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#OccupyWallStreet: A Shift in Revolutionary Tactics
Alright you 90,000 redeemers, rebels and radicals out there, a worldwide shift in revolutionary tactics is underway right now that bodes well for the future. The spirit of this fresh tactic, a fusion of Tahrir with the acampadas of Spain, is captured in this quote:
"The antiglobalization movement was the first step on the road. Back then our model was to attack the system like a pack of wolves. There was an alpha male, a wolf who led the pack, and those who followed behind. Now the model has evolved. Today we are one big swarm of people."— Raimundo Viejo, Pompeu Fabra University Barcelona, Spain
The beauty of this new formula, and what makes this novel tactic exciting, is its pragmatic simplicity: we talk to each other in various physical gatherings and virtual people's assemblies … we zero in on what our one demand will be, a demand that awakens the imagination and, if achieved, would propel us toward the radical democracy of the future … and then we go out and seize a square of singular symbolic significance and put our asses on the line to make it happen.
The time has come to deploy this emerging stratagem against the greatest corrupter of our democracy: Wall Street, the financial Gomorrah of America.
On September 17, we want to see 20,000 people flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months. Once there, we shall incessantly repeat one simple demand in a plurality of voices.
Tahrir succeeded in large part because the people of Egypt made a straightforward ultimatum – that Mubarak must go – over and over again until they won. Following this model, what is our equally uncomplicated demand?
The most exciting candidate that we've heard so far is one that gets at the core of why the American political establishment is currently unworthy of being called a democracy: we demand that Barack Obama ordain a Presidential Commission tasked with ending the influence money has over our representatives in Washington. It's time for DEMOCRACY NOT CORPORATOCRACY, we're doomed without it.
This demand seems to capture the current national mood because cleaning up corruption in Washington is something all Americans, right and left, yearn for and can stand behind. If we hang in there, 20,000-strong, week after week against every police and National Guard effort to expel us from Wall Street, it would be impossible for Obama to ignore us. Our government would be forced to choose publicly between the will of the people and the lucre of the corporations.
This could be the beginning of a whole new social dynamic in America, a step beyond the Tea Party movement, where, instead of being caught helpless by the current power structure, we the people start getting what we want whether it be the dismantling of half the 1,000 military bases America has around the world to the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act or a three strikes and you're out law for corporate criminals. Beginning from one simple demand – a presidential commission to separate money from politics – we start setting the agenda for a new America.
Post a comment and help each other zero in on what our one demand will be. And then let's screw up our courage, pack our tents and head to Wall Street with a vengeance September 17.
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91 Comments so far
Show AllThey have the guns. They have the media.
So good luck with that.
A concurrent occupation of Washington DC will shine the light on Wall Street's gunner in the white house and gunners in Congress.
This approach worked in 1932.
Do you all think there have been no demonstrations nor actions the past few years?
They don't get reported in the mainstream.
The actions that are too big to ignore, such as the G20 in Toronto, are contained and spun in such a way that the masses believe that the "riots" are caused by anti-social elements. Further, actions are being infiltrated more and more by agent provocateurs.
Thus, the masses do not identify with these actions nor believe they have common grounds with the protestors.
Truthfully, the masses don't think about the MIC, Wall Street or K street. To them thses things are concepts that have no influence on their everyday lives.
All people care about is jobs so they can feed their families, schools, medical care, safe neighbourhoods, community and dignity.
As they should.
It is not narcissistic to care for one's family and one's community.
And personally, I'm more into thinking through actions.
What do these protestors think will be the consequences of their actions.
Not what they hope but what will really happen.
If it hasn't worked in the past why should people think it will work now.
Let's look at the Egyptian protests as an example. The power elite didn;t really care about who fronted the government .
What they really cared about were the instruments of power. ie, the government departments that adminstrated the country. It was those that were surrounded by tanks.
Of course, now the masses in Egypt are coming to the realisation that nothing concrete has changed and so they are protesting again.
