Occupy Wall Street Demands: The 99 Percent Declaration Calls for July 4 General Assembly in Philadelphia

Photo (C) 2011 Dale W. Eisinger/IBTimes

One frequent, even overplayed, criticism of the Occupy movement was its lack of coherence in formulating demands. Today--three days after the Huffington Post's elaborate and unfounded claim of the movement's epitaph--the 99 Percent Declaration puts an end to those assertions.

A Web site made public Tuesday morning by means of Reddit announced the planning of a democratically elected and nationally representative committee to assemble in Philadelphia during the week of July 4, 2012, to officially draft and present a petition for redress of grievances to the US government, as is protected under First Amendment rights.

Each of the 435 congressional districts is to elect two representatives. The rules of delegation are listed, in part, as such:

The office of Delegate shall be open to all United States citizens and lawful permanent residents who have attained the age of 18 years. No candidate for Delegate to the NATIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY will be permitted to run on a party line or use any party label while running for or serving as a Delegate. No candidate or Delegate may take private money from any source except for reasonable gifts to fund his or her trip to the NATIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY in Philadelphia. No politician holding elected or appointed office at the time of the Delegate election, including members of Congress, are eligible to run for or sit as a Delegate to the National General Assembly.

The page states each district will elect one male and one female delegate. Though procedural specifics have yet to be announced, the ethical guidelines for the transfer of donated funds, such as above, among many other things, are listed in the initial post.

Though the page was posted to Reddit only Tuesday morning, the www.the-99-declaration.org/ site has been registered for six weeks. According to http://reports.internic.net, the page was filed Dec. 27, 2011. What's really interesting is the page's sponsoring registrar: GoDaddy.com, Inc. GoDaddy came under fire recently for unilateral support for SOPA legislation the would have censored the Internet. This is potentially a bad look for the pending delegation. In a formulated list in a Reddit post titled While you Were Sleeping The Revolution Started the demands are made explicit and number 19 seems to point at GoDaddy:

1. Elimination of the Corporate State.
2. Overturning the Citizens United Case.
3. Elimination of All Private Benefits to Public Servants.
4. Term Limits.
5. A Fair Tax Code.
6. Health Care for All.
7. Protection of the Planet.
8. Debt Reduction.
9. Jobs for All Americans.
10. Student Loan Debt Refinancing.
11. Ending Perpetual War for Profit.
12. Emergency Reform of Public Education.
13. End Outsourcing and Currency Manipulation.
14. Banking and Securities Reform.
15. Foreclosure Moratorium, Mortgage Refinancing and Principle Write Downs.
16. Review and Reform of the Federal Reserve Banking System.
17. Ending the Electoral College and Enactment of Uniform Federal Election Rules in All of the States.
18. Ending the War in Afghanistan and Care of Veterans.
19. No Censorship of the Internet.
20. Reinstitution of Civil Rights Including the Repeal of the NDAA.
21. Curtailing the Private Prison Industrial Complex.