Notes for 11/4/2011 GA Go over hand signals. Explanation of 90% agreement Announcement of facilitator meetings on Saturday 12-1 at TSP, trainings from 2-4 COMMITTEE ANNOUNCEMENTS: Tony from Labor: We need toilets. Honey Bucket has said that the won’t supply us with porta-potties anymore due to the vandalism. After speaking with them they gave us until Monday. If we can keep them clean, we can have them indefinitely because Labor has not indicated that they will stop paying for them. Please tag “Pull up your OccuPants” elsewhere. Dylan from inter-occupation outreach: Wants to plan a trip over winter break, since most people are college students. If anyone has a van or bus, get in touch. Kip from Web team: Having server trouble. Looking to transition to a new server or possible a cloud server. Expect down time on the site, possible the forum. Livestream will not be affected. Ivy with community outreach: League of Women Voters wants to have an action on Nov. 19. Still planning. Unofficial event on Facebook. Google the League of Women voters. Peace and Safety: Met with the police this morning as an opportunity to ask questions about new protocols. It was video recorded and that will be posted online. Carrie from Spending: There will be a meeting on Tuesday at 6p at TSP. Need more committee representatives. Apollo from Finanace: Julio Granda registered “The Real Occupy Portland” as a non-profit on 10/31. Came forward on KOIN as the founder of the movement. This is the same group of people and Apollo is MAD. Media committee: Because of process, unable to have the statement formally approved by the GA, but want a temperature check to post a statement about more police brutality in Oakland. No opposition, 100% consensus. (currently posted online). Art and Music Committee: have a performance tomorrow sometime from 3-6?. PROPOSAL 1 Don’t Feed the Greed! Individual Pledge: 1. Using a credit union or local small bank for my personal finances. 2. Using cash whenever possible, debit whenever cash is not an option and credit as a payment of last resort, as debit and credit results in higher charges to myself and to community businesses. 3. I will purchase locally produced goods and services, especially from worker owned cooperatives. 4. I will involve myself with my community, by introducing myself to y neighbors, and discussing with them their needs and abilities so that we may rely upon one another. 5. I will support labor action by boycotting businesses that have striking workers, until the strike has been resolved. Business Owner’s Pledge: 1. I will refuse business loans from corporate banks, instead seeking loans (if necessary) from credit unions or local banks. 2. I will provide a living wage, sick and vacation time, and health coverage for our employees, their dependents, and partners, married or not. 3. I will not try to subvert efforts by my workers to collectively bargain or join a union. 4. I will give my employees a democratic voice in the workplace by supporting an equal management structure and consensus making processes when possible. 5. I will source as much of my goods and services to do business from local or domestic sources as possible. Government Officer and Employee Pledge 1. I will work to remove corporate influence over my agency’s operations, i.e. I will oppose privatization of our services by legislators. 2. I will only contract out operations when all in-house options are exhausted, and will try to find local, unionized, co-op’s to provide these services. 3. I will not seek out on-call or temporary employees who are not represented by unions. 4. I will provide a living wage, sick and vacation time, and health coverage for our employees, their dependents, and partners, married or not. 5. I will not try to subvert efforts by our workers to collectively bargain or join a union. QUESTIONS This is to empower you to distribute this? Yes with the blessing of the GA. Has this been peer reviewed? A committee has worked on this, yes. Why do you need sanctions from the GA? Hoping to further the impact of Bank Transfer Day. CONCERNS Not everyone knows. It’ll be on the Web site. EVOLUTIONARY STAGE Make shorter. Says only union, but union should be specifically applied to labor. There are some professions that don’ have unions. The current language says unions “whenever possible.” Taken off the table. If no union, the local employee. Consensus reached and proposal amended. CONSENSUS REACHING No further concerns 0 Disagree 4 Stand Asides Passes. PROPOSAL 2 From the Action Committee, have OP join the Nov. 17 call to action. Empowers the action committee to coordinate non-violent action on major corporate banks. QUESTIONS What sort of civil disobedience will be organized? Not all civil disobedience is peaceful. Specifically non-violent. What are we doing? Empowering the Action Committee to organize action done by affinity groups, who must go through the action committee. There is no plan for action yet? This proposal empowers the Action Committee to plan. How is non-violence defined? This proposal does not define non-violence, working with what has been agreed upon previously. Why sanction? Then the GA has to keep an eye on these affinity groups. This will empower the Action Committee to organize action. This is looking for GA approval? Yes. CONCERNS If non-violence isn’t specified, there will be property damage and that will look bad. Some groups may be non-violent and claim OP name, but not a part of OP. Groups must operate through Action Committee, use prior law of non-violence and know that violent action is not endorsed. Going through action committee is concerning. Secrecy can be a powerful tool. Secrecy of groups will be maintained. Only need to communicate time and location to action committee. Peaceful civil disobedience should be stated. Why concerned about breaking laws if everyone’s secret? Violence is harm to other life. Property damage is not violence. Opposition to property damage will be a part of our definition of non-violence. Any non-violent action that doesn’t have a clear direction and plan from start to finish usually ends violently. There needs to be a clear end. That will be clearly defined as the Action Committee organizes these actions. The definition of non-violence needs to include opposition to property destruction. If there is a subversive committee member, who causes damage and the media will spin that to being endorsed when it’s not. Non-violence will include opposition to property damage. Secrecy is the enemy of freedom. EVOLUTION Non-violence to include violence towards people and property destruction. 