Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Occupy Cafe Stewards on December 18, 2011 at 1:44am

Here is the letter of invitation that is being circulated by Occupy Cafe and its friends in support of this inquiry:

An Open Letter to everyone who has been inspired by the Occupy movement:

The rapid emergence of "a New Economy that Works for All" is both necessary and possible. We invite you to join us in making a personal declaration of this possibility-- one that has the power to inspire action now.

It is still the dawn of our movement. In just three months’ time, our mass call to action has awakened many in our communities from the slumber of cynicism and resignation. Now we find ourselves at a crossroads, grappling with divergent strategies as we seek to evolve and grow in strength. In recognition of this moment, we offer a letter to the heart of our movement, an invitation to that relentless creative force within you that knows only one mission, to nurture life.

We invite you to re-imagine that collective work we call “the economy;” not as a system for liquidating human and ecological value into money, but as relationships of labor and exchange that can be transformed into the fertile soil of a more beautiful world. Together, we hold the power to grow seeds of loving intention into fruits we all can share; not only of material prosperity, but of abundant creativity, community, and our own innate gifts.

To date, the Occupy movement has succeeded because we have inspired people to believe in possibility, and defied the boundaries that isolate us and restrict our creativity. This letter is a call to turn that energy to the needs and aspirations of all the people of this planet who want to believe in hope, but are yet lodged in despair, unable to channel their creative gifts into works that bring them to life.

Together we can build a New Economy that Works for All, enabling each of us to meet our material, relational, and spiritual needs in ways that affirm and embody our basic values. Far from being some utopian dream, it is in fact part of the basic inheritance of being human. For as long as we have been social beings we have been sharing our gifts. Right now, around the planet, people are modeling both new and traditional networks of exchange that have justice and generosity at their core. New Economies are already emerging through the hearts, minds, and hands of millions of people across this Earth.

We invite you to consider how the Occupy movement might support this co-creative emergence, what unique contributions we can make, and what gifts you are called to bring forth personally. Already, we have organized to feed, clothe, shelter, educate, and care for one another in our encampments. Now, we ask you to imagine that generous energy directed outward as a force for transformation. What declaration of possibility can YOU make that has the power to galvanize the Occupy movement and inspire you?

Please offer your declaration of possibility to the world. Post it on the New Economy forum at www.OccupyCafe.org (or email it to connect@occupycafe.org), share it with your friends, family, and colleagues, photocopy and distribute it in your community. In short, help us all to re-imagine what is possible.

In Solidarity,
Occupy Cafe New Economy Working Group

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ben Roberts on December 18, 2011 at 1:50am

Here is my personal declaration:

Conversations throughout the Occupy movement have surfaced a widespread desire for a positive, creative vision to emerge as a core component of our call for change.  Economics has of course been at the heart of our endeavors to date, primarily in our protests against the “Old Economy.”  We can build upon this powerful indictment of the current system by standing for the emergence of something new to replace it.  In fact, we have already begun this initiative by modeling an alternative within our encampments.  

What might be possible for our movement and for the world if we extended that energy outward with all the passion, inspiration, creativity and joyful spirit that we now know we are capable of mustering on a mass scale?  

What if the Occupy movement dedicated itself to catalyzing the emergence of “an Economy that Works for All?”   Might the idea that we are here to “Occupy the New Economy” ("Occupy Main Street?") resonate powerfully as a creative meme not only throughout the movement as it currently exists but in the wider world as well?  What if we made working to bring this forth our main “occupation?”

As we know all too well, the old economy is failing us.  In response, our movement has protested loudly and clearly about the unfair, unjust and economically destructive laws, regulations and subsidies that are its artificial life support systems.  We can “hospice” this system by continuing to advocate aggressively for their removal.

We can also champion new rules that will create a level playing field, such that:

• The wealth of a few cannot dictate the laws governing the many
• The true costs of our actions are reflected in the prices we pay
• Instead of discounting the future as worthless, the rules that govern our economy naturally cause Stewardship of our long-term ability to thrive to becomes our guiding principle.

