By Mark
Taylor-Canfield
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.
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