Occupy Fort Lauderdale Releases Its "Declaration of Occupation"

Almost three months after the first "Declaration of Occupation" was released by an Occupy camp -- the first one from the Occupy Wall Street outfit -- Occupy Fort Lauderdale has now aired its list of grievances.

The 40 complaints are divided into four sections in the document, including sections on bankers and the "1%," war mongering/profiteering, climate change, and civil liberties.

Some of the grievances are fairly similar to other declarations put by other Occupy camps around the country, while some appear to be unique.

According to Occupy Fort Lauderdale's announcement, the document "grew" from the declarations of Occupy camps in New York and Washington, D.C., while other ideas are based on thoughts outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, United States, the Declaration of the Rights of Man, and the Declaration of Independence.

"This movement is patriotic and American in nature," an unnamed Occupy Fort Lauderdale spokesperson says in the announcement. "It reaffirms our belief in the truths we built this nation upon, but which our political system has sold to corporations and the wealthy. This document is a call to reclaim those truths."

Below, we'll post a few of Occupy Fort Lauderdale's Florida-specific claims, and the entire declaration can be found below that:

• Banks have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage. In Florida, we have 58,000 homeless people yet 1.6 million vacant housing units, many of them due to foreclosures.
• The environment is threatened by the proposed resumption of construction of nuclear power plants, only months after the meltdown of Fukushima, including the expansion of a plant within 50 miles of Fort Lauderdale.
• Corporate interests pursue land development at the expense of habitat protection for endangered species, diminishing the web of life and the natural legacy we leave to future generations to enjoy. Locally, a fossil fuel power plant is planned for the heart of primary Florida panther habitat in Hendry County.
• In Florida, our drinking water is threatened by runoff from agribusiness farming. Hydraulic fracking likewise threatens water supplies throughout the nation.