DECLARATIONS OF INDEPENDENCE FROM CORPORATIONS 4 JUL 2014

DECLARATIONS OF INDEPENDENCE FROM CORPORATIONS. Each of the Occupy movements (in 2011) was set up to allow individuals to express themselves. They each adopted a declaration for what they were about…some declarations were the same as NYC’s Occupy Wallstreet & others were different. This post is a collection of excerpts from those various Declarations as well as some news about how the Occupy Movement is continuing. The Occupy Movement’s National Gathering is coming up soon in Sacramento, CA on July 31-Aug. 3. It will have no singularity of purpose but is to empower the common person. (This post is emphasizing the popular individual aspect of the Occupy Movement….There are indications that the movement got help from— as well as misrepresentation from, and also opposition from— the PTSNB. Bank of America reportedly sent $875,000 to 42 mayors to stop the Occupy encampments. Setting aside all that controversy & drama, this post is focused on their Declarations of Independence from Corporations which were called Declaration of Occupations.)

OCCUPY 2ND & 3RD GENERATION MOVEMENTS. From the Occupy movements more spinoffs have continued to be created. Perhaps the most prominent spinoff of the Occupy Wall Street movement is the Occupy Our Homes to forestall foreclosures which happened from L.A. to Minneapolis to Atlanta to Boston. It saved 350 homes from foreclosure. It turned empty & unused buildings into commonly held resources for local communities. Besides fighting foreclosures & evictions, they occupied to free vacant bank-owned homes for those in need. Another spinoff was the Project Strike Debt, which bought up $14 million of debt. The third generation of the Occupy movement is planned to gather the spiritual powers of the common people. (From a Christian perspective, our spiritual powers are not what is to be tapped into, but rather what Occupy movement people call “magic”. The movement’s third phase is for anyone, & many are not Christians, in fact hate Christianity, which makes this third generation basically off limits for Christians.)

DECL. OF INDEPENDENCE FROM CORPORATIONS (EXCERPTS)
“We have been captives of corrupt economic & political systems for far too long. The concentration of wealth and the purchase of political power stifle the voices of the increasingly disenfranchised 99%. Corporate dominance subverts democracy, intentionally sows division, destroys the environment, obstructs the just and equitable pursuit of happiness, and violates the rights and dignity of all life….

“Corporations broke the financial system by gambling with our savings, property, and economy. They needed the public to bail them out of their failures yet deny any responsibility and continue to fight oversight. They loot from those whose labor creates society’s prosperity, while the government allows them to privatize profits and socialize risk.

“Corporate interests threaten life on Earth by extracting and burning fossil fuels and resisting the necessary transition to renewable energy. Their drilling, mining, clear-cutting, overfishing, and factory farming destroys the land, jeopardizes our food and water, and poisons the soil with near impunity. They privilege polluters over people by subsidizing fossil fuels, blocking investments in clean energy and efficient transportation, and hiding environmental destruction from public oversight….” The Declaration of the Occupation of Washington, D.C. (Consented to in committee November 15th, 2011)

“Regardless of media spin, police brutality, or sub-zero temperatures, we will continue to peacefully exercise our first amendment rights by occupying, holding general assemblies, and planning for the American Spring. Our goal is a society that prioritizes the needs of all before the profits of the few. We are the 99%.” Boston Declaration of Occupation.

“One percent of Americans currently control nearly 40% of our country’s wealth. We are the 99%. We occupy Lexington, KY in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement and hundreds of others across the globe. We are the majority whom the system has failed. We are each, if not already there, one disaster away from financial ruin. We are individuals who demand transformation of the American political & economic system, which breeds corruption & injustice. We have gathered here to dissolve the bonds between corporations & government, both of which were brought into existence by the people—the former to employ Americans, and the latter to fairly represent them and foster conditions for the economic prosperity of all. These entities have instead colluded to create policies used to facilitate short-term financial gain among the few at the expense of the well-being of the many. Our pursuit of happiness, in terms of housing, healthcare, & job stability, is not secure in a system that entraps its people in economic slavery.” Occupy Lexington Declaration of Occupation

FINALLY A LONG QUOTE FROM NY’S OCCUPY DECLARATION:
“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 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.” NY Declaration of Occupation