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Forum Post: Another Proposed List of Demands -- Part 2

Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 1, 2011, 1:24 p.m. EST by Alan8 (14)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

This proposed list of demands was compiled by "DIMOJABE" (Disqus name) (with some of my suggestions), who was sick of the media and pundits saying "the Occupy people don't know what they want".

This forum complained that the content was too long, so I've split the list into two parts. This is Part 2. (Part 1 is here: http://occupywallst.org/forum/another-proposed-list-of-demands-part-1/ )

Suggestions and comments are needed to expand & refine the list, and to achieve consensus! Let's hear from you!

Combining other independently-developed lists will help insure we haven't left anything out.

31) Executive Pay/Severance & Eliminate All Bonuses - Eliminate all bonuses and cap executive pay for any organizations that accept US taxpayer funding entirely or in part.

32) Bonus Claw Back - those paid with US taxpayers' dollars as part of the TARP program and use them for either under funded social safety net programs or to pay down the deficit.

33) Boards of Directors & CEO Regulation for Public & Private companies - Close the process gaps that prevent shareholder nominations to be listed on prospectus mailings, and eliminate any regulations that permit ethnically immoral, managerially absurd and financially ruinous behaviors.

34) Pension Plans - Convert all private 401K plans BACK to fully-funded pension plans that are not subject to market forces.

35) US Government Purchasing - Convert an ever increasing share of products purchased by the US government to ONLY those actually created here in the USA and remove any corporations who systematically outsource from the Central Contracting Registry.

36) Public Sector Purchasing - No more foreign corporations or redomiciled US corporations can compete for US public contracts on any level.

37) US Government Debt - The US government will no longer be permitted to borrow funds from any foreign government. It will pay for its operation in real time with taxes on the corporations conducting business in US markets.

38) US Government Immunity - The US Government is not immune from legal action by a harmed party and cannot convict using evidence deemed to be critical to national security.

39) Top Secret America - The trillion dollar security apparatus needs to be evaluated and downsized. Observant citizens are demonstrably more effective, so let's train them instead.

40) Surveillance Regulations - Review and Amend to remove any possibility for abuse by any government agency.

41) US Government Eminent Domain - Shall NEVER be used to seize private property at below market rates for private profit by another individual, corporation, or public-private partnership.

42) Break Up the Oligarchies - Admit that oligarchies have formed in every major market sector and systematically remove them using the existing anti-trust regulations and laws that are currently being ignored.

43) Outsourcing & Privatization of Public Services - Cease and desist at all levels of government.

44) Re-Instate The Glass-Steagall Act - The division between Commercial banking operations and Investment bank transactions must be restored.

45) Ban the Credit Default Swap Market - in its entirety. The gamblers can go somewhere else.

46) Ban Commodity Trading in Food and Oil - Both market are inelastic on the demand side; they need to be fully regulated to prevent instability and price hikes.

47) The Federal Reserve - This organization has failed, is not transparent and systematically hurts the US working class with it's actions. It will be closed down.

48) Multi-Lateral Organizations - The US government will cease to fund global multi-lateral organizations until the basic economic rights of the American people have been restored (See FDR's Citizens' Bill of Rights).

49) Repeal All Free Trade Agreements - Bring jobs back to America. American companies can make any product if they don't have to compete with 3rd world wages and labor arbitrage.

50) SuperFund Sites - Assess appropriate fines to complete the SuperFund clean ups and get them DONE.

51) Public Land Preservation - Convert as much of the remaining federal public lands to a permanently protected status as possible.

52) Private & Corporate Land Acquisition - No foreign ownership of US public or private lands for mineral extraction or other forms of resource removal.

53) Public Lands - Designate ALL public lands as permanent wilderness and clean them up for future generations.

54) Corporate Resource Extraction on Public Lands - Declare a national moratorium.

55) Agriculture / Hemp Cultivation - Establish government subsidized programs to introduce and maintain hemp cultivation nationally for soil restoration and the removal of petrochemicals from the US food chain.

56) A National Moratorium on Hydrolic Fracturing Technology before our aquifers are destroyed and we become an earthquake-ridden republic.

57) A National Moratorium on Off-Shore and Polar region Oil Drilling.

58) A National Moratorium on oil pipeline construction.

59) A National Moratorium on nuclear energy development.

+++ (a) 11/30/11 Note: The minimum wage from 1969, adjusted for inflation, would be about $20.00 an hour. No one can live comfortably on $12.00 an hour and the current poverty line for a family of four is $22,000 a year. Economists say that should be doubled. When arguing for a "living wage" think generously.

