>From Michael Moore's blog, reposted below for the link-averse:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/where-does-occupy-wa\
ll-street-go-here
<http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/where-does-occupy-w\
all-street-go-here>
Where Does Occupy Wall Street Go From Here?
<http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/where-does-occupy-w\
all-street-go-here>
By Michael Moore <http://www.michaelmoore.com/blogger/mmflint>
This past weekend I participated in a four-hour meeting of Occupy Wall
Street activists whose job it is to come up with the vision and goals
of the movement. It was attended by 40+ people and the discussion was
both inspiring and invigorating. Here is what we ended up proposing as
the movement's "vision statement" to the General Assembly of Occupy
Wall Street:
We Envision: [1] a truly free, democratic, and just society; [2] where
we, the people, come together and solve our problems by consensus; [3]
where people are encouraged to take personal and collective
responsibility and participate in decision making; [4] where we learn
to live in harmony and embrace principles of toleration and respect for
diversity and the differing views of others; [5] where we secure the
civil and human rights of all from violation by tyrannical forces and
unjust governments; [6] where political and economic institutions work
to benefit all, not just the privileged few; [7] where we provide full
and free education to everyone, not merely to get jobs but to grow and
flourish as human beings; [8] where we value human needs over monetary
gain, to ensure decent standards of living without which effective
democracy is impossible; [9] where we work together to protect the
global environment to ensure that future generations will have safe and
clean air, water and food supplies, and will be able to enjoy the
beauty and bounty of nature that past generations have enjoyed.
The next step will be to develop a specific list of goals and demands.
As one of the millions of people who are participating in the Occupy
Wall Street movement, I would like to respectfully offer my suggestions
of what we can all get behind now to wrestle the control of our country
out of the hands of the 1% and place it squarely with the 99% majority.
Here is what I will propose to the General Assembly of Occupy Wall
Street:
10
Things We Want
A Proposal for
Occupy Wall Street
Submitted by
Michael Moore
1. Eradicate the Bush tax cuts for the rich and institute new taxes on
the wealthiest Americans and on corporations, including a tax on all
trading on Wall Street (where they currently pay 0%).
2. Assess a penalty tax on any corporation that moves American jobs to
other countries when that company is already making profits in America.
Our jobs are the most important national treasure and they cannot be
removed from the country simply because someone wants to make more
money.
3. Require that all Americans pay the same Social Security tax on all
of their earnings (normally, the middle class pays about 6% of their
income to Social Security; someone making $1 million a year pays about
0.6% (or 90% less than the average person). This law would simply make
the rich pay what everyone else pays.
4. Reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act, placing serious regulations on how
business is conducted by Wall Street and the banks.
5. Investigate the Crash of 2008, and bring to justice those who
committed any crimes.
6. Reorder our nation's spending priorities (including the ending of
all foreign wars and their cost of over $2 billion a week). This will
re-open libraries, reinstate band and art and civics classes in our
schools, fix our roads and bridges and infrastructure, wire the entire
country for 21st century internet, and support scientific research that
improves our lives.
7. Join the rest of the free world and create a single-payer, free and
universal health care system that covers all Americans all of the time.
8. Immediately reduce carbon emissions that are destroying the planet
and discover ways to live without the oil that will be depleted and
gone by the end of this century.
9. Require corporations with more than 10,000 employees to restructure
their board of directors so that 50% of its members are elected by the
company's workers. We can never have a real democracy as long as
most people have no say in what happens at the place they spend most of
their time: their job. (For any U.S. businesspeople freaking out at
this idea because you think workers can't run a successful company:
Germany has a law like this and it has helped to make Germany the
world's leading manufacturing exporter.)
10. We, the people, must pass three constitutional amendments that will
go a long way toward fixing the core problems we now have. These
include:
a) A constitutional amendment that fixes our broken electoral system by
1) completely removing campaign contributions from the political
process; 2) requiring all elections to be publicly financed; 3) moving
election day to the weekend to increase voter turnout; 4) making all
Americans registered voters at the moment of their birth; 5) banning
computerized voting and requiring that all elections take place on paper
ballots.
b) A constitutional amendment declaring that corporations are not
people and do not have the constitutional rights of citizens. This
amendment should also state that the interests of the general public
and society must always come before the interests of corporations.
c) A constitutional amendment that will act as a "second bill of
rights" as proposed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt: that every
American has a human right to employment, to health care, to a free and
full education, to breathe clean air, drink clean water and eat safe
food, and to be cared for with dignity and respect in their old age.
Let me know what you think. Occupy Wall Street enjoys the support of
millions. It is a movement that cannot be stopped. Become part of it by
sharing your thoughts with me or online (at OccupyWallSt.org
<http://occupywallst.org/> ). Get involved in (or start!
<http://howtooccupy.org/> ) your own local Occupy movement. Make some
noise. You don't have to pitch a tent in lower Manhattan to be an
Occupier. You are one just by saying you are. This movement has no
singular leader or spokesperson; every participant is a leader in their
neighborhood, their school, their place of work. Each of you is a
spokesperson to those whom you encounter. There are no dues to pay, no
permission to seek in order to create an action.
We are but ten weeks old, yet we have already changed the national
conversation. This is our moment, the one we've been hoping for, waiting
for. If it's going to happen it has to happen now. Don't sit this one
out. This is the real deal. This is it.
Have a happy Thanksgiving!
