Fire Walk With Me (was: Peake) - #OccupyLosAngeles: THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY’S RESPONSE TO THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES

26.11.11

Fire Walk With Me (was: Peake) - #OccupyLosAngeles: THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY’S RESPONSE TO THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES

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Para Todos Todo, Nada Para Nosotros: For Everyone, Everything, For Us, Nothing
(This group-authored response to be read tonight at General Assembly by The Occupiers. Once consented upon, this response is to be disseminated as a press release, and ‘mic-checked’, in person, by the Occupiers themselves, on Monday 28th November 2011 in the City Council Meeting of that date)

As a collective, Occupy Los Angeles would like to express their rejection of the City of Los Angeles’ alleged proposal that we leave City Hall by November 28th, 2011, in exchange for an apparently now rescinded offer of a 10,000 square foot building, farmland and 100 SRO beds for the homeless.

Occupy Los Angeles believes that as part of a global movement advocating direct, participatory democracy, and challenging economic and social injustices, our position is such that we cannot, in all good faith, accept material benefit at the taxpayer’s expense without seriously compromising our beliefs, our desire for global change, and our commitment to our First Amendment Rights.

In the spirit of inclusivity and transparency which is so dear to our movement, Occupy Los Angeles would like to extend an invitation to Mayor Villaraigosa and the City Council to attend our General Assemblies at the City Hall Occupation in order to discuss these and other matters in a direct, democratic, horizontal way. Mayor Villaraigosa must speak out against the violent actions towards our brothers and sisters, declare the actions of other cities to be unjust, and stand before us equally at a General Assembly. Occupy Los Angeles believes that until this happens, we should have no more closed-door discussions regarding our continuing occupation of City Hall.

The City Council - in line with government in general - is an undemocratic authority which is more accountable to corporations than the public. The very act of the Los Angeles City Council requesting the physical removal of Los Angeles Occupiers by way of bribery, is in effect publicly supporting the removal of all Occupations from public space by any means. We cannot negotiate with such an institution without undermining our sister occupations across the globe who are suffering from oppressive force and attacks upon their inherent human rights to free speech and assembly, protected in this country under the First Amendment. We refer here to episodes in Oakland, Boston, New York, Portland, UC Davis and San Francisco, to name but a few. We refer to those further afield, in Tahrir Square in Egypt, in Madrid, Greece, London and more. Teargas, beatings, jail, suppression and intimidation have been used as a coercive method of silencing our movement and our desire for global change.