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mindatrisk
18th November 2013, 20:12
Hello :) This is my first post. I've come here looking for support as I develop a civil disobedience campaign against the banks. Here is my (in progress) campaign manifesto. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thank you. :)


Global Civil Disobedience Campaign Against the Banks

The vast and various ills and evils of the banks do not need an introduction from me. Instead, I will begin by stating that these vast and various ills and evils demand from us the most urgent and decisive action possible. As such, I am planning a global campaign of co-ordinated and unified civil disobedience designed for the highest ambition… the end of our current banking system.

Quite simply, the extensive suffering caused by the banks is utterly unnecessary. It does not need to be this way. Humanity has the means, the resources, and the collective will for every human being on this planet to live in material security - no poverty, no lack, no deprivation ever again. We can create a financial system that is fair, transparent, and that serves the best interests of all of humanity, not just an elite few.

This is very ambitious, but it can work, and it will work, if we do the work. Now is the time. Enough is enough. This is just about as good a plan as is possible to end the current corrupted banking system once and for all, but it needs YOU, your passion, your inspiration, your energies, and your conviction. We are humanity. We are capable of anything. And we can do this with ease. Please read on.

The Power of Civil Disobedience

The primary function of civil disobedience is:

1. To empower the public by demonstrating that effective action against corrupt institutes is possible.
2. To disempower corrupt institutes by demonstrating that we can and will take action, that we are not afraid to take action, and that we have the means and the will to continue to take action until our objectives are achieved.

Our Aims and Objectives

Our aim is simple… A financial system that is fair, transparent, and that serves the best interests of all of humanity.

This will be achieved by utilising civil disobedience to get the attention and support of the global public so that we can provide a platform for experts (monetary reformers etc.) to: (make the platform bit clearer)

1. Increase the publics awareness and understanding of the current financial systems.
2. Stimulate a global discussion about the future of the current financial systems culminating in a global referendum.
3. Collectively develop a new financial system that is fair, transparent, and that serves the best interests of all of humanity.

The Act of Civil Disobedience

For an act of civil disobedience to be effective it must be a simple and repeatable act that is performed in front of a large audience of supporters. The power of civil disobedience is not in the act itself, but in the potential for the act to be repeated en masse. The act of civil disobedience that I am proposing is this:

1. Make an application to your bank for the maximum overdraft for your bank account.
2. Once received, move your money into another account - a credit union, for example - so that your bank account balance is zero.
3. Donate the total of your overdraft - £1000, for example - to Rolling Jubilee, who will use the money to buy debt and then write it off, or to a charity of your choice.
4. Go over your overdraft limit by the minimum amount required to incur bank charges - you now have their attention.
5. Refuse to pay the bank charges and stop funding the account so that the charges accumulate.

Empowering the Public

The above is a simple act that can be repeated - with variations - by most people around the world. It is an act that will demonstrate just how much power the public has. As an isolated act performed in private it would be insignificant, but the act will be revolutionary when performed publicly en masse to a large audience of support.

Disempowering the Banks

It is vital that our strategies utterly disempower the banks, leaving them with no option but to work with us towards achieving our aims. At first, the banks will feel compelled to take the strongest action possible to discourage others from repeating the act of civil disobedience. We should encourage them to do so by pushing for the severest punishment possible. This will serve the dual purpose of drawing more attention (public and media) towards the campaign, and by willingly taking the severest punishment possible we will remove any threat that the banks have, thus encouraging more and more people to repeat the act of civil disobedience. The banks will be left with the impossible task of taking action against ever increasing numbers of people. At this point the banks will be powerless. Simple!

Is this really possible?

Yes! The key here is strength in numbers… we need numbers, and no action will be taken until we have those numbers. Fortunately, there are already countless activists around the world working on this very issue, and countless others who would support the campaign. All we need to do is to get this campaign to as many of these people as is possible.

