MTC Blog: 2012

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for people to dissolve the economic and political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature entitle them, a decent respect for the opinions of the world community requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

That to secure these rights, institutions are established among the people, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of economic policy becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish these policies, and to create new systems, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that economic systems long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly experience has shown that people are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute corporate despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such institutions, and to provide new guards for their future security.

--Such has been the patient sufferance of the people of the world; and such is now the necessity which inspires them to alter their former financial systems and economic policies. The history of the present corporate global empire is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over the people and their governments.

To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

Multinational corporations and Wall Street financiers have:

Falsely claimed to have the same rights as individual human beings

Accepted public bailouts and subsequently refused to establish necessary reforms

Invested trillions of dollars in high risk derivatives and speculative finance and trading schemes, putting the US and entire world economy at risk

Protected the interests of the wealthiest members of our society while enforcing austerity measures on the poor and middle class, including cuts to funding for vital social services, public healthcare, education and transportation

Supported and promoted destructive international trade agreements which undermine democracy and violate the sovereignty of the people

Taken away our homes

Devalued our pension funds

Contributed to the writing of federal and local government regulations in a manner which favors corporate profit and endangers the health, safety and welfare of the people

Controlled our electoral system through unlimited funding of political campaigns

Dominated our financial system and economic policies, resulting in the outsourcing of jobs, high unemployment, lower wages, cuts to health, dental and pension benefits for workers and widespread suffering and impoverishment for the people

Conspired with the Federal Reserve to print and distribute currency without public oversight

Conducted secret meetings with government officials to draft legislation and regulatory statutes

Attacked the rights of labor to organize and form unions

Benefited financially from one trillion dollars in government-backed student loans, while contributing to the privatization of our schools and lobbying for cuts in funding for public education, resulting in increased tuition

Ruined locally owned businesses by monopolizing the marketplace

Produced and marketed unhealthy food and forced genetically modified organisms upon an unsuspecting public

Used their influence on local and federal governments to avoid paying their fair share of the national tax burden and debt relief

Falsified records and committed securities fraud

Attempted to privatize and monopolize our public healthcare systems and our public airwaves

Allowed the degradation of the national industrial and transportation infrastructure

Polluted, degraded and devastated the natural environment motivated solely by irresponsible greed

Condoned and facilitated violations of the US Constitution by cooperating with government agencies who were seeking access to private communications and personal information

Profited financially from the establishment of police state policies and violations of the Bill of Rights' protections on freedom of speech, privacy, and due process of law including extra-judicial drone assassinations of US citizens under the provisions of the "War on Terror" regime, mass covert surveillance of the population, mandatory airport body searches, suppression of alternative media sources, and militarization of local law enforcement agencies resulting in mass arrests, the use of so-called "less-lethal" weaponry by police during protests, and the systematic harassment and intimidation of activists

Weakened the Fourth Estate through mass commercialization and corporate consolidation of the media, resulting in a loss of press freedom

Encouraged and financed the military/industrial/prison complex by by financing, promoting and profiting from foreign military interventions which have resulted in massive death and destruction, and by lobbying for increased jail sentences for drug offenders while financing, constructing and managing private prisons

We, therefore, the people, do solemnly publish and declare, that we are, and of right ought to be free and independent from corporate domination and control of our economy, our government and our electoral system; that we are absolved from all allegiance to the corrupt bankers on Wall Street, and that all political connection between them and the government of the United States of America, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that we as free and independent states, have full power to protect the rights of the people, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish trade, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do without influence, intervention or interference from corporate interests.

And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on our solidarity with people all around the world who are struggling against tyranny to establish peace and freedom, we pledge to each other our mutual aid, assistance and support.

Occupy Wall Street: Events Planned Nationally For Anniversary

Occupy Wall Street Activists Prepare For Demonstrations on One Year Anniversary

By Mark Taylor-Canfield

Originally Published @ Huffington Post

As the anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement approaches on September 17th, occupy groups across the country are planning solidarity events.

