OWS won’t sanction Occupy conference in Philadelphia.

Tis interesting no? From one of the Corporate Media whores, WaPo, their take on this disagreement:

Occupy Wall Street isn’t endorsing the Occupy conference being planned in Philadelphia because the idea wasn’t approved by its general assembly.

An attorney who advised some Occupy Wall Street protesters  arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge last year said this week that his 99% Declaration Working Group is planning a national Occupy conference in Philadelphia over the Fourth of July. The attorney, Michael Pollok, said delegates will be elected from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and U.S. territories. Participants will draft and ratify a “petition for a redress of grievances” and present them to President Barack Obama and Congress, he said.

But Han Shan, a member of the Occupy Wall Street public relations working group, said Thursday that the conference was mainly Pollok’s idea and that, while Occupy Wall Street may support some of its ideas, the group isn’t endorsing the conference itself.

“We think it’s critically important to truly build consensus,” Shan said. “This was not something that was built around consensus.”

The 99% Declaration Working Group are the folks who created, what I believe, is a great commercial that has been getting a lot of airplay for months now and is shown almost nightly on Olbermann’s Countdown show. Their website goes by the name of the 99PercentDeclaration and their goals seem to be more politically driven that the original OWS movement/group.

Is that a bad thing? I don’t believe it is, so long as they stick to the original goals and declaration of the OccupyWallSt group and it’s companion site OccupyTogether.

Because we do need to take this action farther than the streets in my pov. We need to also make it a movement that has political clout and power. For me, that is the only way to affect change within our government, at least within our government in a timely manner.

When it’s all said and done…nothing changes without political power here in the good ole US of A.

The Corporate Media has taken this new group and the original OWS group disagreement national, as witnessed by my first link as well as a WSJ piece and many others. So, lets see what an Alternative Media site has to say about this new piece of news, via InTheseTimes:

However, one group of protesters affiliated with Occupy Wall Street (see update below) now plans to bring back the tradition by electing 876 “delegates” from around the country to hold a national “general assembly” in Philadelphia over the Fourth of July.

The group, dubbed the 99% Declaration Working Group, said Wednesday delegates would be selected during a secure online election in early June from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.

In a nod to their First Amendment rights, delegates will meet in Philadelphia to draft and ratify a “petition for a redress of grievances,” convening during the week of July 2 and holding a news conference in front of Independence Hall on the Fourth of July.

Candidates for delegate must be U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents who are 18 years of age or older, according to Michael S. Pollok, an attorney who advised Occupy Wall Street activists arrested during the Brooklyn Bridge protest last year, and co-founder of the 99% Declaration Working Group.

“We feel it’s appropriate to go back to what our founding fathers did and have another petition congress,” Pollok said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We feel that following the footsteps of our founding fathers is the right way to go.”

But Pollok has big plans for the national G.A. that he promises won’t be like a typical Occupy-style event.

The group would meet in a “state of the art” facility near Independence Hall as opposed to occupying a public space, he said. Also, the delegates who attend must be elected, a major shift from how Occupy Wall Street or Philadelphia operated.

The elected delegates would converge on Philadelphia on July 2 and develop a list of grievances to be presented before the November election to the president, each member of Congress, and the Supreme Court, Pollok said.

Elected officials (one male, one female from each district) have the right to reject the petition that would call for action within 100 days of the next session of Congress, but doing so would mean the group must then field candidates against those who are up for reelection in 2014.

Pollak likened the proposed document to the petition for redress from the First Continental Congress to King George III.

“We’re doing exactly what they did in 1774,” Pollak said.

The group’s website, www.the99declaration.org, lists a sampling of 21 grievances: a call to end the war in Afghanistan, overturn the Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” ruling on campaign contributions, implement universal health care, emphasize debt reduction, and support banking and securities reform.

Update: Occupy Philly has voted down the 99 declaration:

On Tuesday’s General Assembly, representatives from the group, the 99% Declaration presented plans to organize a National General Assembly in Philadelphia and hold an online election of 890 delegates from all over the US who would vote on a list of grievances the current government would be asked to redress. During the questions and concerns part of the conversation, OP members presented information detailing the backgrounds and comments of three board members of the organization. In addition to these concerns, OP General Assembly attendees raised issues surrounding the selection of delegates and the current efforts to plan the national gathering. OP quickly weighed the evidence, and as a result of the overwhelming concerns raised by the group, the GA voted “We do not support the 99% Declaration, its group, its website, its National GA and anything else associated with it.”

These groups should not compete w/each other in my opinion, they should compliment each other..and work together for permanent change.

It makes me very sad that there is no consensus at this point between the original OWS movement and the 99% Declaration group. The splinter group seems to be trying to do all the right things yet they are shunned.

Perhaps it’s because the 99% group, as the DailyKos writeup states, is ‘led’ by an individual, not an OWS-style General Assembly (GA). The individual is a lawyer and one who originally represented, pro bono I might add, the 700 OWS members who were arrested in NYC on the Brooklyn Bridge. His name is Michael Pollock.

Personally, I believe OWS needs to become a political group as well, if anything is going to change in DC. The DK article, by Vyan brings up a valid point in that the original OWS does not, under any circumstances, want to be affiliated with political members of Congress.

I get that. But what is wrong with being a political group unto themselves? Vyan wonders about that point as well in his writeup:

On the one hand I can see why from the perspective of integrity and purity, on the other hand I’m concerned that if OWS doesn’t begin interacting directly with the reigns of  power – (ie. City and State Officials and the Election Process) their impact, focus and effectiveness may be seriously compromised.

This clearly shows the downside of Consensus Rule, but there’s is also an upside – what finally emerges, even if the process is slow and cumbersome, has a greater chance for broad support than what may have been crafted by a sub-splinter group in the first place.  At some point they do need to articulate a clear vision IMO, or do they not?

Time will tell how this all works out.

Because there is a downside to the Consensus Rule, and for me, keeping OWS pure and non-political. Politics is what creates change in our federal government. Whether you like it or not..it does.

I want the OWS movement to remain important, to be viable and part of the political landscape. I do not see that happening unless and until the OWS movement finds a way to become a political force to be reckoned with.

It shouldn’t be this vs this

Both groups can and should be able to work together as their goals are basically the same, right? Is this a power struggle? I hope not as that is the last thing OWS supporters, like myself, need. I do not want to have to choose sides as that will defeat the purpose of the OWS movement and the 99%Declaration group. I find it ridiculous that the 99% Declaration group is being shut out at this point in time as the OWS movement needs all the supporters it can muster at this time, the winter, when so little is being done on a national level because of the weather in the cold parts of the country. Yes, OccupyTogether is still trying to muster actions nationally like the current one slated for the 29th of this month, but why shut out this particular group without a national discussion? I think its wrong on many levels.

But I could be wrong..it wouldn’t be the first time and it certainly will not be the last.