What follows are the demands Brian W. proposed to the #OccupyBoston General Assembly on Saturday, October 15, 2011.  As of October 17, 2011, these demands have not been voted on (or consensed on), as there was not a quorum on Saturday night and GA was not held Sunday.

In solidarity with the Occupy movement, and the mass movements in Tunisia, Egypt, Europe, and Wisconsin, we demand:

· END CORPORATE DOMINATION!

· Make Big Business Pay! For major tax hikes on the richest 1% and Big Corporations! End the Bush-Obama tax cuts for the wealthy.

· No more bailouts of banks and corporations! Instead, bail out owners of foreclosed homes and working Americans struggling to make ends meet.

· Hands off social security, Medicare, and Medicaid! These are good, sustainable, hard-won programs relied upon by the elderly, the disabled, and the poor. We demand jobs, not cuts!

· End the wars and occupations! Stop spending billions of dollars on wars abroad that only destroy human lives. We need fully funded public education and social services; a massive jobs program to put the millions of unemployed back to work with a living wage and union rights; a repairing of the country’s crumbling infrastructure; and developing alternative energy technology.

· Single payer health care now! Repeal Obama’s health care “reform,” which only takes more money from working Americans to give to corporations. For-profit health care is bad for the health of the people and the economy.

· No deportations, racial profiling, or exploitation of immigrants! Reject the Secure Communities Act. Amnesty for all undocumented immigrants. No worker is my enemy!

· Respect the collective bargaining rights of all union workers and all non-union workers organizing to form unions! Pass the EFCA and stop union busting.

· Stop the defunding, closure, and privatization of public schools! Here in Boston, 18 public schools, primarily in low-income and minority neighborhoods, are slated for closure. Equal access to a quality public education is a right, not a privilege!

· Stop police brutality! We are demonstrating in peace. Any act of police violence against peaceful demonstrators is a violation of our civil rights. We represent the 99% of people without a say in the society we live in. This occupation is an expression of outrage at a political and economic system that does not represent the interests of young people, working people, or minorities.

· Occupy Boston will coordinate mass action to achieve the above demands and to struggle against the two parties of Wall Street.

http://www.socialistalternative.org/news/article10.php?id=1594

By Rob Mirabito, Member of Carpenters Union Local 33 (personal capacity), Boston, MA
When I became a union member in 1998, it was common to hear that in the area of political contributions, “corporations outspend unions by 10 to 1.” What wasn’t made clear is that, in many cases, it’s the same politician collecting from both sides. When we look at where the democrats get the majority of their money, we get a clearer picture of why they aren’t standing up for working people. Democrats failed to enact the Employee Free Choice Act when they had control of the White House, the Senate, and the House, although they promised to do so. Since then they have done little to nothing to stop the attacks on collective bargaining at the state level in Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Ohio and New Hampshire. And now the hammer is coming down in the Democratic stronghold of Massachusetts. On April 26, Massachusetts House Democrats passed a bill that would curb collective bargaining rights for public employees. Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo lead the latest charge against workers, pushing his agenda through at 11:30 at night. The bill, which would take health care out of collective bargaining for public employees, passed 111 to 42. Massachusetts is a one party state. Many of the democrats, including the governor, rely on the resources of labor unions to get elected. For decades, they have taken our money and our time, and this last election was no different. Massachusetts AFL-CIO president Robert Haynes told the Boston Globe, “These are the same Democrats that all these labor unions elected. The same Democrats who we contributed to in their campaigns. The same Democrats who tell us over and over again that they’re with us, that they believe in collective bargaining, that they believe in unions… . It’s a done deal for our relationship with the people inside that chamber.” DeLeo claims the measure would save $100 million, and there is no doubt that the state needs money. It certainly wasn’t the public employees who drove the global economy of a cliff, yet they are expected to fill the gap. Maybe instead of attacking workers, corporations should start paying taxes…but you won’t hear that on Beacon Hill or Capitol Hill. In fact, you’re more likely to hear the same crap about giving corporations even more breaks in order to spur growth; they are literally taking from the poor to give to the wealthy. All this is despite the fact that there is no evidence that corporate tax breaks create jobs. After all, they’ve been getting breaks for years and we’re still losing jobs. Massachusetts gave $136 million in tax breaks for mutual funds last year alone, and for that Fidelity announced that it will be shipping 1,100 jobs out of state! If Speaker DeLeo and the Democrats want to take $100 million from the backs of working people without even looking at the $136 million given to multi-million dollar mutual funds, then there is no question where they stand. This is a clear signal to big business that the Democrats are reliable servants, and it should be a wake up call for us. Many are outraged over this, but what are we supposed to do? The fire fighters are leading the way. The International Association of Fire Fighters announced that it would indefinitely cut off all federal contributions to congressional candidates. This is an important first step in the fight for working people, but we need to go further. It’s time for the labor movement to break with the politicians of big business and start running our own candidates. This would be a concrete step towards forming a workers’ party that would truly represent our interests.

