Democratic Party Statement of Support--But Notice the Lack of Local Specifics

The statement has no condemnation of the violent and unconstitutional repression happening across the country in Atlanta, Portland, Nashville, and Tucson (to name only a few), nor of the failure of local Democratic Party officials in San Jose, San Francisco, San Diego, and Oakland to rein in their police departments (except when confronted with thousands of angry people on the streets). More important there's no mention of the area where these folks might have some real power: Santa Cruz.

It has nothing specific or protective to say about our community and its rights, or Occupy Santa Cruz and its encampment.

I don't know if I'd solicit or trust any such statements anyway, but their absence shows how solid out, slimy, and irrelevant the local Democratic Party is.

There has been no explicit movement from the City Council, the SCPD, the Deputies, or the Supervisors that specifically endorses the local Occupy Santa Cruz or modifies the park closing law or camping ban laws that will probably be used ultimately to crush the protest (along with the usual needles, feces, violence, smears).

OSC and those who support it need to recognize that homeless folks outside are a key part of this movement. Disregarding, downgrading, and/or segregating them off for whatever reason is a form of class blindness and moral myopia. It is also strategically wrong, regardless of the "behavioral difficulties" that will come up in the course of creating a broader community. The homeless diaspora is the real face of the devastation created and in the rising of ALL of us, particularly those at the bottom, will come the new solution.

Hence real Support OSC statements will include and reflect real actions to restore the right to use the commons both as public assembly and survival space (which requires the creation of new community). Local Democratic Party political hacks are a long way from taking stands on these issues--and ultimately they will be irrelevant.



THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY STATEMENT

We endorse Occupy Wall Street movement

At their monthly meeting on October 26th, the Santa Cruz County Democratic Central Committee unanimously endorsed a resolution in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which has spread across the nation.

Members agreed that OWS protesters are drawing attention to the same problems that Democrats are also struggling to resolve, like income inequality, lack of jobs, skyrocketing health insurance costs, and corruption of the democratic process resulting from the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision which allows corporations to make unlimited donations to political candidates. The full text of the resolution is below:

Resolution in support of Occupy Wall Street movement

Whereas, peaceful protests are a respectable and constitutionally protected way of demonstrating opinion and mobilizing political momentum in the United States, and

Whereas, people are protesting on Wall Street and throughout the world over income inequality, which has reached levels not seen since before the Great Depression of the 1930s, and

Whereas, greed in the corporate and banking sectors has led to an unprecedented and prolonged economic recession; and despite record breaking corporate profits companies have been slow to hire new employees; and there is a lack of opportunity and jobs, especially for disadvantaged groups including young people, older workers and certain minority groups, and 


Whereas, health care costs have skyrocketed and health care insurance has become unaffordable or unattainable for many people,



Whereas, the Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. FEC allowing corporations to contribute unlimited sums to political candidates has corrupted the democratic process,
and


Whereas, Republicans in Congress block all attempts by President Obama to try to remedy these problems,
resulting in financial distress and ruin for many responsible citizens and
residents,

Therefore be it resolved that the Santa Cruz County Democratic Party
supports the Occupy Wall
Street movement and the constructive efforts of its participants to draw attention to these
problems.

October 26, 2011