As
a collective, Occupy Los Angeles would like to express their rejection of the
City of Los Angeles’ alleged proposal that we leave City Hall by November 28th,
2011, in exchange for an apparently now rescinded offer of a 10,000 square foot
building, farmland and 100 SRO beds for the homeless.

Occupy
Los Angeles believes that as part of a global movement advocating direct,
participatory democracy, and challenging economic and social injustices, our
position is such that we cannot, in all good faith, accept further material
benefit from City Hall at the taxpayer’s expense without seriously compromising
our beliefs, our desire for global change, and our commitment to our inherent
human rights to free speech and assembly protected in this country by First
Amendment Rights. The 1 percent should be paying for any services used by the
Occupy Movement, not taxpayers.

In
the spirit of inclusivity and transparency which is so dear to our movement,
Occupy Los Angeles extends an invitation to Mayor Villaraigosa and the City
Council to attend our General Assemblies at the City Hall Occupation if he
wishes to discuss these and other matters in a direct, democratic and
horizontal way. Mayor Villaraigosa must speak out against the violent actions
towards our brothers and sisters, declare the actions of other cities to be
unjust, and stand before us equally at a General Assembly. Occupy Los Angeles
believes that until this happens, we should have no more closed-door
discussions regarding our continuing occupation of City Hall.

The City Council – in
line with government in general – is an authority which is more accountable to
developers and corporations than the public. The very act of the Los Angeles
City Council requesting the physical removal of Los Angeles Occupiers without redressing
the grievances which were specifically referenced in the inclusion of our
adopted ‘Declaration of the Occupation of New York City’, and in the City
Council’s ’1^st Amendment Rights / Occupy Los Angeles / Responsible
Banking Resolution’ — is in effect supporting the removal of all Occupations
from public space by any means. We cannot negotiate with such an institution
without undermining our sister occupations across the globe who are suffering
from oppressive force and attacks upon their inherent human rights to free
speech and assembly, protected in this country under the First Amendment. We
refer here to episodes in Oakland, Boston, New York, Portland, UC Davis and San
Francisco, to name but a few. We refer to those further afield, in Tahrir Square
in Egypt, in Madrid, Greece, London and more. Teargas, pepper spray, beatings,
jail, suppression and intimidation have been used as a coercive method of
silencing our movement and our desire for global change.

We reject outright
the City’s attempts to lure us out of City Hall and into negotiations by
offering us nebulous, non-transparent and unconfirmed offers which fail to even
begin to address our local grievances. We will continue to occupy this space,
in solidarity with our global movement, until the forces of the few are forced
to capitulate to the power of the people.

When the following
grievances have been addressed – grievances which we have agreed upon as a
movement through our General Assembly as advancing our cause and providing for
the people of Los Angeles – we as a movement will be happy to initiate dialogue
with the Mayor and Los Angeles City Council. An office space of 10,000 square
feet would not have addressed these grievances. While the grievances listed
below are localized, we believe that they promote the underlying foundations
and principles of our movement, which include, but are not limited to:
providing for basic, fundamental and inalienable human rights such as shelter,
food, healthcare, freedom of choice, sexual orientation, gender equality and
education — and the right most paramount to a free and democratic society — the
right to self-govern. Detailed demands which encompass our greater world view
will be released at a later date by our Demands and Objectives Committee
through the General Assembly.

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GRIEVANCES NOT ADDRESSED

1. A moratorium on all foreclosures in the
   City of Los Angeles. The City of Los Angeles to divest from all major
   banks, and money to be removed from politics.

2. A citywide effort undertaken to solve the
   homelessness problem which has led to 18,000 homeless people sleeping on
   Skid Row every night. Rehabilitation and housing must be provided for all
   homeless people.

3. South Central Farm to be returned to the
   same LA community from which it was taken, and all other vacant and
   distressed land be open for the community use, and money to the tune of 1
   million dollars – taken from Skid Row and given to the multi million
   dollar NFL firm – to be returned to Skid Row.
4. Los Angeles to be declared a sanctuary city
   for the undocumented, deportations to be discontinued and cooperation with
   immigration authorities be ended – including the turning in of arrestees’
   names to immigration authorities.
5. All forms of weaponry used by multiple law
   enforcement officials – including, but not limited, to rubber bullets,
   pepper spray, verbal abuse, arrest, foam batons, long-range acoustic
   devices and more – are not to be used on those exercising their First
   Amendment Rights to petition our government for redress of grievances. We
   do not accept interference with freedom of the press and the public to
   document police actions in public spaces. We will not tolerate brutality.
6. We assert our right to an open plaza on the
   South Side of City Hall for people to peacefully assemble, voice
   grievances, speak freely, hold our General Assembly and come to the
   people’s consensus 24 hours a day if needed.
7. The City of Los Angeles to pressure the
   State to start a convention, as provided for in the Constitution, to
   remove corporate personhood and money from politics at a national level.
8. The City of Los Angeles to begin a dialogue
   at the State and Federal level on the issues of student debt and tuition
   hikes.
9. No cutbacks in city services or attacks on
   the wages, work conditions and pensions of city employees.
10. A world class transit system which
    addresses our debilitating traffic problem and restores the quality of
    life in Los Angeles.

We conclude, as a General Assembly, by hereby renaming City Hall
Park -