[This was kept simple and brief so that I could put down the bullhorn that had been used by everyone up until I stood up to speak, and instead use the people’s mic.]

I am the 99%. I am here because I was on unemployment four times in the last seven years, and because the bank took my home. Because, like many of you, my family and I have depended on food stamps and other services to live. And we continue to live under the threat of those services disappearing. I’m here because I teach at a school where we are denied the ability to collectively bargain. But I, like you, am here because this system has no future. And we are building a model for a new community. We don’t want jobs, we want a living. We don’t want anything but a thriving community based on love, communication, and working through our problems together, through self-determination, self-management and real democracy.

Another world is not just possible. It is here right now.