Forum Post: NYCGA Press Release v3.5 (Draft)
Posted 13 years ago on Aug. 21, 2011, 12:26 p.m. EST by anonymous
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This content is user submitted and not an official statement
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The People of New York City Will OCCUPY WALL STREET on September 17, 2011
Contact:
Phone: +1 (516) 708-4777
Phone: +1 (214) 779-8991
Email: info@occupywallst.org
Twitter: @OccupyWallSt
We of the General Assembly have been holding peaceful public meetings to discuss how we can ‘Take the Bull’ and bring accountability to Wall Street. The New York City Assembly intends to use the revolutionary “Arab Spring” tactic of mass occupation in order to bring the positive changes this nation needs. The New York City Assembly in solidarity with Egypt, Greece, Spain, Iceland, and other mass movements internationally adhere to militant non-violence to achieve our ends and in order to maximize the safety of all participants.
We agree our nation is in crisis and our political process is paralyzed. Wall Street Banks have aggressively attacked the people and stolen the wealth of the nation several times over. Wall St. and Corporate interests have succeeded in their attempt to disguise their crimes in the form of obscure financial transactions and “bailouts”.
History has taught us that the United States government is more responsive to the needs of large Wall Street Banks than it is to the needs of its actual citizens. Elections, voting, polite political assembly, even marches, rallies, and speak outs have failed to achieve the social and economic reforms the people of the United States, and other nations, so desperately need.
In response, the New York City General Assembly, in cooperation and coordination with thousands of people, has called for the full and total Occupation of Wall Street on September 17, 2011.
We encourage the public to search for us online at:
I'm all in favor of this. Love it.
Yes it's terrific!
Notify your representatives that you are taking part of this movement and why. They can't ignore it if its in their emails, on their blogs and twitter accounts and on their TV
http://americanjobspot.blogspot.com/
Non-violent is the only option. The point is to send the message to our representatives that we are not okay with 400 Americans having more wealth that 150,000,000 Americans combined. We are not accepting of 10 banks holding 77% of all American Assets. There should be signs everywhere. They should be simple, "Democracy not Corporatocracy" "Banksters stole our Government" they should also state what we are after, "Tax high frequency trading" "Bring back import tariffs" Our goals are to fight globalization and the exploitation of workforces without human rights laws.
please visit my blog
http://americanjobspot.blogspot.com/
I likey thanks for keeping revolutionary in there to echo above
Lol fuck semantics....it is fine. Great job. Thanks for keeping revolutionary and militant in there
The most important point is to be organized, connected, stand together and be brave and strong, the violence or non violence will reveal itself.
Isolation and fear is their weapon! We have to resist! are you willing to tug o war your neighbor being grabbed by the enforcers, stand up for what's right! That's all you need to know or do!
Since hearing, through Adbusters, about a call to occupy Wall Street I have been doing my best to follow the efforts of those who express a desire to participate. Although my earnest desire is by no means any assurance that my effort has achieved a perfectly clear view or assessment of all those involved, I feel compelled to offer commentary regarding the efforts of those people who I have heard. With less than a month to go until September 17th, (an arbitrarily determined date?) there has yet to emerge a clear vision of what is expected…of anyone. The initial call to action mentioned kitchens, yet I have not heard mentioned any logistical plan for bringing, into the occupied area, food to prepare in these kitchens, methods of sanitization, or waste disposal. This alone leads me to believe that leadership is lacking and the plan to occupy Wall Street has not been taken seriously by the people involved. Consensus toward, in my opinion, the critical issue of whether non-violence will be adhered to has not been achieved, yet ironically, the criticism of ineffective U.S. democratic process continues in online chatter. So far, I have yet to see a map of the planned operation indicating where medic stations, water stations, latrines, or even entry and egress points. I've not heard of any outreach efforts toward veterans, EMS, firefighters, police, or governmental officials etc. who would likely prove to be of great service as allies with shared interests in this effort. I applaud the passionate spirit towards a desire to bring about changes in our political and economic system. I support civil disobedience and I am inspired that there does seem to be a large number of people who are willing to participate. I would hate to see any number of my fellow citizens casually wandering into a small urban canyon under the impression that they are going to have a good time, only to find out that they will be crapping into overflowing shopping bags while dehydrated and choking on tear gas as the click clack sound of trampling horses roars in the distance.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Right now much of the planning is being done at the general assembly and within its subcommittees such as the tactics group, outreach group, food group, etc. Once these committees have had a bit more time to work together and develop concrete plans, we hope to start publishing it on this site. Until then I hope you'll choose to get involved and become an organizer yourself :) We need all the help we can get.
September 17th happens to be Constitution day, although since it is a Saturday Constitution day will be observed on the 16th.
I posted the above reply and just noticed the logistics sections on this site. My apologies to the OP for distracting from the intent of this thread.
"full and total Occupation of Wall Street on September 17, 2011. " this is stronger if it says "full and total Occupation of Wall Street beginning on September 17, 2011 and lasting until our demand is met. "
Also, this press release fails to say what you folks actually want... what is the point of the occupation?
copyediting:
"banks" and "corporate" need not be capitalized.
“We recognize that even a massive body of people is no match for the NYPD and the federal government, so this movement will be entirely non-violent and peaceful.”
Is this the reason, we’re for non-violence. Do we have to give a reason? Sounds ambiguous- as if we would be for violence if we could pull it off.
heh yeah...so?
I agree, I think it implies we're being peaceful for all the wrong reasons. It makes it sound like if we were armed, we wouldn't be non-violent. I love the release, but I think we should give reasons for nonviolence that apply it as a principle instead of saying "we're being peaceful because we'd lose an armed fight." We could say something like "Our movement, tactics and message are focused on total peace and nonviolence, because we recognize that you can't fight an honest struggle for freedom and justice without peace as both the the means and the end."
Non-violent resistance is not an end in and of itself, it's a tactic. As far as I know, it is the official stance of the general assembly that we should endorse non-violent tactics without decrying those who choose to defend themselves or employ a diversity of tactics.
hear hear/ amen/ hallelujah!
So... jart, as the moderator of this site, does that mean that you are endorsing "necessary" violence? By whose definition does it become necessary? Nonviolence is starting to sound like pro-violence "as long as they started it".
I stated no opinion other than the fact that nonviolence is a tactic rather than an absolute.
This website strongly encourages nonviolent resistance because we want to maximize the safety the all participants. We plan to have a resource page with information on these tactics shortly. We're also hoping to help organize workshops that will offer this sort of training.
"total peace and nonviolence" are admirable tactics, at least in the beginning of this phase of the occupation. Are you saying, though, that total non-violence will be adhered to no matter what tactics are deployed against the occupation? Let's not get too carried away with the example of Tahrir, things are going much differently is Libya and Syria.
I don't like all this "self defense" talk. Have you seen the pictures from Greece of policemen who were set on fire? Even if they're on the wrong side of the protest, they have families too. They are victims of Wall Street too. Let's not forget about that when people start throwing rocks and "non-violently" lighting up molotov cocktails. We aren't there to protest NYPD. We're protesting greedy corporations. If it gets violent, people will get hurt on both sides and everybody loses except the banks!
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This is really good. Just a couple of things:
Starting with "we of the general assembly" seems a bit overwrought. It would sound better as "we, the general assembly," or just "the general assembly."
"take the bull" - what does that mean? It's part of the title above. it sounds like a call to action, but why include it in the body also if we're not gonna define it.
I would delete "revolutionary" before "Arab Spring." It makes us sound like a bunch of marxists. Even if the intent was describe the tactic as new and fresh, it doesn't com across that way.
When I hear us even mentioning the prospect of fighting the NYPD and the goddamn CIA, I start to lose interest on account of it being unrealistic. I'd say instead "We recognize that antagonizing the officers of the NYPD and the federal government is useless, so this movement will be entirely non-violent and peaceful.
There's a missing antecedent after "aggressively attacked." As it stands, it says that the wall st banks have attacked the wealth of the people, rather than attacked us, our rights, our communities, or whatever.
The third paragraph can star with "History has taught us that the United States Government..." without the rest of it.
revolutionary has no inherent association with marxism...ie egypt...
These sorts of sectarian attacks are exactly what we don't need.