OccupySacto.org

Hi all this is laura. After the last GA, on wednesday, dec 28, i mentioned a proposal for a strategy-building Forum being developed by the Urban Outreach Committee (UOC). The timeline suggested is a weekend in early February. i am posting the proposal here from the UOC so that many people can comment and commit on/to this idea. I have also attached the word doc. We can bring this as a motion to the GA on saturday, january 7th, 14th, or 21st. Let the discussions begin!

Proposal: Occupy Sacramento Strategy Building Forum
I. Summary - This proposal calls for Occupy Sacramento to hold a weekend long strategy building forum (date to be determined) for the purposes of rebuilding the movement and further educating the public about the grievances and objectives of the Occupy movement.

II. Statement of Need - In order to maintain and build upon the work and efforts of Occupy Sacramento and Occupy Movement in general, we need to use the next two months (January and February) to retreat and strategize ways to build and sustain the movement especially for the Spring and Summer months leading up to the presidential election. The Occupy movement has lost some strength due to objective and subjective reasons, so now is a good time to examine and reflect upon the growth of the movement and how we should move forward.
Our strategy building should include reorganizing and rebuilding our internal structure (e.g. committees, teams, General Assembly), and determining ways to educate the public about the purposes and objectives of the Occupy movement, as well as build broader participation and support for our work and activities.

III. Objectives of Forum
A. To hold presentations and discussions related to the economic, political and social problems and issues identified by the Occupy movement (e.g. elimination of the corporate state, healthcare for all, debt reduction, banking and securities reform, police brutality, home foreclosures.)
B. To identify and prioritize which issues are most important and practical for us to address in the next several months, especially leading up to the presidential election.
C. To develop immediate and long-range strategies for addressing the issues we have identified for our activist work.
D. To reorganize, outline, and define the internal structure (e.g. committees, teams, coordinating body, General Assembly) of the Occupy Sacramento movement.

IV. Forum Program - The strategy building forum will be a weekend program, in which Saturday will be devoted to presentations and workshops related to the economic, political and social problems and issues identified by the Occupy movement. These forums will be open to the general public and the media. Presentations and workshops will be led by Occupy members and invited organizational alliances.
The Sunday forum will focus on internal strategy building for the movement. This forum will be open to existing Occupied members and those who want to join in and support the movement. We will use this forum to develop immediate and long-range strategies for addressing the issues we have identified for the local and national Occupy movement.
Strategies developed during this forum will be agreed upon by consensus and recorded in a document to be referred to by Occupied members.

V. Program Needs
Determine the dates and times for the forum.
Secure location for the forum. Location should have Wi-Fi connection.
Determine the structure and content of presentations and workshops for the Saturday forum (e.g. identifying workshop topics, presenters, and organizations.)
Develop an agenda for strategy building sessions during the Sunday forum.
Identify at least five minute-takers with laptop computers.

VI. Evaluation - In order to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the movement activities, we need to incorporate ways to evaluate and measure the work we do. As part of the strategy building forum, we will determine ways to use evaluation as a part of our committee and team meetings.

OCCUPY MAY DAY - GENERAL STRIKE

NO WORK NO SCHOOL NO SHOPPING #OLA & #OLB are calling on all Occupations and all Labor Unions to start planning NOW for a Global Strike. The goal is to shut down commerce world wide and show the 1% we will not be taken for granted, we will not be silenced, WE WILL NOT MOVE until our grievances are redressed.

When
Tuesday, May 1, 2024

http://www.facebook.com/events/337068492974144/

May Day strike—totally awesome and must-do protest. It needs to be the biggest ever. We have plenty of time to plan for it, but it needs to nationwide/worldwide, and it shouldn't be one time strike. We can make this a part of the strategy forum. Maybe have a presenter talk the history of labor strikes and how they were beneficial. Link it also to the youth—Take Back Our Future campaign.