At the same time, must we wait for these legal changes before taking positive action to co-create the New Economy-- one that works for all?  If we believe in our hearts that such an economy is not only possible, but is already beginning to emerge, then let us go forth and make it visible and compelling to all of society.  As we hospice the old, let us help to “midwife” a myriad of new, vibrant, dynamic ways for all of us to thrive together in a spirit of caring, giving, generosity and love.

If we help people to understand that such a thing is possible, they can moved out of fear, resignation and cynicism.  If we can change the context in which a broad majority of society views our current plight, our ranks will swell with those who choose to co-create viable alternatives to the system we all know is failing the 99%.  Right now, most have no frame of reference for this new possibility.  The Occupy movement can become a powerful force for shifting that context.

We have already begun to manifest elements of the New Economy via our encampments’ provision of food and services to those in need, the campaign to move money out of big banks, and other actions.  Let us build upon these first steps, and inspire the world, by catalyzing the emergence of the New Economy on a scale that has real and powerful impact.

“Occupying the New Economy” will take place in a myriad of forms, many of which have no doubt yet to be developed or imagined.  Here is a list, by no means exhaustive, of some ways in which we might begin this work now.  

• Meet our neighbors
• Map the unused human assets that exist within our communities
• Connect those in need with those who wish to give of themselves
• Make our streets safer
• Make our neighborhoods more beautiful
• Grow our own food and support local farms
• Reduce energy and other resource consumption and waste
• Support the shift to green and sustainable processes and technologies
• Provide food, shelter and medical care to the neediest among us
• Support local financial institutions and co-create new ones
• Support local businesses and help revitalize local economies
• Help find meaningful employment for everyone who wants it
• Become “shareholder activists”
• Form “B-Corporations,” cooperatives, LC3s, etc.
• Identify and protect our Commons
• Educate ourselves and our communities about what matters most to us
• Learn what matters most to others
• Listen deeply and honor each other’s pain
• Share stories of what inspires us and of what might be possible
• Celebrate life together
• [Insert YOUR suggestions here!]

And... rather than taking this on alone, what if we found ways to connect to, learn from and collaborate with the myriad groups and organizations that already exist to do this work as well?  What might be possible?  

Finally, how might the world respond to an invitation to join us in this great endeavor?  Can we frame and model the idea of “Occupying” in a way that is so compelling that our ranks swell a million fold?  Can we achieve what we seek in any other way?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Gary Horvitz on December 18, 2011 at 2:02pm

Here's my personal declaration:

Occupy The Common Wealth

(to the tune of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah)

Come join us in this square today

We’re here to find a better way

To live our common dreams and share

them with ya

Remember that you have a choice
No matter where you raise your voice
Take a stand and sing out halleluja

Halleluja! Halleluja!

Halleluja! Halleluja.

 

As the story of this time unfolds

It's all about the human soul that's rising

and it's comin' up right through ya

It's time to turn our history's page
To share the love beneath the rage
Our hearts will not be broken, Halleluja 

Halleluja! Halleluja!

Halleluja! Halleluja.

They operate by corporate stealth 
Stripping all of Main Street's wealth
They've bought the politicians who've betrayed ya

But this ride they're on is suicide
So it's time to speak what we know inside

Community's where our riches lie, halleluja

 

Halleluja! Halleluja!

Halleluja! Halleluja!

 

Keep marching round and round these walls
'Til the banker's lies begin to fall
Or they'll own your life and sell it right back to ya

But their greed will come to no avail
'Cause the web of life is not for sale

The earth will rise in sacred halleluja 

 

Halleluja! Halleluja!

Halleluja! Halleluja.

 

 

So stand with us in unity

Help build the new economy
The currency of love is what will free ya

Be the vessel that was meant to lift
Together we will make the shift
To a world that values all our gifts, halleluja

Halleluja! Halleluja!

Halleluja! Halleluja.

 

 

Lyrics: Gary Horvitz, Jennifer Watters

gary@2degreeworld.com

http://Occupycafe.org

 

 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Anna Harris on December 19, 2011 at 1:06am

There is no lack of good solutions available on these forums, but we fail when it comes to implementation.

Why?

