[Street] proposal to table GA until Friday (in lieu of community forum on immediate problems)
Katie Gradowski
katie.gradowski at gmail.com
Wed Dec 14 01:35:03 EST 2011
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
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