What are the five most important things being requested by the "Occupy Wall Street" protesters?

[LoZoccolo]

[Joe the Revelator]

1. I would like to know this as well

[MichiganVote]

2. Um..the right to protest peacefully minus tear gas and bogus arrests?

[Bluenorthwest]

3. Don't worry, only two of their requests mention you by name....

nt

[Cant trust em]

11. hahaha! nt

[SidDithers]

4. More free pizza?...nt

Sid

[pintobean]

24. Hold the meat.

[SidDithers]

26. Damn, you're right...

"More free vegan pizza?" would have been a much better reply

:hi:

Sid

[Union Scribe]

5. Here I thought you might be posting something informative

or telling us how to support the protesters. Stupid me!

[leftstreet]

7. lol same here

I actually thought he was going to post a link for us

[fascisthunter]

9. no just more anti-populist bullshit

to marginalize the protester's efforts in the eyes of readers.

[truedelphi]

6. Here are several things mentioned by "the BloodyCrossroads"

Website:

"There’s no reason why thousands of people shouldn’t be here with us right now, as this country is reeling from 1) staggering unemployment, 2) mass poverty, 3) a broken health care system that leaves tens of thousands to die for lack of coverage, and 4) unprecedented concentration of wealth and power. It’s a matter of getting the word out and making people understand why Occupy Wall Street is the most important thing to happen in America in a long time, perhaps even more so than the Wisconsin strikes. Wisconsin, as inspiring and important as it was, centered upon a specific issue—collective bargaining rights and the corporate assault on unions; Occupy Wall Street revolves around much broader issues, primarily the very notion of democracy itself."

I put in the numbers, and it tallies to FOUR.

But I am not in the loop as much as I should be.

If you want to hear about Number Five - IMHO it ought to be to "de-personhood" corporations, and get their damn tens of millions of dollars out of electoral politics. otherwise we don't really have electoral politics - we have an oligarchy, with public policy going to the Corporations who put up the most money.

[msanthrope]

8. Yes. But how are they doing anything about those things? nt

[truedelphi]

17. A very great article written by one of our own at DU explains it

For all of us:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=2000898&mesg_id=2000898

About how the purpose of protesters is to bring attention to issues, rather than out and out change things overnight.

Well worth the read.

[msanthrope]

10. The Larouchies always have a pamphlet or two for you to read--as for the rest of them,

I suppose you could read the signs.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

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[fascisthunter]

13. Why 5, why not a zillion?

Do you have a problem with the effort to point out that Wall Street is mainly responsible for our current situation economically, politically and socially? DO you work on Wall Street? Is this an effort to marginalize the PERCEPTION of the protesters? It looks like it is...

[dkf]

16. We have an economy built on bubbles and consumption.

I guess if you think Wall Street is to blame for that then this makes sense.

Personally I think government incentivizes the wrong things.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[leftstreet]

19. Working class people are to blame for high unemployment and low wages?

who knew

[dkf]

28. Obviously not.

The working class isn't even in the government's equation as far as I can see.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

22. Wall Street is a crapshoot, integrally interwoven into our financial system...

And it benefits the mega-rich.

[TBF]

31. What do you think the government out to incentivize?

I'll wait while you go check Rush's website for your answer.

[lunatica]

15. Why do you keep asking for information you can easily find yourself?

Google is your friend.

[gateley]

27. So is DU, and many of us prefer to get our info here, but thanks

for the reminder.

[lunatica]

30. Sure it is unless you post just to argue about every answer you get

There's a difference between wanting information sincerely, and just pretending to want it just to argue against every response. Most DUers are also not stupid, but I'm sure you know that.

[Leopolds Ghost]

20. Didn't a "concerned" DUer just post three threads asking the same question?

Well actually, I shouldn't be so suspicious. I figure you're just taking him up on his question, since he asked it in another thread (and got a bunch of replies) but was dissatisfied because the requests were not NUMBERED from 1-10 with 1 being "AWESOME" and 10 being "Sure, Why Not?"

[loyalsister]

21. I would like to know, too

I have not seen a coherent statement of goals. It would also be smart to have realistic solutions to offer.

[Admiral Loinpresser]

23. My understanding is that a democratic debate process

in the OWS General Assembly is trying to address that very question. It may take a while to distill that message, but the occupation is intended to continue for months. Hopefully the occupiers will be more efficient in their deliberations than Congress, which has no coherent message other than dismantling the New Deal (e.g. 10% reduction in Medicare benefits to nursing homes begins next week). Here are my suggestions:

1)too big to fail equals too big to exist-- The rationale for surrendering hundreds of billions in aid to Wall Street was that not to do so would have resulted in incredible shock waves to the world economy. I don't believe the DOJ or Congress has done anything significant in anti-trust actions or otherwise to reduce the size and power of these extortionists. The people should demand that Wall Street participate in a re-structuring program so that no individual company is too big to fail. This could result in more competition and more choice and freedom for consumers and potentially avert further extortion;

2) robust regulation of derivatives and other speculative financial instruments which led to the collapse-- Once again, I don't believe the DOJ or Congress has taken significant action. The people should demand that Wall Street participate in a voluntary compliance regime, monitored by economists, on financial instrument regulation;

3) Re-negotiation and relief for distressed mortgage holders;

4) Voluntary compliance with Glass-Steagall until its re-enactment by Congress; and

5) An apology to the American people for the Wall Street actions leading to the putative need for the bailout.

These remedies could be formalized in a settlement agreement which would include an arbitration clause for alleged violations of the agreement by signatory corporations.

Of course, the big boys will not agree to such conditions or any proposal which addresses the corruption and mismanagement. Why should they? They're winning. That is why we need to occupy Wall Street.

Caveat: I did no research in posting this, so if anyone has contrary information on DOJ or Congress regarding points 1 and 2, I would love to be pleasantly surprised.

[truedelphi]

32. Excellent point: If you added a few links to support your theories

(And I am very sure that there are many links that would support them) I'd love to see it as a separate topic.

[City Lights]

25. What are the five most important things being requested by the "Occupy Wall Street" protesters?

[ZombieHorde]

29. You don't understand what you are witnessing. This article may help you...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/sep/25/occupy-wall-street-protest