Keith Olbermann Reads First Collective Statement of Occupy Wall Street
For all the talk from the various corporate media sources expressing puzzlement at exactly what the mission of the Occupy Wall Street and its sister protests around the world, you'd think that we haven't had massive income inequality, exponentially rising costs of living with stagnant wages, high unemployment, huge multi-national corporations outsourcing and paying no taxes and all the associated symptoms of economic injustice. But just in case the rest of the media needs a refresher course, Keith Olbermann reads the first collective statement from the Occupy Wall Street participants:
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!
Bottom line: We are the 99 percent tired of being exploited by the 1 percent.
Propaganda organs like FOX and CNN will do what they can to de-legitimize the occupy protests, just as hard as they promote the tea parties.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
It's time to get money out of politics:
http://www.getmoneyout.com/
#getmoneyout #ows
.
Accountability before Sacrifice.
Wow, now let's share this on every media avenue available to us, since it is apparent, LSM is working for the 1%, and NOT for "We the 99% People".
Exactly.
We should all sign these petitions
Repeal Citizens United
Restore democracy by ending corporate pwersonhood
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
on a case over a hundred years old.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara_Coun...
which was decided by an "obiter dictum", never actually voted upon. nevertheless, corps. are not people, they are legal entities, nothing more. who you are actually fighting is the aristocracy, and the upper class who comprises the intelligentsia (such as the court) are completely sold out.
they know what side their bread is buttered on.
but then the apparatchiks would try to twist it to capitals advantage.
still, something has to give, and these people are at least trying. i don't think the document is very sophisticated, some wording is very poorly chosen, but hey, they are the ones doing it, got to give credit where credit is due. no one else is doing a damn thing, least of all our elected officials.
good on occupy nyc.
Exactly.
They, and the democratic national convention, and other sources send out these annoying surveys. If we do not highlight our utter frustrations and actually answer these surveys, the best they can do is GUESS at what it is WE WANT! It takes but five minutes to answer these things, and a stamp, but we NEED to be HEARD!
a couple of days ago ... been thinking about it ever since
traditionally, individuals were relieved of responsibility under the corporate umbrella in exchange for government regulation ... now, thanks to the not-so-supreme court, they receive that corporate absolution without any oversight or limitation
`That reads like the list of grievances against King George III in the Declaration of Independence.
Pretty powerful stuff.
Yup...maybe the TeaTorries can get behind this one too
Accepted by General Assembly 09-29-11
Posted 9-30-11
Updated with minor changes 10-01-11
Declaration of the Occupation of New York City
http://nycga.cc/2011/09/30/declaration-of-the...
So .. it's been out there for a while ..
Despite all the whining about "why are they protesting?" and "what do they want?" ..
Good on Keith for broadcasting it ..
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
quite some time ago is that the facists (as in corporatists in government) wish to destroy all public institutions and replace them with for profit corporations. The most egregious examples are education, military, police and fire protection and prisons. To them, no governmental function should exists using taxpayer dollars that some corporation could be making a profit from. It's time We The People made our voices heard and if it takes months of occupation throughout the country, then so be it.
Freedom Isn't Free, So Stop Whining And Pay Your Taxes.
"The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It ... has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous “payment in cash” ... for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation ... Constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones ... All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses, his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind."
and then move beyond it, catch up. old uncle karl had a glimmer, but it runs much deeper, and the virus has infected us all. tyranny and mutation, atomization and isolation.
as for "They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility."
that happened a long time ago,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara_Coun...
once more, artificial, immortal, undying, entities; but grow some guts, it's not just "corporations" it's the ruling class, it is people doing this. socialist thought has been brutally suppressed for a hundred years, but it must be stood up for now, or we are lost.
come right out and say it, it is the ruling class that is keeping us all under the boot, it is people, powerful people, who use us all like resources, and use the machinery the proles themselves build to keep them down.
Yes. It is the ruling class that is keeping us all under the boot.
But in order to fight back we need to take direct and specific actions to reverse the individual steps that got us here.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
"Constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones"
outsourcing, cop shows, pornography, violence, terror, soporific drugs..........a mixture of 1984 and brave new world, with a twist of a clockwork orange.
is a learned behavior. Social responsibility is innate, just like self-interest, but our culture cultivates pure self-interest and systematically tries to suppress altruistic behavior. Those who have lost their humanity this way are motivated by cynicism to make sure that everyone else suffers the same fate. It's a downward spiral and nations always seem to devolve to this. It seems like this is part and parcel of our European-Christian heritage. The Middle Ages are the default system we go back to. Just ramblin.
