Forums:
I strongly support the intent behind the Occupy Movement and in an attempt to help it become an effective agent of change I have jotted down the following ideas to focus discussion and stimulate constructive action.
I considered posting this under Goals but I think it goes well beyond that so I recommend a new thread which shares ideas on the Occupy movement's BIG picture approach and focus.
Sorry it is so long, but hopefully you will find something useful in it.
Rob
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An Approach for the Occupy Movement - Discussion Paper
Submitted by robsurfer (2011-10-23)
Introduction:
The Occupy movement has struck a chord with many by drawing public attention to the insidious accumulation of outrageous amounts of personal wealth and power by a tiny minority of financial speculators and corporate leaders at the public’s expense. To build the momentum necessary to begin fixing this problem it is important for the Occupy movement to continue to build public awareness and support, and to align and motivate its participants’ efforts towards the achievement of a manageable set of agreed common goals.
Lack of focus and coordination will risk most of the movement’s energy being allowed to dissipate in pursuit of too many individually laudable but collectively ineffective initiatives. This will play into the hands of those who profit most from maintaining the status quo.
Proposed Approach:
- Central Problem: Extreme Concentration of Wealth and Power
Focus is needed on the 99% vs 1% issue, i.e. the extreme concentration and disparity of wealth and power which continues to steadily increase over time. This is the BIG problem that mainly stimulated the Occupy movement.
- Primary Goal:
The corresponding BIG goal is the creation of a stable distribution of wealth and power in which concentration is neither “extreme” nor “increasing”. This assumes that disparity of wealth and power is not in itself bad and should be expected to exist in a healthy sustainable society where the 99% are mostly content.
- Key Causes:
To tackle this goal effectively, it is necessary to identify the underlying causes of the Central Problem (potentially a very long list). In particular, they need to be critically reviewed/filtered to arrive at a manageable short list of those “key” underlying causes which are agreed to have the biggest influence (e.g. choose a “top ten” list).
- Transform Causes into Solutions:
For each of the selected “key” causes, review in depth and propose “what needs to change” in order to transform that cause from a major contributor to the “Central Problem” into a major contributor to achieving the “Primary Goal”. These transformations will typically require changes in government policy and/or legislation.
Some Candidate “Key” Causes of Extreme Concentration of Wealth and Power
- Reward the Wealthy:
Any society that rewards people for being wealthy (i.e., that makes it easier for individuals and families who are already wealthy to increase their share of the “Total Wealth” pie), can expect the result to be a steady increase in the overall concentration and disparity of wealth and power. To avoid this happening systemic changes are needed which make it more difficult, not easier, for individuals and families to increase their share of the available wealth as they become wealthier.
The problem can be easily visualised by way of a metaphor. For a given distribution of wealth in society to be stable and sustainable, everyone should find that the path to increased wealth is an upward climb that gets steeper the higher one gets. Thus it is only a matter of time before each climber reaches the point where the path is too steep to proceed further. Overall this natural limit would eventually produce a stable equilibrium (but not equal) distribution of wealth based on ability and effort. In contrast the system that currently exists has the opposite characteristic. It presents the steepest climb to those at the bottom and an increasingly easier climb the higher the climber gets. Those who are furthest along the path find a point where the wealth they have already accumulated overtakes ability and effort as the dominant factor in determining their ability to accumulate further wealth. This positive feedback is probably the most significant underlying cause of the extreme and increasing disparity of wealth that we currently see.
NOTE: Addressing this cause is possibly the Occupy Movement’s greatest challenge. Of course the reasons why it exists are many and complex and need to be further broken down into secondary causes. The mobility of wealth across the globe indicates that success in rectifying this cause will depend on widespread international adoption of systemic change. Perhaps this should be explored as a goal to be pursued by a coordinated campaign involving Occupy movements around the world.
- Corporation as Sociopath
The charter under which corporations are created and operate places shareholder financial profit above all other priorities. Consequently the broader public interest is deemed important only insofar as it is judged (by the CEO and the Board of Directors) to have potential to impact the reputation and profitability of the corporation. We have regulations that constrain corporations (and their CEOs) to behave as sociopathic entities and yet we are surprised when they do so.
