I don’t want to speak for anybody else here…. but I’ve felt compelled lately to offer a lot of criticism about how things are going at Occupy Oakland, the direction we are going in right now which I think is alienating and self-defeating. As a gesture towards our common grievances and our common goals, and towards the end of focusing the positive energy of Occupy Oakland a bit more in the direction I personally think we should be going in, I would like to offer the general online community here some specific ideas about what our demands should be:
We need a Constitutional Amendment to overturn Citizens United and end corporate personhood.
Return the consumer protections of Glass-Steagall, which means forcing banks to keep deposits separate from their dangerous investments in derivatives. All of the major financial crises of the last decade have been related to derivatives market speculation. It would mean that the government would no longer have any argument to justify bailing out the banks next time.
Break up the big banks; no financial institution should be too big to fail without endangering the entire financial system.
Remove corporate money from our electoral politics. This means, again, end Citizens United, but also institute a policy (suggested recently on this board by another poster) where the only people who are allowed to donate to any politician are actual human beings who live in the actual district where the election is taking place. This will end the wholesale bribery of elected officials that we currently accept as a government. I think it would be fantastic if we could combine that with the Constitutional Amendment to end corporate personhood.
We need to make sure once and for all that corporations are not allowed to bribe our elected officials and the best way to do that is to change the Constitution so that it is clear the protections of the Bill of Rights and other Constitutional protections only apply to human beings. This will strike a dagger in the heart of the 1%, because their whole corporate kleptocracy depends on their ability to bribe the politicians in every district, locally and federally, to do their bidding.
Sabra, do you know why your idea is not going to become a reality? Because Occupy Oakland has run its course, and in doing so there was death, harm destruction of property and above all violence within a community many people call home, raise families in and therefore the movement has lost face. You talk about the states ability to stop people by use of force. Commonly if people are not breaking laws there is no need for force. This is the point you and others like you seem to think you are above the law. You are not and you now owe a debt for lost life, violence and restoration of property that has been destroyed or defaced. 2.4 million dollars damage is the price tag for just Occupy Oakland’s fiasco. Who has to pay for the antics and the lawlessness? Oakland Tax Payers, that’s who, of course you probably don’t care nor do many of your cohorts, but perhaps you should. You have done more harm than good and truly most of you should be forced into community service in a full time basis until this debt you brought down on the city has been paid for.
You may ask who the hell am I? and what right do I have to talk to you like this. I, baby am Oakland, born and bread and I am P I S S E D the hell off at what you and your group has done to my city. Have you once stopped in your self centered little protest and thought of the people of Oakland who want no part of your groups petty bull crap? No you all just went right ahead and acted like ANIMALS Crapping in the streets, living in filth and bringing even more crime to the people who actually love Oakland. So you take your constitutional convention idea and take a walk. Oakland does not need you nor did the majority of Oakland invite you and all your Occupy Oakland Disgrace. I have spent the entire 50 years of my life in Oakland and you should be ashamed that you have helped in creating such harm on the streets of my City. Of course my words probably mean nothing to you or your quest of filth, but I will never forget these past days and the wound that has been left for the true people of Oaklamd, Ca to mend thanks to you lawless filthy maggots.
Hi David,
In response to the question posed above, as to how best to proceed, I propose that we call a constitutional convention (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_to_propose_amendments_to_the_United_States_Constitution). In order to be ratified, these conventions would have to convene in 34 states and be voted in by a majority in 38 states. But given the support this movement has across the country, I think this can be done. Not only would this be a logical next step for the movement, but it would ameliorate the state’s ability to stop people from protesting through use of force. It would disempower the state and legitimize the protest movement, as well as force us to move beyond arguing for what we don’t like, and push us to create the better future we all dream about. We’ll be proposing this idea at the GA today, and I hope to see you there or communicate with you about effective ways of spreading this proposal.
Keep fighting. Keep loving!
-Sabra
I’m not sure… I don’t know if there should be one Amendment or several. I think we should consider some kind of proposal to include in the Amendment that would unite us with some elements on the Right. Otherwise we will not succeed. It’s a sore point to talk about, some people have told me “they are racists, we do not want to be involved with them.” But the people who formed the Tea Party, before it was partially co-opted by the 1%, are mostly part of the bottom 50%. Many of them built up their own personal wealth at a time in history before the effects of Reaganomics took hold: they need to take the moral responsibility for putting their children’s and grandchildren’s generations into debt. They need to recognize that corporations are sucking the life out of the nation. The best way I can see right now to do this is for many members of Occupy all over the country to get behind a solid proposal such as an Amendment to remove unions and corporations from the electoral process.
I totally agree with the goals of this post. Great focus. Tactics need to reflect how to disrupt the machinery of corruption. How do we through a monkey wrench into the lobbying and influence peddling?
Agreed! What do you think is the best way to proceed? I am happy to participate online or at #OSF.