2012

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Scottie W

Occupy Charlotte GA – 5/15/2012

Facilitator — Craig Scribe — Jenny

Working Group Report-Backs:

Environmental: Mon @7pm Report Back: Debriefed Duke, ALEC and BofA, Climate Organizing Trainings (June 9-10^th and June 23-24^th), Fracking march in Raleigh on the 19^th – Ron leaving Saturday morning, Mountain Justice 19^th-24^th (ride up with Jimmy), Duke Statewide Strategy convo at end of June, Next Steps: Antoine, Jenny, Adam and Scottie bringing ideas. Fracking event in Ohio June 16^th – road-trip up with Jenny.

Friday: Active Protest @ 4pm, DNC @5pm, Internet and Media @6pm

ALEC Report Back: 100+ people there throughout the day (30 at one time), represented the message well and positively, many organizations represented. Protesters spoke with ALEC members. Cars honking outside (and they could hear it inside). Learning: People are less receptive during the afternoon rush home.

Teach-in: Speakers on Tort reform, voter suppression, education, and more. Learned how ALEC’s laws affect us – and everyone there got a good education. Joe Brewer(?) – skyped in and was fascinating.

Announcements

Report Back from Action NC Gabino Sanchez event:

Hector said it was a great event, thanked everyone who made it out to the event. Hundreds of people there, and Gabino has a court date in February, and received a work visa and a driver’s license. Will need more support again in February to avoid deportation. Gabino has been here since he was 14, has 2 US-born children, and is a hard-working American Tax-payer. Ron offered that any letters/articles about this issue can be posted on his website.

WFAE – having an “understanding stand your ground forum” – Great speakers to discuss NC’s stand your ground law works. Wednesday, 7pm at Pease Auditorium at CPCC.

NC Coalition Against Corporate Power: Follow-up action to protect homeowners. One home in Lexington, NC has received an eviction notice on May 11^th. Occupy our Homes is sending a group to discuss occupying his home and keeping him in his house! Media attention to follow around this homeowner specifically AND BofA’s larger foreclosure policies. Evictions move quickly – we need to be able to mobilize very quickly. Pop-up 1-2 day event to draw media attention. Homeowner said BofA doesn’t want to work with him, but that he could pay the mortgage if he had a more reasonable interest rate.

Question: Is the NCCACP just for Bank of America, or is it a longer term coalition? How are decisions being made within this coalition?

Answer: Jenny – We think that the group will come together for a debrief in June, and we will decide how to go forward from there. Luis – We need to maintain momentum so that we don’t lose our power after a big mobilization. Yen – we need to make sure the local people can be involved in the national conversations.

Structural Proposal from the Process of Direct Democracy Working Group — APPROVED with 3 friendly amendments: <insert proposal here — Scottie sez “I’ll type this in here tomorrow!”

Proposal to change GA days/times: tabled

Newsletter/brochure: Calendar replaced with internet freedom as a topic for something solid about our issues (Scottie: please send it to internet/media). If anyone has pet-issues they want to cover in another newsletter, send it to Adam.

(Scottie: Is it ok to keep calling this “the people’s lawn”? Ans: Yes.) (Scottie: Is it ok to have internet freedom as the new topic on the brochure? Ans: Yes.)

Proposal to move the Active Protest Meeting; Cancelled for Wednesday.

Discussion Forum: Thursday at 7pm – meet at 6:30pm at the People’s lawn.Topic: Next moves, where do we go from here? Create a calendar for the next few months. Facilitators: Adam will kick us off.

Facilitator next GA: Alex, Yen and Scotty back him up.

ALEC protest

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Scottie W

Occupy Charlotte, VLTP, and Mecklenburg ACTS activists stand in front of Moveon.org's billboard truck.

Occupy Charlotte and other activists Occupied the sidewalk in front of the Westin Hotel all day Friday, May 12th during the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)’s “Spring Task Force Summit.” Though news reports claim only 30 protesters were present, this was at any given time, not the total amount of protesters who were there throughout the day (from 9am – 6:30pm), which had to be well over 100. We were joined all day by our friends from the Voters Legislative Transparency Project, individuals from Occupy Winston-Salem and Occupy Spartansburg/Greenville SC, and Mecklenburg ACTS (who we joined in performing their “pencils down drill”). Others stopped by throughout the day from the Atlanta chapter of the Rainbow/Push Coalition, Occupy Olympia WA, Greenpeace, and Action NC.

ALEC protest and teach-in

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Scottie W

To fellow members of Occupy Charlotte:

Bob Sloan and I would like to thank you very much for your participation in the anti-ALEC events of the past few days. We thought that your presence was essential in making the protest a success. While we might have liked to have had more protesters, those of you from OC who showed up were fantastic and made this a most effective protest. When ALEC sent out their members to try and rebut our protestations, you showed them that not only were you not cowed by them, you told them just how they were lying to you. Notice that they tried this for a while and then gave up. This was not because of me, Bob, or the teachers’ group–this was because you learned what was going on and you showed it. ALEC certainly learned that Occupy Charlotte is a lot more than a bunch of arrestable protesters. And the police learned over the course of the day how responsible you could be, as witnessed by the large contingent of police in the morning, which had been cut to one officer by the end of the day.

While a lot of you could not attend the Teach-In–it’s been a physically and mentally demanding past couple of weeks–it was a tremendous event. Again, the attendance could have been bigger, but those who were there were given a thorough understanding of what ALEC is and what they do. All questions that they asked were addressed. Bob, Lisa Graves from the Center for Media and Democracy, and I think that this is considerably more important than having a large crowd–we think that those who attended learned a great deal about this pariah of society, and are motivated to help spread the word in their own ways. The news about our event that made TV and the newspapers was about the message, not about Occupy Charlotte getting arrested again. For that you all deserve a great amount of credit! They wanted to crucify you in the press, and you were too smart for them!

But on a personal level I want to tell you all how proud I am to be involved as a member of Occupy Charlotte. You understood the pressure you were under by those who would goad you into misbehaving, and you stood up to it. Not nearly as much fun as some other events, but you established yourselves as a truly responsible organization, ready to move on to your next phase (whatever you decide that might turn out to be)–who are able to network with other groups and promote your own community actions. Shortly, the Center for Media and Democracy will be issuing a report on our events, and in my interview I made it very clear how important Occupy Charlotte was to the success of the actions. Those who were “afraid” to work with Occupy Charlotte will be surely embarrassed by their ignorance. Congratulations to all of you! You expressed a desire to re-frame the group, and you went a long way toward that goal this weekend.

Ron Rabatsky

Director, Voters Legislative Transparency Project

Proud Member of Occupy Charlotte