As many doubts as I have about Occupy Wall Street, this is a solid list of demands.

[CynicalIdealist]

https://occupywallst.org/article/a-message-from-occupied-wall-street-day-five/
This is the fifth communiqué from the 99 percent. We are occupying Wall Street.

On September 21st, 2011, Troy Davis, an innocent man, was murdered by the state of Georgia. Troy Davis was one of the 99 percent.

Ending capital punishment is our one demand.

On September 21st, 2011, the richest 400 Americans owned more wealth than half of the country's population.

Ending wealth inequality is our one demand.

On September 21st, 2011, four of our members were arrested on baseless charges.

Ending police intimidation is our one demand.

On September 21st, 2011, we determined that Yahoo lied about occupywallst.org being in spam filters.

Ending corporate censorship is our one demand.

On September 21st, 2011, roughly eighty percent of Americans thought the country was on the wrong track.

Ending the modern gilded age is our one demand.

On September 21st, 2011, roughly 15% of Americans approved of the job Congress was doing.

Ending political corruption is our one demand.

On September 21st, 2011, roughly one sixth of Americans did not have work.

Ending joblessness is our one demand.

On September 21st, 2011, roughly one sixth of America lived in poverty.

Ending poverty is our one demand.

On September 21st, 2011, roughly fifty million Americans were without health insurance.

Ending health-profiteering is our one demand.

On September 21st, 2011, America had military bases in around one hundred and thirty out of one hundred and sixty-five countries.

Ending American imperialism is our one demand.

On September 21st, 2011, America was at war with the world.

Ending war is our one demand.

On September 21st, 2011, we stood in solidarity with Madrid, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Madison, Toronto, London, Athens, Sydney, Stuttgart, Tokyo, Milan, Amsterdam, Algiers, Tel Aviv, Portland and Chicago. Soon we will stand with Phoenix, Montreal, Cleveland and Atlanta. We're still here. We are growing. We intend to stay until we see movements toward real change in our country and the world.

You have fought all the wars. You have worked for all the bosses. You have wandered over all the countries. Have you harvested the fruits of your labors, the price of your victories? Does the past comfort you? Does the present smile on you? Does the future promise you anything? Have you found a piece of land where you can live like a human being and die like a human being? On these questions, on this argument, and on this theme, the struggle for existence, the people will speak. Join us.

We speak as one. All of our decisions, from our choice to march on Wall Street to our decision to continue occupying Liberty Square, were decided through a consensus based process by the group, for the group.




However, Doug Henwood of Left Business Observer makes a good point about how much the New Left is obsessed with "ethics." http://lbo-news.com/2011/09/29/the-occupy-wall-street-non-agenda/


I have to admit that my interest in the movement has increased though. Maybe it's a nothing but a kneejerk healthy optimistic reaction to the fact that something is happening rather than nothing, but I guess we'll have to see where this movement takes us.


For one thing, it definitely needs a bigger working class base.
(http://lbo-news.com/2011/09/29/the-occupy-wall-street-non-agenda/)

[Rocky Rococo]

I want them to ignore an old beaten down, cynical, seen too many years of defeat and too many rearguard defensive battles guy like me. I want them to start fresh, even if that means covering my eyes and ears at the occasional naive or wrong-headed course. If they continue to mature and develop over the next couple of months as they have over the past couple weeks, I'll have no problem standing with them and behind them, my mouth shut but my shoulder to the wheel.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

How many people are still in Wall Street?

[RED DAVE]

How many people are still in Wall Street?As of yesterday, the permanent occupying force was about 400. But during the day, you'll find anywhere between two and five thousand people there (estimates I got from friends).

It's more popular than Ground Zero, which is about a block away.

RED DAVE

[RadioRaheem84]

The should've just condensed all those demands by demanding an end to capitalism.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

That's a greater number than I expected, tbh.

[aty]

The should've just condensed all those demands by demanding an end to capitalism.
Not the smartest thing to do right away in America. It is much smarter just to build a movement and spread ideas that are anti-capitalist so the movement eventually transforms into a direct anti-capitalist movement, without it ever being said out loud.

[RadioRaheem84]

The movement seems more anti-corruption and anti-"corporate capitalism" to me.

[Sensible Socialist]

As much as a like to see a list of demands like that coming from a protest movement that I originally believed wouldn't succeed, some of the demands seem to be more in the abstract than concrete goals. "Ending wealth inequality" wouldn't be possible under capitalism, unless they favor every person receiving the same wage (I doubt they do). I understand the sentiment, but these aren't things that can be realistically fought for. Hopefully the movement can morph into one single demand: abolish capitalism, replace it with socialism.

[RED DAVE]

The movement seems more anti-corruption and anti-"corporate capitalism" to me.This is true, but at this very early stage in the game, this is to be expected.

RED DAVE

[Welshy]

The movement seems more anti-corruption and anti-"corporate capitalism" to me.

I think it varies from place to place. My university just had a walk out and we went to the place that will be occupied and had an open mic and the speakers were pretty anti-capitalists and there was only one or two that were outright advocating the small business buy local bs. But like RED DAVE said it's still early on and if there is no one their advocating revolutionary/socialist politics, then we only have ourselves to blame for not speaking up.

