The 99%

When the Occupy Wall Street protests started, I scoffed and said, "It'll never pick up."

It did.

When I saw the pictures and heard testimonials, I shook my head and said, "It won't spread."

It did.

When I saw the videos of the local protests in Government Plaza in Minneapolis, I turned the other way and I said, "I won't get involved."

I did.

Yesterday I paid a visit to the Occupy Minneapolis protests in Government Plaza. Granted, I was there later in the evening when there weren't very many people there, but seeing some of the things these people were talking about actually showed me things I didn't expect to see.

Ashley Cope, the artist and writer of one of my all-time favorite comics, Unsounded, responded to a question about it on Formspring. She and I share initial reactions.

I'm not there so I can't speak definitively, but they are somewhat short-sighted. They are all brimming with youthful enthusiasm and hippy sentiment, but is anyone planning for the long-term? Wealth disparity, a collapsing middle class, a thoroughly dirty and defunct government; one-thousand and one issues that add up to the proverbial red, white, and blue dick up the ass. This protest cannot be like the Arab Spring. We don't have a single dictator or even army to rally against. We have a whole class, an entire financial system, entire branches of government that are against us. There's no one person to throw rocks at.

Change is either going to come bloodily - and I mean that literally - or it's going to come via a long term hijacking and renewal of the system. That means establishing a new political party and finding new, truly Progressive candidates to represent it. It's a lot of hard work, planning, and sacrifice. It's not just setting up tents on Wall Street.

That being said, these protests are a good start. They need to go national, grow in scale, and try to establish a few solid demands. It'll be exciting to see if it bears fruit. Roll out Mademoiselle Guillotine!

 I still think that way for the most part, but I'm slowly growing more optimistic.  They're starting to go national, even international. There are 5 separate protest efforts in Minnesota alone, and Canada (where the protests originated), Australia, Japan, and all over Europe people are rising up. Most of these protests are adopting the Declaration of the Occupation of New York City, which follows as such:


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 are really strong words, inspiring words, well-written words. But these words alone, though powerful, will not make the change happen. We need to make change happen, through our words, yes, but also through our actions. I think the 99% need to band together, to unify even more tightly, and to set completely clear goals and demands. If we do this, the protesters can do this! We can do this!

For those who are unaware, "the 99%" refers to the statistic that at any given time, anywhere from 85 to 90 percent of the wealth is in the hands of the top 1% wealthiest of the population.  Chances are, you are part of the 99%. I am too. I want the protesters to know, that I am with them.

I came from a pretty lucky household: Middle-class,with both parents having a college degree, good income, my parents raising me with love and respect into a pretty good education system, and they never once told me that I couldn't do something. I'm transferring to an expensive university soon to get a degree that may not right away give me a job (unless the gods themselves smile upon me) and thus will rack up tons of debt while working at a supermarket's bakery. I am definitely one of the luckier of the 99%, but I am still the 99%.

My name is David. I am a writer, a poet, a student, a thinker, a lover, a fighter, and I am the 99%.

If you like my writing, you can join the site to the right of the page, like Speaking with Storms on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+ . If you have questions or just want to chat, I'm on Formspring too!

Thanks for reading. Stay human, my friends.