Along with this ownership of wealth comes control and influence over the political system. While the wealth of the one percent has grown, the conditions for the vast majority of people have worsened, with more people unemployed, living in poverty, carrying greater debt, and struggling to make a living.
Wall Street is the location of the New York Stock Exchange, where investors buy and sell the stocks of U.S. companies. It is the largest stock exchange in the world, trading over $150 billion in stocks every day. Wall Street is the symbolic center of the world’s largest banks, investment funds, and global corporations which hold so much power over our jobs, the mortgages on our homes, the price of medical care, and the future of our communities.
Occupy is an action based on the freedom of assembly. The right of the people to peaceably assemble is protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations.
Birth of a movement
The Occupy Wall Street movement started on September 17, 2011, when a thousand people responded to an e-mail message asking people to come to Wall Street to protest the inequality of wealth, to fight back against the power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process, and to hold these corporations responsible for creating the greatest economic recession in generations. A few hundred people stayed and camped out in Zuccotti Park, which they renamed Liberty Square in honor of the Egyptian mass uprising which forced the resignation of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. The Egyptian protestors occupied Cairo’s Tahrir Square—which they called Liberty Square.
Movement spreads
As the Wall Street occupation continued, it began to spread across the United States, into Canada, and around the world. On November 17, two months after September 17, similar occupations and protest movements have taken root in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, to 29 countries, and 2,420 cities around the world.
“We are the 99 percent” carried the force of an idea that captured the frustration and anxiety people had about their future, made sense of the economic mess in the country, and gave people the understanding that they hold the real power of democracy in their hands.
Global uprising
The Occupy Wall Street movement began in the United States in September, but it drew from many of the ideas of similar mass protests of ordinary citizens taking place around the world. Most of the protests were directed at politicians and governments that were trying to deal with the economic losses caused by the global financial crisis of 2008-2009. The political solution adopted by most governments was to bail out the failing banks and make the average citizen pay. Government services were cut, public workers lost their jobs, taxes and fees were increased.
The financial crisis was caused by U.S. banks and investment companies which had sold trillions of dollars worth of mortgage backed financial products to banks around the world. When the U.S. housing market collapsed, banks around the world found themselves in deep trouble, with potential losses of billions of dollars in “toxic” mortgage backed investments.
“They got bailed out, while the people suffer” is a common theme of these global protests.
The people of Iceland were among the first to rebel against paying to save the banks for their bad investments. They demonstrated by the tens of thousands in 2008 and voted by a margin of 93 percent against a March 2010 referendum to repay loans made to bail out Iceland’s banks. A second referendum to repay the loans in April 2011 was also defeated.
In Spain, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets on May 15 to protest government attempts to make the people pay the cost of economic recovery. The Spanish protestors called for a global day of protest on October 15, 2011, and demonstrations were held in more than 950 cities in 82 countries. Protest signs included: “We are the 99%,” “United for Global Change,” and “Human Rights for Everybody.”
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.
legal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
2. They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
3. They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
4. They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
5. They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
6. They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
7. They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
8. They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
9. They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
10. They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
11. They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
12. 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.
13. They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
14. They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.
15. They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
16. 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.
17. They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
18. They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
19. They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
20. They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad. They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
21. 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!
This document was accepted by the NYC General Assembly on September 29, 2011
Same-sex couples gain legal rights on January 1, 2012
On February 23, 2011, Hawaii enacted a law which makes same-sex and opposite-sex couples eligible for civil union recognition beginning January 1, 2012, and grants civil union couples many of the same rights as married couples in Hawaii.
The new law will recognize civil unions entered in other states between two individuals not recognized under Hawaii’s marriage law beginning January 1, 2012, provided that the relationship meets the eligibility requirement of Hawaii’s civil unions laws, has been entered into in accordance with the laws of the other state, and can be documented.
To comply with the law, many medical plan are changing their rules to allow same sex couples to be covered the same way married spouses are covered by their partners health plan. The plans should mail you notice of the change, but you can also talk to your employer for more information.
As of January 1, 2012, the ILWU Health and Welfare Plan will cover same sex partners, but members have 30 days to inform the trust and must meet the requirements established by the Health and Welfare Plan Trustees. Domestic partners must have been living in a spouse-like arrangement 12 months prior to coverage and show proof of the relationship, such as joint bank accounts, joint loans, etc. You should call the ILWU Health and Welfare plan administrators at 866- 377-3977 for more information.
Federal law does not recognize civil unions so federal programs such as Social Security, COBRA, veteran benefits and federal taxes are not affected.
Some areas covered by civil unions are worker’s compensation, Hawaii family leave, inheritance without a will, hospital visitation, loan eligibility, property rights and protection under Hawaii domestic violence laws. Private employers must also extend the same benefits to same sex couples as married couples. This includes medical benefits, funeral leave, and pension benefits. Visit www.hawaii.gov/doh/ civilunion for more information and eligibility requirements.