[OccupyCU] "Still Occupy?" - Monday 10/29/2012 meeting notes

[Stuart Levy]

"Still Occupy?" meeting of 10/29/2012, called by Susan Parenti, in IMC 
SDAS Family Room

Attending: Susan P, (a woman SL doesn't know), Karen M/L, Jesse P, Mark 
E, Chris E, Paul M, Austin M, Rachel S, Sandra H, Theresa S, Doug C, Pam 
C, Eleanor E, Chris G, Ya'aqov, Stuart L.

Notes by Stuart.   [I missed many good things said - please post 
additions & corrections! -SL]

Susan -
  I thought we were onto something last yr with occupy...

  Great... but too few people

  Shall we try for a couple evenings -- not a GA, not Occupy Group, but...
   talk with one another + hearing from those who couldn't be here but 
have written in

  What next?  as a movement? interest group?
    Lots of things are going on in this town.  Occupy infused with lots 
of energy.
    Yet it's still a small group.
    So - is occupy superfluous?

  Let's have a meeting, and maybe two more after this, at least.

  Bringing out ideas that we think we can actually do.

Rachel -
   What has occupy brought that's unique?
   Many familiar faces are here - same people working on other causes in 
this town.
   What is different with us?
   What's special, what joys & struggles have been particular to occupy?

     rachel's been excited about occupy in the past ... but can't be on 
listserv any more.
     Should be a place where *we* as activists define the culture.
     "isn't that just another type of power and control?"
     i'm not here to be a libertarian, i'm here for anti-racism, 
anti-sexism.
     let me be honest and blatant.
     and i have other projects, other things going on.

     hopes for OccupyCU - haven't been what ...
     voices and needs of marginalized people in capitalist system.
     we do talk about that with respect to workers, but not re gender, 
sexuality.

     it's encouraging to see familiar people from other meetings - but 
leads me to ask, why more meetings?
     valuable things come to mind: Karen sending out lists of any events 
she can think of to every person she can think of.

Austin M -
     I was turned off by "macho dynamics" / "process hawks" in last 
winter's Occupy.
        -> attention to formats for participation (GA, who speaks when ...)
       but weren't able to keep in check the dynamics
       We weren't paying enough attention to people who were being quiet.

       Seemed as though we'd rather say,
     Let's not defeat capitalism, let's just make our own perfect little 
circle...

       Last winter, people were concerned with Class.  with Capitalism.
     I've missed the politicization so much ...
     Many people feel they [weren't served by focusuing on election / on 
obama]

       "Strike Debt" [Debt Resister's Handbook] -
     morality behind Debt as being a key way that people are bound in to 
the current system.
      prevents us from recognizing the [?]

       Occupy served an essential role of politicizing things.
       Now it's time for us to think about gaining power.
       Some have suggested an Occupy political party.   Things to be 
said for and against that.
       Austin imagines neighborhood associations.
     Ultimately to make these governmental systems that we have not 
consented to, irrelevant.


Susan - would like for people to feel heard.


Pam Carsey
     Some people have been activists a long time -
     and for others who haven't, sometimes even the terms are unfamiliar.
     It's been good for me personally, growth
     but i have wondered if it could be superfluous, whether it's 
effective in the community

     i'm glad, mostly

Karen Medina / Karen Evans Levy (cheers!)
     Occupy serves a role for us.
     people at demos would ask, Who are you?  when we said Occupy, 
people said Cool, i want your literature.
     Even if it doesn't serve a role for *us*, it does serve a role for 
the community.
     It's a nationally understood group  -- a brand

     One thing that happened to occupy - we had expectations of actually 
overthrowing capitalism.
     Things that we couldn't do in ten weeks, or even ten years.
     How do we know what even little successes are, and how do we know 
we're on a path to bigger successes?

Paul Mueth -
     It's still part of the zeitgeist.  we should keep it alive.
     Just heard of Occupy Fukushima.

     and remember, We Have Two Referenda thanks to OccupyCU (2 in 
Urbana, 1 in Champaign).
        Citizens' United / corporate personhood / money as speech, and
        antidote to the Marketplace of No Ideas at marketplace mall

     and, glad that there are so many people here today.

Mark Enslin
     occupy wall st - to me was a combination of a tactic, a sort of 
analysis, and a response to a hurt.
     it interested me to see who responded to occupy.   the hurt didn't 
have a clear name, but it was economic hurt.

     the part we [didn't realize] - the Occupy part - meant that we 
didn't have the bracing experience of having the police break down our 
occupation, discard our libraries & computers...

