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:
…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:
Ten Steps To Non-Violent Revolution
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The Steps to Non-Violent Revolution and the Convening of a National General Assembly
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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.
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.
See: http://occupyboston.com/general-assembly/ or http://occupyboston.wikispaces.com/ but anyway I need to finish a PreTrial Memo for tomorrow – so all for tonight for me.
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.
I mean, PBS is a corporation.
bathed in Jefferson’s ideal America, in which commerce and industry do not exist.
Perhaps the Delegates will be gentleman farmers.
the entire OWS movement is comprised of aspiring members of a public sector union
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.
if you set yourself up as a PC?
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.”
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.