Interestingly, these neo-colonial countries rarely have any kind of effective standing armies, relying instead on police with extended powers. On account of armies can be used to effect coups.
So confrere, what I'm saying to you is that trying to effect real change is not a game.
It takes power, planning, brains, guts and guns.
And if you fail you die.
I strongly disagree. The plan couldn't be simpler - just a blob of people in the RIGHT SPOT. It works very well.
They had a WTO meeting in DC a couple years after the infamous Seattle WTO meeting. In anticipation of problems, the entire DC workforce took the day off. That's a lot of power, a lot of lost man-hours of work.
Of course, I went to work that day, just for grins. People nonchalantly walking in the middle of the street blocked traffic. The protester turnout that day was at most 10,000, and there were thousands of police watching, but the mere presence of people on the streets was enough to shut down the center of power.
That "protest" was poorly organized, poorly attended, but simple and effective. Just put bodies on the street.
What change did it effect?
Morticia is right about one thing; if you aren't willing to die for your cause, don't confront Wall Street.
I may be wrong but perhaps she just wants to make it clear that a percentage of losses through violence leading to death must be figured into these activiites.
Where I disagree is that these people, unlike an army general, aren't dispassionate about loss calculation. The general and his soldiers have a direct objective which includes dishing out violence as well as taking it. A group of peaceful protesters confronting the predatory capitalist monster MUST be prepared to die en masse. This is the ONLY way that peaceful demonstrations have gained traction in the past.
In short, EVERYONE going must consider death preferable to iving in this dystopia. Any resolve short of that might win but the chances are that they could lose with cosmetic "reforms" promised to them to disorganize and confuse.
The ONLY advantage that peace and democracy loving protesters can have against Wall Street is the fact that the predators there won't give their lives for anything or anybody. They are pure greed. If you can get physically right next to them they will promise you the world to save their asses.
But corralling them is a formidable task.
Respectfully, violence and martyrdom is not part of the simple plan.
Clogging the streets and generating solidarity against Wall St. is the main goal. It goes without saying that shutting down Wall St., even for a day, two days, . . . will create a spectacle. Mission accomplished. (So I wonder why the organizers chose Saturday rather than a weekday.)
As more folks get in tune, and the movement grows, bigger protests, T-shirt and food sales, toilet paper sales, free stuff, peace & love brother.
The NYPD may be influenced by reminding them how they have been abandoned by the elites/Wall St. regarding their health problems resulting from toxic materials in the 9-11 rescues. The NYFD & NYPD put their lives on the line for the greedy bastards and got screwed.
You show you have no understanding what Wall Street is and how it operates.
Wall Street for one thing isn't even on Wall Street anymore. It's on the West Side Highway and Midtown. Much has been decentralised too. Houston is becoming a major banking centre.
Further, it's all on computer now. Workers, including traders, don't even have to go into the office, they can call it in from home or the roof garden or their place in CT.
The owners? Why would they go in to the office? ~lol
The only people who will be disrupted are tourists and shoppers.
Oh boy! You really got me there. You're absolutely correct that I don't know the daily grind of Wall St or how trading works. Maybe it's because I'm not a "Capitalist Pig." Maybe that term is more appropriate for those of you who know Wall St.
Oh, and shutting down Wall St (the business district) is still a great idea.
I really can't see the point in disrupting the sightseeing of french tourists.
peacemaker,
If you can get the NYPD on your side, your chances of success are great. Remember Tahrir Square in Egypt where the tank commanders were given orders to smash through the people and they ripped off their helments and radio head gear. They then just sat there. Some of them even joined the crowd.
You need at least that level of cooperation from the NYPD in order to avoid violence.
I don't trust the NYPD. Those among them that talked about how they were shafted on 9/11 have been marginalized.
The Wall Street area is policed by feds, not the nypd. After 9/11 I can't blame them.
Adbusters has a good idea. We need more actions of this sort, since the democratic institutions are moribund and no longer serve the people.
