Occupy Vancouver

..this thing is taking off. there is a large interest in it and it is moving towards direct democracy. edit: THIS IS FUCKING HUGE!

Occupy Vancouver - General Assembly Meeting

Come and join us on Saturday, October 8th at 1:00pm at the W2 Media Cafe (part of the Woodwards building - 111 W. Hastings St.)

Come and express your comments/questions/concern

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=209697819097888

..a thought. finding the right location is important. from looking at occupy wall street, they needed to find neutral ground. they found a private park. the police will not tolerate a continuess shut down but if we have our space to withdraw to it will deescalate the tensions. that is the success in new york from what i've seen. the art gallery is near both rail lines. i like that.

..come to the meeting on the 8th if you can. is there another spot you have in mind that would also fill our needs to meet, sleep, eat, broadcast out?

Vancouver Parks Bylaws: http://vancouver.ca/parks/info/regs/bylaw.htm

In the Parks Control Bylaw I have found this:

So parks might not give us much leverage.  Maybe the Art Gallery is best because that's where the occupation is most likely to be tolerated.  But while they tolerate day-long protests and smoke-ins here, they may not be so tolerant of a longer term occupation.

Reminder: Sat Oct 1 - Direct Action Workshop
STOPPING HIGHWAYS, PIPELINES & TANKERS
Introduction to Direct Action Workshop; Saturday, Oct. 1st @ 1:30 – 4:30 pm
Grandview Calvary Baptist Church 1803 East 1st Avenue in Vancouver
One block East of Commercial Drive (Accessible from the #20 bus)
Light Lunch at 1:00 pm and workshop begins at 1:30 pm.

The Art gallery is close to the Howe street towers.  Highlighting certain corporations might be one strategy and many of the worst ones in BC are a within a few blocks of the Art Gallery.  If you get away from the financial and corporate center of the city it loses some of its message. 

Occupy Howe Street is the Vancouver equivalent to Occupy Wall Street.

..the web site is up. there will also be a live stream set up for the assembly.

http://occupyvancouver.com/

..from the web site:
Plan & Discuss: Kidzone
What We Know:
If you have information to add here, please comment below!

This is a place where those interested in participating with their families can come to collectively organize and those interested in supporting those with children through childcare, etc... can come to offer their support.

Topics To Nail Down:
• Where should it be set up
• Who can help run it
• What will be in it!

http://occupyvancouver.com/index.php?page=3&did=4883&level=1&type=unique

..the balance of power is begining to change. this movement will have a direct impact on all political parties and the labour movement. if you look at the list of positions, for example, coming out of ows puts the movement at odds with most municipalities plus prov and the fed government. one of the spanish center pieces is "no one represents us". this is fantastically empowering.

edit again

Ill mark Im attending even Im over here in Israel there are many of us from this country who support this Global cause and we will be with you all in heart (im from vancouver wish i could be there in person) GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This text has been prepared by the Commission for Group Dynamics in Assemblies of the Puerta del Sol Protest Camp (Madrid). It is based on different texts and summaries which reached consensus in the internal Assemblies of this Commission (and which will be made available on the official webs of the 15th May Movement) and from the experiences gained in the General Assemblies held in this Protest Camp up until 31st May 2011.....

http://takethesquare.net/2011/07/31/quick-guide-on-group-dynamics-in-peo...

Why I Am Going to Attend Occupy Vancouver

I am white, middle class, educated and, by all accounts, an extremely fortunate woman.

I live in Canada where my parents’ (sometimes life-threatening) health issues are covered by a provincial medical plan.

My water and air are clean, and food is plentiful.

My husband and I are employed.

I am not desperate, but I am angry; I am not sick, but I am sickened....

http://politicsrespun.org/2011/10/why-i-am-going-to-attend-occupy-vancou...

epaulo13, I had to miss the GA this afternoon due to a prior committment. Did you go? What happened? Would you (or any other babbler who attended) like to write a rabble article/blog post about the meeting? We're all ears!

..latest stats from facebook:

oct 15 - 2,517 Attending / 1,207 Maybe / 25,571 Awaiting Reply

oct 8th the assembly - 235 Attending / 105 Maybe / 844  Awaiting Reply

..so it began here, today, the 1st occupy vancouver assembly. we didn't have enough room where we were so we took our chairs and occupied the atrium, a public space. there were at least 300 of us.

..here we became the human megaphone. the first thing we did was learn the signals for agree, disagree, repeat, speaking to long and there might have been one other. next we named the committees. now after naming the committees the facilitators wanted to break off to register for each. others people wanted to talk so the compromise was to break for a 1/2 hr to register than come back.

