| Progressive Calendar 10.11.11 / 2 | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: David Shove (shove001 umn.edu)
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| Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2011 12:52:16 -0700 (PDT) | |
P R O G R E S S I V E C A L E N D A R 10.11.11
1. OccupyMN v TCF 10.11 5pm
2. No stadium tax 10.11 6pm
3. Pentel/party 10.11 6pm
4. 9/11 10.11 7pm
5. Full moon walk 10.11 7pm
6. Money/series 10.11 {and on) 7pm
7. UHCAN 10.11 7:30pm
8. Chris Hedges - Why the elites are in trouble
9. ed - Bumpersticker
--------1 of 9--------
Brad Sigal bradsigal [at] gmail.com to bcc: me
OccupyMN v TCF 10.11 5pm
March from OccupyMN will target TCF Bank Tuesday at 5:00 p.m.
“The 99% have had enough of TCF Bank’s domination of Minnesota politics and
economy!”
On Tuesday, Oct. 11 at 5:00 p.m., there will be a rally at the OccupyMN
occupation (Government Plaza a.k.a. People’s Plaza, 300 S. 6th St,
Minneapolis) which will then march to TCF Bank. The march will target TCF
Bank because the bank is based in the Twin Cities and plays a huge role in
buying pro-corporate politicians to shape pro-corporate and anti-people laws
and policies in Minnesota.
TCF Bank is a huge contributor to pro-corporate politicians and causes. In
the 2010 elections, TCF Bank gave $250,000 to the State Fund for Economic
Growth, LLC, which in turn gave the money to MN Forward to support far right
wing pro-corporate politicians, and the Taxpayer’s League of Minnesota,
which is dedicated to destroying any government program that benefits poor
or working people.
TCF Bank tried to make it hard for the public to even know where they are
spending their political contributions. Last year, Target corporation came
under intense criticism and protests for their contributions to MN Forward,
but TCF Bank did not receive as much public criticism because they funneled
their contributions through the State Fund for Economic Growth, LLC, which
is entirely funded by TCF Bank. It took further reasearch before it became
known that SFEG was just an added layer of bureaucracy to hide the TCF’s
political contributions to extreme pro-corporate and anti-people causes.
According to Kim DeFranco, a participant in OccupyMN and a member of the MN
Coalition for a People’s Bailout, “TCF Bank is terrible. Everyone should
come out to the People’s Plaza to march on TCF this Tuesday at 5:00 pm. They
shamelessly defend the ultra-rich, giving endless money to pro-corporate
right wing politicians, while they snub poor and working people. On Tuesday
at 5:00 p.m. we’ll send them a strong message that the 99% won’t take it
anymore.”
--------2 of 9--------
Amber Garlan
No stadium tax 10.11 6pm
There is a Ramsey County Charter Commission hearing Tuesday 10/11/11 at 6:00
in St. Paul City Hall chambers on the 3rd floor to hear public comments on
tax money being spent to build a new Vikings Stadium. If you would like to
get on the list to speak, please contact Bonnie Jackelen at
bonnie.jackelen [at] co.ramsey.mn.us or 651 266-8014.
I [Amber] am on the list to speak. Here is the fact that I am going to
give.Ramey County eliminated its “Meals on Wheels” program that delivered
meals to our vulnerable adults in 2011 due to lack of funding.The question
that I am going to ask is; why do we have enough tax payer money to
subsidize a multi millionaire, but not enough money to deliver food to
vulnerable adults?
It is good information to know that the Charter Commission by law required
to put the tax subsidy on the ballot. The address of St. Paul City Hall is
15 Kellogg Blvd, W. in St. Paul 55102.
--------3 of 9--------
From: "Ken Pentel" <kenpentel [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: Pentel/party 10.11 6pm
Classes: How to Start a Political Party in Minnesota and Get on the Ballot
Dear Supporters and Trackers of the Ecology Democracy Network,
Erin Smith (Formerly Erin Wallace) a Network stalwart, Lieutenant Governor
Candidate in 2010, and writer of the Network pamphlet: “Starting a
Political Party in Minnesota”, will be offering classroom education
empowering people on how to start a political party and get on ballot as a
candidate.
