Occupy Antelope Valley Declaration of Solidarity and Unity

We, the citizens of the communities of Antelope Valley, the State of California, the United States of America, and planet Earth, have gathered in our communities and capitals this year. We do this because we love our communities, our countries, and our planet. We have come to occupy our common spaces and to manifest our common ideals. All men and all women are brothers and sisters in the human family. Each human merits respect, and each human deserves access to the resources required to live a happy and healthy life; no one should be homeless, hungry, or lack medical care Millions have been shaken from their slumber as we witness a mass awakening an awakening to the many and varied injustices being perpetrated on the planet and its inhabitants. We also see the vast potential humanity possesses to stop those who would maintain this status quo and to create a more just, more equitable, more secure, more enjoyable life for all. Our democratic ideals have been warped and our democratic institutions have been usurped to serve the very wealthiest members of our societies. We will no longer sit idly by as governments and corporations trample our civil liberties, steal our wealth, destroy our environment and starve us in a land of abundance. We know that the resources exist to accommodate the needs of every living thing on this planet, if only

they were ethically distributed. Governments, corporations, and banks are created by humans, to serve the needs of humanity. If those needs are not being met, those governments, corporations, and banks can and should be modified or replaced. No government, corporation, or bank, has any inherent right to exist nor any other right, save those rights granted to it by its creators, the people. For a number of years, giant corporations and financial institutions and their lackeys in government have written laws, rules, and regulations that invariably favor the wealthiest among us. This has resulted in disparity in wealth and income unseen in almost a century. The rich are far richer than they were even ten years ago, while the working class and poor struggle to get by on less and less.

In is in this context that we put forward now that there are certain basic principles that we agree can serve as a starting point for this movement of the 99%. The insatiable accumulation of privilege and property by those at the very top must end. Wealth is not created in boardrooms and banks. It is created by the brain and brawn of the laborer. It is both freely given from the womb of the earth and collectively manifested by the creativity and ingenuity of woman, man and child. It is essential that we end the corporate control of our political systems. The influence of financial contributions and expensive lobbying must be taken out of the equation. We believe that among the steps towards achieving this are the public

financing of elections, reversing the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, and a constitutional amendment ending corporate personhood. No man or woman who wants to work should be unemployed. The policy of our government at every level should be to encourage creation of meaningful, secure, goodpaying private and public-sector jobs. Each person willing to work should have meaningful and secure employment with pay adequate to meet his or her needs. We believe that greater workplace democracy may ultimately be required to achieve this. Certain functions are best operated independent of the profit motive. Among these enterprises are prisons, schools, healthcare, and the military. If operated for profit, prisons need prisoners; schools need tuition paying students; hospitals, doctors, health insurance companies and pharmaceutical manufacturers need patients; and mercenaries need war. These are prima facie conflicts of interest.

All men and women should enjoy equal rights, regardless of race, color, creed, sexual orientation, or any other artificial dividing line someone may choose to invent. We are all humans, and all deserve equal respect and opportunity.

Quality health care is a human right, to which each person should have access. It should not be rationed according to the ability to pay and no one should fear bankruptcy as a result of illness or injury. We believe that medical decisions are

between a patient and his or her health care provider. Single-payer Medicare for all is the only affordable and equitable means of health care reform.

Public services must be defended. We reject cuts to the social safety net. We believe that the attacks on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid must be fought and we must stop any attempted privatizations of the postal service, local fire departments and public utilities.

Free, quality education for all who desire it, from Pre-K through University is a right. We believe that we must begin the process of forgiving currently existing student loan debt, both for long-term social good and short-term economic stimulus. We believe that pursuing an education should not be a path to indentured servitude or debt peonage.

No one should be without the basic human requirement of shelter. Millions have lost homes because of flagrant violations of law by the executives of the big investment banks. After losing hundreds of billions of dollars, those banks were bailed out by the taxpayers. Yet they continue to put American families on the street, and their executives still continue to cruise Manhattan in stretch limousines.

