Meeting 8 - 12/15/11

Introduction
The day's first announcement was the successful Occupation of a local eviction (Read about it here or watch it on MSNBC here). Most in attendance had read the article, but had questions about what else we could offer the family. We offered some basic information on tenant rights and the Hospitality House, but the foreclosure group will of course be developing materials and information available to those in need for the future. There is also an educational meeting on amending the constitution to end corporate personhood on Monday Dec 19, at the Madelyn Helling Library @7pm.

Agenda

Some ideas had been posted on the webpage for possible agenda items. We had a short discussion on each before deciding which we would like to focus on.

UC Davis Example - The incident at UC Davis highlighted what could be seen as a microcosm of the larger Occupy movement. The students protested peacefully against rising tuition costs and were in turn pepper sprayed by the authorities. The people in charge of the UC system made the same excuses and promises our government makes; namely that the occupation was a health hazard, a danger, they would investigate the perpetrators of the violence, and promise greater accountability in the future, all while doing nothing. This very simple example could serve as a more tangible example for the larger movement if we could present it in some way.

Pre-Jan 20 Corporate Personhood Education Event - To raise awareness for the main event, we would like to hold an educational event of some sort to let the public know just how important this issue is. We could have a guest speaker to present the timeline of court cases resulting in expanded rights for corporations. We would also like to reach out to the TEA Party on this event, because this is a shared concern. This could be the first C2SEA event (anagram of OWS TEA and C for Cooperative = CTWOSEA). The next TEA Party meeting is Jan 4, so the event would have to take place after that date.

Shoes for Diversity Rally - Lowe's recently removed advertising from the TV Show "All-American Muslim," agreeing with complaints that the show did not adequately present the dangers of Islam. We would like to protest this bigoted decision by boycotting Lowe's, and also having a multi-cultural shoe throwing protest, the way they do in some Middle Eastern cultures. Thrown shoes would also be donated to Souls4Soles to be distributed to the poor all over the world. The other purpose of this rally would be to outreach to minorities, because the Occupy movement is presently viewed as a "white" movement, and really needs the participation of other races and cultures.

Foreclosures - This is such a hot button issue; we need to develop our tactics and services in this area. It was suggested that we may also be able to work with the TEA Party on this issue, but based on real conversations and research, the conservative perspective is more likely to either blame the owners, or even in the face of sympathy, it may be preferred to allow or even accelerate the foreclosures so the economy can bottom out and rebuild. We could have a town hall meeting with speakers to present the issues in a concise manner to a much larger audience, and have room for discussion and a Q&A session. In the mean time, there is a definite need to develop available resources. We need fliers with more depth, and available in more locations such as the Law Library, the Public Law Center, etc. It was suggested that daily rallies would not be a wasted effort, but all of these issues should be brought up with the Foreclosure work group. It was agreed to contact the group and push to schedule another meeting.

We voted to dive deeper into foreclosures and the pre-Jan 20 education event. However, the deeper discussion on foreclosures ended up turning into a discussion on the role of the Education/Goals WG. With so many more specific work groups having been created, what role does the Ed/Goals group now play? Should we develop generic tactics for all groups to use, and schedule regular teach-ins? Or should the group's time be dedicated to new and innovative ideas that will not likely come up in other groups? When there is overlap between groups, if we decide to do something, do we need to come up with an interaction protocol, or can we use the general autonomy rules of the GA?

At the end of the day, we agreed to continue the discussion about the role of the group at the next meeting. We also managed to reach consensus to have a pre-Jan 20 event, and to reach out to the TEA Party. We will try to get time at their next meeting to invite them, on behalf of Occupy Nevada County, to the education event.

Forum discussions will be put up on the webpage for agenda items, as well as the discussion on the role of the group (click here). Dennis's presentation on the financial system was postponed to the next meeting; reading materials will also be posted to the webpage here.

