Occupy BrisbaneOccupy Brisbane

These FAQ answers are in a draft format only and are posted on line for feedback and discussion. Two FAQ questions will be addressed each week at Sunday GA meetings until completed

Occupy Brisbane Frequently Asked Questions




What is the Occupy movement all about?
Occupy is an international, non-violent, directly democratic movement opposed to systems which perpetuate social and financial inequality on a large majority of the population (the “99%”). Our political systems permit corporate and financial influence on policy through financial donation, lobbying, and other methods through which they ensure that decisions are made in the interests of their profits, regardless of the interests and needs of the people or the environment. This is not a true democratic process.

The "1%" refers specifically to those individuals and companies who wield their financial power in the aim of manipulating government processes for their own selfish interests. The “1%” also symbolically refers to the politicians who allow this situation to occur.

The "99%" refers to the majority of people: the employed and the unemployed, the Indigenous, disabled people, children, the aged, the disadvantaged, students, the working and middle classes, and members of the upper class who oppose this state of affairs. The Occupy Movement includes all of these and more.  We are people of all affiliations, political leanings, opinions, beliefs, religion, colours, sex, gender identity, age or socio-economic status. We are real flesh and blood members of our communities. We represent all walks of life from all corners of this nation and around the world.

(FAQ Question 1 approved and adopted at GA 12/2/2012)

What does Occupy Brisbane stand for?
Occupy Brisbane aims to raise public awareness of the failure of our political system to protect the ordinary person from the negative influences of corporate greed both here and overseas. We believe that democracy has been captured by the 1% and no longer represents the wishes of the people. Democracy should be one person, one vote; not one dollar, one vote.

Occupy Brisbane is part of a global movement, and as such we are concerned with issues both within Australia and around the world. At this early stage we are focussed on raising awareness about the problems our democracies and societies face. Examples of issues commonly voiced within the occupy movement include:

  • Extravagant CEO remuneration while ordinary workers' wages stagnate
  • Widening inequality in income and wealth between the haves and have-nots, and the stressors this adds to society
  • Fast-tracking of Coal Seam Gas projects without adequate environmental and social checks and balances, and the forced compliance of farmers in the use of their land
  • The Woolworths and Coles duopoly over our food and fuel
  • Threats to Indigenous rights and respect
  • The nexus between government and corporations (via cross population of corporate boards and so called "independent" political committees with the same people; politicians walking into corporate jobs on retirement; and lobbying)
  • Wider global problems such as global warming, food insecurity, wars, ecological destruction, and financial speculation that is disruptive to real economies and real people.

Once the wider public is more aware of these problems, we can all take part in a wider discussion about how to fix them. Solutions could include political, corporate or legal, or a combination of these.

We don't have anything to worry about here in Australia, right?
While it is acknowledged that Australia is faring better than the rest of the world after the global financial crisis (GFC), it is naive to think that we have nothing to worry about here. The world is no longer a collection of isolated nations. Australia's economic interests are strongly tied to foreign economies and large multinational corporations. A large proportion of our economy is based around wealth generated by global financial interactions. Local councils in Australia are being bankrupted by their exposure to the global problem of Synthetic CDO's (see here). Australia's economy has been described as a "two-speed" economy for a number of years now. That is, a booming resources sector (largely occurring in QLD and WA), while the rest of the economy stagnates or is in technical recession. This highlights the danger to the Australian economy, given its success is dependent on other nations demand for our resources. If those nations suffer a slow down (which all of them have, bar China to a large extent), our economy could be in real trouble. Can and should we just hope that China continues to prop up our economy? Or should we have an inclusive political process that considers everyone, not just the big miners and the financial heavyweights?

In addition to financial and economic instabilities, Australia has some major issues regarding the interplay between politics and corporations. That is, politicians operate under conflicts of interest between the people who they are supposed to represent and unelected corporations. Such issues can be seen in recent actions involving the QANTAS strike, where QANTAS held the country to ransom, only to be supported by the government when it stepped in to stop the rightful protest action by thousands of real workers; and the Coal Seam Gas industry which is benefiting from very lax environmental guidelines (for e.g. here), presumably due to the huge amounts of royalties involved for the government. And hot off the press is the massive increase in politicians' salaries, recommended by the "independent" committee composed of CEO's and Chairpersons of major corporations.

