “downer” but I would really hate for this to sink under the weight of “special interests”
Patrick
I think those are a start. I’m not sure about the specific indictments for the banksters, I don’t know enough about that. I like these words from Paul Krugman yesterday:
“A better critique of the protests is the absence of specific policy demands. It would probably be helpful if protesters could agree on at least a few main policy changes they would like to see enacted. But we shouldn’t make too much of the lack of specifics. It’s clear what kinds of things the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators want, and it’s really the job of policy intellectuals and politicians to fill in the details.
Rich Yeselson, a veteran organizer and historian of social movements, has suggested that debt relief for working Americans become a central plank of the protests. I’ll second that, because such relief, in addition to serving economic justice, could do a lot to help the economy recover. I’d suggest that protesters also demand infrastructure investment — not more tax cuts — to help create jobs. Neither proposal is going to become law in the current political climate, but the whole point of the protests is to change that political climate.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/07/opinion/krugman-confronting-the-malefactors.html?_r=2
The protest needs a plan of action, too. Boycott? Specific legislation demands? Who’s in charge? They need a figurehead to speak for them.
@Kevin, I can see the value of boycotts and going forward, specific legislation demands. I think it’s too early for a “person in charge” who could really wreck the entire organic process. I imagine in time leaders will step forward and either be followed or not. To me the whole thing looks very promising but also very fragile. JJA
As a citizen watching the Protests, I have to admit that I am very confused about the the purpose of the protests. I actually watched an interview with a protester complaining about corporate greed with a Starbucks coffee on his hand. The protesters themselves seem extremely unclear of their mission.
Corporations only exist because we, the consumer, like their product and we are willing to trade our hard earned cash for it. Personally, I hate BOA, so I do business with a local bank. I buy American products and not foreign products.
The protests should be against the consumer.
You forgot that they lied to us about Santa and the Easter Bunny!!!!!!!!!!!!
Boycott Apple..,.. oh, wait…
Here’s the specific statement: “No true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power.” Paragraph 1. The rest is just an explanation.
The cure they seek is simple: Democracy. Rule by the people.
No simple law can fix this. This is not about the fair water act. A change in regulations that returns homes to their owners will not solve the problem. The list is only SYMPTOMS of what they are protesting. That seems so obvious in the structure of the statement: The list is only facts. Truths that are self-evident.
Need a bumper sticker? End Corporate Control of Society.
No, not good enough for you. Not good enough for Fox News. If you define democracy as Corporate control of elections, our representatives spending more time fundraising than governing, and passing laws written by the lobbyists hired by “the 1%,” then the bumper sticker won’t make any more sense to you than the statement. This is an attempt to explain the the harm of the 1% to owning “democracy” as well as the wealth.
Maybe you can understand the challenge of the OWS protesters in a historic context. What would King George say to the founding fathers? Your Declaration of Independence is a mess! Be specific on policies. If you can not say what you want on one hand, your declaration is just muddying the waters. What is your plan of action? Is this Declaration of Independence about boycotts or legislation?
Even the questions miss the point.
No minor change in a specific law will address the concerns of OWS any more than the original tea party would have been satisfied by a change in tea taxes alone.
Here’s another perspective: The Arab Spring was not about specific demands, bumper stickers, or changes in legislation. It was about ending dictatorship. The Occupy Wall Street movement is a call to overthrow the dictatorship of centralized capital.
So I give you the challenge of writing your own statement. How would you write a demand that control of our nation be returned to the people of our nation?
Wel said Seth.