Secular Café: The Occupy Movement - a year later

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The Occupy Movement - a year later Nov 20th 2012, 20:48 One Year After the Occupation | BillMoyers.com Despite its failure to continue to camp out in city parks, the Occupy activists have continued to be active. Strike Debt! Debt Resistance for the 99% - it has "The Debt Resistors' Operations Manual" and the Rolling Jubilee project: Quote: We buy debt for pennies on the dollar, but instead of collecting it, we abolish it. We cannot buy specific individuals' debt—instead, we help liberate debtors at random through a campaign of mutual support, good will, and collective refusal. The site states that this project has raised $368,248 to abolish $7,373,377 of debt, a factor of 20 more. The Occupy Sandy effort. Where were all the super-generous rich Republican donors like the Koch brothers? Occupy Our Homes - anti-foreclosure effort Occupy the Courts - We the People, Not We the Corporations | Move to Amend From the site's FAQ file: Quote: What is "Corporate Personhood"? There are two conceptions of "corporate personhood". The first simply bestows upon corporations the ability to engage in many legal actions (e.g. enter into contracts, sue, be sued, etc). This is widely accepted and we do not object to this. However, "corporate personhood" also commonly refers to the Supreme Court-created precedent of corporations enjoying constitutional rights that were intended solely for human beings. We believe this form of "corporate personhood" corrupts our Constitution and must be corrected by amending the Constitution. Neither the Declaration of Independence nor the Constitution ever mention corporations. But thanks to decades of rulings by Justices who molded the law to favor elite interests, corporations today are granted so-called "rights" that empower them to deny citizens the right to full self-governance. That file then mentions a proposed Constitutional amendment abolishing corporate personhood: Quote: The rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons only. Artificial entities, such as corporations, limited liability companies, and other entities, established by the laws of any State, the United States, or any foreign state shall have no rights under this Constitution and are subject to regulation by the People, through Federal, State, or local law. The privileges of artificial entities shall be determined by the People, through Federal, State, or local law, and shall not be construed to be inherent or inalienable. OccuCopy - "This worker-owned cooperative provides products and services for the Occupy Wall Street movement and the 99 percent." The Occupy Labor Alliance is of several workers' rights activist groups. The Occupy Cooperative is "a one-person, one-vote coop that aims to develop low-cost, comprehensive financial services and products that will be available to everyone." Occupy the SEC Quote: Occupy the SEC submitted a 325 page letter to the SEC, FDIC, the Federal Reserve and the OCC, to comment on the notice of proposed rulemaking for the Volcker Rule. In our comment letter, we answered 244 out of 395 questions asked by the Agencies. The Agencies involved in the Volcker rulemaking process have an historic opportunity to redress many of the economic wrongs of the past, and create a future that privileges the interests of the many rather than the few. We ask that the Agencies vigorously implement the considerable responsibilities that have been discharged to them by Congress, remain faithful to the statute's intent and consider the comments contained in this letter.

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