OCCUPY BOSTON'S INTERNAL SOLIDARITY STATEMENT (NOTE IT DOESN'T INCLUDE SOLIDARITY WITH RACISTS, SEXISTS, HOMOPHOBES, ISLAMOPHOBES)

A few days ago after we posted an article from SCISSON regarding those working within the Occupy actions that think it would be peachy to work with Nazis in their efforts, there has been a lot of discussion, much of it concurring with the sentiments that the Third Positionists, the Ron Paul cultilists and garden variety white supremacists are not welcome. According to SCISSON, they have heard quite a bit from that crowd regarding their attempt at participation, but we are telling that crowd now, you have been warned. Occupy Boston sent us this directly, but you can find it on their website as well, so if you think you can be a hatemonger AND work with people who want you gone, guess what? It ain’t happening.  UPDATE 10/5/11: In relation to how the racists and the homophobes are trying to use the Occupy actions, the Scranton (PA) Tea Party posted this on their Facebook page: “Listen up Patriots! We have access to over 50,000 kids on Occupy Together! Go educate them to the truth!” To give you an idea about what they would do with that “access”, they spend a lot of time complaining about those who call the tea party racist, but one of their posters is Steve Smith former Klansman, Aryan Nations member, Duvid Duke supporter, Keystone State “Skinheads” member and current member of the white supremacist political part American Third Position who once spent about 30 days in jail – IN SCRANTON – for attempting to attack a black man. And his post is to say that Morgan Freeman is “anti-white” for saying the tea party is racist.

Occupy Boston

This is a living document. As the Occupy Boston community, we have the right and responsibility to edit this document on an ongoing basis. We welcome feedback and new ideas.

We are the 99%, and our task is to unify the 99%. Unfortunately, we live in a society that is racist, sexist, classist, homophobic, and ridden with various other forms of oppression.

As the Occupy Boston community, we will consciously and urgently work on dismantling these systems of oppression in our movement. We are working on creating a community where everyone’s rights are respected, protected, and treated equally. We all have different levels of privilege that we strive to acknowledge and educate ourselves about in order to ensure that these privileges are not used to oppress others. We want to have an inclusive atmosphere of ideas in which we do not police each other’s thoughts, but we have absolutely no tolerance for oppressive or intimidating words or actions. If a conflict arises it should, if possible, be settled through democratic discussion or debate; otherwise, it should be settled with the help of the Conflict Resolution Team, the Support Team, or both, if necessary.

We do not welcome any of the following in our community:

• White supremacy (racism against people of all colors)
• Patriarchy (sexism)
• Ageism
• Discrimination based on ability
• Homophobia or heteronormativity
• Transphobia
• Anti-Arab sentiment
• Anti-Jewish sentiment
• Religious intolerance or intolerance of nonreligious people
• Islamaphobia
• Class oppression (classism)
• Cultural intolerance
• Discrimination based on immigration status
• Discrimination based on experiences with the justice system
• Disregard for indigenous rights
• Weight-based discrimination