Occupy Salt Lake City Joins National D12 with Walmart Disruption

Occupy Salt Lake City Joins National D12 with Walmart Disruption

Submitted by admin on Wed, 12/07/2011 - 08:25

The General Assembly of Salt Lake City met at the Gallivan Center Occupation's Dome to reached consensus that the following is Occupy SLC's statement regarding December 12.

In response to coordinated attacks on Occupiers throughout the world:

As West Coast Occupations shut down their ports and the East Coast Occupations shut down their waterfront on December 12th, 2011, Occupy Denver has given a call for occupations to organize mass mobilizations across the nation to support these actions. Occupy Salt Lake will stand in solidarity with Occupy Denver and others by disrupting the distribution system of Walmart, an excessively oppressive corporation that is actively destroying communities throughout our nation.

The world’s workers at ports and in our transportation systems are under threat by the 1 percent. In Oakland, Goldman Sachs obstructs and opposes the interests of port terminal labor unions. Occupy Oakland stands in solidarity with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in their struggle against corporate oppression.

We stand in solidarity with the activists in Egypt’s Tahrir Square, where port workers refused to offload chemical weapons being used excessively against peaceful protesters. Actions taken in Egypt against the one percent have inspired communities throughout the world.

They have inspired us to raise resistance against Walmart and other corporate entities who have stripped workers of their right to organize and raise their voices in the workplace -- thus enabling these corporations to pay substandard wages in the United States and abroad. Walmart is one of the most successful players in the global trade system, where money has more rights than people. This system traps workers in poor countries as transnational corporations like Walmart “race to the bottom” to exploit workers who are most vulnerable. Our economic system should provide incentives to treating workers with dignity and punish those who oppress. If our system here in the United States doesn’t reform, we will become a third world nation as our middle class disappears in a very real sense.

Across the nation on December 12th, we will challenge the legitimacy of corporate entities that destroy communities and oppress their workers. We call on the 99 percent -- all workers and activists -- to unite in a common struggle. The revolution has begun.