In 1776, the United States’ Declaration of Independence from an unjust, exploitative colonial power was celebrated as a bold, powerful, patriotic act. In 2012, there is again a need to declare independence  - from insidious corporate power, economic exploitation, assaults on civil liberties, an environmental liquidation, and plenty of other problems that you already know about… so let’s use this unique day to connect the historical dots and #DeclareIndpendence. Let’s demonstrate positive, bold, forward-facing change on this significant US holiday.

Independence from corporate exploitation something we all deserve. This day of action is open to all who seek to create a just, sustainable future. It is a call for expression, discussion, and learning about what people, groups, and organizations seek to  #DeclareIndependence from. It is an opportunity to share your important work and gather new supporters. As a participant you will help co-create collectively whatever #DeclareIndependence becomes. Invite your vast networks to join you.

Here’s how:

For Individuals:
-Join this Facebook event and invite your friends.
-Follow on Twitter: @ElectDemocracy
-Take a picture with your #DeclareIndependence message and share it with us!
-Invite your friends and groups you know to participate
-Get ready to tweet and post your heart July 3-4 as we #DeclareIndependence!

For Groups and Organizations:
-Let us know you are participating and what you want to #DeclareIndependence from. Fill out this short form to stay in the loop.
-Invite your supporters & friends to join the event in emails, facebook and twitter.  You can hold a contest for supporters to vote on what your org will #DeclareIndependence from, send out little ‘teasers’ and use ‘get ready to #DeclareIndependence on July 4th messaging to get your supporters excited to be a part of this.
-Join & promote the Facebook event
-On Twitter, follow: @ElectDemocracy
-Tell other organizations you work with about this opportunity to get the word out about your efforts and find new supporters.
-On July 4th, post a blog organziation’s unique call to #DeclareIndependence  and link to your blog when you Tweet with the magic hashtag
-Take a picture with your supporters who #DeclareIndependence and share with the world
-Get ready to tweet and post your heart out from July 3-4

Leave a comment: What will YOU #DeclareIndependence this July 4th?

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“Who’s Organizing This?”

While #DeclareIndependence, doesn’t ‘belong’ to anyone, you can learn more about the folks who kicked off this day of action by checking out Global Exchange’s Elect Democracy campaign. We’ll be releasing a report about the connections of finance sector campaign contributions and industry-favorable voting records in the Congressional Banking and Finance committees on July 4th, so stay in touch with us to share this ground-breaking research.
At Global Exchange we seek to build an ever-expanding base of learning, understanding, shared connection and global solidarity in the work we do. While the Elect Democracy campaign is focused on exposing the connections of big bank campaign contributions and Congressional corporate loyalty, we understand that money in politics as well as the dangers of too much corporate power are enormous issues that no one organization or group can take on alone. Thus, we initiate collaborative moments such as this one to highlight moments in history, such as Independence Day, as locations for illuminating connected struggles for justice, peace, and real democracy. We hope you will join us.

Protest puppet during Chevron shareholder meeting May 30, 2012 Photo Credit: Global Exchange

Community members from around the world who have suffered from the impacts of Chevron’s actions gathered today outside Chevron’s headquarters in support of human rights, environmental, economic and climate justice. Global Exchange Director of Organizing Kirsten Moller was there:
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On May 30th, people gathered from around the world to descend on San Ramon, CA and confront Chevron at its annual shareholder meeting.

The protest space in front of Chevron has gotten smaller in the past two years—the wide open green lawn has been replaced by spiky succulents in bark dust and a new fence sweeps around the landscape to tastefully keep the protesters confined to the sidewalk.

That didn’t stop the spirited annual gathering of representatives from affected communities in Brazil, Nigeria, Angola, Ecuador and Richmond, California who came to let the shareholders know that their investments were in danger.