Other issues of note in Australia are the poor treatment of our Indigenous brothers and sisters, the disabled, and the elderly. Inequality is growing in Australia, and despite the counter-assertions of many, actual OECD figures show that we are now one of the most unequal of the developed economies (see here and here). This sees us following in the trend of the US (and now the UK) where neoliberalism has decimated the social fabric of that country.

However, arguably one of the most serious issue that confronts Australia, and one that is firmly within the scope of the 1% vs 99% issue, is that of global climate change. Not only does this issue highlight the global nature of our problems, it also shows the destructive influence corporations can have on good governance. 'Big Oil' and 'Big Coal' (those companies that stand the most to win from a continuation, indeed expansion, of our fossil fuels industries) have funnelled huge amounts of money into disinformation campaigns with the sole purpose of discrediting highly qualified and credible peer-reviewed science (see here and here). This is a hijacking of our democracies by huge sums of money, and highlights the stark realities of the 1% vs 99% concept.



What are your demands?
Many people criticise us for not having a clear list of demands. There are a number of reasons for this, primary among them being that this is initially an awareness campaign to inform ordinary Australians about the risks that large corporations and large bodies of money pose to the democratic process. Once people are aware of the problems, then we can move towards a national conversation about ways of dealing with these problems. And given the large number of problems that are manifested by this distortion (corruption?) of democracy, it would be inappropriate to attempt to solve them without involving the very people who are affected by them.



Why don't you have a leader?
Occupy Brisbane, like most Occupy movements around the world, is run as a direct democracy. As such, there is no leader or leaders of our movement. No one individual speaks for the movement, and this is important to remember when you read various opinions and comments on our Facebook page. Direct democracy allows all people to have a say, and not all in the movement necessarily agree with any one individual's opinion. Only the official General Assembly of Occupy Brisbane speaks for the movement. This is a direct democratic body open to any interested persons, and follows a procedure that aims to get consensus on motions of relevance to the movement (see here).



Why are there two Occupy Brisbane groups?
We are the original occupiers who started out at Post Office Square, and then occupied Queens Park, Roma St Parklands and then Musgrave Park. We maintain the official Occupy Brisbane Facebook page and hold the minutes from all General Assemblies associated with the Occupation to date. A small group of members, who contributed to the starting up of our movement, chose to go their own way and start another group under a similar name (Occupy Brisbane 2.0). We share many things in common with each other, particularly our desire to see the 99% reclaim democracy from the 1%. However, we disagree over a few key issues.



Why were you occupying Musgrave Park outside of the CBD?
Musgrave Park was chosen as a stable location to base ourselves after the unfair actions of the Brisbane City Council in removing us without notice from a number of parks in the city. We also stand in solidarity with the Indigenous peoples of the city of Brisbane, and we received strong support from the elders of Musgrave Park.

We also wish to make it clear that this movement is much more than just a physical camp site. We have a large web presence, and there are many people working behind the scenes who can’t make it to the physical occupation. All supporters are valued, whether that support be physical, intellectual, or emotional.



Why don't you get a job?
Actually, most of us do have jobs. Some of us even have two or more jobs. Many of the people who are camping out also have jobs. It is the same in the US.

Notwithstanding this, it is often a diversionary tactic to raise this question. Unemployed people have the same rights as the rest of us, and there is no reason why they should be ostracised because they join a cause seeking to make Australia and the world a better place. And while some people might be unemployed in a paid sense, those in camp without full-time employment commit much energy and time to the running of the camp. The camp provides accommodation and food to a number of homeless people who have been left behind by our society.



Do you really want us to go back to the Stone Age?
No. We believe in a world with cars, TVs, computers, movies, holidays, houses, etc. We just believe that it's unfair that so few people in the world can afford to have these things, while so many are desperately poor. By removing corporate welfare and progressively taxing highly speculative financial transactions, it will be possible to lift the standards of life of many people who have been left behind by our current systems. In addition, by decoupling corporate influence from our political process, we hope to move quickly to avert/reduce the global warming disaster that rigorous scientific research predicts is coming. We also expect that this action will reduce ideological military misadventures around the globe that are promoting rather than reducing instability.

All of these actions will result in a more stable and prosperous world, as opposed to our world today which stands on the brink of environmental disaster and serious military threats via weapons of mass destruction.