The corporate media, which can only be trusted to provide the finest propaganda money can buy, keeps telling us that the occupiers have never told us what they want. That is an outright lie. Herein is the truth.
The Demands are a work in progress, so this is a dynamic situation. I have captured a snapshot on 27 Oct 2011. See
Occupy Wall Street - Official Demands
for the current state of the Demands list.
Official Voting Page
OCCUPY WALL STREET LIST OF PROPOSED DEMANDS PASSED FOR INCLUSION, AS OF 27 OCT. 2011
LIST OF PROPOSED "DEMANDS" FOR CONGRESS
CONGRESS PASS HR 1489 ("RETURN TO PRUDENT BANKING ACT" http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h112-1489 ). THIS REINSTATES MANY PROVISIONS OF THE GLASS-STEAGALL ACT. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass–Steagall_Act --- Wiki entry summary: The repeal of provisions of the Glass–Steagall Act of 1933 by the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act in 1999 effectively removed the separation that previously existed between investment banking which issued securities and commercial banks which accepted deposits. The deregulation also removed conflict of interest prohibitions between investment bankers serving as officers of commercial banks. Most economists believe this repeal directly contributed to the severity of the Financial crisis of 2007–2011 by allowing Wall Street investment banking firms to gamble with their depositors' money that was held in commercial banks owned or created by the investment firms. Here's detail on repeal in 1999 and how it happened:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass–Steagall_Act#Repeal .
USE CONGRESSIONAL AUTHORITY AND OVERSIGHT TO ENSURE APPROPRIATE FEDERAL AGENCIES FULLY INVESTIGATE AND PROSECUTE THE WALL STREET CRIMINALS who clearly broke the law and helped cause the 2008 financial crisis in the following notable cases: (insert list of the most clear cut criminal actions). There is a pretty broad consensus that there is a clear group of people who got away with millions / billions illegally and haven't been brought to justice. Boy would this be long overdue and cathartic for millions of Americans. It would also be a shot across the bow for the financial industry. If you watch the solidly researched and awared winning documentary film "Inside Job" that was narrated by Matt Damon (pretty brave Matt!) and do other research, it wouldn't take long to develop the list.
CONGRESS ENACT LEGISLATION TO PROTECT OUR DEMOCRACY BY REVERSING THE EFFECTS OF THE CITIZENS UNITED SUPREME COURT DECISION which essentially said corporations can spend as much as they want on elections. The result is that corporations can pretty much buy elections. Corporations should be highly limited in ability to contribute to political campaigns no matter what the election and no matter what the form of media. This legislation should also RE-ESTABLISH THE PUBLIC AIRWAVES IN THE U.S. SO THAT POLITICAL CANDIDATES ARE GIVEN EQUAL TIME FOR FREE AT REASONABLE INTERVALS IN DAILY PROGRAMMING DURING CAMPAIGN SEASON. The same should extend to other media.
CONGRESS PASS THE BUFFETT RULE ON FAIR TAXATION SO THE RICH AND CORPORATIONS PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE & CLOSE CORPORATE TAX LOOP HOLES AND ENACT A PROHIBITION ON HIDING FUNDS OFF SHORE. No more GE paying zero or negative taxes. Pass the Buffet Rule on fair taxation so the rich pay their fair share. (If we have a really had a good negotiating position and have the place surrounded, we could actually dial up taxes on millionaires, billionaires and corporations even higher...back to what they once were in the 50's and 60's.
CONGRESS COMPLETELY REVAMP THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION and staff it at all levels with proven professionals who get the job done protecting the integrity of the marketplace so citizens and investors are both protected. This agency needs a large staff and needs to be well-funded. It's currently has a joke of a budget and is run by Wall St. insiders who often leave for high ticket cushy jobs with the corporations they were just regulating. Hmmm.
CONGRESS PASS SPECIFIC AND EFFECTIVE LAWS LIMITING THE INFLUENCE OF LOBBYISTS AND ELIMINATING THE PRACTICE OF LOBBYISTS WRITING LEGISLATION THAT ENDS UP ON THE FLOOR OF CONGRESS.
CONGRESS PASSING "Revolving Door Legislation" LEGISLATION ELIMINATING THE ABILITY OF FORMER GOVERNMENT REGULATORS GOING TO WORK FOR CORPORATIONS THAT THEY ONCE REGULATED. So, you don't get to work at the FDA for five years playing softball with Pfizer and then go to work for Pfizer making $195,000 a year. While they're at it, Congress should pass specific and effective laws to enforce strict judicial standards of conduct in matters concerning conflicts of interest. So long as judges are culled from the ranks of corporate attorneys the 1% will retain control.