This problem has been well described in Joel Bakan’s book “The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power” and the documentary film based on it: “The Corporation” http://www.thecorporation.com/index.cfm?page_id=2. Proposals to address this problem are described in an excellent article by Garth Woodworth in the CCPA Monitor “Putting the Public Interest First” http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/monitor/putting-public-interest-first-part-1.
- Corporate Political Influence:
Corporations have undue influence over our political processes:
- through well paid and, more importantly, well-connected lobbyists,
- through promises and threats involving jobs,
- through corporate donations to political campaigns made directly or even via individual employees.
This problem is much worse in the U.S. than in Canada. There is no more graphic example, however, that illustrates the preferred priority that government policy makers give to corporate interests over ordinary citizens, than the “secret” CETA negotiations between the federal government and the European Union. Not even Parliament is privy to the behind closed doors deal making which, among other things, threatens to privatize control of water.
Action Plan:
If any of the above seems to make sense, I further suggest that the following steps be considered:
- First stimulate Forum discussions around the merits of focussing the Occupy movement’s energies on identifying and tackling the underlying causes that are agreed to be among those most responsible for creating/perpetuating the concentration of wealth and power among a tiny elite (the Central Problem).
- If there is broad support for such an approach, use the Forum to discuss/agree a brief summary description of the approach to be followed (see "Proposed Approach" above as a possible starting point). Bring result to General Assembly for adoption. This should be a living document, periodically reviewed and updated as necessary.
- If an approach similar to the above "Proposed Approach" is adopted, invite submissions (green light) to identify and briefly describe candidates for key underlying causes of the Central Problem.
- Collect the submissions into a single long list and devise/agree/apply a filtering/prioritization process to choose a short list of “key” causes. Agree short listed causes in GA.
- Create a working team(s) of volunteers tasked with proposing, for each “key” cause, “what needs to change” to transform this cause into a solution.
Author’s closing observations
I am under no illusions that the Occupy Movement alone can bring about the societal changes necessary to achieve the above mentioned “Primary Goal”. I do believe, however, that the movement has a golden opportunity to define and focus public attention on the key underlying causes of increasing wealth and power concentration and outline what needs to be done to fix them. Hopefully this will provide the catalyst for increasing public support and act as a call to action to those who have the skills and influence to pick up the challenge and drive the necessary changes. I see this as a long overdue initiative to focus public attention and energy on halting and reversing the trends created by a global economic system that is running rampantly out of control.
Fundamental Flaws
Soumis par John Hansen (non vérifié) le
There are a number of fundamental flaws in your argument. One of is the executives and board of directors act in the best interest of their corporation. The sad fact is they don't. They typically act in their own best interest while espousing they are doing a great job for the shareholder.
These people do not own the company; however many times act as they do by giving themselves large salaries, large bonuses and generous pension plans. They also tend to perform actions which enhance their career at the expense of the company, employees and the shareholders (who are the real owners).
Re: Fundamental Flaws
Soumis par robsurfer le
John,
Thanks for commenting. I assume that by "argument" you are referring to my suggestion that "Corporation as Sociopath" might qualify as a Candidate "Key" Cause of increasing extreme concentration of wealth and power (what I referred to as the "Central Problem").
First let me say that my three examples of Candidate "Key" Causes were mainly provided as real concrete illustrations of what I meant by the term. They are simply examples and are not fundamental to the approach which is the main part of my proposal.
Returning to your specific comment, I did not intend to imply that "...the executives and board of directors act in the best interest of their corporation.". What I was aiming to point out is that regardless of the morality of the individual leaders, the charter under which corporations are created requires shareholder profit to be given far higher priority than the broader public interest. Any altruistic CEO who attempts to reverse that priority will quickly find him/herself out of a job.
I absolutely agree with you that greedy self-interest continues to be a serious problem with many (but not all) corporate leaders and I see that as an additional dimension to, and not in conflict with, the "Corporation as Sociopath" problem that I described.
Rob
Profit is a good thing
Soumis par John Hansen (non vérifié) le
I'll just respond by saying profitable corporations are a good thing. It is good for their customers, employees and shareholders (a large portion of which are pension plans). Also profitability is generally hard to achieve as the market place abhors profit, just like nature abhors a vacuum.
