An interesting text. The sentence in bold needs correction but… and the statement possibly requires something about the right to a tent arf arf.
In others news, Jon Faine expresses pain @ Lord Mayor Robert “Magnets How Do They Work?” Doyle in an interview on 774. Doyle and the Melbourne City Council will next week quash a motion by Greens councillor Cathy Oke for an independent inquiry into WTF happened when police violently evicted Occupy Melbourne from City Square on Friday, October 20.
Interestingly, Doyle makes two main claims in support of his decision to authorise police to evict the occupiers:
1) occupiers had earlier promised him to leave upon being ordered to by police (I still can’t find much infos inre this alleged promise) and;
2) he was provided with police intelligence to the effect that “…a number of the people who were instigators in the resistance to leaving the Square were well-known to the police. A number of them were looking for trouble. A number of them simply wanted to fight police…”
Doyle sensibly fails to provide any further details regarding his claims. He makes similarly unsupported claims regarding issues of “public safety, public welfare and public health” as providing grounds to justify his decision, laments the involvement of violent “professional protesters”/droogs in OM and yadda yadda yadda.
Pretty standard ideological fare from a professional Tory.
Note that, in an interview with Neil Mitchell on 3AW on October 24, Acting Police Commissioner Ken Lay blamed the “anti-Jewish” BDS group and the Socialist Alliance for the police violence.
Draft declaration for Occupy Melbourne
The following declaration prepared by the “Declaration Working Group” will be presented to the Occupy Melbourne General Assembly on Saturday 12th [November] in the Treasury Gardens.
We stand in solidarity with the people in the Occupy movement in Australia and across the globe. In the name of freedom and democracy, we stand resolutely in opposition to unjust, unrepresentative, and unsustainable systems and practices world-wide.
Our Vision
We recognise that we occupy already occupied land and that Indigenous sovereignty has never been ceded. Acknowledging the ongoing impacts of colonisation must be the basis of our solidarity with Indigenous peoples.
We seek to create a just and equitable society in which political and economic power is not concentrated in the hands of a small minority.
We seek broad social change and aspire to end all forms of exploitation, oppression and marginalisation.
We envision an economic and financial system that is sustainable, democratic and just. We believe this requires fundamental changes to the current system and to structures of state and corporate power.
We believe that there is nothing more powerful than an engaged people inspired by the vision of a better future. Out vision is of a world in which all human beings have the opportunity to flourish peacefully within the ecological limits of our planet.
To realise this vision, we occupy Melbourne and through this Declaration, invite people to join us.
Our Group
We are an open and evolving grassroots people’s movement. We welcome, support, and are comprised of all ethnicities, cultures, abilities, genders, ages, sexualities, and faiths. We embrace our differences and choose not to be affiliated with any political party or organisation.
Our Process
We seek to understand and learn from one another and to open up spaces for discussion and dialogue. Our movement is leaderless and non-hierarchical.
We make decisions through an inclusive, participatory, and direct democratic process. We aspire to consensus-based decision-making in which all voices are heard and taken into account.
We do not believe it is enough to demand change from the top down not wait for change to arrive. We strive to live our values to the best of our ability, by reflecting our commitments to inclusive democracy, justice, community and sustainability in all our actions and pursuits.
We proceed with unshakable conviction: humbly, passionately, and in the spirit of celebration.
“Acting Police Commissioner Ken Lay blamed the “anti-Jewish” BDS group and the Socialist Alliance for the police violence.”
C’mon, everyone knows that a lot of the BDS crowd are just commies using the suffering of the Palestinian people for their own ends, but blaming them for the violence? Uh, no.
Sounds nice, but I think there is a conflict between consensus-based decision making and ‘direct democratic process’ (in some cases, not all- especially if it’s not 100% but a more modified version, maybe 70%). For evidence, I give you Murray Bookchin:
I notice there is nothing about non-violence in that statement. Oh dear, maybe the views of those who obsessively tweet are not always representative of the whole!
Great to read!