..all this took place for our first time so it took a while. democracy takes time. the longest conversation was re the police and violence. most wanted a peaceful occupation. most agreed to a diversity of tactics as long as it is owned and that it does not put others in danger. more conversation is needed once the 15th rolls around. we also came up with a broad based statement with 3 or 4 points but once the occupation beings it may be altered or expanded.  it was announced that the police have been notified that we will be at the art gallery on the 15th. the police responded that if we are peaceful they will be peaceful. there were a few who didn't believe the police. in any case we will have a unique "kid zone" and the police have been told about that as well.

..all this took 3 hrs. i left at 4pm because people were exchanging numbers etc for the committees. some may have met right away. i didn't join a group yet. i'll wait till the 15th, i kind of know what i want to do which is keep the place clean, do some drumming, support where i can. the natural leadership i leave to the young people. anyway we did it. we came together. i really do trust this process and i've committed to it.   

*** the next assembly will be oct 15 at 10am at the art gallery!

edit

..you can now sign up on to a committee from the web site.

http://occupyvancouver.com/

..latest stats from facebook:

oct 15 - 3,305 Attending /1,492 Maybe / 30,730 Awaiting Reply

..from group dynamics in #35

quote: The aim of Collective Thinking, on the other hand, is to construct. That is to say, two people with differing ideas work together to build something new. The onus is therefore not on my idea or yours; rather it is the notion that two ideas together will produce something new, something that neither of us had envisaged beforehand. This focus requires of us that we actively listen, rather than merely be preoccupied with preparing our response.

Collective Thinking is born when we understand that all opinions, be these opinions our own or others’, need to be considered when generating consensus and that an idea, once it has been constructed indirectly, can transform us.

..latest stats from facebook:

oct 15 - 3,891 Attending /1,715 Maybe / 33,267 Awaiting Reply

2xpost

..a reminder that things start at 10am. not 7am or 12 noon. 

OCCUPY VANCOUVER OCTOBER 15th 
Group to assemble at the Vancouver Art Gallery at 10am. 

Haven't seen this posted yet:

STATEMENT FROM ADRIAN DIX REGARDING "OCCUPY WALL STREET"

..i believe this began with the arab spring as a rebellion or uprising. then quickly spread to europe. recently the us. tomorrow in over a 1000 cities around the world people will join in the rebellion. this is just the begining. there are plans to begin speaking with one another and everything is on the table.  

Bank Of Canada Head Calls Occupy Protests 'Entirely Constructive'

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/bank-of-canada-head-calls-o...

"...But Mr Carney - a former Goldman Sachs Co. investment banker - suggested that while he understands the frustration, some of it is rooted in an overly pessimistic view..'

So a former vampire squid investment banker is in charge of the Bank of Canada - that oughta be good for business eh? (Theirs!)

see 'Vampire Squid Goldman Sachs'

http://rabble.ca/comment/1274442

So far, the protests have gone well.

I was there for a few hours. I'll be back next week.

I was there! Pretty stoked to see the huge number of people when I first got there (just after lunch).

Went skating for an hour yesterday in the Vancouver area with a friend - it cost us $20 excluding refreshments. This cost to use public facilities paid for by our taxpayers is absolutely outrageous. So yes perhaps I can afford it, and my friend can afford it, but don't tell me a lot of people do not go skating because of the cost. These are the kind of places that Occupy Wall Street/Vancouver can expand to - a different arena, whatever every day and kept secret from the media until the protest is underway. Let our right-wing based MSM scramble for these stories, and too bad for them on missing exciting news events if they don't show up, as we have many other ways to communicate our mressage now what with streaming. local press, cell phone, 'net, etc.

Passing on this strategy/suggestion to the organizers would be very much appreciated.

PS: Try going to a movie and see what it costs these days!!! - another possible target, 5th Avenue Cinemas, eh!

PPS: And you can altogether forget about skiing as that is only for the 1 per centers.

..today i attended my 4th vancouver assembly meeting. practically an old timer already. the second one, the one that took place on the 15th in the am lasted 2hrs and ended in some frustration. we had agreed to consensus decision making and we got all bogged down in procedure. we couldn't move forward or even make a decision.

..noon was the appointed time for labour to arrive though many had come earlier. i agree with what someone else has already mention that they came not wanting to over shadow or dominate. then everyone went for a stroll. at this point i left to work on the leafleting of a public meeting that will occur mon evening. my community is in a struggle over control a major park, with the city.