Because the solutions do not take account of our complicity in maintaining the system.  On the one hand we think we know what to do IF the system were to dissappear and we had a free hand to create whatever we wanted. On the other, every part of our everyday lives are involved in supporting the system as it is. Everytime we use money to make a transaction, but more than that, actually our whole culture is predicated on the system continuing. We are trapped in it and though we know it is leading to our self-destruction, we cannot get out of it. There are the few odd cracks, the places where we follow our hearts, rather than the logic of the system. (John Holloway)  But as someone said it is easier to think of the end of the world than to think of the end of capitalism.

We do have small successes - the end of slavery, womens suffrage,- the 1% can afford to give a little, a crumb, as long as they retain the whole loaf. Our protests and marches, our sit-ins and camping outs, do not really threaten the system. If a Robin Hood tax were introduced, if tax havens were abolished, no problem, they would just find other ways to hold on to their ascendancy. We are enslaved, part of a machine which is destroying the possibility of life continuing to exist on this planet.

Who me? I'm working as a social entrepreneur / I'm unemployed / I grow my own food / I'm an Agent of Conscious Evolution / I OCCUPY.

Yes you, yes every one of us. We are all maintaining this system, and until we stop, it will continue.  We can design all the best solutions till we are blue in the face, nothing will change until we stop.

So how do we stop? What does it mean to stop? What does it mean to me personally? What do I have to do, or not do, to stop?

Well now, only you can answer that question. To get to know the risk involved, to move into the unknown, to confront the reality of this situation, it is vast, huge, too much, definitely too much. For some there is help in seeing this movement as part of the evolutionary impulse of creativity itself, as it is expressing itself through me. So I am not isolated and alone.

But undertaking the work that I have to do to be open to the transformation that is being called for, that work is mine, and it may be a prerequisite for the cooperation and implementation that is required. It is no easy task we face to turn this whole machine around, and it has to happen, as a collective effort.

I am involved in a project being discussed internationally in the Occupy movement - Global Strike May 2012. This is not a strike in the way it is usually meant of withdrawing labour in order to pressure bosses for increase in wages or better working conditions. What we are proposing is a continuous strike, a permanent withdrawal from the current system and switching to an alternative one. Certain things need to be in place by then in order to make this feasible. The alternative system needs to be up and running by May next year. Outrageous! Impossible! Yes. I agree with you. Nevertheless it has to happen if we are serious about moving from this morally bankrupt and physically damaging path we are on, to a sustainable system that puts people before profit.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ben Roberts on December 19, 2011 at 9:15am

Thank you, Anna. I appreciate your naming the concerns we all have about our ability to do this, even as you declare that it IS possible and that we MUST make it happen, each in our own way, and as part of a dynamic whole that engages in coordinated actions like a strike.

The May strike proposal came up yesterday at the Occupy Wall St "Un-Conference" on visioning for the movement. I made a point of adding your lovely twist on this--that those who strike don't take the day (or month) off, but rather go to work building/modeling/participating in the NEW Economy. LOT'S of twinkling fingers for that idea from the group of several hundred who were assembled.

One thing that I came away with VERY clearly from the event was the need for whatever we aspire to to find expression in small achievable tactical actions that can be implemented very soon. These can inspire those already active in the movement and also grow our numbers through the attractive power of the work they involve, if properly designed.

This movement is yearning for creative, exciting, positive ways to express itself. The wider world is also watching, wondering if they will be invited to play as well, and how they might be able to do so in ways other than occupying public spaces for extended periods of time, joining protest marches and engaging in direct actions that risk arrest.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Anna Harris on December 19, 2011 at 9:53am

Thank you Ben for your report of the response at the OWS unconference. I agree with the idea of small achievable tactical actions, focussing on building rather than protest.

Here is the invitation we have circulated for an event happening tomorrow.

Transition/Occupy event in Hebden bridge

People from Occupy Hebden and HebdenTransition will be meeting at the Trades Club to explore whether and how we can work together to achieve our common aims. Having been part of both movements I can see many similarities, but there are also differences which need to be respected. Both groups are aware that the path we are on globally is endangering our very existence as a human society, but whereas Transitioners are not given to delving into the reasons, for they want to concentrate on the solutions, Occupiers often criticise the system as a whole and tend to feel that nothing less than total refurbishment will do. Transitioners are in the main happy to work with what we have, and see that much can be done by empowering local communities to develop alternative systems side by side with what is already existing. They have done much to open people's eyes to the loss of community and what can be achieved by re- investing in it.

