It’s time to stop derailing the issue that has brought us here. These General Assemblies are meant to move us forward as a part of this 21st century People’s Awakening. The reason we are all here is in response and support of Occupy Wall Street. We are the 99%, fighting for our freedom against oppression.
We must not let the self-interests of a few impede the interest of the whole.
We should remember the words of Malcom X when he said: “Brothers and sisters, and friends -- and I see some enemies. In fact, I think we’d be fooling ourselves if we had an audience this large and didn’t realize that there were some enemies present.”
They want us to get bogged down with discussions that are causes of importance to many, if not all of us – yet causes that cannot affect our economic situation. We must not let ourselves lose focus of the goal here, to do as Andrew Jackson once did and kill the Bank.
Support each other – open dialogues and share stories – please don’t shut each other down simply because you disagree. Overcome your differences and show patience with one another. We are all entitled to our opinions. Freedom of speech is incredibly important, and we all have it. We come from all facts of life. We have people of all ages here – from infants to senior citizens. Nobody has the right to silence any of us.
We in the Media Team came here to stand in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement. We did not come here in support of any political party, special interest group or organization but the Occupy Wall Street movement. We are here to end a system designed from the bottom up to concentrate the wealth at the top. We must always remember that the Central Banking system is at the heart of all our struggles. They are the ones that have destroyed our middle class in the pursuit of higher profits. They are the ones that fund wars. They are the ones that strip nations of their wealth, leaving destitution in their wake. They created the system for themselves, not for us.
17 Comments
read on here under What we Want...
Submitted by balmerhon on
get boots off of ground in Middle East or Iraq?, and use drones and special ops? What??? We Want drones and special ops? I don't think so. Who is watering down our demands. Drones are the worst. Drones are insane, and special ops more so. We don't want WAR people. Nor violence. These things represent great violence and War, against others and within ourselves. STOP ALL WAR and it's machinery! Thank you!
But what is more important?
Submitted by Abejarano on
The thing is there are so many issues that validly need correction but the movement is still small and needs to concentrate on awaking more people to concern themselves. To do this we must concentrate on the most important. I'm probably wrong but to me this would be a clearly defined separation of government and business.
Banks, Wall Street, Insurance Companies, the same thing?
Submitted by SWARMtheBANKS on
The unification may not necessarily come from agreeing on one common enemy, but rather preventing the further loss of main street's wealth back to the bankers in the form of defaults.
Banks presently have the right to default on anybody who requires a debt restructuring. This one issue is singlehandedly destroying main street. It basically means that ANYONE who needs new terms on an existing loan, debt, or mortgage must first default before they will "helped".
www.occupynews.net, www.swarmthebanks.com, www.bankprotests.com, www.parallelforeclosure.com, www.unfairforeclosures.com, www.daily-protest.com, www.bloggersagainstchasebank.com www.robotsagainstchase.com, www.credit-protector.com
But what is more important?
Submitted by Abejarano on
The thing is there are so many issues that validly need correction but the movement is still small and needs to concentrate on awaking more people to concern themselves. To do this we must concentrate on the most important. I'm probably wrong but to me this would be a clearly defined separation of government and business.
Proposed OWS Mission Statement:
Submitted by Rancho Larry on
Given the recent history of economic events, resulting from the corrupt deregulation of financial intuitions and their subsequent abuses, and the dominate control gained by the top 1% in resources over the domestic electoral processes, we the people MUST NOW take the responsibility to implement Fair and Just corrections to our Democratic Republic of the United States of America. We must organize into an effective electoral block and call for a Constitutional Convention to implement the changes required for attaining a just society.
We MUST move away from Fear and Scarcity based decisions. We MUST move toward decisions arrived through Abundance based processes, as decided by an educated electorate, without violence, with an ideal 99% rate of participation. To that end we pledge our faith, energies, and resources.
Draft 5.0 RanchoLarry@3aweb.com rev.11-14-11
It won't work.
Submitted by Abejarano on
The government and its processes are so complicated and so corrupted by big business "donations" and other influences that I think we need to alert and demand that a separation of the two is required. It's in everyones best long term interest to have the institutions of our "democratic" society able to function independently and openly. A movement towards making a large elctctoral block is playing into the system's mechanisms. We need to boycot the vote, boycot the system, wake people.
Proposed OWS Mission Statement:
Submitted by Rancho Larry on
Given the recent history of economic events, resulting from the corrupt deregulation of financial intuitions and their subsequent abuses, and the dominate control gained by the top 1% in resources over the domestic electoral processes, we the people MUST NOW take the responsibility to implement Fair and Just corrections to our Democratic Republic of the United States of America. We must organize into an effective electoral block and call for a Constitutional Convention to implement the changes required for attaining a just society.
We MUST move away from Fear and Scarcity based decisions. We MUST move toward decisions arrived through Abundance based processes, as decided by an educated electorate, without violence, with an ideal 99% rate of participation. To that end we pledge our faith, energies, and resources.
Draft 5.0 RanchoLarry@3aweb.com rev.11-14-11
Focus
Submitted by Kimma on
Thank you Media Team for reaffirming the reason why so many people support this movement. These few sentences say it all.