The problems occur when people run the company forget that. They sacrifice long term profitability for this quarter's or this year's earnings. Alternately they use the corporation as they owned it giving themselves perks, high wages and bonuses (Frank Stronach and Conard Black come to mind). They may also act in there own personal self interests, rather than the shareholders self interest - the sale of BRP to family insiders by Bombardier comes to mind.
Also when corporations fail (witness Nortel) it is not pretty for the employees, shareholders, customers or the communities in which they reside.
The common thread is poor corporation governance and in my opinion the very limited shareholder rights. Just think in Canada each province has its own securities regulation. Shareholders have virtually no rights, except to vote out the board of directors. Imagine owning a bank stock, which many pension plans do, but are unable to rein in executive compensation. As a shareholder you just have to accept the good with the bad.
That just for starters. Even worse is Canada's investment community charging 2-3% to run a mutual funds (that many people rely on for their pension income) that generally have a rate of return (before expense charges) equivalent to TSX 100.
Re: Fundamental Flaws
Soumis par Hal Ade (non vérifié) le
Good point on zeroing in on the matter of the executives and board of directors. It took me a while to figure out how the they "giv[e] themselves large salaries, large bonuses and generous pension plans", without the direct permission of the enterprise owners, ie., the shareholders. If we work for ABC Corp. as widget-makers, we have no say in our wage/salary. It's "take it or leave it"; we can resign if we don't like the compensation. If a "revered" executive doesn't like his package, he doesn't have to resign to get his way. He just demands, and gets, more money, often several hundred millions of dollars/annum in bonuses, well into the 1% environment. Because of the legal structure of how corporations are formed, Boards of Directors, whose members themselves are very well-paid just for being board members, tend to "rubber-stamp" pay requests from execs out of fear that the execs will leave for alleged "greener pastures", and the corporation will collapse into a crumbled mess as a result. Other than that, the corporation could collapse anyway. Do we remember a company called "Nortel", and another called "PanAm"? I suggest that BofDs feel powerless at times, but ultimately are held legally responsible for mess-ups. So they tend to let the "tail wag the dog", let the execs run the show, to prevent functional problems.
I can't help feeling, therefore, that laws on corporations have to be completely revamped to close loopholes allowing executives, who are really employees, to control corporations in their own interest only, and this is where the OCCUPY movement comes in.Big corporations, - even if not the largest - often operate transnationally, as with Bombardier, and the wealth concentration in the 1% talked about, may not be in Canada, but the U.S., Brazil, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and even China, even though corporations operating in Canada, play a role in that. So there'd have to be government-to-government negotiations, hopefully viewable by the rank-n-file (that's us) in each country, to ensure fair and common corporate regulations. In that situation, corporations, and the money connected to them, would not be able to run to another country for safe haven. I believe that day will come when the Pope turns Presbyterian.
A solid program
Soumis par John (non vérifié) le
I like your program and way you see things getting done with Occupy. I like that you state important things (like goals) clearly and precisely.
I differ somewhat on approach. I don't put as much stock into our ability to achieve those things through the political process. I think that we need new collectivities through which to organize our economic and social activity, or revitalized and transformed older ones (such as unions, tenants associations, community groups, etc.) outside of the ambit of the state. The capitalist state in Canada (and elsewhere) has tended to follow a certain logic and I find it doubtful that state transformation processes could even be successful, at least as a way of meeting our goals. The past doesn't suggest that it has worked especially well for us. But I see no harm in this kind of thing as a way of moving on an important discussion. There's a lot to agree with in your method, and there are varying levels of demands based upon what degree we're organized to be able to win.
But other than that strategic difference, I'm inspired by this. I'd like to see it get some distribution to people through the info tent or something, maybe along with a reverse sheet of
Performance of the economy and jobs
Soumis par Robert Chisholm le
Reference: http://www.occupyottawa.org/forum-topic/approach-occupy-movement-discussion-paper#comment-562
PERFORMANCE OF THE ECONOMY AND JOBS
Reference: http://www.facebook.com/groups/Occupy.Ottawa
I note that Andy Wilson and Phil McGavin propose to form a Political Action Committee.
