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99 Percent Declaration
Website logo and
Washington State Route 99 road sign
CreatedOctober 7, 2011[1]
RatifiedOctober 15, 2011[2] The email added, "This matter was not submitted or agreed upon by the NYC general assembly, and therefore by-passed the process all OWS plans have been made through."[2]
Locationthe99declaration.org
Author(s)Occupy Wall Street Demands Working Group[3]
PurposeTo convene a national general assembly to petition for the redress of twenty suggested grievances and amend the United States Constitution[4]

The 99 Percent Declaration or 99% Declaration is an unofficial political document including a list of suggested grievances on which its organizers have been trying to get Occupy Wall Street protesters to form consensus.[5] It calls for a United States General Assembly on July 4, 2012 in Philadelphia to support public works programs, tax hikes on the wealthiest, debt forgiveness, ways to get money out of politics, and amendment of the U.S. Constitution.[4][3][6] The Declaration says the Assembly would operate like the Committees of Correspondence of the Founding Fathers of the United States who met in Philadelphia.[7]

The protesters' slogan "We are the 99%," refers to income inequality in the United States. The wealthiest 1% control about 40% of the total wealth of the country and their incomes increased 275% from 1979 to 2007.[8][9][10][11][12] Since 1979, average pre-tax income for the bottom 90% of households decreased by $900, while that of the top 1% increased by over $700,000, as federal taxation became less progressive.[12][13]

Occupy movement protesters have joined the call for a constitutional amendment.[14][15][16][17] On November 1, 2011, Senator Tom Udall introduced a constitutional amendment to reform campaign finance.[18]

Document

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Although unofficial, it calls for a national general assembly to represent the 435 congressional districts to gather on July 4, 2012, for the purpose of assembling a list of grievances and solutions. The draft list overlaps a proposal by Robert Reich to support public works programs, tax increases, debt forgiveness, and ways to get money out of politics.[4] A National General Assembly idea comes from the Demands Working Group, a protester committee designated at one of the General Assembly meetings in Zuccotti Park. The plan includes elections by direct vote of two delegates from the Congressional Districts. These delegates will vote on a list of grievances at an assembly in Philadelphia. After forming, the group launched a website and published the list online, but the plans have not been backed by the OWS movement in New York or completely accepted nationaly.[3][6] The Declaration says the Assembly would operate like the Committees of Correspondence of the Founding Fathers of the United States who met in Philadelphia.[7]

Suggested grievances

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There are twenty sections in Part IV of the 99 Percent Declaration, the "Suggested Content of the Petition for a Redress of Grievances" includes: (1) a ban on private contributions from individuals, corporations, political action committees, super political action committees, lobbyists, unions, et al. to politicians in federal office, replaced by, "fair, equal and total public financing of all federal political campaigns."

Also included are demands for: (2) overturning the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case, "even if it requires a constitutional amendment"; (3) elimination of private contributions to politicians (see 1); (4) Term limits for the House of Representatives to no more than four two-year terms; two six-year terms for the Senate; (5) complete reformation of the United States Tax Code into a progressive, graduated income tax by "eliminating loopholes, unfair tax breaks, exemptions and deductions, subsidies (e.g. oil, gas and farm) and ending all other methods of evading taxes."

Occupy Wall Street at Washington Square Park (David Shankbone, 2011)

Further goals and solutions include (6) "Medicare for All," a single-payer health care system; (7) Environmental Protection Agency regulations empowering them to shut down corporations, businesses or any entities which, and to criminally prosecute individuals who, intentionally or recklessly damage the environment; caps on greenhouse gas emissions; and implementation of new and existing programs to transition away from fossil fuels to renewable or carbon neutral sources of energy; (8) reduction of the national debt to a sustainable percentage of GDP by 2020; (9) a comprehensive job and training act such as the American Jobs Act to repair infrastructure in conjunction with a new Works Progress Administration or Civilian Conservation Corps program; (10) student loan debt relief forgiveness; (11) Enactment of the DREAM Act with comprehensive immigration and border security reform, "including offering visas, lawful permanent resident status and citizenship."

