[lbo-talk] OWS Demands

Wojtek S wsoko52 at gmail.com
Thu Oct 27 15:58:50 PDT 2011


I have to agree. Formulating demands would make sense only if there were effective ways to communicate them to the government, and I do not think such ways exist in the US at the present moment. The only effective way at the present moment is massive civil disobedience - by which I do not mean just street protest but anything from work stoppages and slowdowns to refusal to pay mortgages, shop for anything but life necessities and obstructing the workings of the corporate machinery as opportunities arise. I think the organization of such massive civil disobedience requires much more than just formulation of grievances, but expressing grievances is a good start.

Wojtek

On Wed, Oct 26, 2011 at 6:58 PM, Shane Mage <shmage at pipeline.com> wrote:
> No need to repeat all the valid arguments why the formulation of "demands"
> is the wrong way to go.
> The Great Revolution didn't start with "demands:" it began with the "Cahiers
> de Doléances"--lists of Grievances formulated by the people in every part of
> the Kingdom.
> The Doléances summed up all that was rotten in the Ancien Régime, so when
> the time came for the spokesman for the Tiers État, Abbé Sieyes, to some up
> the demands of the people he could meaningfully express them in a single
> word: "Tout!" "Everything!"
>
> I think it would be appropriate for the OWS General Assemblies to model
> themselves on their Gallic ancestors.  Every GA should discuss and reach
> consensus on what they consider the [let's say] ten most important and
> flagrant of their Grievances, circulate them to all the other GAs, and after
> national discussion involving the whole movement agree on a national list of
> major Grievances (not, of course, limited to only ten).
>
> Off the top of my head, I would offer this list.
>
> We condemn:
>
> --A health-care system dominated by giant insurance corporations that should
> not even be allowed to exist, a system that denies a huge      part of the
> population its right to full medical and dental care.
>
> --Official lawlessness symbolized by President Obama's program of
> assassinating and imprisoning and deporting people in violation of the
>  constitutional right of people not to be deprived of life or liberty
> without due process of law, of trial by jury.
>
> --Imprisonment of millions for nonviolent offenses, victimless "crimes"
> created by the forty-year "War On Drugs."
>
> --Waste of hundreds of billions of dollars to maintain a military
> establishment grossly disproportionate to the defense needed to protect the
> country from foreign invasion.
>
> --Official secrecy hiding hundreds of millions of documents completely
> unrelated to any immediate military necessity, enforced by the vicious
> persecution of whistleblowers like Bradley Manning.
>
> --The total absence of prosecution, or even criminal investigation, after
> they have been bailed out to the tune of trillions, of the banksters
> involved in the control fraud that precipitated the current economic crisis.
>
> --The criminal failure of the President and Attorney General to enforce the
> laws against torture, arbitrary imprisonment, and making war of aggression
> despite the boasting admission of their crimes by Bush, Cheney, Rice,
> Rumsfeld, et. al.
>
> --The ongoing failure of the Democratic Party, despite sixty+ years of
> promises, to do anything at all to repeal the Taft-Hartley antilabor
> Law--resulting in the tragic decline of the Labor Movement to its present
> state of economic and political impotence.
>
> --The imposition of crippling debt on a whole generation of young people
> when education should be established as a basic right and should be provided
> at public expense.
>
> --The ongoing shift of the tax burden from the rich and their corporations
> to the working and middle classes while tax reductions to millionaires are
> perpetrated by Bipartisan politicians like governors Cuomo and Christie
> while they cut back any spending aimed to benefit poor and sick people.
>
> Obviously, this is far from "complete."  The point is that everyone's
> Grievances should be listed in this sort of way and the final list should
> express a consensus as to the most pointed, important, and *effective*
> formulations of our Grievances.
>
>
> Shane Mage
>
>> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
>> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
>> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>>
>> Herakleitos of Ephesos
>
>
>
>
>
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>



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