Problems, Solutions, and Talking Points

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Problems, Solutions, and Talking Points

Details: Category: Jacob's Blog; Published on Friday, 27 January 2012 05:16; Hits: 575

Notes and bits from Yes! Magazine’s This Changes Everything Occupy Wall Street & the 99% Movement

Edited and Organized by Jacob Dean

***Talking Points:

-Movements which rely on non-violent methods are considerably more likely to result in democratic outcomes rather than simply replacing one authoritarian system with another.

-Our system needs fundamental change; if it’s not working for everybody it’s not working.

-Instead of petitioning the powerful for change, we’re making it happen ourselves.

-Embedding greater equality and more democratic accountability in our institutions does much more than just changing income distribution or wealth distribution.

-A real solution requires a vision that is both humble in terms of the material wealth we can expect and ambitious about the fairness, mutual support, and quality of life we can build.

-Educating of the truth is a real solution. Solidifying the understanding of the truth is a real solution.

-Abolitionists never sought to regulate the slave trade; they sought freedom and rights for all. Suffragists didn’t seek concessions but demanded the right for all women to vote.

-The plutocrats of Wall Street and oligarchs who serve them in Washington DC always sweat a little when people are in the streets.

-The Wall Street fat cats in their private conversations must have been wondering how a collapsing economy could persist without sustained protests by the victims.

-We are not goods in the hands of politicians and banksters.

-For most of the 99%- their occupation is their identity. Homeless, jobless, poor, middle class, sick, in debt.

-OWS must deepen and strengthen its efforts by demanding structural change. Moving away from mainstream organizations and institution advocacy they promote and towards a new form of advocacy and activism. Rewrite the rules of the system under which we operate.

-‘OWS is redistribution of wealth’ – No. OWS is recapturing the middle class from the last 35 years of wealth redistribution from the poor and middle class to those at the top. Between 1979 and 2007- the income of the top 1% has increased 275%! The income of the bottom 20% grew only 18%. FACT

- ‘What do they want? List of demands?’ – The system is broken is many different ways it’s dizzying to try and name them all. This is part of the reason OWS has no list of demands.

-Violence- Non-Violence is the only answer. Always, The movement needs the support of it’s community and the community must feel safe with that. Any images of violence turns media and potential supporters against you, even violence committed by provocateurs seeking to discredit the movement. Denounce all violence and always maintain the moral high ground. An act of violence reflects on the whole group many of whom would not condone it.

-A ‘diversity of tactics’ is in it’s own right a robust approach to conducting resistance and one that is all the more powerful when it remains non-violent.

-Naomi Klein @ Liberty Plaza speech: “You have committed yourselves to nonviolence. You have refused to give the media the images of broken windows and street fights it, (Jacob adds- and the 1%), craves so desperately. That tremendous discipline has meant that again and again the story has been disgraceful and unprovoked police brutality. Meanwhile, support for the movement grows and grows. More wisdom.

-We define success- OWS has already accomplished something that changes everything. It has fundamentally altered the national conversation. Awakened some people, and achieved a small, slight cultural paradigm shift.

-The plutocrats of Wall Street and oligarchs who serve them in Washington DC always sweat a little when people are in the streets.

-OWS movement has begun to penetrate the filter of the corporate media and has captured the imagination of America and the world.

-OWS shows the people have a pulse, and they have breaking points beyond which they will not remain passive. Campers and marchers are discovering they have power.

-Don’t mistake the complexity of the movement for chaos.

-Corporate media: why are they protesting? – Meanwhile, the rest of the world asks: what took you so long?

- When big corporations and high income individuals don’t pay their share, the bills get passed to the middle class and our debt increases. That’s hard to appreciate until things start to hit home in the form of cuts to public schools, veterans’ services, mass transit, and thousands of other services we depend on every day.

In the Arab Spring, OWS, and other worldwide uprisings- participants were not advocating for one party or a simple position, but instead for a better world, for dignity, for respect, for real democracy, more equality, for belonging, for hope and possibility.

Everyone could have everything they need and the rich would still be rich enough, but you know that enough isn’t a concept for them.

