At that point you don’t do a protest, those are revolution numbers. Storm the government offices (who’s gonna stop you? The police and army are on your side apparently) and establish a dictatorship of the proletariat.
Remove the power dynamics created by capitalism. That’s the real problem with capitalism and why they fear socialism because socialism also removes the power dynamics
To be clear, socialism retains administration and organization, it just gradually abolishes class divisions.
Off the top of my head …
- free public health care for all.
- forgive all medical debt
- free public education for all, including college.
- forgive all student loan debt
- universal basic income
- more public housing. Homes are owned by the people who live in them, or the state. No profit seeking private orgs.
- close the “buy borrow die” loopholes, where people get untaxed loans to access their wealth without paying taxes
- more tax on the wealthy
- look into making property tax progressive like income. That is, the first $nnn of your house is untaxed, the next chunk at some percent, the following chunk at a greater percent, and so on.
- all Republicans removed from office. They are barred from government positions for life, as well as any private role with decision making power.
- break up mega corps. Disney, Microsoft, Amazon, etc. Their current leadership has their wealth seized, and they are barred from leadership positions for life.
- invest heavily in public transit and safety improvements to existing roadways. Cars are literally killing us as well as sapping our resources.
- mandatory profit sharing for employees.
- mandatory pay transparency
- maximum pay gap between roles. No more janitor making $7/HR while the CEO makes $300/hr
- accounting hijinks to pretend like your org made no profit, or “they’re not employees they’re contractors” are punishable by seizure of all wealth and a prohibition from similar roles for life
- come up with something so venture capitalist bros aren’t deciding the future, if the above doesn’t somehow fix it.
All power to the soviets
Nationalize the large firms and key industries, end all embargoes and sanctions on other countries, redistribute land from the landlords and private firms, end all overseas millitary bases, end all wars and pull out of NATO. Begin building mass rail, solar, and nuclear by engaging with strategic partnerships with China. Land back and decolonization of Turtle Island. Building up the productive forces via central planning and strong state funding, while gradually appropriating medium firms as they grow and monopolize.
Dismantling settler-colonialism and imperialism are the primary tasks of building socialism on Turtle Island.
Production and distribution will be run according to a common, scientific plan. Worker’s councils will be set up, alongside youth leagues. Social programs like free healthcare and education will be established, and a reduction to the 30 hour work week in the long-run. Full-employment will be achieved via mass infrastructure projects. The country will be connected and integrated with the city, suburbs will gradually be pivoted away from in favor of mixed-use, walkable city planning.
Full protections for LGBTQIA+ individuals and abortion protections. Religion will be purged from the state in all aspects, while being protected as an individual choice. Prison reform will be established, focusing on rehabilitation and ending the profit motive from incarceration. Police budgets will be slashed. National parks will recieve greater land and funding for protections, as will scientific advancement in medicine and more.
This seems like a lot, but it all stems from nationalizing the large firms and key industries, as well as redistribution of land, land back, and decolonization. As imperialism decays, the economic compulsion for self-reliance grows, meaning if the working classes can establish a socialist state then we can achieve the rest gradually.
If those ideas sound good to you, and you haven’t yet engaged with Marxist-Leninist theory, I made a basic study guide! Feel free to check it out!
But that would be communist!
Don’t you know that a society can’t be truly free unless the ones with power have the freedom to oppress those who don’t?
Oh silly me! /s
- Private equity out of family housing
- Public compulsory health insurance
- Progressive property tax based on number of residences
- Social programs for helping Homelessness and helping people own their first home
- Cap rent prices to an indexed table, tax landlords heavily if they rent multiple places
As a bit of a left field addition to other good suggestions already in this thread:
Rescind the fiduciary duty of any officer in a corporation to increase shareholder value no matter what. Exceptions must be made for cases where it would hurt the environment (anywhere on the planet and judging by the strictest state laws in effect), cause excessive loss of jobs, or hurt consumers.
I think a lot of problems of late stage capitalism are downstream consequences from this stupid law.
I think a lot of problems of late stage capitalism are downstream consequences from this stupid law.
Not really. Capital accumulation above all else is what makes capitalism capitalism. Even without that specific law the system as a whole incentivises and and pushes towards this end.
