Please note – post call comments are at then bottom of this post.
Initial Stack

Lauren:

  • mission statements are needed for each Occupy, then share them, not have a national movement wide one yet
  • Steve: agrees
  • Kevin Schmidt: working gp mission or GA mission first? WG 1st, then compare nationally across WGs, then a cohesive GA stmt comes from there
  • Richard: likes Lauren’s pt.  Each city needs its own mission–consensus based from GAs.
  • Cross actions from WGs within SF has also been a problem.  need to clarify what each WG is doing.

 

Susan Livingston:

  • concern about using an “average” as a statement of the movt without hearing dissent.  are we trying to be an INCLUSIVE movement?
  • maybe we aren’t ready for a national mission yet!  don’t give in to demands of the media on this.
  • imp to find people who aren’t’ heard from traditionally, e.g. children.  need to reach out actively for voices, not just listen to whomever shows up at our GAs, WGs, calls, etc.

 

CJ Farrar

  • is this call about strategy to put the message in place, or about the message itself?
  • steve: ?  [ben: i thought it was the former, but steve’s answer confused me]

 

Helen (Pitts):

  • freedom schools of 1964 as a model to learn from
  • multi-gen, racially and geogr. mixed, and also community focused
  • builds ties without imposing a single vision or agenda

 

Ben:

  • observes more interest on these calls in the message than in how to get it out
  • concerns about too highly centralized a process vs. a more networked/decentralized process
  • Occupy is actually VERY successful in core messaging, i.e. THE 99%
  • Need to focus on what we stand for, not just what we are against.  when that emerges with the same level of clarity as the 99%, the media will be ready to grab onto that in a positive way.
  • helen: local action is the way to go.  hearts and minds through local action, not the MSM that focuses on divisiveness.  stay broad–stand for social and economic justice for everyone
  • NC? can act not only locally, but also internationally.  e.g. boycott Coca-Cola.

 

Lorenzo Christoff occupy davis:

  • agrees with action at the local community level
  • steve: are you saying no national action?  No–need both.

 

Sue: “mutual liberation from oppression” as overall mission/message

CJ Farrar: in past 24 hrs…
Justice Party of Mississippi was put on the ballot.  Steve: not here to talk about initiatives.  please hold that for later call?  Justice Party isn’t about issues.  Party uses GA processes.  Using Maestro for caucuses.  This is infrastructure, not issue-based.

Richard: agrees with much he’s heard on this call, from the affect Occupy has had on conversations across America to including young people in formulating the Occupy message.

Ben Roberts: Id like to go back to this question of local vs national. Where our deepest most passionate broadcast can emerge, at the same time there is national scale change that needs to happen and requires broad coalition.   Esp. for money in politics, electoral process reform, corp personhood, etc. I imagine this wanting to happen as part of a collaborative process/campaign, not just from Occupy but in concert with many other groups that are on this already.  these issues resonate way more broadly than much else that Occupy is talking about.

  • lauren: yes!  Move-On did a national process before, and failed to join forces and instead tried reinvent the wheel (e.g. Healthcare for All then, Move to Amend now).
  • susan: visioning on the part of Occupy also needed.  make us visible to one-another, versus trying to create policy [on these IO calls].
  • lauren: not trying to set policy on this call.  just saying we might do it in some fasion in the future.


Helen:
whatever the issues are of greatest value to that particular community…. focus on community service. occupies can take a ver… ?  also address and connect us on a national level

Tod Foley:

  • dynamic feedback on issues/messages is what is needed, rather than a top-down process for message decision-making

 

Walt:

  • Mission of IO=fostering communications across the movement, using direct democ processes to serve the 99%
  • difference of having a forum with dialogue and deliberation is different from having a national working group.
  • IO is in the middle of figuring our how to take calls to the next level and provide the right kind of forums to link the movement.
  • “Movement building open forum” is being considered.  might have sub-calls, like direct actions and media.  follows flow of work groups, with various subjects, but NOT the same as a “national WG.”
  • recognizes desire for dialogue on national strategy and also for communications and coordination among Occupies.
  • lauren: wants national calls that study other movements, e.g. Bill Moyer doc above.  NOT to develop national strategy.

 

Steve Letsfixit:
25 racehorses in media space versus something more coordinated?  A need to increase our impact by puling energies together more.