***Problems/Causes:

- “Mainstream Media” is corrupted by corporate interests. **Messaging: “Corporate Media”

- Me society- Corporations, politicians, the entire system in general- places profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality.

- Corrupted corporations run over governments.

- Traditional forms of civil disobedience aren’t well-suited to OWS because the occupiers aren’t even capable of breaking the relevant laws in the first place. Those in the civil rights movement could sit in the wrong part of a segregated bus, but occupiers at Liberty Plaza (Zuccotti Park) can’t flout campaign finance laws or laws regarding the regulation of banks. Such laws are simply beyond the reach of most Americans- which is exactly the problem.

- The 1% love a crisis. That is the ideal time to force through their wish list of pro-corporate policies. IE- Privatizing education, and social security, slashing public services, and getting rid of the last constraints on corporate power left. (Solution: Only 99% can block this tactic!)

- What matters is not income itself, but how unequal they are. Signs of inequality- high teenage births per capita, homicide rate, mental illness, lack of trust and feeling safe. Signs of equality- 2/3 of population can trust each other in general…

- The biggest challenge facing America’s 1% is figuring out where to park all their cash. It’s class warfare and wall street has won the last 30 years.

- How Wall Street got the $$$- Excessive fees and usurious interest rates for ordinary customers, financing speculation, luring the unwary into unaffordable mortgages, bundling the resulting junk mortgages into derivatives sold as triple-A securities. Then bet against these sure to fail products, extracting subsidies and bailouts from the government and American tax paying citizens. Laundering money from drug and arms traders, and off-shoring profits to avoid taxes. –Much of what provides profits to Wall Street either is, or should be, illegal.

- Our economy depends on Wall St. institutions only because those institutions got the rules rewritten to give themselves control over much of the nation’s money and productive resources.

- Global corporations dodge taxes by setting up subsidiaries in countries that have low or no corporate income tax. They claim their profits are made there, which allows them to avoid paying U.S. taxes (that pay for social services, healthcare, infrastructure, notice how all of that is crumbling?) while at the same time asking the American people to pay more for their losses. A small business has to compete against companies that unfairly utilize such loopholes.

- Growth alone won’t help. GDP has grown steadily but virtually all of the income has gone to corporate profits. (Top 1% had 275% increase in income since 1979. Bottom 20% only 18% increase.) None of the increased GDP has gone to boost wages and salaries.

- Its difficult for progressive groups to achieve mainstream by working within the legal and regulatory systems purposefully structured to subordinate communities to corporate power.

- *****The system is rigged. Can’t only work within the system, must work inside and outside…

****Solutions:

- Police supporting the 99% by declining unreasonable unnecessary orders of violence against peaceful protest

-The ordinary people who chose to be involved with the movement are the ones who debate the issues, determine the strategies, lead the work, and create the outcomes.

-Experience of community deepens the yearning for a new culture. A radically inclusive, respectful, supportive, and horizontal culture and community.

-The future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members. Treat each other as if we plan to work side by side in struggle for many, many years to come. (This is only the beginning.)

-The task of our time is to insist that we can afford to build a decent inclusive society while at the same time, respecting the real limits to what the earth can take. (Reasonable, Real, Plausible, within our means solutions)

-Short term solution (reversible by the next republican administration) Regulating the banks, increasing certain taxes on those with the ability to pay (Since 1979 top 1% income up 275% bottom 20% income up 18%)- the uber rich and wealthy

-Redesign the money and banking system to shift power from wall st to main st.

-Progressive taxation allows investing in transportation, education, public services, and other poor and middle class aids- while preventing the cancerous growth of inequality.

-Living Wage jobs- that preserve and restore the soil, water, air, and other natural resources we rely on. (Build locally rooted economies…)

-Sustainable solution (meaningful, long term, paradigm shift)- Changing the underlying values that govern our society. The 99% movement is a “culture strike” a long overdue culture strike.

