(sorry for the double post!!)

Originally posted by Aislin

Originally posted by OneManBand
Im british and I'm in, but this is just too American.

Hi OMB.

I would love to hear any ideas that you or other Britains (or Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, etc...) have to contribute.

What about what has been discussed so far do you find "too American"? How or what do you think should be done differently?

Aislin

Firstly, great thread. This is an important step to take and it will require a lot of organization. In regards to the comments quoted above, perhaps we should start by defining regions or chapters. That way we can identify what resources we have available to us in any given area. Perhaps start with states and provinces for the US and Canada, as well as other countries, of course.

Within each region, a 'coordinator' can be appointed to determine what resources are available in each locale (and by resources I mean people that may have access to printing press, graphic designers, people with media connections etc), and then go about the task of making sure we all have the tools needed to take coordinated action.

I'm not sure how best to go about this, perhaps someone from the ATS staff could set up a separate forum for each region.

What does everybody think?

Apologies if this has been mentioned in a previous post but I couldn't see it.

[edit on 23/10/08 by liketoknow]

[edit on 23/10/08 by liketoknow]

I'd think that the first and easiest thing to do, is to stop using plastic in any form Debit or credit. This denies the card companies(which used to be owned wholly by a consortium of major banks but now are public with the original owners still being major shareholders) the percentage of each transaction that they get when you use plastic. It also forces us to budget ourselves in our shopping. I personally still use debit but only when I must go to Wal-Mart, I honestly don't care if that company pays a part of their profits to banks. The only inconveniences I've noticed to date are having to hit the ATM at my bank to avoid non-customer ATM fees and having to prepay for gas instead of putting the card in at the pump.

I also notice something I don't think I've ever seen outside of diesel prices lately. I stopped by a small locally (meaning Indian or Arab I'm not sure) owned store and they had cash and credit prices for Beer listed.

Since I started this thread, let me, if I may,make some comments.
First, what we are doing is not treason. We are expressing our opinions on the current crisis and what needs to be done to address those problems. Boycotting goods, services, and the MSM are not treasonous acts. They are the acts of a free people, regardless of country.
As I've stated several times, I do not believe that we should even consider resorting to violence. First, that makes us no better than the crooks we are trying to stop. We have brains, we still have free will, we wield some economic power. Use those traits. The people on ATS, for the most part, are more intelligent than many of the people we are fighting. The difference is that they have no morals or ethics. They think that makes them invincible. Well, what it does is make them vulnerable. Unethical people usually end up doing something that gets them in trouble. Even the Enron crooks eventually ended up in jail.
We have people in every walk of life here. You have eyes and ears. If you hear or see something at work or in company of such people, document and report them anonymously. Don't look the other way, but of course, be careful. Again, don't do anything illegal, but don't ignore illegal activities.
Use the power of the pen-write/email to companies. Let them know when they have done something wrong. Flood your representatives with letters and emails. Make your positions clear.
I have heard on this thread many offers of help, with websites, with web design. Let's get our message out, and take up these offers from the kind members that have offered to help.
Let's join with other groups that will boycott. Should we just join another group? That's up to each individual, but there is certainly nothing wrong with working with them on common themes, such as the Black Friday boycott. For those that want this to be an American effort only, please reconsider. We are all in this together. If we make this a "US versus the World", we do JUST what the PTB want- to have people fighting with each other instead of being united against them.
Some of the critics here have said that "nothing will ever come of this". That is defeatism, and I won't admit defeat. It's not in me to do that, and I hope it is not in you also. This effort won't be easy. I don't deny that, but those that think this will be a cakewalk, don't join. I won't be easy, sacrifices will have to be made, yes. However, how many involuntary sacrifices have been made by us, because of the actions of treasonous government officials in our respective countries? How many have had to sacrifice their homes because of crooked bankers and wall street financiers? How many have had to sacrifice our jobs because of corporate villains that run sweat shops in third world countries? By doing NOTHING, you guarantee that these INVOLUNTARY sacrifices will continue. By acting, you begin to get back CONTROL of your LIFE and FUTURE. Unfortunately, in today's technological society, people have grown accustomed to instant answers, instant gratification, instant results. Well, our fight will not have instant results. However, the Chinese have a saying "A journey of a 1000 miles begins with a single step."
I for one, will take that single step. I hope you come along.
I have read every post, and again, I am very heartened to see some many people respond. You truly have heart. I was reading one of the posts, and happened to see two words next to each other, and it rang a bell. Those two words were "people first". It was just in a sentence talking about an issue, but I thought, "PEOPLE FIRST", what a great name for such a movement. It encompasses everything that we have been talking about.
Anyway, I wanted to get these thought out. Personally, I think we should take up the kind offers of those who have offered websites and web design. What better way to get our message out, and enlist others, than through the web? I await your responses.

I felt that it was necessary, since baseball101 has created a thread asking for threads like ours to stop, to reply to him in his thread. I have done so, and I am repeating my response to him here, so that everyone can read it without wasting time on his thread. Here is my response:

I hesitate to even respond to you, but since one of the threads you cited was mine, I will.
First, my thread "A call to actions for all ATS members" is just what is says:
A CALL TO ACTION
Not a call to talk, or discuss, but a CALL TO ACT.
Now, before you ACT, you need to PLAN and AGREE what those ACTIONS should be. Simple enough.
If you don't want to act, fine. Then you are guilty of what you are accusing others of, namely taking no action. That is your choice, but understand you are basically yelling at yourself.
Many of us will take actions, and NO, they will NOT be violent. That would be stooping to the level of the people we are trying to stop.
If you are perfectly happy with the way things are going, fine. Then you have no reason to complain. Otherwise, if you are not happy, then by doing nothing, you admit defeat. Again, that is your choice.
We are taking action. Boycotts, setting up websites, , getting the word out to those not on ATS, THOSE are actions. They are a start. They are much more than you are doing by complaining that our threads need to stop. Hopefully they WON'T STOP, and hopefully, good will come from our actions. We have had many offers of help from members, some of whom have only come forward because of our call to action. I applaud them. They are true modern day heroes. they are offering their time and services to help others.
What we are doing is NOT TREASONOUS. It is HUMANITY helping HUMANITY, and yes, it's corny perhaps, but we are FIGHTING EVIL.
I am proud to work with these people.

Micro bank micro loan barter sell and trade on your own, the way it was is the way it is going to be..the way forward is the way we were prior to..ELECTRONIC money.

Hey can we go after all the people who bought a house that they knew they could not afford and then did not even try to make a payment? How about all those people who had a student loan and a car loan and a credit card and no job? Can we go after them as well? How about all those people who make more money than they should just because they are "famous"? Do we really need another Paris Hilton? No talent except she is famous for being famous? Oh oh here is a real good one ! How about all those Labor Union Bosses that said they were working to get a better wage and benefits for the workers and then they rolled over like a drunk possum when it came down to gut check time? Can we go after them? Please? Pretty Please? I have my own club !

I may have been a little over zelous in saying some of what I said in my last post. But maybe I should clear up what I'm saying before there is even a chance to be misunderstood. We need people of both mindsets to get anything done. While I agree whole heartedly that we cant run amuck commiting random acts of violence in the street, we can't rely soley on what amounts to be dressed up letter writting and handbilling either. There has to be both. Neither one nor the other will work as a stand alone. But givien the atitudes of most Americans and the people on this board, I am fed up. I'm going to concern myself with making sure i can get by and in the mean time I'm going to watch the rest of you fail about as the ship sinks