Spokes Council notes 1/12/12

facilitators: kari ko and shizuko

stack: jim

notes: gambit

PRESENT (16): facilitation, medical, womens caucus, sexual assault survivor advocacy, media cluster, action, engineering, labor outreach, spending, radical caucus, open caucus, elders council, peace and safety, occupy gresham, food & sanitation cluster, tribes.

AGENDA: introducing new spoke, discussion about safety implementation, proposal from imre, proposal for art space.

Item 1:

Ben: Sexual assault survivor advocacy committee (SASA), formed during camp, worked with peace and safety. Currently putting together a group to take legal action against police, and holding workshops about rape culture, etc. SASA wants to be a formalized spoke. They’ll try to meet weekly, probably at st. francis. 15-20 members. Group is open to people who want to receive training, but trainer is currently unavailable. SASA sees itself as a different type of thing than medical or safety, and thus wants its own spoke.

No concerns. No evolution.

***TWINKLES***

Announcements:

-illona: http://pdxga.org/ is where it’s at. GA notes, working group stuff etc. GA, Spokescouncil and Agenda notes will no longer be on occupyportland.org, which is now just our external mouthpiece to the outside world. It will be a space for press releases, announcements, actions, and events. All intra-movement work will be on pdxga.org and all notes will be kept there. You can create an account, join the groups or create new ones, connect with friends, and work on projects.

-bob: the occupier needs writers! Now! Write for the occupier! 200-500 words long. A blog post. Email the occupier if you want to.

-­Food team: if you need food for your event, please let food team know 2 weeks in advance. Its hard to get food on short notice.

-peace and safety: p&s training tuesday 1/17, 7-9pm, st. francis cafeteria.

-dave/crash: public planning meeting for longview EGT action is saturday 5-7pm, 6401 SE Foster in the SEIU building. Please come if you can help with housing, transportation etc. all folks strongly encouraged to come.

-imre: city council approved a symbolic resolution against corporate persynhood. Yay for steps toward reformism! January candidates’ debate hosted by green party, needs a facilitator. Email [email protected] if you’re interested.

-medic jim: another symbolic resolution passed by city council to remove troops from afghanistan, shrink the defense budget etc. 3 council members present, both votes unanimous.

-Mario: Jan 25 is 1 year anniversary of tahrir square uprising. Mario planning a march/rally/etc at pioneer square at 5pm.

Item 2:

2-part safety discussion from women’s caucus. This is about how to implement the safety guidelines that have already been consensed by SC and GA. WC says that some women are refusing to participate in occupy because it’s not safe. Our community guidelines must be enforced, because there are perps in our midst. Facilitators encourage discussion groups to come up with actionable items. SASA says, don’t do anything the survivor doesn’t tell you to do. WC has contacted the survivor, who has asked for OP to take action. RadCauc asks P&S to read safety guidelines aloud to the group. Shizuko: gives an impassioned speech about the need to create systems of accountability to each other.

-Safety guidelines, read by sean larkin:

-committed to being peaceful, no verbal abuse, no unwanted touching, no racism, homophobia, sexism, no weapons, no use of drugs and alcohol in common spaces, respect other groups’ codes of conduct. We are responsible for holding ourselves and each other accountable. These guidelines should be announced by facilitators at GA and SC. If someone has violated these guidelines, this issue will “jump stack” and be dealt with.

-discussion question: what would it look like to implement these guidelines?

-groups break off and discuss this, then re-assemble 15 minutes later. Shizuko: this will also be discussed at GA. Let’s write down the actionable items. A working group will compile them and bring to the next SC. There are ten reportbacks:

-facilitation: during meetings, we should call out bad behavior and invite p+s to help stop it. We should determine how long a perp should stay away after bad behavior. p+s should have trainings for every group that wants it.

-Medical: hold a high standard for addressing verbal abuse. Issue warnings, then stern warnings, then expulsion. Find a mechanism to keep them out of our spaces.

-Womens’ caucus: spread awareness of SASA, have 10 minute SASA intro at each spokes, more p+s outreach to groups, ensure protection for survivors post assault, use restorative justice, peaceful banishment.

