The #OccupyWallStreet movement continues to spread with more than 1,500 sites. More and more people are speaking up for a society that works for the 99 percent, not just the 1 percent.
Here are 10 recommendations for ways to build the power and momentum of this movement. Only two of them involve sleeping outside:
1. Show up at the occupied space near you.
Use this link to find the Facebook page of an occupation near you. If you can, bring a tent or tarp and sleeping bag, and stay. Or just come for a few hours. Talk to people, participate in a General Assembly, hold a sign, help serve food. Learn about the new world being created in the occupied spaces.
2. Start your own occupation.
Use this Meetup site. Or call together friends, members of your faith group, school, or community group. Reach out to people from parts of your community you don't normally work with. Unexpected alliances keep the movement from getting labeled as partisan or representing only some people.
3. Support those who are occupying.
Most sites need food, warm clothes, blankets, tarps, sleeping bags, communications gear, and money. Many need people to do loads of laundry, to help with medical care, to provide legal support, to serve food, and to spread the word. Some people call in pizza orders from nearby vendors. Support the folks at Liberty Square in New York here, or check in with your local occupiers to see what they need.
4. Speak out. Get into the debates and the teach-ins.
Many occupation sites have workshops and discussions on critical issues of our time. Get into the discussion. Bring your expertise and reading materials to share. YES! Magazine is offering free copies of the current New Livelihood issue to occupied sites (request them by emailing JobsIssue@yesmagazine.org). Bring the discussions to other groups you are part of. Listen to perspectives you haven't heard before. This process represents a critical, but under-reported side of the movement: People are shifting from being passive, frustrated observers of politics to active, powerful players. Instead of waiting for our leaders to do the right thing, people from all walks of life are becoming leaders. It makes us unstoppable.
5. Share your story.
Post how you're part of the 99 percent on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, or in print. Through this movement, people are discovering others who are also losing jobs and homes, who are overwhelmed by debt or working a dead-end job. Through this sharing, humiliation turns into compassion and self-respect. And it builds understanding of the sources and the impacts of our crisis: A Wall Street system that funnels wealth to the top 1 percent is leaving the rest of us behind. Community plus insight makes us powerful.
6. Be the media.
Show up with your video recorder, camera phone, or laptop and share the stories of the occupation. You can download a selection of posters donated by graphic designers and spread them around. Highlight the human dimension of the protests. It is harder for critics to disparage a movement when people see the faces of those involved.
7. Name the meaning of this moment.
What will make the world better for the 99 percent? How has the power of the 1 percent gotten in the way of your hopes and dreams? Make a sign, write a blog, update your Facebook page, or speak out on the issue that means the most to you. Include the phrase, "I am the 99 percent."
8. Insist that public officials treat the occupations with respect.
The eviction of the Liberty Square occupation on Wall Street was averted by massive public resistance from those in the square and from others. Other occupations also need support. The 99 percent don't have the money, political access, and media empires of the 1 percent; the occupations are one of the few ways we are building power. Ask your local officials to respect people's right to assembly.
9. Study and teach nonviolent techniques.
There are many examples of outside provocateurs who spark violent incidents that can discredit nonviolent movements such as this. The corporate media is hungry for violent images. (There's already been an example of an admitted provocateur from the right-wing American Spectator who provoked pepper spraying at the National Air & Space Museum). Learn how to lovingly and firmly interrupt and contain violence, and teach what you know. Here are some resources.
10. Be resilient.
This movement is here for the long term. Some efforts may fade because of cold weather or harsh police responses. Others may self-destruct through faulty process or violent outbreaks. The movement may be idealistic, but it won't be ideal. Don't get disillusioned; the demand for a society that serves the 99 percent won't go away. The movement may morph, but it has become unstoppable. Help it evolve.
The genie is out of the bottle. People will no longer accept the systematic transfer of wealth and power from we the people to the 1 percent. In this remarkable, leaderless movement, each one of the 99 percent who gets involved helps shape history.
Sarah van Gelder is co-founder and executive editor of YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions.
Interested?
Follow ongoing coverage of #OccupyWallStreet at YES! Magazine.
Follow Sarah van Gelder on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SarahVanGelder
Rev. Chuck Currie: Occupy America: A New Great Awakening
Dr. David Liepert: Should Muslims Occupy Wall Street Too?
These bills would TAKE SPECIAL INTEREST MONEY OUT OF CAMPAIGNS. Currently 66% of the voters are supportive, but only 143 people have voted on H.R. 1404 and 79 have voted on S.750. We can make OUR VOICES heard at this site. By the 100s of millions!
