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UPDATE – this is a “splinter proposal” Occupy Wall Street calls for a National Convention on July 4, 2012

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While this proposal is “online” and “out there” it is not “official” in that while it is a live proposal, it has not been adopted by the direct democracy general assembly in New York – so I am leaving this post up only to make that correction and addition.

 

For some reason, my links were NOT working using the toolbar and Firefox, so I went into IE and grabbed the bare links, which are working.  I have not a clue what the problem was but here, at least, are links that work!

My source is the Business Insider, here is a retry at the link:

http://www.businessinsider.com/occupy-wall-street-has-plans-for-a-coordinated-national-gathering-2011-10

 

…the election of delegates and holding of a national general assembly or convention on July 4, 2012 must be organized.  No calls for violence,  No calls for the violent overthrow of the government.

…Once organized and the delegates have been elected by direct ballot in all 435 districts.  They must demand that our elected leaders take action.  if they do not take action within one year of the demand, we will demand their mass resignations and that new elections be held so that we can take back our democracy from the corporations and those who BUY power and influence with MONEY.  yes this includes unions and lobbyists.  The Citizens United case must be reversed.

According to Business Insider, the real founding document, and their plan, without using the link neatenerhttps://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/home

I suggest we all read it.  Delegates would be elected from all 435 congressional districts to meet in Philadelphia in July of 2012.

For those “talking heads” who claim that this movement “has no goals”, I suggest that they read these ten statements. In fact, the goals, minutes, votes, plans, and discussions of the Occupy Wall Street movement are totally transparent – they are all online, on websites, waiting to be read. Like the plan, though, the goals, statements, and more well and well defined policy of this movement is not suitable for a sound bite.

I agree with Business Insider – if the plans laid out on the Occupy Wall Street website are carried out  “…Occupy Wall street could shift the course of American politics at its highest levels.”  I have presented the Plan via cut and paste, below:

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The Steps to Non-Violent Revolution and the Convening of a National General Assembly

A NON-VIOLENT PLAN OF ACTION


1. The Occupy Wall Street movement, through the local General Assemblies, should elect an Executive Committee for each city comprised of 11 People or some other odd number of People that is manageable for meetings. Ideally this committee should represent each city in the U.S. that is being occupied. These Executive Committees will act as the original “Committees of Correspondence” did 235 years ago prior to the first American Revolution.


2. The Executive Committee will then tend to local issues such as obtaining permits, paying for public sanitation and dealing with the media. More importantly, the Executive Committees shall plan and organize the election of the 870 Delegates to a National General Assembly, as set forth in the 99% Declaration between now and July 4, 2012.


3. As stated in the 99% Declaration, each of the 435 congressional districts will form an election committee to prepare ballots and invite United States citizens in those districts to run as delegates to a National General Assembly in Philadelphia beginning on July 4, 2012 and convening until October 2012.


4. Each of the 435 congressional districts will elect one man and one woman to attend the National General Assembly in Philadelphia. The vote will be by direct democratic ballot regardless of voter registration status as long as the voter has reached the age of 18 and is a United States citizen. This is not a sexist provision; the drafting committee believes that women are dramatically under-represented in politics even though they comprise more than 50% of the population.


5. The Executive Committees will act as a central point to solve problems, raise money to pay for the expenses of the election of the National General Assembly and ensure that all 870 Delegates are elected prior to the meeting on July 4th.


6. The Executive Committees will arrange for a venue in Philadelphia to accommodate the Delegates attending the National General Assembly where the Petition of Grievances will be proposed, debated, voted on and approved. The Delegates will form committees, elect a chair from their own ranks to run the meetings of the National General Assembly and break any tie votes.


7. The final 99% Declaration and Petition of Grievances, after being voted upon by the 870 Delegates to the National General Assembly, will be formally presented by the 870 Delegates to all three branches of government and all candidates running for federal public office in November 2012. Thus, the Delegates would meet from July 4, 2012 to sometime in early to late October 2012 so that the Petition of Grievances may be presented prior to the election.


