"Occupy SEC" Heads up LEO! Is this group "for Real" or Not?

[alexisgo]

15. We are an OWS Working Group within the NYC GA

Hi KoKo,

Alexis Goldstein here.

I totally understand your concern and appreciate the spirit of it. I am wary myself of some projects that look to potentially be co-opting the occupy name (for example, I wasn't sure what was going on with the recent Occupy Super PAC I read about in the news...). You have sparked an interesting discussion and I appreciate all the things people have said. Lots of good stuff in here.

I just wanted to take some time to try and tell you a bit more about us.

We are a Working Group within the NYC-based Occupy Wall Street movement. You can find our nycga page at: http://www.nycga.net/groups/occupy-the-sec/

OWS (in NYC) has two major documents/statements that have been approved by the NYC General Assembly, the Declaration of the Occupation, and our Principles of Solidarity, both of which you can find here:
http://www.nycga.net/resources/declaration/
http://www.nycga.net/resources/principles-of-solidarity/

As you can see from the Statement of Autonomy, OWS encourages people to speak with us, and work together, as long as they do not try and speak FOR OWS:
http://www.nycga.net/resources/statement-of-autonomy/

Working groups at OWS are autonomous, and free to work on what they wish, as long as they do not try to speak for OWS without going through the GA, and as long as they do not violate the Declaration of the Occupation nor the Principles of Solidarity.

Occupy the SEC has been explicit in every interview that we do NOT, and CANNOT, speak for OWS without going through the NYC General Assembly. We state on page one of the letter that "Occupy the SEC (http://occupythesec.org) is a group within the New York-based Occupy Wall Street ('OWS')
protest movement. This letter represents the opinion of our group’s members, and does not represent the viewpoints of OWS as a whole"

I hope that helps.

As a side note, we have been featured in the OWS's newspaper, in a piece we wrote for the Occupied Wall St Journal, and most recently in Occupy New Haven and cross-posted on the Occupied Washington Times:
http://occupiedmedia.us/2012/02/occupy-the-volcker-rule/
http://owt.occupydc.org/occupy-activists-work-to-enforce-volcker-rule/

Hope that clarifies some things. We do have only the best of intentions and are NOT trying to speak on behalf of OWS, as no one can without going through the NYC GA!

All the best,
Alexis