Yes, I like the one demand: "Democracy NOT Corporatocracy"
I think it is important for all of our actions, signs, letters & emails to Reps to always demand an end to Corporate Rule, to the Corporatocracy. Let's get that word out there, over and over again. It is the source of all the insanities in all areas of our country -- and world. We need to set the frame on this, making the naming of the culprit commonplace, on everyone's lips: Corporatocracy.
Are you all in cahoots with the Oct 6 sustained occupation in DC? Perhaps you can combine your efforts. See: www.october2011.org Many great supporters of this.
Do we need to do this occupation in many cities at once?
Just my opinion, but I think that the demand for the president to designate a commission isn't appropriate for the scale of the problem. When I think of Wall Street, I think of the concentration of wealth in America over the last 30 years or so.
I'd say that the demand should be "Give Back Our Money" in its most simplified form.
Attached to a simple slogan should be a point plan for what we have in mind. Some ideas: How about giving some real help to troubled homeowners. How about a financial transaction tax to fund social programs. Cracking down on corporations not paying their income taxes. Raising capital gains tax rates on the rich. Demanding single-payer healthcare.
Most of these issues can be tied in some way to Wall Street. In order to truly reestablish democracy we need to redistribute this obscenely concentrated wealth to the people.
Kwame Somburu,
Thank you for your words full of experience and wisdom. I feel the same way except that I do not share your optimism.
"Mubarak must go!" is clear and exact. One knows exactly must happen to meet the demand.
"DEMOCRACY NOT CORPORATOCRACY" is vague and lame. What does it mean? Different things to different people. Indecipherable to a large percentage of people. No two people have the same idea of what must happen to make it happen, and it would take thousands of changes in legislation to get somewhat closer to democracy in the US. A "Presidential Commission tasked with ending the influence money has over our representatives in Washington" is equally vague and a formula for years of study with no action.
This is stupid and a waste of time to read let alone get involve in.
"Ban Corporate donations to political parties now" is clear, but wouldn't inspire many workers to "occupy Wall Street for a few months", losing a few months pay. Most are a couple of paychecks away from homelessness and destitution.
Adbuster's simply getting attention for itself with no real expectation or realistic plan to foment change or revolution. It appears there is not much more here than a profit motive for Adbuster's.
I agree. The slogan, "Democracy Not Corporatocracy" is lame. Here'
s a few suggestions:
"A Corporation is not a Person."
"Main Street, Not Wall Street"
"Expose the Greedy Corrupt Rulers"
"People, Not Corporations"
"We The People - Take Back our Country"
How about the "Nader Tax Now"..get nader involved...he can develop tax legislation akin to safe at any speed...law would be similar to Tobin Tax...all heads of investment banks sign in support...monies dedicate to poor peoples bailout..interest free loans like banks got that each municipality can invest in local bond projects and part of taxes goes to green jobs that bernie sanders is supporting...
http://tinyurl.com/6fq83rk
If this works, tweet it around:
@VanJones68 @stopthemach2011 @climatereality @occupywallstnyc OCCUPYWALLST does not leave wall st until banks support Nader Tax @Ralph_Nader
Ask Nader to come aboard. info@nader.org or @Ralph_Nader
I just wrote inviting him to write legislation. And I tweeted Van Jones, Gore's Climate Reality, Stop the Machine (October2011.org), and AdBusters' Occupy Wall St. to unite forces.
If this idea doesn't work for you, please advise how to reshape or revamp.
I just heard Dr. Steve Perry--education guru on CNN--on a CSPAN talk promoting his new book and at one point he said, and I paraphrase, that he is not a marcher (seemingly mocking marching), that you (the audience) can do your Civil Rights marches.. he's not dressed for it or something like that.. What a shame.. Like Morticia, he thinks that Thoreau is dead. Get the kids to memorize his legacy from a textbook so they can go onto college, but don't embody his philosophy.
