Written by Dr. Glen T. Martin   

Banking cartels today control the economy of all nations and the world. Huge private banking consortiums fund the IMF and World Bank, dictating conditions for economic survival and “structural adjustment” to the majority of the world’s nations, who only survive through utter bondage to their profit-based exploitation system. Vast corporations with assets greater than many nation-states span the globe, dictating internal economic policy to the nations they have colonized. Hundreds of military bases and vast navel flotillas from imperial nations circle the globe, protecting this vast global system of poverty, exploitation, and death from any possible rebellion or independent initiatives within nations.

Occupy Wall Street, as a spontaneous national and worldwide movement representing the 99% who are economically disenfranchised by the 1% who control the world’s economic system, has not yet formulated any official set of demands. However, some themes have appeared indicating the kind of demands they have in mind. Raise taxes on the top 1%. Institute an effective capital gains tax. Close tax loopholes for multinational corporations that now pay little or no taxes. End foreign wars and bring those billions of dollars home to benefit the 99% who are only hurt by those wars. Create jobs, decent healthcare system, quality social services, and educational opportunities. Put Congress back in the democratic hands of the people, and curtail the influence of money and power over the political process within the U.S. In other words, restore the promise of democracy: establish a government truly of the people, for the people, and by the people. That is the very meaning of democracy – an economics on behalf of the 99%, not the 1%.

The deep irony of the Occupy Wall Street movement is that the majority of the protestors would no doubt substantially agree with each of the above paragraphs. However, these paragraphs contradict one another: they cannot both be true. If the 1% are controlling a global system of domination and exploitation, enforced by global imperial military might, then the demands listed in the second paragraph cannot happen, for there is no way that a protest movement within one nation can transform a global system that controls and transcends that nation. There is no way to establish democracy and economics on behalf of the 99% within the United States alone. The 1% who control the world also control the economics and military and political system of the United States. Attempts at reform within the U.S., if successful, will result in mere window dressing. Even if some economic gains are made internal to the U.S., the global system of exploitation and domination will remain, leaving the majority of the world’s citizens in a living hell of poverty and deprivation. Is this what we really want?

In today’s world of globalized economics, globalized military domination, and globalized communications, the only route to democracy on behalf of the 99% must be global democracy. Reform within one nation – even the most powerful – will not even begin to change the domination of the world system by the 1% who control some 40% of the world’s wealth. The only force on Earth that can control an economic system is government: good democratic government with checks and balances on behalf of the 99%. It is precisely this that has not been globalized. Global banking today operates far beyond the reach of any one nation-state, as do multi-national corporations.

Occupy Wall Street claims solidarity with the people of Earth but does not act significantly in terms of that solidarity. Instead of petitioning Wall Street (which has the power not to listen and does not care), we need to act with the people of Earth to take charge of our planet and create global democracy. We should not be mere petitioners to power. We are the vast majority and need to take charge for the sake of ourselves, our children, and the future of our precious planet.

Only global democratic government could have the power to control these planetary economic forces. The only possible, really practical, option for the Occupy Wall Street movement is to organize behind the Constitution for the Federation of Earth. The Constitution is a practical and brilliantly written document that has been available in completed form since 1991 and translated into 23 languages. Once ratified, the Earth Federation government, representing 99% of the people of Earth, could easily shape global economics for the benefit of the people of Earth. Without planetary democracy, our economic demands can never be successful.

The Constitution for the Federation of Earth (available many places on-line) establishes a planetary economic system that already meets every demand in the second paragraph of this article (and more). Only it meets these for every nation on Earth, not only for (per impossible) the U.S. The first and most fundamental step taken by the Constitution is to make Earth Federation banking public, with the power of the government to create debt-free, interest free money to promote the well-being of the people of Earth. Not only this, but the power of money and banking can then for the first time be used to solve the entire nexus of interrelated global crises that plague our planet.

Economics under the Earth Constitution establishes peace (no more need for a global military to protect a system of exploitation and domination). It protects and restores the environment (no more need for business to destroy the ecology of our planet in the pursuit of private profit). And it creates reasonable prosperity for all: Article 19 of the Constitution guarantees everyone the rights to a living wage, quality healthcare, clean water and sanitation, access to education, social security, a decent environment, and peace.

None of this is utopian in the least. What is utopian is the Occupy Wall Street illusion that somehow we can benefit the 99% within the U.S. while leaving out the 99% of the rest of humanity. What is utopian is the illusion that real economic change can happen within a country in the face of the global control of the world’s economy in the hands of private banking and corporations. Since 1958, the Earth Federation Movement and the World Constitution and Parliament Association (WCPA) have been combating these utopian illusions that real change can take place within nation-states while ignoring the global economic system that determines the deeper conditions behind the politics, economics, and military of every nation.

If Occupy Wall Street is really about the 99%, then it must be about all of humanity. We citizens of Earth must declare “This is enough!” We must not take the denigrating role of demanding concessions from the 1%. It is not their world; it is ours! We do not ask them for concessions, we take charge of our world, our planet, to make it a decent place for all humanity to live. Only ratifying the Constitution for the Federation of Earth can achieve this. Only by accomplishing this work of global democracy can the people empower and enforce their right to a life on this beautiful Earth. We do not ask concessions from the 1%. We take what is rightfully ours. Our planet belongs to all of us, not the 1%.

We take charge by nonviolently creating a global democracy, which is the only force on Earth capable of making these necessary changes. It is the only force on Earth capable of protecting the environment, ending militarism, establishing peace, guaranteeing human rights, and creating universal prosperity. The economic demands of the Occupy Wall Street movement are, at their deepest and most honest level, really demands for global democracy under the Earth Constitution.