Occupy Delaware
General Assembly
Meeting Notes
2013-03-20
Hanover Church
Wilmington, Delaware
Meeting start: 1930 hr
10-MINUTE DISCUSSION
None tonight.
PROPOSAL
None tonight
REPORTS-BACK
Just got back from DC, visited the Peace House and a sustainable living
communal living farm they’re putting together. They’re requesting seeds
Go to the dollar store for heirloom and non-patented seeds.
If anybody has anything to donate…I’m going back soon.
They’re an extension of the Peace House, which is being threatened with
foreclosure. 10 or so people are getting it ready, Occupiers are working
to get the gardens going. Doing sustainable community living.
How much land? What are they trying to grow? Raised beds.
I’ll put it on the actions page. They’re clearing the lot, turning the
soil by hand, and it’s coming along.
———–
Just got back from Dover, with Sierra Club for the Renewable [Energy] Portfolio Standards.
Very rewarding and pleasant experience. The contentious part was with
in Harris McDowell’s office, Finn McCabe is drafting legislation, and
Collin O’Mara was in the office, Bruce Gillette, SRO. Amy Roe had just
informed Harris of University of Delaware’s exemption from Solar Renewable Energy Credit participation, which dilutes the SREC market. Harris starting talking about natural gas and it’s supposedly being cleaner than oil and being the “bridge to the future.” I brought up that that’s a specious argument, it’s not a bridge because we won’t develop enough sustainable renewable energy to replace the amount of energy we’re using now, so a bridge to that nonexistent future…A very 20th century way of thinking. We’re living likes pigs at the trough, a fossil fuel glut, society built on this and we need to radically change the way we live. It’s not a bridge to the same thing.
You don’t get what you don’t invest in.
He suggested it’s the gateway drug. Is fracking gas better than extracting tar sands oil? Depends on where you live. Will we somehow avoid collapse?
Society as a whole will not make the transition until the pain is excruciating. The pain will come years after irreversible changes happen.
There are places in that pain right now. The causes are already happening.
The Wilmington in Transition people are also aware, we’re not alone. Occupy folks need to look back at what they’ve achieved and what they can do in the future. Do we want to continue to get prosecution for the bankers? We’ve had success with regard to the housing issue. Keep pressing for prosecution of the banksters, get focus back Glass-Steagall.
You’re not stuck in traffic, you are traffic.
30 percent of mortgages are under water. They made these ridiculous loans because they could sell them. We need a devotion to rigor. We have
a core group of people who are involved in many different things in many different groups.
Dealing with the banksters is what Occupy is about, or at least what its
impetus was. The thing that’s powerful is reclaiming the public space,
Occupying, about dominion and ownership, and consumerism. The social
justice aspect of the screwed up economics apparatus has to be part of it.
Being able to occupy where you are. Not just about money.
Amnesty International, for example, have a very focused mandate, and
they’ve been very effective.
Has Occupy had a single mandate?
Another Venn Diagram group, 350.org, local chapter, founded by Gary
Robbins, we met last week about how to carry the ForwardOnClimate rally forward. One action, timed to coincide with Move Your Money, at TD Bank, the number one funder of TransCanada, a big tar sands pipeline company.
This is related to a core issue of Occupy, this industry is funded by the biggest of the big of the the 1%, the source of a lot of injustice. This is attacking the 1% where it hurts. Make people aware of TD Banks injustice, and the need to invest locally in our banks.
Banner hanging and vigil last Saturday at UD where the tar sands cars are backed up. Ten protestors, 5 police cars who watched the entire time. (DC did a TD Bank action this week.)
The Delaware SB 19 to repeal the death penalty made it out of committee.
HB 35, for closing the loophole for gun control, made it out of committee.
Delaware Hour Exchange will be starting up in 2-3 months.
I went to Godspell Friday and they had a protest part, at Mt. Pleasant HS, they yelled “Occupy Mt. Pleasant!”
Kris Lynn is running for Delaware City city council. We went out Sunday door knocking, handed out flyers. She got a very positive reaction. She has a candidate’s forum this Saturday, March 23, 2 pm, at the DC Library. KristinaBLynn FB page. Kris would not be doing this if it weren’t for her involvement with Occupy.
The St. Patrick’s Day parade in Dover, GPDE and DE-SC, we had two
electric-powered trucks and handed out stickers to the kids. People were shoulder-to-shoulder, tons of kids, I gave every kid a sticker until I was the last one in the parade, it was over and I was still handing out stickers! It was a good event.
I went last night to hear Kurt Buzzworth, the first person exonerated from death row by use of DNA. His mission is to abolish the death penalty. Abe Bonowitz of Witness to Innocence was with him. They do advocacy, as opposed to street actions. At Siegel JCC. 18-minute clip Buzzworth, really good. There’s a place for advocacy in Dover. Maybe an Occupy place?
A reason Occupy is so important is because sometimes advocacy works and sometimes it doesn’t, for when we need to get into people’s faces. The beautiful thing about Occupy is that we’re like water. We go where we need to go.
When it starts happening and there’s a massive pushback in other countries then people here may start to see the possibilities. Cyprus, what do we think about it? Will it happen here? No, not until we can’t get our money out of our ATMs.
When you start seeing countries go down, what’s next, the Euro? It’s huge, trying to tax deposits…The international and US economies are very connected, it’s the same banks. But Americans won’t care until it does happen here.
Everybody’s got ideas that they think somebody else should organize and they’ll support.
TD Bank action, posted on occupyde.org. It’s an Occupy thing.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
April 1, United Day of Action, Tent City. Pop a tent in any open space.
How about Dover, on the governor’s mansion lawn? Have some sandwiches.
MoveToAmend, May 10, the 127th anniversary of the first court ruling that started citizen-type rights for corporations. Planning a national day of actions. Focusing on signage over bridges and interstates, like the light brigade. Hang real big banners. This sounds like a straight-ahead Occupy thing.
Meeting adjourned, for Action Committee meeting, 2045 hr.
###