Occupiers challenge the status quo with protest marches, camping out in city centres, supporting workers' strikes, even challenging the law in the courts, and focus attention particularly on financial institutions which bend the law to suit themselves. The vast division between those who benefit from the influence that corporations have on government policy, and those who suffer from it, is expressed in the slogan of 'we are the 99%'. The advantage of the Occupy movement is in combining this array of different interests under one umbrella. Both movements see the possibility of a society where joy in working together and sharing resources replaces the competitive system of industrial growth which is destroying the planet. While Occupy is envisaging the possibility of at some point changing the system, Transition is building an alternative system run by local people for the people. Together we can work to make this happen. Come to the Trades Club on Tuesday 20th. If you want to add your voice to those being heard around the world or just want to find out more you will be most welcome. There will be delicious food available between 6 and 8pm, and the presentation starts at 7pm

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Occupy Cafe Stewards on December 21, 2011 at 6:40pm

YES!  Occupy meets Transition is potentially very powerful.  So how did it go?  And btw, have you heard of "resilience circles?"

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Anna Harris on December 22, 2011 at 4:57am

The meeting provoked some healthy discussion. There were around 30 participants and we had an excellent facilitator who encouraged participation. Unfortunately the films we had arranged had a technical hitch, but we did have lots of printed information available on the tables. Quite a range of people with most not having had any experience of Occupy or Transition. We divided into small groups to share initial thoughts about Occupy, and then exchanged ideas about how prepared we were to challenge the law in our protest, which attempted to pinpoint a difference between Transitioners and Occupiers, though in fact the results were not a clear divide. I thought later that leadership would have been a good topic to have raised, and I wondered how the recent Cafe call on that topic went.

The majority signed an email list for information on further activities.

It would be good to also explore how Permaculture could contribute.

Thanks for the info on Resilience Cicles, we have used Vistar Circles http://vistarfoundation.org/

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by David Eggleton on December 22, 2011 at 8:38am

I started a permaculture group for Occupy Cafe five weeks ago.  Come one, come all!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by David Eggleton on December 22, 2011 at 10:45am

"But undertaking the work that I have to do to be open to the transformation that is being called for, that work is mine, and it may be a prerequisite for the cooperation and implementation that is required. It is no easy task we face to turn this whole machine around, and it has to happen, as a collective effort."

Please explain why it cannot possibly happen as an iterative, cumulative effort.  If you can, it will be very, very helpful.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Anna Harris on December 22, 2011 at 11:42pm

Not quite sure what you mean David.  Is it the 'collective effort' you question? then probably I would agree with you. Actually what i wrote originally did not have that phrase tagged on. The emphasis was just on the necessity of turning the machine around.. May be as you say it is just a question of each one working on themselves and this will produce enough momentum.  According to Barbara Marx hubbard what is required is to respond to what is 'already emergent', so it is not that we create this change by our efforts, but we notice and respond to what is already changing.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by David Eggleton on December 23, 2011 at 11:39am

"May be as you say it is just a question of each one working on themselves and this will produce enough momentum."

Thanks for your response and clarification, Anna.  Now I will clarify, because what you took from what I wrote isn't exactly what I meant.

I questioned " it has to happen, as a collective effort" because I do not see everyone getting together for a focused effort, much less succeeding, soon enough.  I do see something(s) common to human beings, upon which a new goodness might be built over time, like a cathedral.

Turning this whole machine around consists in acknowledging that each one of us needs more working relationships in order to extricate ourselves from the machine on which we are dependent.  This is where collective is in the picture; we are interdependent, presently in a manner that has exiled human scale.

Each one working on themselves will not produce enough momentum -- unless the work is informed by relations, informs relations and attracts new participants to that cycling.  I believe the attractions that will build momentum are personal, thus unique, aggregates of health, poise, creativity and joy.

I expect those who lack them to intone "I'll have what she's having" and begin to participate.  The period of building the cathedral will be experienced as continuous improvement, so completion won't be rushed.

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page