I feel Erin’s teachings give people the tools to help our political system
become better, evolve and hold people in power accountable.
Below you will find the details.
Sign-up and help spread the word.
Ken
Politics: How to Start a Political Party in Minnesota (Southwest)
11154 Instructor: Smith
Tuesday, 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm; 1 session starting October 11, 2011, ending
October 11, 2011 Location: Southwest High School (612) 668-3100 Tuition:
$18.00 Materials Cost: $0.00
Politics: How to Start a Political Party in Minnesota (Southwest) 11154
Instructor: Smith
Tuesday, 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm; 1 session starting October 11, 2011, ending
October 11, 2011 Location: Southwest High School (612) 668-3100 Tuition:
$18.00 Materials Cost: $0.00
Erin Smith, Lt. Governor candidate for the newly formed Ecology Democracy
Party, will be teaching two classes this fall through Southwest Community
Education:
Politics: Getting on the Ballot in a State Partisan Office as an Independent
(Southwest)
Class Description
Have you ever had an issue important to you but don't see that issue
represented when you walk into the booth to vote? Have you ever thought of
running for office but not with a major party? Then this class is for you.
We will cover a step-by-step process to get you on the ballot for State
House, State Senate, US House, US Senate, Governor, Secretary of State,
State Auditor, or Attorney General. Instructor: Erin Smith.
Tuesday, 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm; 1 session starting October 25, 2011, ending
October 25, 2011
Tuition: $18.00
Instructor: Smith
Location: Southwest High School (612) 668-3100
Class Description
Have you ever had an issue important to you but don't see that issue
represented when you walk into the booth to vote? Have you ever thought of
running for office but not with a major party? Then this class is for you.
We will cover a step-by-step process to get you on the ballot for State
House, State Senate, US House, US Senate, Governor, Secretary of State,
State Auditor, or Attorney General. Instructor: Erin Smith.
Tuesday, 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm; 1 session starting October 25, 2011, ending
October 25, 2011
Tuition: $18.00
Instructor: Smith
Location: Southwest High School (612) 668-3100
Have you ever had an issue important to you but don't see that issue
represented when you walk into the booth to vote? Have you ever thought of
running for office but not with a major party? Then this class is for you.
We will cover a step-by-step process to get you on the ballot for State
House, State Senate, US House, US Senate, Governor, Secretary of State,
State Auditor, or Attorney General. Instructor: Erin Smith.
Tuesday, 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm; 1 session starting October 25, 2011, ending
October 25, 2011
Tuition: $18.00
Tuesday, 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm; 1 session starting October 25, 2011, ending
October 25, 2011 Tuesday, 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm; 1 session starting October 25,
2011, ending October 25, 2011
Tuition: $18.00
Tuition: $18.00
Politics: How to Start a Political Party in Minnesota (Southwest)
Learn more about what it means to exercise your democratic rights. In this
class we will cover the steps necessary to create a political party in
Minnesota. Students will also be given materials and resources helpful in
this pursuit. Instructor: Erin Smith.
Tuesday, 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm; 1 session starting October 11, 2011, ending
October 11, 2011
Tuition: $18.00
Follow the link below to sign up!
http://www.mplscommunityed.com/index.cfm?method=ClassListing.ClassListingDisplay&int_category_id=1&int_sub_category_id=4&int_catalog_id
=
Ken Pentel Director of the Ecology Democracy Network P.O. Box 3872
Minneapolis, MN 55403 www.ecologydemocracynetwork.org kenpentel [at] yahoo.com
(612)
387-0601
--------4 of 9--------
From: shirley johnson
9/11 10.11 7pm
Meeting at Mim's / Lori's 1441 Cleveland Ave N, St Paul meeting starts at
7:00 PM
Agenda
Report from Hennepin County Government Center: OWS / OccupyMN
(I have been burning dvds and printing pamphlets to be distributed to
attendees at OccupyMN and the Mankato Women's Spirituality Conference in
Mankato, Minnesota, on October 22 - 23, 2011. I will be bringing materials
to the meeting at Mim's with the hope people will pick up materials to be
distributed to people who will make good use of them.)