Global Exchange arrived with a pile of signs in the shape of brooms and barrels of oil calling on Chevron to clean up their messes wherever they make them  — oil spills in Brazil, toxic dumping in Ecuador and flaring in Africa – the list goes on and on.  Kate McLain (pictured below) was among the group of protestors. She recently returned from a  Global Exchange Reality Tours trip to Ecuador all fired up and ready to carry the message “Clean Up Chevron.” Meanwhile The  Brass Liberation Orchestra led us all in fierce chants of  “Chevron should pay up;  Chevron should clean up”  while a huge puppet welcomed shareholders to their meeting.

Chevron protester May 30, 2012 Photo Credit: Global Exchange

Inside representatives submitted more than 7 resolutions calling for more transparency and accountability.  Not all of the representatives were allowed inside, despite having valid proxies from shareholders.  Joao Antonio de Moraes of the Brazilian Federation of Oil Workers was one of them.

He had told us during a teach-in the night before that accidents can be avoided if worker’s rights to a safe environment are respected. Workers are on the front-line, and workers and environmentalists have a lot in common.

The teamsters and the steelworkers were there to second that idea!  Pitting workers against community members and jobs vs. the environment has been a key strategy of Chevron. We were there to say no more.

Kate McLain, Global Exchange Ecuador Reality Tour participant, at Chevron protest May 30, 2012 Photo Credit: Global Exchange

While we waited outside, Richmond community members talked about asthma, cancer, and how children are bribed with pencils and field trips to think that a company town is a good thing.  But members from the APEN, CBE and Progressive Richmond Alliance agreed on this message to the members inside:  “Shareholders, when you choose profit over the people in the communities, you will lose!”

While Richmond has succeeded in preventing any legal permits for refinery expansion and Ecuador has won an unprecedented $18 billion dollar settlement against Chevron, Chevron continues to act like a fugitive, running from its legal responsibilities. The Ecuadorian courts have upheld the judgment against the company and now the plaintiffs are poised to seize Chevron’s assets anywhere in the world.

The network gathered outside the headquarters were clear that we will not stop making connections and working together until Chevron pays for the damage it has caused.

Chevron, Chevron you can’t hide……

TAKE ACTION!

• Download this free True Cost of Chevron Report Alternative Annual Report for featuring new sections
  and accounts written by 40 authors from around the world.
• Travel to Ecuador: Take a Reality Tours trip where you’ll tour of Chevron’s toxic oil legacy in the Amazon; speak with the leaders and healers of affected communities

Tell Me What Democracy Looks Like

In the past six months, the ideas of Occupy and the 99% have revolutionized the social dialogue of the U.S. in a way that has enthralled, enraged, and emboldened. Massive marches, rallies, and protests have acted as giant mirrors in which we catch a glimpse at just how many of us are completely fed up with the corrupt exploitative politics of ‘business as usual.’

Occupy and the 99% has offered a refreshed language and analysis for how we understand power politics. We have focused on creating shared space both on and offline in which we can trace and resist a vast constellation of impacts suffered by the 99% due to corporate greed. While this movement continues to evolve strategy, tactics, consensus practices, and creative outreach, its’ impact is already clear.

Though it many not be possible to all agree on everything all the time, most of us agree that the interests of the 99% are not being effectively represented in Congress, the White House, or in the Supreme Court. This crippling problem is not divided along party lines, either. It is a deeper fissure between a) the entrenched corporate interests who have manipulated the political system for their profit, and b) the rest of us.

When we follow the money on the Congressional campaign trail, it’s easy to see a glaring example of how corporate money is drowning out the needs and interests of the 99%. The largest campaign contributions to Congressional candidates of both parties consistently come from the finance, insurance, and real estate industry (the F.I.R.E. sector, including big banks). Once in office, these bought-and-sold legislators support and approve corporate-drafted policies that whittle away at our country’s safety nets and vital programs and instead fund bailouts that end up in big boss bonuses. What public services do you think of when you justify paying your taxes each year? Which of those services has been slashed lately?

Photo: memegenerator.net

So, is voting for the lesser of two evils really going to fix this problem? I think not. As stated by Occupy activist Max Berger in today’s Huffington Post, “We won’t just win by getting new players — we need to change the game. The system is fundamentally incapable of healing itself.”