"We are here to end a system designed from the bottom up to concentrate the wealth at the top. We must always remember that the Central Banking system is at the heart of all our struggles. They are the ones that have destroyed our middle class in the pursuit of higher profits. They are the ones that fund wars. They are the ones that strip nations of their wealth, leaving destitution in their wake. They created the system for themselves, not for us."
Kim
"Excess ain't rebellion"
"The System"
Submitted by LovingFighter on
What do you (and the media team) mean by "The system"? I often hear people talk about "the system," but when they elaborate on what they mean I get the feeling that they don't really understand what "the system" really is. To say that the Central Bank is at the heart of our struggle may be correct in terms of the movement's focus, but to imply that the Banks are at the center of the system is, I think, a theoretical mistake. I think the Banks are the outcome of organizing production on the capitalist system. My point is that if we concentrate on the outcome (banks), we will leave the system in tact and will only be putting a band-aid on the problem. It may work for a while, but in the long run I think focusing on the Banks is a mistake.
Big movements for social change don't just have one demand
Submitted by Lee on
I agree that Occupy Wall Street and the national occupy movement, including our own Occupy LA, need a strong focus. That focus includes the abhorrent concentration of wealth in the top 1%, and the extraordinary power of banks and big corporations and even individual billionaires that have undone our democracy, committed violence against people and the environment, and squandered our resources, undermining the rights, opportunities and even the survival of the 99%. Dealing with this cannot come down to one or two concrete demands, such as campaign finance reform, specific bank regulations, loan forgiveness, corporate accountability, fairer taxes etc., although of course we should include such concrete demands. Think of the big social movements that have transformed the United States: the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Liberation Movement, the Labor Movement, Gay Rights, Environmental, etc. They lasted for years at the minimum, engaged hundreds of thousands up to millions, and also produced lasting change. None of them had just one or two demands! Even the anti-war movement against the Vietnam war had a range of demands, with people differing on how fast troops could be withdrawn, how much the military budget should be cut, the issue of ending the draft ,etc. But the anti-war movement did have a lot of impact on society, and won some of those demands, although it could not permanently hold back US aggression in other countries.So I guess eventually this movement needs a name in addition to Occupy Wall Street, a more descriptive name for what we want. But not just two or three demands!
Leone
Answer To "The System"
Submitted by Kimma on
Loving Fighter: I'm just rank & file here... one of the 99%. And I'm about to be homeless. I know what I know. And, with all due respect, I owe you NO explanations or definitions.
Kim
"Excess ain't rebellion"
How constructive!
Submitted by LovingFighter on
With this logic we give the floor to the Ron Paul supporters, too. No need to explain yourself! Say whatever you want!!!
I reason that lovingfighter is an Agent P.
Submitted by Corporal Thing A. on
Stirs trouble. No constructive solutions. Alot of hot air getting people off message.
Should we have an 'ignore user' option ?
Corporal Thing A. 'Civilizationalist'
oh god...
Submitted by LovingFighter on
Please don't try to smear me just because you don't have a good answer to a legitimate question.
Thank you.
Explanations
Submitted by nobody on
Kimma - if you're not willing to explain what you mean, why should anyone concern themselves with your message and platform?
In a direct democracy, people need to share information and educate each other. All ideas are subject to scrutiny. People will have disagreements, but they must be worked through, or at least identified as points of disunity or diversity.
Agree / Disagree
Submitted by nobody on
I agree that we came here to support Occupy Wall Street.
I also think that everyone also came to Occupy LA for a wide range of reasons, some personal, some ideological, some even organizational (their organization said they should), and some for family reasons.
I don't agree that central banking is the root cause of all the problems. I don't agree that it's "capitalism" that's the root problem - that's too broad. I think it's a dynamic between banks, politics, greed, and systemic inequality.
But, that's okay.
We can agree to disagree.
I believe we all want Occupy LA to grow. We all want Occupy LA to cohere, to have a unity, but also to have diversity.
To shut down discussion about other issues is unproductive. There's widespread discontent within Occupy and outside of occupy because the movement is replicating patterns of white, male, hetero privilege in who sets the agenda, and the perspectives and analysis that are accepted. To say these are side issues really ignores reality.
We must be united
Submitted by old guy 57 on
I agree completely with what you've written. This movement is still very young and fragile. We are diverse and everyone brings their personal perspective. The most important point is that we need to grow strong, we need to be inclusive. We will only serve our detractors with confusion and infighting.
Hopefully we are all free-thinking enough that we do have different priorities and passions - that's our strength. If we are simply a mindless herd we are exactly what the people in power hope for. While marching with and listening to others yesterday I heard many different ideas. I agreed with many, disagreed with some - every one of them belongs with us. The details of how this movement progresses will evolve. The first priority should be survival and progress.
I hope all of us will promote interaction, discussion,and acceptance of each other. No-one has all the right answers or even all of the right questions at this point. The problems facing our society are enormous and will take years to correct. Some of the people attaching themselves to this movement are not beneficial, but they will be weeded out in time.
Please, don't attack each other. Please don't be condescending. We must have unity or we will become weak and irrelevant.
Keith Miles
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