Monday, October 03, 2011

Has The Revolution Begun?


There has been very little significant coverage of the Revolution on Wall Street. All main stream media has to talk about are arrests. But I thought to ponder the manifesto and discuss it with a few friends today. It all makes so much sense and I applaud those participating. Will they make a difference? I doubt it. The oligarchy's tentacles are everywhere, including the police-puppets. But the movement is spreading and we're not going down without a fight:

Occupy Wall Street Protesters General Assembly—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 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.

13 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting this! I hadn't seen it.

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  2. A friend who is a former American cried when she found the occupywallst.org website, she thought finally something good is happening. She wanted to go to NYC to join the revolution, but was afraid that if she was arrested she would never be able to travel in the USA again, and she still has family there. So she is sending food instead.

    2011 is like 1968, many hopeful revolutions all around the world. One only hopes that this time it will be different, but the cynic in me is afraid it will not be. Still, after many attempts, one of these days it will happen...

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  3. I remain hopeful that somehow, despite the constant barrage of misinformation spewed forth by the "free press" mass media, my fellow Americans will begin to understand the depth of their loss. Thank you for posting this.

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  4. "Has the revolution begun?" Nope.Its only a protest.I don't see the poor there .I see the students in their comfortable clothing and with their ipods.All middle class.No firebrand like Desmoulins or Lenin has showed up so far to push the next step.The union types are poking their nose in but those fat cats are no Walter Reuther facing down machine guns.

    In a word I see no desperation,no inconvenience to the citizenry of the country just a big flash mob.The monopligarchy know this and will keep low for now.

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  5. Thanks for posting this. Another blog I often read had the quote below posted today. It seems appropriate to re-post it here.

    "On the day when you again allow abominable men to confiscate your freedom, your money, your lives, your private property, your manhood and your sacred honor, in the name of"security' or"national emergency' you will die, and never again shall you be free. If plotters again destroy your Republic, they will do it by your greedy and ignorant assent, by your disregard of your neighbors' rights, by your apathy and your stupidity. We were brought to the brink of universal death and darkness because we had become that most contemptible of people -- an angerless one. Keep alive and vivid all your righteous anger against traitors, against those who would abrogate your Constitution, against those who would lead you to wars with false slogans and cunning appeals to your patriotism."

    --Taylor Caldwell,"The Devil's Advocate"(1952) -- pgs. 332 -- 338

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  6. As I've posted elsewhere, WWW - this "Occupation" itself might not achieve a lot, but it could be "the prologue to the beginning" of something much wider and stronger. The awakening has begun.

    We may have now opened the Book of Revolution. After the prologue there'll be an introduction, a preface, a dedication, and perhaps sundry other pages before we arrive at Chapter One.

    Time scale isn't clear yet.

    Hope springs eternal!

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  7. There was a spin-off demo in my town, Hilo, Hawaii, of about 30 people. We are a small place!
    There is so much poverty here, mostly bravely borne.
    It's not that people want handouts. They just want decent lives.

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  8. http://www.occupyto.ca/

    One of my Toronto Star reporter friends has been denied the chance to report on this growing worldwide movement. Her editor feels she is not objective enough.


    xo

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  9. Amen to that. I hope their cry of opposition gets taken up by many many people. But I fear that capitalism will as usual triumph over common sense and human decency.

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  10. I have missed all news for the past two days. Thank you for the background on this situation.

    As Captain Boyle said in Act III of Juno and the Paycock by Sean O'Casey: The whole world's in a state of chassis!

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  11. Thanks for posting this - I've been not keeping up with the news (particularly international - for some reason, the Rugby World Cup is taking most of the news space over here...), but the snippets we've been getting about the Occupy Wall Street is not overly objective (i.e. the first we got about it was the arrests of the people on Brooklyn Bridge!)

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