Occupy Santa Rosa--What's Happening?

[neil]

After a huge gathering of several thousand on Saturday afternoon, there has been a smaller, continuous and determined Occupation at Santa Rosa City Hall since then, with individual people coming and going. I was there for parts of 3 days and nights (Saturday, Sunday and Monday) and would like to ask people to come and support it, be part of it, or even just check it out, whenever you can, for however long or short of time you can spend, day or night, 24/7. As long as you are non-violent you are welcome to come.

Occupy Santa Rosa is part of something much larger that is taking place around the U.S. and around the world. People are coming together, creating new community, and standing together for change. This is happening, I think, because people are fed up with the increasing hardship and continuing injustice of the current social structures, where power and wealth is concentrated in so few hands. Of course, everyone has their own experience, their own take on what the problem is. And in each country, the objective situation is different--but not that different. Across national borders, we are increasingly recognizing each others' plights. We identify. We want change not only for ourselves, but for others' sake, too.

I'm not sure that anything like the Occupy movement has happened before in the U.S. It is much more than protest. Each day and each night people at the occupations are meeting and working through a wide range of issues, from how the meetings themselves should be conducted, to making and keeping the occupation sites liveable, to the kinds of actions we want (or need) to do, to clarifying and applying our core values, to growing the movement. There are educational meetings, homemade music, food, and a lot of great people.

After a difficult "General Assembly" meeting at Occupy Santa Rosa Sunday evening, I was very moved and encouraged by how the Monday evening meeting happened. I've been part of many hundreds of protest-planning meetings, but I have never experienced meetings like these. What's happening seems quite different--and I'm not sure I can even say what it is. It's as if the future has gotten so sick and tired of waiting to be born that it is struggling to birth itself, right there on the steps and lawn.

From what I see, the tired old strategies for making political change are not what's driving this. A lot of the direction and energy is coming from younger people. I sense real openness and possibility regarding how this might develop further, and want to be part of it. I think it is a real strength that there is not a list of specific practical demands. There is nothing "practical" about wanting to be free of corporate rule and enslavement. The bones which the system might, with enough pressure, be willing to throw us, would not satisfy what we want and need, so why even ask for those?

I attended a meeting of about 15 people for doing outreach and advertizing. When I mentioned posting things about the occupation here on WACCOBB, not one person in the group had heard of it; they asked what it was. To me this was really good news. There are many conscious, active, committed folks in our community who are not here on WACCO!!!

So come out if you can. You don't have to be a hardcore through-the-night-er. It's your space, too. Come meet people. Talk. Listen. What's happening there is quite amazing for its freshness, its openness, its realness. Us old-timers who think we know a lot have a real opportunity to learn something. Maybe many things. It's not too late to be part of the future!

I don't know if any specific plans have been made, but there was talk of more big gatherings this coming Saturday and Sunday.

Neil

[Thad]

Aren't there anybody who have smart phones doing the Occupying? Who could be posting here right now from there" with video?

[Barry]

Thanks for your update, Neil! Anybody else with first person reports?

Occupy Santa Rosa was the 6th largest protest on Oct 15 in the nation!

I'd love to see ongoing updates, including selective reposts from the Occupy Santa Rosa website (https://www.occupysantarosa.org/) and/or a summary of the action the facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/OccupySR) and/or twitter feed (https://www.twitter.com/occupysr) .

I was hoping to do this, but I don't think I can fit it in. I will keep a close eye the category and help with formatting.
You can include the Occupy Santa Rosa logo (as I have done below) by using referencing the image at https://www.waccobb.net/forums/wacco...r-logo-lrg.png with our image tool.

Would someone/committee like to take this on? Sort of being our liaison to OCR? (Neil? ) Of course the wider community would be welcome to pitch in, but I think it would be best if there was a focus on this.

Before posting updates please review this category to see if the same information has already been posted.