4 Disagree Passes Include language that doesn’t condone property damage, but make it clear that property damage is not under the umbrella of non-violence. We are wasting time policing arbitrary line. The media will do what they want. This discussion takes away from the real discussion of banks. Including this language draws attention to violence. We are fighting the machine. Amendment revised to say that the action taken will be non-violent and that property damage is not condoned. 3 Disagree Pass with 90%+ CONSENSUS PROCESS 1 Disagree 3 Stand Aside Passes with 90%+ PROPOSAL ANNOUNCEMENTS Proposal that OP endorse Cascadia. Bringing to GA on Monday. At Info Booth tomorrow at 4 p. Peace and Safety are submitting a proposal to establish criteria for how the GA endorses political action for the purpose of disassociating from those that are damaging to the movement and for consistency purposes (especially with the press). The criteria will encourage action in line with the Occupy Movement. Non-violence is a subjective term, the aim is to clear up that subjectivity. Non-violence is confusing and each person comes with their own definition. This proposal will not condemn any actions, just a way to clarify the needs and roles of peacekeepers and give an idea if their presence is appropriate. This doesn’t prevent the forming of actions, only a request to adhere to this criteria. If it doesn’t meet the criteria, the proposal of action can change or continue without the GA’s approval. As agreed upon by Peace and Safety: non-permitted marches with less than 300 stay on the sidewalk, adhere to park hours, not impede traffic, have a peacekeeper and liaison, announce each action 10 minutes before at the very latest. Contact Gina at Peace and Safety, be on agenda GA tomorrow. PROPOSAL 3 Form an exploratory committee to look into moving committee operations to an indoor location with three goals: looking into leasing the 2nd and 3rd floors of 930 SW 3rd Ave, explore all other options, and the understanding that the GA will not approve any moves until the city allows homeless encampments such as The Right 2 Dream Too. QUESTIONS Is this in an attempt to preempt squatting? This is to form an exploratory committee. This is not looking at abandoning the current space. We will explore having an indoor space. This will not be squatting. The space mentioned is currently under code and would need remodeling before any movement. The details would come later but we would need money and volunteers. Also exploring other options. We are currently having a financial crisis. Where would the money come from? We had no money in the first place. The money would all be gift money. We have no current offers and that could be because there is uncertainty of what the money would be used for. This would give a clear reason for fund use. Remember that the indoor space is for committee functions only, not living. Is this an open committee? Yes, in my understanding there is no such thing as a closed committee. Who would hold the lease? Currently unknown. Have a committee for that. Hope would be OP as a legal entity. Explain that third part? This is important, there would be no GA approved moves until the city approves safety of homeless encampments. We are going to have to move at some point, but when we do, anyone should be allowed to find a place to prop a tent. CONCERNS You only mentioned volunteer efforts with no mention of mobilizing the labor groups that have supported the movement thus far in regard to renovations. This is a bad idea. We are still an occupation, not an office. If this is an exploratory committee, why was there in interview with the Willamette Week as if this is already a fact. I only said that it was a proposal. Not how article reads. I know you’ll look into this. Finance isn’t capable and that committee will need to be fixed if money is going to be a part of this. Finance has a lawyer and trust with a legal structure currently. Concerned about preventing a hierarchal and elitist attitude. There are 60+ committees that need desk space. This potential indoor space would allow a space for them to operate from. This camp will eventually get shut down. We need a space to continue operations when that happens. Are we shutting down camp? All of the reasons given for this proposal mention the inevitability of camp getting shut down. We can’t move and not shut down. This proposal doesn’t say we are moving. In fact, says we won’t move until we can safely pop a tent in the city. Additionally, this is to find indoor space for the committees to operate from, not indoor living space. EVOLUTION Before lease, look at donate space from churches. Already a part of the proposal, looking at all options. Taken off table. Use specific language that we are not going to lose park and that this is not an exit strategy. 100% Consensus 2 Stand Asides Amended Moving inside allows open access to computers and facilities that not everyone has right now. CONSENSUS PROCESS 11 Agree 1 Disagree 6 Stand Aside PASSED. GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS There is a disconnect in the community and culture of those involved through the Web site and those at camp and those not interested in the GA. Each group has attributes that are beneficial like the street families have very strong loyalty and those that participate through the Internet are good at networking. We need to bring these groups together.