I went to the Occupy Austin General Assembly again tonight. The main topic of discussion was how we present ourselves, relate to, and communicate with the City Office. After the arrest last Sunday morning there was a hastily planned meeting with Assistant City Manager and Chief of Police. The City is a hierarchical organization. They cannot understand and do not know how to deal with an organization that is rejecting traditional hierarchical patterns in favor of consensus building. The Occupy movements have no leader, have no spokesperson, have no one appointed to represent them in any official capacity. Choosing such people would be in fact going against the movement.
This topic came up tonight in a seemingly inauspicious proposal to formalize the group of people that met with the City Officials into an 'official committee'. At first, I thought this was a good idea. The GA is the governing body. They should approve any group that is going to be communicating with the City. It's logical, right? In a hierarchical society, yes. We, the GA, give them the power to represent us to the City. However, in a consensus built movement that rejects hierarchy we cannot give any group a special license. The only decision making body of the Occupy Austin movement is the GA. Everything must go through this messy and difficult process. If the City wants to meet with Occupy Austin, some people will go. They will talk to the City officials and report back to the GA. They can then bring what the GA said back to the City officials. The GA cannot approve a pre-selected group of people. Instead, these meetings need to be open so that the full diversity of the movement can be included in the meetings.
Perhaps this is overreacting. But perhaps not. Yet, there is hope here. I think that the future of the Occupy movements is strong. Come and join. Come and see what Democracy looks like. It's not pretty and it's not one day every four years. The Democracy that the Occupy movements are building is bigger and more inclusive and more time consuming that what we call democracy in this country. It is neither for sale nor does it settle for the lowest common denominator. Instead this Democracy is a true exchange of ideas. These ideas enrich us all so that we rise to fulfil our potential instead of being satisfied with the unacceptable status quo.
Also, relating to yesterday's post: Greece called off the referendum.
Friday, November 4, 2011
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Great post. I completely agree with you. I've attend some GA's at Occupy Seattle and I was amazed at the process. It actually is a forum for people to be heard by other people. There are very few other places I see that occurring in an authentic way. That's what a lot of the critics don't understand, that the process itself is the thing that matters, not some rushed, fabricated, or pre-determined outcome. The more I've been engaged with OWS, the more I feel the same energy I got being a part of the Obama campaign. The change we seek is so difficult, on so many levels, that I'm now convinced that without the energy you get from being in authentic communication with a large group of pretty-much-like-minded individuals (no need to be purely identical in opinion) that it is impossible. It is this human energy that propels the movement, and without it, you're just another interest group. I encourage you to keep this blog up. I really enjoyed this post and the last. Thanks!
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