When I was at Occupy Ottawa with my display stand last Friday (November 18th) , I met a guy called James Brummel who told me he was on the Coordination Committee and he suggested I get involved with it. That was before I (and presumably James, too) knew anything about Andy Wilson and Phil McGavin’s proposal for a Political Action Committee.
The information on my display stand was partly about corruption in big business (notably at SNC-Lavalin in Montreal, Quebec), the legal profession (notably at the Montreal, Quebec law firm Dunton Rainville), and government (notably the former federal HRDC (now HRSDC) and the Ontario government’s Social Benefits Tribunal. There was also a section in it about the mis-reporting and gross understatements continually appearing in media reports about the unemployment and under-employment problem in Canada, and how most people out of work are being mis-labelled / mis-described as having “….dropped out of the labour force…” or “…given up looking for work…”.
Everything is explained and documented on my web sites at www.exposethismuck.com and www.unempgeninfo.com
I have my own list of proposed objectives for Occupy Ottawa, all of which I consider to be realistic and achievable. There are doubtless many others that should be added to the list, but here’s what I have at present:-
OCCUPY OTTAWA - SOME OBJECTIVES TO PURSUE Nov 2011
1. Persuade the politicians and business community, and government departments, to pay particular attention to:-
1.1. True numbers of full-time jobs needed to make optimal taxpayers out of everybody who wants to work. It’s not just the so-called “official unemployed” who account for only about 1/3 of all those totally out of work and wanting work. And what about adding to this the size of the “under-employment” problem?
1.2. Better methods for reporting in the mass media about unemployment and under-employment. Stop the use of pejorative and un-justified designations of most people out of work as having “given up looking for work”, “dropped out of the labour force”, “weak labour force attachment”, become “discouraged workers”
1.3. Measures to stimulate those industry sectors which drive the economy as a whole, as top priorities, including the professionals and tradespeople who work in these industries. Example: high tech in ottawa. It’s not just the housing industry. We do not want to make the same mistake as the U.S..
1.4. One person out of work equals one lost taxpayer – until that person is back to work. Pay proper attention to the conditions required to make that happen. Pay attention to what this means for the economy when millions (over and above the so-called “official” unemployed) are actually being stopped from working. This is happening because of ignorance and poor attitudes from employers, and dysfunctional rules and regulations. This is a stupid mess – caused by an economy which is actually performing far worse than the usual monthly statistics would suggest - and still nobody is paying proper attention to it.
1.5. Abolish the current federal E.I. – related and provincial social assistance – related rules excluding most people out of work from retraining programs such as the “Ontario Targeted Wage Subsidy” program. Implement the Ontario / federal Labour Market Agreement (effective April 1st 2008) properly.
1.6. Cease and desist from criticising people out of work and in poverty, especially long-term unemployed. Such criticism actually amounts to blaming the people affected for failing to solve a mathematical problem which actually has no solution, because it involves probability, chance and statistics. Therefore the criticism referred to amounts to pure incompetence on the part of the critics.
1.7. Stop the nonsense involving “…lack of Canadian experience…” and such-like as excuses for refusing to hire foreign-trained professionals such as engineers. You are doing it to them because employers are only interested in cheap labour and cheapening people, and you see immigrant professionals as convenient scapegoats for your own incompetence and bigotry founded on popular disinformation.
References: www.exposethismuck.com and www.unempgeninfo.com
economics which might be relevant to your concerns
Soumis par michael (non vérifié) le
if all of a countries debts were paid off, there would be no money in circulation: the money is created AS debt. It does not actually have to be done this way; it simply kind of evolved this way, and there are better systems we COULD use... but the current system still serves a certain powerful minority, that creates money out of nothing, controls who gets those monies as debt created 'loans', and charges interest on this money they are creating (causing inflation which is like a hidden tax on the poor/ everyone else as money devalues) for essentially moving some electronic digits around - something our technology can do pretty well without these 'bankers' and so on taking a cut (A CUT, mind you, a percent, not a FEE) ... and this interest is backed by nothing, forcing SOMEONE to default, and people WITH the money, then take REAL things in exchange for FAKE, ELECTRONICALLY CREATED DEBT MONEY .