Meeting 7 - 12/8/12

Introduction

We had a much longer introduction, because we had not previously determined the agenda, and also operated more casually on the whole, due to the "cozier" group size. Announcements included a townhall meeting about saving the local parks, starting at 6:30pm, Dec. 12, at the Miner's Foundry in Nevada City. Carol Ann purchased several copies of “Agenda for a New Economy” by David Corten, that will be available for purchase for $15. We will at some point have a book study and discussion on this book in the near future. We agreed to discuss the West Coast Port Shutdown, the lessons that could be learned from the early Christians as they apply to Occupy, and to hear a quick summary of the economic articles presented by Dennis.

West Coast Port Shutdown

This discussion regards the West Coast Port Shutdown action on Dec. 12, proposed by Occupy Oakland, involving many occupations along the West Coast and other locations reaching as far as Denver and Japan. There were enough concerns about the action that a "non-petition" had been drafted and was presented at the rally for signatures. Discussion covered the following pros and cons:

• Range and scale of effects - These actions could adversely affect other 99%ers even more so than the owners of the ports and cargo themselves, and lost revenue equates to lost public services. This could also be seen as a positive as cities feel the economic impact and feel the need to respond to Occupy.
• Support - we have no official support from the ILWU, and have no form of support from other unions that operate at the ports. This does not mean the rank-and-file of the ILWU do not support us, but this becomes much more difficult to prove.
• Message - Are we doing this for the ILWU or as a larger action against international trade or capitalism in general? If this is for the ILWU, what business is it of Occupy to do what unions already have the power to do, in the name of a union that is not going to strike with us? There may be many good reasons to close the ports, but public perception relies heavily on articulation of the message.
• Lack of general strike - In the absence of the voluntary participation of the general strike, it is hard to say the public supports our actions. Sure, closing the ports is voluntary for those involved, but those involved risk the jobs and businesses of others without permission.
• Timing - Perhaps this action could be done in the future with a clearer message, clearer support, and broader participation, and with less on the line than we have now while we are in the building phase of this movement, but now may be too soon.
• Inclusiveness - Because of the afore mentioned concerns, there is a very good chance that public perception will not be favorable, and we could alienate those who are on the fence about whether to get involved or not. The opposite could also be true, and the sheer scope of this action could be galvanizing and prove that we can organize and be effective.
• Origins - The origins and idea for the rally come from a very positive place. Risk and large actions are nothing new to any people's movement.

After much back and forth, a few things were clear: 1) We did need to voice our concerns to organizers of the event to at least start a dialogue on preemptive damage control, and 2) it was inevitable that this action was going to happen, so we might as well be as positive as possible and offer our support.

We had a pleasant break to bring us back down from the intensity of the previous discussion. Several of us reminisced about our individual experiences as activists, sharing stories on when it began, and how. Then on to the next discussion...

Parallels to Early Christians

This discussion was based on information in the book "The Rise of Christianity" by Rodney Strong, and focused on how early Christian tactics worked for them, and could work for us in creating a powerful movement. Without going too in depth on each topic, some of the parallels included:

• Familiarity - The more familiar a movement feels, the easier the conversion. The Christians' most natural source of converts were with the Jews. Occupy can find natural allies in liberal organizations, and even other grass roots movements such as the TEA Party.
• Susceptibility - People raised under similar guiding principles, but are not yet active, may just be in need of a spark to get them fired up about the topic. Find the dormant activists, liberals, and those who may want to be involved in forming public policy
• Compassion - Early Christians carried a powerful message of compassion, and led by example in non-violence and in caring for those who could not care for themselves.
• Women - the equality of women in rights and involvement was a great asset to the early Christians, particularly because it was such a divergence from the ordinary patriarchal societies, and also in that a huge number of converts came through marriage... Occupy dating?
• Class - Christianity promised great things for the masses and proved the strength of the many over the few who wished to enslave them.

Tangents abounded, for instance, from the familiarity discussion came the idea of nudging perception from resentment of a negative to support for a positive. New topics sprouted, such as the role of starting a new economic model and the resulting persecution, and even the importance of such persecution and even martyrdom in the power of the movement.