Agree that "Democracy not corporatocracy" is vague and lame. But the need to have a single demand is spot on. The idea for this action is very good, especially if it's focused on a clear, simple and powerful demand that goes right to the jugular of this "corporatocracy".
Since all corporations receive a charter granting them legal personhood, it would send a clear message that corporations are not immortal if one of them were killed by having their charter revoked.
And it would need to be done with one of the biggest, most pernicious corporations, like BP or Exxon. Or, since this is on Wall Street, something like Goldman Sachs.
If corporations are persons, then they should be just as legally beholden to punishment as corporeal persons. They need to have their own death penalties to protect the public from their psychopathic criminal recidivism, rather than the perpetual immunity for their crimes they currently enjoy.
After all, corporations are fictitious entities that exist only because our socially constructed realities agree that they're real. Gods die when people stop praying to them.
It's time to prove that corporations can be killed. Revoke their charters!
So how about, as a clear, simple, symbolic, powerful and attainable demand, "REVOKE GOLDMAN SACHS!"
Corporate Personhood is a legal fiction that gives Corporations (pieces of paper) the rights in The Bill of Rights (first ten Amendments), via the 14th Amendment. This allows Corporations to have "freedom of speech," which means they are allowed to LOBBY. This means they OWN our government. Lobbying is a feeding trough. We The People have few rights because our human interests are completely adverse to the profit interests of Corporations.
Therefore, Corporate Personhood is THE PROBLEM. Corporations need to be regulated. The recklessness of unregulated Corporations kills people and ruins our world. Corporations are the antithesis of loving, caring, human beings.
The best rallying cry for the Revolution is "A Corporation is not a Person," or some variation thereof. More focused on the actual problem/solution.
I completely concur. That is exactly the problem, and that's a better rallying cry in my opinion.
However, there still needs to be a clear and decisive goal to focus attention. "Get rid of Mubarak" is a clear and concrete goal. "Revoke Goldman Sachs" is too -- and it would be a hugely significant symbolic victory that could alter people's perceptions enough to catalyze a truly insurrectionary movement.
How about "No tax breaks for oil companies!"
(Besides, it is not as though they are spending their huge profits maintaining their pipelines or anything. This is an industry that needs to be sent a strong signal.)
Since we are talking Wall Street, how about "Murdoch must go?"
Part 1 of 2
An article by Leon Aron in Foreign Policy, “Everything You Thought You Know About the Collapse of the Soviet Union is Wrong” ‘And why it matters today in a new age revolution.” Highly recommended, seminal insight.
“The core of Gorbachev’s enterprise was undeniably idealistic: He wanted to build a more moral Soviet Union.” Simply replace Soviet Union w/USA.
“For though economic betterment was their was their Banner,” w/ours being, a presidential commission to separate money from politics, “there is little doubt that the Gorbachev & his supporters first set out to right moral, rather then economic, wrongs. Most of what they said publicly was no more than an expression of their anguish over the spiritual decline & corrosive effects of the Stalinist past.” Sound/feel familiar!
“It was the beginning of a desperate search for answers to the big questions which every great revolution starts: What is a good dignified life? What constitutes a just social & economic order? What is a decent & legitimate state? What should such a state’s relationship w/civil society be.”? Still w/me!
“A new moral atmosphere is taking shape in the country,” Gorbachev told the Central Committee,” a reappraisal of values & their creative thinking is under way.”….”We couldn’t go on like that any longer, we had to change life radically from past malpractices” he called his “moral position.”
Gorbachev’s prime-minister Nikolai Ryzhkov said in 1985 that the “moral state of the society” was its most “terrifying feature.” “We stole from ourselves, took & gave bribes, lied in the reports, in newspapers, from high podiums wallowed in our lies, hung medals on one another, all of this from top to bottom & from bottom to top.”
‘The Soviet model was not only defeated on the economic & social levels, it was defeated on a cultural level. “Our society, our people, the most educated, the most intellectual, rejected the model on the cultural level because it does not respect man, oppresses him spiritually & politically.”
