ON GOALS & DEMANDS (cont'd)

Submitted by Booj WaZEE on

Booj WaZEE's picture

KEEP IN MIND: This is a grassroots movement that is in it's infancy. The seeds are being planted today. It is unrealistic to expect or demand fruit today. What is clear is that we have risen. We want the change we were promised and never received. We want a government that actually works for the people. We want a SEPARATION OF CORPORATIONS AND STATE in the exact same way as we have a separation of church and state. We want to STOP the unjust oppression before it is too late, and it will soon be too late.

5 Comments

robmillernow's picture

This seems like a simple, cogent demand:

Submitted by robmillernow on

http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/ku20a/it_has_continually_been_...

The plan needs to be to start small. The list of demands cannot be some utopian list that would require uprooting all of the vested interests that profit from maintaining the status quo.

This movement needs to acheive one small victory so that it starts to become legitimized in the eyes of the American public that is largely ignorant of the causes of the financial crisis and the pending crises that we face as a nation. Simply camping on Wall St. until the Constitution is amended to block Citizens United is not a viable way to attract public support to this movement that, thanks to our corporate media, people only believe to be a gathering of uninformed hippies trying to tax the rich.

We need to brainstorm small, tangible victories that this movement, at its current size, can feasibly accomplish. Demanding amendments to the Constitution and additional tax brackets for higher incomes will only be realized if the general public actually sees this movement accomplish something.

Potential Small Victory:

  • The 99% demand that Congress immediately hold a yes/no vote on whether to repeal the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act of 1999. Since Glass-Steagall was not a main cause of the crisis, this should not be as difficult to get past the banking lobby as say something like banning prop trading would be. This vote would officially draw the line in the sand between politicians that stand with the people and politicians that stand with the banking and insurance industries. The vote tally would then need to be widely distributed across the country through social media, and those that sided with the banking/insurance industry would be voted out accordingly.

This is merely my suggestion, and obviously the one, small, tangible victory that this movement would seek to accomplish at first should be decided democratically.

The fact remains that this movement will be nothing until it accomplishes something tangible; regardless of how small. While nobody likes supporting a losing effort, everyone loves getting behind a winner and claiming they were behind it the whole time.

 

 

separation of church and state

Submitted by bishop on

I hope you will reconsider and amend your statement "We want a SEPARATION OF CORPORATIONS AND STATE in the exact same way as we have a separation of church and state."

 

I suspect  that is actually not at all what you want. In the United States, religion is free from government religion, pays no taxes, and has a highly protected status under the First Amendment.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof

Now would you really want to change "religion" to "corporations”? I dont think so.

It sounds to me like the people in this Occupy action want to regulate corporations highly, or even abolish them. There's no analogy to religion, and I would suggest you drop that from your statement

glass steagal etc

Submitted by bishop on

These protests are about much more than a piece of legislation. You could put glass steagal back in; it was herein the 80's - did we have economic and social justice then? Did we have true liberty? Did we have peace with other nations? No, not even close.

Dont make this about legislation, that would kill its spirit.

 

glass-steagall_impeach-obama's picture

In reply ("Glass-Steagall")

Submitted by glass-steagall_... on

In all respect, you simply do not understand what Glass-Steagall is.  That is fine, there are plenty of ways to be educated about it, and plenty of people who can tell you why it is more significant than you realize.

The best thing would be to take your questions, which are good questions, and use them as a basis for understanding why hundreds of municipalities and city councils and unions across the country are demanding Glass-Steagall. 

My contribution to Occupy Wall St/Occupy Los Angeles. so far, has been to point out to those unfamiliar with the Glass-Steagall Act, that they need to educate themselves and find out more.  I will continue to do this, in the spirit of an open and necessary dialogue.

 

Impeach Barack Obama!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNuhXcwP0fg&feature=related">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNuhXcwP0fg&feature=related</a>

3 points - ceasefire, strike, global assembly

Submitted by bishop on

I would offer this:

global ceasefire, beginning with all american actions, and including especially palestine and israel.

global general strike - you will need BIG LABOR UNIONS' support for that, obviously. 

once the above two are established, a sociocratic selection of a global committee of perhaps 500 people to start talkin

http://www.sociocracy.info/

once they're talkin, everyone can go home and await their findings, which will be essentially binding; that is - the powers that be either abide them, or the strike recommences.

 

there's your revolution.

Pages