THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENTS

The unanimous Declaration of the millions of Independent Creators across the globe, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the cultural bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Creativity and of Creativity’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all creators are made equal, that they are endowed by their intuition with certain unalienable means of creators, that among these are Joy, Liberty and the pursuit of the Unknown. That to secure these rights, communities are instituted among Creators, deriving their just powers from the consent of the creatives.

That whenever any Form of Hyper-Consolidated Corporation becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the Creators to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new Movement, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Corporations long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that Artists are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Corporate Absolutism, and to provide new Guards for their future Cultures. Such has been the patient sufferance of the Creators; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Control. The history of the present “Creative Industries” is a history of repeated crushing and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over the Creators. 

To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

They have refused the desires of the collective humanistic Culture, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

They have forbidden the rise of lesser known Artists, unless the artist can succeed at deepening their pockets, they see them as waste, and when so successful, they bleed the Creator dry of their agency of both spirit and flesh.

They have refused to engage in the cultural accommodation of large swaths of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of collectivity in their Art, a right inestimable to them and formidable to Oligarchs only.

They have called together corporate bodies for systems unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the emotions of their Cultural Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing the creators into compliance by the numbing of the collective spirit.

They have Consolidated independent bastions of artistic freedom repeatedly, for opposing with collective firmness their invasions on the rights of the Creators.

They have refused for a long time, after such consolidations, to allow new voices to arise; whereby the Creative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the Culture remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of intrusion from without, and stagnation within.

They have endeavoured to prevent the flourishing of these Communities; for that purpose obstructing the means by which New Creators might be welcomed; refusing to grant passage or platforms to encourage their emergence hither, and raising the barriers to any fresh Apportionment of Attention, Resources, and Opportunity.

They have obstructed the platforming of independents, by opposing all institutions that would place judgment in the hands of Creators, ensuring that power remains captive to the Boardrooms and Bureaucracies of the Hollywood Hierarchy.

They have bound all decision-makers to their Favor, making their livelihoods dependent on obedience, so that no ruling may be offered in support of the Creator that does not first serve the Hierarchy. And they have raised up a multitude of needless Offices, dispatching legions of Managers, Coordinators, Brokers, and Middle-men to burden Creators with endless demands, siphoning away the very substance of their work.

They have stationed among us, even when no quarrel persisted, permanent Armies of corporate Guardians and Watchers, never authorized by the Creators whose labors they monitor.

They have sought to render their Corporate Forces independent of, and superior to, the Creative will of the People.

They have conspired with fellow Hierarchs to bind us under systems alien to our creative constitution, unratified by any community of Makers; approving measures of counterfeit Legislation:

For stationing unwelcome armies of bureaucrats in the very rooms where art is born:

For sheltering their officers, by means of hollow proceedings, from any accountability for harms done to the Creative class:

For restricting the free circulation of our work beyond their own controlled channels:

For levying burdensome percentages on our labor absent any Creator representation:

For withholding from us the basic right to have grievances heard by a community, not a corporation:

For compelling us to submit to far-removed audiences built entirely in their own image:

For suppressing free creative systems in allied spaces, establishing despotic rule to be used as an instrument against all independents:

For seizing our creative intuitions, nullifying our most vital rights, and fundamentally altering the spiritual structures by which we self-govern:

For choking off our means of collective decision, and appointing themselves the final rulers of all creative endeavor:

They have surrendered their duty to those who make the culture, casting us off as burdens and prosecuting a relentless War against our independence.

They have drained our creative waters, devastated our cultural frontiers, extinguished our emerging scenes, and crushed the spirits and incomes of our people.

They are at this moment shipping swarms of mercenary operatives to carry forward the work of corporate despotism and cultural ruin, executing schemes of cruelty and treachery that would shame the most barbarous of rulers, and bring dishonor to the very idea of creative governance.

They have forced independent Creators, trapped within the platforms and monopolies of the Hierarchy, to produce for the very Corporations that undermine them, turning their gifts against friends and collaborators, or else watch their livelihoods vanish.

They have incited rebellion and division among our people, and have aimed to bring upon our outlying communities swarms of predatory corporate actors, whose practices destroy without distinction between beginner and veteran, amateur and master.

Through every act of oppression, we have submitted our petitions in good faith; yet each humble request has been rewarded only with further exploitation and oversight. A Boardroom so steeped in tyranny is unfit to oversee the liberties of independent Creators.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Corporate heathens. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our creation and proliferation across the digital sphere. We have appealed to their Consolidations and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of Creation, Freedom and of Independence. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Independent Creators of the World, in General thought, connected, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good Creators, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Creators are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent Artists; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the Hollywood and Creative Market systems, and that all artistic connection between them and the Consolidated Powers of Art, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent Creators, we have full Power to create, earn, commune, distribute, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent Creators may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Creation, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.