OAKLAND, Calif. - Filipino Advocates for Justice or FAJ supported the “OCCUPY Movement” including the right of Occupy Oakland to peacefully encamp at Oscar Grant Plaza to speak their grievances. 

The organization issued a statement explaining its position:

“We are in agreement that we need to end corporate greed and the vast accumulation of wealth by a tiny minority.  We agree with the growing belief that corporations (especially financial institutions) and the rich are responsible for the economic crisis and have an obligation to help us recover.  It is time that the rich and corporations pay a fair tax so we can restore the quality of life we call the American Dream.

“There’s no justice in a system that serves the top 1 percent at the expense of the bottom 99 percent.  Banks and corporations, some of whom received government bailouts, are reporting increased earnings and rewarding executives with multi-million dollar bonuses, while the 99 percent feel no recovery.  For the 99 percent the cost of living is out of control.  Our treasured institutions like public schools, libraries, public parks, and support services for the more vulnerable are suffering for lack of revenue.  High unemployment, home foreclosures, teacher layoffs, school closures, soaring college tuitions, public safety layoffs, and cut backs in programs for the elderly make a joke of the American Dream.  It is no wonder the 99 percent are so angry in the United States and globally.

“In the Filipino community people like Romy lost his good paying industrial job in the plant closures of the 1990s and has never been able to get another decent paying job like it.  There was never a recovery for him.  Josefina, now 78 years old, lost her job as an airport screener after 9/11, and must now piece together a few hours here and there as a caregiver.  She is underpaid (even when working for rich people), exploited and has few labor rights. Nyda who would rather have stayed in the Philippines, has to help support her adult children who are working all over the planet because the Philippine economy is buried under massive debt.

“We support the Occupy movement because immigrants are blamed for America’s economic meltdown, when in fact, they are victims of the global financial crisis AND trade policies like NAFTA, which causes poverty and the displacement of people around the world.  While our government is focused on incarcerating hundreds of thousands of immigrants in detention centers for profit and deports over 400,000 last year, only a handful of Wall Street executives responsible for bringing our economic system to its knees have been punished.  Use tax dollars to go after the stolen wealth, not immigrants! 

“The 99 percent are waking up.  Eighty-five percent of the 600 Filipino voters we surveyed favor a California ballot measure that would make corporations and the wealthy pay a fair tax to insure a better life for future generations.

“The media says this movement is not focused, but that is not true.  Clearly, we want a greater share of the wealth that we helped create. We want Wall Street to pay (big time) for the damage it did to the U.S. economy.  We want our elected officials to stop taking corporate contributions and represent the 99 percent. We want democracy for the 99 percent in the United States and for the 99 percent of the world.”

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