[Street] [Ideas] proposal to table GA until Friday (in lieu of community forum on immediate problems)

Gregory Murphy gsjmurphy at gmail.com
Wed Dec 14 18:26:18 EST 2011


sorry - wrong response, I misunderstood something - oops

GM



On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 5:53 PM, Greg <gsjmurphy at gmail.com> wrote:

> Boooooo - Big Squid
>
> G. S. Murphy
>
> On Dec 14, 2011, at 5:51 PM, Jorge Alvarez <eghm627 at mac.com> wrote:
>
> 7pm at Emmanuel Church at 15 Newbury St.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Dec 14, 2011, at 5:00 PM, rita sebastian < <rita at brandeis.edu>
> rita at brandeis.edu> wrote:
>
> Thanks Jorge!  I agree.  We can have both, GA tomorrow and a special
> session n Friday.
> What time is the GA tomorrow (Thursday)?
> Thanks,
> Rita
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 4:50 PM, Jorge Alvarez < <eghm627 at mac.com>
> eghm627 at mac.com> wrote:
>
>> Hola Katie.
>>
>> I've yet to read the entire thread, I'm starting from this cornerstone
>> email, but please allow me to reiterate what I said yesterday at FWG:
>>
>> We have no reason to cancel GA tomorrow, none.
>>
>> Friday's meeting should be done autonomously. Only the GA can consent to
>> canceling and moving the GA outside of an emergency -- and while these
>> issues are pressing, this is not an emergency.
>>
>> Sorry, to get "processy" here, but the ideal opportunity to have your
>> proposal consented to was last night at GA. Why didn't you bring it up as
>> you did at FWG?
>>
>> I will be the first to attend the Friday meeting, I think it is utterly
>> important, but there are other proposals to be heard, e.g., Brian K's
>> proposal last night and others in that vein. I know someone in facilitation
>> is working on one, and I suspect one of the proposals we heard last night
>> will be re-presented in a different manner tomorrow night.
>>
>> There is absolutely no reason why we can't have a GA Thursday, the
>> special assembly Friday, GA's on Saturday and Sunday, and another special
>> assembly on Monday.
>>
>> We don't have to consent to special assemblies on Friday or any other
>> non-GA night. You can do this autonomously and still have a spectacular
>> turnout. I know I'll be there and so will many others that are searching
>> for any chance to get together in the absence of our encampment at Dewey.
>>
>> There is just no reason to squelch the voice of the people or stop the
>> business of horizontal democracy (arguably what we do best and model for
>> the rest of the world) on Thursday night. And we have a new space we'd like
>> to try out (although this is not a critical reason to hold our GA).
>>
>> 6 weeks ago we canceled 3 GA's in the span of 10 days and it was an
>> outrage. We vowed, or at least FWG vowed to never do this unilaterally
>> again, there is no precedent for this nor the justifiable rationale.
>>
>> We can have both.
>>
>> We should have both.
>>
>> People will show. We can't consent to something like this via email
>> anyway -- and even if we experimented with it this time, think of all the
>> people who lack access.
>>
>> I love everything you do for OB, sometimes I think you're the glue that
>> is keeping us together, but this is not such a good proposal.
>>
>> Please consider having GA on Thursday and our special assembly on Friday.
>> We can do both.
>>
>> With peace and great admiration for all your Herculean work,
>>
>> Jorge
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> On Dec 14, 2011, at 1:35 AM, Katie Gradowski <<katie.gradowski at gmail.com>
>> katie.gradowski at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hey all,
>>
>> I'm forwarding this email widely because it seems pressing.  The past two
>> GAs following eviction have felt very out of place -- I feel like we, as a
>> community, have not yet dealt with the eviction from Dewey Square, which
>> has resulted in a creeping sense of sprawl and dysfunction.   This email is
>> a tentative call for a reset!
>>
>> *A brief overview of my concerns:  *
>>
>> Over the past two days, we have seen hours worth of working group
>> announcements, in many cases for working groups whose purpose and identity
>> has irrevocably shifted.    We have seen "message" proposals, even as we
>> have houseless occupiers who have gone days without a place to stay.    We
>> have had a proliferation of hastily planned actions, with no thought or
>> coordination of how we, as a community, want to respond to eviction, or of
>> coordinated actions between working groups in response to eviction from
>> Dewey Square. Reports so far on tonight's GA (contentious issues of
>> storage, personal attacks, a proposal to send homeless occupiers to DC?)
>> suggests that things are not getting better.
>>
>> While this is all happening, there are pressing issues that have not yet
>> been resolved.    I feel deeply uncomfortable moving forward in any sense
>> until we can take time, as a group, can resolve the question of space and
>> housing.   I would like to propose tabling Thursday's GA, and in its place
>> scheduling an open community forum this Friday, at St. Paul's Cathedral,
>> from 6-8:30 p.m. to find immediate, community-wide solutions to the
>> following three concerns:
>>
>>
>> ******************************************************************************************************************************************
>>
