OK, first of all I just want to say I had a great time the last night, and the night before. I’m concerned about our GA. The GA was cancelled on Sunday…. why? The GA was cancelled last night…. why? On Sunday, the best I could gather from disappointed #OOers was that there were only 65 people present at 2:00 p.m. But often in the past when we are below quorum we begin the GA with forums or announcements, and by the time we get to voting we have reached quorum. And then last night, there were a lot of people down on the plaza for the building action, but the GA never happened. I was only able to gather a rumor that a particular fellow who has been known to engage in a lot of bragging and also in some mysoginist type hate speech had threatened some members of the facilitation group with physical violence. What is the point of facilitation cancelling the GA in response? Especially since there is no information about what is happening, only rumors. I’m disappointed with facilitation. I don’t like to criticize what other people are doing, but this is a critical week for #OO and the situation with the GA/facilitation is making it harder for me to keep on top of things and co-ordinate with others.
I saw an item in the Chronicle this morning claiming that “Occupy protestors” had busted into the City Council last night. But the only people I saw go into the building were the SEIU people. Did somebody from our group actually go with them? Did somebody go from this supposed GA being lead by TAC at 19th and Telegraph? Did the SEIU pretend to be Occupy Oakland? Were they SEIU members who are also #OO? Did the media just make it up? Without a GA, we lose our center and all these questions become murkier.
There were tweets flying back and forth about TAC holding an alternative GA at 19th & Telly. No idea if that happened, but if it did, I bet there were even fewer attendees than at Saturday Night Fuck the Police Fever.
Thanks, that helps somewhat. I’m still a bit bothered by how things have been playing out. On Sunday, nobody down at the plaza was saying anything about a 7:00 p.m. indoor GA, not to anybody at the plaza. And then last night, I didn’t even realize the building assembly had ended and an unofficial GA had begun. I don’t want to abandon the GA, like so many people have done, but it seems like the GA is abandoning me.
Now as far as this particular OO participant, I’ve really had it with his shit. He already scared Naomi away by using really abusive and sexually demeaning language towards her. He’s disrespected the GA on many occasions. He asks everyone to respect him but he shows no respect for others who are from other ethnic backgrounds or who have other philosophies. How long do we tolerate intolerance? I’ve seen a lot of people try to talk to him but he shouts them down or threatens them physically. Time for a community response. Maybe Occupy Patriarchy can do something about it, because this guy is definitely a wanna-be patriarch.
here’s what happened:
on sunday, it was rainy. someone (i don’t know who) suggested moving the GA time from 2pm to 7pm, perhaps to an indoor location…maybe the holdout. that is what i saw on Facebook. i don’t know what happened as a result of that.
yesterday, GA at the plaza was not cancelled. the facilitation team chose not to facilitate because one of our OO participants threatened to do serious harm to specific people. i don’t know how or why, but several folks are feeling uncomfortable with that. some people are shrugging it off and saying the person is harmless. others are saying it should be taken seriously. when i was there, it seemed like at least 125 people were in attendance. some other folks from the crowd stepped in and facilitated. i have no idea what they talked about.
the seiu had its own demo in city hall regarding recent talk of layoffs. when the seiu was finished (at about the same time our GA started), they came out and stood on the steps, and chatted for a while in front of city hall. some occupy folks tried to get them to join GA. a few did, most didn’t. one dude was pissed that occupiers were approaching them. some occupiers went in city hall to rabble rouse about the budget restructuring plan, loss of jobs, cuts to services, etc. they shut down the meeting for a while, maybe 20 minutes from what i saw on live stream…i could be wrong. occupy and seiu were definitely NOT working in a joint manner. it was more of a miss mosh of overlapping action.
i hadn’t heard anything about a19th and telegraph GA.