[RadioRaheem84]

I am giving this movement the benefit of the doubt. I know in the States being anti-capitalist is a sure fire way to lose credibility from the get-go. Which explains why public intellectuals like Chomsky and David Harvey aren't anti-capitalist when interviewed by mainstream media.

[Sensible Socialist]

Has anyone from Revleft been down to the protests? I'm meaning to get down there within the month, but I'd like to know if anyone here has been trying to see if there is a major anti-capitalist sentiment, or if not, trying to spread the message.

[aty]

We are not just inspired by what happened in the Arab Spring recently, we are students of the Situationist movement. Those are the people who gave birth to what many people think was the first global revolution back in 1968 when some uprisings in Paris suddenly inspired uprisings all over the world. All of a sudden universities and cities were exploding. This was done by a small group of people, the Situationists, who were like the philosophical backbone of the movement. One of the key guys was Guy Debord, who wrote The Society of The Spectacle. The idea is that if you have a very powerful meme — a very powerful idea — and the moment is ripe, then that is enough to ignite a revolution. This is the background that we come out of.

1968 was more of a cultural kind of revolution. This time I think it’s much more serious. We’re in an economic crisis, an ecological crisis, living in a sort of apocalyptic world, and the young people realize they don’t really have a viable future to look forward to. This movement that’s beginning now could well be the second global revolution that we’ve been dreaming about for the last half a century.

http://politics.salon.com/2011/10/04/adbusters_occupy_wall_st/singleton/

[Welshy]

Has anyone from Revleft been down to the protests? I'm meaning to get down there within the month, but I'd like to know if anyone here has been trying to see if there is a major anti-capitalist sentiment, or if not, trying to spread the message.

My town is having one, I'm going to create a thread about it after the first general assembly tonight.

[OHumanista]

I think its a very important movement, we shouldn't dismiss it. At an initial stage of development and in a brainwashed country like the US one can only expect them to be the way there at the moment.
And yet standing by their side and helping them see things as they are would be very good. We should bring them closer to us not shun them away into the arms of libertarianism(right wing) and reformism.
Of course it isn't easy but...how easy it is to create mass movements and revolutions? :D

[Tabarnack]

I want them to ignore an old beaten down, cynical, seen too many years of defeat and too many rearguard defensive battles guy like me. I want them to start fresh, even if that means covering my eyes and ears at the occasional naive or wrong-headed course. If they continue to mature and develop over the next couple of months as they have over the past couple weeks, I'll have no problem standing with them and behind them, my mouth shut but my shoulder to the wheel.

This is the best post I have read so far on the occupation, it seems everybody wants to push their own agenda, this from people who initially ridiculed the protesters as being naive and uninformed or insisting that this movement would never amount to anything, now everybody wants to join in and impose their views, from Ron Paul libertarians to Marxist Leninist, what arrogance!!!

Let's give these people our support but let's also refrain from trying to lead them around, they know better than we do what needs to be done.

[Delenda Carthago]

The should've just condensed all those demands by demanding an end to capitalism.

There is no need for that right now.

[Dzerzhinsky's Ghost]

Why not "we seek to end capitalism"? I see and have seen a lot of the protestors dancing around the elephant in the room, as it were, all this talk of greed, corrupt corporations, etc. etc. but no out right address of the fundamental issue; capitalism.

[CAleftist]

Why not "we seek to end capitalism"? I see and have seen a lot of the protestors dancing around the elephant in the room, as it were, all this talk of greed, corrupt corporations, etc. etc. but no out right address of the fundamental issue; capitalism.

That will happen in due time, don't worry.

[RadioRaheem84]

I guess it has to start off as a liberal complaint but it will turn into a radical struggle.

At this point social democracy is revolutionary.

[Comrade Funk]

I'm gaining hope for this protest. It seems to be a nice mix of leftists who are against the evils of Wall Street. Progressives, social democrats, socialists, and even some anarchists. Sure, it's not the most radical thing out there, but it's a start. With unions joining in on the protest, it could actually ignite into something bigger then expected. Even CNN is covering it now.

The LAST thing 'Occupy Wall Street' should do is accept support from the Democrats. No one wants this to become a liberal Tea Party except Obama and the idiots over at the Democratic Party.

[Dzerzhinsky's Ghost]

That will happen in due time, don't worry.

One can only hope, more media coverage and the allying of both big Unions and Anonymous seems to be a good sign. I am planing to attend one of the Occupy protests nearest me if I can, see what's really going on, "on the ground."

[Aspiring Humanist]

Enough with this bourgeois bullshit how about we demand abolition of private capital and abolition of the state

[Tabarnack]

Declaration of the Occupation of New York City

By
This document was accepted by the NYC General Assembly on September 29, 2011, with minor updates made on October 1, 2011. It is the first official, collective statement of the protesters in Zuccotti Park.
As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.
As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.


They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one's skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.
They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*

To the people of the world,
We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.
Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.
To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.
Join us and make your voices heard!

[Fawkes]

Enough with this bourgeois bullshit how about we demand abolition of private capital and abolition of the state

We're workin on it, buddy