Annotated Links waiting to be blogged about

We found the content listed on this page intriguing and blog-inspiring but they come faster than FoO curators can write about them. If, informed by our curation criteria, you feel called to blog about any of them, contact us.

Regional Social Chartering already underway.. Regional Governance for Occupy?…

Some really great info for occupy are the docs describing how the Western Asia – Northern Africa (WANA) Forum has begun to develop a citizen-based social charter process via deliberative consultations across the region. The following links might be considered constitutive docs for creating regional sovereignty:

1. This link describes how the recent unrest in the Arab Region served as a catalyst for the social charter consultation via civil society: http://www.wanaforum.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=237%3Asocial-charter-consultation&catid=39%3Asocial-cohesion&lang=en

2. Here’s the initiating document that serves as the beginning social charter to be used in consultation across the region and expanded in detail as the deliberations on the future of the region develop: http://www.wanaforum.org/images/pdf/charter_english.pdf

3. Here’s the report on the way the social charter process was undertaken and how it is being developed and expanded through ongoing consultations… this link also includes the WANA Social Charter http://www.wanaforum.org/images/pdf/charter_english.pdf

Here is some background info on social charters… http://globalcommonstrust.org/?page_id=20

InterOccupy and movements/initiatives linking up through teleconferencing for planning and coordination

What if We Occupied Language?

by H. Sami Alim | December 22, 2011

It would be great if someone with a passion for language/anthropology/sociology would write something on this.

The author reflects on how terms such as Occupy reframe the way we think bout democracy and politics, how the movement is reframing language. Furthermore he goes onto propose: “What if we transformed the meaning of occupy yet again? Specifically, what if we thought of Occupy Language as more than the language of the Occupy movement, and began to think about it as a movement in and of itself? What kinds of issues would Occupy Language address? What would taking language back from its self-appointed “masters” look like? We might start by looking at these questions from the perspective of race and discrimination, and answer with how to foster fairness and equality in that realm. commonly used language and how the meaning of some words such as ‘Occupy.’ ” Could this be a crucial practice for overcoming the reproduction of the old social ills of gender, class, and racial divides that consensus models seek to overcome?

Asset Mapping for the Long Haul: A Strategy for Occupy Movements

by Donnie Maclurcan | decemeber 7 2011

A very informative account of the 10 steps needed to facilitate an asset mapping session. Written from the perspective of Asset Based Community development which builds on appreciative inquiry, the session is designed to bring attention to the potential that already exists within the individuals and the group. In the words of the author:

Asset mapping offers a simple, fast and inexpensive way to resource a movement. Because it focuses on what already exists, it’s positive in nature and is great at unearthing latent potential. Mapping assets provides a tangible seedbed of opportunity when campaigning needs to be put on hold.

Also mentioned are some very interesting alternatives to our existing system that may start gaining greater traction in the coming year as Occupy and similar movements continue to grow.

Understanding the Occupy Movement: Perspectives from the Social Sciences

That page brings together essays, critical commentary, and eventually research of social scientists on the Occupy Movement. As analyses and “spin” of Occupations grow, we confront the sort of public issue to which a social science response is urgently needed. The Berkeley Journal of Sociology is addressing the underlying social, political, and economic issues surrounding Occupy and its broader implications.

Before Baby Boomers Lost Their Way: Power to The People (1962)

by Stephen Pizzo | October 5, 2011

“I was recently reminded about something I’d long forgotten: The 1962 Port Huron Statement, which was really more a manifesto than a statement. Reading the statement nearly half a century after it was penned, I have to agree with Karen that those involved in the nascent Occupy Wall Street movement would do well to sit down, yellow markers in hand, and read this remarkably timely document from beginning to end.”

Following those introductory words, Stephen Pizzo, quotes long excerpts from the 1962 statement of the Students for Democratic Society, cherrypicked by his sense of what parts may provide re-usable insights for today’s unrest.

suggested tags: 60s, inter-generational learning, SDS

Occupy London is a nursery for the mind

by Madeleine Bunting October 30, 2011, in The Guardian

The author points out an essential aspect of the Movement’s democratic potential, its potential to alter our social practices, namely the communal uses of space:

“Taking key symbolic public space – this is the politics of geography – to use it for conviviality, living, learning and participation… That’s no easy task in a city designed to facilitate only three activities – working, transport and shopping – with as little human interaction as possible… The protesters’ aim is to open up space, physically and socially, for people to connect and thereby open up space in people’s imaginations.”

Read full article here.

suggested tags: autonomous zone, imagination

Where the 99 Percent Get their Power

by Sarah van Gelder, Executive Editor, Yes! Magazine

“Powerful movements build not on a laundry list of policy demands, but on principles and values…. Powerful movements create their own spaces where they can shift the debate, and the culture, to one that better serves. That’s why showing up in person at the occupy sites is so critical to this movement’s success. In hundreds of communities around North America, people are showing up to make a statement and to listen to each other. They are also teaching one another to facilitate meetings, to take nonviolent direct action, to make their own media. They are taking care of each other, gathering food supplies, blankets, and clothes that can allow people to remain outdoors even as the weather gets wetter and colder.”

suggested tags: principle, values, autonomous zone, education, empowerment, Occupy media, mutual help

St.Paul’s and the Crisis in Capitalism

by Rabbi Howard Cooper

Extracted and adapted from a sermon given on October 29th at Finchley Reform Synagogue

INSPIRATIONAL VIDEOS

Occupy Love

http://occupylove.org and http://occupylove.org/videos

Both pages offer a series of upbeat, heartfelt, substantive videos about the Occupy movement, from within it.

What victory would look like

http://www.thenation.com/video/164158/occupy-wall-street-envisioning-victory

A short video of OWS participants sharing their views of the vision of the movement and what victory would look like to them.

Former Black Panther Malik Rahim spoke to a spirited Occupy Eugene crowd of 2000