Occupy struck a chord perhaps specifically because it identified a more fundamental problem than what can be voted in or out in 4 years, and we should continue this much-needed critique. Many have made the case for Occupy becoming a “left wing tea party” but Occupy doesn’t need to be a left wing Tea Party in order to impact the election. The sheer magnitude of a cultural mic check from the far-ish left has turned heads of both voters and politicians.

Historically, large social movements inevitably enable reform simply by being what they are: a mass movement responding to the injustices of the status quo. But the 99% can’t and won’t stop there.

We need to immediately Occupy Our Elections in order to approach having the real ability to Elect Democracy. We should engage with and impact elections by providing systemic analysis and exposing the impact of corporate campaign contributions, big budget corporate lobbying, and general ALEC-type corruption and collusion. Meanwhile, we can also simultaneously be creating new methods of meeting the needs of the 99% that can help make this broken system obsolete (so plant a garden, start a community health clinic, or meet your neighbors, to start). But let’s check in with the reality that building a new system is um, going to take a while, so in the meantime, register your discontent and go vote about it.

If there was ever a time to flex our power, it’s now. For all the fire and fury, for all the marches and mic checks, we have not yet “won.” Corporations still write policy, bank executives still get bonuses, and the rest of us are still fighting to keep our homes, pay off debt, find a job, get citizenship, make our own choices, and keep our families safe and healthy. Many of us are struggling to stay afloat.

Some of us in the 99% have taken outrage and protest directly to banks and big business and we’ve have had some wins. Corporate campaigning is indeed effective, and we should keep doing what works. Meanwhile, we also must address our deflated government and stop it from enabling ever-worse forms of corporate exploitation to take hold- not only here in the U.S., but abroad.

While we have every right to be disillusioned and skeptical, we have to take responsibility for the fact that the U.S. is driving war and destruction around the world through military romps, oil addiction, and deranged obsession with free trade at all costs. It’s time to show the 1% what democracy really looks like.

How do we create a system where it actually matters who you vote for? 

There is a reason that around the world, people have fought and even died for the right to vote. If voting didn’t matter, there wouldn’t be ongoing U.S. voter suppression issues that continue to this very day. We should trust our great grandmothers that fought so hard for this right, and honor those around the world who are still fighting.

So, let’s go for it. Occupy Our Elections. Let’s mic check media-laden debates with some real talk when talking heads are speaking for corporate funders and not for the 99%. Let’s tell politicians to spend their time in office making good policies, not fundraising for their campaigns! It’s time to go all out to fumigate corruption, pull away the smoke screens of the F.I.R.E. sector, demand accountability, utilize  transparency, and seed new, practical, short and long-term solutions.

We’ll help. Global Exchange is working on creating a toolkit where anyone anywhere can easily look up the Congressional politicians and candidates in their district and also trace their voting records on key issues. We’re researching to create a report on the Foul Five (five candidates who are the poster children for the corruption of corporate campaign contributions) and also profiling the Fair Five who are working on accountability to their constituents by not accepting finance sector contributions. We’ll be bringing the heat to bank-backed candidates on the campaign trail, and we would love for you to join us.

What else do you think we can do to Elect Democracy this year?

We will prepare ourselves to join a huge wave of progressive direct action nationwide this spring. All over America, the 99% movement is getting ready for 60 days of protests, sit-ins, rallies, marches, and more this spring—all aimed and confronting the power, greed, and influence of the 1%.

I jumped in to do this because I want to see the 99% Spring take off in a big way. We’d be joining a rich tradition in this country of non-violent direct action to make the change we know we need.

It’s exciting and I hope you can be part of it!

Sign up for a training here.

Sign up to host a training here.

Our movement will be holding huge rallies in every major city on Tax Day to call out the 1% who refuse to pay their fair share. We’ll be gathering massive crowds to confront CEOs and top executives at annual shareholder meetings of Wall Street banks, dirty energy polluters, and corporations that refuse to treat workers fairly. And we’ll be doing everything we can to call out the corrupting influence of corporate money on our elections. Global Exchange’s Occupy the Elections will be part of this campaign.

