Does anyone not understand the basic message, the one basic demand of this protest???

"THE BASIC MESSAGE OF THIS PROTEST IS that Wall Street is oozing corruption and criminality and its unrestrained political power—in the form of crony capitalism and ownership of political institutions—is destroying financial security for everyone else." (Glenn Greenwald)

The corporate monster is an extremely difficult one to address, and we must keep our energy focused in solidarity.  If this movement is to be successful, it must stick to its guns on this ONE UMBRELLA DEMAND: RESTORE OUR DEMOCRACY BY ENDING THE CORPORATOCRACY.  We must, at all costs, remain in complete solidarity behind this one basic and general demand, and not veer into discussion of other demands that do not fall under this umbrella.  If corporate money were taken out of American politics, and the American government were to become what it perhaps once was and what it has always aspired to be -- a participatory, truly representative democracy -- the public would have a renewed opportunity to express themselves through legislature and public policy, and demands of various stripes would be heard and met.  But at this crucial turning point in this particular movement, OTHER DEMANDS, WHILE OF COURSE VERY VALID, WILL ONLY UNDERMINE OUR STRENGTH because, by definition, they do not have the support of the 99% who are being financially victimized by the 1%.  They are other issues that could begin to be solved once the MONEY IS OUT OF POLITICS.  This is the one issue we can and should ALL get behind.  In order to continue gaining momentum and growing in numbers, this must remain our one overarching demand.

I move that Occupy Los Angeles adopts and releases the following demand declaration, or something similar, as soon as possible:

***

"DECLARATION OF THE DEMAND: Our one basic demand is an immediate end to the corporate rule over our representative democracy. We will take all patient and deliberate actions necessary to ensure that our one demand is met as soon as possible.  We recognize our demand is a general one; it must be so, because it is in response to a endemic problem with multifarious faces.  Rest assured that in the coming days, weeks, and years it will be followed by more specific demands with more focused targets.  We will vigilantly continue our Occupation of Los Angeles until the crux of our one basic demand is met.  We will know that day has come by the shared happiness we will experience as one people, when equal access to resources and the overall equality of wealth have manifested through the demise of the corporate monster."

***

Then, as a demands committee, a general assembly, an occupation of L.A.'s City Hall, and a national movement of occupations, we can move on to discussing more specific actions and demands that help achieve the basic demand.

I write these comments after attending three meetings of the Demands Committee, listening carefully to everyone's inidividual ideas about the movement's demands, and doing more research and coming to understand the nature of what is happening at City Hall in Los Angeles now as it relates to what has happened and continues to happen on Wall Street. Over the last 48 hours in protest mode, my concerns about the demands of "Occupy Los Angeles" and "Occupy Together" in general have grown and changed. We must retain our solidarity on the umbrella demand of the movement so that we can begin to work on strategies to begin to win small battles towards achieving that basic demand.  For those who do not understand how the corporatocracy is stealing our money and ruining our lives, education and outreach programs should be set up to show how all problems stem from the larger economic issue of corporate rule.

Please discuss and revise as necessary!!!

Daniel Brummel

Add on: if you don't like it (I don't) fix the form
Take away corporate "personhood" under the 14th amendment. This is where corporations get their LEAGAL political power, until your reverse SANTA CLARA V. SOUTH PACIFIC RAILROAD (1886), everything you do is useless because what ever change you make will be overturned because corporations are considered a "natural person" aka "human" and are Protected under the bill of rights. So if you make reform they will say it is unconstitutional because it infringes on their "human rights".... So a multi- million dollar business has the same rights as a human being but the power of a god... If you don't know what "corporate personhood" is then look it up.. RIGHT NOW.. go to Wikipedia NOW B4 YOU REPLY TO ME, OPEN A NEW TAB, OR GO TO THE LIBRARY I LEFT COPIES OF AN OUTLINE WITH INFO OCT 9th, say Matt z or Cindy r on it. I will not respond to anyone who dose not know anything about the subject b4 giving their opinion. Don't feel bad if you don't know something, just look it up and then you know all about it. That's how you learn, admit that you have know clue then find out.