Funding
Break-out groups; short period of time in a small group which will report
back to the entire group
Is our purpose still educational & informational with goal of getting a
new investigation with subpoena power?
Strategies to be used
Should we expand "purpose" to formally include "peace activities?"
Who will lead? Please nominate people you believe have the leadership
skills we need; include yourself!
(I see leadership needs in the following areas: public relations, program
planning, literature creation, web site maintenance, group historian, group
spokesperson)
Poll the members in your break-out group:
Do you want training? what kind?
Do you want updates on what other state truth groups are doing?
Do you want to see videos?
Should meeting locations be changed?
--------5 of 9-------
Seasnun seasnun [at] gmail.com to purplepaix, bcc: me
Full moon walk 10.11 7pm
Hope you can attend the Hunter’s Full Moon Walk at Coldwater on Tuesday,
October 11 at 7 PM where we will enjoy the place and hunt for ways to keep
returning.
Directions: Coldwater is south of Minnehaha Park, in Minneapolis. From Hwy
55/Hiawatha, turn East (toward the Mississippi) at 54th Street, take an
immediate right, & drive South on the frontage road for ½-mile past the
parking meters, through the cul-de-sac, through the main gate & past the
brick abandoned building. Follow the curvy road left & then right down to
the Spring House and reservoir.
Free. Open to all. Info: www.friendsofcoldwater.org
--------6 of 9--------
Richard Kotlarz
Money/series 10.11 {and on) 7pm
Announcing: Money, Society and the Spirit:
A workshop presented by Richard Kotlarz and Steven Gorg.
• What is the real story behind all the bad economic news?
• Why are we not richer by our burgeoning tangible wealth, instead of
poorer by a snowballing financial “debt”?
• How could it be that an innocent child born in the U.S. today is
already, according to the “experts,” a quarter-million dollars in
“debt”? When did newborn babies borrow this money? How are they
supposed to “repay” it? Is their future mortgaged before it starts?
Has “original debt” replaced “original sin”?
• If every dollar in circulation is “borrowed” into existence through
“loans” from private banks, where does the money to pay the “interest”
come from?
• After a century of explosive growth in real economic activity, why
have we not grown out of our “debt”? Is there a perverse logic built
into the system that is causing us to grow into it our “debt”?
• Why in the last century have family farmers been forced off the land
by financial foreclosure, or threat of foreclosure, until now those
living on the farm comprise less that two-percent of the population?
• What is this “debt” burden doing in real terms to our civilization,
our earth, ourselves? What is “debt” anyway? What is its effect on the
psyche of generations growing up in saturation of its financial
demands, ecological devastation and social disintegration?
• If I am well-educated, working hard and “playing by the rules” in
the “richest country on earth,” why can I not pay my bills and/or why
am I perpetually in debt?
• Has fear of financial destitution replaced fear of dying as the most
dreaded eventuality in people’s lives?
• Is there hope?
These and many other monetary riddles haunt our post-modern world.
Indeed, they are increasingly experienced as threatening the viability
of our personal lives, the existence of civilization, and even the
continuation of life on earth itself. Can we get a perspective on
this? Can we turn a corner? Is there a vision on the other side?
These questions and more will be explored in a series of two-hour
evening sessions, that will meet every week.