At the trainings we’ll be preparing ourselves to take part in these bold actions and to build connections with other progressives who want to see a 99% Spring in America.

Me, on the streets Jan 20, 2012, hope to see you on the streets soon!

We’ll practice telling the story of what happened to our economy and what a different future could look like, we’ll learn the history of nonviolent direct action, and we’ll train and plan to take direct action ourselves—in the footsteps of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.—to win change. We have an amazing shared history of everyday people using direct action to transform the political landscape in this country from the civil rights movement to Occupy Wall Street.

This spring, I want to you join us in becoming a part of that legacy right where you live. Find out more here.

–Renowned water/environmental activist (and Global Exchange ally) Maude Barlow

 As we ring in 2012, let the revolution begin! From Tunisia to New York, from Spain and Greece to Oakland and  ‘Occupies’ everywhere, people have taken to the streets to reclaim what is rightfully ours.

We the 99% seek more than the illusion of democracy… we want government in the hands of the people, not the corporations. We want just, fair, sustainable policies that benefit the majority — not only the wealthy few.

Global Exchange's Zarah Patriana speaking out in 2011

We will no longer stand by and allow banks, oil companies or our political system to place corporate interests above our shared values of justice, equality, good jobs and vibrant, resilient communities and ecosystems. We’re speaking out everywhere to deliver the message: Enough is Enough!

People across the world are saying enough is enough with the global economic and environmental crisis, and we are responding with a massive outpouring of activism and energy. Together we are changing the rules and creating a world that champions people power not corporate power, builds positive alternatives and promotes human rights, peace and democracy.

When a magazine like TIME names ‘Protesters’ the Person of the Year, it’s clear that our movement has truly captured the zeitgeist.

We are so inspired by the growing movement and the millions who have stood up against oppression, corporate exploitation, and environmental ruin. We, the 99%, are changing the rules!

Along with other Occupy activists, Global Exchange is speaking out in DC, New York, San Francisco and Oakland. We’re holding organizing workshops, taking critical next steps to stop the tar sands Keystone XL pipeline, organizing to oppose big banks and corporate greed, mobilizing our members to join us in taking a stand for system change and using all the tools of social media to reach thousands.

We are in the midst of revolution to end inequality. We are making history. The rule by the greedy few is collapsing. We know it.

This is what revolution for building positive alternatives looks like…

Rebuilding local green economies and sustainable, just communities!

Detroit is Ground Zero for the impact of casino capitalism. Shuttered buildings and vacant lots, unemployment and struggling schools are a grim testament to the power of an economic system that destroys entire communities to benefit the 1%.

In Detroit, we aren’t just Occupying — we are hard at work building the revolution.

Our Green Economy Leadership Training program helps rebuild the blighted Detroit community of Highland Park, neighborhood by neighborhood. We are working with local youth and residents to grow sustainable food, use clean renewable energy and create green jobs.

We’re not just theorizing. We’re digging, hauling, hammering and sweating — turning the ideas of local green economies into reality. Together we are demonstrating what economies and communities designed for the 99% look like.

This is what revolution for government by the people, not corporations looks like…

Transforming our laws to protect the rights of our communities — not corporations.

Current laws leave our communities at the mercy of corporate greed. Our communities are the battleground for the policies of corporate profit, from mass pollution, to the mortgage bailout, GMOs, fracking and more.

We are not just occupying public spaces, but working to occupy our local government and change laws to put communities — not corporations — in charge.

When the law denies rights of people and nature, we can and must change the law.

Our Community Rights Program is organizing in California, across the country and around the world to pass revolutionary laws that strip corporate protections and assert the right of communities to themselves decide what happens where they live, and at the same time to recognize the Rights of Nature.

This is what revolution for oil independence looks like…

Stopping the Keystone XL Pipeline Project!

The proposed Keystone XL Pipeline, which would transport oil from the tar sands in Canada to the United States, is the largest and most disastrous industrial project in human history. And although our determined activism to stop Keystone recently led to a delay in the decision to build it, we’re not out of the woods!

