i PROPOSE that members of this OCCUPY NATIONAL GATHERING planning group re-familiarize themselves with the Principles of Solidarity, passed by the NYC General Assembly on September 17 2011, in addition to The Declaration of the Occupation of New York City, passed by the NYC General Assembly on September 29 2011. These two documents are the results of consensus of Occupy Wall Street which define the Occupy Wall Street Movement.

Many of the challenges this group has recently faced are the result of ideas or processes that are directly opposed to the idea of Occupy Wall Street, especially the issues regarding Patriarchy and personal power, and there is a need to create a safe space of compassion for individual needs and emotions. This safe space already exists in the Principles of Solidarity, which includes: "Empowering one another against all forms of oppression."

Since this IS the Occupy National Gathering 2014, and in spite of the fact that individual occupations may have adopted amended versions of these documents, it would seem to be a good re-alignment tool to re-familiarize Occupiers with these two documents in order to get back to the space of SOLIDARITY in which we started this movement. Since people will come from all over the world to attend the National Gathering, having the original core documents as a reference to return to will do much to realign us to the common ground that originally connected us.

The Principles of Solidarity
On September 17, 2011, people from all across the United States of America and the world came to protest the blatant injustices of our times perpetuated by the economic and political elites. On the 17th we as individuals rose up against political disenfranchisement and social and economic injustice. We spoke out, resisted, and successfully occupied Wall Street. Today, we proudly remain in Liberty Square constituting ourselves as autonomous political beings engaged in non-violent civil disobedience and building solidarity based on mutual respect, acceptance, and love. It is from these reclaimed grounds that we say to all Americans and to the world: Enough! How many crises does it take? We are the 99% and we have moved to reclaim our mortgaged future.

Through a direct democratic process, we have come together as individuals and crafted these principles of solidarity, which are points of unity that include, but are not limited to:

Engaging in direct and transparent participatory democracy;
Exercising personal and collective responsibility;
Recognizing individuals’ inherent privilege and the influence it has on all interactions;
Empowering one another against all forms of oppression;
Redefining how labor is valued;
The sanctity of individual privacy;
The belief that education is human right; and
Endeavoring to practice and support wide application of open source.
We are daring to imagine a new socio-political and economic alternative that offers greater possibility of equality. We are consolidating the other proposed principles of solidarity, after which demands will follow.

The Declaration of the Occupation of New York City

(This document was accepted by the NYC General Assembly on September 29, 2011)

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.

Using The Principles of Solidarity & The Declaration of the Occupation of New York City as organizational frameworks and the basis of some form of Values Based Consensus would be great but...

It would take alot of work to come to consensus about the form of it's use and not something I think we should rush into with just one month till NatGat.

So:

I Propose: We have a People's Mic reading of The Principles of Solidarity & The Declaration of the Occupation at the first large group event or assembly of NatGat.

How to Weigh In:
YES: Great Idea & I want to help!
ABSTAIN: Great idea but I can't Help
NO: I don't care, do what you will/ I trust the group's choice
BLOCK: If these are read at Nat Gat I will leave the movement because of ethical or moral concerns.