Forum Post: Time to get serious!
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 8, 2011, 12:01 a.m. EST by ParadigmShift
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This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Ok, now that you have the world’s attention what are you going to do with it? Don’t let the lack of a direction cause your efforts to go to waste. First, elect a group of spokesman, preferably people with advanced knowledge of what you are trying to accomplish and are articulate enough to convey those wishes coherently. Elect several and rotate them often. Having one front person gives the establishment someone to target, rotating them will keep the powers that be guessing. Second, make sure that what want is what the 99% want. May I make some suggestions? 1) Amend the constitution to include a “get the money out of politics” clause! PERIOD. I believe Dylan Ratigan has a draft of this very thing in the works. This should be expanded to include any gratuity, i.e. cash kickbacks, promises of corporate placement after political service, jobs for the nephews etc. This point should be self explanatory and NON-NEGOTIABLE! 2) PROSECUTE the ones who caused this mess in the first place. Obama said that these bankers found “loop-holes” yet there are several Attorneys General around the country who are being pressured NOT to prosecute the bankers (even though they have evidence of crimes) in an attempt to let the banks make “plea deals” to avoid prosecution. If Iceland can prosecute their bankers, SO CAN WE! 3) Restore Glass-Steagall! After the great depression the law makers had the sense to institute laws that protected the people from the banks and their speculation and we must do that again. 4) Split the banks up into lending institutions and stock exchanges. If they want to be a “regular” bank they will enjoy FDIC insurance, if they want to speculate and gamble, they are on their own! If they crash it, it’s their money they will lose, NO OURS! 5) No politician in Washington that is in seat today will make any attempt to run for office again! They have been corrupted (and in some cases captured by outside interests) by the system they have created and it’s needed that they ALL go! Furthermore, anyone wishing to run for office will NOT be a politician! Or a lawyer, or corporate CEO! We need scientists (not the bought off ones from think tanks like the CATO Institute or Heartland Institute), technicians, college professors. You know, THE SMART PEOPLE! 6) END THE WARS! Most of the people in this country believe (wrongly I might add) that these wars are to protect our freedom and guard against “terrorism”. They are not! They are wars for resources! The corporations that run this country want the resources that lie in faraway lands, they bought our politicians to send out military to “liberate” them from their rightful owners. The corporations make the profit while the tax payers foot the bill for their extraction! 7) No more backroom deals! Have web-cams installed in every politician’s office and conference room for the public (their employers) to view what their representatives are doing at all times. These are but a few of the things I think should be added. I have many more but this is a starting point. Keep up the good fight. We in Cincinnati are with you! Occupy Cincinnati starts today!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This plan about what to do next is very cool:
https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/
And good luck Cincinnati!
I'm writing from Portugal - where the rapacious neo-liberal clutches of the IMF & sus muchachos are doing their deeds as we speak.
Our deepest solidarity with your movement in the US!
Your cause is our cause!
Totally agree with your suggestion #1: "Elect several [spokespeople] and rotate them often. Having one front person gives the establishment someone to target, rotating them will keep the powers that be guessing." It's a perfect warfare strategy, thanks for advancing it: it’s perhaps THE most necessary tactic at this point.
I cannot agree with suggestion #2, sorry: “Make sure that what want is what the 99% want.” – At least for now. The 99% want many things (and some of those you point out are extremely pertinent!) but right now, it would be better for this amazing movement to keep going and being as it is (a cacophony of voices) for a while longer (basically as long as possible, diversity is the essence of a true democracy).
In that sense, I would propose a mix of #1 and #2: diverse spokespeople would make diverse claims – and there would not be a single fixed target (there would never be, for as long as possible, THE thing the 99% want) for policymakers and news pundits spin at will. This is a perfect moment for a cocktail that might be called “Marx meets Dada and the system’s f*cked”.
There are several proposals now flying on the air. If they are not co-opted by a couple of opportunistic leaders (like e.g. Cohn-Bendit & friends in Paris 1968, all of them today with very warm seats at the - oh so corrupt - European Parliament) maybe something will come out of it. Having seen other 'revolutions' failing because of SINGLE goals (or voices), I sincerely hope this time the post-modern cacophony works for once.
Let’s keep the occupation alive! No surrender! We're together and we're many! Fortitude and resistance!
WE are on the right side of history.
Thank you! Great points!
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/753/746/Civil_Unrest_in_the_United_States_of_America_Coming_in_October_2011.html