99 Percent Declaration
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| 99 Percent Declaration | |
|---|---|
 Document logo and Washington State Route 99 road sign | |
| Created | October 7, 2011 |
The 99 Percent Declaration is an unofficial political document published by a working group that has broken away from the original Occupy movement. It includes a list of suggested grievances which its organizers have been trying to get protesters to form consensus on.
Background
The New York City General Assembly, the main governing body of the Occupy Wall Street movement, initially adopted a "Declaration of the Occupation of New York City", listing grievances. However, two break-away groups, the Demands Working Group and the Liberty Square Blueprint, decided that wasn't sufficient and placed themselves in charge of authoring other demands.[1]
David Haack introduced a proposal outlining demands during the early planning stages of the Occupy Wall Street protests, but they were was struck down in late August. He discovered a "goals" working group and hoped that common ground could be found.[2] Shawn Redding and others formed the working group in early October to establish specific actions they would use to formally ask federal, as well as local government to adopt. Due to the nature of the movement, that has been difficult in New York and other locations.[3]
On October 15, 2011, the "Demands Working Group" published the declaration of demands, goals, and solutions.[4][2] On October 31, 2011 the Demands Working Group disappeared from the New York City General Assembly website. Later that evening a member of the group began making disparaging remarks about the site administration team and the movement overall. The server logs show the group was self deleted by the groups controlling administrator. The Official NYC GA website, "Site News" stated that administrators of groups have the ability to delete their own group at any time and "This story gets especially intriguing, though, when the other group admin decided to blame the movement".[5] According to political commentator, Taylor Marsh: "[T]he one thing I’ve seen at OWS, the “working group” isn’t mentioned by name." She goes on to mention postings from OWS and "[T]hat seems to indicate the issuers of the Declaration are not directly tied to OWS.[6]
Document
Although unofficial, it calls for a national general assembly to represent the 435 congressional districts to gather on July 4, 2012, for the purpose of assembling a list of grievances and solutions. The draft list overlaps a proposal by Robert Reich to support public works programs, tax increases, debt forgiveness, and ways to get money out of politics.[7] A National General Assembly idea comes from the Demands Working Group, a protester committee designated at one of the General Assembly meetings in Zuccotti Park. The plan includes elections by direct vote of two delegates from the Congressional Districts. These delegates will vote on a list of grievances at an assembly in Philadelphia. After forming, the group launched a website and published the list online, but the plans have not been backed by the OWS movement in New York or completely accepted nationaly.[4][2] The Declaration says the Assembly would operate like the Committees of Correspondence of the Founding Fathers of the United States who met in Philadelphia.[8]
References
- ^ "Wall Street occupiers need a rethink on strategy". Times Live, AVUSA, Inc. Retrieved 11-5-11.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ a b c Haack, D. (October 24, 2011) "How the Occupy movement won me over" The Guardian
- ^ "Protesters Debate What Demands, if Any, to Make". The New York Times. Retrieved 11-3-11.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ a b Duda, C. (October 19, 2011) "Occupy Wall Street Protesters Call for National General Assembly, Put Forward Possible Demands" Juvenile Justice Information Exchange
- ^ "The NYCGA-True Hollywood Story: The 99Declaration Group, an Exposé". New York City General Assembly Official Website. Retrieved 11-3-11.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ ""The 99 Percent Declaration" from "An OWS Working Group"". TaylorMarsh.com. Retrieved 11-3-11.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ Walsh, J. (October 20, 2011) "Do we know what OWS wants yet?" Salon
- ^ Dunn, M. (October 19, 2011) "‘Occupy’ May Hold National Assembly In Philadelphia" CBS Philadelphia
Further reading
- Lefcourt, D. (October 21, 2011) "The Essence of the Occupy Movement, 'Redress of Grievances'" Op-ed news
- Benn, J. (October 2, 2011) "Occupy protestors make demands in The99Declaration" Rocky Mountain Collegian
- Moore, T. (October 25, 2011) "The Populist's Dilemma" Cornell Sun