Title: International Workers\’ Day
Location: Rose Kennedy Greenway At Haymarket Station Boston, MA
Description: Let\’s commemorate International Workers Day this year with a rally at 12 noon at the Rose Kennedy Greenway Park, accross from the Haymarket T Station, in the corner of Cross and Hanover streets in Boston.

After the rally we will take the T to East Boston to join in the East Boston March to the May 1 rally in Chelsea.

We demand:

Stop budget cuts and layoffs!
Stop union busting!
Defend workers\’ rights!
Stop the detention and deportation of migrant workers and their families!
Immediate permanent residency for all undocumented migrant workers!
No racist profiling Secure Communities programs!
Money for jobs and education, not for war and occupation!
Start Time: 12:00
Date: 2011-05-01
End Time: 01:00

Egypt
Mubarak goes - clear out the entire regime!

No trust in the military chiefs! For a government of the representatives of workers, small farmers and the poor! Immediate elections to a revolutionary constituent assembly supervised by committees of working and poor people and the youth!

www.socialistworld.net, 11/02/2011
website of the committee for a workers’ international, CWI

Less than 24 hours after he declared he would stay until September, Mubarak has been forced to resign as Egyptian president. The increasing size of the demonstrations, and especially the working class’s collective entry into the struggle through a nationwide strike wave, marked a decisive new stage in the revolution. Mubarak’s last TV broadcast enraged the more than six million who were then protesting on Egypt’s streets and the indignation spread to the military, as reports came in of soldiers going over to the side of the demonstrators.

This turning point is a tremendous victory for all those who courageously fought Mubarak’s police state - the youth, the working class and the fighters in Tahrir Square. It is a huge example to workers and the oppressed around the world that determined mass action can defeat governments and rulers no matter how strong they appear to be.

However the battle is not over yet, dangers still remain. The unelected vice-president Suleiman, the Mubarak police state’s former head of intelligence, announced that the former president handed over power to the “High Council of the armed forces to administer the affairs of the country”. The new head of state, Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, has been defense minister and the armed forces Commander-in Chief since 1991, nearly two-thirds of the time that Mubarak was in power. A BBC correspondent commented that “The army takeover looks very much like a military coup … because officially it should be the speaker of parliament who takes over, not the army leadership”.

In answer to this, the mass of the Egyptian people must assert their right to decide the country’s future. No trust should be put in figures from the regime or their imperialist masters to run the country or run elections. There must be immediate, fully free elections, safeguarded by mass committees of the workers and poor, to a revolutionary constituent assembly that can decide the country’s future.

Now the steps already taken to form local committees and genuine independent workers’ organizations should be sped up, spread wider and linked up. A clear call for the formation of democratically elected and run committees in all workplaces, communities and amongst the military rank and file would get a wide response.

These bodies should co-ordinate removal of the old regime, and maintain order and supplies and, most importantly, be the basis for a government of workers’ and poor representatives that would crush the remnants of the dictatorship, defend democratic rights and start to meet the economic and social needs of the mass of Egyptians.