As I said before, I haven’t been writing about the Occupy Wall Street movement because it’s hard for me to get a handle on what such a grass roots movement is all about. (I had the same trouble with the Tea Party.)
However, the various Occupy movements appear to each be run locally by consensus-driven Generally Assemblies that take place every day. The New York movement, the original Occupy Wall Street, even has a website. That website has something I can use, a Declaration of the Occupation of New York City, which lays out an official statement of what the organization is about. I realize that this is no more likely to represent the goals of any given protester than the Libertarian party platform represents mine, but it’s a place for me to start.
Declaration of the Occupation of New York City
This document was accepted by the NYC General Assembly on September 29, 2011
Translations: French, Slovak, Spanish, German, Italian, Arabic, Portuguese
By the way, kudos to Occupy Wall Street for providing translations. For a movement that claims to value inclusiveness, it shows that they walk the walk.
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.
Sigh. Anti-corporatism makes me weary. A corporation is what you create when you need a secure, easy to administer, and proven legal mechanism for people to pool their resources in pursuit of a common goal. Sometimes that’s Bank of America, sometimes it’s a storefront church. And sometimes, it’s a political cause: If you donate to the Occupy Wall Street movement, the money is handled by the Alliance for Global Justice, which is a corporation. Complaining about corporations because you didn’t like the bank bailout makes about as much sense as complaining about black people because you once got mugged by a black gang member.
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.
I’d like to know which corporations “do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people.” Even monopolies like Comcast can’t make me pay them unless I agree to it beforehand. The free market is built on the idea that all parties consent. The only way a corporation can get wealth from you without your consent is with the forceful help of the government.
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.
I don’t even know what most of that means. Corporations are owned and run by people. So while profits are of paramount importance, those profits ultimately go to people. Saying corporations “place profit over people” is just a way to say you don’t like the people who own corporations. Also, who expects corporations to provide justice or equality? (Whatever those mean to OWS.)
I hope this will make more sense later. Next up, I start working my way through the list of grievances.
Update: Part 3 is up.
