There are the formal demands of the “revolutionaries.” Then, there are the demands of those camped out in Zuccotti Park in the middle of the night on Day Three.
Some on the Left are apparently noticing the noticeable absence of labor unions. Clearly, they do not realize that unions have hundreds of billions of dollars in union pensions wrapped up in the very *evil* capitalistic system the protesters want to tear down. As a result, overthrowing the oppressors of Wall St. is not something that the union bosses want to have done. Rather, the most effective solution to union bosses is the ability to infiltrate corporate boardrooms from the inside (see Wall St. Reform).
That said, following the arrests of several protesters earlier on Monday, the campers in Zuccotti park settled in for the night to have a (presumably) ‘People’s Assembly’ where they practiced repeating the speakers and issuing their stated goals.
Watch the first three minutes of the video below and you can listen to the group’s ‘informal goals,’ including the “deprivatization of everything.”
- Irony Alert: You must tolerate the “evil” advertisements from the #CorporateMachine in order to watch the #GlobalRevolution
…and they say Communism is dead. Well, perhaps the traditional usage of the term Communism is wrong. Perhaps it’s more of a …neo-Communism, and these are Neo-Coms.
Here are the formal ‘demands’ of the #occupywallst protesters:
We need to retake the freedom that has been stolen from the people, altogether.
- If you agree that freedom is the right to communicate, to live, to be, to go, to love, to do what you will without the impositions of others, then you might be one of us.
- If you agree that a person is entitled to the sweat of their brows, that being talented at management should not entitle others to act like overseers and overlords, that all workers should have the right to engage in decisions, democratically, then you might be one of us.
- If you agree that freedom for some is not the same as freedom for all, and that freedom for all is the only true freedom, then you might be one of us.
- If you agree that power is not right, that life trumps property, then you might be one of us.
- If you agree that state and corporation are merely two sides of the same oppressive power structure, if you realize how media distorts things to preserve it, how it pits the people against the people to remain in power, then you might be one of us.
And so we call on people to act
- We call for protests to remain active in the cities. Those already there, to grow, to organize, to raise consciousnesses, for those cities where there are no protests, for protests to organize and disrupt the system.
- We call for workers to not only strike, but seize their workplaces collectively, and to organize them democratically. We call for students and teachers to act together, to teach democracy, not merely the teachers to the students, but the students to the teachers. To seize the classrooms and free minds together.
- We call for the unemployed to volunteer, to learn, to teach, to use what skills they have to support themselves as part of the revolting people as a community.
- We call for the organization of people’s assemblies in every city, every public square, every township.
- We call for the seizure and use of abandoned buildings, of abandoned land, of every property seized and abandoned by speculators, for the people, for every group that will organize them.
We call for a revolution of the mind as well as the body politic.
Don’t laugh. They’re serious.
Although, as one acquaintance stated: “Wake me up when they have guns.”
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“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776
Related: #OccupyWallSt: Just A Saturday Stroll Through The Park…
They are young idealists that would be squashed by all sides. They need to grow up and get out of the entitled mindset. Work your way up as we all have, even if it means doing a job your schooling choice did not prepare you for.
I guess they didn’t read their own demands, or decided to ignore them. If “a person is entitled to the sweat of their brows” [I think they meant “entitled to the fruit of their labor–who would want their own sweat?], then how does that square with “seizing” workplaces that others have “sweated” to build? The “workers” merely have employment there; the owners have risked their capital there. No one is entitled to assume ownership of others’ property. Would the “workers” care to cede their furniture to others less well off than they? I’ll just bet.
John and Jack… spot on.
for me, this is the hippie revolution’s deja vu all over again, but without the flowers and with a mass of really badly educated participants.
they just don’t get it, and maybe never will. so sad.