Monday, August 18, 2014
Debrief 1 Occupy National Gathering 2014
p.s. there is an audio recording of this post if you want to hear my words.
thoughts on the NatGat2014 ... elaineX
for me going in, the most challenging issue was trust. occupy is the most scrutinized, infiltrated, monitored and abusive group I have ever been involved with and i knew no one personally who was involved in the planning group.
From two previous regional actions, I knew Donna Piranha by name and face only. So, when i involved myself with NatGat3 with this group of strangers, i did it with my "occupy" ideals high and mighty and just went for it, trusting that everyone else involved was jumping into what I was: planning a national gathering of individuals committed to the principles of occupy for social justice and political change.
what i have learned in life is not that life is never idealistic, life is often ideal until you involve other people and then it becomes a measure of the disparity between reality and the idealistic. sometimes its impossible to know what "reality" actually is, so defining life can be irresponsible and its best to take everything presented at face value and then compare the words with the actions and be informed accordingly.
the ultimate "occupy" ideal, has to be "The 99%. so, first, i had to be willing to be excluded. at first blush, the 99% idea is one of inclusiveness, and it is, but it is not 100% inclusive thus, in any given group, the 1% -- which in the holographic universe i understand i am a part of, at any given time, i could be the one in the group embodying that 1%, and will be excluded in this ideal model of The 99%.
to commit to solidarity to The 99% using the concept of consensus, i had to commit to willing to be OK with not liking or even supporting an idea everyone else did, but remaining neutral to, even if disapproving of, the actions of the group in order to remain in solidarity. meaning that i went in to the planning with a certain level of comfort that i would never have to "hard block", walk away and feel my time was wasted.
because this NatGat was called together under the "Principles of Solidarity" from the "Occupy Wall Street" action started September 17, 2011, it set up a demographic of people who would be naturally align under a certain mindset, including one committed to non-violence and equality, as well as a general determination to affect the balance of social justice in our world. the odds of me personally needing to hard block something were already diminished if not completely nullified for this type of gathering.
i challenged myself before each conference call, that if i could not commit to THAT level of support come what may, why should I even bother to be involved?
and, i learned as I was introduced to a scene already in progress on the first "visioning group" conference call i participated in with those strangers, there were things in opposition; people and ideas already in conflict with one another, yet, for me, the issues in opposition were not in conflict with the principles of solidarity -- except for perhaps how others would define and apply them -- e.g., what is "empowering"? mostly, what i experienced in all this was the ways personalities clash and merge to tell a collective story.
in the casual conversation after that conference call "officially" ended, i found there to be a deep level of commitment by other random strangers to resolving the conflicts that were discussed. perhaps, most importantly to my decision to continue, is the fact that i wasn't the only one who saw the conflicts. there were others who saw them too AND, those others had a deep commitment to work on the conflicts even if in opposition. not too many like to work in a conflict-based environment without a very high price tag, even in the name of peace and justice, and even fewer people work well together in those types of environments.
"Occupy the Opposition" is a concept I have been using here where I live with Occupy Coachella Valley. I can only describe it like this, I "occupy" the "Coachella Valley Chapter of Occupy," and while the "chapter" operates outside the principles of solidarity on too many levels for me, it works for them and I "Occupy the Opposition" to maintain the voice of idealistic "Occupy" world, and still support their positive actions. meanwhile, I mostly hang with ccupiers I find more naturally existing within the principle of solidarity.
"occupy the opposition" -- in this case, as on the call, there were plenty of organizers, i was committed personally to play the "activist," so, the "opposition" were the "organizers" as in "activists vs. organizers." i have found in my 14 years of activism and a lifetime of organizing, the activist is the one that is most vulnerable to the worst abuses in the struggle for social justice, both in the battle and from within. in that first conference call, that is the context in which i found most of the conflicts already existed, arising from those two different "interests" (some may define it as chaos vs. order or left vs. right brain or similar dualities).
i most often wear both hats so it was nice to abandon one of them for this national effort. and I really abandoned that "organizer" hat nearly completely, and only on 3 remarkable occasions did i "don the organizer" hat to protect the activist side. i picked those moments judiciously and just otherwise excluded myself when the situation was beyond my level of trust in the group, as my level of trust from that first conversation had, through the months, weeks and days, been diminished through bearing witness of other people's actions notwithstanding their words.
so, naturally, to maintain my personal safe space, i just excluded myself from what was happening when there was not an environment i even wanted to be a part of because that which existed before I even got on a conference call. and that is how, besides doing what i was going to do anyway in Sacramento, the only work I had to do was peel some beets one afternoon. , and I did not even recite a single poem at the Nat Gat, the only thing I really wanted to contribute as an activist specifically for the Gathering, and even sent in the email they wanted and everything. That kinda hurt my feelings, so I'm going to do these debriefs, and see what develops from those discussions.
One thing I do know to be true on planet earth: people who squander resources are not to be trusted. The amount of resources I saw willing to be squandered because of what has been revealed as being what existed before I arrived, is too remarkable to ignore. I hope we seriously discuss these issues, I'll try to open the conversation, but you can only lead a horse to water.
Labels: NatGat2014, natgat3, occupy, organizing, peace, shutdowndiablocanyon