ELIMINATE "PERSONHOOD" LEGAL STATUS FOR CORPORATIONS. The film "The Corporation" has a great section on how corporations won "personhood status".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SuUzmqBewg . Fast-forward to 2:20. It'll blow your mind. The 14th amendment was supposed to give equal rights to African Americans. It said you "can't deprive a person of life, liberty or property without due process of law". Corporation lawyers wanted corporations to have more power so they basically said "corporations are people." Amazingly, between 1890 and 1910 there were 307 cases brought before the court under the 14th amendment. 288 of these brought by corporations and only 19 by African Americans. 600,000 people were killed to get rights for people and then judges applied those rights to capital and property while stripping them from people. It's time to set this straight.
COMPLETE LIST OF OCCUPY WALL STREET PROPOSALS
Revise the interpretation of the famous 1886 case where the U.S. Supreme Court supposedly ruled that corporations are "persons" having the same rights as human beings based on the 14th Amendment, which was intended to protect the rights of former slaves. As most lawyers know, the Supreme Court made no such decision. In the case in question - Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company, the court itself never rules on personhood. A court reporter by the name of J.C. Bancroft Davis (a former railroad president) snuck that "ruling" into the books.
What most people don't know is that after the above-mentioned 1886 decision, artificial persons were held to have exactly the same legal rights as we natural folk. (Not to mention the clear advantages corporations enjoy: they can be in several places at once, for instance, and at least in theory they're immortal.) Up until the New Deal, many laws regulating corporations were struck down under the "equal protection" clause of the 14th Amendment--in fact, that clause was invoked far more often on behalf of corporations than former slaves. Although the doctrine of personhood has been weakened since, even now lawyers argue that an attempt to sue a corporation for lying is an unconstitutional infringement on its First Amendment right to free speech. ( Nike v. Kasky.)
Ammendment Dated September 30, 2011 for reasons of consolidation
- Require Corporations to have Labour representatives on their boards of directors. Has been added to this Demand
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." — Fourth Amendment to the Constitution
Forty-five days after 9/11, Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act without reading it. This new law was supposed to protect you from terrorism, but it has really left you unprotected against lawless federal agents. The Patriot Act contains numerous violations of the Fourth Amendment. It gives federal agents vast new powers that have been abused to investigate innocent Americans.
No Congress, no President has been strong enough to stand up to the foreign-controlled Federal Reserve Bank. Yet there is a catch - one that President Kennedy recognized before he was slain - the original deal in 1913 creating the Federal Reserve Bank had a simple backout clause. The investors loaned the United States Government $1 billion. And the backout clause allows the United States to buy out the system for that $1 billion. If the Federal Reserve Bank were demolished and the Congress of the United States took control of the currency, as required in the Constitution, the National Debt would virtually end overnight, and the need for more taxes and even the income tax, itself. Thomas Jefferson was concise in his early warning to the American nation, "If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
Article I, Section 8, Clause 5, of the United States Constitution provides that Congress shall have the power to coin money and regulate the value thereof and of any foreign coins. But that is not the case. The United States government has no power to issue money, control the flow of money, or to even distribute it - that belongs to a private corporation registered in the State of Delaware - the Federal Reserve Bank.
Recently ammendments to consolidate in this demand
- Outlaw Flash Trading is now included in this Demand
- Provide a real democratic system for US Elections and US Policy is now included in this Demand
Proposal One: Ban corporate donations to political campaigns while limiting individual campaign donations to $100.Background:Corporations in the U.S. exercise an inordinate amount of influence over the government. The amount of corporate money in elections makes it virtually impossible for people want to serve the public’s interests to be viable candidates. Lowering the individual maximum donation to $100 ensures that the rich won\'t simply buy elections. This demand is offered in order to eliminate the rich’s dominance of elections and subsequent effect on public and foreign policy. America has never had a popular democracy. It began as a country controlled by a handful of white land-owning men. Throughout its history, gains were made in achieving some level of democracy to American citizens. The age of rule by an elite 1% (a tiny minority) can be forced to an end soon.The majority of the American population sees the U.S. as a reasonably fair country and as a popular democracy. This demand challenges that assertion. America is a corporate democracy and it will be eye-opening to many people to witness how undemocratically big business and their political flunkies will fight to deny popular democracy even though those are the values that the elites have professed for so long. This demand forces them to put up or shut up on their fucking principles. The public will support restructuring of campaign finance as the tiny minority has recently collapsed the economy, wasted resources, and destroyed millions of lives in it pursuit of its wars for its own narrow interest. In the past they have been able to point to relatively high wages, a relatively high standard of living, and increasing growth (regardless of the reason) as reasons to uphold the status quo, but these conditions are deteriorating and people are again searching for a remedy. Taking away the tiny majority’s ability to buy every election will usher in popular democracy and with that new policies that may affect all issues and grievances moving forward.span>p>
more donations to a single person that is seeking or has a position in congress that exceeds $5,000 (five thousand) dollars within the time period of 1 (one) year. And no donations exceeding $25,000 (twenty-five thousand) to a single group, PAC, or super PAC within the time span of 18 (eighteen) months. Also, when a donation is made the persons employer must be listed. And if 25% (twenty-five) of all employees of the stated company donate to the same person or group then the company will stand to be investigated as to whether it is giving its employees the money andp>
All members of all governments, Federal, state or local, must remain free of influence from outside factors. Lobbyists must remain at arm's length and not be allowed in any way to provide free meals, trips or gifts of any kind to any politician. All contact must be in written form to prevent influence peddling.
