Suggestions for supporters of Occupy Wall Street nationwide

[zacherystaylor]

I have recently done a blog about some unusual events that UM happened on Sunday the day after they arrested dozens of protestors. They involved people that were protest (or not) far away from Wall Street and they can be replicated anywhere to increase the awareness of this. Actually it is a bit of a satire but I think it has a few good ideas and would welcome other suggestions. The Occupation isn’t being covered well in the Mass Media as many of you surely know and they could use all the attention they can get. The corporations have turned into oligarchies as far as I can tell and they don’t seem to be accountable to anyone and are participating in many activities that suppress the rights of consumers including price fixing which may be done with winks and nod, slotting fees, planned obsolescence and sending jobs overseas where they can r5ely on sweatshop labor. More attention needs to be drawn to this.

The following is an example of comments that could be made by a protestor during a cash register protest:

_______________________________

…..While waiting in line at the cash register things started getting strange. Out of nowhere someone comes up and starts speaking loudly but clearly enough for those in line at the register to hear him. He said something like the following:

Corporations including this department store have been participating in a massive epidemic of consumer fraud and they have also been working with the government and the Mass Media to suppress criticism. The fraudulent activities that this corporation has been involved in include the use of planned obsolescence, the charging of slotting fees to make sure that small startup manufacturers can’t compete and price fixing, among other things. They have been donating large sums of money to political campaigns; and, coincidently or not, the politicians have remained silent about this and even passed laws to enable corporations to do this in secrecy by passing laws they refer to as protecting the secrecy of proprietary information. They have increased the interpretation of the first amendment so that corporations can consolidate the Mass Media and obtain complete control over it. They have also passed several laws and arranged for several court cases to rule that protestors don’t have nearly as much protection under the first amendment. Yesterday they arrested dozens of people on Wall Street for using the rights that they’re supposed to have under the first amendment. Clearly the first amendment now only protects the corporations not the victims of corporate crime.
(He looked around quickly at this point and saw the manager approaching with security guards, all with angry looks on their faces.)
This has been a hit and run use of the first amendment which no longer protects most of us; I will now depart before they have a chance to put me in their Gulag just in case that is what they have in mind.
(He then ran out the door and quickly disappeared.)
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For the full blog see the following:

http://open.salon.com/blog/zacherydtaylor/2011/09/26/occupy_wall_street_and_cash_register_protests

These aren’t firm recommendations and if anyone is interested in doing something like this they might be better off being creative. However people should be cautious, as the protestors seem to be to keep them peaceful and non destructive and prepared to justify their actions. It won’t take much to hold higher standards than those on Wall Street but they also have an enormous propaganda machine to spin things and blow up even tiny issues. They could also make something up but if the protestors have enough supporters getting their stories out that wont last for long even with that powerful propaganda machine because the protestors have numbers that could quickly grow to include a larger segment of the population.

[rhett o rick]

1. I suggested something similar. Small groups with signs and pamphlets

could quickly go into a bank for instance and march around the lobby handing out or leaving pamphlets, then quickly leave. I dont think this violates any laws.

[zacherystaylor]

2. It shouldn't violate any laws!

I doubt if this does violate any laws either; however if the corporations weren't nearly so blatant in their corruption and if the public had more direct control over the government and the economic system I could imagine a good argument why this wouldn't be appropriate. Without a legitimate argument there is no reason to be disruptive and I would oppose this tactic but we aren't any-where's close to that situation. I have previously written about how they now manufacture sneakers that last no more than six months even though I don't wear them nearly as often. I used to be able to find sneakers that lasted close to two years; in fact that was typical thirty years ago. Now I can't find anything close and even if I could I would have no way of knowing it. My latest pair of sneakers WILL be replaced if necessary; and noise will be made. This is typical of many other things so the same thing now goes for the toasters and coffee makers etc. that routinely fall apart.

In order to maintain this corruption they will have to either address legitimate complaints or escalate the suppression like they did in the USSR and Germany in the late thirties.

[Desertrose]

3. K&R

[zacherystaylor]

4. A few more suggestions

Just a few more suggestions some of which were indicated in the post linked to but I noticed that only a small fraction of the people on any given message board follow those, including me in most cases, so I thought it would be worthwhile to post the ones I consider most important.

The point is to educate the public about many of the most corrupt practices that the corporations participate in to increase their profits at the expense of the vast majority including workers and consumers as well as the environment. They use slotting fees to charge manufacturers to have any space in the shelves of major department stores. This enables them to suppress competition and it makes it much easier for the corporate oligarchies to conduct other activities including price fixing and planned obsolescence. I calculate the rough cost that they force consumer to pay extra just on sneakers alone based on information available to any member of the public. If you figure that thirty years ago it was typical for sneakers to last two years, which I know from firsthand experience, fifteen years ago that was down to one year now I don’t wear them nearly as often and they still last no longer than six months! This means the typical consumer pays an extra $60-$105 every two years assuming they pay $20-$35 for each pair of sneakers. With three hundred million people in America that comes to a theft by fraud of about 9-15 billion dollars a year on sneaker alone! If you add in the cost of many other items that quickly runs into hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars a year. This doesn’t count price fixing or many other activities including relying on sweat shop labor abroad to suppress wages when they use supply and demand to force local workers to compete with virtual slaves that have no rights and are destroying the environment in their own country.

By saving the receipts and speaking out at the cash register instead of going to the back where other customers can’t hear this prevents the oligarchies from using divide and steal tactics as efficiently. They may also be more inclined to replace things quicker if they realize their reputation is on the line. there is one possible downside to this in some areas. They may attempt to suppress speech; however if they do this then it can be reported far and wide and this could backfire. If they even go to the extreme of calling in the police then it could be exposed that tax payer money is being used to suppress speech but not to protect consumers and this would backfire if there are enough people paying attention; after all the consumers and workers are the vast majority and the facts are on their side.

Also another recommendation would be that more people read “Nickel and Dimed” written by Barbara Ehrenreich (free online copy) which does a lot to inform people of the activities the oligarchies are participating in.