First official statement from Occupy Wall Street

[Möebius Pretzel]

What follows is the first official statement released by Occupy Wall
Street. It was voted on and approved on Thursday night:

Declaration of the Occupation of New York City

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 nonhuman 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 supposed to be
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 in order to protect investments that have already turned
a substantive 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.

Or, summed up by a chant today: "We're young, we're poor, we're not
gonna take it any more!"

This is an open thread on Occupy Wall Street. Be sure to follow the
Occupy Wall Street tag at Daily Kos for more than 75 blog posts on
Occupy events today alone.

http://patrickhenrypress.info/node/489665


Think #OccupyWallStreet is only a few hundred people?

Think again...
http://images1.dailykos.com/i/user/123/Overhead.jpg

[Vandar]

Möebius Pretzel wrote:

>
> Think #OccupyWallStreet is only a few hundred people?
>
> Think again...
> http://images1.dailykos.com/i/user/123/Overhead.jpg

That pic is a fake.

[Slackjaw]

Möebius Pretzel wrote:

If it wasn't obvious before that this group consists of nuts and
fruticakes, it certainly is now.

"nonhuman animals"? You've got to be kidding me.

--