You’re criticizing capitalism fundamentally, which is valid. I wasn’t going that far. I didn’t think revolution was within the scope of this imaginary protest agenda we’re setting here. So baby steps. Reining in unbridled capitalism wherever possible (and necessary) is better than nothing.
I take no issue with that I just think you were misdiagnosing the issues as downstream of a single law as opposed to structural inevitability of the capitalist system whether that specific law exists or not.
- Set minumum wage to a living wage +auto adjust annually per inflation
- Medicare for all
- Replace social security with a retirement plan baked into the essential budget
The issue is that the solution is a large increase in the minimum wage, more regulation over the healthcare industry, and a lot more taxes on the rich. 40% of the population have been brainwashed into believing the solution is a bad thing.
No that’s not the solution, that’s a stopgap at best. A mild reform. It does nothing to address the core contradictions that drive capitalist crisis.
Representatives pay would be capped at a salary of the average of their constituents + a stipend for DC (maybe a little above average, but not terribly). Medical would also be that.
Also, term and age limits. If 35 is the minimum, 70 for first term should be maximum!
Term limits are antidemocratic and largely unhelpful as they disincentivise long term thinking. There’s a reason Amerikkka only put them in place in 1951 after FDR.
How would a term limit or especially age limit be anti Democratic? If someone “in power” abuses that power, there’s a limit to the damage that can be done. Even more, the system of checks and balances is not working as Trump is basically doing whatever he wants.
Long term thinking would be getting out of the broken 2 party system that the media and billionaire-controlled propaganda are spewing to keep focus on division rather solutions.
Both current “parties” are corrupt-whether equally or not it’s irrelevant. The argument of minimum wages is a joke because Democrats held office for 12 of the last 18 years it hadn’t changed.
We need to not only elect independent candidates for various offices positions, we need to fight to change the law eliminating corporate overreach by funding their campaign pets who will change the laws to their donor’s benefits (like Elon and Trump)
A. Stop using big tech it shrinks their hold over there American people as all as their buying power. B. Choose independent candidates who actually fight for the people. Not “a side” you mostly align with. C. Vote vote vote as much as anyone can. D. DO NOT BRING YOUR DEVICES to any protests as their often tracked, monitored, etc.
You’ve told us you think all the ideas others had aren’t good. What ideas do you think are good?
I’m not against stopgaps in themselves. If you do not have the power to force real change, then immediate achievable demands make sense. Working people need relief, and there is nothing wrong with fighting for rent caps, wage rises, debt relief, public housing, or stronger labour rights.
What I object to is pretending those things are the solution. They are not. They are stopgaps. They can ease the pressure for a time, but they do not remove the system that produces the crisis in the first place. They do not end landlordism, finance capital, monopoly power, imperialism, or production for profit. They manage the symptoms.
Fight for reforms where they are all you can win. But understand them for what they are. Temporary measures, not emancipation. The crisis of capitalism does not have a reformist solution. Its only solution is the overthrow of the system itself.
When the system is so awful and corrupt as it is, I’m not sure it matters if you call something a solution or not (which in any case I don’t think many people think “the solution” is any one given mediocre change). What’s important is improving lives, not criticizing anything short of perfection
Improving lives is generally good. The question is whether people are clear about what they are winning.
I was replying in this very thread to someone calling higher minimum wages and taxes on the rich the solution. That is the problem. Measures like that can be worth fighting for, but they are not a solution. They are stopgaps within the same system that created the crisis.
That matters because without that understanding people mistake temporary concessions for lasting change. They win reforms, are told the problem is solved, pressure drops, and then those reforms are rolled back as soon as capital regains the initiative. We have seen that repeatedly, including in Europe where social protections were swept back once the political balance shifted.
That is not criticizing anything short of perfection. It is insisting on political clarity. Fight for every immediate gain you can win, yes. But understand that unless the system itself is broken, those gains remain limited, fragile, and easily reversible.
Representatives shouldn’t make any money at all. We don’t need poor people trying to represent us.
It’s a job, they should get paid.
They can get paid through insider trading. Why do we need to pay them an honest salary?