Location:
Macalester College (Old Main, Room 009)
1600 Grand Avenue, Saint Paul, MN
Dates & Times (Repeats every week through Tuesday, December 13, 2011):
Tuesday, Oct. 11, 7 to 9 pm
Tuesday, Oct. 18, 7 to 9 pm
Tuesday, Oct. 25, 7 to 9 pm
Tuesday, Nov. 1, 7 to 9 pm
Tuesday, Nov. 8, 7 to 9 pm
Tuesday, Nov. 15, 7 to 9 pm
Tuesday, Nov. 22, 7 to 9 pm
Tuesday, Nov. 29, 7 to 9 pm
Tuesday, Dec. 6, 7 to 9 pm
Tuesday, Dec. 13, 7 to 9 pm
Facilitators:
Richard Kotlarz: Richard is a seeker after the truth about money and
the economic life, who has engaged in literally thousands of
discussions on money-related topics with people from all walks of
life, across the U.S., and in Canada and Europe.
Steven Gorg: Steven is a professional environmental engineer who has
come to see that becoming truly conscious about Money is the portal
through which a meaningful and effective ecological and social
transformation can be achieved.
Richard and Steven have discovered that, concerning money, there is a
story to be told and a vision to behold of which We the People are
getting hardly even an inkling through conventional media, academic
orthodoxy, or popular culture.
Facilitator Contact Information:
richkotlarz [at] gmail.com, 218-828-1366
steve [at] stevegorg.com
Offered under auspices of Experimental Community Education of the Twin
Cities
--------7 of 9--------
From: Joel Albers
UHCAN 10.11 7:30pm
Next UHCAN-MN mtg: TUESDAY, Oct 11, 7:30pm,
PLEASE NOTE LOCATION CHANGE
Hennepin County Government Center, @ 300 S. 6th St. Mpls
(Peoples' Plaza between the Henn Cty Govt Ctr and Mpls City Hall
on the LRT line, Pls meet at the "MEDIC" Booth)
topics to include:
1.Occupy MN, Health Over Wealth, currently “Occupy Together” Meet-ups in
1,112 cities
across the US with 83 confirmed occupations across the world. Lets join the
excitement and energy.
2.organizing Co-Op Health Insurance for MN,apply for fed funding, work
group
3. progress report on UHCAN-MN Comprehensive Directory of HC services,
Janet
4.progress report on ways to solve the Rx drug shortage,price crisis,
Daniel
5.brief report back: networking w/ disability community
other items ?
joel
--------8 of 9--------
Why the elites are in trouble
by Chris Hedges
Ketchup, a petite 22-year-old from Chicago with wavy red hair and glasses
with bright red frames, arrived in Zuccotti Park in New York on Sept. 17.
She had a tent, a rolling suitcase, 40 dollars’ worth of food, the graphic
version of Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” and a
sleeping bag. She had no return ticket, no idea what she was undertaking,
and no acquaintances among the stragglers who joined her that afternoon to
begin the Wall Street occupation. She decided to go to New York after
reading the Canadian magazine Adbusters, which called for the occupation,
although she noted that when she got to the park Adbusters had no
discernable presence.
The lords of finance in the looming towers surrounding the park, who toy
with money and lives, who make the political class, the press and the
judiciary jump at their demands, who destroy the ecosystem for profit and
drain the U.S. Treasury to gamble and speculate, took little notice of
Ketchup or any of the other scruffy activists on the street below them. The
elites consider everyone outside their sphere marginal or invisible. And
what significance could an artist who paid her bills by working as a
waitress have for the powerful? What could she and the others in Zuccotti
Park do to them? What threat can the weak pose to the strong? Those who
worship money believe their buckets of cash, like the $4.6 million JPMorgan
Chase gave a few days ago to the New York City Police Foundation, can buy
them perpetual power and security. Masters all, kneeling before the idols of
the marketplace, blinded by their self-importance, impervious to human
suffering, bloated from unchecked greed and privilege, they were about to be
taught a lesson in the folly of hubris.
Even now, three weeks later, elites, and their mouthpieces in the press,
continue to puzzle over what people like Ketchup want. Where is the list of
demands? Why don’t they present us with specific goals? Why can’t they
articulate an agenda?
The goal to people like Ketchup is very, very clear. It can be articulated
in one word—REBELLION. These protesters have not come to work within the
system. They are not pleading with Congress for electoral reform. They know
electoral politics is a farce and have found another way to be heard and
exercise power. They have no faith, nor should they, in the political system
or the two major political parties. They know the press will not amplify
their voices, and so they created a press of their own. They know the
economy serves the oligarchs, so they formed their own communal system. This
movement is an effort to take our country back.