Abstracting value as separate from real things makes it 'easier' to use, more 'interchangeable' in some ways, but distances people from the realities of what these numbers are really signifying... part of the current awakening is realizing, and taking responsibility for the consequences of our actions, and MINDFULLY ...'choosing' what we are willing to have, and not have, and what (and who) we are willing to sacrifice, or not sacrifice, in exchange for these things... breaking out of the self delusions we have collectively put ourselves under through things like advertising and a certain self-interested dishonesty getting out of hand... and moving back towards... living in harmony with others around us, and having gratitude for those things we must take from others, including the natural world, and being mindful, living more lightly and being careful upon what and how deeply we allow our footprints to scar the world around us...
part of this is learning how to take care of ourselves, and the ones we care about, in ethical ways, as well...
Imo, at any rate.
"
Some more actions we could take, post-occupation
Soumis par Robert Chisholm le
On the Facebook page, Sébastien Loren TheLàndes talked yesterday about "....the next step...." (assuming the tent camp has to move out of Confederation Park). As we know, it has now (today Tues Nov 22nd 2011) just had to move out.
There would seem to be no problem with holding demonstrations or putting up display stands in Confederation Park and elsewhere, provided that this doesn't entail "camping out" overnight. Besides, if we want to get messages out to the general public, the media, and anyone in authority, there won't be many people around in the wee small hours to see any such displays anyway (except for police, RCMP etc.) .
Here are some other examples of things we could do:-
1. Marches to help expose corruption in big business and certain government departments. I think it would be a good idea to make examples of companies that have perpetrated corruption in business and contrived to cover it up. Ultimately, expunging corruption is partly about exposing the individual persons responsible for it. I would say this applies to Montreal, Quebec, more than anywhere else in Canada. I am sure there are many other individual corruption victims who would also like to expose the people responsible for it, especially if there is a record of attempts to cover-up and refusal by the media to investigate and report.
2. When individual persons have been clearly identified as parties to corruption in big business, the legal profession and government, undertake direct actions to have them forced out of their jobs. One of the ways to do this would be to issue a complaint to their professional association (for instance the Barreau du Quebec and other professional licensing bodies) on grounds such as un-professional conduct and Charter of Rights and Freedoms violations . Another way would be to put their names on a blacklist - with details of their professional occupations and why they are being blacklisted - on a public web site. For obvious reasons, such action must be backed by solid documentation in order to forestall any attempts at vexatious / frivolous libel lawsuits. They must also be told that their names will stay on the blacklist until they change their behaviours or take action to expunge any corruption that they have been responsible for. If they are removed from the blacklist, a notice should be posted for a limited time giving the details of why they are being taken off the blacklist (e.g. because they have apologised for their actions, paid out compensation to the corruption victim, etc.) The same will apply to individual persons (such as lawyers and bureaucrats) who, by their actions, indicate that they intend to be parties to ongoing corruption and refuse or neglect to heed warnings about the possible consequences for their reputations and careers.
3. Press for out-of-court compensation for individuals who have been victims of corruption in big business, the legal profession and government. It should be remembered that lawyers and bureaucrats like to go to court - or force a corruption victim to go to court - so that the said lawyers and bureaucrats can force the corruption victim who has no money to get legal help when the corruption victim cannot afford it (e.g. by reason of being unemployed). This is fact is a violation of Charter rights concerning equality before the law. Company executives also like to feed money to lawyers for the same purpose.
The other reason the said lawyers and bureaucrats do this is so that they can say "...it's before the courts so we cannot comment..." in response to any media enquiries, or some such - with the intention of exploiting the legal system and the courts to perpetrate endless delays for frivolous reasons and other forms of corruption and then cover it up. Anyone responsible for such action should also be considered as a candidate for exposure and public blacklisting for un-professional conduct - because such actions also constitute violations of Charter rights concerning equality before the law and right to life and security of the person.
4. The above does not constitute a complete list of possible qctions. Other people will have additional ideas.
Northern Communities -- let's take action.
Soumis par Sandra Murdock le
Re. comment by Sandra Murdock
Soumis par Robert Chisholm le
I'm not living in one of these communities so I'm not fully acquainted with all the challenges and possible solutions, though like everybody I have some knowledge of what's going on from TV news reports and so on..