To commemorate the birth of OWS in New York City, activists in Seattle plan to stage a march and vigil at the original site of their encampment at Westlake Park. Occupy Seattle participants say they will cover their mouths with dollars bills and carry signs saying, "Money is not free speech!", referring to the US Supreme Court decision allowing corporations unlimited contributions to political candidates.

In New York City, OWS organizers are preparing for a mass act of civil disobedience called "The People's Wall". Demonstrators will converge at seven different street intersections in Manhattan on the morning of Sept. 17th. The activists know that a security zone will be established around the stock market, denying protesters access to the building. In response, the occupiers say they will sit down and refuse to move when they are barred from entering the area by the New York City Police Department.

A legal team has been assembled, and OWS NYC is asking everyone who participates in the protests to register with a legal observer. There will be intensive legal training available for all of the demonstrators visiting New York City. In this way, the organizers hope to track and assist anyone who may be arrested while practicing civil disobedience.

But the OWS folks in NYC want everyone to know that this mass act of protest is just one small part of the week's activities. Most of the the time, organizers will be concentrating on training activists who will be gathering from around the nation. They want to provide a two day training camp so that occupiers can go back to their own communities and stage effective protests.

Recently a judge upheld an injunction which will allow occupiers to enter Zucotti Park on the OWS anniversary, presumably without fear of being arrested by the NYPD. A legal precedent may also allow protesters to stay in the park for an extended period of time as a demonstration against homelessness. They are organizing a "Sleepless Protest" to occupy the park. A similar court ruling in Seattle allowed activists to occupy Westlake Park for 24 hours.

During the three days of events marking the one year anniversary of the movement, there will be a music concert in NYC, workshops and several general assemblies. One of the goals of the NYC OWS group is to help facilitate an exchange of ideas and tactics between occupiers from different parts of the country.
Over the winter, there have been dozens of conference calls and webinars, facilitated by the InterOccupy.net website which serves as a central hub for the local Occupy organizations. There have even been international calls and meetings with activists like Hordor Torfason, who almost single-handedly created a peaceful revolution in Iceland. OWS NYC is hoping that even more of this dialogue and networking will take place after September 17th.

It is clear that US law enforcement and government authorities would like to stop the Occupy Wall Street movement in it's tracks. A letter written by two United Nations envoys to the US Secretary of State in December was critical of the violent dismantling of US occupy encampments and the violations of people's Constitutional right to assemble peacefully. The UN envoys maintain that international treaties also outlaw this kind of behavior by governments against their people.

Currently, a federal grand jury is convening in Seattle to investigate activists in Oregon and Washington State. As part of the investigation, police and FBI teams have raided the homes of activists in Seattle and Portland looking for political literature and Anarchist material. The National Lawyers Guild claims that these raids and the grand jury are being used to intimidate and suppress the Occupy Wall Street movement. Neil Fox of the Seattle NLG points out that the possession of political literature is protected under the First Amendment to the US Constitution.

Although the protests against the Democratic and Republican conventions did not turn out to be the major uprisings that the Department of Homeland Security had predicted, the Occupy Wall Street movement is still alive and well in America. In big cities and small towns activists have been addressing issues on the local level including: home foreclosures, the Citizens United case, cuts in social services and education, corruption on Wall Street, the Keystone Pipeline, anti-labor union legislation, the dominance of the two national political parties, unfair tax policies, etc.

In Seattle there are weekly food distribution programs, regular marches against student debt, an Occupy film series, a free library, cash mobs, protests against Wall Street banks and, more recently, demonstrations against the federal grand jury at the federal courthouse.

Des Moines, Iowa occupiers will be hosting a major international conference on world food prices in October. Asheville, North Carolina, Tulsa, Oklahoma and Gainesville, Florida all have small but active groups associated with the Occupy Wall Street movement.

On September 17th, occupiers in the US expect to see a resurgence of OWS. All across the nation folks are looking forward to that same altruistic spirit and sense of grassroots community that inspired everyone last year. The Occupy Wall Street activists in NYC hope that they can help make that happen again.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-taylorcanfield/occupy-wall-street-anniversary_b_1884356.html

http://inlocalneworleans.com/index.php/politics/56700-mark-taylor-canfield-occupy-predicts-anniversary-resurgence