You are on page 1of 4

Lets Talk Meeting #1 notes

(mostly complete)

Post-occupy
Two councils that would have stakeholders in those conversations, then creating a unifying
conversation.
Tried to lease a spot.
Concern about how to do it while people are living busy lives
Robin pointed out that folks dont take time to celebrate their care of change. Celebrate passion
and activism, create community around celebration. Caring for each other and self care,
sustained through the midst of movements for change. Basic commonality.
Social networking?
In person, face to face.
Really cool to integrate through skype. Physical presence is great and crucial,
Quarterly meetings with a virtual component
Example of NJ coming together for the pipeline protest- how they got 100 people in
Bordentown.
Fear of infiltration and paranoia
Groups working together, finding ways of being a united front. We all have things in common.
Philly Thrive and Food and Water Watch and Sierra Club
How can you bring in others from outside the city?
Magnify the normality of standing up for what is right.
Create ways to plug in. How can you make it clear from the get-go?
Generational activists. Fatigue? Jaded?
The more knowledgeable you are, the harder it is.
High points that people organize around where people talk and communicate.
Autonomy vs. Seperatism- Example of how part of what got Occupy to disband was the push
from the construction
Revolution vs. Reform- Is there any way to get over this? Is there a way for people to allow for
fluidity?
Robin: Example with POWR and working with the airport workers. Surprised that it was the
trade workers who were arguing against it!
As long as I get mine, Im good.
Divide and conquer.
How to talk across divides?
Facilitated workshops working to create intersectionality- maybe subject specific? Have a
strategizing aspect to that. How to build relationships. How to foster relationships.
Go around: Essentially talk about the spirit of Occupy. Why didnt O materialize? Quakers
opened the doors, and the GA on racism. All these problems were discussing have a similar
source. Can you imagine if everyone understood that theres enough for everyone? No need to
hoarde or fight for resources. We otta explore why these conditions exist, that these movments
dont produce what wed like them to.
We should expect come the new year, we may have a war or several wars that were having to
face. I would like us to be ready for whoever were about to bomb. Have something that people

Lets Talk Meeting #1 notes


(mostly complete)

can plug into really quickly. Competition maybe more than ambition. Groups and individuals.
Prioritizing ambition over the voice of the movement. Put forward the collective. Were trying to
bring a woman here from London who was instrumental in the Corbyn election effort. Shes
Nena Lopez.
Fighting against the DHS system, the way they work against people. Supposed to help families
with their children, but they seem to destroy families more. Seeing a disconnect where people
are not allowed to become foster parents because of issues with background.
Successful groups like SDS couldnt get the hardhats to march alongside when it was in their
best interests to do so. Painted as elitist, separate. City council race in Camden NJ City
agencies that are supposed to be the safety net, demonize people, afraid for their job security.
Giving tax breaks for corporations, marginalizing and restricting. Pulling together grassroots
orgs that are helping him. Uniting for messaging and coherence. Phillys problems are
Camdens problems. AVP trainings in Haddonfield the weekend of the Nov. 11-13. Promoting
these trainings, having them regularly.
How to train people working on social justice issues about working together. Talk of third
weekend in March, shoot for putting something together, get a venue, put something together.
Goal is to strengthen people doing activism. Here in the city! Peace Partners. Partnering with
people standing up against oppression. Make activism more concrete and open and
transparent. Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund.
Things that people come together for. Peace is a key organizational point. Hone in on that
What is the middle part of Venn diagrams? Where do groups overlap? Find areas where we
intersect and work on things together. Lets talk more about what we come together on?
Consistent messaging. Whats our Pokemon GO? Trending it, because that works on Social
Media. Consistent theme of bridge building. Generational bridge building. Neighborhood bridge
building- suburbs are people too! Experiential bridge building. Major event bridge building. If
parties are up there, would be great to have structured debates as well. Actually put change
makers within the electoral system and outside of it on a stage together to discuss something.
Provide solutions. Feasible solutions. Help them along with finding those solutions. Preparation.
Prepare for war, problem solving, environmental preparation. So for example get all the racial
justice organizations together to talk about what theyre going to do with environmental
breakdown? Snaring people on an issue they care about.
Phenomenal to see all the groups coming in. One group in particular that had a skill set that had
relevance to all of these issues- the street medics. So we need debate and solutions in a
community setting where that empathy drives the conversation.

Lets Talk Meeting #1 notes


(mostly complete)

Even if some planning is happening, that doesnt negate the need for self-organization. Plenty of
people fighting for a cause, but dont know how to get plugged in on real levels.

Lets Talk Meeting #1 notes


(mostly complete)

You might also like