This is a goal the power elite cannot comprehend. They cannot envision a day
when they will not be in charge of our lives. The elites believe, and seek
to make us believe, that globalization and unfettered capitalism are natural
law, some kind of permanent and eternal dynamic that can never be altered.
What the elites fail to realize is that rebellion will not stop until the
corporate state is extinguished. It will not stop until there is an end to
the corporate abuse of the poor, the working class, the elderly, the sick,
children, those being slaughtered in our imperial wars and tortured in our
black sites. It will not stop until foreclosures and bank repossessions
stop. It will not stop until students no longer have to go into debt to be
educated, and families no longer have to plunge into bankruptcy to pay
medical bills. It will not stop until the corporate destruction of the
ecosystem stops, and our relationships with each other and the planet are
radically reconfigured. And that is why the elites, and the rotted and
degenerate system of corporate power they sustain, are in trouble. That is
why they keep asking what the demands are. They don’t understand what is
happening. They are deaf, dumb and blind.
“The world can’t continue on its current path and survive,” Ketchup told me.
“That idea is selfish and blind. It’s not sustainable. People all over the
globe are suffering needlessly at our hands.”
The occupation of Wall Street has formed an alternative community that
defies the profit-driven hierarchical structures of corporate capitalism. If
the police shut down the encampment in New York tonight, the power elite
will still lose, for this vision and structure have been imprinted into the
thousands of people who have passed through park, renamed Liberty Plaza by
the protesters. The greatest gift the occupation has given us is a blueprint
for how to fight back. And this blueprint is being transferred to cities and
parks across the country.
“We get to the park,” Ketchup says of the first day. “There’s madness for a
little while. There were a lot of people. They were using megaphones at
first. Nobody could hear. Then someone says we should get into circles and
talk about what needed to happen, what we thought we could accomplish. And
so that’s what we did. There was a note-taker in each circle. I don’t know
what happened with those notes, probably nothing, but it was a good start.
One person at a time, airing your ideas. There was one person saying that he
wasn’t very hopeful about what we could accomplish here, that he wasn’t very
optimistic. And then my response was that, well, we have to be optimistic,
because if anybody’s going to get anything done, it’s going be us here.
People said different things about what our priorities should be. People
were talking about the one-demand idea. Someone called for AIG executives to
be prosecuted. There was someone who had come from Spain to be there, saying
that she was here to help us avoid the mistakes that were made in Spain. It
was a wide spectrum. Some had come because of their own personal suffering
or what they saw in the world.”
“After the circles broke I felt disheartened because it was sort of
chaotic,” she said. “I didn’t have anybody there, so it was a little
depressing. I didn’t know what was going to happen.”
“Over the past few months, people had been meeting in New York City general
assembly,” she said. “One of them is named Brooke. She’s a professor of
social ecology. She did my facilitation training. There’s her and a lot of
other people, students, school teachers, different people who were involved
with that … so they organized a general assembly.”
“It’s funny that the cops won’t let us use megaphones, because it’s to make
our lives harder, but we actually end up making a much louder sound [with
the “people’s
mic”<http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/peoples_microphone_or_peoples_mike_using_voices_for_amplified_sound/>]
and I imagine it’s much more annoying to the people around us,” she said. “I
had been in the back, unable to hear. I walked to different parts of the
circle. I saw this man talking in short phrases and people were repeating
them. I don’t know whose idea it was, but that started on the first night.
The first general assembly was a little chaotic because people had no idea …
a general assembly, what is this for? At first it was kind of grandstanding
about what were our demands. Ending corporate personhood is one that has
come up again and again as a favorite and. … What ended up happening was,
they said, OK, we’re going to break into work groups.
“People were worried we were going to get kicked out of the park at 10 p.m.