>> IMMEDIATE ISSUES  (to be resolved in the next few days)
>>
>> *1)   Permanent space for GA + reassessment of working groups *---
>> Without a site, we have sprawl on all sides.   Working groups that no
>> longer have space, GAs are tentatively planned, lots of options on the
>> table for sites but no solid choices, defunct groups consolidating with
>> other groups.   We need to sit down and map out the new terrain.   What is
>> the new "site" for OB, in the absence of Dewey Square?  (don't outsource
>> this to a working group!  let's solve it together)   Do we want a central
>> space for everything or several diffuse spaces?   Do we want roving GAs in
>> JP, Chinatown, Dorchester, and elsewhere? (and is it important for Gas and
>> working groups to be in the same space?)   Do we want to rent or borrow?
>> Do we want a food truck and a caravan of tiny houses?   And if so, how do
>> we make that happen?
>>
>> *Between now and Friday, I propose that *everyone* who has an idea or
>> plan about permanent space take this week (facilitation, logistics,
>> outreach, Eric, Greg, Brian, myself) write it up as a proposal, and bring
>> it with actionable items to Friday's community forum*.   In line with
>> that, I propose that as many working groups as possible check in with
>> updated information about where you are meeting and how you are situated,
>> post-eviction. *This is a top priority at the moment*.   Without a space
>> to assemble and a concrete proposal for what space we want to inhabit,
>> post-Dewey, we will not be able to settle long enough to accomplish
>> anything of substance.   We'll split up, peter out, start meeting
>> separately, stop checking in, and that will be the end of Occupy Boston.
>>
>> *2)   Long term winter solution for houseless occupiers * --  At the
>> moment, we have up to 10 people remaining who are active occupiers who need
>> a place to stay.   At least 4 are couples and cannot go into the shelter
>> system.   *We cannot rely on occupiers who have stepped up to offer
>> short-term housing as a long-term solution to this issue.  * Those of us
>> who have offered space are already stretched thin and are trying hard to
>> fill in the gaps.   Many of these people have stuck it out after eviction,
>> helping to coordinate space logistics and participating in GAs and working
>> groups, in spite of the very real possibility of spending the night in a
>> bus station.The occupiers who remain are part of our community, and we need
>> a community solution to this issue.
>>
>> *We need an immediate solution to the question fo where they will be
>> housed. *  Possible short term solutions: rotating couch space, church
>> space, others?  long-term solution:  outreach to places that will allow us
>> to pitch tents (not a good option over winter)?  large indoor spaces with
>> housing?   renting an apartment for houseless occupiers over winter?
>> Sending people to other occupations is not an option -- nor is farming this
>> out to a working group or a dedicated set of individuals.   If we are truly
>> a community, we need a community solution to this issue.   Most of these
>> people have arrangements that are expiring by the end of the week.  This
>> issue must be dealt with, before any broader questions of message and
>> direction are considered.
>>
>> *3)  OB actions this week, next week, and moving forward.  * I had a
>> conversation with some folks in media a few days ago about message, and
>> someone remarked (quite rightly) that the way we make statements now is not
>> with words, but with actions.   There are a number of very exciting actions
>> coming out of the community organization meetings, as well as a
>> proliferation of exciting, small-scale actions (tiny tents, anyone?) that
>> are in progress.   Let's coordinate TOGETHER, plan across working groups,
>> and approach these actions in a really intentional way!
>>
>> This week has seen more sprawl than usual, with a proliferation of
>> actions, many reactionary, quickly planned with little coordination or
>> thought of execution.  Autonomous action is fine, but too easily becomes an
>> excuse to throw things together at the last minute -- let's NOT use GA
>> announcements as a place to plan actions in the hopes that people will just
>> show up -- let's actually sit down and plan them together!   *There are
>> two meetings taking place this weekend -- an OB action summit (Sunday at 1)
>> and a community-wide spokescouncil meeting to plan for a mass day of action
>> sometime in January or February.*   Let's prioritize these meetings, and
>> use that space as a jumping-off point for a larger discussion of what we,
>> as a community, want to prioritize going forward.
>>
>>
>>
>> *********************************************************************************************************
>>
>> WIDER POST-EVICTION THOUGHTS - on GA, facilitation, and the need for open
>> community spaces
>>
>> (this is less urgent - feel free to skip it if you like -- they deal with
>> my broader concerns about GA, and how we can move forward as a community in
>> the wake of eviction from Dewey Square
>>
>> *Reclaiming GAs as a public space* -- the past two GAs have felt very
>> closed at a time when they need to be radically open -- they have carried
>> on with "business as usual," instead of reclaiming GAs as an open forum
>> (which they initially were).   In the wake of eviction, we need SOME spaces
