Hello Comrade,
Ten years have passed. In many ways, the world is as it was in 2011, in many ways, we have rays of light and hope, emerging from the heartbreak of neoliberal darkness.
We would like to invite you to organize with us. If you have received this communication, you are an important part of why Occupy Wall Street continues to live in the imaginations of millions, globally. And why we want to work with you.
We would like to use the following community agreement for our meetings moving forward.
Anytime people gather as a group we form both a community and a culture. In this formation to plan for the Occupy Wall Street ten year anniversary, we seek a community and culture that is respectful, comfortable, open, curious, and kind. Community Agreements help us identify concrete ways to create that culture and to talk about and through conflict. Using these practices and tools we can challenge ourselves and each other while still recognizing we’re all coming from different places of knowing and transforming.
All participants have agreed to abide by these agreements. Please be mindful of your own actions, be open to observations of your behavior, and be open to sharing feedback with others regarding their actions.
Our Community Agreements are:
Be Curious, Open, and Respectful - call in not out/throw sunshine not shade
No one knows everything - together we know a lot
We can’t be articulate all the time - give the benefit of the doubt and ask questions
We take care of ourselves - stretch, eat, drink, use restroom, rest, etc.
Confidentiality - don’t speak for others without explicit permission, don’t share something communicated in a private or safe space.
One mic - one voice at a time
Take Space/Make Space - if you are usually quiet challenge yourself to take more space, and if you usually talk a lot be mindful to leave room for quieter voices
Avoid Jargon, Acronyms, and Industry language - use inclusive language that is accessible for people with varying inside knowledge
Be aware of time - enough let’s move on (ELMO) means if what you wanted to say has already been said, don’t say it
Speak from your own experience - Use I statements rather than generalizations
Challenge assumptions
Be conscious of intent vs. impact - no matter intention you’re responsible for your impact
Avoid using isms without explaining what you mean by them
Community Assumptions:
All systems of oppression exist
We are all here because we want and choose to be here
We live at intersections, we all benefit and are harmed by systematic oppression
All systems are interconnected
Dismantling systems of oppression benefits everyone
Confronting social injustice is painful and joyful
Liberation is possible
Everyone has a choice in any situation
The body doesn’t lie
Opposing systems of oppression, building alternatives, and cultural change are all necessary
And lastly:
Keep your eye on the prize.
Celebrate others’ achievements. They are paving the way for you. Any achievement that one of us attains is a victory for all of us. There is more than enough to go around.
Praise what you like and you will see more of it. If we praise our way to our goals, we will get there exponentially faster.
Knowledge is power.
United we stand. Divided we fall. Strength is in unity. There are no limits on the benefits we can all get, if we stick together.
It is better to be successful than right. We do not have to agree on everything to be effective. Don’t let what we disagree on get in the way of what we can change for the better.
It won’t work unless we work.
Everyone is valuable no matter how imperfect.
Progress, not perfection. Any movement toward our goal is better than no movement. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Don’t settle for the good when we can achieve the excellent.
Fear can conquer all, if we let it.
No one is indispensable.
Encourage and support members in their endeavors. There is more than one road to success. For every problem there is an infinite number of solutions, and if we haven’t found a solution where everyone wins, we haven’t involved enough people yet.
Start where we are, not where we should be. Everyone is doing the best they can. The past cannot be changed, but people can change.
Always keep your word and speak honestly.
We all have multiple motives. When we exclude people because of questionable motives, we reduce our ranks and our ability to achieve our goals.
It is not personal.
Listen to the voices of the minority, as the others who hold their opinion have already left.
Principles before personalities.
Everyone is responsible for success.
If you are ready to begin organizing for the anniversary, please drop your email below, and let’s go.
Join r/ThirdForce (on reddit) and begin the dance of inspiration.
To refresh, we present the Declaration of the Occupation of NYC:
Occupy Wall Street is a people-powered movement that began on September 17, 2011 in Liberty Square and has spread to over 1,500 cities globally.
Declaration of the Occupation of New York City
THIS DOCUMENT WAS ACCEPTED BY THE NYC GENERAL ASSEMBLY ON SEPTEMBER 29, 2011
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 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, who are responsible for 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 or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial 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, organizers with the Occupy movement, in solidarity with 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.
We would like to encourage all participants to review the principles of working and demands of the People’s Strike formation, for possible inclusion in the future.
Unity Without Uniformity
The demands we listed are not complete, nor were they intended to be detailed or totally comprehensive at this point. We tried to represent the broad interests of the multinational, multiracial working class, but the small forces that initiated this call can’t do that. We are encouraging organizations and individuals to support the demands that they can, add what you think needs to be added to suit your positionality and context, and act with as much unity leading up to, on, and beyond a General Strike.
Mutual Aid
We are asking everyone to provide as much direct material and political support as possible to frontline workers, frontline communities, and those at severe risk in the prisons, detention centers, homeless shelters, nursing homes and assisted living facilities and at large in our communities.
Protect the Workers
Protect Our Families
Protect Our Communities
Protect Each Other
We are asking organizations and individuals to amplify each other’s needs and actions in this time of crisis and transition to the greatest extent possible with all of the means at our disposal. This calls for supporting the various actions and initiatives being called by all the forces in motion in a non-sectarian manner. We ask everyone to agitate and build towards the General Strike as space where we all stand and act in unity to defend us, advance a prompt response to the crisis, and create the new institutions and social norms needed to create a society that can adequately address the pandemic at hand, the economic crises that will follow, and the other crisis that are clearly emerging on our horizon.
