A New Way Forward

Right Democrat has this:

On April 11, 2009 at 2pm ET/11am PT, there will be protests in cities across the country to break the power of the financial industry and the bankers that caused the current economic crisis. With growing frustration over unemployment, foreclosures and how the government has responded to the economic crisis so far, a web organizing platform, http://www.anewwayforward.org, has emerged to allow people and groups to organize around a progressive approach to economic recovery. The ground up, localized organizing effort to influence national policy is expected to culminate in at least one protest in every state.

"Through campaign money and lobbyists, the financial industry has been pushing politicians to protect their interests in these hard economic times," said one of the website creators. "It's time for the public to demand that Congress and the Obama administration put the well being of all people over the greed of the bankers. Our government will continue to be corrupted by the financial industry if people don't speak out and demand that Congress put the public interest first in everything they do."

The website proposes three key principles for economic reform:

NATIONALIZE: Insolvent banks that are too big to fail must incur a FDIC intervention -- no more taxpayer handouts.

REORGANIZE: Current CEOs and board members must be removed and bonuses wiped out. The financial elite must share in the cost of what they have caused.

DECENTRALIZE: Banks must be broken up and sold back to the private market with new antitrust rules in place-- new banks managed by new people.

The site allows anyone to sign up their city for a protest and begin working out the details with other local protesters in designated forums. Though each protest will be executed differently by different groups of people, the website provides a national community that will help draw attention, support and resources to the local efforts.

"We expect the unemployed, the foreclosed, the Obama supporters, the progressives, and those who are seeing their country slip away, to make their voice heard -- this country can't be hijacked by the banks anymore," said one of the website creators. "People will come out of the woodwork and lead others to express our majority opinion and our public will."

According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, 11.6 million people are unemployed as of January, 2009 and home foreclosures were up 81 percent in 2008 from the previous year. Americans are disappointed with how the legislative process has failed to represent their daily concerns. They are angry that CEOs at bailed-out banks continue to get $100 million bonuses while economic stimulus and foreclosure prevention legislation gets watered down by Democratic and Republican conservatives in Congress at the behest of big finance.

The website is designed as a tool for the public to proactively gain influence over their elected officials, even if they lack the financial and political resources. The national protest and the sentiment behind them are a way to show the government that voting citizens across the country are paying attention and they demand action on the economy that protects them, not the bankers.

Links:

http://anewwayforward.org/demonstrations/

http://anewwayforward.org/the_idea/