Draft Proposal to be brought to #NYCGA on Saturday, August 25th by Queering #OWS:
We the members of Occupy Wall Street in New York City as represented by #NYCGA stand in solidarity with the Coalition to March on Wall Street South & their efforts to bring the Occupy message of economic inequality to the Democratic National Convention on September 2nd in Charlotte, North Carolina.
We call on all Occupy Wall Street allies, supporters, activists & members of the #NYCGA Working & Affinity Groups to join the coalition to March on Wall Street South by sharing their call to action & the Charlotte Principles.
Call to Action
SEPTEMBER 2012: JOIN THE COALITION TO MARCH ON WALL STREET SOUTH: BUILDING PEOPLE’S POWER AT THE DNC IN CHARLOTTE, NC
In September of 2012, the social justice movements of the United States have an opportunity and obligation to use the spectacle of the Democratic National Convention as a platform to raise people’s demands for justice on the world stage.
Progressives from around the state, from across the South and from all over the country will converge in Charlotte to oppose policies of the Democratic Party and their banking cronies.
Charlotte is the “Wall Street of the South.” With the world headquarters of Bank of America and the East Coast headquarters of Wells Fargo, it is the second largest concentration of finance capital in the U.S., after New York City.
We need a people’s movement for justice for the 99%.
Economic crises at home and abroad intensify while jobs and vital services have been cut at municipal, state and federal levels. The Democrats and Republicans are pushing austerity programs while simultaneously brokering deals that bail out and benefit banks and large corporations.
Public workers in North Carolina and Virginia are denied their right to collectively bargain, and workers elsewhere across the country are seeing this right under attack. Under the Democratic Party, the reach of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) expanded and deportations skyrocketed. U.S. wars abroad have extended and the US continues to spend billions in Afghanistan and Iraq. U.S. war drones fly over the Middle East and Africa. Antiwar and international solidarity activists are targeted in FBI raids and Grand Jury witch hunts while we continue to fight for freedom for long-incarcerated U.S. political prisoners like Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu-Jamal. We have seen a rise in bigotry and political targeting of Muslim and Arab people.
We want to see justice and equality for Black, Native, Latina/o peoples, for women and for LGBTQ peoples. We must call for a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions! We oppose the attack on our planet by big corporations; we must continue the fight for environmental justice and demand our right to a healthy air, land, and water.
Now more than ever we need a powerful mass movement that can challenge the pro-war, pro-Wall Street agendas of the two corporate parties. We see the seeds of this movement all around us.
Join the Coalition to March on Wall Street South to plan actions and events that will take place during the convention. Read through our Principles of Unity (adapted from the St. Paul Principles & Chicago Principles). Then begin working with us to develop plans for Charlotte, as we come together in resistance to the economic crisis, the banks, the wars and all the attacks on working people!
We Demand:
Good jobs for all! Economic justice now — Make the banks and corporations pay for their crisis!
Money for education, health care, housing and all human needs, not for war and incarceration!
Justice for immigrants and all oppressed peoples! Stop the raids and deportations!
Charlotte Principles (Adapted from the Chicago and St. Paul principles:
We are opposed to all forms of oppression.
We condemn and oppose racist, sexist, and homophobic demonstrations planned for the DNC.
Our solidarity will be based on respect for the widest possible diversity within the struggle for social, economic and environmental justice. As individuals and groups, we may choose to engage in a diversity of tactics and plans of action but are committed to treating each other with respect and working towards a common goal of peace and justice.
As we plan our actions and tactics, we will take care to maintain appropriate separations of time and space between divergent tactics.
We oppose any state repression of dissent, including surveillance, infiltration, disruption, limiting our action to “free speech zones,” and violence, or attempts to divide our movement through the conscious creation of divisions regarding tactics, organization, strategies, and alliances.
Any debates or criticisms will stay internal to the movement, avoiding any public or media denunciations of fellow activists and events.