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What demands should the Occupy Canada movement focus on?
October 5, 2011 - 1:03pm
What demands should the Occupy Canada Movement focus on? Please post your suggestions!
-Exclusion of First Nations people from society
-Exclusion of racialized people, immigrants and offspring from society
-Corruption in Canadian politics
3 ideas for now! Obviously you can get much more specific with these issues and cite plenty of examples..
changes to the economic system/free trade deals/etc
FN rights
more democratic political system
environmental justice/tar sands
Afghanistan/military
Renegotiate free trade deals
Please include youth issues..
Well, I think they are all youth issues, women's issues, native issues, etc.
Free Trade for example, in relation to youth issues. It used to be in the olden days that a student could get a very lucrative summer job in a factory. Surely, the loss of these manufacturing jobs has added to the burden of student debt, has it not?
I would agree that Free Trade with nations that have radically different environmental, labour and human rights laws has got to be reversed.
I think a lot of the credit issues could be solved with one stone by tying the rate of usury to the prime rate in such a way that it allows credit, but not so much that it leads to the many abuses we see today.
Anti-trust laws like the U.S. used to have.
Endorsing the old Kent Commission on media ownership. Break up the media conglomerates.
Corruption: everyone has to be subject to the law, and beneath the law. No more special people who are above the law.
A limit to the size of corporations.
That corporations are not "persons".
An end to "lobbying".
There is a temptation to get very specific. I think Occupy Wall Street or Occupy Bay Street should demand things that create a new frame work so people in various identity politics sectors can attain the justice they seek. I don't think it will succeed if demands start to specifically address all our societal ills at once.
It's not a way to achieve our ends. It's a way to achieve our beginings.
How about demanding that wages, pensions, employment insurance, social assistance, workers compensation, disability benefits and anything else that I might have missed be indexed to the average increases in salary and bonuses for the top ten CEO's in this country. Oh...and make them retroactive for let's say...the last thirty years.
And how about writing off the massive student debt while they're at it.
I personally disagree with making Free Trade the main focus. Although it can of course be criticized, it's only one part of the oppression faced by working people in our society.. this is a new movement with a fresh feeling and we shouldn't just come up with the same slogans as in Quebec City 10 years ago.
Demand a new, completely open and accountable government. "Democracy, not Corporatocracy!" as they say. However, demands, marches and protests are a waste of time if they're ignored. It's time to get serious.
Our federal gov't, like others, has long been in thrall to corporate interests such that democracy no longer exists; the system itself is broken, the resulting governments sociopathic. Voting is useless - doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result is called insanity. The Harper Gov't, with its majority from a minority of support, is proving that quickly as they pursue the raping of our national resources for short-term profit at the expense of our children's future. Humanity may go extinct within the next 100 years from an unprecedented rapidly changing climate, with unbridled burning of fossil fuels the sole cause; yet the Harper regime is actively pursuing complete tarsands development, sure to create the worst-case climate-change scenario. No reasonable, sane Canadian wants this. The Harper regime must fall now, as must any gov't globally not working hard for a livable future. Action must be taken to thwart the daily functioning of our governments until we are heard. There are many great thinkers with ideas on no-growth human-scale economies, and how to form societies in balance with our environment - their ideas must become common knowledge among Canadians. Our nation is ignorant of alternative ways of living well, addicted to a destructive daily existence, relying on corrupt governments to deal with important issues, and corrupt media to keep them enlightened. Canada needs some tough-love to get it back on the right track. This is a revolution. It's happening globally, increasing daily. Free-market unlimited-growth capitalism is ending, unable to cope with a finite world. We can either work to make a better world now, or watch everything we hold dear dissolve to chaos anyway.
The most effective way to mobilize the greatest number of people for a protest is to pick a single issue that they can agree on, like "Make the rich pay for their own financial crisis, not the rest of us."
The more you try to turn it into a shopping list of grievances, the more you will restrict the range of people who will actively support it, for two main reasons: First, because not everyone agrees on every issue, and second, because foolish people will find excuses to stand on the sidelines and whine because their particular concern is not being placed front and centre by the organizers.