..i came back for the 7pm assembly where the pace didn't pick up but with the help of facilitators and some really creative ideas we began to reach consensus. after today meet we'll have reached at least 12 decisions by consensus. every time i thought we were stuck people came up with ways to move forward or reach decisions. this is fucking awesome!!!!   these are people with strong positions. every bit as diverse as babble. and there were at least 8 or 9 languages available for translation to boot. today people agreed to bring in the first nations to teach the assembly a workshop on consensus.  

..this is the place we need to be. at the assemblies and in the committees. it doesn't matter what your political position is. the space for discussion and democracy has been opened. brave souls will live there, in the coming cold, to hold this space for the rest of us. so we also need to support them with donations, financially and other wise.

..already this is changing me. in this short time i am becoming a nicer person in the community. it's noticeable to me. it's consciousness raising. it's empowering. and it's the real thing. how i participate and how decisions are made tell me that. there is little else that we should be doing to prepare ourselves to take control of the world. it will though take much patience.

..last night at the meeting someone suggested to go for another walk about. some people wanted that but most wanted to continue talking. we were making progress and we needed to get the processes and decision making down before going off somewhere with out discussion around what we even wanted to achieve with the walk. this will move at it's own pace and in it's own way, no matter who thinks otherwise.  so come on out. get involved! 

My point is about the message and the tendency of most any modern left-wing protest movement to try to "take on" every single injustice they can imagine as opposed to a few key core messages, or better yet one key message.

That's great that you're having such a positive experience there, epaulo13. It was definitely great to see such a diverse group of people in the streets talking about capitalism. I think I'm bringing some snacks down for the tenters tomorrow if the baby cooperates with me.

..i am also glad of this catchfire. i'm going for the noon general assembly today. i will be sittting on the stairs near the bottom of the lion on the right hand side if your facing the stairs. come say hello if you make it around that time.

http://xkcd.com/966/

I just have to say the timing of this comic's release was so perfect... because both of these conspiracy theorists were totally at Occupy Vancouver when I dropped in this weekend.

..today i started volunteering at the occupy site. from mon to fri, from 9am to noon, i watch over the tent areas to make sure they are not being looted while folks are else were. i was paired with a student from one of our colleges. more people are needed to work the committees so  i'm considering which one would interest me more.   

..the tent area is almost all used up and we will need to begin expanding along the howe st side of the art gallery. pallets are also being brought in to place underneath the tents. the next 4 days rain is forecast and the rainy season is coming fast. make no mistake though..people are settling in for the long haul. everyday more things are brought in to make it more livable.

..the consensus model has been altered to a 90%  / 10% split. i missed that general assembly so couldn't tell you why the change occurred. but i don't disagree with it. things can come to an impasse at times and it takes a long time to get out of it, with absolute consensus. 1st nations are recommending that we work with smaller groups. 200/300 people or more is very difficult they say. we began using smalled breakout groups when stymied. eventually coming back to the ga and with it we have achieved consensus but like i say it is very time consuming.  

..we are becoming more efficient and growing in confidence. time is spent introducing ourselves and talking to each other. i'm learning that what we have in common is a lot of thing but binding us the most is the belief that this process, this movement has the potential to succeed in what we have as not a lot of time.

..some pics

http://s950.photobucket.com/albums/ad347/epaulo13/?albumview=slideshow

..edit to slideshow

Financial Updates

Occupy Vancouver wants to ensure transparency of all contributions through cash contrubtions, paypal, in kind as well as purchases made possible by receiving cash contributions.

Statement Date: October 17th, 2011
Download Link (PDF)

Brigitte DePape was in town yesterday at the Rio. Did she come down to Occupy, epaulo?

Mayor Robertson to protesters: go away

..they have a fire comand vehicle sitting there along with 2 smaller trucks. they also have a 5 or 6 city workers walking around doing nothing each and every day. when i asked what they were doing there one replied just in case something comes up. top city, police and fire dept officials are continually tramping through bringing with them other officials from who knows where doing who knows what. furthermore, i understand the occupation has come to an arrangement with the police so that 6 or more are no longer patrolling daily. it looks like a crisis is being created.

  ..life is falling into place at van occupation. and a community is forming with all the diversities and conflicts of the outside. after complaining that the owner of a dog left shit he said he was threatened. some people were drunk and high. people get cranky with a lack of proper sleep. lack of heat. there is frustration and anxiety always wondering when the axe is going to fall. and when the police finally do come to clear the place..what will happen?

