The 99% Declaration

[ВАЛТЕР]

http://occupyphilly.org/99declaration/

21 Demands of the 99 percent.

IDK if this is the whole movements demands or what. However, this is from the occupy movement in Philadelphia.

[Yazman]

It's pretty strong language given the context it's occurring in (American culture) but I have to say that this last part is absolutely laughable:



BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that IF the PETITION OF GRIEVANCES approved by the 870 Delegates of the NATIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY in consultation with the PEOPLE, is not acted upon within a reasonable time and to the satisfaction of the Delegates of the NATIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY, said Delegates shall utilize the grassroots network established in the election of the NATIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY to organize a new INDEPENDENT POLITICAL PARTY to run candidates for every available Congressional seat in the mid-term election of 2014 and again in 2016 until all vestiges of the existing corrupt corporatocracy have been eradicated through the power of the ballot box.


If we don't get what we want, we'll make a new party and run candidates! Doesn't ever work.

The rest is alright though.

[ZeroNowhere]

It's pretty strong language given the context it's occurring in (American culture) but I have to say that this last part is absolutely laughable:
Hey, did you hear of the 19th Century Chartist movement? Absolutely hilarious, I tell ya.

[Die Neue Zeit]

Hey, did you hear of the 19th Century Chartist movement? Absolutely hilarious, I tell ya.

Well, lots of posters here are dissing the pre-WWI SPD too.

[Yazman]

Hey, did you hear of the 19th Century Chartist movement? Absolutely hilarious, I tell ya.

I don't know why you posted this. I support the Occupy movement, but I don't give uncritical support to anything, and in this particular case I have no idea how you could think that "we'll form another party and try to get seats in congress" is a viable tactic given the political history and situation in the US. Third party candidates virtually never get elected to the federal government of the US and it's not for a lack of trying on the part of third parties.

Die Neue Zeit: I wasn't "dissing" the movement. It astounds me that people could get so butthurt when I gave a simple criticism of the reformist element in the Occupy movement, particularly when I stated I think most of the document is fine:


The rest is alright though.

I will never unconditionally or uncritically support any political movement. Critical thinking doesn't just mean "only criticising things you don't support"

[Die Neue Zeit]

^^^ I offered more constructive criticism in the other thread regarding the fuller scope of political activity and political action (http://www.revleft.com/vb/occupation-political-party-t165177/index.html?p=2308222) (spoilage, civil disobedience, etc.).

[A Marxist Historian]

http://occupyphilly.org/99declaration/

21 Demands of the 99 percent.

IDK if this is the whole movements demands or what. However, this is from the occupy movement in Philadelphia.

Which has been the right wing of OWS nationwide, of the bigger occupations, famous for its cooperative attitude to local authorities, which did not resist in the least when dispersed.

As for the demand list, an utterly reformist list that would go nowhere in Oakland, the most obvious thing to say about it is that any demand list coming from the city of Philadelphia that doesn't call for freeing Mumia Abu-Jamal is crap.

-M.H.-

[A Marxist Historian]

Hey, did you hear of the 19th Century Chartist movement? Absolutely hilarious, I tell ya.

The 19th Century Chartist movement was a movement of, by and for the English working class. It was not a movement of "the 99%."

As workers then actually did have a demographic majority in England, the only fully industrialized country on earth, dominating the world market, the Chartist leaders believed that if everyone got to vote, the workers would rule, as the Chartist leaders, whom the overwhelming majority of the working class followed, would be elected to office and set about dismantling capitalism. Marx was personally quite close to the leader of the left wing of the Chartists, and was hoping as late as the mid 1850s that his friends would come to power in England through a violent revolution.

And the English ruling class agreed, so it fought the Chartists tooth and nail, not granting universal suffrage until Chartism was long gone. You had a Navy, but you didn't have much of an army or a police force back then, and whether the sailors could have been used to keep the workers in line is open to question, as they were used to oppressing foreigners and not their fellow Englishmen. And were very poorly paid and viciously exploited themselves.

Times have changed since the 1840s. An updated version of Chartism for the 21st century is a non-starter, now that the state is not feeble as back then, but a Leviathan striding the globe.

The Chartists could have wiped their asses with the British bobbies. OWS is in no position to defeat the NYPD or the LAPD, not to speak of the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Seals, etc. etc. etc.

-jh-