By Occupy Los Angels, November 24, 2011
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY’S RESPONSE TO THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES
Para Todos Todo, Para Nosotros Nada: For Everyone, Everything, For Us, Nothing
History: passed with full consensus at GA on
Wednesday 11/23/2011. The language, ideas and grievances contained herein were
culled from the minutes of 2 special City Liaison Committee Meetings, 2 General
Assemblies devoted to the issue, one meeting with the Demands & Objectives
Committee, consultation with Media and PR, and widely circulated and amended by
the online community of occupiers, and adapted into its current form by the
General Assembly on 11/23/2011.
As a collective, Occupy Los Angeles would like to express their
rejection of the City of Los Angeles’ alleged proposal that we leave City Hall
by November 28th, 2011, in exchange for an apparently now rescinded offer of a
10,000 square foot building, farmland and 100 SRO beds for the homeless.
Occupy Los Angeles believes that as part of a global movement
advocating direct, participatory democracy, and challenging economic and social
injustices, our position is such that we cannot, in all good faith, accept
further material benefit from City Hall at the taxpayer’s expense without
seriously compromising our beliefs, our desire for global change, and our
commitment to our inherent human rights to free speech and assembly protected
in this country by First Amendment Rights. The 1 percent should be paying for
any services used by the Occupy Movement, not taxpayers.
In the spirit of inclusivity and transparency which is so dear to our
movement, Occupy Los Angeles extends an invitation to Mayor Villaraigosa and
the City Council to attend our General Assemblies at the City Hall Occupation
if he wishes to discuss these and other matters in a direct, democratic and
horizontal way. Mayor Villaraigosa must speak out against the violent actions
towards our brothers and sisters, declare the actions of other cities to be
unjust, and stand before us equally at a General Assembly. Occupy Los Angeles
believes that until this happens, we should have no more closed-door
discussions regarding our continuing occupation of City Hall.
The City Council – in line with government in general – is an
authority which is more accountable to developers and corporations than the
public. The very act of the Los Angeles City Council requesting the physical
removal of Los Angeles Occupiers without redressing the grievances which were specifically
referenced in the inclusion of our adopted ‘Declaration of the Occupation of
New York City’, and in the City Council’s ’1st Amendment Rights /
Occupy Los Angeles / Responsible Banking Resolution’ — is in effect supporting
the removal of all Occupations from public space by any means. We cannot
negotiate with such an institution without undermining our sister occupations
across the globe who are suffering from oppressive force and attacks upon their
inherent human rights to free speech and assembly, protected in this country
under the First Amendment. We refer here to episodes in Oakland, Boston, New
York, Portland, UC Davis and San Francisco, to name but a few. We refer to
those further afield, in Tahrir Square in Egypt, in Madrid, Greece, London and
more. Teargas, pepper spray, beatings, jail, suppression and intimidation have
been used as a coercive method of silencing our movement and our desire for
global change.
We reject outright the City’s attempts to lure us out of City Hall
and into negotiations by offering us nebulous, non-transparent and unconfirmed
offers which fail to even begin to address our local grievances. We will
continue to occupy this space, in solidarity with our global movement, until
the forces of the few are forced to capitulate to the power of the people.
When the following grievances have been addressed – grievances
which we have agreed upon as a movement through our General Assembly as
advancing our cause and providing for the people of Los Angeles – we as a
movement will be happy to initiate dialogue with the Mayor and Los Angeles City
Council. An office space of 10,000 square feet would not have addressed these
grievances. While the grievances listed below are localized, we believe that
they promote the underlying foundations and principles of our movement, which
include, but are not limited to: providing for basic, fundamental and
inalienable human rights such as shelter, food, healthcare, freedom of choice,
sexual orientation, gender equality and education — and the right most
paramount to a free and democratic society — the right to self-govern. Detailed
demands which encompass our greater world view will be released at a later date
by our Demands and Objectives Committee through the General Assembly.
GRIEVANCES NOT ADDRESSED
1.
A moratorium on
all foreclosures in the City of Los Angeles. The City of Los Angeles to divest
from all major banks, and money to be removed from politics.
2.
A citywide effort
undertaken to solve the homelessness problem which has led to 18,000 homeless
people sleeping on Skid Row every night. Rehabilitation and housing must be
provided for all homeless people.
3.
South Central Farm
to be returned to the same LA community from which it was taken, and all other
vacant and distressed land be open for the community use, and money to the tune
of 1 million dollars – taken from Skid Row and given to the multi million
dollar NFL firm – to be returned to Skid Row.
4.
Los Angeles to be
declared a sanctuary city for the undocumented, deportations to be discontinued
and cooperation with immigration authorities be ended – including the turning
in of arrestees’ names to immigration authorities.
5.
All forms
of weaponry used by multiple law enforcement officials – including, but not
limited, to rubber bullets, pepper spray, verbal abuse, arrest, foam batons,
long-range acoustic devices and more – are not to be used on those exercising
their First Amendment Rights to petition our government for redress of
grievances. We do not accept interference with freedom of the press and the
public to document police actions in public spaces. We will not tolerate
brutality.
6.
We assert our
right to an open plaza on the South Side of City Hall for people to peacefully
assemble, voice grievances, speak freely, hold our General Assembly and come to
the people’s consensus 24 hours a day if needed.
7.
The City of Los
Angeles to pressure the State to start a convention, as provided for in the
Constitution, to remove corporate personhood and money from politics at a
national level.
8.
The City of Los
Angeles to begin a dialogue at the State and Federal level on the issues of
student debt and tuition hikes.
9.
No cutbacks in
city services or attacks on the wages, work conditions and pensions of city
employees.
10.
A world class
transit system which addresses our debilitating traffic problem and restores
the quality of life in Los Angeles.
We conclude, as a General Assembly, by
hereby renaming City Hall Park -
SOLIDARITY PARK
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