UNSF Declaration of Independence

The United Neighborhoods of San Francisco
Declaration of Independence

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which their humanity entitles them, a decent respect to the opinions of humankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all people are equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among people, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown that people are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of the people of this city; and such is now the necessity which constrains us to alter our former systems of government. The history of the past and present administrations of the United States of America is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over the people of this city, these states, and the world. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

The government of the United States of America has refused its assent to that social behavior which is the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

It has through the prosecution of treaties refused to make accommodations for entire nations of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of labor representation, and other rights inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

It has called together policy-making bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the people of its own and other nations, for the sole purpose of conducting business pertaining to the affairs of other peoples in secrecy, absent both their presence and their voice.

It has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing its assent to international law.

It has made judges the selectors of its highest elected office and is itself a government which serves corporations, not its people.

It has created a multitude of new offices in its Department of Homeland Security, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass and spy upon the people.

It has persisted, even in times of peace, in building and developing weapons of the most obscene descriptions and marketing them as a source for profit to nations around the world.

It has created self-admitted shadow governments and various agencies engaged in spying, subterfuge of all kinds, and self-confessed criminal activities including assassinations and the overthrow of the lawful governments of other nations.

It has combined with others to subject peoples throughout the world to a jurisdiction foreign to their constitution and unacknowledged by their laws; giving assent to acts of pretended legislation.

It has deposited toxic materials throughout the earth and within the territory of our own city and has refused to clean up its poisonings here and elsewhere.

It has shielded the criminals in its midst, even from prosecution by international bodies, has violated international conventions, and has refused to join as an equal with other nations in the creation of international bodies and agreements designed to end war crimes, the exploitation of children, and to protect human rights and our common environment.

It has destroyed its own small business people and small farmers while ensuring the health of major corporations through billions of dollars in direct subsidies.

It has used our share of its taxes in ways that we, the citizens of San Francisco, do not support, including the waging of offensive wars.

It has demonstrated a system of justice which is inequitable, racist, and classist as evidenced by the disproportionate numbers of minorities and the poor which inhabit its single growth industry: prisons.

It has transported people across seas to be held without trial for pretended offences.

It has invalidated our decisions in matters of our own sovereign concern, attempted to abolish our most valuable laws, and expresses fundamental hostility to the forms of our society.

It has ignored or suspended our own legislative acts and the actions of our elected officials, declaring itself invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

It is at this time transporting large armies of regular Soldiers and Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy of a civilized nation.

It has constrained sovereign peoples taken captive to betray and bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and neighbors, or to fall themselves by their hands.

Amongst these many general abuses it has suborned and denied the sovereign will of the citizens of the City of San Francisco in five critical ways:

1. Against our firm resolve to not persecute its wars of aggression, it has utilized our taxes for these purposes, recruited the youth of our city to fight in its armies, moved war materials through our port, contaminated our land, and has failed in its acknowledged duty to recover the damages done.

2. Against our decision and progressive implementation of a model system for administering medical marijuana, a plant recognized in providing safe and effective relief from a variety of conditions, and in opposition to the mutual wishes of physicians and patients, it has raided, arrested, and prosecuted individuals and groups acting in full compliance with state and local law.

3. It has chosen to stand against the general desires of the people of San Francisco and the executive action of its Mayor in attempting to limit marriage and its multitude of benefits to heterosexuals to the degree of consideration and proposal of a Constitutional Amendment.

4. In violation of its own Constitution, it has instituted the PATRIOT Act, trampling on the basic rights of due process and privacy, further weakening the already limited freedoms of speech, inquiry, association, and legal representation. Without warrant or witness, crimes against the common citizen can be pursued under the guise of National Security, claiming the name of justice but without evidence of cause. We, the people of San Francisco, have repudiated this act and its administration through the resolution of the Board of Supervisors and the direct vote of the people, instructing non-compliance by city civil servants who are directed to refer PATRIOT act requests to the Board of Supervisors for decision, thereby placing our citizens in grave conflict between performance of just and lawful actions and the illegal actions of a more powerful state which assumes sovereignty over us.

5. As a city that considers itself a member of the international community and supports both universal health care and the International Declaration of Human Rights, the disregard of the United States of America for the welfare of its own people stands in strong contradiction to both our own principles of a just society and to international understandings we share with the remainder of the world.

We, therefore, as representatives of the United Neighborhoods of San Francisco, in general congress assembled, appealing to the peoples of the world and their communities for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of this city, solemnly publish and declare: that these United Neighborhoods are, and of right ought to be, a free and independent city; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the US corporate crown; and that all political connection between them and the United States of America, is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that as a free and independent city, these United Neighborhoods have full power to levy peace, conclude war, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

We instruct the Board of Supervisors of the city and county of San Francisco and all other appropriate legal representatives of this city, to amend the City Charter in all such ways as are required in order to establish and clarify the lawful standing of the United Neighborhood of San Francisco as a sovereign nation per this Declaration and to inform the government of the United States of America of our separate and sovereign status in a timely and appropriate manner.