[Street] March 10: Occupying to Organizing Popular Power - Workshop part II!

trenchesfullofpoets at riseup.net trenchesfullofpoets at riseup.net
Mon Mar 5 07:44:56 EST 2012


**please forward widely!*

*Dear Occupy Boston activists!*

*On Saturday, March 10th from 2-5pm we will hold Part II of the *Occupy to
Organize Training <http://www.facebook.com/events/361041453920518/> at the
Community Church of Boston.  Community organizations and organizers will
share base building techniques including: door knocking, practicing your
outreach (elevator) pitch, and how to hold a house meeting. We will also
discuss how we can build together toward a Popular Assembly.  This event is
free, but please register at
popularassembly.org<http://www.popularassembly.org/>

*Take a moment today to set up 5 One on One meetings to invite others to
Occupy to Organize, Part II.*  You could set up a meeting with someone who
has stopped participating or expressed support but never really got
involved.  Or you could hold a One on One meeting with someone who you have
been wanting to work with but haven't had a chance to get to know or sit
down and talk to. Included are some of the notes from the training as a
reminder of the components of a story of self and a One on One meeting. 
Occ2Org

Part I,
Notes<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XTqc8655knkgY2v9RNsSXOwxayZOUxbNsqZjcZfht60/edit>

We will begin the training on March 10th with a re-cap from Part I and a
report back about how your One on One meetings went.  Please fill out a
list of 5 One on Ones you will hold between now and March 10th.  If you
have any questions before or after holding a One on One meeting feel free
to call Camilo Viveiros at 401-338-1665 and/or email at
camilo at activism2organizing.org

 The organizing tools provided through the Occupy to Organize training can
help us expand our movement and increase popular involvement.  As mentioned
at the training, the *Popular Assembly is an additional structure we are
developing to be part of the Occupy Movement that will deepen the level of
public participation of the 99%.*  Building on the broad appeal of the
Occupy movement, we can increase the involvement of our neighbors and
friends, to come together to be a part of making bigger change happen*.
  *The Popular Assembly is a large-scale meeting for the Occupy movement
that would allow for us to build and share power together.  Occupy
activists
would be involved in organizing in our neighborhoods, schools and holding
house meetings prior to and after the Popular Assembly.  The role of
attendees of the Popular Assembly would include identifying issues that
directly impact their lives, working with others to support and/or develop
campaigns and organize others affected by the same issues.  During the
Popular Assembly we will offer campaign development training to work toward
organizing and to develop concrete organizing plans, as well as include
participation of grassroots groups that are currently working on issues.

*What differentiates what the Popular Assembly does from GA's and working
groups?  *The Popular Assembly will supplement GAs and working groups with
an additional way to encourage all of us to be active organizers around
issues that impact us and in growing the Occupy movement.  The format of
the Popular Assembly allows for new participants to identify our common
interests in what issues we want to work on, and then to directly develop
or support campaigns to address these issues.  Popular Assembly
participants will build a power analysis around specific concerns and come
to common commitments to play an active role not just in voting
democratically at meetings or working in a subgroup, but in organizing more
people to participate.  During a Popular Assembly we would spend time
working with others to coordinate face to face organizing to make our
movement larger.

The Occupy movement has directly spread democratic institutions like GAs
across the country and has coordinated many powerful actions.  Now we need
to expand our work by adding a vehicle for the broader public to
participate in developing campaigns that address their concerns and for
all
Occupy activists to expand our organizing work in order to involve more of
the 99%.  In order to grow up to scale to challenge the policies of the 1%
we need to foster a movement that values organizing as much as action and
that encourages everyone to organize with people, face to face, between
GAs, not just in working groups, or on email lists or on facebook.  What is
at stake is all of the possibility of change that got us involved, and our
ability to seriously address our concerns in the future.

>From around the country we have received interest about how to build
Popular Assemblies.  We are excited to grow this model together in Boston.
Remember to arrange your One on One meetings with 5 people over the next
few days.  Please pass on the training
information<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1za8B1w16M_DNeXtQ-DXSC4p4B7gTm2lnMrt-dQghofo/edit>,
facebook link, <http://www.facebook.com/events/361041453920518/> and
trailer<http://youtu.be/EUPA2j_8W-w>to invite others to the Occupy to
Organize March 10th training, but
holding One on One meetings is the best tool you have to build this
movement between now and March 10th.  Looking forward to seeing you then!

*Together We are Organizing Popular Power!




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