This was a major concern. There were tons of cops. I’ve heard that it’s
costing the city a ton of money to have constant surveillance on a bunch of
peaceful protesters who aren’t hurting anyone. With the people’s mic,
everything we do is completely transparent. We know there are undercover
cops in the crowd. I think I was talking to one last night, but it’s like,
what are you trying to accomplish? We don’t have any secrets.”
“The undercover cops are the only ones who ask, ‘Who’s the leader?’ ” she
said. “Presumably, if they know who our leaders are they can take them out.
The fact is we have no leader. There’s no leader, so there’s nothing they
can do.
“There was a woman [in the medics unit]. This guy was pretending to be a
reporter. The first question he asks is, ‘Who’s the leader?’ She goes, ‘I’m
the leader.’ And he says, ‘Oh yeah, what are you in charge of?’ She says,
‘I’m in a charge of everything.’ He says, ‘Oh yeah? What’s your title?’ She
says ‘God.’ ”
“So it’s 9:30 p.m. and people are worried that they’re going to try and rush
us out of the camp,” she said, referring back to the first day. “At 9:30
they break into work groups. I joined the group on contingency plans. The
job of the bedding group was to find cardboard for people to sleep on. The
contingency group had to decide what to do if they kick us out. The big
decision we made was to announce to the group that if we were dispersed we
were going to meet back at 10 a.m. the next day in the park. Another group
was arts and culture. What was really cool was that we assumed we were going
to be there more than one night. There was a food group. They were going
dumpster diving. The direct action committee plans for direct, visible
action like marches. There was a security team. It’s security against the
cops. The cops are the only people we think that might hurt us. The security
team keeps people awake in shifts. They always have people awake.”
The work groups make logistical decisions, and the general assembly makes
large policy decisions.
“Work groups make their own decisions,” Ketchup said. “For example, someone
donated a laptop. And because I’ve been taking minutes I keep running around
and asking, ‘Does someone have a laptop I could borrow?’ The media team,
upon receiving that laptop, designated it to me for my use on behalf of the
Internet committee. The computer isn’t mine. When I go back to Chicago, I’m
not going to take it. Right now I don’t even know where it is. Someone else
is using it. But so, after hearing this, people thought it had been gifted
to me personally. People were upset by that. So a member of the Internet
work group went in front of the group and said, ‘This is a need of the
committee. It’s been put into Ketchup’s care.’ They explained that to the
group, but didn’t ask for consensus on it, because the committees are
empowered. Some people might still think that choice was inappropriate. In
the future, it might be handled differently.”
Working groups blossomed in the following days. The media working group was
joined by a welcome working group for new arrivals, a sanitation working
group (some members of which go around the park on skateboards as they carry
brooms), a legal working group with lawyers, an events working group, an
education working group, medics, a facilitation working group (which trains
new facilitators for the general assembly meetings), a public relations
working group, and an outreach working group for like-minded communities as
well as the general public. There is an Internet working group and an open
source technology working group. The nearby McDonald’s is the principal
bathroom for the park after Burger King banned protesters from its
facilities.
Caucuses also grew up in the encampment, including a “Speak Easy caucus.”
“That’s a caucus I started,” Ketchup said. “It is for a broad spectrum of
individuals from female-bodied people who identify as women to male-bodied
people who are not traditionally masculine. That’s called the ‘Speak Easy’
caucus. I was just talking to a woman named Sharon who’s interested in
starting a caucus for people of color.
“A caucus gives people a safe space to talk to each other without people
from the culture of their oppressors present. It gives them greater power
together, so that if the larger group is taking an action that the caucus
felt was specifically against their interests, then the caucus can block
that action. Consensus can potentially still be reached after a caucus
blocks something, but a block, or a ‘paramount objection,’ is really
serious. You’re saying that you are willing to walk out.”
“We’ve done a couple of things so far,” she said. “So, you know the live
stream? The comments are moderated on the live stream. There are moderators
who remove racist comments, comments that say ‘I hate cops’ or ‘Kill cops.’
They remove irrelevant comments that have nothing to do with the movement.
