[OccupyCU] on strife - Jesse Francis' presentation, communication patterns, trust, & flame warring

[Stephen Francis]

I believe that what happened yesterday is actually what is needed to make progress with a group's goals.  There has to be a heightened level of passion and energy to accomplish anything in the realm of social justice.
All across Europe yesterday in more than a dozen countries there were demonstrations by millions against the banksters who suck the people dry with their loan schemes and predatory actions. Its coming to America in the form of the 'fiscal cliff'. The people of Europe have woken up.  The same is true for Gaza, they have nothing left but to fight. The Palestinians lost their land, their homes and their lives.
I believe I struck a nerve yesterday and got the response that I thought I would, although I didn't do this deliberately.  There is a well thought out scripted, effective and bullying response by a certain element in our society that attacks anyone who questions their place in history.
I actually feel somewhat threatened by the person that said the would let their anti-fascist friends know about the project I propose.  I reluctantly bring this up for fear of being overly dramatic, but I do feel threatened.
I thoroughly enjoined and gained much from the presentation by Francisco Baires and actually will be attending more local rallies, having been energized by returning to OccupyCU.  I believe these are vitally important, but I come from a different part of the activist world, not more important, just different.
I just want to find out if this group is willing to get to the core issues and be comfortable with bringing them out on an occasional basis.  The local actions by OccupyCU are probably more important than 9/11 Truth, but 9/11 Truth should not be deliberately impeded.  If this is what happens to it within OccupyCU then I will leave.
Thank you all.
Steve


________________________________
 From: Stuart Levy <stuartnlevy at gmail.com>
To: ocCUpy <occupycu at lists.chambana.net> 
Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2012 6:33 AM
Subject: [OccupyCU] on strife - Jesse Francis' presentation, communication patterns, trust, & flame warring
 
I'd like to back off a bit and look at how we've been discussing Jesse's presentation & OccupyCU.  What I see:

   - Jesse asked to come and speak to Occupy on Monday.   He told us about his well-visited website, featuring many dozens of subjects from the Iraq war to colony collapse disorder to the LIBOR scandal, but most prominently about 9/11 truth.  He offered its services, if OccupyCU wants them.   We asked him some questions.  We deliberately (thank you Susan!) postponed any discussion of whether we considered taking up his offer to be a good idea.

   - Scott, who wasn't present but read about this offer, made a connection which must be incandescently strong to him - between the 9/11 truth movement and neo-nazi sympathies.   I'd never heard of this association before.  None of the people I've talked to who were at the meeting had, either.

Then what?   How the conversation *might* have gone:

   Scott:  Is OccupyCU seriously considering associating itself with this web site?   Were people aware of this connection?   Look at A, B, and C on that site if you don't believe me.   I say we should have nothing to do with this.

   Any of us might have replied:   That is news to me.    Thank you for raising it.   We've had little discussion and no decision, but this will be important when we do.

What happened instead?    I'm guessing that, Scott, you assumed we did know, and we (a) didn't care and (b) were happily going forward.   And further, that you *expected* not to be heard. Right?

If so it reflects an alarming distrust of the group.  Where has that led us?    Accusations have flown.  We've had *27* messages on this topic yesterday.   At least two people have dropped off the list.  I don't think we've made any progress toward anything that Occupy stands for.

Worse, I think this discussion has deepened what mistrust there had been.   That is a terribly destructive thing for a group.   What can we do to heal it?


Yesterday's flames were also a distraction from the really fine presentation we heard from Francisco Baires in the latter part of Monday's meeting.  He talked about Johan Galtung's theory of hierarchies of violence, direct and cultural and structural; how movements - particularly the immigration rights movement - can form effective responses to them; and what we in Occupy might take from their experience.   This is 'way more fruitfully consequential. Let's talk about that!


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