Idiosyntactix Strategic Analysis of Demands (Canada and US) Draft-1

by Alexander Braun on Wednesday, 09 November 2011

I am writing this draft sketch of demands which in my view would keep the 99% united while enable the movement to start to address the issues we all can identify with. When making a demand on behalf of the 99% the focus should be on what would the 99% want and agree on as the basic common denominator of issues that effect all of us.
 
Together we stand united and have a chance to truly address the issues, such as out of control private and public sectors on the loose as if there is no tomorrow. Some say the Occupy Movement lacks focus on the demands but this is also our strength.
 
One thing that all Occupiers would agree on is that we all want to have a say in the matters that concern us individually, regardless of the issue, and the current way of business as usual does not reflect the interests and input of the people while the people and our environment are tremendously impacted by the careless and irresponsible activities of the private sector which interferes with the democratic process, the natural environment, and our ability to survive and maintain adequate to human dignity and well being standards of life, as guaranteed by the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, article 25.
 
The nature of demands is reflective of personal, local, regional, and/or global issues and voicing a demand should be representative of the general consensus within the boundaries of the respective interests, would it be private, ethnic, geopolitical, socioeconomic, and/or natural environments. Therefore a set of demands which are acute to the situation in the United States is rather different in scope and scale to the issues we face here in Canada, from person to person, or elsewhere in the world. For example, the fluoride in water is more a Toronto issue, where it is added since 1960, than for Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, and many other cities where it was either removed or never used, therefore the issue is local in priority compared to the issue of ending war, job security, health care, or environment, to name a few, that have broader and more immediate appeal.
 
While Canadian banks were ranked among the top in the world by the Moody's report published in September, partly perhaps because of the stricter regulations and lesser corruption in comparison with US which enabled the Canadian banks to escape relatively unscathed from the recent Subprime mortgage crisis, having only invested around 5% vs much bigger stakes of 20% and more invested by Wall Street and the City of London, with both of whom we, the "little brother" Canadians, are jointed at an economic hip in more than one way. The same report ranks the once-mighty U.S. banking industry in 24th place, between Italy and Mexico.
 
Ending the Fed in US and the rumped corruption of its banking system is more pressing concern for the US than for Canada, Canadian economy will benefit regardless from the positive changes in the US. Even if Canada had a perfect financial system it would still be effected by the sheer volume of trade,  our bilateral trade is averaging from 40% to 80% between the two nations. The reason being for the Bank of Canada act changes of 1974 is to allow the big charter banks in on the action of collecting interest on the loans made to the Canadian government, something that the Bank of Canada had the power to do interest-free prior to 1974, was a condition for joining the G7 group of nations, gaining seat on UN Security Counsel, and relying on the military protection from US thus saving on the need to fund the large military force.
 
With this in mind, the demands should be prioritized accordingly and kept realistic and non-divisive. The strength of the movement is the general appeal of the "99%" brand, that all walks of life can relate with, to maintain its unity the 99% movement should try to steer clear from being entangled and divided by the so-called wedge issues, such us global warming vs cooling, intelligent design vs creation, pro-life vs pro-choice, left vs right, big government, vs big business, and a like.