I'll start with this good status update from the Occupy Santa Rosa website from Oct 18th:

Of General Assemblies, decentralization and City Hall meetings

Posted on October 18, 2011 1

Hey guys, so I want to make a few things more clear:

• General Assemblies are at 1pm and 6:30pm.
• Nobody’s given me any GA notes/resolution notes or information. I NEED THEM TO PUT ON THE SITE. I don’t care if they’re typed or written: I have a scanner at home, so I can scan them if needed. BUT I NEED THEM. PLEASE.
• IF YOU’RE GOING TO SMOKE ANYTHING, DO IT ACROSS THE STREET
• No drugs or alcohol. For Cannabis, read above.
• Can you guys get me a wishlist?

Can you guys please, please, please be more patient? We are currently transitioning from a centralized (six ‘point people’, including myself) to a decentralized movement. Things are going to be pretty hairy/hectic for the next week or so. Don’t expect to get anything really big done for quite a while. Remember- it took NYC four weeks to release a single statement. I expect things to go the same way here.

I hear that the City Hall meeting went pretty well. Issues that were brought up include

• Port-o-potties
• Allowing Tables, the solar panel, and other “camping” equipment

The only thing approved at the meeting were the port-o-potties, which will be onsite tomorrow morning at 7:30. The “camping” equipment issue won’t be brought up to the city council for a vote for at least a few more weeks, which is a real bummer.

One last thing- I’m not sure about anybody else, but I personally am pretty annoyed by all of these technicalities that people are bringing up concerning the language used by the movement. “Brothers and Sisters” is offensive? “you guys” is sexist? Really? Do you guys understand the notion of evolving language at all? Also, the term “Donation” is used by all occupations, and they have yet to have a problem, so I personally won’t be using the word “gift” in leiu of “donation”.

You may say that you want the language used changed because you are trying to promote a free mind, but you also need to keep in mind that preventing people from using the language that they want is preventing them FROM having a free mind, as well as limiting free speech.

Besides, there are more IMPORTANT things to worry about than the language we use. We’re not a legal council. So stop worrying about it, and stop complaining about it.

Speaking of donations, I’m working on getting a way to donate money via the internet. It probably won’t happen for a while, but I’m trying :]

edit- WE HAVE A CALENDAR FOR A REASON. PLEASE USE IT. If you want to add/edit something, let me know!

[Moon]

Oh folks, never underestimate the power of language!
My disagreement with asking people not to address us as "guys" is not that language promoting bigotry isn't important enough to bother about but that the literal meaning of guy is "fellow" & we're all each other's fellow [human] beings. I have to say i'm mystified by any objection (though i missed that one) to "brothers and sisters" or to donation; did you hear anything about why some people wanted different terms used? Making something part of the language gets its message in under the radar, making it
anywhere from extremely difficult to impossible to recognize and defeat it.

Thanks for your update, Neil! Anybody else with first person reports?

Occupy Santa Rosa was the 6th largest protest on Oct 15 in the nation!
I'd love to see ongoing updates, including selective reposts from the Occupy Santa Rosa website (https://www.occupysantarosa.org/) and/or a summary of the action the facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/OccupySR) and/or twitter feed (https://www.twitter.com/occupysr) .

I was hoping to do this, but I don't think I can fit it in. I will keep a close eye the category and help with formatting.
You can include the Occupy Santa Rosa logo (as I have done below) by using referencing the image at https://www.waccobb.net/forums/wacco...r-logo-lrg.png with our image tool.

Would someone/committee like to take this on? Sort of being our liaison to OCR? (Neil? ) Of course the wider community would be welcome to pitch in, but I think it would be best if there was a focus on this.

Before posting updates please review this category to see if the same information has already been posted.

I'll start with this good status update from the Occupy Santa Rosa website from Oct 18th:
Hey guys, so I want to make a few things more clear:

• General Assemblies are at 1pm and 6:30pm.
• Nobody’s given me any GA notes/resolution notes or information. I NEED THEM TO PUT ON THE SITE. I don’t care if they’re typed or written: I have a scanner at home, so I can scan them if needed. BUT I NEED THEM. PLEASE.
• IF YOU’RE GOING TO SMOKE ANYTHING, DO IT ACROSS THE STREET
• No drugs or alcohol. For Cannabis, read above.
• Can you guys get me a wishlist?

