Declaration of Independence from Oil

July 4, 2007

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for the people to rid themselves of a government which has abandoned the sound principles upon which it was founded and that increasingly threatens their lives and liberties for the sake of the Oil Industry, a decent respect to the opinions of humankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are born with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it. That when a long train of abuses and lies, pursuing invariably the same Middle Eastern Oil, threatens to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these American Citizens, along with the rest of the Peoples of the World. The History of the Government of the United States since the Second World War, fully exposed under the current King George II, is a history of repeated Imperial Adventures, all having in direct object the establishment of an Empire of Oil, founded upon a domestic Tyranny over these States, and a Colonial relationship with all peoples living in petroleum-rich areas of the Earth. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid audience.

· The government of these United States spends half of one Trillion of our dollars on Military Expenditures and War each Year, while neglecting the basic needs of our population, such as Health Care, Education, Employment, Housing, Transportation and Clean Energy.

· They have time and again used large Armies and networks of covert agents to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny upon democratically-elected governments, and in their stead installed pliant Authoritarian Regimes of a brutality scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages.

· They have continually distorted the Terrorist Attacks of the 11th of September, 2001, and used this tragedy to justify their Unconstitutional and Aggressive Policies.

· They have passed so-called “Patriot Acts” which trample upon our Civil Liberties, by permitting Agents of the State to spy upon Americans without warrant, and threaten to label political dissidents “Domestic Terrorists” who can be imprisoned without recourse to trial or lawyer.

· They have sent Military Recruiters amongst our children within our schools, preying upon the young and poor with False Promises of opportunity upon enlistment in their Standing Armies. Likewise they have neglected the health and livelihood of Veterans.

· They have sent our youth to Kill and Die, against foreign peoples which have posed no threat to us, though they had the misfortune to be born atop Large and Strategic reserves of Fossil Fuels.

· They have murdered more than 700,000 Iraqi Civilians, and Herded countless others to Prisons, using cruel Intimidation and Torture against those not charged with any crime.

· They have devastated the Social Sectors which served the Iraqi People, causing an endemic lack of Clean Water, Electricity, and Medical Care, further abusing a populace racked with severe levels of Unemployment.

· They have instituted laws to Privatize the Oil of Iraq, so that Multinational Corporations may control the Economic Destinies of its 20 Million People.

· They have institutionalized Neoliberalism to Seize upon the Resources and Markets of the world and allow for greater profits for those same Corporations at the expense of Poor and Indigenous populations.

· They have refused to take available steps to decrease the Emission of Greenhouse Gases which destabilize our Climate.

· They have allowed Climate Change to devastate the Black Community of the City of New Orleans, and systematically Denied the Right of Flood Victims to Return to their Communities and Rebuild their homes.

· They have built more Prisons than Schools, Jailing 1/3rd of all African American Male Youths.

· They have endeavoured to prevent the Immigration to these States by nonwhite, impoverished peoples, and threatened to deport those living with the circumstances of lacking Papers.

· They have conjured up cruel and Oppressive divisions amongst us, based on race, gender, sexuality, age, ability, and gender identity.

· They have plundered our Seas, Rivers, Forests and Air, ravaged Wildlife, and subjected our poorest Communities to Toxic Pollution.

· They have fettered and ignored public opinion, including 70% of us who Oppose the Immoral War against the people of Iraq.

· They have combined with the Oil Lobby to impose upon us an Addiction to Oil and its many Derivative Products:

o Gasoline, to transport us in increasingly large vehicles, over longer distances created by sprawl.

o Pesticides and Fertilizers, to grow our food through unsustainable methods that deplete the soil.

o Pharmaceutical drugs, to placate our emotions and lock us into a dependency upon chemicals.

o Plastics, which make up the Artificial Environment we are captives of.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. We have warned the Masters of this Imperial system from time to time of the Cruelty of their unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. Yet their Media have failed to carry our Messages, refused to serve as outlets for Truth, and they have denied us access to the Public Airwaves. We have appealed to their High Courts and Political Parties. Those too have been deaf to the voice of justice.

Now, in the year Two Thousand and Seven, when the Global Production of Oil has reached its Ultimate Peak, these forces have neglected to prepare for a future of Oil Shortages and Petro-Collapse, as the finite supply of Fossil Fuels in our Earth can no longer sustain this machine of infinite Appetite. What future could we hope to inherit if our Enslavement to these Oil Tyrants were to continue?

We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity to hold them, as we hold all Oppressors of humankind, Accountable for their Crimes.

We, therefore, Students for a Democratic Society of Philadelphia, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of this City, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Peoples are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to Corporate America, and that all political connection between them and the Oil Empire, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent People, they have full Power to levy Class Warfare, conclude Peace between nations and peoples, struggle against Racism, Sexism, Heterosexism and all forms of Social Oppression, build a Sustainable Future powered by Renewable and Community-based technologies, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent People may of right do to build a more Democratic Society. — And for the support of this Declaration, we mutually pledge to each other our Solidarity, our Equality and our sacred Struggle for Liberation.