Think Occupy Wall Street has dribbled to the oblivion of political history? Think again. It seems an offshoot of the OWS movement, The 99 Percent Working Group, Ltd., a non-profit, came up with the 99% Declaration and National General Assembly. They published a PETITION FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES and are organizing delegates, complete with voting rights, to ratify their platform. Yup, a real specific platform and agenda. They even bought a commercial.
Reddit put up an abbreviated declaration list from the above 99% Declaration new website:
- Elimination of the Corporate State.
- Overturning the “Citizens United” Case.
- Elimination of All Private Benefits to Public Servants.
- Term Limits.
- A Fair Tax Code.
- Health Care for All.
- Protection of the Planet.
- Debt Reduction.
- Jobs for All Americans.
- Student Loan Debt Refinancing.
- Ending Perpetual War for Profit.
- Emergency Reform of Public Education.
- End Outsourcing and Currency Manipulation.
- Banking and Securities Reform.
- Foreclosure Moratorium, Mortgage Refinancing and Principle Write Downs.
- Review and Reform of the Federal Reserve Banking System.
- Ending the Electoral College and Enactment of Uniform Federal Election Rules in All of the States.
- Ending the War in Afghanistan and Care of Veterans.
- No Censorship of the Internet.
- Reinstitution of Civil Rights Including the Repeal of the NDAA.
- Curtailing the Private Prison Industrial Complex.
Others associated with the Occupy Movement formed a Super PAC. Howz that for fighting fire with fire?
A supporter of the 99 percent is one of the latest citizens (or corporations) to apply to raise unlimited sums of money for politics.
John Paul Thornton of Decatur, Alabama submitted an application to the Federal Election Commission on behalf of Occupy Wall Street to create the Occupy Wall Street Political Action Committee.
Another subgroup, Occupy the SEC, literally drafted a 256 page financial technical letter on how to implement the Volcker rule:
The goal of their very detailed letter: “We want the regulators to enforce the Volcker rule vigorously,” said Akshat Tewary, the lawyer, in an interview. “There’s obviously a lot of pressure” on regulators coming from foreign governments, banks and “pretty much everyone to try to dilute and winnow away the rule as much as possible. So we want to take the counterpoint position and try to have it enforced as much as possible.”
The Occupy letter, for instance, takes head on the ubiquitous industry argument that the proposed regulation could dampen liquidity in the financial markets. The Occupy group argues the banks are exaggerating the impact the proposal would have on liquidity, noting that junk bond trading volumes “are at record levels” even as firms begin to fall in line with Volcker rule prohibitions.
“The idea put forth by industry lobbyists and trade groups, that the removal of a government subsidy within a segment of market makers will cause serious and permanent market-wide reductions in liquidity defies both common sense and the foundations of free-market capitalism,” the Occupy letter argues.
Yet another OWS offshoot, Occupy Our Homes, is trying to save people from foreclosure. Considering the recent mortgage settlement is projected to dramatically increase foreclosures, OOH have their work cut out for them.
I think almost all of America can agree with the 99% list of grievances and it's wonderful to see offshore outsourcing, labor arbitrage front and center! Just today, India's NASSCOM, the offshore outsourcing industry group, announced 230,000 more jobs at the start of 2012...for Indians. Literally the article notes how they are running out of Indian workers, so bummer, while operating in other countries, they might have to hire local. Seeing a political platform which says this labor arbitrage of Americans is wrong, economic suicide and immoral is a refreshing change.
The 99% working group is literally organizing a revolution. They are planning to elect 876 Delegates from all 435 Congressional Voting Districts for a national assembly on....the 4th of July. This is all to ratify the list of grievances, which we here at The Economic Populist would call an economic political platform.
Let's hope the 99% continue crafting platforms and policies based on facts and also where at least 80% of people agree. That's the thing to note about their list. The statistics certainly back up the complaints. For profit private prisons, for example, are a major problem, and 25% of all prisoners in the world are actually U.S. citizens. We didn't see political spinners, wedge issues, on their petition list.
Which would you rather have, participation in some real Democracy or more never ending cable chatter about sweater vests and birth control? Check out their site and yes you can suggest a grievance.
Comments
OWS
Reading this brings joy to my heart.
This is almost funny
This is almost funny - considering this is now out of the hands of the people and in the hands of a defense attorney in NY that lost his bid for a congressional seat.... Just goes to show that the press will print all sorts of miss information without doing diligence - and people will believe whatever they read...
The attorney that hijacked this effort is taking all the credit for all the work that hundreds of volunteers did before he went off the deep end and resigned - only to hold on to the money all the people donated... He keeps lying about the venue being paid for when it is not (check with the Philly Convention Center) - In general beware of wolves in sheep's clothing.
This is nothing more then a 1% trying to circumvent the whole Occupy effort.... SHAMEFUL! Do your homework!
do your homework
From the site I did not see anything about "1 person" and the history was a formulation from the Occupy movement. Note we say "offshoots" of various activities to separate these efforts from the main, which is also make clear by the site. Bottom line, it's a great idea and effective, and the work of Occupy the SEC is beyond great, effective, it's downright professional.
others involved with OWS, please leave comments
While we support the OWS movement, generally, after all, look at our site name, this is economics for the rest of us, we're not out there camping out or directly involved. I found all of these new efforts dynamite myself, but from one comment, maybe there is some hoodwink we don't know about.
If so, or more details, let us know and keep us informed. Supposedly the Huffington Post declared OWS "dead" a couple of weeks ago and it sure seems the police state shut down the movement from the press/news, beyond more cracking heads in Oakland.
I read through the Occupy the SEC movement, as well as the 99% petition website and from just the SEC letter, work, content, I thought all of this was laser directed and on issues I felt certain the majority agree with.
But I'm not part of OWS, so, please let us know.
Taking a good idea and running with it
It's a good idea. Making a declaration from Philly on the Fourth of July is a powerful statement, and we as Occupiers can take it and run with it. I'm willing to see if the website pans out, and if it doesn't I will still be up there looking up fellow Occupiers to get this done. If there isn't a hall to meet in we can go to the park. We can meet in front of Independence Hall on the morning July 1st and go from there. We're quite flexible and determined.
good for you
I thought so too and the list of demands is good too. One of the biggest complaints about OWS was the lack of specifics and hence "pepper spray" got headline news instead of the issues. I imagine if one polled the list of demands from this 99% site, they would hit 80% or greater in agreement, across the political spectrum, which is also good.