-Can’t rely just on taxes, benefits, and spending to increase equality, the next government can undo them all at a stroke. We must deeply embed this structure of equality in our society. (It already originates in young children not yet corrupted by the broken system.) More economic democracy, more workplace democracy, friendly societies, mutual societies, employee ownership, employee representatives on the board, ways in which- Business is subjected to democratic influence. (The current culture is only possible because the people at the top are not answerable to the employees at all.)

-Embedding greater equality and more democratic accountability in our institutions does much more than just changing income distribution or wealth distribution.

-A real solution requires a vision that is both humble in terms of the material wealth we can expect and ambitious about the fairness, mutual support, and quality of life we can build. That means building our local economies so they can sustain our families while also sustaining the natural world.

-How to build and support LOCAL solutions:

1)Buy local goods and services – keep $$$ circulating in main street. Bank local too! Think local! This way the money stays here in our economy. Its not sucked into the Wal-Mart profit vacuum…

2)Recycle- Build economies from grassroots up starting with existing assets. A vibrant local arts scene, farmland, hospital etc. Use wasted resources. Don’t demolish- disassemble and use or sell the components.

3)Come together- do it cooperatively. Build accountable worker-owned cooperatives. Allow communities to control their own resources. Sustainable agriculture is more labor-intensive (creates jobs) and is less polluting. Sustainable fair practices create jobs that last while boosting local resilience.

4) Keep ownership human. When owners are workers, customers, or the community, it operates with the investment of the community in large as a high priority.

-Solution: People are the Power (Building People Power)

- To achieve these sorts of real changes - We need the American government to work for all of us 100%, not just the 1% and corporations. Strong people’s movements get the government to work for ordinary Americans. That’s how American workers won the eight-hour day, women secured the right to vote, and African Americans ended segregation.

-Enlightened politicians may cooperate with these movements but they cannot lead them. We the People will have to set our own agenda and insist the government, the top 1%, corporations, and the system respond.

-The system will not voluntarily change. People have to set their own agenda and must challenge the status quo. Challenge the beliefs, mindsets, institutions, and structures that generate the same cycle of problems- no matter who our ‘leaders’ are or what ‘improvement plans’ they adopt.

-A real solution cannot be undone by ‘the next power to be’ (President, Supreme Court Justice, politician, school board member, precinct committeeman or committeewoman, ) It’s a deeply embedded idea and understanding of equality which leads to examples on its own. Activation.

-Educating of the truth is a real solution. Solidifying the understanding of the truth is a real solution.

-Adopt- Community Bill of Rights- Elevate the rights of people and nature about corporations.

-Solution- Understanding that the specific issues that affect a community cannot be solved without dismantling a corrupt structure of law, government, and culture that guarantees that corporate minorities will continue to make decisions on energy, agriculture, and resource extraction.

-We need structural change- Our current system won’t change from bill being introduced into congress, or promises are made by financial institutions- structural change must be forced from outside in beginning in our local cities and towns. Then driven upwards to start working together to define the rights we need to exist as human beings, and use all our available resources and municipal structures to obtain them. Culture Strike.

-‘A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.’ There may only be a brief window to convert street level momentum into organized rights-legislating movements in each of our local communities.

-Five Steps to Liberate Main Street from Wall Street & Build a Democratically Accountable Economy:

1) Build a national system of community based community accountable financial institutions devoted to building community wealth. Break up the mega-banks into these local independent institutions

2)Implement appropriate regulatory and fiscal measures to secure the integrity of financial markets, money, and the banking system.

3)Create a state partnership bank modeled on the state Bank of North Dakota.

4)Restructure the Federal Reserve to limit its responsibility to managing the money supply only, and subject it to federal oversight, with clear public accountability.

5) Rewrite international trade and investment rules- Hold corporations that operate in multiple countries accountable for compliance with the laws of each country of operation (bringing back money, investment, and funding to America…)

-The American Dream: A secure and comfortable life in return for hard work and playing by the rules.

***Participate & Activate-

-People who’ve experienced the power of having a voice will not easily go back to silence.

-The judge’s robes belong to anyone with the courage to throw them on.

-The world becomes a very different place when members of the 99 % stand up.