The suggested grievances continue: (12) recalling military personnel at non-essential bases; refocusing national defense goals to address 21st century threats such as terrorism; and limiting the large scale deployment of the military–industrial complex; (13) reforming public education by, "mandating new educational goals to train the American public to perform jobs in a 21st century economy, particularly in the areas of technology and green energy. Eliminating tenure in favor of merit performance and paying our teachers a competitive salary"; (14) reducing outsourcing by business tax incentives to locate and hire locally.

(15) reduce currency intervention; (16) reenactment of the Glass-Steagall Act; a transaction tax on stock and financial transactions; uniform limits on ATM and debit card fees; ending the $4 billion/year "hedge fund loophole" permitting evasion of taxes by treating income as capital gains; (17) a housing foreclosure moratorium; requiring the Federal Reserve Bank to buy underwater and foreclosed mortgages, e.g.,[19] refinanced at 1% or less; (18) a non-partisan congressional commission to audit and investigate the Federal Reserve, empowered to replace it with the U.S. Treasury; (19) abolition of the U.S. electoral college in favor of the popular vote in presidential elections (see also instant-runoff voting); (20) ending the war in Afghanistan with an immediate withdrawal of all combat troops, and veteran job training and placement.[1]

Graph showing changes in US real income in top 1%, middle 60%, and bottom 20% from 1979 through 2007.[20]

Background

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The protesters' slogan "We are the 99%," refers to income inequality in the United States. The wealthiest 1% control about 40% of the total wealth of the country and their incomes increased 275% from 1979 to 2007.[8][9][10][11][12] Since 1979, average pre-tax income for the bottom 90% of households decreased by $900, while that of the top 1% increased by over $700,000, as federal taxation became less progressive.[12][13]

The New York City General Assembly, is the main governing body of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which began as an advertised demonstration asking "What is our one Demand". Initially the NYGA adopted a "Declaration of the Occupation of New York City", listing grievances. However, two break-away groups, the Demands Working Group and the Liberty Square Blueprint, decided that wasn't sufficient and placed themselves in charge of authoring other demands.[21]

A New York attorney named Michael Pollok wrote the first drafts of the 99 Percent Declaration. Pollok is a well known criminal defense attorney in New York who became involved in Occupy Wall Street when he began representing a number of students pro bono who were arrested with about 700 people on the Brooklyn Bridge.[22]

After meeting with these students, giving a talk at their college and discussing what issues mattered to them, Pollok wrote the first draft of the 99 Percent Declaration.[1] On October 15, 2011 Pollok and some of the members of his group appeared before the New York City General Assembly and addressed the General Assembly. This statement is available on You Tube.[23] During his address to the General Assembly on October 15, 2011, Pollok described the formation of the Working Group on the 99% Declaration and the group’s purpose. He stated that the proposed plan is to organize an election of 870 delegates to a National General Assembly in Philadelphia to convene on July 4, 2012. Their mission will be to draft a petition for a redress of grievances on behalf of the 99% of Americans. This right of all citizens is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. (See Right to petition in the United States.) The current 21 points or grievances in the 99 Percent Declaration are only suggestions and the final petition will be created completely by the elected delegates. Upon completion and ratification by the National General Assembly, the petition for a redress of grievances will be formally served upon all three branches of the United States government and released to the media at the close of the National General Assembly and before the 2012 federal election. The Working Group on the 99% Declaration claims to have a membership of more than 2400 people on its Facebook page who actively work on the declaration and planning of the election and National General Assembly. The Declaration webpage has had more than 179,000 hits from October 18, 2011 to November 5, 2011.[1]