>> for "loose" facilitation, for town hall stye forum, similar to what we had
>> in the beginning --->  perhaps reviving the PROPOSAL FOR COMMUNITY NIGHTS?
>>   how to deal with the sprawl of announcements??   replacing WG
>> announcements with print copies to circulate -- info desk at GA? -- all of
>> these and more. now, more than ever, we need to make it a radically open
>> space, and be proactive about inviting new people in
>>
>> In the days and weeks leading up to eviction, many people remarked
>> privately to me that they felt OB becoming a closed community, with people
>> onsite "taking care of their own," and offsite working groups operating in
>> total isolation of each other.   Post-eviction, we have followed "business
>> as usual" -- continuing meetings, highly procedural GAs, prioritizing an
>> hour of working group announcements, and dragging on for hours.
>>
>> We need to respond to GA specifically -- but we also need to actively
>> create spaces for people to meet and socialize, building in time for social
>> events, community forums  (like the one I'm proposing right now),
>> discussion meetings, teach-ins, and debate -- planning them in advance and
>> publicizing them widely, so that people outside the mailing lists will know
>> about them and can come.    In line with this, we need to actively make use
>> of the website, wiki, facebook, and twitter make sure we are publicizing
>> our events, keeping people up to date, and coordinating within Occupy
>> Boston in order to get the word out in a timely manner.
>>
>> *Taking care of our own*.   When occupied, Dewey Square was in a
>> constant state of crisis.   It was impossible to respond, react, or slow
>> down long enough to deal with the myriad issues  -- chief among them, the
>> marginalization of houseless occupiers and people of color.  Their needs
>> need to be addressed and put front and center in any discussion of how we
>> as a community move forward as a community  (whether they be clothing,
>> shelter, living assistance, a place to take showers, etc)
>>
>> *Prioritizing people over process:*   David made a proposal at
>> Saturday's facilitation meeting to go back to loose process and allow
>> people to speak openly at the post-eviction GA.   This didn't happen, and
>> to date, no space for this kind of open conversation has been made.
>> Post-eviction, we need to reintroduce a sense of radical openness to GA,
>> even if it slows things down or breaks process.  *We need spaces for
>> loose facilitation, even at the expense of efficiency, both to take into
>> account (and deal with) our radically changed circumstances, and to make
>> space for new people to have a place in the dialogue.*   Strong
>> facilitation is comforting to some and profoundly alienating to others --
>> at this juncture, I feel pretty strongly that we need spaces for both
>> strong facilitation and open, spontaneous dialogue -- and that if this
>> isn't currently happening in GA, we need to make it so.
>>
>> *Collaboration across working groups.  * For anyone who was at last
>> night's community orgs meeting, it was an amazing example of coordination
>> across groups -- we had four solid proposals on the table for upcoming
>> actions (from January through March) and left with actionable items on each
>> one.   For the first time in the history of that meeting, there were
>> representatives from media,outreach, facilitation, and community
>> organizations from across Boston.   At the facilitation meeting last
>> Saturday,likewise,  there were representatives from almost all of the major
>> working groups.    It felt amazing, to see and begin to plan large-scale
>> collaborative actions as a group, with thoughtful, intentional buy-in from
>> everyone in the room.
>>
>> Too often, we farm out difficult decisions to working groups or create
>> new ones on the spot, rather than do the workto have these conversations.
>> We need to create spaces where we can collaborate TOGETHER to solve
>> pressing issues across working groups, marshal our existing resources and
>> work together, across working groups, to plan actions, solutions,
>> discussions, and next steps.     More conversations like this = more work
>> that can immediately get done (and can get done together!), which is what's
>> going to keep us together in the long run.
>>
>>
>> *********************************************************************************************************************************
>>
>> Everything that's outlined above is hard.   We need to be thoughtful,
>> intentional, and have the courage to take things slowly rather than rush to
>> keep up with press coverage and the post-eviction spotlight.   We also need
>> to try, as best we can, not to trash each other by email as we work through
>> these difficult issues.
>>
>> Without a space -- and in particular, without concrete accommodations
>> made for our most marginalized members -- I feel it will be very hard to
>> move forward on any of the rest of it in a meaningful way.   I propose that
>> we start this conversation Friday at 6 p.m. at St. Paul's Cathedral.
>>
>> Those are my thoughts!   Please let me know yours.
>>
>> All best,
>>
>> Katie
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Rita Monestersky- Sebastian
> Brandeis, MA SID' 2009
>
> "If you cannot change yourself, how can you change the world?"
> Gandhi
>
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