Category Archives: OccupyNH Facebook

It Has Been A While

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Well, It has been a while since I have involved myself in much activism, or much of anything as of late. Getting threatened with a $10,000 lawsuit will do that to a guy. Since the OccupyNH split, our operating capacity has been completely shattered. Some thought that preserving their Egos where far more important than compromise and preserving the movement. This led to the split, and the eventual incorporation of Occupy New Hampshire in the state of New Hampshire. Which as far as I understand, also does not have any operating capacity. I have to say, I miss activism. I miss working together and cooperating with individuals and organizations from across all political spectrums to try and learn and solve problems together. I miss the late nights. I miss the feeling like we were working for something. Like we were living for something. Most of all, I miss all the friends I’ve made over the year of the protester. It seems right now that things are too contentious for even those of us who were wronged to even get together. We have made multiple attempts to have meetings again, and to start being active again, but the events of the day of the split, and the consequences of the actions still linger over everyone’s head. I’d like to see peace, and I’d like to lay out how we could obtain it.

1. Re-Instate all users on the Facebook page who were banned for voicing their concerns. Open dialogue is healthy. Closing yourself off from reality is not.

2. Re-instate Admins of the Facebook group that were removed as content creators. Give those who want to participate their voice back on that page.

3. Make all usual suspects of banning users, content creators so they no longer will be tempted to take unilateral steps and ban other members.

4. Return to the consensus process. Begin the movement again, and keep with the consensus process. No matter how convenient it may be to go around it. It helps to prevent power grabs and other shenanigans from hi-jacking the conversation.

5. Have several meetings with all involved parties of the split, and figure out ways to de-escalate and re-humanize each other. It has been so long since we have seen each other, that it may be hard to picture the other side of the conflict as real live human beings who live and breathe and love and bleed and hurt when they are wronged or not listened to or respected.

6. Use Horizontal Stack to make sure all voices are heard. Or given the opportunity, and the individual chooses to either pass or comment.

I’m interested to hear what steps the other side of the split would like the rest of us to take to achieve peace. I know a few of us have already made peace, and have already met. I’d just like to see the rest able to communicate, and to try to restore the unity we once enjoyed so we can have a functioning movement again.

 

 

I want to just say, I’m working on updates for this site, and am looking for contributors. If you would like to become a part of the conversation and do regular updates for occupynewhampshire.org, please e-mail me. ryan.hirsch@occupynewhampshire.org

 

Thanks!

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Let’s Take A Look At The Original Occupiers Who Came Together In A Sense Of Community And In Supporting Your Fellow Human Beings. Declaration Of The Occupation Of New York City This Document Was Accepted By The Nyc General Assembly On September 29, 2011 … As We Gather Together In Solidarity To Express A Feeling Of Mass Injustice, We Must Not Lose Sight Of What Brought Us Together. We Write So That All People Who Feel Wronged By The Corporate Forces Of The World Can Know That We Are Your Allies. As One People, United, We Acknowledge The Reality: That The Future Of The Human Race Requires The Cooperation Of Its Members; That Our System Must Protect Our Rights, And Upon Corruption Of That System, It Is Up To The Individuals To Protect Their Own Rights, And Those Of Their Neighbors; That A Democratic Government Derives Its Just Power From The People, But Corporations Do Not Seek Consent To Extract Wealth From The People And The Earth; And That No True Democracy Is Attainable When The Process Is Determined By Economic Power. We Come To You At A Time When Corporations, Which Place Profit Over People, Self-interest Over Justice, And Oppression Over Equality, Run Our Governments. We Have Peaceably Assembled Here, As Is Our Right, To Let These Facts Be Known. They Have Taken Our Houses Through An Illegal Foreclosure Process, Despite Not Having The Original Mortgage. They Have Taken Bailouts From Taxpayers With Impunity, And Continue To Give Executives Exorbitant Bonuses. They Have Perpetuated Inequality And Discrimination In The Workplace Based On Age, The Color Of One’s Skin, Sex, Gender Identity And Sexual Orientation. They Have Poisoned The Food Supply Through Negligence, And Undermined The Farming System Through Monopolization. They Have Profited Off Of The Torture, Confinement, And Cruel Treatment Of Countless Animals, And Actively Hide These Practices. They Have Continuously Sought To Strip Employees Of The Right To Negotiate For Better Pay And Safer Working Conditions. They Have Held Students Hostage With Tens Of Thousands Of Dollars Of Debt On Education, Which Is Itself A Human Right. They Have Consistently Outsourced Labor And Used That Outsourcing As Leverage To Cut Workers’ Healthcare And Pay. They Have Influenced The Courts To Achieve The Same Rights As People, With None Of The Culpability Or Responsibility. They Have Spent Millions Of Dollars On Legal Teams That Look For Ways To Get Them Out Of Contracts In Regards To Health Insurance. They Have Sold Our Privacy As A Commodity. They Have Used The Military And Police Force To Prevent Freedom Of The Press. They Have Deliberately Declined To Recall Faulty Products Endangering Lives In Pursuit Of Profit. They Determine Economic Policy, Despite The Catastrophic Failures Their Policies Have Produced And Continue To Produce. They Have Donated Large Sums Of Money To Politicians, Who Are Responsible For Regulating Them. They Continue To Block Alternate Forms Of Energy To Keep Us Dependent On Oil. They Continue To Block Generic Forms Of Medicine That Could Save People’s Lives Or Provide Relief In Order To Protect Investments That Have Already Turned A Substantial Profit. They Have Purposely Covered Up Oil Spills, Accidents, Faulty Bookkeeping, And Inactive Ingredients In Pursuit Of Profit. They Purposefully Keep People Misinformed And Fearful Through Their Control Of The Media. They Have Accepted Private Contracts To Murder Prisoners Even When Presented With Serious Doubts About Their Guilt. They Have Perpetuated Colonialism At Home And Abroad. They Have Participated In The Torture And Murder Of Innocent Civilians Overseas. They Continue To Create Weapons Of Mass Destruction In Order To Receive Government Contracts. * To The People Of The World, We, The New York City General Assembly Occupying Wall Street In Liberty Square, Urge You To Assert Your Power. Exercise Your Right To Peaceably Assemble; Occupy Public Space; Create A Process To Address The Problems We Face, And Generate Solutions Accessible To Everyone. To All Communities That Take Action And Form Groups In The Spirit Of Direct Democracy, We Offer Support, Documentation, And All Of The Resources At Our Disposal. Join Us And Make Your Voices Heard! *these Grievances Are Not All-inclusive. Dh

