"As one people, formerly divided by the color of our skin, gender, sexual orientation,
religion, or lack thereof, political party and cultural background, we acknowledge
the reality: that there is only one race, the human race, and our survival 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
brethren; 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 CEO’s
exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated gender inequality and discrimination in the workplace.
They have poisoned the food supply, and undermined the farming system through
monopolization.
They have continuously sought to end the rights of workers to negotiate their pay and
make complaints about the safety of their workplace.
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 book keeping, and inactive
ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the
media.
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.
They have participated in a directly racist action by accepting the contract from the State
of Georgia to murder Troy Davis."
http://nycga.cc/2011/09/30/declaration-of-the-occupation-of-new-york-city/
We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge
