NYC General Assembly # Occupy Wall Street

We are requesting some money for printing.The artist who made the sweet shirt is offering to make us a bunch of flags for marches. We are asking for 300 dollars as the estimated cost of printing the assembly a bunch of flags.

This is a request for funds proposal. We at OWS that we must come to you for anything more than $100 dollars. This proposal is for 2k$ for fliers to be handed out during the march to ….. I know you’ve heard a lot about the wonderful union support. We’d like to make Wed march biggest so far. Wed is also student walk out. So both labor students and us here at OWS will be uniting to take the streets again. Let’s get these fliers out so Wed we got power and numbers. One piece of paper costs about 10 cents. Each paper makes 4 fliers.

Our movement has now a reason, now we work in the action! Solidarity! It is our proposal to release this document to every other Occupy Movement, to put it on the internet as a beacon to those who are incredibly angry and want to do something about it, even if they can’t be here.

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.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
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.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
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.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.
They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
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!

*These grievances are not all-inclusive.

Frame it when we march on Wall Street, we have a really cool chant: They got bailed out, we got sold out! It’s true! In the spirit of that chant, let’s not sell each other out. Let’s bail each other out of jail. They propose that the legal group, in the chants time, when someone needs bail, they will have access to the thousands of dollars that people have generously donated to the cause on Wall Street. Bail in NYC never generally exceeds $1000, and that amount would be rare. One concern they’re trying to cover now. Another suggestion brought to them was that they have their own funds that they ask for from the public for bail money. But we’re a group that shows solidarity for each other. We’re trying to create a new paradigm where we care for each other! So it’s symbolically important that we have access to the funds that represent all of us. People seem cool with this. In the chance that once of us is arrested at a protest and needs bail, let’s have this money.

Proposal: In the rare event that someone needs bail because they were protesting or arrested in this square and its occupation, then we would provide bail money from the general funds. If it exceeds $1000, they will bring that to the GA.

Principles of Consolidation – Proposed that the second draft of our Principals of Solidarity be posted online to show the online community and the world at large that steps are being take to better refine the message of the movement.

Legal – Proposed that the group cancel its retainer with a specific law firm based on various reasons and moved to have consensus after explaining the situation in depth.

What is so extraordinary about what we’re doing here together is that we are pre-figuring the world we want to create in the here and now together. So tonight we are going to break up into groups and come up with, collectively, our principals of unity. Our principals about how we make decisions together, we make food together, we make media together, our principals that guide how we act now, and the world we want to create. Ready!? Principals of solidarity!

Extended discussion of the plan for 9/19. Consensus was reached that one group will do direct action on Wall Street, and another group will stay here and maintain the square.

Extended discussion of a contingency plan if forced out of the park. Consensus was that the tactical work group would be empowered to make the decision if necessary.

Extended discussion of the possibility of having police liaisons. Consensus was that we will not have representatives of this body going to police, but we will deal with police as they come to us, and tactical and security and legal will work together to handle this problem.

The following items were decided:

We will stay in Liberty Plaza indefinitely
We will rename Zuccotti park to Liberty Plaza
We will maintain the space and will be responsible for its up keep
We will select working and thematic groups

Some Groups that have been suggested (and are active):

Working Groups: Security, Food, Legal, Tactical, Sanitation, Media, Internet
Thematic groups: nuclear power and the environment, Student education

To see upcoming proposals, head over to our Future Proposals (https://www NULL.nycga NULL.net/category/assemblies/proposals-future/) section.

Note: The people posting proposals to this page are volunteers and do not dictate the content of the proposals.  All viewpoints expressed here belong solely to the individuals and working groups that put each proposal forward.