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From -john Corrigan – “a Movement Leader Once Remarked, “if I Can’t Dance, I Won’t Be Part Of Your Revolution.” The String Is An Interesting Debate On What It Take To Bring About Change. The Reality Is That We Need To Use Every Tactic And Strategy Available To Us And Consistent With Our Values. It All Comes Down To What Can Broadly Be Called “organizing.” Conversations Are Important For Sharing Ideas, Developing Those Tactics And Strategies, And Making Plans For Implementing Them. Occupy Has Been Quite Successful In Using The Street To Shift The Political Conversation In America, Indeed Around The World. Like Other Movements That Are Part Of An Honorable Tradition, We Struggle With Figuring Out What To Do Next. For Anyone In Occupy Who Hasn’t Read It, I Recommend Saul Alinsky’s “rules For Radicals” For Ideas And Inspiration. I Also Recommend “rebuild The Dream” By Van Jones. Let Me Caution That ‘long, Tedious, Heavy” And “dull” Won’t Work. That Kind Of Stuff Saps Energy And Burns People Out. The Ga Model Reminds Me Of New England Town And School District Meetings, But Citizens Endure Them A Few Times A Year. The Challenge For Movement Activists Is To Find Sustainng Energy In Our Desire To Bring About Change.” Thank You For Your Comments, Bd

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People Seem To Love The Flash And Shine Of Political Activism. It’s Easy To Get Into A March And Shout Slogans Or Stand Around Damning The Bankers. Not To Say That Those Things Don’t Have Their Purpose But They’re More End Results Than They Are Movement Building. It’s The Simple, Dull Organizing That A Movement Really Lives On. There’s Nothing Especially Glorious Or Inspiring About Planning An Event Or Action Or Boycott But It’s What We Really Need If We Want To Change Anything. Bd

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Sharon Dowling- “it Is Much Too Soon To Say Peaceful Protest Is Ineffective…it Takes Time To Educate And Inform People Who Have Believed In The Rightness And Fitness Of Our Government For So Long. We Cannot Resort To Violence As We Will Be Outgunned And Playing Into The Hands Of Those Who Want Us To Fail. Look At History- The Civil Rights Struggle Took Time…if Martin Luther King Jrs’ Followers Resorted To Violence They Would Have Become The Enemy And Nothing Good Would Have Come From It. Women’s Suffrage Took Time…talk Of Picking “a Leader” Seems Counter Productive- We Need Leadership, But It Has To Be Thoughtful, Pragmatic, And Consensus Building! Perhaps A Core Group? Our Biggest Problem Right Now Is That The Media Is Not Interested In Educating Or Informing, But With The Internet, Etc, We Are Able To Share More Than Ever. But Wanting It To Happen “now”- Real Meaningful Change Takes Time. If Any Change Is Forced Upon People- Even Positive Change- It Will Be Resisted. Counter Productive All Around. Patience Is Necessary- And Steady, Constant, Movement Towards The Goals.” Bd People’s Mic.

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