Home foreclosures should be halted while cases are reviewed. Banks that purposely pushed risky and expensive loans should be made to pay for the consequences. Homes should be short-sold back to incumbent residents at the current

values. We can and should move towards making decent housing a right for all. And bank executives who violated the law should be prosecuted, imprisoned, and required to pay restitution to those from whom they stole.

For the sake of the future of this planet and all of its inhabitants, we must immediately begin overhauling our power grids to end our dependence of fossil fuels. Clean energy technology already exists. The worlds power needs can be met by wind, water and solar sources alone. End the Military-Industrial Complex. End the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in any and all forms and bring home all troops and private mercenaries. End the drone wars in Libya, Yemen, Pakistan and elsewhere. Prevent the use of drones domestically, stop indefinite detention without charge or trial and reject executive branch powers to unilaterally assassinate U.S. citizens without trial. Close the prison in Guantanamo Bay and all CIA black site prisons. Review our bases around the globe, from Germany to Japan to Australia, with an eye to closing any that are not absolutely necessary to our security, and bringing home all the troops, from anywhere overseas. End the Prison-Industrial complex. All law enforcement functions, from arrest to trial to incarceration, are reserved exclusively to governments. Provide for rehabilitative rather than punitive measures, where at all possible. End the so-called War on Drugs. Offer compassionate treatment, rather than prosecution, to addicts. Treat addiction as the medical issue it is, rather than a legal

problem. Release non-violent drug offenders from prisons. Legalize industrial hemp and end the prohibition on cannabis. The evidence is abundant that cannabis is useful for many people medically, and we believe it should be available for those who choose to use it, without fear of arrest or incarceration.

Provide food and water security for all. Move towards more sustainable agricultural methods, prevent the patenting of seeds, and stop the utterly unethical practice of dumping and incinerating foodstuffs to preserve profit.

Stop breaking up families and immediately halt the prosecution and deportation of undocumented workers. All human beings should be able to seek out the best possible life for themselves and their families regardless of the accidental location of their birth. This is a mass movement of, by and for the 99% and is inclusive of a wide swath of the political spectrum. Both corporate political parties share responsibility for the crisis we are facing. We call for a clear break from this corrupted two-party system and for greater democracy and accountability at all levels. There is no hope or promise in the philosophy of lesser-evilism. ----

Occupation is a form of protest. Our right to protest, our right to gather peacefully, our right to speak and publish freely: we believe these are absolute rights,

guaranteed by the first amendment of our U.S. Constitution. We also believe these rights are fundamental to all humans, and support the rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression for all people around the world. It is our absolute right and duty to protest grievous wrongs, such as the wrongs we experience today.

We, the people of Occupy Antelope Valley, stand in solidarity with the American people and the citizens of Planet Earth. We gather together as others have in capitals, parks, town squares, schools, and streets all over the world, in solidarity, in community, and in love, to begin to formulate a new vision for the world. We gather together with the knowledge that a brighter future will not and cannot be handed down by authoritarian governments; nor will it or can it trickle down from the tables of the economic elite. Fundamental change of the sort we now see to be necessary can only be achieved by the will and the direct action of humanity as a whole. Together, we are more powerful than any injustice that can be perpetrated against us. We call on all of those who have lost faith in the status quo, and those who are wavering, to join us. We call on students, and those who hope to obtain an education, workers, and those who have been pushed out of the work force, the retired, and those who desire to one day be able to retire, homeowners, and those who dream of having a place to call their own, the successful and the dispossessed, the contented and the alienated, and all those who believe that a better world is possible, stand with this movement of the 99% to make this vision a reality.

More details will emerge as we progress, and it is our hope that we do so with the input and participation of the majority of the community in a mass movement. We commit ourselves to creating this brighter future together and will not concede our lives to fear and insecurity. It is our fervent desire to achieve a peaceful, clean, planet with a society which can provide for all, and which will guarantee each man and woman the right to keep the fruits of their labor. It is our solemn oath this day to work toward this end. With clear heads and open hearts, Occupy Antelope Valley