So far, the Occupy Wall Street protest and related protests blossoming across the country are mostly about expressing anger at corrupt corporate domination of the U.S. government. It's refreshing to see that happening, rather than the usual apathy that is so prevalent in modern America. A significant political, socioeconomic, and cultural movement may have begun.
In order for that to happen, however, these protests need to become more than just protests; they need to be a call for action. And that call needs to be clear and specific, so that people will know exactly what the goal is and what they can do to help.
I would suggest that there are two basic options that the Occupy Wall Street movement could pursue:
1. Become an explicitly political movement. This would mean identifying a short list of demands for changes in government policy, and recruiting and developing candidates for political office who will run on that as a platform.
2. Become a cultural movement whose members and supporters will take direct action to change the economic system and help to determine its winners and losers. More about this later.
Option 1 is probably the more obvious choice, because we already live in a democracy and government policy can be influenced by getting candidates elected who share a set of values and goals. The Tea Party has managed to practically take over one of the two major political parties. There is no inherent reason why the Occupy Wall Street or 99 Percent movement (whatever this ultimately ends up being called) couldn't become a liberal analogue of the Tea Party -- at least in the sense of being a large organized movement for specific progressive economic policies, such as the Tea Party is for libertarian economic policies -- but hopefully without the hodgepodge of radical conspiracy theorists and wackos that the Tea Party attracts.
If Option 1 is the choice, it will only be successful if it focuses on a small number of realistic and achievable political policy proposals. I would suggest these three as a logical platform:
1. A bailout for homeowners who are facing foreclosure and unemployed people with student loan debt -- of equal or greater value as the bank bailouts. Give these people a fresh start by forgiving their debts and keeping them in their homes, and thus improving the economy for all.
2. The "Buffett Tax" (i.e. taxing capital gains at the same rate as income earned from a job, so that working people won't pay higher taxes than the idle rich). It's only fair! And this will help to fund #1.
3. A short-term trading transaction tax for people and financial institutions who use Wall Street as a casino. Such a tax could raise huge amounts of money to fund #1, and would likely reduce the volatility in the markets by making computerized "high frequency auto-trading" by large investment companies less profitable. Such a tax would also make it harder for already-wealthy institutions to "vacuum up" more and more money from the productive sectors of the economy into the black hole of their own coffers.
That's enough. The platform doesn't need to be any bigger, more complicated, or more extreme than that -- at least for now. Keep it simple and keep it reasonable and realistic, and it WILL resonate with the majority of Americans and have a serious chance of inspiring progressive political campaigns and eventually becoming government policy. And if something like this is achieved, this would lay the foundation for more progressive policy changes to follow later.
Now on to Option 2. Let's say that Occupy Wall Street wants to become something less about politics and more about American socioeconomic culture. More of a direct action and changing the culture approach. This could have just as big of an effect -- perhaps even more so -- than the explicitly political approach. But the goals and actions would likewise have to be very clearly defined and articulated.
I would suggest this single most important idea for a national movement of direct action to change the economic system:
A national call for all Americans to close all their bank accounts in a few specific banks that are the worst offenders, i.e. that have a well-documented history of engaging in highly unethical business practices in recent years. This would have to be combined with providing people with a practical list of alternatives for where they could put their money -- i.e. banking institutions that are based on an ethically superior business model, such as a carefully vetted list of small banks and member-owned credit unions.
Could such a bank boycott and promotion of credit unions actually work to put serious pressure on the corrupt financial institutions and encourage them to reform themselves or be defeated by competitors? Yes. If the Occupy Wall Street/99% movement gets big enough, anything is possible. How many of us really thought it would already grow as big as it has and become anything more than a brief blip on the radar screen? While it might be fashionably cynical to say "oh, a bank boycott could never work," how do we know it couldn't? Most Americans today hate the big banks -- and for good reason! It might be quite easy to persuade a large number of people to stop giving them business.
While some people are "Occupying" Wall Street, tens of millions of others could "Boycott Wall Street" -- just stop supporting the financial gambling companies that are the source of our nation's economic problems. Stop lending them your money! It's easy and it will feel good, and you don't have to get arrested to do it. This is still a free country, and you can still choose to take your money out of a bank if you feel that it's hurting the American people. It's your money, and you can simply remove it from a system that you oppose.
If, let's say, 10 million Americans all closed their bank accounts in corrupt major banks and opened up accounts in better banks or credit unions -- all at once, perhaps on a specifically chosen day that would be well publicized well in advance -- this could actually accomplish something real. It would be impossible to ignore: It would be send shock waves through the established economic order, essentially as a trumpet blast of the people of the nation announcing their collective power; and it could have long-lasting positive effects by starting a burgeoning realignment of people's assets away from an old and rotting system and into a new and better way.
Occupy Wall Street can succeed far beyond anything we've seen yet. It can accomplish great change rather than eventually petering out and being remembered as "just another protest." But such a greater outcome will only happen if it has a small number of clear goals, chosen for maximum effect and viability, and articulated in a way that will appeal to the masses of ordinary people.
I hope the people who are actually involved in the protests will read this essay, circulate it, think about what I have suggested, and make the choices that need to be made. The millions of us who are with you in spirit but can't be there in the flesh are counting on you! You're already doing something heroic; but if your decisions going forward are visionary and wise, you can become not only momentary heroes, but the kind of heroes who are recorded in the history books, and whose actions write a new chapter in the history books for future generations.