The Pipeline will not only put our communities and ecosystems from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico at risk, it will expand the production of tar sands oil, and in the words of renowned climate scientist James Hansen, it will be “game over for life and the planet.”

Across the country we ‘occupied’ President Obama’s fundraisers, campaign offices and rallies — calling on the President to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline project.

We activated our networks across North America to join the movement to stop the pipeline, through protests, actions, rights-based organizing and letter writing campaigns.

Obama has temporarily heeded our call, and the State Department is once again reviewing its plans — this time without the input of a company closely allied to tar sands interests. But if this catastrophic project is reborn, we will again go state-by-state and work with local indigenous communities, ranchers and community members to shut Keystone down.

This is what revolution for Human Rights looks like…

Standing in solidarity with Mexico’s growing peace movement!

There is a growing citizens’ movement for peace and justice in Mexico. While they don’t term the movement “Occupy,” our brothers and sisters across the border are rising up to save their very lives. They are working to change a system that has left over 60,000 Mexicans dead.

We must stand with them. Global Exchange has joined with Mexican civil society to call for an end to the bloodshed and the policies that continue this brutal violence.

We are organizing our allies on both sides of the border to curb the flow of arms into Mexico, to address drug prohibition and to call attention to and ultimately end U.S. military support for Mexican drug interdiction forces.

We are the 99%. We are the revolution.

We are changing the rules and our future! We cannot let up. Together we can change the rules to build a world that respects human rights, protects the planet and practices true democracy — a world that is not governed for and by the 1%, but democratically led by us all. But we can’t do it without you and we look forward to working together in 2012.

Consider making a special gift and supporting the work of Global Exchange.  Please give what you can today. Together let’s build a movement the 1% can’t shut down.

Join us on the streets (or online) tomorrow and unite with thousands to demand an end to corporate greed, bank bailouts, the gross income disparity destroying this planet and a shift to new alternatives for a peaceful and just society. We are the 99% who say enough is enough.

We know the facts, but seeing them together is staggering:

• Unemployment is firmly mired in the double digits and growing, while the rich remain sheltered from paying their fair share of tax on earnings and capital gains;
• The climate crisis remains unaddressed by global leaders and the U.S. Congress while President Obama contemplates whether or not to green-light the devastating Keystone XL pipeline;
• We are heading into the 10^th year of war spending (at $3 billion a week!);
• Corporations fought hard and won Citizens United and the ‘right’ to spend unlimited funds to get candidates into office;
• The wealthy (such as the Koch brothers) encourage corrupt Governors to end worker protections;
• Banks and Wall Street continue getting huge bonuses (Wall Street bonuses were on average above $125,000 per person for 2010) and bailouts while the rest of us get sold out;
• Free Trade agreements, like NAFTA, have cost the U.S. manufacturing it’s base and good jobs while in Mexico millions have lost their livelihoods. Millions of Mexicans have migrated north, while thousands of economically desperate youth back home have become victims of violence in the drug war run by the drug cartels;
• Fewer and fewer students can afford to attend college (public university costs have risen over 8% in the last year alone), and those that do, face skyrocketing debts that would have seemed unimaginable just 15 years ago; upon graduation when they don’t see any openings in their field they head straight for a “McJob” or the unemployment line.

Enough is enough.
We support our local community.
We resist injustice everywhere.
We are the 99%.

On Wednesday, our staffed office in San Francisco will take to the streets in Oakland as thousands did during the General Strike of December 3, 1946. Our Fair Trade stores in Berkeley, San Francisco and DC will be open to support artisans in the majority world and 9.9% of store income for the day will be donated to #occupyoakland and #occupydc.

Keep up to date: We’ll be using our website, blog, twitter account and facebook as a hub of information and live updates, so check them throughout the day. The good folks at Movement Generation have a great list of events posted here.

Join us as we stand in solidarity with the 99% and demand justice, people power NOT corporate power and true democracy.

Show your support – “I AM 99%” stickers are now available. Click here to order sheets of 6, calling for: Public Health, Jobs & Justice, Tax the Billionaires, End the Wars, Public Schools and Green Jobs Now.

