Dear patriots, rabble-rousers, revolutionaries,

On Saturday thousands of us will occupy Wall Street. We will wave our signs, unfurl our banners, beat our drums, chant our slogans … and then we'll get down to business and hold several people's assemblies to decide what our "one demand" will be.

Shall we demand that President Obama reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act; outlaw flash trading; impose a 1% tax on all financial transactions?

These are good ideas but not very energizing.

How about we demand the revocation of corporate personhood?

Feels a bit too abstract. Many Americans don't fully grasp what's at stake with this one. And besides, even if he wants to, President Obama cannot deliver this immediately. In the wake of the recent Supreme Court ruling, a reform project like this requires a constitutional amendment that would take a few years and a whole movement to achieve.

We could demand Obama set up an American Democracy Reform Commission tasked with ending the monied corruption in Washington? Or perhaps a Presidential Commission to rethink the American banking system?

Most Americans know that Washington is awash with corporate money and undue influence and would like to see democracy vibrant again. And most would also love to see the "too big to fail" banks broken up, downsized and made to serve the people, the economy and society again. A demand along those lines just might capture the public's imagination.

What if, try as we might, we just can't come up with only one demand? Well, then maybe we can decide together on an END THE MONIED CORRUPTION OF AMERICA MANIFESTO – a rousing compendium of our most urgent demands. And on the seventh day of our occupation we publicly deliver our manifesto to the White House and to the American media, letting Obama know that we won't leave Wall Street until he responds.

If thousands of us hang in there day after day, week after week, we may be able to create a spectacular revolutionary experience that fires up the public imagination and eventually maneuvers Obama into doing something that he has so far not had the guts to do: agree to a bold, decisive stroke against the financial corruption of America. Now that would get the American people behind us and cheering us on from coast to coast.

If we can achieve that, the sky will be the limit … further demands will follow and a new America will be born.

On Saturday, our Tahrir moment begins … strength, courage, nonviolence!

for the wild,
Culture Jammers HQ

PS.

This Saturday at Noon, meet in Bowling Green Park at the Charging Bull statue in Lower Manhattan. Then at 3pm, join your fellow compatriots at One Chase Manhattan Plaza for the first of many people's assemblies. Check out occupywallst.org/article/lead-up-to-occupation for additional information that you should know before the occupation begins.

For those who cannot attend one of the global solidarity occupations happening in Milan, Madrid, Valencia, London, Lisbon, Athens, San Francisco, Santander, Madison, Amsterdam, Los Angeles and now Algeria and Israel, there will also be a live stream of #OCCUPYWALLSTREET at: livestream.com/globalrevolution

occupywallstreet.org / occupywallst.org
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