Make Healthcare affordable and availablt to all without a "Mandate". Nearly all other countries on this planet have a system that works. Access to adequate health care is a human right not a privelage. (Accepting additional proposals)
The war on drugs has been going on for more than three decades. Today, nearly 500,000 Americans are imprisoned on drug charges. In 1980 the number was 50,000. Last year $40 billion in taxpayer dollars were spent in fighting the war on drugs. As a result of the incarceration obsession, the United States operates the largest prison system on the planet, and the U.S. nonviolent prisoner population is larger than the combined populations of Wyoming and Alaska. Try to imagine the Drug Enforcement Administration erecting razor wire barricades around two states to control crime and you’ll get the picture.
According to the U.S. Dept of Justice, the number of offenders under age 18 imprisoned for drug offenses increased twelvefold from 1985 to 1997. The group most affected by this propensity for incarceration is African-Americans. From 1985 to 1997, the percentage of African-American young people put in prison increased from 53 to 62 percent.
Today, 89 percent of police departments have paramilitary units, and 46 percent have been trained by active duty armed forces. The most common use of paramilitary units is serving drug-related search warrants, which usually involve no-knock entries into private homes.
7. Education Reform
Redraft education financing legislation. Lower educational expenses for students instead of raising tuition costs. Pull money form the "WAR" system to refund education and continuing education. Forgive Student Loan Dept or restructure the Student Loan System so that students are not punished for self improvement and made into corporate slaves upon educating themselves. Standardized testing does not account for stereotype effect or cultural differences in learning styles in elementry schools. Reform education to make it either free or affordable to all. Reappropriation of tax to focus on educations subsidies.
Currently Accepting proposals for actual plan
Currently Accepting proposals for actual plan
Judge Antone Scailia has stated, and the Supreme Court has reinforced on numerous occasions, that women, by the virtue of the fact that the founding fathers did not specifically use the terms woman, women or female in the Constitution, are not recognized as having the same rights as men. In a statement last year in Oregon, Judge Scailia specifically addressed this issue and stated that if the founding fathers wanted it, they would have included women in the Constitution. We want equal rights to men, including equal pay, equal benefits and equal standing under all laws and in all courtrooms where it has been proven in study after study, women are regularly denied their rights. This does not have to be an issue that requires a Constitutional Amendment, this can and should be ruled on immediately by SCOTUS and deemed to be the law of the land which may not be revoked or overturned by order of the court. Further, there must be an Amendment to the Constitution insuring these rights and all states must also include these rights in state constitutions. This is to include equal rights regarding domestic partnership for Homosexual, gar or transgender individuals.
Who will Guard The Guardians - Corruption begins at the local level. The FBI and the DOJ refuse to investigate matters of local corruption when it is their sworn duty of the Federal government. State and local governments work hand in hand thwarting any investigations of corruption, and do not investigate. Courts must be investigated for the evidence of local corruption, including drug dealing, protection of criminals, etc. It has been shown that 60% of police readily falsify police reports at the behest of higher ups. Repeated calls, filings in writing, and personal visits produce no investigation, even when evidence is given to them. Where there have been investigations, it almost always produces a guilty verdict, but those investigations are few and far between and usually limited to situations where those peddling their influence did not share with others in slush funds. Most of the time it is the public who gathers the evidence leading to prosecution, not the FBI or DOJ. We want complete investigations of all allegations of corruption, including those allegations at local and state level. No citizen should be placed in the dangerous situation of having to investigate crimes and collect evidence. That is the job of the government and one it does not do. The office of the citizen must be fully funded before funds may be allocated for any department supporting war, engaging in war or spying, either internally or externally.