Yes. It won't stop until we make it stop.
Going back up hill is the hardest part. That's why we have to end it now, and fix it now.
We are the change we are looking for.
If not us, then who?
If not now, then when?
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
this behaviour is deeply rooted in religious dogma. Until all religion is abolished and a brotherhood of man is erected in it's place, we shall never see equality, peace and justice. John Lennon's words were right on then, and now.
Their homeworld was a place called Earth, located in an uninteresting part of the galaxy. They had an expression: pride goeth before a fall. Their pride was their undoing. I know. I was there....They did not listen, of course. Arrogant men never do.
Michael Moore at Occupy Wall Street
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
The Tea-Party was contrived. It was artificial. It was designed for a purpose, and directed true feelings of anger and disenfranchisement toward that purpose.
Most of the Tea-Baggers were rubes: tricked into supporting policies that went against their better interest. But the sentiment was real, if not the engineering of the group. When I watched the contrived Tea-Party protests, I was saddened that so many could fall for such an obvious charade.
This growing protest gives me hope that, finally, people get it. That, behind the machinations of the media, there are those who reject the artificial and purposeful direction that is/was the Tea-Party. That there are those who still know what it means to stand and be heard in support for what it best for the most number of people. I like this list.I like these people.
I am encouraged.
Yes. but most importantly, we also need more of those who reject the artificial and purposeful direction that is the corporate media. The corporate media is in the service of America's power elites.
The corporate media faithfully serves the ruling class, at the expense of our lives; at the expense of 99% of America.
The corporate media is the most powerful weapon the ruling class has ever devised. It must be marginalized.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
We’re seeing it happen. Fox doesn’t bother me as much as it used to because it is starting to be perceived for what it is: propaganda. It is not news and never has been. More and more people are recognizing that.
We will still have the hold-overs from the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s, when the 6:00 nightly news was required to be “really” fair and balanced by law. They will continue to think what they read and see in the media is reporting as it once was, but more and more are seeing what has happened to “news” realistically. That, too, is encouraging.
Well, next people need to figure out that CNN is a "softer, kinder" version of the same corporate PR.
When you graduate, you realize that NPR is also corporate PR as it hasn't dropped the bomb on it's major sponsors since it quit being government funded.
has picked the right target. Finance capitalists, the class that is the common enemy of the human race.
not wealth generators.
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"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
i spent the day at #occupyPhilly today. today, being day one. It was great. Unbelievable diversity of people there. ya know, the 99%.
we had the first general assembly, and, several hours later, the first (of many) marches.
i sent the C&L folks some photos, hopefully they get posted in some form or another.
needs--i imagine this is the case with all the occupy together events:
food
socks
band aids
tarps
batteries
sleeping bags
plastic containers
sweaters/sweat shirts
just camping gear all around
if you aren't local to any of the events i am unsure how you would donate anything but money. but, if you can, and are semi-local, consider dropping off some stuff for the folks.
Glad you made it.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
No more making money by manipulation of money. IMHO unless you make your living producing a tangible good or necessary service you are a fucking parasite. Not even a symbiotic parasite, just a plain old, slimy parasite that eventually destroys it's host. Fuck off and die.
Generally speaking I don't trust anyone making over 150K a year.
This wasn't going to get published until everybody in the room got to add something, in the wonderful spirit of community. The result is a big mushy list of bitchings that will turn so many people off.
WTF? Not to say I take issue with any of those statements in and of themselves, but they have nothing to do with occupying Wall St and can only add more divisions between people. Stick with the simple economic message that people are getting royally screwed. You can get a whole lot of people behind that message, not so much with '...and we need to be nicer to animals, too!'
"declaration", I think it needs to be condensed. It should focus on the economic injustice that's been unleashed on this country, which has resulted from the merging of corporations and our political system. Laws are written by well paid lobbyist. To get elected and remain a player in the political system requires vast amounts of cash, which is supplied by wealthy donors. We no longer have a govt that hears, let alone addresses, the needs of We the People. To be effective, this movement must continue to gain momentum, and then devise a strategy, like vote and fight for candidates that will actually represent the people. There area some out there; however, NONE of them are in the Greed Over Patriotism Party.
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