Brief Notes from Occupy Santa Cruz General Assembly Oct. 4

In regard to being 99%.....Should the 1% have the power to "block" the 99%....Because that is what they are doing right now, blocking the will of the vast majority. Should we continue to allow 1% to block and deny the 99%?, like the rich are presently doing to us with their executive veto on democracy?......Of course I also reject democratic centralism along with representative democracy. What I would propose instead is a system of participatory democracy, where everyone is heard but not in a way that requires total agreement from the last 1% to move forward. A system where we have individual autonomy and group autonomy, where the minority is not bound by the majority and can act independently...but where a super-majority can move forward, after hearing protests of course, but not necessarily requiring that the last 1% come around before moving forward. Would you give the bankers that veto power? What about their agents?

What is interesting is the consensus process in which everyone partakes. It strives to give everyone an equal opportunity, or as close to something like that as possible. If, in the workplace, I was given a chance to voice my concern about something that is going wrong, and as a group we decide what to do about it, I think my workplace would actually make MORE money...even though that should not be our ultimate goal (the customer's should be).

If the many people struggling today could voice how they don't have to be struggling because we have the resources to take of them by redirecting resources from the military, or wherever people find most desirable, then at least most of the people will be happy rather than most unhappy.

This could be the dawn of a new era of democracy in the US. I hope we go all the way with it. For everyone who wants an equal say in the workplace, in politics, in economics, in education, or in any other social activity, consensus is the way. Equality now! Occupy Santa Cruz now!