Think about this… Would 100,000 people performing this act of civil disobedience for the whole world to see give us enough influence and leverage to achieve our aims and objectives? Hell, yeah! Can the banks take meaningful action against 100,000 people who have the support of millions and millions of others around the world? Nope! So, the question is not whether this is possible or not - because it simply is - but whether we can get 100,000 (or more) to support this campaign, and if so, how will we get them?

This Can Work!

Are you committed to this? Will you share this with everyone that you think will be interested? If so, then this will ripple out and become massive in no time. With every supporter we gain it becomes that much easier for others to support the campaign, and that much harder for the banks to take action against us. The more hot people we can get then the more the warm people will feel encouraged to join, and the more warm people we have on board then the safer it will feel for the cold people to be involved, and very quickly we have a global support base of millions easily.

We have incredible resources available to us. We have vast social media networks that allow us to connect with millions. We have passionate alternative media sources with large, dedicated audiences. We have amazing people already working tirelessly to bring about monetary reform (this if for you). But, most importantly of all, we have a world population that is already utterly sick and tired of the current banking system. The time is NOW. Together, we can do this.

Plan of Action

1. Build an audience.
2. Perform act of civil disobedience.
3. ….

How You Can Help

* Commit to the campaign and share it with everyone and anyone you think will be interested.
* Think of creative ways to connect with the public, to get their attention, to capture their imagination, to empower them, and to motivate them.
* Offer whatever skills and resources that you have that will help.
* Share your ideas… How can we make this campaign more effective?
* Finally, be positive, believe in yourself, believe in the goodness of humanity, believe in our future, be an example of an empowered, passionate and caring human being.

Contact Me

My name is Richard. I live in the UK. You can email me on [email protected]

Thank you.

Alonso Quijano
18th November 2013, 21:53
You won't win without global support, and you won't get global support without crisis.

The most urgent action is spreading Communism to the Greek public.

Banks are not the problem, Capitalism is the problem.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

Canada
19th November 2013, 00:18
You're asking people to destroy their ability to transact in the modern financial system. Nobody of any importance to the well being of the banks is going to ruin their credit without a very clear objective.

What would a fair, transparent banking system in the service of all humanity look like?

mindatrisk
19th November 2013, 11:10
You're asking people to destroy their ability to transact in the modern financial system. Nobody of any importance to the well being of the banks is going to ruin their credit without a very clear objective.

What would a fair, transparent banking system in the service of all humanity look like?

I personally don't know. There are a lot of people out there who have ideas and who are working towards them, but they don't have anywhere near the platform to be heard. The purpose of the civil disobedience was not just to disrupt the banks but to create publicity that would provide a platform for alternative views to be heard. Having a very clear objective is quite difficult because how can one person (or even a group) decide what a global financial system should look like? I think outlining certain themes such as fairness and transparency provide helpful guidelines to the development of a new system. Of course, it would be no simple undertaking, but can we continue with our current system?

The people I am asking to take action - or to at least support the campaign initially - are those who already have the awareness and the passion and the willingness to forsake their own personal well-being for the greater good. I know that there are a few of those people out-there, but i'm not sure how many.

Two Buck Chuck
19th November 2013, 17:40
I was hoping this sort of thing died with Occupy.

Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages
19th November 2013, 18:11
This would be fine as a mass action but you're not going to get that. Instead your dedicated core of however many people will just be committing financial suicide with nothing to show for it. Every few years you see a campaign for people to renounce their citizenship to protest a government action, and I always wonder what happens to the probably 5 or 10 fools that follow through with it. Any movement that asks for that level of sacrifice from their individual members is doomed to failure from the start and honestly a little suspect.

Canada
19th November 2013, 19:20
I personally don't know. There are a lot of people out there who have ideas and who are working towards them, but they don't have anywhere near the platform to be heard.

Can you name any of these people?



The purpose of the civil disobedience was not just to disrupt the banks but to create publicity that would provide a platform for alternative views to be heard.