  • Kevin: why is this necessarily in real time only?  Relying on note-takers for accurate reporting (Ben: good luck with that!!!)  Asynchronous process makes more sense.  No note-takers needed.  do it online and in a way that’s better than a forum.
  • lauren: google discussion groups are very unwieldy.
  • steve: using digest mode can help
  • Steve: have a number of discussion boards already.  IO has one, as does Occupy Cafe.
  • Susan Livingston: occupy voice is using a (custom built) system that is working really well and requires no registration.

 

Lauren: Will  need to elect reps to national WGs at some point for things like direct action and media.

Magick (Occupy SF): “We are learning to create a real democracy,” aka a community.  this is an organically growing movt.  electing reps is not the answer.  too centralized and we stifle organic democracy’s formation.  centralize info and stories about what works.  still need to build our own internal democ system.  communication, networking and sharing ideas.  centralization not nec needed, e.g. Oakland port blockade that developed into something along the whole coast.

  • steve: yes, AND there is an urgency to getting certain things done this year (summer) and can we afford to wait?
  • susan: right on to Magick!  I’m tired of voting my fears…  “there are no guarantees.  from the standpoint of fear, none is strong enough, from the standpoint of love, none is necessary.
  • Magick @ steve: fears are from old paradigm thinking. direct democr. is a miracle!

 

Kevin: Need system that empowers everyone to work on what each person is most passionate about.

Richard:  many things in place now:

  • occupy tv, occupy radio, etc. already exist. Would be good to work with them in some way
  • trending analysis would be good to find top issues being discussed across the movement.
  • summer: www.miccheck.us does this already.  goes around to IO calls and occupies and shows what is happening movement wide.
  • ben: IO might convene a conversaiton among all the various platforms that richard have mentioned and see if something emerges organically as an infrastructure to support national coord out of what is in place already.
  • susan? “occupy together activists support” (FB group for info). sunday morning teleconference for peer support.  Occupy your heart= theme. sharing celebrations and challenges and getting peer input.

 

Lauren: asks for a show of hands on the idea of a 3-day conference on many different issues.  multiple tracks on various issues.  steve: discussion underway on many fronts about that already.  3-1 ratio in favor of this. 12 for, 3 against, one “other”

  • Ben: better not to have one gathering only.  not a decision-making gathering.  maybe something on that order emerges, maybe not.  do a virtual gathering too.
  • walt:
  • tea party experience is cautionary.
  • some kind on GA-based national gathering seems inevitable and a good thing.  both/and (@ben)
  • @ earlier convo on process, sees value in synch, asynch, f2f etc.

 

Summer: tea party had a money&politics focus and got off track.  we should come back to that
and unify across party/ideological lines

CJ Farrar: www.trunity.net is a free resource for blogging, posting articles, etc.  Ballot access is a huge issue.  steve: many occupies don’t want to get into political process.

Richard:
what do people see as our focus for the next call as we move forward?  steve: can post thoughts on this via the comment page here:  http://bit.ly/whm-comments

Ben: movement needs to deal with identity around unifying the country and transcending politics, versus a hard core left-leaning base and set of policy prescriptions.  are we really committed to being representative OF the 99% in our core make-up, or are we speaking on behalf of the 99% with ideas that we think will serve the interests of all even if those ideas are seen by those on the right as “socialism,” etc.

  • Lauren: this is key.  Are we saying that “we are the 99% whether they like it or not?”  many conservatives and libertarians disagree with us–say it’s people’s own fault that we’re in this mess [Ben: or the result of “too much government].  Lauren thinks this is a great subject for a call all by itself
  • Ben: Occupy Cafe is doing a call on this on Monday.  Info here: http://www.occupycafe.org/page/schedule
  • Ben [added after the call]: to put this bluntly, if we really were “the 99%,” we wouldn’t need to have a conversation about “winning hearts and minds!”  And if we’re not actually the 99% per se, then whose hearts and minds are we trying to win and to what end?

 

susan: personally doesn’t see voting as effective.  repeats concerns about reaching voices that are marginalized, especially face to face.

  • walt: appreciates that she is IN ACTION on this.
  • ? voting can be effective, esp if we take steps to safeguard the ballot box
  • ???? don’t assume we are moving towards legislative action
  • lauren: doesn’t like pejorative use of term bourgeois.  important to empower those locally, and also that we need organization, exp conferences.

