#OCCUPYWALLSTREET
Alright you 90,000 redeemers, rebels and radicals out there,
A worldwide shift in revolutionary tactics is underway right now that bodes well for the future. The spirit of this fresh tactic, a fusion of Tahrir with the acampadas of Spain, is captured in this quote:
"The antiglobalization movement was the first step on the road. Back then our model was to attack the system like a pack of wolves. There was an alpha male, a wolf who led the pack, and those who followed behind. Now the model has evolved. Today we are one big swarm of people."— Raimundo Viejo, Pompeu Fabra University
Barcelona, Spain
The beauty of this new formula, and what makes this novel tactic exciting, is its pragmatic simplicity: we talk to each other in various physical gatherings and virtual people's assemblies … we zero in on what our one demand will be, a demand that awakens the imagination and, if achieved, would propel us toward the radical democracy of the future … and then we go out and seize a square of singular symbolic significance and put our asses on the line to make it happen.
The time has come to deploy this emerging stratagem against the greatest corrupter of our democracy: Wall Street, the financial Gomorrah of America.
On September 17, we want to see 20,000 people flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months. Once there, we shall incessantly repeat one simple demand in a plurality of voices.
Tahrir succeeded in large part because the people of Egypt made a straightforward ultimatum – that Mubarak must go – over and over again until they won. Following this model, what is our equally uncomplicated demand?
The most exciting candidate that we've heard so far is one that gets at the core of why the American political establishment is currently unworthy of being called a democracy: we demand that Barack Obama ordain a Presidential Commission tasked with ending the influence money has over our representatives in Washington. It's time for DEMOCRACY NOT CORPORATOCRACY, we're doomed without it.
This demand seems to capture the current national mood because cleaning up corruption in Washington is something all Americans, right and left, yearn for and can stand behind. If we hang in there, 20,000-strong, week after week against every police and National Guard effort to expel us from Wall Street, it would be impossible for Obama to ignore us. Our government would be forced to choose publicly between the will of the people and the lucre of the corporations.
This could be the beginning of a whole new social dynamic in America, a step beyond the Tea Party movement, where, instead of being caught helpless by the current power structure, we the people start getting what we want whether it be the dismantling of half the 1,000 military bases America has around the world to the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act or a three strikes and you're out law for corporate criminals. Beginning from one simple demand – a presidential commission to separate money from politics – we start setting the agenda for a new America.
Post a comment and help each other zero in on what our one demand will be. And then let's screw up our courage, pack our tents and head to Wall Street with a vengeance September 17.
for the wild,
Culture Jammers HQ
Adbusters #97: Post Anarchism – How To Live Without Dead Time (with #OCCUPYWALLSTREET campaign materials inside), hits newsstands on August 2. Go to adbusters.org/subscribe and subscribe!
534 comments on the article “#OCCUPYWALLSTREET”
Displaying 141 - 150 of 534
Page 15 of 54
Joe DeLuca
I thought the point of this discussion was to decide together what the point is?
Regardless, to suggest politics can be transcended (by thousands of people occupying a public space, no less) is naive. Everything is political. That said, I am saying we should transcend traditional partisan argument. Both sides of that coin are the same. We need to quit flipping it.
And the reason I stated who I am - Anonymous - is that who we are matters. The American Revolution wasn't fathered by school boys, and the fact I am exactly who those in power point to as living the American Dream, lends our movement more force.
Joe DeLuca
I thought the point of this discussion was to decide together what the point is?
Regardless, to suggest politics can be transcended (by thousands of people occupying a public space, no less) is naive. Everything is political. That said, I am saying we should transcend traditional partisan argument. Both sides of that coin are the same. We need to quit flipping it.
And the reason I stated who I am - Anonymous - is that who we are matters. The American Revolution wasn't fathered by school boys, and the fact I am exactly who those in power point to as living the American Dream, lends our movement more force.
Jennifer2011
This, too:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Jennifer2011
This, too:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Anonymous
It's true that government is influenced by corporations, but removing the association seems like a murky and very difficult task to me.
In my mind the biggest root problem is corporations' single-minded drive for profitability - it's in their definition and charters! - ignoring all other considerations. This *forces* directors to maximize profits; if they don't they can be fired and even found liable to their shareholders. All this leads to our unsustainable, growth-based economy (hello, Wall Street!), along with corporations doing whatever it takes to maximize that bottom line -- including lobbying and corruption of government. In a sense, they have no choice.
Is there a way we can defuse this situation by demanding a simple change to corporate charters? I'm not a lawyer, nor an MBA, so I don't know the details. But if we could remove the constraint that corporations *must* maximize their bottom line, the way would be opened for huge changes. In a sense, it would change the basis for the entire economy; the wealthy could no longer "force" their servants to act as profit-drones under threat. They would no longer be able to push and count on profit, profit, profit. It could open the way for people in positions of power to behave with a conscience -- and encourage those with a conscience to strive for positions of power where they could actually make a difference.
Again, we'd need to work out the precise legalese details, but in simple terms, we could present the idea as "allowing corporations to have a conscience." In a sense, it would give corporations even more freedom, but in this case, the freedom to do good! Does it put faith in human nature? Yes, but so does the US Constitution. And while it may seem like a subtle demand for change, it could be immensely powerful.
Finally, I believe it's something the majority of the population could get behind. Who would disagree with this change but the most greedy of people?
Moreover, Wall Street is the perfect location for something like this.
... Or maybe I'm on crack? ;-)
Anonymous
It's true that government is influenced by corporations, but removing the association seems like a murky and very difficult task to me.
In my mind the biggest root problem is corporations' single-minded drive for profitability - it's in their definition and charters! - ignoring all other considerations. This *forces* directors to maximize profits; if they don't they can be fired and even found liable to their shareholders. All this leads to our unsustainable, growth-based economy (hello, Wall Street!), along with corporations doing whatever it takes to maximize that bottom line -- including lobbying and corruption of government. In a sense, they have no choice.
Is there a way we can defuse this situation by demanding a simple change to corporate charters? I'm not a lawyer, nor an MBA, so I don't know the details. But if we could remove the constraint that corporations *must* maximize their bottom line, the way would be opened for huge changes. In a sense, it would change the basis for the entire economy; the wealthy could no longer "force" their servants to act as profit-drones under threat. They would no longer be able to push and count on profit, profit, profit. It could open the way for people in positions of power to behave with a conscience -- and encourage those with a conscience to strive for positions of power where they could actually make a difference.
Again, we'd need to work out the precise legalese details, but in simple terms, we could present the idea as "allowing corporations to have a conscience." In a sense, it would give corporations even more freedom, but in this case, the freedom to do good! Does it put faith in human nature? Yes, but so does the US Constitution. And while it may seem like a subtle demand for change, it could be immensely powerful.
Finally, I believe it's something the majority of the population could get behind. Who would disagree with this change but the most greedy of people?
Moreover, Wall Street is the perfect location for something like this.
... Or maybe I'm on crack? ;-)
Anonymous
Look up the stockholder vs. stakeholder issue. Your answer is there.
Anonymous
Look up the stockholder vs. stakeholder issue. Your answer is there.
Anonymous
No, you're right on. Our demand should not only include ending corporate personhood, but changing corporate law so that the social good, rather than profit, becomes the primary activity and goal of corporations. (defining what the "social good" is, of course, another matter...)
Anonymous
No, you're right on. Our demand should not only include ending corporate personhood, but changing corporate law so that the social good, rather than profit, becomes the primary activity and goal of corporations. (defining what the "social good" is, of course, another matter...)
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