The most likely result of your suggestion is:

Strict controls on electronic transfers to such charities are implemented and popular recipients such as Rolling Jubilee forced to return most of the money.

Anyone who associates with you to advocate changes in monetary policy or banking regulation is discredited. Their ideas are tainted by association with fraud.



Having a very clear objective is quite difficult because how can one person (or even a group) decide what a global financial system should look like?


Yes, it is very difficult. The current ruling class has been working on it for hundreds of years. The usual method is having national governments confer the privilege of creating money while enact laws requiring everyone to accept it and prohibiting any competition. Many wars have been and continue to be waged over it.



I think outlining certain themes such as fairness and transparency provide helpful guidelines to the development of a new system. Of course, it would be no simple undertaking, but can we continue with our current system?


But what does fairness and transparency actually mean? With all due respect, you might as well just waive your hands in the air and babble something about hope and change.

Why exactly is the current system unfair? Where is it lacking in transparency? What do you propose to do about it, or if you don't know, who should we look to for answers?

The Garbage Disposal Unit
19th November 2013, 20:24
My thought is that this wouldn't make a very good campaign in-and-of-itself, since, as mentioned above, the odds of organizing mass bank fraud is slim unless it is part of a wider strategy.

That said, I think there are lots of valuable strategic uses for large amounts of money, however it is obtained. So, you know, if you and five of your friends were to pull off something in this vein in order to fund a particular strategic project or projects, it could be very useful.

You may be familiar with Enric Duran (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enric_Duran) - I think his example is instructive.

Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages
19th November 2013, 20:42
That's cool and everything but as Canada pointed out, any legit charity will be forced to return money connected with a criminal act, and based on what the charity is, could be made to be a scapegoat by the state. Based on which country you live in, it may also be a really bad idea to advocate this kind of action on a public message board. It's one thing to recruit people to abandon banks en masse, but its another thing to recruit for intentional fraud. Just some things to keep in mind.

Canada
20th November 2013, 02:58
You may be familiar with Enric Duran - I think his example is instructive.

This is the first I've heard of him. Very interesting.

Ocean Seal
20th November 2013, 03:46
1. Make an application to your bank for the maximum overdraft for your bank account.

Ok


2. Once received, move your money into another account - a credit union, for example - so that your bank account balance is zero.
Ok


3. Donate the total of your overdraft - £1000, for example - to Rolling Jubilee, who will use the money to buy debt and then write it off, or to a charity of your choice.

Like the £1000of debt that I just acquired?



4. Go over your overdraft limit by the minimum amount required to incur bank charges - you now have their attention.

Hmm...



5. Refuse to pay the bank charges and stop funding the account so that the charges accumulate.
If everyone refuses to pay the bank what's the point to donating the money to a charity that buys debt?

Also are you going to pay for the shit that they repo from me when they get the chance?

argeiphontes
20th November 2013, 07:58
If you'd like to disempower the banks, you'll have to build a movement to create alternative institutions that invest in worthwhile social investment, like the Mondragon Bank (http://www.ncb.coop/default.aspx?id=5248). If you don't have the support or expertise, perhaps you can join a local organization, or work toward creating your own.

100K people withdrawing $1000 will be a drop in the bucket for the banks and will result in charges of bank fraud, imprisonment, blacklisting (er, bad credit reports), and the other consequences mentioned by the other posters.

I'm not sure what you mean by transparency, but banks are already under the oversight of governments, though enforcement is certainly lax. If governments step up regulation of banks, it won't change the structural nature of investment or development because they will still be working within the system.

In the meantime, get your emotional fix by listening to Twice Thou (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phh6Ea8t9eQ) :)

RedWaves
21st November 2013, 00:46
So what is your solution without the banks?

Gold standard? Silver?

It won't work. The banks are not the problem, it's capitalism.

Logical seal
21st November 2013, 01:16
Really well made comrade, You be a great intellectual of the left in no time.