By Guy Falks & Bill Guerrant

The Occupy Jacksonville movement, in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protests, passed the “Declaration of OccupyJAX” at the general assembly meeting on November 23rd 2011.

The group had looked at adopting declarations from other occupy movements, but ultimately decided to draft their own.

The document was collaboratively crafted and revised both online, and through a series of public meetings, and the approved version reads as follows:

We, the people of Jacksonville, stand in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street and its global counterparts.
We believe that our government no longer represents the will of the people. Because of this, we have assembled to voice our grievances.
We stand together to take back control of our government from those who use their wealth to obstruct the democratic process.
We believe that the growing disparity between the poor and the rich must be dealt with immediately.
We believe those responsible for economic injustices should be held accountable.
We come together to revive the expectation that our government exists to serve the people.
We aim to educate, unite and empower the people.
Through democracy, we believe a true consensus can be reached— one that endeavors to rectify the wrongs within our country, regain our rights as human beings, and promote prosperity and peace over our nation and around the world.
We are the 99%.

One of the complaints commonly expressed from people who don’t understand what OccupyJAX or Occupy Wall Street is about can be summed up as, “We don’t know what they stand for”. This declaration is the first step to clarify the goals and objectives of the group.

The Occupy Jacksonville group has been active for more than 2 months, and has been staging a 24/7 peaceful protest on the steps of City Hall across from Hemming Plaza since November 6th.

General Assemblies that deal with the policies and purpose of the group are held on Wednesdays at 7PM, and Saturdays at 4PM at City Hall. Anyone interested in learning more about the movement is encouraged to attend.

You can read more about the Occupy Jacksonville movement online at the web site http://occupy-jax.org, the interactive forum http://comeoccupyjax.org or on Facebook http://facebook.com/occupyjax.

Occupy Jacksonville is pleased to announce that we are now having daily General Assemblies at Hemming Plaza!

Weekdays : 7PM

Weekends : 4PM

If you don't know what this is all about, now you can come find out any day of the week.

If you would like to directly participate with the movement, please visit http://comeoccupyjax.org

Don't forget that we are Occupying in front of City Hall 24 hours a day.
Please come down and show your support or get more information!

Solidarity!

By: Guy Falks

Next Important Meeting:
Nov 12, 2011 4PM at Hemming Plaza

Where Can I learn More?

If you're unclear or unsure about what the OccupyJAX or Occupy Wall Street movement stands for, drop by Hemming Plaza / City Hall whenever you're downtown. Talk to the people, and learn about the movement. Dissenters are welcome also, and are encouraged to discuss their views as long as they can agree to have mutually respectful dialog.

Details:

We need you!!

Please come down to Jacksonville City Hall and show your support by being there!
Our overnighters need rest and we need fresh minds there to answer questions and have discussions.
Come down even if you can't stay long. Don't feel like you have to stay for days if you do come down.

Daily General Assembly

We will be having a Daily General Assembly every day at 7PM at Hemming Plaza.

There will be a more involved General Assembly on the weekends at 4PM.

 Today Jacksonville Sheriff's Office released a guide that states what is and isn't allowed to take place at the Occupation in front of City Hall.

JSO and OccupyJax have had a mutual cooperation so far. JSO says that as long as we remain peaceful and abide by the following rules, we shouldn't have any problems.

The guide was compiled with the assistance of Jacksonville General Counsel and Jacksonville Sheriff's Office:

Occupy Jacksonville General Assembly will vote on Nov. 5th on whether to Occupy Hemming Plaza after that day's GA or wait until Nov. 15th or 19th to begin occupying full time.

Please be prepared to Occupy in the event the vote goes through to begin the Occupation that day.

A list of needed supplies is available if you'd like to contribute to the occupation.

Today at the OccupyJax General Assembly participants started the assembly with a moment of silence for Scott Olsen, 24, who was critically injured on Tuesday, October 25th, 2011, when he was hit in the head with a projectile thrown or shot by law enforcement officers combating protesters trying to re-enter a downtown plaza that had been cleared of an encampment earlier in the day.