Occupy Law UK is a working group within Occupy London. We need to ‘occupy the law’ because the legal system legitimises the status quo. We live in a ‘democracy’ which concentrates power to the 1% and disenfranchises the 99%. Corporates routinely override the will of the people, with the support of our government. It is unjust and undemocratic that corporate ‘rights’ override the rights and wishes of communities, and indeed corporates are ‘permitted’ to destroy the environment on which all life depends.
The structure of law needs to be radically changed. The legal system should promote the health of the planet and improve the quality of human relationships, not serve the narrow interests of elites. Our communities are not resource colonies for a gaggle of corporations. Unjust laws should be challenged, broken and changed. Rosa Parks recognised this, as did the suffragettes. We need a new civil rights movement now, to assert the rights of communities and nature above corporate rights.
We are inspired by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund in the US. We advocate Community Bills of Rights which demand local community self-governance and which elevate rights of communities above corporate rights.
We are building a movement for justice and genuine sustainability. Join us and assert your rights!
See also:
Occupy London website: http://occupylondon.org.uk/
Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund: http://www.celdf.org/
