Antinuclear

The growing positive and anti nuclear message of the Occupy Movement

 “The future of the human race requires the co-operation of its members.” 

our planet can no longer withstand the assaults of an increasingly destructive industrial civilisation.

Learning To Shine Through The Ruins, By Vincent Di Stefano, 30 October,2011, Countercurrents.org “…….The cultural awakening of the 1960s had made many aware of the presence of deepening flaws within industrial civilisation: Of the rampant militarism that had unleashed two unspeakably destructive World Wars; of the atomic slaying of the inhabitants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; of the slash and burn methods of US imperialism that disgorged blistering gifts of napalm and poisonous defoliants into the wasted landscapes of Indo-China;

……..this abundance and the freedoms it has bestowed appear to have benumbed rather than sharpened our capacity to perceive and to interpret the divided reality that underlies our illusions of comfort and prosperity.

Despite the fact that the Chernobyl melt-down 25 years ago has already cost nearly a million lives , and despite the fact that hot Strontium from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant has been detected on the rooftops of houses in Yokohama 250 kilometers away, the nuclear industry, together with its marketing arm, the International Atomic Energy Commission continues to aggressively pursue their deadly interests…..

Those who seek to awaken their fellow citizens to the counterfeit values projected by large corporations now find themselves demonised and reviled by the dominant media and by “law and order” politicians. In both Melbourne and Sydney, supporters of the Occupy Movement were recently forcibly removed from public spaces where they had gathered to address issues related to corporate manipulation of public discussion and political process.

The constant refrain voiced by media commentators and parroted by many within the general community was that the protesters “appear to have no clear aims.” What is reflected in such comments is a failure to grasp the inchoate nature of this global uprising that has seen hundreds of thousands of people protesting in 900 cities throughout North America , Europe , Asia , Australia and New Zealand in recent weeks…..

These gatherings, which were inspired by the Occupy Wall Street protest that began in Zuccotti Park in New York on September 17th 2011 carry strong resonances with the forms that originally gave rise to democracy in ancient Greece,…..

One of the formal structures that emerged from the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York was the creation of a General Assembly wherein the concerns of participants could be discussed and debated in order that some consensus could be reached.

Three and a half weeks after the Occupy Wall Street protest began, the General Assembly issued a Declaration that began with the following statement: “The future of the human race requires the co-operation of its members.” Much of the rest of the Declaration detailed the specific conclusions that were drawn during the discussions. The Declaration generated at Zuccotti Park provides a compact, coherent and holistic statement of principles from which action can emanate. It draws particular attention to the role and influence of large corporations and financial institutions:

•  They have poisoned the food supply through negligence and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

•  They determine economic policy despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.

•  They have directed large sums of money to politicians who are responsible for regulating them.

•  They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.

•  They have purposefully kept people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.

•  They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.

…..The Declaration ends with the following call to all of like mind:

•  Exercise your right to peaceably assemble, occupy public space, create a process to address the problems we face and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

The General Assembly Statement presents a holistic view of the interconnected causes of global inequality, political somnambulism and planetary destruction. ….

the manipulation of political process by corporate lobby groups; the trashing of Copenhagen and Cancun by the mining and energy corporations; the degradation of public consciousness through media control and propaganda; and the insidious promotion of an unyielding militarism by the miltary-industrial-congressional complex…..

The Occupy Movement reflects a growing realisation that the processes of democracy that nominally serve to protect the rights and freedoms of individuals have been usurped by a corporate Behemoth that holds the invisible reins of governments everywhere. …

our planet can no longer withstand the assaults of an increasingly destructive industrial civilisation.

Only by becoming more conscious of these realities can we begin to release the active forces necessary for restoration and renewal, contribute towards the creation of new ways of being on the earth, and learn to shine through the ruins.

http://www.countercurrents.org/stefano301011.htm

October 31, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, Opposition to nuclear | Opposition to nuclear