The most immediately applicable tangent was from familiarity to how to be less obtrusive when our rally overlaps with Victorian Christmas. The rally planning group had a meeting and discussed this, but additional ideas and concerns were raised here. The potential dangers of the event could just as easily become opportunities if given the proper attention. We should be sure to end the rally at the start of Victorian Christmas, but rather than go home, go and take part in the festivities. Spend money, and stop by some of the local shops rather than just the booths. The local shops are open, and will likely be fairly empty. This is the perfect opportunity to engage in community outreach to let them know Occupy supports them. The press release for this event also stands as a huge opportunity to convey some of the more inspirational aspects of Occupy; to convey the depths of our intentions, beyond being activists, for reviving community. Other ideas included wearing pins in lieu of carrying bulkier signs, and having fliers available.

Agenda

We ran out of time for a summary of the articles Dennis brought in, so there will instead be a presentation on them next week. Additional agenda topics will again be posted to the forum. We hope that more people will participate during the week to make for a more efficient meeting on Thursday. Thank you.

Meeting 6 - 12/1/11

Announcements
There were several reports of recent events attended by various group members plus announcements of up and coming events. James and Jed bravely attended the monthly Tea Party meeting which was on health care and reported the reception was civil and courteous. They found broad agreement with the TP folk about the actual problem and even found some enthusiasm for the term corporatism, but had a sharp divergence about the solution. Theirs is “true privatization” of our current “socialist” system. Several people also went to the Health care forum held last Tues. and found it extremely informative. There will be another meeting Tues. 12/6 at 6:00pm in the Nevada Theater. There was a brief report from folks in the foreclosure announcing a rally this Mon from 11:30 to 1:30 in front of the Nevada County Courthouse. The other announcement that is still timely is Jed’s local business outreach working group which will meet 12/8 at Café Mekka, 11:30am. Jed also showed us his ingenious solution for not defacing dollar bills which is little stick-ons that says “To: My favorite business From: Occupy Nevada County”, plus a heart around “99% Local”.

Goals
Per the agenda the group took up a 30 min timeslot to discuss a mission statement. The discussion was long and lively –at least 20 min over- reflecting both deep existential views about our mission as well as specifics about its purpose and intent, such as how does the mission statement of the Ed/Goals group relate to what the Mission Statement working group is doing. The discussion began with a long one sentence condensation presented by James of all the ideas the group emailed him over the previous 2 weeks. After much discussion and temp checks it was agreed that our mission statement is a combined statement for both Ed and Goals, but is not intended for the GA. In terms of format it was also agreed that we would begin with a simple one sentence declaration followed by clarifying bullet points. To that end the group consensed on a working version of the one sentence declaration: To educate ourselves and the public about issues affecting the community and inspire people to turn ideas into action. The ideas and issues suggested were economic and social justice, current political realities, environmental problems, inclusivity of the 99%, and promoting the general welfare and equal opportunity and a more uplifting spirituality. It was agreed that we would take up the mission statement again in two weeks to give us time to come up with ideas for a final draft.

Education: Economics
For the remainder of the meeting, per the agenda, we broke into three smaller groups for an open ended brainstorm on 3 different economic topics. This was preceded by a fairly lengthy and lively discussion about what those specific topics should be and who was going to be in what group. This was partly due to the fact that no one had sent James any topic suggestions over the previous 2 weeks as agreed in the last meeting.

The 3 subjects consensed upon were: Alternative Economic Models, Central Banks and the Present Economy. After approximately 25min the three groups reported back. The Alternative economic models group suggested we all read “Agenda for a new Economy” by David Korten. It was agreed that several copies will be purchased so we can all read it. The Central Bank group reported on their discussion about a brief history of central banks with a focus on the Federal Reserve. It was recommended that we all read the “Creature from Jekyll Island” by Edward Griffin, a history and critique of the Fed. A DVD is also available. The Present economy group discussed the need to have a basic grasp of classical economics starting with Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Arthur Miller, etc. so as to be able to respond intelligently to the more recent conservative iterations that the Tea Part likes to tout such as Ayn Rand (who by the way had zero academic training in economics). To that end James volunteered to host informal “ pizza and economics” meetings at his house starting this Mon evening, time to be announced. There seemed to be one unifying theme for all the groups that it was impossible to talk economics without talking politics; that they were inextricably linked.

Agenda

It was agreed that suggestions for the following week’s agenda would be posted on the working group website and discussed online. This is in the hope of saving time at meetings. Forum is here.