Where Does Occupy Wall Street Go From Here?

by Michael Moore


November 22, 2011

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/where-does-occupy-wall-street-go-here

This past weekend I participated in a four-hour meeting of
Occupy Wall Street activists whose job it is to come up with
the vision and goals of the movement. It was attended by 40+
people and the discussion was both inspiring and
invigorating. Here is what we ended up proposing as the
movement's "vision statement" to the General Assembly of
Occupy Wall Street:

We Envision: [1] a truly free, democratic, and just society;
[2] where we, the people, come together and solve our
problems by consensus; [3] where people are encouraged to
take personal and collective responsibility and participate
in decision making; [4] where we learn to live in harmony
and embrace principles of toleration and respect for
diversity and the differing views of others; [5] where we
secure the civil and human rights of all from violation by
tyrannical forces and unjust governments; [6] where
political and economic institutions work to benefit all, not
just the privileged few; [7] where we provide full and free
education to everyone, not merely to get jobs but to grow
and flourish as human beings; [8] where we value human needs
over monetary gain, to ensure decent standards of living
without which effective democracy is impossible; [9] where
we work together to protect the global environment to ensure
that future generations will have safe and clean air, water
and food supplies, and will be able to enjoy the beauty and
bounty of nature that past generations have enjoyed.

The next step will be to develop a specific list of goals
and demands. As one of the millions of people who are
participating in the Occupy Wall Street movement, I would
like to respectfully offer my suggestions of what we can all
get behind now to wrestle the control of our country out of
the hands of the 1% and place it squarely with the 99%
majority.

Here is what I will propose to the General Assembly of
Occupy Wall Street:

10 Things We Want A Proposal for Occupy Wall Street
Submitted by Michael Moore

1. Eradicate the Bush tax cuts for the rich and
institute new taxes on the wealthiest Americans and on
corporations, including a tax on all trading on Wall
Street (where they currently pay 0%).

2. Assess a penalty tax on any corporation that moves
American jobs to other countries when that company is
already making profits in America. Our jobs are the most
important national treasure and they cannot be removed
from the country simply because someone wants to make
more money.

3. Require that all Americans pay the same Social
Security tax on all of their earnings (normally, the
middle class pays about 6% of their income to Social
Security; someone making $1 million a year pays about
0.6% (or 90% less than the average person). This law
would simply make the rich pay what everyone else pays.

4. Reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act, placing serious
regulations on how business is conducted by Wall Street
and the banks.

5. Investigate the Crash of 2008, and bring to justice
those who committed any crimes.

6. Reorder our nation's spending priorities (including
the ending of all foreign wars and their cost of over $2
billion a week). This will re-open libraries, reinstate
band and art and civics classes in our schools, fix our
roads and bridges and infrastructure, wire the entire
country for 21st century internet, and support
scientific research that improves our lives.

7. Join the rest of the free world and create a single-
payer, free and universal health care system that covers
all Americans all of the time.

8. Immediately reduce carbon emissions that are
destroying the planet and discover ways to live without
the oil that will be depleted and gone by the end of
this century.

9. Require corporations with more than 10,000 employees
to restructure their board of directors so that 50% of
its members are elected by the company's workers. We can
never have a real democracy as long as most people have
no say in what happens at the place they spend most of
their time: their job. (For any U.S. businesspeople
freaking out at this idea because you think workers
can't run a successful company: Germany has a law like
this and it has helped to make Germany the world's
leading manufacturing exporter.)

10. We, the people, must pass three constitutional
amendments that will go a long way toward fixing the
core problems we now have. These include:

a) A constitutional amendment that fixes our broken
electoral system by 1) completely removing campaign
contributions from the political process; 2)
requiring all elections to be publicly financed; 3)
moving election day to the weekend to increase voter
turnout; 4) making all Americans registered voters
at the moment of their birth; 5) banning
computerized voting and requiring that all elections
take place on paper ballots.

b) A constitutional amendment declaring that
corporations are not people and do not have the
constitutional rights of citizens. This amendment
should also state that the interests of the general
public and society must always come before the
interests of corporations.

c) A constitutional amendment that will act as a
"second bill of rights" as proposed by President
Franklin D. Roosevelt: that every American has a
human right to employment, to health care, to a free
and full education, to breathe clean air, drink
clean water and eat safe food, and to be cared for
with dignity and respect in their old age.

Let me know what you think. Occupy Wall Street enjoys the
support of millions. It is a movement that cannot be
stopped. Become part of it by sharing your thoughts with me
or online (at OccupyWallSt.org). Get involved in (or start!)
your own local Occupy movement. Make some noise. You don't
have to pitch a tent in lower Manhattan to be an Occupier.
You are one just by saying you are. This movement has no
singular leader or spokesperson; every participant is a
leader in their neighborhood, their school, their place of
work. Each of you is a spokesperson to those whom you
encounter. There are no dues to pay, no permission to seek
in order to create an action.

We are but ten weeks old, yet we have already changed the
national conversation. This is our moment, the one we've
been hoping for, waiting for. If it's going to happen it has
to happen now. Don't sit this one out. This is the real
deal. This is it.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!