United University Professions at Oswego

Resolution from the Oswego Chapter of UUP

Whereas both Republican and Democratic officeholders and candidates have failed to check excessive corporate power resulting in damage to every aspect of our lives; perverting democracy by depriving the public of real alternatives and damaging care provided to children, the sick and the elderly, our food supply and literally the air we breathe; and

Whereas Supreme Court decisions, by treating corporations as if they were persons and allowing them unlimited corporate spending to further corrupt the political process, has provided legitimation for the continuation and exacerbation of these abuses; and

Whereas corporations routinely move capital to avoid taxation while simultaneously moving labor to avoid paying living wages, holding people and sovereignty alike hostage; and

Whereas Wall Street has adopted principles and practices responsible for driving and extending a cycle of crisis; and

Whereas the austerity measures adopted to respond to the resulting crisis are, in fact, designed to protect the institutions that have perpetrated it; and

Whereas these austerity measures have seriously damaged the American educational system by laying off tens of thousands of teachers, reducing student access to higher education, eliminating not only numerous individual course sections but entire programs and even attacking the fundamental right of public employees to collectively bargain the terms and conditions of their employment; and

Whereas this cycle of crisis will especially affect the future of young people and, among them, our students who, in their commitment to higher education, will carry debt for decades to come, therefore, be it

Resolved that the SUNY Oswego chapter of the United University Professions supports the movement to Occupy Wall Street, manifest in the streets of cities across America, and its demand for real democracy as well as its denunciation of the effects of current unfair and harmful economic policies on the conditions of life for millions of people around the world.

There will be a chapter meeting on November 15, 2011 in room 201 Campus Center  at 4:00 PM

Phillip Smith, UUP Statewide President, will be available to answer questions regarding contract negotiations.