I hear that the City Hall meeting went pretty well. Issues that were brought up include

• Port-o-potties
• Allowing Tables, the solar panel, and other “camping” equipment

The only thing approved at the meeting were the port-o-potties, which will be onsite tomorrow morning at 7:30. The “camping” equipment issue won’t be brought up to the city council for a vote for at least a few more weeks, which is a real bummer.

One last thing- I’m not sure about anybody else, but I personally am pretty annoyed by all of these technicalities that people are bringing up concerning the language used by the movement. “Brothers and Sisters” is offensive? “you guys” is sexist? Really? Do you guys understand the notion of evolving language at all? Also, the term “Donation” is used by all occupations, and they have yet to have a problem, so I personally won’t be using the word “gift” in lieu of “donation”.

Besides, there are more IMPORTANT things to worry about than the language we use. We’re not a legal council. So stop worrying about it, and stop complaining about it.

Speaking of donations, I’m working on getting a way to donate money via the internet. It probably won’t happen for a while, but I’m trying :]

edit- WE HAVE A CALENDAR FOR A REASON. PLEASE USE IT. If you want to add/edit something, let me know!

[alanora]

Oh folks, never underestimate the power of language!
My disagreement with asking people not to address us as "guys" is not that language promoting bigotry isn't important enough to bother about but that the literal meaning of guy is "fellow" & we're all each other's fellow [human] beings. I have to say i'm mystified by any objection (though i missed that one) to "brothers and sisters" or to donation; did you hear anything about why some people wanted different terms used? Making something part of the language gets its message in under the radar, making it
anywhere from extremely difficult to impossible to recognize and defeat it.

Admittedly I am not up to date on my news watching or reading, however I do not see the point of the occupation. It seems like folks unhappy with their situation, possibly blaming "government" for their problems and having a story to voice, as do we all. How is this to change anything? Is there an agenda as a group I have yet to discover? Thanks for your kind answer.

["Mad" Miles]

Moon,

Barry copy pasted a post on the Occupy Santa Rosa website. I just checked the site and there are a couple of comments. But it's not an active discussion on the website. I personally have not been back to the OSR since late Saturday night, Sunday morning. So I'm checking things from afar and intend to visit sometime in the next few days.

My sense is that the action is at the Occupation, in the General Assemblies, which occur daily. From the website it seems that a change from a regular GA everyday at 1:00 and again at 6:30, has become a single GA everyday at 3:30 p.m. Except for this Saturday 10/22 which looks to be a day focused on public demonstration. But again, I have not been there for the past five days. The website has an updated calendar, which is where I got this information.

Alanora,

There has been plenty of commentary about the meaning, or lack thereof, of the Occupy Wall Street / Everywhere movement. It's a lot of different things, one of the best pieces of writing, among many, on it was published on Truth Out by Rebecca Solnit. Our local activist sage Shepherd Bliss has weighed in. So have many others, including myself here on waccobb.net (See the cartoon thread.). Several others have written things here on Waccobb about it. I really like Neil's piece from yesterday. And he knows this stuff.

To really find out for yourself, I recommend going to the occupation at City Hall in Santa Rosa and attending a General Assembly. There are also plans in Petaluma to launch an Occupation there.

https://occupysantarosa.org/

https://www.truth-out.org/letter-dea...ope/1318949571

https://dissidentvoice.org/2011/10/d...n-communities/

The Dissident Voice website is a good source for left political opinion and commentary. I especially like Linh Dinh's reports on Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Philadelphia. I like his work on DV in general and there are several other excellent writers who publish there on a regular basis.

The difference between Occupy! and a protest, is that while it's also a protest, a vigil, an act of witness, and many other things, the physical encampments are exercises in direct democracy. This is very new for this country, at least on this scale. These are the early days, what the future holds for all of us is unknown, but at least people are discussing it face to face in large groups using consensus decision making process.

