Instructions for Starting a Work Group

This is supposed to be a way for Occupy Boston to crowdsource pamphlets people can print out and distribute on First Night. This is an INFORMAL working group, meaning it has no approval from the GA. Consequently, any contributors should adhere to three rules.

1) Do not try to define Occupy Boston. We've had enough trouble just keeping the Socialists from attacking the Libertarians, so please don't presume you can write a single page explanation of who we are and what we want to accomplish.

2) Do not try to create a plan, goal, or set of demands for the movement. Our goal here should be simply to describe the system as it exists, in order to explain to people WHY the occupy movement needs to exist. So, for instance, don't talk about Democrats and Republicans (Unless you're offering a specific criticism of both sides of the Two Party System.) Instead, discuss/include graphs of wealth disparities, Corporations on Wall Street that subvert the political or economic systems, the IMF Structural Adjustment Programs/World Bank schemes, NAFTA/Free Trade agreements, media corporations, electoral politics, environmental issues, etc. In other words, don't say what we are or what we want. Just explain (in a non-partisan way) why the system is broken and needs to be fixed.

3) Do not claim to be speaking for the GA. The GA doesn't even know what the GA wants. You're just using this opportunity to explain what needs to be fixed in the system, from your point of view.

Here's my example for a simple, one page handout. I'm aware that I broke rule 2. Suck it, I'm a better anarchist than you:

         What is Wall Street?

Wall Street is a colloquial term for the Financial District in New York, but in practice Wall Street is a group of multinational investment banks, hedge funds, and various exchanges like the NASDAQ.

        Why does the Occupy Wall Street movement want to take money from the rich and successful?

This claim, constantly levied against Occupy Wall Street, is simply false. We just want fair income and corporate tax rates, not redistribution of resources. Multinational corporations, banks and hedge funds to pay their fair share of taxes, and also to obey the regulations imposed on smaller businesses. Collectively, the multinational banks corporations referred to under the metonym Wall Street have trillions (Yes, trillions) of dollars hidden in shell companies and offshore assets. The banks create asset classes called derivatives, many of which are untaxed and relatively unregulated. These include Credit Default Swaps and Collateralized Debt Obligations, which are complex insurance swaps that have the effect of raising borrowing costs for national economies. Another class of derivatives are called Mortgage Backed Securities, which helped cause the 2008 crisis and the ongoing mortgage and housing crises in America.

       What is the mortgage and housing crisis in America?  Why does the Occupy Movement attempt to stop foreclosures?

As many as 60 million houses in America are owned and held by a private corporation called MERS, or the Mortgage Electronic Registration System. MERS was created as a tool for banks to securitize mortgages into financial assets, called Mortgage-Backed Securities. Because hundreds of mortgages can end up in a single MB Security, it became clear in 2008 that banks had purposely and fraudulent sold billions of dollars worth of valueless MB Securities to unsuspecting customers. However, that wasn't the real problem. Once a mortgage is issued and placed into the MERS computers, the original paperwork, including the signature on the loan documentation, is shredded or otherwise destroyed. Under US law, a bank cannot foreclose on a house unless it can provide a court with the original documentation to prove a direct chain of ownership over the mortgage. Since the banks issued the mortgages in the first place, they know which ones are going to fail: Banks have been caught red-handed taking insurance out on houses in the MERS network, then illegally and fraudulently foreclosing on the families inside without providing the proper paperwork and signatures. A majority of the mortgages in America are securitized within the MERS computers, and legally, none of these houses can be foreclosed on without committing perjury and fraud. Banks have also used techniques called "robo-signing", where they hire unqualified people (Janitors, Taxi Drivers, etc.) to fill out the foreclosure paperwork in lieu of a qualified lawyer. For these reasons and several others, the Occupy Movement has stepped in to prevent banks from carrying out illegal foreclosures (ie ones that lack the full paperwork for foreclosure) on American citizens.

Other ideas: Consolidation of media Corporations, Federal Reserve/Treasury, IMF/World Bank Policies, Bailouts, Quantitative Easing, Campaign Finance, SEC/NARA destruction of Matters under Investigation files, the impact of NAFTA/GATT on offshoring of American jobs, environmental policy, War on Terrorism, War on Drugs etc. Make your own Pamphlet to express your grievances!