There is this woman who is incredibly hardworking and intelligent. She has
been the driving force of the finance committee. Her hair is half-blond and
half-black. People were referring to her as “blond-black hottie.” These
comments weren’t moderated, and at one point whoever was running the camera
took the camera off her face and did a body scan. So, that was one of the
first things the caucus talked about. We decided as a caucus that I would go
to the moderators and tell them this is a serious problem. If you’re
moderating other offensive comments then you need to moderate these kinds of
offensive comments.”
The heart of the protest is the two daily meetings, held in the morning and
the evening. The assemblies, which usually last about two hours, start with
a review of process, which is open to change and improvement, so people are
clear about how the assembly works. Those who would like to speak raise
their hand and get on “stack.”
“There’s a stack keeper,” Ketchup said. “The stack keeper writes down your
name or some signifier for you. A lot of white men are the people raising
their hands. So, anyone who is not apparently a white man gets to jump
stack. The stack keeper will make note of the fact that the person who put
their hand up was not a white man and will arrange the list so that it’s not
dominated by white men. People don’t get called up in the same order as they
raise their hand.”
While someone is speaking, their words amplified by the people’s mic, the
crowd responds through hand signals.
“Putting your fingers up like this,” she said, holding her hands up and
wiggling her fingers, “means you like what you’re hearing, or you’re in
agreement. Like this,” she said, holding her hands level and wiggling her
fingers, “means you don’t like it so much. Fingers down, you don’t like it
at all; you’re not in agreement. Then there’s this triangle you make with
your hand that says ‘point of process.’ So, if you think that something is
not being respected within the process that we’ve agreed to follow then you
can bring that up.”
“You wait till you’re called,” she said. “These rules get abused all the
time, but they are important. We start with agenda items, which are
proposals or group discussions. Then working group report-backs, so you know
what every working group is doing. Then we have general announcements. The
agenda items have been brought to the facilitators by the working groups
because you need the whole group to pay attention. Like last night, Legal
brought up a discussion on bail: ‘Can we agree that the money from the
general funds can be allotted if someone needs bail?’ And the group had to
come to consensus on that. [It decided yes.] There’s two co-facilitators, a
stack keeper, a timekeeper, a vibes-person making sure that people are
feeling OK, that people’s voices aren’t getting stomped on, and then if
someone’s being really disruptive, the vibes-person deals with them. There’s
a note-taker—I end up doing that a lot because I type very, very quickly. We
try to keep the facilitation team one man, one woman, or one female-bodied
person, one male-bodied person. When you facilitate multiple times it’s
rough on your brain. You end up having a lot of criticism thrown your way.
You need to keep the facilitators rotating as much as possible. It needs to
be a huge, huge priority to have a strong facilitation group.”
“People have been yelled out of the park,” she said. “Someone had a sign the
other day that said ‘Kill the Jew Bankers.’ They got screamed out of the
park. Someone else had a sign with the N-word on it. That person’s sign was
ripped up, but that person is apparently still in the park.
“We’re trying to make this a space that everyone can join. This is something
the caucuses are trying to really work on. We are having workshops to get
people to understand their privilege.”
But perhaps the most important rule adopted by the protesters is nonviolence
and nonaggression against the police, no matter how brutal the police
become.
“The cops, I think, maced those
women<http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/10/05/2011-10-05_occupy_wall_street_protests_unions_join_epic_march_in_downtown_manhattan.html>in
the face and expected the men and women around them to start a riot,”
Ketchup said. “They want a riot. They can deal with a riot. They cannot deal
with nonviolent protesters with cameras.”
I tell Ketchup I will bring her my winter sleeping bag. It is getting cold.
She will need it. I leave her in a light drizzle and walk down Broadway. I
pass the barricades, uniformed officers on motorcycles, the rows of paddy
wagons and lines of patrol cars that block the streets into the financial
district and surround the park. These bankers, I think, have no idea what
they are up against.
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Occupy the thoughts of the rich
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Shove Grove
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