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.
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