There is a proposal circulating for a convention next July 4th. But that hasn't been consensed to by OWS (Occupy Wall Street) or any of the other Occupation General Assemblies. This thing has blown up, there is a bit of confusion, the means to communicate between the many, many occupations are being worked out, but have not jelled. In time, a network will be in place. What we do with it is up to the active participants. And while there is a lot of discussion online, the action is at the Assemblies, in meat world.

By the by, what I write here is based on my observation, experience in this style of organizing, and what I've read and heard. I do not represent the Occupy! movement any more than anyone else. But the thing that it seems that many people are having trouble wrapping their heads around, is that all active participants, in whatever way they're active, speak for the Occupy! movement.

While at the same time, there are no "official" spokespeople. That will change in time. There are working groups at the occupations focused on Outreach and Communications. Eventually some loose structure will emerge. What that is, other than the GA Consensus process that is being used, remains to be seen.

Tons of info online. About consensus process, GA structure, hand signals, history, etc. And if you check the OSR website calendar, you'll see that there are workshops in all of that scheduled on a regular basis, at the occupation.

[Moon]

The best succinct answer i can give is a quote from Jeffrey Sachs: "social movements take off when people see
that other people are suffering. They know they are not alone." To give something longer, i'll repeat what i said
to a reporter: Various people here emphasize different issues, but we all agree on the basics: We want peace.
We want everyone to have enough of everything, including health care. We want the banks to be made to give
back all the houses they stole by blatant fraud. We want to change from the present plutocracy to a democracy.
And we're all in agreement that the problems all come from the same source, which needs to be reined in--
the runamuck corporations.

Admittedly I am not up to date on my news watching or reading, however I do not see the point of the occupation. It seems like folks unhappy with their situation, possibly blaming "government" for their problems and having a story to voice, as do we all. How is this to change anything? Is there an agenda as a group I have yet to discover? Thanks for your kind answer.

[zenekar]

Admittedly I am not up to date on my news watching or reading, however I do not see the point of the occupation. It seems like folks unhappy with their situation, possibly blaming "government" for their problems and having a story to voice, as do we all. How is this to change anything? Is there an agenda as a group I have yet to discover? Thanks for your kind answer.

I've been on deadline on a work project and haven't had time to check in with what is happening with OWS/OSR, etc. Will have more time now that the project is done.

Some folks want an agenda spelled out for them. I believe that the first step is to acknowledge that a class war has been waged by the haves (elite thieves) from the inception of so called "western civilization." What I see is that there is now a collective awakening throughout the world, with a realization that we can't proceed in this way any longer -- too many lives, and this living planet, are being destroyed for the profit of a few. So, join in, voice your concerns and help build a real democratic movement.

As Martin Luther King, Jr. said: "We must learn to live together as brothers [and sisters] or perish as fools." I would add: We must learn to work together.

["Mad" Miles]

I forgot to mention another excellent commentator who has been writing about the Occupy Wall Street / Occupy! movement.

Starhawk Since she's been one of the "leaders" in the social justice and environmental movement promoting Non-Violent Direct Action and Consensus Process, Horizontal Organization and the rest of what has jelled into this current uprising, and has been doing so for over forty years, hers is a respected and informed voice. Not to mention that she's a kick-ass writer.

Yes, Chris Hedges, Naomi Klein, Michael Moore, and many other worthy commentators have weighed in. What makes Star special is she is a teacher, writer, organizer and activist who has been on the ground, at the protests, globally, for all these decades. There are a few others who come to mind in that category. Medea Benjamin, Kathy Kelly, David Solnit, but Star precedes all of them.

When I learned the ropes, back in the late seventies, it wasn't from her, but I guarantee it was no further remove than from someone who learned it from someone who learned it from her and her cohort of activists. I've been privileged to co-facilitate at least one non-violence prep with her.

She's been posting about OWS/Everywhere every few days in her blog, worth a look if you want to have an inside, experiential and inspiring view to how these things work:

https://www.starhawk.org/

https://starhawksblog.org/

[alanora]

I forgot to mention another excellent commentator who has been writing about the Occupy Wall Street / Occupy! movement.