     It's slipping out of the naming.
       1% vs 99% - to see that poor, destitute, and middle class, might 
have some [common cause?]
     the people who are poor are getting less limelight than [workers?]
     we never quite got to actually defending people who are losing 
their homes to foreclosure
     i still don't know what need we are fulfulling in c-u
     so that we could address a hurt
        three  things -- recognizing:
           Where people are hurting
           Analysis for thinking about change
               Tactic for [action?]

        In Occupy people were acting and talking at the same time.
        We resisted the cliches about where to protest  [?]

     something else that shocked me, from the outside - race/gender issues:
       how can we be so far from being on the same page on that? ...
       working with people who seemed never to have confronted feminist 
issues in their lives.
       A just shouted down B, and doesn't see it as a feminist issue...

Eleanor Evans
     stood up with groups like flexngate, or AWARE
     I'm involved now with homer coal mine, mahomet aquifer
     Showing us, "you can be strong, you can be effective"
     Not sure occupy needs to be a big thing
     and spend less time on internet talking about bradley manning, and 
more time actually Doing

<woman stuart doesn't know>
     was away last year during nitty-gritty, but admired [?]
     one local issue I'm especially concerned about: Slum lords. Campus 
Property Mgmt and others.   The way that CPM treats its tenants.  This 
may be an issue for another forum
     -- tenants' union?
     they are good, but they can only do so much.
     i'd like to see CPM ruined.

Ya'aqov
     popularizing occupy- bringing in more people - that's never 
interested me.   it's never mattered to me whether many people came to 
protest.
     what *does* interest me are creative ways of carrying out protest.
     there are in this room, creative people who [could invent ...]
     If in 30 years, we can look back and say, "There were new ideas and 
they began here," that will be what I want

     we *did* have meetings until july.
     many of the ideas we're discussing now were mentioned in those 
meetings.
     we don't lack for ideas.

     i just think that what happened with the listserve was unfortunate 
- it became a saloon ..

Jesse
     housing issues.
     Re City of Champaign trying to demolish an entire north Champaign 
neighborhood -- bristol place :
     there've been a couple protests, one or two;
     but it's being railroaded through *quickly*.
     Hoping to have the deal clinched by maybe mid-November - very soon.
     I'd been working earlier this year on antieviction campaign -- it 
fizzled out -- but it could be revived.
     This is a Much More Aggressive case of the city trying to demolish 
people's property, or using eminent domain -
       we could at least
     I know some in CUCPJ are working on it - but think we could help in 
some way.  by publicizing issue...

       From antieviction work, I got lots of useful information on how 
to help people in this situation.

     We could protest in the neighborhoods that are affected, in front 
of the houses that are affected;
       we [something] about the court process of foreclosure
       The Bristol Place project is even more aggressive than 
foreclosure - just Give Us Your House -
       The work we did on that could be helpful.

       [Heard later: Jesse had attended a Housing Board meeting last 
Thursday (10/25?); one of the developers hoping to work on Bristol Place 
was present, and seemed to expect he'd get something in writing by Nov 
15th.]

Susan
     in Feb, meetings were happening about building a new jail. likewise 
on speedball.

     It was like Single Payer -
         "that's off the table", but you never saw the moment when it 
was *taken* off the table.

     This is what the 1% does.
     They make it look like you're not part of the meeting -- the 
meeting happened yesterday.
     It was so clear that that was what was happening at the jail -
       I even devised a skit - "Father knows Betzt" - but didn't quite 
dare perform it

     we're living in the era of Citizens United.   if not us, who will 
work on citizens united?

     If we think of some thing that are Underneath the Suffering -
     and warn people - be a warning group - like in high schools:
     "If You Ever See This Happen - that an important decision is being 
Taken Away From You - then you'll know that
        some specific bad thing is happening.
          You'll Have a Vocabulary For It."

     as (though i don't like to use it) the 35 years of the Neocons - 
talking with educators, getting their language to be accepted as normal -
     and Shock Doctrine preparation

Eleanor
     Where was Occupy at the aquifer hearings?  we needed occupy there!

Rachel
     I've loved Occupy for gaining access to organizing people
     that i wouldn't have access to otherwise
     yet we organize distinctively in different spaces
     Imagines occupy as a central way of checking in.
     Where is followup happening?  how can we encourage [...]