That's not to say that individuals and groups should be discouraged from bringing their own particular slogans and demands to the Occupy Canada protests - quite the contrary. But the focus and appeal of the Occupy Canada movement organizers (which is what I assume Krystalline is asking about) should be a single issue that has broad appeal among the working class.
OUT OF LIBYA! OUT OF AFGHANISTAN! OUT OF NATO! NOW!
I agree, the program and demands should be worked out by the participants, I think a lot of people out there are learning great organizing skills by doing this. Always a good sign to say things being laid out for the future. Let's hope they come up with something new and fresh. "The 99%" from Occupy Wall Streeters is pretty good. Let's not turn towards old left cliches. I've seen Trots already coming up with their textbook slogans that they think the occupations need to become "legitimate" in their eyes. I hope the protesters avoid this.
Toronto Star business reporter Dana Flavelle provides background to this thread topic:
Lift the Corporate Veil - Make the Rich INDIVIDUALS Pay for Their Own Mistakes
Unless the Occupy Canada thing can move to economic action the government is not going to notice.
- Move money from big banks to credit unions
- Boycott 'top 500' companies. Only shop at local businesses.
- Divestiture from equity markets (i.e. sell your stocks)
- Pay off your debts
- Stop working, and do not take jobs of people who have stopped working...
i like the 11 'one demands' that Occupy Wall Street made on September 22
here's what they were/are, and some analysis: http://wilderside.wordpress.com/2011/09/22/occupy-wall-street-finally-re...the only one that might not really fit in Canada is the 'ending American imperialism'
Immediate withdrawl of all government intervention in Indigenous politics, removal of the Indian Act, return of all crown land to Indigenous peoples.
Immediate establishment of delegation mechanisms between ridings and MPs. So that MPs are no longer trustees, but are required to carry the democratic mandates of their constitutents, which are decided in mass democratic decision making processes.
Repeal of NAFTA, especially the provisions on Energy.
Immediate suspension of the the extraction and processing of bitumen in the Tar Sands.
Immediate forgiveness of all student debt and a completely switch from loans to bursaries.
Immediate withdrawl and suspension of covert support from operations in Libya, Afganistan, Haiti, Iraq.
Immediate anti-scab legislation
Immediate decriminalization of solidarity strikes
guaranteed income for all
Immediate suspension of canadian mining company operations outside the borders of canada through the freezing of assets
Where do you imagine credit unions keep their money?
Not at today's prices, thanks very much!
Why not just have done with it and call for mass hunger strikes?
- Free Education
To improve society as a whole and to ensure that the standard of living will rise each year offer education to everyone for free. Use the model of education already in the works in Europe, more specifically France.
Source: Sicko
- Free Basic Needs of Humanity
Make food, water, shelter a free commodity that every human being on the face of the planet needs! This will remove poverty almost single handedly. It has been proven that men, women, and children alike benefit intellectually and physically when the basic needs are met. The way to make this happen is through different types of sustainable agriculture, for example, vertical farming, greenhouse growth, etc.
Source: The Venus Project
there is nothing more that I wish to see than just these two alone being achieved. This will both give people a promising future, and a healthy lifestyle.
Gosh, everybody's got such great radical demands for us to march in the streets on!
Funny how double standards work, though: When babblers suggest these as policy positions for NDP conventions to adopt, they get laughed out of babble as some kind of ultra-leftist crackpots with no sense of political reality!