..i kind of found my place for now. a place of my creation. i have been doing security which entails watching/patrolling different encampment areas. i always opt for “tent city”. this area is a good size and includes “cedar grove” which is the area along the howe street side of the gallery that has also been populated by tents. i get to stretch my legs walking around and watching what is going on rather than the sit and watch that takes place in the kid zone.

..the best part of it though is that i am near one of the main entrances to the park. in between my patrols i park a chair close to the entrance and i greet people coming into the occupy. the place is like a washed up whale on a beach. camera's and phones going off continually from passerbys. japanese students are sent on assignment as part of class projects. several different classes have come.

..people come with donations, muffins, tarps money and plenty of support. i met 3 people from gibsons on the same day. the woman with the muffins, we talked a long time. an older east indian man in his 70's. fully supportive and with his own view point to offer and one other old guy in his late 70's who carried a homemade pipe to which he burned herbs. there's a lot of depression around when your older he told me. and this was a way of dealing. i met a person from bellingham, wa who related that the occupation there only happened on fridays between certain hours. it was small but it was building. they have 3 credit unions there he said and one of their projects was to try and get people to move their money out of the banks.

..i also get to have long discussions on what this is all about. in a way i kind of have the jump on a perspective so use this to broaden the debate and identify our strengths. this i find provides encouragement to people and brings some of the tenters over to join in the discussion right then and there.

..there is a young woman that comes in every day and does some meditation then leaves. i spoke with her. she is a buddhist. a radical buddhist, she qualified, and comes to provide support and energy. she also says that traditional buddhists tend not to know how to talk to power. they tend to withdraw from conflict. she is attempting to organize/educate a different approach online. the goal being buddhists getting involved in this struggle. there is a teacher from abbotsford who now lives in the west end. talked about how she always had to be careful of how she spoke when teaching. hiding her feminism a lot of the time in the bible belt. she brought some food over to the kitchen.

..a tenter was packing up his tent after being there for 5 days. he said he had to leave as he missed seeing his daughter. but he would be back. he left a single red rose in a jar on the pallet where his tent had been.

..see you there!

Ditto - more reports! Wish everyone well and victory on our behalf. We are the rabble, after all.

City Council meeting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4R3yPkWegU

Occupy Vancouver Tent City Undeterred

Unceded Coast Salish Territory, November 3, 2011- At the General Assembly tonight, the body that speaks for Occupy Vancouver, a representative from the Tent City Council read out a message from the Vancouver Fire Department chief.

The representative reported that Tent City is already in the midst of reconstruction and will continue to carry that out.

"We pride ourselves on creating a safe environment," the representative said. "We disagree that there is a health and safety violation here. We have a plan to restructure our community but until then, due to basic health and shelter needs, we won't be moving some of our tents," the representative continued.

Occupy Vancouver, in solidarity with other city occupations, has come together to transform the unequal, unfair, and growing disparity in the distribution of power and wealth in our city and around the globe. We challenge corporate greed, corruption, and the collusion between corporate power and government, and oppose systemic inequality, militarization, environmental destruction, and the erosion of civil liberties and human rights. We seek economic security, genuine equality, and the protection of the environment for all.

We are not leaving. Come join us. Everyone is welcome.

- 30 -

For more information:

Press Liaison,
Occupy Vancouver

604-725-8391
pressroom@occupyvancouver.com

What are you proposing?  A letter writing campaign to MPs...a sit-in forcing them to manhandle everyone aboard the paddy wagons...or some other display of outrage?

No.  I think it would be swell though for the unions to try and mobilize their membership, and for the social democrat politicians to mobilize themselves and their base, to go down and protect the encampment from the police.  A shout out to the population in general in other words.  Draw a line somewhere.  Additionally, with dozens and dozens of occupy zones across the continent..a move against one should be coordinated as to imply a move against them all, in all of its ramifications for the corporate business cores surrounding those zones.

The saddest part for me is that Gregor is a former BC NDP MLA.  But like all politicians he is reading polls and they tell him that the people who vote in municipal elections in Vancouver want security and order not societal change. In the last two municipal elections in Vancouver less than a third of eligible voters voted.  There is no credible alternative candidate running for Mayor.  It is either the centrist asshole or the right wing asshole.  

Double speak makes me seethe. Of course once they get an injunction then it ceases to be about the freedom of expression and becomes contempt of court.  They jail sick grandmothers in this province but not for protesting instead it is for defying the court ordered injunction.  Canadians have the right to protest ineffectively.  Like strikes in this day and age, if there is any chance that workers have a edge in the negotiations they are ordered back to work and refusal then is not a labour dispute but a contempt of court issue for disobeying the injunction that would follow any union or membership refusal to comply.  

