National Action and Event Coordination
1/30 Call Notes
-Introductions (Participants from San Diego, CA; Indianapolis, IN; Bellingham, WA; Portland, OR; Houston, TX; Boston, MA; Maryland)
Agenda
- Discussion of 12-13 actions over the next 4 months
- Updates, check-ins from last call
- Updates from national direct action network
- Shareholder meeting actions discussion
What makes a good national action?
-Target, website, facilitation, large degree of participants, work out communications early and often, also value autonomy and diversity of action, continue discussion via email on calendar and on nat’l direct action network to provide better spaces of coordination for the movement
-Review of action between January and May
February Actions
-NDAA action on Friday, Feb. 3rd
-Occupy Our Homes on Feb. 13th
-Corporate shutdown on Feb. 29th
Leslie: SoCal solidarity meetup on Feb. 11th, DNC is meeting, Occupiers will be soapboxing corners
Carl: Actions on unemployment extensions vs. Congress on Feb. 29th
**Emails captured by Gina for participants interested in NDAA action, solidarity meetup, Occupy Our Homes, corporate shutdown
Question: Carl- Are we targeting banks/foreclosures on the 13th, and is the 29th shutting down corporate HQs or ports?
2/29- Nonviolent direct action targeting corporations involved with ALEC, 30-35 cities participating, find out more at shutdownthecorporations.org
2/3- Strategy inspired by ALEC- think of us as counter-ALEC for constitutional issues, local and state resolutions to restore due process and right to trial, great way to politicize the issues at a local city council meetings
March Actions
3/1- Occupy Education
3/8- International Women’s Day
3/15-3/18- Occupy the Midwest conference
3/15-3/22- Nat’l re-occupy week
3/30- National Occupation of Washington, coordinated by Occupy DC Freedom Plaza
-Ideas for actions throughout the month of April in DC
**Gina taking emails for those interested in Occupy Education, Int’l Women’s Day, Occupy Midwest Conference, potential re-occupy days of action, Nat’l Occupation of Washington
April Actions
4/15-4/18- Tax Day actions w/ labor unions, US Uncut groups, targeting corporations that paid lobbyists more than they paid in taxes
4/22- Earth Day, Occupy the Trees (Occupy Eugene)
**Gina taking emails of those interested in Tax Day, Earth Day, Occupy the Trees
May Actions
5/1- Global general strike on May Day
5/5- Bank transfer day
5/15- Global general strike
5/15-5/22- G8 & NATO meetings in Chicago that weekend
Walt: Not restricted to 5/19 to 5/22, put question mark on how many actions over what period of time
Carl: Keep an eye on websites of more notorious corporations for dates of shareholder meetings
-Confront Corporate Power mobilizing for shareholder meetings
**Gina taking emails for those interested in May Day, Bank Transfer Day, Global General Strike, G8/NATO, Spring shareholder meetings
Carl: Is 5/5 a bank transfer day like on 11/5, and is the 5/15 general strike in solidarity with Indignados in Spain?
Suzanne: I’m new to these calls, what is involved with global general strike?
Walt: Not clear about specifics, but 5/1 is coming from Occupy LA, visit their website for more info. General strike could be calling for everybody to not participate in work/school/whatever, or more coordinated as in working w/ unions, work stoppage, etc.
Jen: Don’t know that much about global strike except there was a global Occupy call to action, check Inter-Occupy website for specifics on that call to action
John: Hook me up w/ LA people? WE have a labor solidarity committee, May Day is next huge event we’re working on. Get in touch w/ me at , or go to occupysandiegocounty.org, doing something on 2/11, need to get in contact w/ folks, find Joan at Occupy LA for more info
Action Updates from Last Call
-Inter-Occupy action calendar
-Direct action network
Walt on action calendar: Idea floating around for 45 days, got real at last call. I volunteered as someone interested in moving that forward, on my front I’ve been talking w/ David, taken conversation to technical circle called Ecosystem of Websites, lots of Occupy websites are thinking about best way to do this, where to put it. Word has spread, we haven’t formed a team yet, but that should be next step. On the tech side, should we just go ahead w/ google calendar and use multiple google calendars for quick overlay? Also, where should it reside? It’s labeled “Inter-Occupation Action Calendar,” should go on inter-occupy website and at least a dozen others. Any feedback on which is best way to start?
Lindsey: Walt, not that I don’t think google calendar is a good idea, but we should use other services, depends on what we need as far as capabilities are concerned. Google calendar is good in that you can set date, time, basic description. You can have several calendars overlay, but I’m not sure if you can have direct overlay, have had a lot of trouble making google calendar intuitive. Want to link events to different websites and resources, but google calendar seems somewhat limited
Carl: Can anyone edit the google calendar, or is it subject to moderation? And if things change, how do we best get the word out and where should this be posted?
Dean: Want to speak against google calendar, find it unattractive. Also, can’t do links, limited in lots of other ways. We should create our own calendar or find another calendar setting
Walt: Very open to other solutions other than google calendar, just don’t know what they are. Whatever the calendar is, our best thinking is to have 3 different calendars: one for direct actions that have met the test of having more than 5 GAs involved in them, separate calendar for direct actions that haven’t quite met criteria but are real and approved by at least one GA, third would be direct actions still in formulation, still open and available for editing
**Forgot to take emails for those interested in UI extension actions, taking now
Occupy Direct Action Network
-Idea is to provide for a network that allows for a more collective/participatory national calls to actions, where several occupations can be in discussion about calls to action, make them together, allows for communication between direct action groups within occupations as opposed to individual cities, promotes direct action as important approach Occupy can take to guide the movement, excitement to start listserv on last call, listserv is up and running, folks can be added if they like
Justin: Lots of occupations have established liaison committees, direct action should contact those groups
Carl: How would network be set up? Like a craigslist format with different cities showing what’s happening, open for editing and sharing?
Walt: Conference calls should be established for brainstorming, and then another for planning of network itself. Not a managerial call, but more of a coordinating of network call. Last call could be for coordination of specific actions that require special attention from network
-Have connected to OWS and others about network, less so w/ Boston, but OWS is doing bus tour in Boston. Point of network is less about finding direct actions, more about coordinating direct actions. Not a lot of info currently about what these are, would be good to have place that serves as info and coordination hub, would be interesting to see which have the most energy to make for best successful national direct action. Will help us find alignment and develop them collectively as opposed to an individual basis
**Next call scheduled for Feb 13th, 5 Eastern, 2 Pacific.
**Interested in facilitating? Tuesdays at 6 PM PT/9 PM ET for advanced training, Wednesday is basic training at same time
**Want to have emails shared with everyone, make sure that’s okay. Not okay with that? Hit 1
