Forum Post: The Occupy Earth Manifesto--The Counterforce--Spiritus Mundi Manifesto

THE OCCUPY EARTH MANIFESTO ---Draft Demands, Goals and 17 Point Action Agenda of the Global Counterforce Alliance

(Note: This Manifesto is taken from the new novel, Spiritus Mundi, by Robert Sheppard, which treats the Occupy Movement directly along with the global grassroots Campaign for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly. See http://spiritusmundinovel.wordpress.com/ and http://en.unpacampaign.org/index.php)

We the 99% of the people of America and of the World, in conjunction with the the Counterforce Alliance in pursuit of Economic Democracy and Social Justice, within America, the EU and globally, and in resistance to the abuses and exploitation of the predatory 1% financial and wealth owning elite join together in solidarity to declare and support the following values and goals in response to the World Economic Crisis. While pessimistic about the immediate present, we join in both idealism and optimism mediated through realism with regard to the ultimate future of humanity, convinced in the ultimate strength and creative power of the human spirit against all odds and obstacles, and convinced that the world is blessed with immense opportunities masquerading as insoluable problems. In solidarity we set forth the following Demands, Goals, and Proposed Measures, long and short-term, and call on all of you of the 99% to mobilize all our common energies in their initiation, support and fulfillment, and call on all governments and leaders to assist the People in their implementation:

1. Implement Wealth Tax: We call for the immediate consideration and implementation of a Comprehensive Solidarity Tax on Wealth on all persons, natural and possibly corporate, and on trusts with net worth of $10,000,000 or more at the rate of at least 15% during the economic crisis and at least 3% annually. This would be in addition to and adjusted in complement with the existing Income Tax. The income of the 1% is already outrageously out of proportion to that of the 99%, having grown from 10% to 20% since 1980 due to an inherently corrupted and unfair tax system The wealth of the 1% is even more outrageously maldistributed, with the top 1% holding 38% of the privately held wealth in the USA, and the bottom 90% holding 73% of all debt. Economic democracy calls for a shift of the burden of taxation from income, particularly earned income to taxation of wealth and unearned income. Revenues would be made available to insure the solvency of the Social Security system, reduce the national debt, for fiscal stimulus to create jobs during the World Financial Crisis, for funding education and retraining for all unemployed or underemployed and for mortgage relief, amoung all other public purposes. Models: France has a tried and tested system of taxation of individual wealth at a progressive scale of rates from 0% to 1.8%, which is called the “Solidarity Tax on Wealth,” which provides a good working model for implementation in the USA. In 1999 Donald Trump proposed a one-off Wealth Tax of 14.25% on the net worth of individuals and trusts in excess of ten million dollars which was calculated to produce 5.7 Trillion dollars in new reveuues.

2. Strict Regulation of Dangerous, Predatory and Irresponsible Financial Practices: We demand further and stricter regulation of the dangerous financial practices such as credit-default swaps, derivatives, predatory mortgages, and associated abuses which caused the still-unresolved World Financial Crisis. We demand prosecution of the principal abusers. When unresolved by regulation, if necessary, weaknesses and abuse in the financial sector may be addressed by nationalization in the public interest.

3. Implement Financial Transactions Tax: We call for the immediate imposition of a transactions tax on all purchases and sales of stocks, bonds, equities, financial derivatives, and expecially on speculative and dangerous transactions such as credit-default swaps at the heart of the World Financial Crisis. The 1% should be required to pay at least 1% for all such financial transactions. John Meynard Keynes proposed implementation of such a system following the 1929 Crash and Depression to curb disastrous speculation. Models: Britain has had a Stamp Tax on financial transactions since 1694 on the London Stock Exchange and Sweden has a comprehensive 0.5% tax on equity securities and financial derivatives, with like legislation in Brazil and Peru.

4. Implement Tobin Tax or Tax on Foreign Exchange Transactions: Nobel Prize Laureate James Tobin proposed a tax on all spot conversions of one currency into another as a means of dampening speculation and “hot money,” In the post-Globalization

Copyright Robert Sheppard 2011 The Counterforce TM Dr. Robert Sheppard Professor of International Law Contact: rsheppard99_2000@yahoo.com