Personally I agree that something serious needs to be done. To start with, it requires some fundamental thinking about these communities in terms of the requiirements for them to be economically self-sustaining. Not a simple task, but this has to be done before solutions can be worked out..
"Grass Roots?" Communities
Soumis par Hal Ade (non vérifié) le
Thanks for your comments, Sandra.
There'd have to be one or more communities like the Lanark Eco-Village near the Village of Lanark, but not necessarily an eco-village type, or based on pseudo-religious beliefs. As you said, it has to be economical, and that means doing a lot, with less use of fossil fuels, and other resources. For the Lanark Eco-Village, proposals from members and would-be members included one or more heavily thermally-insulated large log residential buildings using natural materials, a large multi-purpose living/common room with exercise corner, music and other arts and presentation facilities, a large kitchen with high-efficiency wood stove, a wood-lot or land to grow bio-mass fuel, private living quarters, including "loo", for sanity, office, library, workshop/lab etc.
I've been trying to do what I can to get a list of as many OCCUPY-Ottawa participants as possible, including email addresses and phone numbers. That makes communications doable.
The following is part of an email I sent to some of the folks I met after the teach-in in the theatre of Southam Hall, Carleton U. on Nov. 17th:
"Jacques [Demers], I'm sorry I didn't write back earlier in answer to your [(Jacque's)] email.
I've been stewing about the whole accomodation problem for OCCUPY-Ottawa as
to what we could do after the movement moves out of Confederation Park. If
we're going to rent a room somewhere for an office, we'll have to get some
"bucks" together. Alternatively, as a temporary measure, one of us can
volunteer a corner of his home as an office - mostly email stuff - just for
an organizational address ( I know nothing about forming a formal
organization, but I'm sure some of the folks at the Nov. 17th meeting can so
advise). For example, small organizations, with mostly voluteers, use
peoples' homes for HQs. For larger accomodation for infrequent assemblies
etc., Ottawa Community Centres' rental rates are reasonable, and Carleton or
Ottawa U. might be able to rent space. There are also church basements and
parish halls, and Legion and union halls. Rents are often very affordable if
we tell the owners of our "good-heart" intentions." I wish there were women in the group I met.
The above could get us going. It might be called a sort of extra-parliamentary political party - a centre-left to left political action committee - but it's absolutely essential that there'd be a central-type place for daily communications in and out and for democratic meetings. Of course, we'd be communicating with the OCCUPY movements throughout the world as well, sharing ideas for policies such as health care and education - anything to break away from the grip of the private corporations, like Citi-Bank and GE.
I'll leave it at that for now, but please get in touch with me, if you'd like. I think a bunch of us can do an awful lot through brainstorming.
For a better world,
Hal Ade
Gatineau (Aylmer), QC
FreeEnergy@vif.com
Re. Hal Ade's comment about "Grass Roots?" communities
Soumis par Robert Chisholm le
There are some good ideas exposed here concerning the Lanark Eco-Village which might be applicable to other communities. Ultimately everything depends on economics and how remote Northern communities consisting of First Nations people may sustain themselves; this of course will at least partly involve "traditional" First Nations living based on trapping and fishing as a means to get food. At the same time these communities need the means to "trade", through providing goods and services that the rest of Canada needs, in order to raise the money to pay for essentials such as clean drinking water, satisfactory housing, satisfactory sanitation and other things.
Regarding the question of "accommodation" for Occupy Ottawa, it seems to me that the first essential item is a regular indoor meeting place for General Assemblies. Meetings at the Fountain in Confederation Park were and are all very well when the weather was / is / satisfactory - but in winter it will simply be too cold, apart from other factors. It is all the more important to resolve this when you consider the possibility of having speakers / presenters from outside the Occupy Ottawa Movement and these are potentially people who could help with solving the underyling problems that gave rise to the whole Occupy movement in general and Occupy Ottawa in particular. In that respect, last night's General Assermbly at the University of Ottawa was a good start.
Contact me
Soumis par Guest22 (non vérifié) le
This is interesting. Contact me at 99declarationcanada@gmail.com. I'm working at finding consensus amongst protesters and doing research into the major issues right now.
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