Ideas themselves became a material, structural factor in the unfolding revolution. People became increasingly irritated at corruption, brazen thievery, lies & the obstacles in the way of honest work,
There was a shift in values & gradually the legitimacy of the political arrangements began to be questioned.”
Part 2
Aron goes on, those who instilled “the break in consciousness” were no different from those who touched off other classic revolutions of modern times: artist, journalists artists “help create that great general awareness of dissatisfaction, that solidified public opinion,”
To Gorbachev, a moral resurrection was essential, not merely an overhaul of the Soviet political & economic systems, not merely an upending of social norms, but a revolution on the individual, a change in the personal character of the Russian subject. The people had to be saved not from external dangers but most of all themselves, from the consequences of those demoralizing processes that kill the noblest human qualities.
What mattered was a reclaiming the people to citizenship from serfdom & slavery, “Enough, enough lies, enough servility, enough cowardice, we are all citizens of a proud nation.”
“Dignity Before Bread” was the slogan of the Tunisian revolution. In the modern world we must keep in mind “economic progress is not a substitute for the pride & self-respect of citizenship. “The Almighty provided us with such a powerful sense of dignity that we cannot tolerate the denial of our inalienable rights & freedoms, no matter what real or supposed benefits are provided by ‘stable’ authoritarian regimes.”
This is the promising mind-set/vision of the future, one of respect for dignity & worth of the intrinsic value of life itself, human & otherwise ----promoted by a Human Rights Based Approach, to replace or at least present as a counter-veiling narrative to the status quo of Globalization & Market based values. HR is the common ground that frames the possibility of a more humane humanity.
If people are unaware of their HR, they will not reach-out & grasp them & own them. If folks in Wisconsin prevail & do not change their thinking, their internal landscape, all will be for naught.
Agreed.
Change your within - thinking-
will change your exterior world.
Really?
I doubt a chattel slave ever became free from thinking he was.
Waiting isn't doing nothing.
Morticia, You don't "get it", so there's no need to bother.
Really?
If you say so.
"If people are unaware of their HR, they will not reach-out & grasp them & own them. If folks in Wisconsin prevail & do not change their thinking, their internal landscape, all will be for naught."
I couldn't agree with you more.
This is going to be a long sustained fight and whether we are young or old...we have to provide help to those trying to save us all. From the roof tops spotters, to the basements of organizing and from the common kitchen supply lines. We either help each other sustain this battle or we perish and become less that a though on the wind.
Let "them" know ahead of time and they will be fully armored.
The best we can do without putting each individual in harms way is to focus on one institution at a time and withdraw our assets. And keep drumming that beat till the business goes down.
There are still no laws, to break, regarding this method.
Everything else is a major sacrifice to the lone man.
One must be willing to die for one's convictions as the Egyptians clearly understood while breaking laws: There IS a Higher law as Antigone noted--the Law of one's CONSCIENCE where there is no room for timidity. There is a fine line between discretion as the better part of valor and cowardice.
I respectfully disagree. ONLY armed rebellion will ever bring down the capitalist Plutocracy that is Amerikkan government. Peaceful ways simply do not work against the power structure that has this country firmly in hand. Every protest, every march, every rally in the last 10 years has accomplished precisely nothing. They don't even get media coverage. And if occuring during a presidential visit, they are forced to go to a "free speech zone" out of the public and media's eye.
Armed revolution. Yes, deaths and violence will occur. Unfortunately, I feel that is the only way the Plutocracy will ever be overthrown. And Amerikkans will never mobilize in numbers great enough for that to ever be successful, unlike in the Arab Spring. Perhaps someday, in 20-30 years, when Amerikkans are masses of millions of starving and poor and desperate. Perhaps then.
No , not even when the children are dying of disease and hunger.
Because by then it will be happening to every one. No one will remember the days when babies and small children lived and when people lived to past 60.
Death and disease and squalor will be the new normal.
And because it is happening to everyone the masses knows there will be no perceived injustice.