I'd really like to see the Tar Sands as a major issue, or at least represented. I'd like to see the ad campaigns for the tar sands taken off air, they seem so victorious and confident, while lying, or simply not telling the public of that actual impacts on the tar sands, and rarely if ever are activists allowed their opinion on any sort of major new source deemed by the public as influential. But not just the media campaigns with the tar sands, the actual tar sands themselves. While I understand deconstructing the tar sands projects right away would be near impossible and unrealistic, certain steps can be made towards the progression, i.e. tax foreign oil companies that want to produce the sand far more than it's worth extracting, per barrel, and force them out of our country. Environmental laws, which I'm not 100% studied up on, but I feel they should apply here, and that they aren't being taken seriously at all. I'm certain there's laws which the oil companies have broken, and I'd like to see them held accountable, even things such as the thousands of ducks that have been trapped by the tar sands and drown in oil -- and that's just one species plight, there's many other animals around the area suffering because their eco system is being destroyed. The native population situated around the tar sands have been endangered as well, not only culturally but health-wise, as the continued development of the tar sands has seen an increase in cancer, and other diseases in the native communities.
I think if we follow some of theses ideas, and work towards shutting the tar sands down, it can be done. Cut the losses, put the profit into "greener" more sustainable forms of energy. I'm sure there's even ways to continue extracting the oil with a less damaging methodolgy, i'm not the person to ask, i'm not an environmental student nor an engineer, but someone out there will have ideas and methods. I'm just a concerned human being.
by the way, this is just one issue, and an environmental one at that, there's many others, such as the closure of youth shelters across canada and soup kitchens, the fall in crime rate, yet the continued media blitzkrieg of violence, and the opening of new jails all across canada.. is this to suggest they are to be filled? What about the omnibus crime bill just silently passed by the government.. just my two cents.
Some additions to my list:
Immediate status for all "illegal" migrants
Complete parity of on the job conditions and rights for non-status workers
Immediate establshment of citizen oversight of the police, without police or former officers.
Immediate end to police investigating police
immediate ban on taser use
removal of the plus 1 use of force mandate
removal of vagrancy laws and the criminalization of pan handling
immediate squatters rights
Right to gender reassignment surgery without gate-keeper doctors
free medical mental and physical health treatment for all including dental
Enshrine right to choose (reproductive justice in constitution)
Free and socialized 24 hour day care for every child
EI overhall to allow more flexibility for workers and better income
2 years of parental leave for each parent with full income
Guaranteed full pension at 55 - with right to work until mentally and physically unable
In my opinion, from the limited research I have done there is no real tangible purpose for politics. Worrying about who is going to win an election next term is obsurd, especially when they accomplish nothing but plunging the country into more debt and fighting wars that have nothing to do with us. Politics is an arena of hyena's that laugh and lie to make their way to the top. I hold no grudge agianst those who go in with meaning and motivation to change things, but when they betray the will of the people they all become scum.
I also agree with Free Education, though I don't think it could be done right away, we could certainly take steps forward to making it possible... first off, I would guess to freeze the current education rates at where they are, perhaps we could start taxing the larger companies who make more profit more money, and take that money towards education... i think a more literate society leads to a more democratic society... i would also suggest prioritizing where tax dollars go... criminal laws for drug use could be lessened.. not to turn this into a "marijuana legalization" debate, but stopping mandatory rehab for students and other repeat "offenders" of smoking herb could help too... perhaps cease the war on drugs by taking steps towards decriminalization and "harm reduction" as opposed to jail-time, rehabiliation, etc...
i would also like to see transit systems improved, and more money put into them so that people can afford to actually use the transit systems. they play a vital role in society, i.e. getting people too and from work.. and therefore should be prioritized along with some of the other great ideas people have posted on here ..
Here in manitoba the Grassroots of the NDP has passed a call for anti-scab/replacement worker legislation since 1978. Including every year of the last decade and no NDP government has ever made it a reality for us here provincially. So, how can we possibly expect the NDP to represent these issues for us. That's the whole point of Occupy(ed) Canada, that its not about voting or parties, its about forcing whomever is in power to deal with the popular demands of citizens for a safe, fair, equal and sustainable future for all peoples, and people.
Governments and parties never provide those things, people and peoples fight for those things. Through blood, sweat, and tears. It happens in the workplaces, homes, and social spheres of our life, as we struggle to take them back one by one, and bring mass democracy to all the spheres of our life. So we have equal control, power, and responsibility for our lives. To be self-determining as an individual and a people.
