Occupy

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.
“It’s time for the wealthy to pay their fair share before the middle class becomes the forgotten class. And it’s time for the banks to give back what they were given. There are those in politics, particularly those on the conservative side, who can’t get enough of telling people that the wealthy one per cent must not be taxed because doing so kills jobs. The real job-killers are corporate greed and political expediency. It’s time for working people in Maine and all across the country to take back the American dream.”
Stephan & Tabitha King

Occupy Amsterdam

We zijn gewone mensen. We zijn, zoals jij, individuen die elke ochtend opstaan om te studeren, werken of werk zoeken, mensen met familie en vrienden.
Sommigen zien zichzelf als progressief, anderen als conservatief, als gelovig -of niet-, als ideologisch of juist zonder duidelijk omlijnde politieke opvattingen.
We zijn echter allemaal bezorgd vanwege de politieke, economische en sociale toestand om ons heen. We zijn gevangen in het spel van politici, zakenlui en bankiers waarin het gros wordt achtergelaten; achtergelaten  zonder stem of uitzicht op fundamentele verbetering.
Gelijkheid, solidariteit, vrijheid, duurzaamheid, ontwikkeling en welvaart en welzijn voor de bevolking hoort het streven van elke ontwikkelde maatschappij te zijn.
Ons monetair, economisch en politiek systeem slagen er niet in deze rechten te doen gelden en zijn in veel gevallen eerder een obstakel in de realisatie er van.
Ons monetaire systeem geeft de bank de mogelijkheid geld uit lucht te maken en uit te lenen tegen rente. De opbouwende rente voor het individu, het midden en kleinbedrijf of de samenleving -in de vorm van overheidsschulden- laat een samenleving achter in exponentiële schuld en concentreert macht op een schaal ongekend in onze geschiedenis. Het maakt de weg vrij voor een onethische graaicultuur van immense proporties.
De werking van ons huidige economische systeem versterkt vervolgens de ongelijkheid en schaarste. Waar onze kennis in techniek en automatisering ons overvloed en vrijheid kan bieden, laat het ons na in noodzaak en arbeid. Deze kennis bracht ons eerder de vrijheid van handmatig werk, de Industriële Revolutie. De vrijheid in arbeid maakte zo plaats voor de dienstensector. Technologische werkloosheid maakt nu zelfs de banen in de dienstensector in snel tempo overbodig; ze komen niet meer terug. De vruchten van onze kennis en vooruitgang dienen nu slechts enkelen en laat een steeds grotere groep, de 99%, in noodzaak.
De macht van de politiek ligt vervolgens in de verdeelsleutel van deze schaarste. Onderhevig aan groeiende schuld bij de banken via het monetaire systeem én onderhevig aan de noodzaak voor economische groei om de uitgaven -na renteaflossing- gelijk te houden. De schuld van de overheid mag immers niet meer dan 60% van het Bruto Binnenlands Product (BNP) zijn. Fictieve schulden, reële bezuinigingen. De politiek speelt het spel der bezuinigen in volle onwetendheid. De democratie, gevangen in verdelingsvraagstukken, representeert niet de belangen van ons, de 99%.
We bevinden ons in een systeem gefocust op de accumulatie van geld. Het is een in stand gehouden schaarstemiddel om ons toegang te geven tot de grondstoffen en goederen. Zoals het World Food Programme evenals de Verenigde Naties (middels FPA) erkent is er genoeg voedsel om ons allen te voorzien. Armoede lijkt zo meer te zeggen over de mogelijkheid goederen uit een systeem te onttrekken met behulp van het schaarstegoed geld. In deze zoektocht naar geld creëren we naast armoede een verspilling van grondstoffen en vernietigen een bewoonbare planeet.
In waarneming van een wereld vol mogelijkheden lijkt de keuze van de consument steeds beperkter. In een wereld vol rijkdommen weegt de noodzaak tot arbeid om aan geld te komen steeds minder op tegen de mogelijkheden die het biedt. We dragen allen bij aan de versterking van dit systeem.
De schaamteloze toe-eigening van zowel grondstoffen als menselijk kapitaal houdt echter op, hier en nu!
We hebben een revolutie nodig die het welzijn van mens, maatschappij en aarde weer bovenaan zet.
We vragen om verdieping en bewustwording. Een begrip dat enkel kan vragen om verandering. Dat begint bij het individu, maar samen vinden we elkaar en maken het verschil. Laten we ons verzamelen en invulling geven aan ideeën voor de dag van morgen.
Het is tijd om samen te komen en onze krachten te bundelen. Het is tijd voor verandering!
Het is tijd om samen toe te werken naar een betere samenleving voor allen.
Ik weet dat wat ik doe het verschil maakt.

Mission Statement Occupy Las Vegas

The first questions that come out of anyone's mouth whenever a new political movement arises are, “Who are they?” and “What do they want?”

They are good questions that should be answered.

WHO are we?

We are the 99% of Americans who have not benefited from the various financial bailouts, tax breaks, and other subsidies that the dominant 1% of the population have gained over the past several years.

We are students, veterans, homemakers, workers, the unemployed, those on Social Security benefits, those whose savings and investments were either wiped out or greatly diminished by the economic fluctuations starting in 2007.

We are those who have had our homes foreclosed upon, those whose homes are about to be foreclosed, those whose homes are now worth a fraction of what we paid for them, and those who have never owned a home and don’t expect to ever be able to.

We are the newly poor who wonder how everything for which we worked hard vanished so quickly and how we and our families are going to survive.

We are the long-time poor, who have never had much of a chance, let alone a voice, to make our own way in our current social and economic system.

We come from all backgrounds, races, and religions.

We are concerned about and more than a bit scared by the directions in which we see our lives, and the lives of our families, friends, neighbors going, the directions in which we see our nation and the whole planet going, and we are angry with those who have taken us in those directions.

We are part of a much larger global and national movement that wants real changes in how the world is run.

In short, we're you, and you are one of us.

WHAT do we want?

We want an end to corporate money's influence in politics, whether through campaign donations, PACs, or other groups. Money is not speech.

We want truly effective campaign finance reform, so that corporations and other interests have no overwhelming advantage over the rest of us in any part of American politics.

We want far greater legal accountability for public officials and corporate executives, and we demand that, if found guilty of committing crimes while in office, they are made to pay for those crimes in full, like anyone else.

We want our justice system to treat everyone equally regardless of origins or social class, at all levels and at every stage, from investigations to trials and sentencing.

We want an end to the continual attacks on our social safety net and on the rights of workers to organize themselves and, if need be, to strike to get better pay, benefits, and working conditions.

We want secure and sustainable investments and improvements in our social infrastructure, like schools and libraries, and to create an America where everyone may actually live in a decent and dignified manner, an America where everyone's rights count and are respected by all.

This is who we are and what we want. We ask for no more and shall take no less.

We are the 99% and we will not be silenced.

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The thing about the truth is, it is always going to be there, you just have to know where to find it!!