Frankly speaking, the 1% can make our argument for us better than anyone else. So here's what I'm doing. I'm taking CitiGroup's 2005 Plutonomy Report and posting excerpts from it on the doors of my local branch along with a a note that says:
Plutonomy: a society controlled exclusively by and for the benefit of the top 1%
Is this the type of society YOU want to live in?
If not, divest from Citibank, and put your money back into your local community through a non-profit credit union.
Now I know they'll take it down, but I'll put it back up. Over and over again if necessary. It won't do any good if I'm the only one doing it though...but if hundred or thousands of people do it, it just might.
With regards to the overall issue of moving money, kos posted an article yesterday titled Cities Need to Move Their Money.
And MinstryofTruth posted an article titled Welcome to PHASE 2 of Occupy Wall Street: now here is a message, which read in part:
...now that our tents are going away I am almost relieved. The tents were becoming a distraction anyway, now it is time for us to focus on how we will place pressure on the corrupt power structure and demand the changes and reforms and accountability we all know is absolutely necessary if we are going to have a viable future for millions upon millions of working class people.
My response to that is this: For the tents to go away, there needs to be an exit strategy. The police tearing them down doesn't do it; it has to be on our terms.
So what are our terms? How about this for starters: the occupied cities, towns and municipalities divest from financial institutions that received government bailouts for practices that helped wreck the entire global economy, and put their money in local non-profit credit unions that invest in the community, and we end the occupation of public spaces.
Now I'm not saying this should be our only term, but its certainly one I think a lot of people could get behind. And of course I'm not saying if we can make this happen, we can declare victory and the movement will be over, because obviously there is still a lot of work to be done, and while divesting from these institutions is a great symbolic gesture, it doesn't really address the heart of the problem: the undue influence of special interest money in politics. But I don't want to get ahead of myself, so we'll save that for another conversation.