That's where I come from when I fight. I'd rather see you at the barricades than the convention floor, compa. Because the working class and our allies have a chance at the barricades. Not in parliament as its currently configured.
As far as i am concerned this movement needs to target that top one percent, that is what makes this global, that is the connection to the rest of the protests around the world, please please go to ohcanadathemovie.com, watch it for free, its an hour and a half long and very dummed down for people like me, but extremely imformative.
Please people, fellow canadians, demand number one needs to be to get rid of the private bank influence and inflitration of our government, our ancestors warned us and we failed to listen this video explains it, you owe it to your children, i know it is a tough concept to grasp, but it needs to be done, if we fail this part than the rest of the demands are completely useless!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
End to corporate limited liability, to be changed to complete liability.
Rescind corporate recognition as "natural persons".
Significant tax levy imposed on large (>25Million) inheritance.
Significant increase in income tax levied on corporations and the top tier of wealth.
Banks nationalized. No more speculation on foreign debts...
Disallow speculation in the housing/real-estate market.
Above just a few of the dream possibliites, but all are moot and null and void because the 1% will not accomodate any of them.
The event on Bay Street starting this October 15th will work only to draw attention to the growing dis-ease but will not and can not bring about any solutions. The only solution is in our own withdrawal and refusal to participate in the system: Examples:
Shop only for NEEDS. Destroy your credit cards.
Commune with your neighbours, share resources, cut down on reliance to the grid (hydro, oil, tel-com, agribusiness, etc.)
Make space in your life for pleasure and time with friends and family. Contribute less to the general labour pool that makes suffering go around.
Cash in your RRSP's--they are fueling misery in the world. Share the wealth.
Volunteer.
Quit the car. Ride a bike. Get in shape. Meet your friends in parks and go for runs together.
ETC.
See you on Bay Street. Please ask all your friends to come out--representation from all walks of life are required to make this effort worthwhile.
Don't expect it to be SCARY...no--it will be FUN and LIGHT and more like a CARNIVAL than a PROTEST.
If anyone tells you there will be a riot ask them to shut up and keep their dreaded miserable imagination to themselves.
:-)
dont let the political partys highjack y=this movement, deep into the party the yreally do not care about us, it's true, we have been duped.
an immediate stop to any move to further deregulate the banking industry
stop the XL pipeline now
hold a national referendum regarding continuing the mining of the tar sands within 6 months, grant veto power to affected Native groups to negate this vote (we can arrive at this process at a later date)
nationalize our petroleum industry, so we can assure that Canadians benefit equally from our bespoiling our land.
demand a move to proportional representation in our parliament
immediately end corporate tax cuts- ensure that VP's and above including CEO's are taxed at source as are the rest of us, at a rate that reflects on the benefits they gain by living here.
an immediate apology be made to natives for having stolen their land- and we embark on open and real discussion as to how to compensate for this theft.
a rollback to tuition fees, and a guarantee that any who wish, and qualify may attend university without bankrupting their future.
a statement of intent- that the people and government of Canada are committed to bringing peace to the world, and henceforth will provide peacekeeping forces only. unless in defence against an invasion on our soil
knowing how important to the growth of our culture immigration has been, we will reopen our doors.
we will reinstate all funding to women's groups and reaffirm our belief in equality,
we will pass a national day care plan, and anti child poverty law- no child should be living in poverty in this country.
we will ensure that Natives along with anything mentioned above will be given a true place at the core of our governance- be this a third house- or a parallel senate- neither of which will ever be elected....
Don't assume Canada as a country/state has a legal or ethical right to exist. Most treaties are actually the opposite of what your propose, the negotiations were a discussion of how settlers could join Indigenous society, not natives join our society. Fundamental decolonization needs to make sure the integration goes the approproate way.
I think we should call attention to North American Integration/the NAU.
Talk about how they're harmonizing security along the border, erecting fences, NAFTA superhighways, deeper integration between Canada/US/Mexico, single currency, etc.
And how they seem to be going about it in the name of business/banking/security/etc with little/no input of the Canadian people.