Democracy Now had a show on the Occupy movement that can be seen on democracynow.org. Ben Emery is doing a five part series on how government works on his facebook page, go friend him and see. The townhall meeting on Monday was a huge success, and we need to take it upon ourselves as Occupy to set an example of supporting the community. Volunteer forms for the extreme weather shelter are available here. There was an Agricultural Commission meeting this week discussing the need to support the rights of local farmers to fight the regulations of the corporations that keep them from consuming and selling their own organic products.
Goals
The goals discussion started with a quick brainstorm review, and a voting session to decide where we would like to focus our efforts. I believe the only ideas that are not already listed in previous blog posts were occupying parks that are in danger of being closed, and a suggestion that we familiarize ourselves with the Consolidated Annual Financial Report of Nevada County at CAFR1.com. The decision to address foreclosures won the majority of votes, with choosing a mission statement and creating educational presentations for the public tying for second.
Foreclosures
Dennis presented a wealth of knowledge on the legal (or illegal) process of foreclosures, particularly in California and our own community. Particulars ranging from auctions at the courthouse, "robo-signers", the specific wording and rights granted in a deed of trust, legal precedence set by the supreme court, unlawful detainers, non-judicial foreclosure states, etc.
Beyond the legal aspects, there's the question of what we can do to help in terms of direct action. The obvious question was do we want to occupy foreclosed houses? The answer for now was a fairly emphatic no. What does occupying a house actually do for someone who has been foreclosed on? It seems that would be a day late and a dollar short, and would ruin our rapport with the local police. Either way, we did recommend that we join the Nonviolence training on Nov 26th, in case it does come to that. There are several steps that could be taken before such extreme actions.
The proposed solutions primarily took two forms: helping those in danger of foreclosure, and discouraging banks from foreclosing. We will definitely have a seminar for those in need of foreclosure assistance. We would like to find people who want their stories told, and want our help. We will stay in contact with the legal center, and setup a hotline for anyone who wishes to seek our help; there may also be people at the rallies. We could go with them to the bank to help apply pressure on the bank, could help them negotiate, or if it does come down to occupying, we will consider that option. To discourage further foreclosures we proposed protesting at the foreclosure auctions at the courthouse. Working through local government, we could possibly add a layer of bureaucracy to slow the process, akin to an environmental impact statement, but for the impact on neighboring housing prices.
The depth of this topic and the volume of options and necessary considerations make a dedicated work group necessary, and will be created at the next GA. This has proven to be a first priority item, and we will give it the attention it deserves.
Economics Discussion
We broke off into small groups for a less formalized, open-ended discussion on economics, then reported back to the whole group.
Group 1 talked about the growing disparity between the 1% and 99%. Much of that has to do with the growth of payroll taxes, which all employees and employers pay, and the decrease in capital gains taxes which are only placed on gains on investments. Economics has been all about the bottom line of money, but could alternatively be (and has in the past?) tracked in terms of social, economic, and environmental impacts. Locally owned businesses and franchises do not enjoy the larger corporate tax loopholes, but often suffer the same regulations, and fees. An important distinction between multi-national corporations and locally owned branches of franchises must be made. Locally we have Quiznos supporting us, but while they carry a corporate name, they are owned by a local family. They and other businesses like them are not the target of our ire, and though it complicates the situation, we need to be careful whom we fight and support.
Group 2 dove almost exclusively into the operations of the Federal Reserve as a private entity, talking about the operations and generation of money. Money from the federal reserve is spent into existence by the government and multiplied once it becomes deposits in banks and lent out again. Central banks such as the Federal Reserve, CBE, and the IMF run the show, with the interests of the banks in mind. They also touched lightly on the extent of the growth of income inequality.
Group 3 hit a range of topics, but mostly stuck to basic concepts. What is econ? Econ as we know it has only really been in existence for around 300yrs, and around 100yrs for modern econ. Economics could be considered to be a subgroup of ecology in that it requires certain levels of resiliency, diversity, and sustainability. Right now we have little resiliency or sustainability, but how can we make the system sustainable while the population is continuously growing. Does less consumption necessarily mean lower GDP and higher unemployment? Can the consumption of services replace the consumption of goods? More intangibly, do we live a richer life with the increased communication, technology, and availability of various products and services? Are there ways we can become more interdependent and value community over greed?
Agenda
Because time ran short, we agreed to continue the economics discussion at the next meeting, which would be the Thursday after Thanksgiving (No meeting next week!), Dec 1, 6:30pm @the Peace Center. The agenda is as follows: Intro/announcements (15mins), Goals: Mission Statement (30mins), Occupy $ (10mins), Small Group Econ Discussion (25mins), Large Group Econ Discussion (25mins), and finally Agenda (15mins). In the mean time, we will be using the forum on the Occupy Nevada County webpage to do preliminary work formulating the Mission Statement and Occupy Money proposals. Click on the Forum tab just below the introductory info. You are also encouraged to develop the wiki which is under construction.
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