David Haack wrote in the The Guardian UK that he had introduced a proposal outlining demands during the early planning stages of the Occupy Wall Street protests, but they were was struck down in late August. He discovered a "goals" working group and hoped that common ground could be found.[6] Shawn Redding and others formed the working group in early October to establish specific actions they would use to formally ask federal, as well as local government to adopt. Due to the nature of the movement, that has been difficult in New York and other locations.[24]

On October 15, 2011, the "Demands Working Group" published the declaration of demands, goals, and solutions.[3][6] On October 31, 2011 the Demands Working Group disappeared from the New York City General Assembly website. Later that evening a member of the group began making disparaging remarks about the site administration team and the movement overall. The server logs show the group was self deleted by the groups controlling administrator. The Official NYC GA website, "Site News" stated that administrators of groups have the ability to delete their own group at any time and "This story gets especially intriguing, though, when the other group admin decided to blame the movement".[25] According to political commentator, Taylor Marsh: "[T]he one thing I’ve seen at OWS, the “working group” isn’t mentioned by name." She goes on to mention postings from OWS and "[T]hat seems to indicate the issuers of the Declaration are not directly tied to OWS.[26]

Constitutional amendment introduced in Senate

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Harvard law professor and Creative Commons board member Lawrence Lessig had called for a convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution[27] in a September 24-25, 2011 conference co-chaired by the Tea Party Patriots' national coordinator,[28] in Lessig's October 5 book, Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress – and a Plan to Stop It,[29] and at the Occupy protest in Washington, DC.[30] Reporter Dan Froomkin said the book offers a manifesto for the Occupy Wall Street protestors, focusing on the core problem of corruption in both political parties and their elections,[31] and Lessig provides credibility to the movement.[32] Lessig's initial constitutional amendment would allow legislatures to limit political contributions from non-citizens, including corporations, anonymous organizations, and foreign nationals, and he also supports public campaign financing and electoral college reform to establish the one person, one vote principle.[33] Lessig's web site convention.idea.informer.com allows anyone to propose and vote on constitutional amendments.[34] Similar amendments have been proposed by Dylan Ratigan,[35] Karl Auerbach,[36] Cenk Uygur,[37] and others.[38][39]

Occupy movement protesters have joined the call for a constitutional amendment.[14][15][16][40] On November 1, 2011, Senator Tom Udall introduced a constitutional amendment to reform campaign finance.[41]