-Act immediately to advance public understanding of the issues raised here. Move accounts from Wall Street to Main Street financial institutions, promote cooperative or non-profit ownership of financial institutions. Advocate for legislation to restructure the system.

-Instead of petitioning the powerful for change, we’re making it happen ourselves.

-Persistent street action breaks through the corporate media’s adhesion to status-quo definitions of news.

-Messages of resistance are coming from the indignation of engaged real people with real stories of injustice, deprivation, and moral outrage.

-Efforts of justice that unite around the need to shift power from the few of the many along with the many resources that come with that dynamic are crucial for the existence of the movement.

-If you lead by example and set the standard, do the right thing- support will be there instantaneously

-You must pick somewhere to stand. At this moment in history, occupation should be everyone’s occupation.

-Never give up!

-Each one of the 99% who gets involved helps shape history.

-Ten Reasons OWS matters:

1) Names the sources of the crisis- Wall Street greed, corrupt banks, and a corporate take-over of the political system and our culture.

2) Starts the conversation about a new world that works for the 100% not just the top 1%.

3) Sets the Standard for Public Debate- Those advocating policies and proposals must now demonstrate their ideas will benefit the 100%. Just the top 1% is no longer sufficient.

4) Presents A New Narrative- Free society from corporate dominance and all corruption on our culture.

5) All inclusive movement- OWS and the 99% welcome all 100% and see this as an opportunity for people of all ages, races, occupations, and political beliefs learning to work together with respect.

6) A Chance to create real change- Anyone can get involved and make things happen with horizontal democracy

7) It’s a Movement (a real solution) not a list of demands- The calling for transformative structural change, deeply embedded fundamental change, not temporary fixes and single-issue reforms. This is the movement’s driving force.

8) It combines the Local and the Global- People are setting their own local agendas, tactics, and aims, but we all share solidarity, communication, and visions globally.

9)Offers an ethic and practice of deep democracy and community- OWS sites are communities where anyone can discuss grievances, hopes, and dreams in an atmosphere of mutual support.

10)We have begun to reclaim our power- Instead of looking to a broken system to bring about change, we see now the power rests with us We The People. Instead of being victims to forces upending our lives, we are claiming our sovereign right to remake the world.

Ten Ways To Support the Occupy Movement:

1) Show up in person and participate at the local occupied space near you.

a. Find a location at occupytogether.org

b. Bring a tent or tarp to stay, or just stop by to talk, hold a sign, help serve food, etc

2) Start Your Own Occupation.

a. Call together friends and acquaintances. Reach out to people you don’t normally would

b. Talk together about what you want to occupy and why. Is it ok to do? Against any laws?

3) Support Those Who Are Occupying.

a. By listening and spreading the word about Occuthon

b. Most sites need food, warm clothes, blankets, tarps, sleeping bags, and money. Find the site you’d like to help on occupytogether.org and follow the instructions there or listen to Occuthon 2011!

4) Get into the Debates and Teach-ins.

a. Many occupation sites have workshops and discussions on critical issues of our time.

b. Participate! Listen to alternative perspectives and share your own!

5) Share Your 99% story.

a. Post your story of being part of the 99% on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, or in letters to the editor. Others see that they aren’t alone.

b. Community + Insight makes us powerful.

6) Be the Media.

a. Bring your video recorder, camera phone, or laptop and report the truth on the occupation.

b. Highlight the human dimension of the protest. Show the faces of the involved.

7) Start the meaningful conversation.

a. Discuss, think about, work towards- what will make the world better for the 100%?

b. Speak out on issues that mean the most to you and include, “I am the 99%”

8) Insist that public officials and powers to be treat the occupation with respect and vice versa.

a. Attempts of eviction, night time raids, use of unnecessary force- strengthens the movement and more deeply embeds caring of involvement.

b. Ask your local officials to respect the right to assemble of the 99%.

9) Study and Teach Non-violent Techniques.

a. Violence badly damages the movement.

b. Learn how to lovingly and firmly interrupt and contain violence.

10 Be Resilient.

a. The movement must last long term. Demand for a 100% serving society won’t go away.

b. Help the movement evolve. Support the community.