U.S. Ratification of the Rome Statute and Membership in the International Criminal Court. Restructuring the Judicial System. Human rights should be the right of everyone, inside and outside our borders. When the US knowingly engages in, or allows others to engage in torture, that is a violation of everyone's human rights, not just the target. We want prosecutions for torture, not only of government officials, but those who commit this heinous crime on others within the US. This would also include bringing all current troops back from over seas where they are fighting wars for corporate profits and interests that the citizens of the United States have not voted to be involved in.
Courts in the US not only allow, but expect that human rights will be violated in certain types of cases. Mental torture is the tool of many sleazy attorneys who intimidate both victims and witnesses. This must end now and the rights of the victim upheld. We want all Bar Associations investigated and the hold they have on judicial nominees removed. All judges should hold bench for limited terms and must be subject to ongoing judicial review and all hearings involving judicial reviews must be held in public to insure that human rights as well as Constitutional rights have not violated. Judicial immunity must be removed, or at best, limited. Victim blaming must be limited and strictly investigated before it can be used as a defense. Rape kits must be provided at no cost to victims claiming rape and any police officer who does not photograph all crime scenes shall be deemed incompetent to act as an officer of the law and shall be removed from duty without possibility of reinstatement in any police department in the country. Falsified police reports shall also result in immediate removal and barring from any future law enforcement position. All court rooms must insure that all proceedings are videotaped and that video tapes of all proceedings are given to all plaintiffs, their attorneys, all defendants and their attorneys within at the end of each hearing and without delay and prior to leaving the courtroom. Videotapes of the judges, to include their desk tops and computer screens, must also be made available.
5.Restitution for previous wrongdoing by courts and police.
Restitution by the US government of property of victims of violence seized by the courts must be made at 100% of value on the date victimization first occurred plus a fine of not less than `100% of that value be imposed on both the court ordering the property removal and the person who benefited from that removal. All courts must furnish the cases and this restitution is retroactive for the lifetime of the court. Courts are given no more than 5 business days to produce all files. Any file not produced or shown to have been tampered with will result in immediate removal from office or employment of any person who had direct contact with that file.
We want indictments and prosecutions of all crimes committed by banks, brokerage firms and insurance companies. We want a clear message sent to the entire financial industry, this will no longer be tolerated. All financial industry executives who had even the remotest of connection to the collapse of our system, must be prosecuted.
Those who are or have been involved in torture, whithersoever dispersed around the globe, weather personally or directing it's use, must be prosecuted for their crimes.
Unofficial Proposed Demands
Provide incentives for local farming instead of incentives that benefit corporate seed and food produces.
Tax corporations based on "true cost" of international trade forcing them to account for the impact of abuse of absolute and comparative advantages. This would include the dependency on foreign oil and the enviro-economic cost of comparative advantage and international trade.
Hold corporations that take operations overseas accountable for their actions there. If there is a U.S. law that they are violating overseas (e.g. human rights, or environmental regulations), either shut them down or fine them very very heavily. We must set an example for the rest of the world.
Revoke Patents issued on "life" Do not permit the future patenting of l"life"
(open to additional statements)
The mechanism for declaring martial law could be quickly implemented and carried out under REX. The Cheney/Bush administration has a plan which would accommodate the detention of large numbers of American citizens during times of emergency. The plan is called REX 84, short for Readiness Exercise 1984. Through Rex-84 an undisclosed number of concentration camps were set in operation throughout the United States, for internment of dissidents and others potentially harmful to the state. The Rex 84 Program was originally established on the reasoning that if a “mass exodus” of illegal aliens crossed the Mexican/US border, they would be quickly rounded up and detained in detention centers by FEMA. Existence of the Rex 84 plan was first revealed during the Iran-Contra Hearings in 1987, and subsequently reported by the Miami Herald on July 5, 1987” These camps are to be operated by FEMA should martial law need to be implemented in the United States and all it would take is a presidential signature on a proclamation and the attorney general’s signature on a warrant to which a list of names is attached.
Note: This demand is in the development process and has had this link placed here so that it might have opportunity to meet Quorum
Create a board of officials to monitor the importance of all demands, with experts who are knowledgeable on the proposed policies and necessary amendments.
Note: This demand is in the development process and has had this link placed here so that it might have opportunity to meet Quorum
More and more evidence is being released to the public surrounding the suspicious circumstances surrounding 911. This measure would be included in the list of demands to show that the original investigation was significantly flawed. Demand investigation into the source of secret funding for CIA occupation programs since WWII, the cover up of the trillions of dollars that aided in the collapse of the Soviet Union and may have ultimately instigated the 911 attacks as well as their cover-up.
http://coupmedia.org/occupywallstree...l-demands-2009
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