Okay, I put together a flow chart (excuse the corporate style of it) that attempts to show the different aspects of the Occupy Sacto Movement (and the movement in general). It gives an outline of what we should focus on in terms of our strategic planning. Theres' nothing etched in stone here; I just thought create a visual display that might useful for thinking what need to work on.

awesome flow chart! We could work this into a phamplet! Fantastic!
my favorite parts: cultural shift. agitate.

Organizing forums will connect Occupies — there are already nationwide conference calls doing this — around the State and Nationally and Internationally. Each local occupation will have its unique role to play. Whether we like it or not the world forms an aggregate so we must work through the United Nations. And I don't mean to couch this in terms of being isolationist or not, as was a factor leading up to the world wars, and is a criticism of Ron Paul. Nor do I mean to couch this in terms of "giving" power to the United Nations. Capital flows internationally and its most important ingredient is food. Sacramento can "capitalize" on California's food power to create a food security protocol, which because everyone will be fed, there will be little reason for war — the chief effective cause of our problems. That includes our environmental problems and those are the ones that are most salient to the coming generations of voters in the United States. They know that a good environment means jobs for all. A food security protocol will by definition rearrange our unfair economic relations.

Labor is the noticeable group connected with a Marxist analysis. Yet there are other economic ideas that support trade unionism. And economics from a "capitalist's" position has supporting ideas beyond Keynes. Federal Reserve and the misleading optimistic forecasts Wall St depends on are all to manage a known unfair situation. While socialism doesn't seem like a way to go because government owning things has a lot of problems. How and where capital is used could be improved if corporate lawyers didn't claim ownership and instead temporarily used it. Then it would revert to a global commons.

Occupy must have power to put in place ways for capital to be distributed widely in small amounts so that workers and others can benefit from it personally. In so doing private gains would "trickle across" and help others, who then could use the collective wealth. The body aggregate shouldn't be in private hands and it could be administered possibly on a lottery choosing system. The winners of the temporary use of the funds would pay small interest with this interest not going to private gain, rather to replenish the public capital fund. We'd avoid the problems of micro lending in India because the USA has laws protecting property.

But Occupy can only have power if the masses get behind us and this they won't do as long as there are any moral and ethical scruples about what we will do. The world knows things that, psychologically, US Americans are forced to forget, that could hold the key to our gaining power. Namely, what we did to Native Americans and slaves in the past and the need to make reparations today. Reparations would make a statement much different than South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, because the economic impact of what the USA does is so much bigger. Such social healing would lead to better tax policies and would spring at the world like a wave of benefit. It would abet the ability and need to redeploy troops into domestic service and away from war, because our good will would quell the world's mistrust of us.

Thanks Laura, well said!! We badly NEED a strategy session!! But I would do the strategy part ASAP, and do the education stuff in february maybe. Figuring out the committees and structure should be the group's #1 priority right now!!!

Right on, Laura Bakari Nathan and the UOC, and all of OcSac!
Starting with Jan 4 GA, along with the celebration, and MLK Day plans, and other ideas, let's propose a month to month succession of goals. Jan 4 proposals can be about a CC and other committees in place by Jan 28. On Feb 1 the CC and other committees could start thinking about activities in the middle of Bakari's chart. On Feb 25 we could decide on well thought out ideas for further structure and activities. On Feb 29 we could start our third month plan and decide what to focus on from the right side of Bakari's chart.
Sea

sea, what do you mean by "CC"?
bakari - what do you think about separate events for internal org versus external? you said: "Our strategy building should include reorganizing and rebuilding our internal structure (e.g. committees, teams, General Assembly), and determining ways to educate the public about the purposes and objectives of the Occupy movement, as well as build broader participation and support for our work and activities." it seems we might benefit by meeting first to discuss rebuilding the internal structure, as that is really needed RIGHT NOW and will be critical in getting organized for the strategy building workshop weekend.
thoughts anyone?