POST CALL COMMENTS

  1. November 29, 2011, 3:00pm pacific.  I want to assure the person who spoke on behalf of Occupy Conventions that I am not saying that they shouldn’t happen; I’m all about putting in place a communication infrastructure that has an abundant field of options for being heard, and I want to bring awareness to those considerations that make conferences and assemblies and councils most highly accessible to white, middle class, able-bodied, well-educated males and inaccessible and/or undesirable to a vast majority of the 99% for reasons more important than their political position.  We can’t keep doing the same things we’ve always done and expect a different result.  Conference calls and conventions will continue to draw the same demographics that have historically been drawn to such events.  So as I said on the call, it would be nice if we could do some visioning (The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups by Starhawk) and get clear on OUR purpose as a group.  Because if you really want to be the 99% (or even the 51%), then I want to bring the conversation to the community rather than demand that the community come to the conversation.  Because right now, our City Council is more accessible than our GA, and what you are talking about doing is even less so.


  1. Proposed discussion topic (full group or breakout): How to engage broader base of local community in discussions to discover common interests and collaborate to create a more just society? What methods and approaches work well? How to do outreach, how to structure conversations, what questions to pose for discussion, how far to go in creating an “output” of some kind from a meeting, and identifying next steps or setting up a sequence of meetings, etc. One promising approach I know a little about is referred to as “transpartisan” conversation (reunitingamerica.org) which I expect Steve Bhaerman will be discussing on Jan. 2 OccupyCafe call. From Lorenzo Kristov.
  2. Organizing a mass boycott of one major corporation so that we can focus our efforts to send a common message. Get the money out of politics by voting with our wallets. Coca-Cola is an easy company that everyone can participate in boycotting. There are various reasons someone may choose to boycott Coca-Cola that goes beyond the occupy movement.
  3. Neither Congress nor Wall Street are taking Occupy seriously.  Need one consistent massive unity focus to change that, while maintaining local continuity.  Electoral Reform is one possible angle of attack, see http://tinyurl.com/occupyelections
  4. Continuing in that vein, it turns out that there is ONE THING that could be done to open up the federal elections.  Congress has the authority to pass a law that requires all states to put all national parties (Constitution, Democratic, Green, Libertarian, Natural Law, Reform, Republican, Socialist) on the ballot for federal elections only (president, senator, representative).  Making this the unified demand could lead to six parties (two are moribund, Natural Law and Socialist) in the presidential debates now controlled by the two party tyranny.
  5. At the LOCAL level, what seems to be working is MovetoAmend, OathKeepers, Reddit against individual representatives on SOPA, etc.
  6. Organizing Occupy:  1)  national spokes council; 2) mirror states and congressional districts: state occupy, and district occupy even if only one person.
  7. Comment.  29Dec11.  This call sh major national movements to the call.
  8. Suggestion. 29Dec11.  The call may need to
  9. NEWS FROM EUROPE:  “Calling for disobedient mass actions in May: let us clog up Frankfurt, let’s congest the traffic, the banks, the whole city.Let us interrupt the business of those who want to take us into custody for their own crisis… Currently, the idea of action days in Frankfurt in May 2012 is not only being discussed by us, but by a number of political movements, groups and spectra. Something is in motion and it will condense into blockades, into disobedient mass actions, a large international demonstration, and another Agora of Movements”  We suggest that we get ourselves going on May 15th, 2012, the anniversary of the first large meeting in Madrid. On Wednesday, May 16th, the ECB’s Governing Council meets in Frankfurt. Friday, May 18th could be our main Day of Action: In several European countries, many people are having a day off because of a previous holiday, while banks and businesses are open in Frankfurt, so we can effectively interrupt the businesses. On May 19th, a major European demonstration could follow.
  10. What is our intention here?
  1. We know that this is NOT a “national working group” and cannot make any “decisions” for any Occupy entity per se.  So what, if anything, are we up to besides having an interesting conversation?  Or is that enough?
  2. What strategic insights and tactical actions can we imagine emerging from a series of these weekly calls (plus ancillary conversations on line) over a period of a month or two that might make a meaningful difference in winning hearts and minds?
  3. If these conversations were wildly successful, what might our work be able to catalyze in the wider movement and how would it do that?