I have no idea what will happen. I really don't :(
Targeting Wall Street is good but why on a Saturday?? Monday would make much more sense: This is the beginning of the end of business as usual. Now for a rallying cry: No to the neoliberal agenda, we will not pay for Wall Street crimes! Or something along that line targeting global capitalism.
Keep this in mind, These people have taken control because they are heartless murderers, they don't care about anything, they are driven by lust. You on the other hand are non violent folks who care about others. Advantage goes to who? If the people managed to put together a large effective demonstration, these bastards have many ways to turn it into a complete debacle. Kent State anyone? Thinking about spending a little time in a FEMA camp? Losing your job? IRS audit? No fly list? Court ordered meds? Big Brother is making a list he's checking it twice going to find out who's naughty, who's nice. Hell is coming to town!
Ewwwww scary! How can you control millions all at once? Oh....I guess put something in the water. Oh....that's right...they have already done that.
Do any of you remember the news articles last year about a new, advanced, non-lethal weapon tested by the US military? Mountetd on the back of a pickup truck, it would generate a microwave beam that would burn anyone in it's target area. Volunteers who "played the role of demonstrators" couldn't take the heat for more than 10 seconds before moving away. Just who do you think that beam was designed to be used against? And that's the non-lethal method. Billyclubs and the Kent State method remain viable options for anyone interrupting "free enterprise." I'm not saying don't go to Wall Street. But I am saying many will be injured and some will die.
Great! Who is adbusters? We need alot more than 20,000 people at Wall Street in NYC and also move on to NBC, CBS, ABC, Faux News and demand their attention and reporting.
I tried to start something last March/April for end of July in NYC Wall Street and Main Street Media and on to DC and K Street. In the millions, or at least 100,000's like in Wisconsin. We need time to plan and make travel arrangements to get that many people in NYC and DC. I for one need to have time to make cheap air travel from West Coast and cheap lodging in these places to be able to make it happen for me and I am sure other people feel the same and we need people from all over this great nation who are hurting but would make the effort and cover that expense to have their voices heard. We need planning time and we need progressive radio pundits to come together as one and advertise 24/7 for three/four months. We need MSNBC and all the blogs to work together. And we need people from the communities all over the US to get it going. Who knows we could get people from Canada and Europe. This is a fight for the people of the world but it did start in NYC, DC, London Stock Market and who owns our stock market now? Isn't it European?
The comments on Common Dreams are the best. I wish you well. Thats about all I can do.
An 80 year old fart
Dear Fart;
Stay strong and stand by. We can still throw rocks and trip em with our walkers and bash em with our canes and don't forget our chihuahuas .
This is pretty cool. About time.
Success is defining what economics is righteous. Cursing the darkness is a notoriously weak definition, a double negative, but it's a bit better than nothing.
So I ask, what is a good corporation? They exist.
Sometimes they're pretty small. A good corporation has other purposes than constant expansion. Also, a number of corporations got big and then their founders sold them out to something that doesn't care.
A good business helps everyone, its customers, its employees, its suppliers, its investors if it has any. A good business has community. A good business is part of its wider community.
A good business has integrity. It doesn't set out cheat people. It doesn't have false-bottom boxes or incredible shrinking food packages, 15 ounces, 14 ounces, on down to microscopic size. A good business is open about its politics. A good business won't pull a u-turn sellout on everyone someday because its by-laws are written down, and that includes the method by which the board of directors is elected.
A good business is audited by an independent third party rating agency. The business practice is transparent.
There's more.
For-Profit Corporations are immoral, evil entities. They shift responsibility froom the owners, and they exist for one purpose, to make profit. When profit is a value above good citizenship, partially defined as respecting the environment and health of the public, it is immoral.
Do you want to get their attention? What they care about is MONEY you have got to hit them where it hurts. Target a date, put the word out nation wide Credit card vacation. If you could reduce credit card revenue by half on a targeted date you would have them quaking in their Gucci loafers.