Starhawk Since she's been one of the "leaders" in the social justice and environmental movement promoting Non-Violent Direct Action and Consensus Process, Horizontal Organization and the rest of what has jelled into this current uprising, and has been doing so for over forty years, hers is a respected and informed voice. Not to mention that she's a kick-ass writer.

Yes, Chris Hedges, Naomi Klein, Michael Moore, and many other worthy commentators have weighed in. What makes Star special is she is a teacher, writer, organizer and activist who has been on the ground, at the protests, globally, for all these decades. There are a few others who come to mind in that category. Medea Benjamin, Kathy Kelly, David Solnit, but Star precedes all of them.

When I learned the ropes, back in the late seventies, it wasn't from her, but I guarantee it was no further remove than from someone who learned it from someone who learned it from her and her cohort of activists. I've been privileged to co-facilitate at least one non-violence prep with her.

She's been posting about OWS/Everywhere every few days in her blog, worth a look if you want to have an inside, experiential and inspiring view to how these things work:

https://www.starhawk.org/

https://starhawksblog.org/

Thank you Miles. I have subscribed to the starhawk site to keep myself apprised. Good choice as I read many of her books years ago.

[alanora]

Admittedly I am not up to date on my news watching or reading, however I do not see the point of the occupation. It seems like folks unhappy with their situation, possibly blaming "government" for their problems and having a story to voice, as do we all. How is this to change anything? Is there an agenda as a group I have yet to discover? Thanks for your kind answer.

I have been informed and I appreciate it greatly, especially the kindness and lack of snarkiness. peace. me

["Mad" Miles]

A compilation of my comments regarding Occupy! Some duplication from this website, but not all.

[Moon]

Some things i know we need are:
a big, battery-powered clock (Half of us don't have watches.)
nasal rinse bottles (This will become very important to health.)
colas or other forms of low-dose caffeine that don't need heating
a block of ice once or twice a week
peanut butter to go on some of the apples

Our thanks to several apple-growers who have brought us crates of chem-free apples of a few different varieties.
We're well stocked with apples.

letters to Press Democrat refuting their 10/23 opinion piece saying that we're not sure what we want; we know exactly what
we want: Get the corporations out of politics. (If that takes a Constitutional Convention or a revolution, that's fine.) All of us
agree that the obstacle to the specific things we want--peace, everyone having enough, health care, education, etc.--is the runamuck corporations.

a very large number of people at the end of the march on Saturday, 10/29

I've been an active leftist for 47 years, and i feel as though the Occupation and its objectives are
what i've been working toward from the day i started a high school chapter of SDS at age 14.

[CSummer]

Here's what I wrote after spending some time at the Occupy Santa Rosa GA meeting on the City Hall lawn - and a video I discovered that's very relevant (Naomi Klein at - and speaking on - OWS).

Something's happening here - and something more is wanting to happen. Here's what I think it is: A culture of mutual caring and support that's happening and wanting to expand - not just in members but into a new culture and society. It's the beginnings of that new culture/society of sharing (power and resources) and cooperation - working together toward common ends.

I am concerned about the present focus on confronting power - economic, especially - and authority structures. I question how useful that is, as I don't think we have the power to change them significantly, and I don't think we're ready or able to dismantle them.

What we could be focusing on is replacing them - creating new, caring, cooperative ways and communities for meeting our needs. We need to be able to live independent of the dominant systems, because as long as we're dependent on them, we're supporting them. This is especially true of our basic needs: food, shelter, energy, health care.

Also, the dominant systems desperately need replacing! They are not humane, just, sustainable or peaceful. They are not designed to ensure human needs are met - not even the basic need for safety. They are also anti-democratic. Designing new systems, developing plans based on those designs and organizing people to work together to carry out those plans is what I believe we need to be doing. Perhaps if the design and the plan are presented in a way that people can really relate to, they will be energized to work on realizing it.

Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaEeeLOB5IA