During the 1940's, Mahatma Ghandi liberated India and inspired millions by exemplifying the doctrine of ahimsa. India was being exploited by its colonial overlord, Britain, and was fed up. Tired of being servants in their own land, they chose a pious hindu, Ghandi, as their revolutionary leader but he did not take up arms. He believed in AHIMSA, the doctrine of non violence. This is the pillar of Hindu ethics. It teaches that one should not generate any kind of suffering to other living beings, one should not harm them or kill them for food and one should be kind to all.

Before Ghandi, there were two ways in which hostile groups solved their conflicts: either there was submission or conquest (including genocide) or both. So Ghandi proposed that he would not fight the British: he would instead use BOYCOTTS as a non-violent tactic to bring his enemy to its knees. The British empire was based on economic exploitation. With no participation by the wage slaves, there was no incentive, no production and it was indeed costly to keep the empire.

This way, independence was won, not without internal violence (in spite of Ghandi) but much bloodshed was spared. He encouraged peaceful relations between Hindus and Muslims by inviting them to occupy the streets and pray together for independence and freedom following the tradition of Kabir, of Shirdi Sai Baba and others. He later created a secular and egalitarian democratic state and abolished the caste system.

A generation later, the whole world knew of his feats, in Bahia, Brasil there is now a brotherhood named after Ghandi, and in the sixties another non-violent resistance movement spread on the other side of the globe: that led by Martin Luther King Jr. whose personal hero happened to be Ghandi. He fought segregation and racism through the exact same non violent tactics: there was a major boycott of all institutions and businesses that engaged in dehumanizing and racist practices.

Again, there was violence (and these two particular leaders were killed) but we must note firstly that it COULD HAVE been much worse, and secondly that both peaceful revolutions ACHIEVED THEIR ULTIMATE PURPOSE: India got its independence and the south got its Civil Rights Law enacted.

This proves that the doctrine of non-violence can and has been efficiently applied to change an entire society and bring freedom to vast groups of people, and that this has historically been accomplished via the tactic of boycotting the perpetrators, and usually with the assistance of religious and community organizations that have the ability to mobilize a large number of consumers. The current crisis in the US is a FINANCIAL CRISIS. The perpetrators are also vulnerable to the same tactic, if applied intelligently so that they affect those in power but protect US by giving US the poor and working class a stronger standing in the economy.

Since we have no outlet in the political process, since there are hordes of lobbyists in Congress ready to purchase all of our elected officials, we must think creatively and stand proudly on the shoulders of those that came before us and learn from their example.

So that is that HISTORY of non-violent politics, its future remains unwritten. We say that Occupy Wall Street is a non-violent movement and that makes us morally superior to those in power who profiteer from war and theft. We should seek to resolve conflicts peacefully but that does not mean that we cannot exert our FINANCIAL muscle against those who have lied to us, stolen from us, given themselves privileges and bonuses undeserved and pushed us further and further to the margins of society, and later mocked us by opening their champaign bottles and toasting as we (seemingly powerless) spoke up against their greed and iniquity. Huh. We are Legion and their day has come.

I say:

We should boycott all the major for-profit banks and transfer our funds to small local community banks and non-profit credit unions.

We should payoff all our credit cards, and then close them and never again do business with the major banks. We should call debt SLAVERY and never again engage in usury either as consumers or debtors.

We should reject consumerism and debt slavery. We should learn to live within our means, frugally, as this is true financial freedom. This is actually the first element that most first generation millionaires in America have in common, according to the book 'The Millionaire Next Door' - they live within their means and are not ostentatious about their wealth: this is how true wealth is created, and most people who SEEM wealthy, drive the best cars and live in the best neighborhoods are really in debt. They're not truly wealthy. Financial freedom is often NOT apparent.

We should boycott corporate media AND ITS SPONSORS who buy commercials from them - we should particularly boycott Fox News. We should stop this collective hypnosis, seek alternative media outlets and get our news and entertainment from these alternative sources.

As for the powerful oil cartel, we should share the film 'Who Killed the Electric Car?' with all our acquaintances and call for a return of the electric car and use, whenever possible, cars that run on hydrofuel or other renewable, clean fuel. The film '2012: A Time for Change' illuminates the possibilities for hydrofuel bikes. There are people who have already engineered our revolution. We should also boycott crops that rely on petrochemicals.

We should slowly implement and normalize local and complementary currencies not created by the Federal Reserve and backed by the institutions in which we DO have faith. These may be community (usually time-based) currencies, like the Ithaca hour used in Ithaca, New York or the other local forms of currency that are in use or may be created in the future. This will at least give local businessmen and farmers leverage against large corporations and keep wealth local. There are also silver and gold coins in circulation issued by the Federal government that are not debt based. These infrastructures will take time to develop but a long journey begins always with a step.

We should also boycott the wage-slavery system by creating new work environments where human relations are horizontal, not pyramidal as in capitalism. Like Argentinians did a decade ago when they went through a similar economic collapse, we should create WORKER COOPS where all workers are owners of the means of production and, since they collectively work for themselves, there is no one to fire them. All the roles within worker coops are shared and relations are egalitarian. Decisions are made collectively. It gives workers excellent skills and the entrepreneurial spirit is shared by all. There are agencies that specifically dedicate themselves to helping to support, train and fund new workers' coops. Why have a boss? Why not business partners?

We should call for a general boycott of all Monsanto products including their cancer-inducing milk and meat, their GMO soybeans and franken-corn, and in general we should avoid the Big Pharma products and seek out, where available and practical, traditional and natural medicines. We should stop calling them 'alternative medicine'. These medicines (such as Gerson's therapy which has been maligned by the cancer industry because the pharmaceutical companies make no money but has higher rates of recovery than chemo) are not 'alternative', they are simply medicines which lack corporate backing. For more info on Max Gerson's therapy, pls see the film 'A Beautiful Truth'.

However, in order for a general boycott in the US to be successful, it needs strong leaders perhaps among the Occupy Wall Street celebrities, politicians, or spokespersons. Someone who is already visible and is willing to step up and become a consumer advocate. These mass boycott movements generally require an altruistic, outspoken and articulate leadership.

Because the OWS movement lacks strong leadership, and because of the backlash that single leaders of mass boycotts have suffered in the past, the ideal should be for a campaign led by NUMEROUS celebrities and personalities, and numerous people from the occupation who can clearly explain the imperatives of the boycott so that the movement does not have one clear person calling for a boycott, instead it should have an entire army of consumer advocates.

This should not be an only tactic but certainly should be one of the several ways in which we occupy America's fiscal reality.

We can no longer be blind consumers. A dollar spent at Gap or buying Nike shoes invariably finances child slavery and / or sweatshops in China, Indonesia, India and other countries, and we now know this. That's where revolution should start: we vote with our dollars, we say 'this is the world that we want to co create'.