(b)11/30/11 End the hemp prohibition - Think hemp, farmers used to grow it as a rotation crop to replenish depleted fields without petrochemical industry fertilizer. Another benefit was up to 30 liters of bio-fuel per acre, Rockefeller did not like independent farmers who didn't need to buy his standard oil fuels, along with Hearst the newspaper magnate, who had massive forest holding he wanted to use for paper to replace hemp which did not require bleach in the process. Of course DuPont just patented synthetic fibers in 1936 so hemp fibers were competition too.

11 Comments

11 Comments


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[-] 2 points by jimmycrackerson (940) from Blackfoot, ID 12 years ago

Very good! Lets start turning some of these demands into actual policy. and how about we start today! Just imagine the impact if only 3-4 of these demands were randomly enacted today or even this month. We have 50+ of them! And I'm assuming there will be many more to come in these following weeks to come.

[-] 1 points by freelight (2) 12 years ago

Well, 'turning some of these demands into actual policy'... presumes shifting the power into the hands of those demanding. May be that should be the first demand?

[-] 1 points by bensdad (8977) 12 years ago

DEMAND that we, in OWS, ACT to accomplish these GOALS
I attended 5 working groups yesterday at 60 Wall - every minute of every one of them was wasted -
by very smart people - arguing or discussing OWS procedures and processes.
I cant imaging Gandhi or King or for that matter david koch or a teaparty wasting
their resources on this bs.
I can imagine david watching one of these mental masturbation sessions, going home and opening
a 50 year old bottle of champagne, and having hysterics.
DEMAND that we, in OWS, ACT to accomplish these GOALS

We need to be realistic & pick an issue that is simple - that is popular -
that 83% of Americans already agree on
that will bring together the people inside OWS with the people outside of OWS.
Our only goal should be to pass a constitutional amendment to counter Supreme Court decision Citizens United that enables unlimited amounts of anonymous money to flood into our political system.
“Corporations and organizations are not a persons & have no personhood rights”
We don’t have to explain or persuade people to accept our position – we only have to persuade them to ACT based on their own position.
Pursuing this goal will prove to the world that we, at OWS, are a serious realistic Movement, with serious realistic goals. Achieving this goal will make virtually every other OWS goal – jobs, taxes, infrastructure, Medicare – much easier to achieve –
by disarming our greatest enemy – GREED.


83% of Americans have already opposed CU in the ABC/Washington post poll


Pursuing this one goal – without additional specifics is exactly what Americans want.
What do we want? Look at that almost endless list of OWS demands – goals - aims.
Tax the rich. End the Fed. Jobs for all, Medicare for all. So easy to state! Can you imagine how hard it would be to formulate a “sales pitch” for any of these to convince your Republican friends to vote for any of them? 83% of Americans have ALREADY “voted” against CU. All we have to do ask Americans is to pressure their representatives – by letters - emails – petitions.


I feel that using the tactics of the NRA, the AARP an the TP – who all represent a minority – who have successfully used their voting power to achieve their minority goals - is a straight path for us to success that cannot fail to enable us to create and complete one MAJORITY task.


Join the Restore Democracy Working Group at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NYCRDWG
Plan details with supporting documentation found at: http://bit.ly/vK2pGI REGULAR MEETING 60 WALL ST 6PN-8PM WEDNESDAYS

[-] 1 points by freelight (2) 12 years ago

input-processing-output -> will of the people & for the people ... globally We need a tool for that. Who how decides what is best/optimal for all. No zero-sum games.

[-] 1 points by nucleus (3291) 12 years ago

Making demands recognizes authority. Recognizing corrupt authority legitimizes tyranny.

"Be the change you want to see in the World". - Mahatma Gandhi

[-] 1 points by Alan8 (14) 12 years ago

This is a distraction over semantics. We are making demands to a corrupt tyrannical government, which is something protest movements generally do. Please comment on the content of the demands.

[-] 1 points by epa1nter (4650) from Rutherford, NJ 12 years ago

Creating change in the world requires taking action in the world, something Ghandi never shied away from. And he negotiated with and made demands on the British "authorities" at every opportunity.

Demanding a system change does not mean that system has moral authority over you, but the opposite. And changing oneself does not preclude demanding the righting of wrongs: one must do both.

[-] 1 points by jimmycrackerson (940) from Blackfoot, ID 12 years ago

Then maybe we call them propositions instead?

[-] 2 points by nucleus (3291) 12 years ago

I think nationwide general strikes would more immediate and effective in bringing the entire government and corporate financial complex to its knees.

It works in other countries, why not here?

Widespread non-violent civil disobedience. Opt out of corporate services, corporate banks, corporate products.

[-] 2 points by AFarewellToKings (1486) 12 years ago

I can't seem to convince nucleus that requests recognize the over-riding authority of others while demands recognizes the authority of the American people over 'the government'.

[-] 1 points by nucleus (3291) 12 years ago

demand v., v.tr. To ask for urgently or peremptorily: e.g. "demand to speak to the manager"