Catch up on movement news: At Global Exchange, we’ve been posting our observations as this movement grows, as well as blogging about our participation in various marches, rallies and our recent experience in New York at #OWS.

Here’s a list of our Occupy blog posts:

• A Day in the Life of Occupy Wall Street – the Community Rights Experience
• Community Rights goes to Occupy Wall Street
• “They know precisely what they want”
• ‘Cos the Power of the People Don’t Stop
• Signs of the San Francisco Occupation
• The 99% Say Enough is Enough
• Call to Action for 10 Year Anniversary of Invasion of Afghanistan
• The 99% Demand: Occupy Wall Street! Bring Our War $$ Home!

Get Occupy Updates Sent Direct to You: Subscribe to our People to People Blog here.

Just Added! Check out our photos from the Occupy Oakland General Strike/Day of Action!

“They know precisely what they want. They want to reverse the corporate coup that has taken place in the United States and rendered the citizenry impotent. And they won’t stop until this happens …”

People flooded the streets of the world on Saturday October 15 for a global march of solidarity against economic injustice. San Francisco’s rally was much like the reports I’ve heard and seen of others: upbeat but frustrated masses, joined by a sense of outrage and taking solace with others by taking to the streets. We marched again up the city’s Market Street to City Hall where we sat and verbally amplified back the message of our speakers.

Unity found in ‘We are the 99%’ chants seem unending and it’s clear that whatever happens in San Francisco (which has yet to land in a permanent location and face daily harassment), folks are intending to stay.

I’ve been thinking about Chris Hedges’ interview in The Lang and O’Leary Exchange on October 10 and I encourage you to watch it here (because then you can log comments!). Hedges responds to Kevin O’Leary’s comment that the folks in the street don’t know what they ‘want’:

“They know precisely what they want. They want to reverse the corporate coup that has taken place in the United States and rendered the citizenry impotent. And they won’t stop until this happens and frankly if we don’t break the back of corporations we are all finished anyway since they are rapidly trashing the eco system on which the human species depends for survival. This is literally a fight for life, it’s that grave, it’s that serious … The bottom line is that we don’t have much time left. We are on the cusp of perhaps another major banking crisis in Europe … There have been no restrictions no regulation on Wall Street, they have looted the US Treasury, they’ve played all the games they were playing before, and we are about to pay for it all over again.”

He’s then called a ‘left wing nutbar’ by O’Leary which falls flat after Hedges points out that he’s saying nothing more than what the thousands in the streets, the 99%, are saying.

This ongoing debate of ‘what do they want/what are they saying?’ is losing it’s interest as a media story as mainstream understanding of ‘We are the 99%’ takes hold outside of corporate media and in the streets. O’Leary’s insistence on marginalizing this call garners a comment from Hedges about being treated the way a guest would be on Fox News.

Another point of unity emerging as the 99% continues to greet each other with ‘I love you’ is anti-greed as a community quality. Journalist, author and co-author of the ‘Trouble with Billionaires’ Linda McQuaig, spoke this weekend about the movement’s recognition that the top 1% are too rich and too powerful and that these qualities are being elevated collectively as no longer acceptable in society. She says that changing attitudes about greed could have profound implications on our society. The Sunday Edition interview begins at the 7:00 min mark here.

Jeffrey Sachs also speaks to this idea that the 1% must first regain a sense of collective responsibility and community participation to have any legitimacy in the eyes of the 99% here.

Get active!
Our friends at Yes! Magazine have posted ten local and anywhere/everywhere ways to take action – check them out here.

And think global – support the call for a tax on financial transactions and demand that some of the money going into the profits of few are redistributed back to us, in our society for public works and in our community for a better future. The campaign for a ‘Robin Hood Tax’ is explained here.

Finally, on October 18th, Goldman Sachs reported a quarterly loss – its first since the financial crisis and only its second since going public in 1999. When asked directly about what should be done with Goldman Sachs on The Lang and O’Leary Exchange, Hedges replied, “Prosecuted, they should be prosecuted.”