Occupy Portland - Goals and Demands

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The content of this page is a working participatory draft. As yet, there is no mutually-agreed-upon set of goals, principles, and demands for the Occupy Portland movement, the Occupy Wall Street movement, or any of the other Occupy Together movements.

Mission and Goals

Occupy Portland was created with the initial goals of 1) expressing solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement that began in New York City on September 17, 2011, and 2) working actively to reclaim government from the hands of powerful special interests. No other mission or goals have yet been articulated.

Organizational and Operating Principles

Occupy Portland is a loose organization of concerned citizens and residents working together to support Occupy Wall Street other Occupy Together movements and to effect change in governance. No official organizational or operating principles have yet been codified. Participants are generally committed to non-violent direct and indirect action and to making decisions following a participatory, consensus-seeking model.

Primary Demands

No list of demands has yet been agreed upon. Any demands that have been approved by the General Assembly will be included here.

Proposed Demands

 Please discuss, craft, hash out, etc your goals and demands proposals here: Occupy Portland - Goals and Demands/Proposals.
 As proposals are agreed to, please move the agreed-upon text back to this page.
PLEASE BRAINSTORM. THINK SERIOUSLY BEFORE ALTERING OR DELETING ANY PROPOSALS LISTED BELOW. FEEL FREE TO USE THE DISCUSSION PAGE AS A SOUNDING BOARD FOR YOUR IDEAS.

The Wiki nature of the brainstormed list below honors the diversity of the demands of the individuals involved in the Occupy Portland and other Occupy Together movements.

If any of the items below are brought before the General Assembly for discussion and approval, they will be included in the Primary Demands section above.

  1. To be seen not ignored
  2. To Pass Laws that will favor the economic rights of citizens over the needs of corporations
  3. To institute government laws and authorities to guard against actions that may cause instability in the economic market.

etc.

Please add your demands to the list above! But only include demands that:

  1. are likely to be supported by a large majority of the 99%;
  2. can only be accomplished by law (as opposed to demands that can/should be brought about by collective changes in individual behavior - we're not abdicating personal responsibility); and
  3. must be met in order for you to feel that the OccupyTogether movement has been a success.

External links and resources

Quote from Cornel West:

It’s impossible to translate the issue of the greed of Wall Street into one demand, or two demands. We’re talking about a democratic awakening...you’re talking about raising political consciousness so it spills over all parts of the country, so people can begin to see what’s going on through a set of different lens, and then you begin to highlight what the more detailed demands would be. Because in the end we’re really talking about what Martin King would call a revolution: A transfer of power from oligarchs to everyday people of all colors. And that is a step by step process.

Occupy Wall Street! Collective Statement Of The Protesters: Full Text[1]

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Keith Olbermann Reads The Statement
Released By The Wall Street Protesters - 2011-10-05

What follows is the first official, collective statement of the protesters in Zuccotti Park:

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.

  1. They have taken our houses through an illegal 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.
  13. They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
  14. They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
  15. They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.
  16. They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
  17. 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.
  18. They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
  19. They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
  20. They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
  21. They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.
  22. They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
  23. 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!

  1. ↑ Occupy Wall Street! Collective statement of the protesters…
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