Further reading

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d "The 99 Percent Declaration" the99declaration.org
  2. ^ a b Kingkade, T. (October 18, 2011) "Occupy Wall Street Protesters Propose A National Convention, Release Potential Demands" Huffington Post. Retrieved 20 October 2011
  3. ^ a b c d Duda, C. (October 19, 2011) "Occupy Wall Street Protesters Call for National General Assembly, Put Forward Possible Demands" Juvenile Justice Information Exchange
  4. ^ a b c Walsh, J. (October 20, 2011) "Do we know what OWS wants yet?" Salon
  5. ^ Kennedy, A.L. (October 22, 2011) "Protesters Plan to Occupy Williamsburg" Williamsburg Yorktown Daily
  6. ^ a b c d Haack, D. (October 24, 2011) "How the Occupy movement won me over" The Guardian
  7. ^ a b Dunn, M. (October 19, 2011) "‘Occupy’ May Hold National Assembly In Philadelphia" CBS Philadelphia
  8. ^ a b Hiltzik, Michael (October 12, 2011.) “Occupy Wall Street shifts from protest to policy phase.” Los Angeles Times. Accessed October 2011.
  9. ^ a b Johnston, David Cay (March 29, 2007.) "Income Gap Is Widening, Data Shows." The New York Times. Accessed October 2011.
  10. ^ a b CBO: Top 1% getting exponentially richer, CBS News October 25, 2011
  11. ^ a b Trends in the Distribution of Household Income Between 1979 and 2007, a CBO study October 2011
  12. ^ a b c d "Tax Data Show Richest 1 Percent Took a Hit in 2008, But Income Remained Highly Concentrated at the Top." Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Accessed October 2011.
  13. ^ a b Top Earners Doubled Share of Nation’s Income, Study Finds New York Times By Robert Pear, October 25, 2011
  14. ^ a b Manning, B. (October 21, 2011) "Lynch Shares Views on 'Occupy' Movement" Needham, Mass. Patch
  15. ^ a b Crugnale, J. (October 14, 2011) "Russell Simmons: Occupy Wall Street Protesters Want Constitutional Amendment" Mediaite
  16. ^ a b Niose, D. (October 13, 2011) "What the Occupy Wall Street Protesters Want — Constitutional amendment on corporations is a starting point" Psychology Today
  17. ^ McCabe, J. (October 21, 2011) "Dear Occupy Wall Street: 'Move to Amend' (the Constitution)" NewsTimes.com
  18. ^ Udall, T. (November 1, 2011) "A Constitutional Amendment to Reform Campaign Finance" 112th Congress, 1st Session (Washington, D.C.: United States Senate)
  19. ^ "FDIC chief in tune with Democrats" November 18, 2008 Los Angeles Times
  20. ^ Kenworthy, L. (August 20, 2010) "The best inequality graph, updated" Consider the Evidence
  21. ^ "Wall Street occupiers need a rethink on strategy". Times Live, AVUSA, Inc. Retrieved 11-5-11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  22. ^ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-03/-occupy-wall-street-protesters-request-trial-at-court-hearing-in-new-york.html
  23. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le5YI_QPPKk
  24. ^ "Protesters Debate What Demands, if Any, to Make". The New York Times. Retrieved 11-3-11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  25. ^ "The NYCGA-True Hollywood Story: The 99Declaration Group, an Exposé". New York City General Assembly Official Website. Retrieved 11-3-11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  26. ^ ""The 99 Percent Declaration" from "An OWS Working Group"". TaylorMarsh.com. Retrieved 11-3-11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  27. ^ "The Movement to Organize the Call for a Convention" CallAConvention.org
  28. ^ Conference on the Constitutional Convention, Harvard University, September 24-5, 2011
  29. ^ Lessig, L. (2011) Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress – and a Plan to Stop It (New York City: Hachette/Twelve) excerpt
  30. ^ Tackett, C. (October 19, 2011) "Could #OccupyWallStreet Become a Constitutional Convention?" Discovery / TreeHugger.com
  31. ^ Froomkin, D. (October 5, 2011) "Lawrence Lessig's New Book On Political Corruption Offers Protesters A Possible Manifesto" Huffington Post
  32. ^ Oremus, W. (October 5, 2011) "Academics Help Wall Street Protests Gain Credibility" Slate
  33. ^ Hill, A. (October 4, 2011) "Campaign finance, lobbying major roadblocks to effective government" Marketplace Morning Report (American Public Media)
  34. ^ Lessig, L. (2011) "Propose Amendments to the Constitution" convention.idea.informer.com
  35. ^ Ratigan, D. (2011) "It's Time to GET MONEY OUT of politics" GetMoneyOut.com
  36. ^ Auerbach, K. (2011) "Proposed Amendment to the United States Constitution To Redress the Increasing Distortion of Elections and Political Speech by Corporations and Other Aggregate Forms" cavebear.com/amendment
  37. ^ Blumenthal, P. (October 20, 2011) "Cenk Uygur Launches New Effort To Separate Money And Politics" Huffington Post
  38. ^ Public Citizen (January 21, 2011) "One Year Later, Movement Is Growing to Overturn Citizens United"
  39. ^ Shane, P.M. (October 11, 2011) "Occupy the Constitution" Huffington Post
  40. ^ McCabe, J. (October 21, 2011) "Dear Occupy Wall Street: 'Move to Amend' (the Constitution)" NewsTimes.com
  41. ^ Udall, T. (November 1, 2011) "A Constitutional Amendment to Reform Campaign Finance" 112th Congress, 1st Session (Washington, D.C.: United States Senate)
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