[Energy] Distributed March Idea
Ravi Mishra
ravi at occupyboston.org
Tue Nov 8 18:09:36 EST 2011
Hi everyone,
I've been discussing this concept with Nicole from DA, and we wanted to
present it to all of you. Pulling this off is going to require a lot of
people and support, so the goal of this email is twofold:
1) Let me know if you'd like to join an affinity group to start planning
(or just if you want to be part of the march when it happens)
2) Respond with feedback/recommendations
We were thinking either this weekend (unlikely) or next weekend (the 19th)
to do this. Without further ado...
Distributed March - First Draft
Concept: Instead of having everyone in the march in one place (where the
only people who take notice are those in the immediate vicinity plus any
media coverage), the Distributed March will aim to put people all
throughout the city and will focus on both marching and outreach - talking
to people about the issues. The goal is to have a group of people on as
many of the major blocks as possible, hopefully within eyesight of each
other (think all along Newbury or Bolyston). Depending on our turnout, we
can assemble a list of the most trafficked areas of town (T stops, tourist
destinations, thoroughfares, etc.) and organize so that we have a sizable
contingent (5-30 people, perhaps) at each area. With as little as a few
hundred people, we can really get a lot of visibility all around Boston.
Ideally, we could work with other Occupies to get town centers in some of
the suburbs (especially via Occupy the Hood and Ocupemos El Barrio).
The goal is to give people personal interaction and connection with the
movement. The vast majority of people have had no firsthand experience of
the protests, and have only heard about the issues through the media. By
taking to the streets in a friendly, welcoming fashion, we encourage the
public to learn about the issues and get involved. Our tone is very
important - we should be friendly and welcoming, willing to listen and
educate about the issues. Some people will be turned off no matter what we
do, but many, I think, want to hear from us.
We can start the march at camp and then have people simply peel off at
their respective locations, or we can just meet at our designated spots.
We'll likely need a (or multiple) "Group Coordinator" at each location who
are aware of how many people are at their location and can be a point
person to relay communications. Organization will be tough, and we will all
need to be vigilant and alert to respond to situations that come up.
Personal ideas/recommendations:
1. Encourage educational training before the event. We want to put an
articulate, intelligent face on the movement to win over the mainstream.
Structure the march so that there is at least one (and hopefully many)
trained person with each group (the Group Coordinator, perhaps), who can
then train the people in his/her respective group. The training will focus
on major, irrefutable talking points of the movement and how to and listen
and be friendly and personable. The more charismatic, the better. :)
2. Prepare materials - signs are great, but flyers and handouts could be
even better. We could put out a call to have anyone and everyone help
create flyers for the march, and people could pick which flyers they like
best. One idea could be to have different flyers for different industry
verticals or big ideas. (Ex: Financial Services, Environment, War, Racism,
etc.)
3. Include a variety of voices - reach out to groups like Occupy the
Hood or the Women's Caucus and encourage them to prepare materials and
attend the training, so that their voicers are included in the process.
4. Be conscious of appearances and image. Like it or not, by engaging
the public in conversation, we will be judged by our dress, our conduct,
and countless other things. We should do everything we can to put our best
foot forward.
5. Don't raise money (or, at least, don't publicize that we are). We
don't want to be the GreenPeace people who are always stopping you and
asking for money. People get very turned off if they feel like they're
being asked for money, and we want to send a clear message that we're just
there to help educate about the issues and the injustices that are
happening.
6. Encourage working group mixing. From the planning committee to the
individual groups at each physical location, this march is an incredible
opportunity to foster relationships between people from different working
groups.
Looking forward to hearing from all of you!
------
- Ravi, from my OccupyBoston.org address. Please use this email for all
Occupy-related emails. Thanks.
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