Austin
     I started becoming politically active at 16.   organizing for 
Dean... and for a number of causes

     "It's like playing whack-a-mole" -- while the system keeps on 
running and creating more moles to whack.
     You end up feeling totally passive.
     Yet *talking* about the system gets into ideology, where we're 
likely to differ

     Where are the leverage points where we can  ... ?

     If we have everybody in city of urbana on our side, we should do 
something besides protest.
     You get them to think politically.
       that The World We're Living In Is Not Natural, It Is Constructed.

     [I was impatient(?) with the language of "99%" vs "1%" - seemed 
like 99% was generous]

     to get people to realize that [they have interests in common? 
solidarity?  austin you had a good way to say this. -SL]

     Chomsky: Occupy created a sense of solidarity in the US.  When was 
the last time we had that, in the 1930s?

     There Is No One Mole that when whacked will dismantle the machine.

     A group that feels like we are working to Dismantle the 
whack-a-mole machine -- I think that's something we need


Pam C
     Anxious that we do stay together.  somehow.  i just keep thinking 
of basic differences that make it hard to do that.
     Are we willing to be arrested?
     Are we opposing capitalism?

Chris G
     What attracts me to occupy:
     That many people are hurt - and many people became active who 
didn't think of themselves as activists.
      and to those people, normal activist rules didn't apply - they 
knew nothing about them.
     of course, we do not agree on everything - and some of us place 
more importance on some issues than others ...

     Core of it to me: Money in Government.  And the relation people 
have with the people who run the country.
     any decision that gets made, becomes a financial one.

     there's so much money going into these wars - and into the defense 
budget -
        some people are benefitting from that, and not many people, either.
        [we need to look at] how people are

     [frustrating] when 9 people are showing up for meetings, and we 
have 12 things we need to do.
        nothing was getting done.
        don't know whether i saw in advance that that would be an issue, 
but looking back, it was.
        some here are college educated, some were activists since they 
were 4... some aren't

     We aren't affiliated with any one party.  we mostly lean left...
       though i have heard of republicans who appreciate occupy

     ... these people [1% in high positions] are allowed to keep their 
jobs, no matter what they've done...

     Susan - so you think there's a lot of solidarity to be found
     -- Yes.  We can focus on what we agree on.

Theresa
    in the classroom... i could teach about fairness ... and see it 
carried out (since i was in control)
    My hope of occupy was go move toward seeing a fairer world [Theresa, 
your way of saying this was so much better!]
     everyone's angry - and we agree on so many things which are unfair -
     and yet we don't realize that we *do*

     "Why are you here?", i'd ask karen  getting yelled at every week, 
"get a job!"
      Standing next to like minded people has been so important

Eleanor
    Agrees with whackamole.
    We don't want corporations to ruin our water....
     The issues aren't far away, they're right here.
     We do need to prioritize.
     but we can pick out things we want to do.

Sandra
    i agree we don't want it to go away
    aquifer, move your money - though we sort of dropped it [were good 
things to do]

Stuart
     Has admired how many issues Occupy has brought together, especially 
the emphasis on Class which underlies so many of them.
     Agrees emphatically with Austin's Whack-a-mole comments.  Read out 
a related piece from M L King[1967]:
      The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady ... if 
we ignore this sobering reality we will find ourselves organizing 
clergy- and laity-concerned committees for the next generation ... 
Guatemala and Peru, Thailand and Cambodia ...  We will be marching for 
these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end unless 
there is a profound change in American life and policy.

     Mentioned Francisco Baires <francisco at universityymca.org>, who 
spoke recently in a panel on immigrants' rights.
     Baires talked about the structure of a movement, and of different 
kinds of actions serving different roles.
     [added later: Baires cited sociologist Johan Galtung, and talked 
about his theories of structural and cultural violence, too. -SL]


Chris E
    all these structures that Occupy raised, focus on money
     jeff glassman said it best when i asked him, what's this about?
     it does have a money/corporate component.  But more -
         It's about people not being able to make decisions about their 
own lives any more.

     I liked occupy since it had no cult personality leader.
       It aimed for inclusion of everybody.

