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.

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

• Proposed List of Demands, current version, at OccupyWallSt.org
• Our One Demand published September 22, 2011 at OccupyWallSt.org
• Declaration of Occupation at OccupyWallSt.org

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.