I love this idea. You can probably get some traction with it by posting it on www.usuncut.org/
Here in WI we are going door to door to inform other citizens what's going on. Our Recall efforts have been enormous and exhausting. My life has been taken over by politics since Feb 14th.
After reading a lot of the posts here I saw some talking violence, it won't work and will put the police who are also "working people" in the position of having to confront protestors. I thought the peaceful protest in WI worked well, had they gotten violent they would have been over very quickly. We got state,national and worldwide attention. We built a movement or many depending on how you look at it, and it's not over. Protests around the State continue, Walker & his cohorts are met with them on a fairly regular basis but efforts have largely moved to the phones and the streets. We're going door to door, talking to people and taking back our government. If I learned anything this year it is the meaning of "All politics are local". People are waking up and that is what we need. The only way to do this is through the Power of the People & one conversation at a time. If protests get violent, it can't be from the protestors, people may get hurt but must stand in nonviolence as in Gandhi's non-violent revolution. Violence against protestors must be matched by the protestors non-violence.
Lack of press coverage could be a problem in NY, but I would think that would be more of an issue in DC. I was there for the Anti-War protest March 15,2003 there were well over 200,000 of us there but no serious media coverage, there was a no fly zone above the protest. What I learned in WI is once people see stuff in the streets and then see what the media is reporting it really wakes them up to how much propaganda is out there, it's very powerful. So provide your own media coverage if necessary lots of cell phones, cameras and some good twitter hashtags. Thank goodness the internet hasn't totally been taken over yet, although these new "location" features on Google etc are a bit of an issue, the internet is still a good tool.
There are a lot of great ideas that came out of the WI protests.Two groups really in the lead were the National Nurses United & AFL-CIO, they are with the us and can mobilize large numbers of people.
For ideas check out
The National Nurses United especially the Main Street Contract ( what to ask for )
http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/affiliates/entry/msc1
AFL-CIO
http://www.aflcio.org/
Possible Mantra's
From WI protests "They got bailed out we got sold out."
National Nurses United "let them eat peas"
Van Jones "Peace and Prosperity Not War and Austerity"
I think educating the public is very important prior to any kind of huge protest to get as much of the public on our side as possible. We need numbers on our side and we need to educate the public to undo the brainwashing Murdoch's Media outlets have been doing. Luckily for us the Brits are again leading the way and taking him and his propaganda empire down. They have been ahead of us on everything. They started UKUncut.org which inspired USuncut.org and the protest against large corporations.
There is a very serious movement worldwide, those at the G8 summits all of these years were right. Obama may just be trying to outmaneuver them trying to prevent throwing the US into even more financial turmoil, time will tell.
AFL-CIO Trumka is proposing using some 10Mil of AFL-CIO pension funds for works projects worth watching
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/JobsandtheU
Check out the peoples budget
http://www.democrats.com/pass-the-peoples-budget?cid=ZGVtczQ5MjA5ZGVtcw%3D%3D
Those behind the Austerity Agenda as I see it
1.ALEC
Republican State legislators & governors are getting their marching orders from a group called ALEC in DC. More information on them can be found here
http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed They provided the Republicans with Model legislation designed to rob the States blind, screw workers and change elections so that Republicans will forever have a lock on the sham elections. It's been going on for years.
2. US Chamber of Commerce
The only thing US about them is the name. Check out an article by Elliot Spitzer on them here http://www.slate.com/id/2232441/
More on the US Chamber of Commerce
http://www.uschamberofsecrets.org/
3. Fox News and the Rupert Murdoch Propaganda machine
Sign petitions, start petitions, twitter, call senators, congressmen, the whitehouse, email, phone, protest, educate, pressure corporations & elected officials to do the right thing, most of all get active.
Hope I was helpful and not preachy, I'm very passionate about what is happening to our country & world and all of the working people. I don't know if I'll be able to get back east ( used to live in PA & NY ) but if not I will be there in spirit and fighting here in WI to take back our State.
In Solidarity,
WI Capitol Slob