-media cluster: p+s mediation should be more available, more education, SASA, anti-oppression trainings, more NV trainings: interruption/de-escalation, different levels of response based on survivor safety. Create safe spaces during meetings, where folks can go who feel unsafe.

-action: post safety guidelines on pdxga.org. Bring reports of violations to GA and SC. Keep track of perps. Skits to clarify what is an offense, what persynal accountability looks like. Mugshots of perps to show us who they are. Perps read the guidelines in front of the community (twinkles for this!) for public shaming.

-food/spending: form an inter-committee accountability group of 3-6 people. If there’s an undoubted perp, they’ll be asked to leave. If they don’t they’ll be voted out. Protect survivor identity. If survivor doesnt want to speak to a special team, they can send a rep from WC / SASA etc.

-engineering/gresham: p+s should have an enforcement presence at all marches, vigils etc. and report presence of perps to everyone everywhere. There should be an info card for what do in situations. Network with other occupations to see what’s worked for them.

-radical caucus: self-defense workshops, group intervention workshops, anti-oppression workshops, shunning, disagreement over viability of exile, posting photos of perps.

-elders council plus: escort service for those who feel unsafe, managed by info desk. Educational component. Sanctions. Survivor-centered mediation process.

-peace and safety: p+s hold more trainings, more anti-oppression trainings, re-education training for perps, possible permanent expulsion

-tribes: people need to be empowered to defend themselves. Get to know each other better. Safety trainings for all. Enlist facilitators to practice shantisena and keep the peace.

Team to compile these ideas: natasha, ben, scott, axcelle, veronica, billy, marvin, adam, mario, phil, sean, austin. They’ll meet after this SC, also in the dining hall.

Shizuko: let’s turn this into a plan, that we can coherently discuss at the next SC.

One lone wolf has a brief interruption, about sexual assault upon those who are sleeping.

Item 3:

wanting support for occupying the legislature in Salem. Session begins 2/1. imre feels a presence is needed there. Bringing it to spokes, hoping folks will want to help coordinate. In OR legislature in 2008, 4 ALEC members. Now, there are 20. let’s kick some legislative butt! There’s an occupy the legislature FB page. Imre wants to reach out to rumorz, and PR team.

-meeting to plan this is sunday 1/15 at 4:30 at st. francis.

Item 4:

art space. Brought by persyn from end of item 2. a creative community workspace for art and design, here at st.francis office. Near the windows. Presenter sees this as essential. It’s for tangible 3-d art only, not computer art. Just wants one table, free of clutter, safe for art, not to be moved. In the che room. Committee meetings take priority.

-raya passes bag around for rent money.

-illona: if this is getting tabled anyway, let’s respect the persyn’s space to do art until at least next SC.

-temp check: let’s move this discussion to next SC!

-SASA: just give the art guy a space!

-WC: why have the space be run by just one guy?

-kari: this singular issue is about the broader question, of how are we using our space?

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

-ben (SASA): cameron whitten has a mayoral event at st. francis wednesday at 6pm.

-ben: SASA hosting a consent workshop in the Che room next thursday. 5pm

-illona: city repair is having a white privilege potluck and discussion on saturday. Details at pdxga.org, which btw is rad. Also, leave the chairs on the ground.

-nefi: MLK march at 11:30 on monday!

-TUPAC: monday night is occupy the dream event. Committees should come at 4pm to start setting up. Fundraiser for justin bridges medical and legal fees.

-bruce: where’s trudy? Where’s owen? They invited me here and where are they?

-planning for longview action at SEIU on Foster on Saturday afternoon. Other committees must get involved. Not sure when ship is coming in. Jan? Feb? When can we present at spokes?

-if you want to implement safety guidelines, stick around after this SC!

-any outside media brought into st. francis must be checked in with valerie.

-occupy gresham first event on sunday, starting at noon at gresham skatepark, then to pizza place. Gresham Gas moved to wednesday, neighborhoods united building on E burnside.

-p+s training tuesday, 7-9pm at st. francis.

-antonio: planning big occupy conference for 3/15. reads statement aloud. Wants committees to help. Reads list of tasks for committees. Will be posted online?

-meet the tweeters: ringlers, 8pm friday night, drinks, food, fun. Come after the open house!