They make the laws to chain us well. 

..i didn't make it to the occupy yesterday but they didn't have an assembly in honour ashely. i'm leaving my place right after i post this. to see if an early assembly is called and then come back for the 7pm main one later. i will try and post something before i hit the sack.

..robertson has targeted the assembly for a while. he began by dividing people: 1St by complaining that the grey cup would somehow be poorer for wear if they couldn't use the occupy space and then they dragged in the santa clause parade saying the same.

..an option. in madrid, when they kicked those folks out of the square, people rallied. police remained behind to block any return to the occupy. those folk, now in greater numbers than before, occupied the streets and brought everything to a halt. the police were at the square. when the police began to leave, the square was re occupied. around the van occupy is a traffic hub of sorts. in the end they may prefer us at occupy.

..come to the meeting tonight!!!!

I have been at the occupation here in Vancouver most evenings and a good amount of time on the weekends.  I was there yesterday afternoon and evening.  I plan to be at home for a while, online, working on web stuff for the occupation so if you have some specific questions I can answer them.

Unionist I don't know what kind of report you are looking for but I'll try to provide what I can.  I am only providing my own take on what I see happening.

I don't know if cause of death has been confirmed.  The media have been reporting "police can not confirm this is an overdose", and I have heard it was a heart attack.  I don't know that "cardiac arrest" means that it wasn't drug related.

There was a lot of grief last night.  GA was cancelled and there was a vigil going on.

From what I've seen there has been a fair amount of tension the last 4-5 days.  People have disagreements about how the movement should be organized, and what it should be about.  People have been working hard for a while, and they are strung out.  Some committees express their autonomy and don't feel the GA should be able to direct them.  Quiet hours are supposed to start at 11pm, but my friend working in Safety said that they were blaring aggressive dubstep at 1am the other night, and he said he spent hours trying to put out fight after fight.

On the other hand, while people were very shaken up last night, such tragedies can also bring people together.  People are committed and I don't think anyone's planning to leave.

Fatal drug overdoses are not reported by the Vancouver media.  It is November.  I don't know how many fatal overdoses have occurred this year but I doubt they've been reported.  Now, all of a sudden a fatality is a big deal and the occupation is "unsafe".

The City of Vancouver does not want to talk about homelessness or drug addiction.  But it seems like there is an opportunity now to talk about it.  So if the media wants to talk about it, then we're going to get real about it.

Ashley was staying at the occupation because she was homeless.  If she had died somewhere else none of us would have even heard about it.

There are not enough treatment facilities in Vancouver.  It is very difficult to get into a detox program.  There is a dire shortage of low cost housing.

A statement by a Toronto organizer was criticized on another thread.  The statement was that unpoliced warm areas would turn into crack dens, and it was viewed as poor bashing.

The reality of the situation here in Vancouver is that there are a lot of people who are homeless and addicted to drugs.  So of course, many of these people are actively looking for a warm place to get their fix.  The occupation has invited people to come down and stay and there's a kitchen making food for hungry people. That's the reality of the situation and occupiers are aware that we all need to be conscious of this reality and try to manage it.  The homeless and the drug addicted have as much right as anyone else to protest.

I have heard that Gregor Robertson and Susan Anton (the two top tier candidates for Mayor) are debating housing Monday night about five blocks from the occupation, but I haven't seen any confirmation online.

So there is a lot of thinking on our feet at the occupation.  There was a working list of demands that got on the web site and the CBC tried to cherrypick the fringiest.  Everyone is constantly learning how to do this and it has been challenging to make decisions without having everyone on the same page.

For the next while the occupation could focus on homelessness and drug addiction.  These are not exactly issues that affect the full 99% but it is the on the ground reality here in downtown Vancouver where the occupation is taking place.  Suburbanites who don't want treatment centres in their neighbourhoods are up in arms about a tragic death at an occupation that they've probably never even driven by.

The blame for this tragedy lies not with the occupiers but with the city of Vancouver and the provincial Government.  The coming injunction to evict us will be an attempt to sweep the issue under the rug yet again.

Let's get real about homelessness and drug addiction in Vancouver.

Thanks so much, epaulo13 and wage zombie. Please convey our solidarity and love to all.

Hear, hear! And if any organizers or supporters disagree they should pack up and re-colonize some public space that wasn't already being used by those people who have been discarded by society.

Rabble article by Gail Davidson, from Lawyers Against The War:

Occupy Vancouver the safest place for abandoned people