The Occupy Wellington group, which was formed following the Occupy Wall Street protests, has released a draft vision statement as it pushes back on City Council pressure to give an end date for its camp in Civic Square.
The Group said a definite date could not be given for when they might leave, "due to the ongoing nature of the national and global problems under discussion".
"Members of the public present at the General Assembly felt that it would be irresponsible to close the public forum provided by Occupy Wellington until there is clear progress towards resolving the pressing issues identified in the Occupy Wellington Vision Statement," the group said in a media release.
Here is the group's draft vision statement, which was released Friday morning. Your view?
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Occupy Wellington Vision Statement:
Please note that this is intended to be a working draft or a “living document”. Anyone can contribute to shaping this document and our shared vision – you just need to Get Involved!
Who are we?
We are you, we are the people of the world: all ethnicities, backgrounds, genders, generations, sexualities, dis/abilities and faiths. We stand together in solidarity with pro-democracy movements around the world: the Arab Spring, the Spanish Indignados, popular uprisings in Greece and Iceland, and most recently the global Occupy movement in over 2,500 cities.
Why are we speaking out?
Each of us can identify different problems with the current system, but we are unified in our desire for a move towards social, political and economic systems that benefit all.
Globally, we face increasingly widespread environmental destruction, economic exploitation and disregard for human rights. The institutions perpetrating these abuses against our people and our planet are bigger and more powerful than any government.
How does this apply to New Zealand?
While we recognise that the situation in New Zealand is not identical to that in other countries, we are subject to, and contribute to, many of the same global problems.
· We are internationally recognised as the third most unequal society in the OECD, with an ever-widening gap between rich and poor. This year foreign-owned banks posted billion dollar profits and 151 individuals increased their wealth by $7 billion, while 200,000 children live in poverty.
· In the past 3 years, an unprecedented number of bills have passed under urgency, eliminating the opportunity for public debate while rushing through damaging changes in education, taxation, policing, copyright, and employment relations, to name a few.
· Deaf to the global call for climate action and blind to ongoing environmental catastrophes, our government seeks to open up our fossil fuel reserves to commercial speculation, mine our National Parks and drill for deep-sea oil.
· The cost of education continues to increase, while cuts in funding and resources further compromise its quality.
· Wages are not consistent with the increasing cost of living, meaning more people find it harder to make ends meet.
· This year five homes a day have been foreclosed because the owners can’t keep up with mortgage payments. The possibility of owning a home is getting further out of reach.
We are speaking out now in the hope of prompting positive change before things deteriorate further.
What is causing these problems?
The local and global problems currently facing us are the result of hierarchical economic and political institutions with the wrong priorities: the pursuit of power and profit is currently placed above the needs of people.
How do we find solutions?
We cannot expect the solutions to these problems to come from within the institutions that created them. Solutions must come from the people, united. A change is required, locally and globally, which can only be achieved with the collaboration, cooperation and creativity of all the world’s people.
We need real democracy
Real democracy is not attainable when the political process is influenced by economic power and institutional self-interest.
Decision-making processes involving more voices will generate solutions that benefit all of us.
Right now, the principles of consensus-based decision making, in which all people have an equal say, are being adopted in thousands of cities around the world. This process can be applied on local, national and global scales.
A question of priorities
We believe that society should prioritise universal values of peace, justice, equality, freedom, solidarity, collaboration, sustainability, companionship, respect, and wellbeing.
These rights should be fundamental: health, nutritious food, safe water, housing, education, self-determination, culture, political participation, freedom of movement and peaceful association.
Our vision
Our vision is a genuinely sustainable system based on human values and the principles of real democracy, in which all planetary resources are treated as the common heritage of all the earth’s inhabitants.
In New Zealand, we are fortunate enough to possess the resources needed to realise this transition. We feel it would be irresponsible not to.
The time is now. Have your say. Shape your future.
(Statement ends)
4 Comments
These rights should be fundamental: health, nutritious food, safe water, housing, education, self-determination, culture ...
Good lord. Okay, start with this:
1) If there is a fundamental right to culture, what is culture? What is keeping 'culture' away from me currently?
And just checking we're talking aesthetics not racism: can a white, middle aged bloke with a beer pot have this thing called 'culture'?
2) Do you understand that the way you would have Big Brother State - and such a mechanism is the only way you will achieve your ends - enforce these rights, by necessity will preclude 'self-determination'? That is, to steal from one group in order to redistribute the booty to another, to 'even us all up', involves nothing short of the brute force of State, and the sacrifice of every individual to 'your whim'. Against freedom and self-determinism, you are actually promoting State planning of the economy, and thus of lives, and such planning has never, ever, been able to cater for meeting the complex desires of all individuals of a society better than capitalism has? And that capitalism, proper, is the only economic system consistent with an individual's freedom, by which I assume you mean, self-determination?
3) Do you realise how current Western Keynesian economic systems are crony capitalist (planned), and crony capitalism is to laissez faire as sea horses are to horses? (If not for this point, we'd actually have some common ground).
4) If I'm not prepared to work for it, be responsible for my actions (including childbirth), why do I have a fundamental right to health, nutritious food, actually, food, water, housing, education? You need to explain this to me very clearly.
Perhaps start with this one then work your way up.
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