Conservatives and liberals alike have been adversely affected by “corporate greed.†We don’t want free stuff, we want reasonable consideration. The numbers below show how skewed are:
From 1995 to 2008 the top 400 earners had their income increase 400% and taxes paid reduced almost 40% per an IRS document you can download. Search for Top 400 at irs.gov
The same IRS document, shows the average tax rate for the top 400 returns was 29.93% in 1995 and 18.11% in 2008.
The 2010 Census shows the median household income in 2010 was $49,445, only a $333 increase, or 0.7 percent, in inflation-adjusted dollars from 1996.
From postwar through 2000, 20.8% of real GDI growth went to corporate profit and 48.7% to wages and salaries. Since then, 61% has gone to corporate profit and 16.4% to wages and salaries.
Like the OWS crowds are saying, "something ain't right here."
Change the name to Liberated fill in the blank. It claims victory. Then immediately start using the liberated space as a haven for thought and relief. Leave the anger and bitterness behind. Provide means of finding and sourcing solutions to health-care, debt relief, employment. Do what you've been begging for. More people want to help and they will once they see that there is a way to do so on our own.
Cheers!!!
1) 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.
2) Use Congressional authority and oversight to ensure appropriate federal agencies fully investigate and prosecute the Wall Street criminals.
3) Congress enact legislation to protect our democracy by reversing the effects of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision. 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.
4) Congress pass the Buffet Rule on Fair Taxation so that the rich and corporation spay their fair share, and close corporate tax loopholes and enact a prohibition on hiding funds off-shore.
5) Congress completely revamp the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
6) 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.
7) Congress passing "Revolving Door Legislation" legislation eliminating the ability of former government regulators going to work for the corporations that they were supposed to have been regulating.
8) Eliminate "personhood" legal status for corporations.
For more details, check out this link:
http://coupmedia.org/occupywallstreet/occupy-wall-street-official-demands-2009
Everyone wanted Obama to clean up the mess they made by even electing the
reps in Congress that support the 1% over 16 million kids at the poverty level.
Nobody is speaking up for them. Not one politician and not one Republican
gives a crap about how 99% people were affected by their agenda. They
voted it in, and now others have to clean up after them. TG there are still
people out there that support human beings, not money and greed over
life itself, and if they have to sleep on the sidewalk every night, at least
they are doing something about it.
What, exactly, are they doing "about it?"
Until millions are in the streets for at least 1 week in New York-chocking off all commerce on Wall Street-blocking all the corporate Headquarters of these mega banks,clogging all the access streets and stopping traffic-and all the union drivers unite-and park their trucks around the Whitehouse blocking all traffic - and walking away nothing will happen.
2. borrow 30k and receive another 20k from the feds for your art history degree with a 1,9 gpa
3. move back in with your parents
4. move out of your parents house , but continue to let them pay for your expenses.
5. Turn the brightness down on your plasma screen tv to save energy.
6. Smoke pot because it is a natural high and free of corporate guilt.
7. Support a vicious murderer on death row for no obvious reason.
8. Steal your neighbors lawn furniture, because it is nicer than yours.
9. buy a homeless druggie a burrito to hang out with you at the protests and make sure you keep him handy for the next election -a couple of 40 ouncers = change we can believe in.
10. make 24 out of 360 payments on a home that a bank payed 300k cash on your promise to repay the 300k with interest, then stay in the house for 24 months without paying a dime and now say the bank ripped you off and took (your House).
11. completely ignore the fact that you never had a problem with the banks or predatory lending when the economy was good.
12. Fight for public transportation that you have never or will ever use.
13. Above all else, NEVER bother to think past than the cliches and slogans your masters have provided for you.
Traits of a Political Opponent". CBS News will be at you home in 30 minutes to interview you about how you did it.
Our government counts on that fact to keep us all slaves to employment so that we can stay housed,clothed,fed,and in debt.
Pay cash for your purchases. Debit and credit card purchases give the banks revenue on both ends of the transaction. The banks take that money and use it to bribe, err . . . _contribute to_ the politicians from both parties who fight for their interests rather than ours.
And if you can, move your accounts from your bank to a credit union.
Good luck on your job search! If you need help with a resume-I am fairly good at composing them..
A little more socialism in the US is about all OWS can practically achieve.
There won't be a revolutionÂ, and both parties will survive intact, but that is because the media is complicit...Attacking the protests and protesters without listening to the real message. Get the money out of our political system, or things will keep going exactly the same way they've been going for the past few decades.
http://coupmedia.org/occupywallstreet/occupy-wall-street-official-demands-2009
It's not criminal violence I'm trying to incite
But if you don't see a problem then you don't know where to look
check your federal reserve appointed-politician-crook
interest-free bailout loans but only wealthy need apply
So for the other 99% it's time to OCCUPY!
(Smash It Grab It OCCUPY...the video!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8XE4CdNYEs