The COVID-19 pandemic has starkly revealed the inequalities and injustices that daily plague the world.
The triple crises of viral plague, systemic economic breakdown, and the failure and/or unwillingness of Governments to provide necessary protections, especially for the poor and people subjected to white supremacy, ethnocentrism, xenophobia, and misogyny has thrown us into a fight for our lives.
The “Free Markets” that right-wing political figures like Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Jair Bolsonaro, and others are seeking to protect and rely upon to address the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to produce chaos and needless suffering for millions of people. The economic nationalism and imperial rivalry we see on full display in the midst of this pandemic magnify the threat of war.
In the U.S. we are fed a steady stream of lies and authoritarian posturing. From Palestine to South Africa to Brazil to the U.S. and beyond, oppressive regimes are actively sacrificing vulnerable peoples and communities and treating frontline workers as utterly disposable.
We say ENOUGH! It is time to stand up! It’s Time To Strike Back – For Our Lives and Our Futures!
We have witnessed people throughout the U.S. and the World taking direct action in defense of their lives. We saw wildcat strikes, work stoppages, sickouts, protests, plant conversions, occupations, and worker takeovers at workplaces. We saw prisoner strikes and immigrant strikes. We saw rent strikes and housing occupations. We saw caravan demonstrations and physical distancing protests. Everywhere people are in motion, fighting back against the forces of reaction and irrationality that are trying to sustain a system that puts profits over people.
In order to avoid the needless deaths of millions of people and keep corporations and authoritarian governments from stealing our collective future, working and oppressed peoples need to stand together in solidarity, mutual aid, cooperation, and joint action. Together we can build a new world, a better world, one world that puts people and the planet over profits.
Collective Action is the Key. Determined mass, non-violent direct action conducted in a coordinated campaign can transform the institutions of governance and upend the power of the banks and multinational corporations and can address the immediate needs of workers and peoples throughout the world.
Take action and join the growing movement of resistance as we fight to forge a radically different future.
#NoWork #NoShopping #NoRent #NoMortgage #NoEviction #NoDebt #NoSchool #NoPrison #NoDetention actions. Let’s send Trump and Wall Street a clear message: #WeWontDieForWallSt #PeopleAndPlanetOverProfits
Our Demands
Protect All Frontline Workers in the Hospitals, the Supply Chains, Transportation Workers, and the Farms and Fields to ensure that they have all of the equipment and disinfectant materials that they need to keep themselves and the general public healthy
No return to work or end to Physical Distancing until health experts determine it is safe.
Protect Vulnerable Communities particularly Indigenous, Black, Latino, and Asian communities, the homeless, migrants, refugees, the elderly, and battered women and spouses from discrimination, repression, and physical abuse.
Institute Universal Health Care Now starting with free COVID-19 testing and treatment for all, and extending to full coverage for all (including abortion), including non-citizens, as a fundamental human right.
Institute Universal Social Services Now make all fundamental social services, such as access to water, electricity, transportation, and the internet free and universal, as well as childcare, elderly care and disability access based Economic, Social and Cultural Rights guidelines.
Institute the Human Right to Housing starting with making all the vacant and uninhabited housing stock available to those who need it now, and proceeding to make land once again a public good rather than a commodity and instituting the democratic and social distribution of housing based on need and ecological limitations.
Bailout the People, Not the Corporations and Wall Street and democratize the Finance, Credit and Insurance Industries and turn them into Public Utilities.
Institute Universal Basic Income Now starting with the distribution of basic income as a fundamental Human Right to everyone, to address social needs not provided by through the distribution of public goods and services or the provision of earned income.
Release Prisoners and Detainees! All people imprisoned for non-violent offenses, political prisoners and refugees / asylum seekers. Abolish the system of mass incarceration.
Close the Detention Centers! Reunite the Families, Stop the Raids and Deportations
Freeze Payments, including rent and utilities; Cancel debt including student loans.
Decarbonize the Economy, End Fossil Fuel and Extractive Industries Now! Institute a Green New Deal based on a program of repairing damages frontline and fenceline lands and communities, the restoration of Indigenous sovereignty and the protection and transitioning of workers in petrochemical, nuclear, and extractive industries.
Institute Food Sovereignty Policies and Practices Now and put and end to the industrial food and animal warehousing conditions that stimulate the germination of viruses like COVID-19, contaminate our water supplies, deplete our soils, and institute local food growing policies based on agroecology or permaculture techniques that preserve and expand biodiversity and soil preservation.
Democratize the Means of Production and convert corporations and workplaces into cooperatives to institute democracy in our workplaces, eliminate growing income inequality, insure greater equity in society and job security for workers, and enable the production of what we need and distribute equitably according to need.
Close all of the Overseas Military Bases Cut the Military (Defense) and Spy (Surveillance) Budgets and Redirect these funds to Health Care, Social Services, Universal Basic Income and Greening Public Infrastructure and the Economy.
End the Sanctions imposed on Cuba, Iran, and Venezuela and several nations which have crippled their efforts to combat COVID-19 and resulted in the unnecessary deaths of tens of thousands of people.