     I think it still has a commmitment for the long haul.
         Remember last january, the [SDAS] Truck Stop for the Long Haul.

     remember the west side park march, the early meetings?
       all that enthusiasm is still there.
       all those *problems* are still there.

     the big stuff - end the war, all that...
        Is it enough just to work on flexngate, on the aquifer?

     the referendum yes - but the campaigns that are most successful 
when  [?]

     the real goal is *self-governance* as austin said.  Create our own.

     You heard "get a job" because we got labelled as anti-business, 
anti-free-enterprise.
        That's wrong.  "No," we say, "Let us in!"

     heard on WILL [maybe harry shearer's show? -SL]
         [SL, added later: Chris, was it this interview with Stephanie 
Kelton, about the foundations of money, the illusory nature of the US 
debt and the craziness of cutting spending during times of high 
unemployment...
http://harryshearer.com/transcript-stephanie-kelton-interview/
         ]

         There's a guy who's been sleeping in the stairwell.  He's 
deaf.  He's still sleeping there.

     I just think: what Zucotti park did is to create a voice.
        it's been going on since the 30s, since king, ...


Letters read out by others...

rohnkoester [by e-mail]
    i tried to imagine the different world we would all be in if 1965 
Senate subcmte's projections had proved true, 20 hour work week by 2000, 
due to efficiencies and improved automation.

     The efficiencies have happened...
     Yet we now work longer than any other industrialized nation.

     Are we [Occupy] promoting the harder, richer path of creating more 
discretionary time?
     A shorter work week + a living wage would be a fine platform.

     As a poltiical movement, it can be practiced by anyone with a 
fulltime job.
        or by being champion slackers

Belden Fields
     What's distinctive about occupy: it keeps focus on Class.  even 
labor unions don't do this well.
     could stimulate campaign for recognition of 1966 cultural and 
economic rights document
     that Congress never ratified.

Ian k
     who is running a fever tonight :(
     connection w other occupy websites...

     calendar has become a 1-stop place to see work of many social 
justice groups

     Registrants to Occupy web site have been only spammers for last 
several months.
     I'll give up sorting through registrants as an admin, and editing 
the calendar,
        if this meeting folds Occupy as an organization.


-----

Pause

-----

Karen -
    I love all of you.
    the idea, You're All Different - we need that.   if we were all the same
    Occupy is Needed.
    We have people being made homeless.
    We have injustices here.  We have injustices underlying injustices.
    You have all made my life so much richer.

Yaaqov
    We don't have to agree on anything, next week, except [that we're 
going to talk with each other]

    We could talk about what we should say to our families for thanksgiving.
    We could talk about how to organize the ideas that have come out today.


Susan
    I feel i need to study how we could Go About Doing Some of the 
things we were doing so passionately last year.
    They were doing things in new york - we did too -
     We have exactly the same problems, and notice the discourse
     The problems still sit with their nasty shadowed faces -
        "You named me last year, but I'm still here"

    wants to study what we're doing so as to have some theory behind it
        [like what Francisco Baires had said].

Paul Mueth
    I'd like to whack some moles.

    Still interested in what media buys are going on, even though little 
time is left.
       "I'm entitled to bother you about your public file.  Who's behind 
these ads?"
       I'm going down to wdws, the News-Gazette's AM station.
       Some calls there about the referendum might be in order.

    I do think there's something at stake in IL-13 with Gill.

Chris Goodrow
     That's who's winning the election:  the media.  They're happy to 
take $$ from either party.

Mark Enslin -
    Already, tonight, 5-6 people have brought up things to work on.
      I'd like to see people present plans next week on how to go 
forward with them.

Eleanor
    I tell my art students: If you vote, don't listen to Fox.  Listen to 
PBS, NPR.


[meanwhile, Karen looked at Chris Evans' jail-system art on the white 
board...]

On the wall:
The Champaign County Board is being told by law enforcement* that a $20 
Millinon dollar jail is needed because the inmates are mentally ill and 
a new facility would be the most humanitarian thing the county could do, 
to better serve the mentally ill:
"Medication time!"
"What?"
* Sheriff Walsh & County administrator Deb Busey
But aren't the mentally ill dangerous criminals? Answer: No. According 
to the mental health nurse at the jail, 80% of those inmates with a 
psychiatric diagnosis and receiving psychotropic medication in the jail, 
are charged with low level misdemeanors.

Does anyone know know where police could take a person in crisis that is 
NOT a 5' x 9' cinder block isolation jail cell?

And could you explain the alternatives to the county board Nov. 8; 6:00 
P.M.? Thanks, The Mentally Ill