8. The Delegates to the National General Assembly would then vote on a time period, presently suggested as one year, giving the newly elected government in November an opportunity to redress the Petition of Grievances.


9. If the government fails to redress the petition of grievances and drastically change the path this country is on, the Delegates will organize a third independent political party to run candidates in the 2014 mid-term elections.


10. There will NEVER be any call for violence by the Delegates or anyone connected to this movement. Every Delegate will take a pledge to NEVER take any money, job promise, or gifts from any corporation, unions or any other private source. Any money donated or raised by the Executive Committees may only be used for publicizing the vote, paying for expenses of the local General Assemblies which will continue to meet, the National General Assembly, and for travel expenses and accommodation of the Delegates at the National General Assembly. All books and records will be regularly published openly online so that everyone may see how much money is raised and how the money is spent each month.


The 99% Declaration Drafting Committee

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  1. Fundraising, like that done for its generator, is online. There is also a bike generator, solor panels and their stories. Who would have predicted this? And this whole movement, at least its visible birth, is only 17 days old in Boston and 30 days old, nationally. It is a prodigy, as movements go., and perhaps those who claim it has no focus, no goals, etc. simply don’t read what the Occupy movement has published online.

  2. This seem to have published a draft of a proposal, not a “call” by OWS. But I can’t tell because your links are all squirrelly.

    Can you clarify?

    • The links seemed to work for me – I am not in a position, not having gone to New York on 10/15 nor being at the GA (the direct democracy meetings are called GAs, short for General Assemblies). I don’t see a call for third party candidates at all, but rather for a convention, and the election of delegates to that convention – I will have to watch and listen carefully myself which means ATTENDING all the way through some GAs locally – these occur at 7:00 PM at Dewey Square and are always on the Occupy Boston online Calendar, see: http://occupyboston.com/calendar/ I didn’t try to use the link-neatener so I hope that helped. I have not a clue how many Occupy sites have reviewed and voted on this, of course.

  3. I particularly like the call for an Executive Committee to attend to administrative matters. There are certain functions that don’t involve policy-making but are critical to the success of grassroots movements. I see this as a constructive step toward institutionalizing the movement.

    I have reservations about the call for third-party candidates to the extent they would elect Republicans by plurality. What about running candidates in Democratic primaries, like the Tea Party did with the GOP? You can majorly shift the direction of a political party that way, as we have seen.

    • bathed in Jefferson’s ideal America, in which commerce and industry do not exist.

      Perhaps the Delegates will be gentleman farmers.

  5. The last time I worked for a corporation was in 1969, and I waitressed for Big Boys restaurant. I don’t happen to work for a corporation and haven’t since then. Remember – I am and have been self-employed since 1981 and was, albeit briefly, a law clerk (for a partnership) and an employee of the State of Michigan (1970-1978).

    I happen to agree that during the time an elected delegate serves in a constitutional convention, as an elected legislator, or to the Convention called for by the Occupy movement having that person not owe a corporation allegiance would be a very good thing. That, however, is not a lifelong bar, and it is more a matter of independence of mind to me.

    Can someone serve both the public and a corporate master, and do so cleanly and with an indepedence of judgment? I don’t think most can.

  6. It’s great to create titles and copy and paste content. But, be careful about your actions and your ethics. This document created a huge controversy in the fledgling OWS movement. I went through the process of listening to publicus’ outroar about being left out of the General Assembly items, his lack of acknowledgement about the reason why, (co-opting) pleas for him to mediate the issue, and finally, completely ignoring the OWS sentiment. Unfortunately, I feel I have to speak up for them on this lofty level because I think I understand what’s going on here. Therefore, the title of this post should more appropriately be called something like: “A Pushy Lawyer Calls for a National Convention on July 4, 2012, Roping in Hundreds of OWS Lackeys.”

  7. I have continued to monitor, and that is the result of fact checking with OWS and other groups. There is a group within Occupy that is promoting this idea but no direct democracy vote adopting it. So I will just monitor and report on it again only if it becomes a formal, “voted on and adopted” proposal.

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