Declaration of Independence… From Corporations
Friday, October 14th, 2011
In honor of the Occupy Wall Street Movement, I have composed the following updated version of our Declaration of Independence.
IN CONGRESS, October 14, 2011
The Unanimous Declaration of the 99% of the Population
of The United States of America.
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to re-examine economic systems which have connected them with one another, it is only natural that should those systems fail to serve them with fairness and justice, the People would have just cause to rise up and demand change.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all humans, by virtue of their birth are due certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness; that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Citizens, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any Form of Government or Economic system becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, or economic system laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to produce fairness and justice for all. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Economies long established should not be changed for light and transient causes. But when a long train of abuses and injustices evinces a design to reduce them under absolute oligarchy, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such tyranny and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Such has been the patient sufferance of the People; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to rise up against their former economic system. In specific, the history of Corporations is replete with repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute oligarchy, the purpose being to subjugate the People by concentrating all wealth in the hands of a few. By placing the pursuit of profit and the accumulation of capital over the welfare of the people, Corporations have demonstrated their gross unsuitability as institutions that serve the public good. To prove this, let the following facts be submitted to a candid world.
Corporations have fought against the right of workers to form free and open unions and to bargain for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
Corporations have repeatedly closed factories and shipped jobs overseas. They have caused untold hardship to thousands of unemployed workers in the form of lay-offs, reduced pensions, and lost health benefits.
Corporations have corrupted the electoral process, contributing large sums of money to legislators who will put the interests of corporations and the super wealthy over the needs of the people.
Corporations have repeatedly avoided paying their fair share of taxes by re-locating their headquarters in offshore tax havens, this despite gargantuan federal budget shortfalls.
Corporations have sought and continue to receive billions of dollars in tax payer money to bail them out for risky and speculative investments that failed, even while Corporate executives continue to receive millions of dollars in bonuses.
In a time of mass unemployment, lowered standards of living and reduced benefits, Corporations have raised the compensation for CEO’s till the average executive salary is 263 times that of the average worker.
Corporations have polluted the planet with impunity. They have repeatedly ignored laws and regulations meant to reign in the worst of their abuses. They have even written and pushed through legislation designed to water down and weaken existing environmental laws.
Corporations have routinely passed off the cost of cleanup for industrial pollution on the public taxpayer.
Corporations are leaders in denying the increasingly evident effects of climate change.
Corporate banks have illegally foreclosed on homes , despite not having the original mortgage.
Pharmaceutical Corporations have refused to research, develop and manufacture necessary drugs that could improve the health of the population because there wasn’t enough profit in it.
Corporations have sought to privatize, comodify, and limit access to the most basic services currently provided by government. They have worked to dismantle social programs, such as education, and health care, that should be the right of every citizen in a civilized society.
Corporations have fought to limit open competition and free markets through monopolistic practices such as consolidations and leveraged buy outs.
Corporations have sought to control public opinion and stifle dissent, through the monopolization and control of the media by a few large multinational companies.
Corporations have presided over the most lopsided and unfair distribution of wealth in our nation’s history. They have used this growing wealth imbalance to further influence government and tilt the board in their favor.
Corporations have sought to escape responsibility for malfeasance by influencing the courts to place limits on the amount of damages due to the public for corporate negligence.
Corporations have encouraged the government to engage in endless wars and military occupations. They continue to profit from the manufacture of billions of dollars of useless weapons of war despite a massive budget shortfall and a crushing national debt. Corporate war profiteers have stolen money that could have been used to improve the lives of the People by investment in domestic infrastructure, and fully funding public education and health care programs.
In every stage of these oppressions we, the People, have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated petitions to our government have been answered only by repeated injury, police harassment, and imprisonment. Any institution who places profit and the private accumulation of capital above all, who’s every action is marked by the stain of greed, corruption, and injustice, must not be allowed to continue to compromise the welfare of the People.
Therefore, as representatives of the 99%, we do solemnly publish and declare our right to be free from corporate tyranny and to be absolved of all allegiance to laws designed to maintain that tyranny; that until such time as our elected leaders reign in and enforce regulations to curb the worst avaricious acts of Corporations, we assert our right to join together and occupy public spaces until our grievances are heard.
United we stand in our opposition to the runaway greed and lust for power that causes large multinational corporations to try and subjugate the People, to deny them justice and equality, and to subvert and undermine our democratic system of government. The continued health and welfare of the People is more important than maintain corporate profits.
