12/18/11 GA minutes

General Assembly Minutes, Sunday December 18

ANNOUNCEMENTS

-Times and Locations of GAs and Working Groups for the holiday season. There will be no GA’s for the next two Sundays.

Tuesday 12.20 Working Groups will be held at Frontier, Rug Room, 6pm

Thursday 12.22 General Assembly will be held at Frontier, Rug Room, 6pm

Friday 12.23 General Assembly Special Session, Location by word of mouth, 6pm

12.27, 12.29 Working Groups at Peace and Justice Center, 6pm

Tuesday 1.3 Working Groups at Frontier, rug room, 6pm

Thursday 1.5 General Assembly, Peace and Justice Center, 6pm

-Rachael has started a google group for Albuquerque organizers working on Occupy issues, for anyone interested-allies, activists– an activist listserv. You can send out communication digests with an email of threads. There are organizers from Santa Fe, Las Cruces. This is a place to keep in touch, to work on solidarity, community building. Email RachaelMatier@hotmail.com

-Peter would like to announce the Leonard Peltier Walk for Human Rights, Saturday February 4. Nationwide event to be in solidarity with. Still in the brainstorming stage, definitely a rally and march, possibly a concert. Peter is looking for input and networking for this project. Email lpsupport@whoisleonardpeltier.info, or visit whoisleonardpeltier.info.

Amalia proposes (un)Occupy supports this action. Friendly amendments: possibly help publicize it, find housing for marchers going across the country. Consensus reached.

-Rachael- In hopes of community building, there has been a Temazcal opened up to our group. We can plan a session, a lot of work to heal ourselves.

-Monday, 12.19 There is a City Council meeting in regards to the Quote UnQuote, Channel 26 and 27. People could show up on their behalf. There may also be an emergency meeting on the 21st. Apparently the Cable board, who is supposed to be making the decision on whether Quote UnQuote keeps their channels, has mostly been in the dark. The chief accounting officer is pretty much running things, which is not how it is supposed to work.

WORKING GROUP UPDATES

Because of the time of year, with people being out of town, etc., things have been pretty quiet.

The Foreclosure working group, which is now meeting Wednesdays 6:30-8:30 at Pros Ranch Market on Central and Atrisco, is working towards finding a family at risk of foreclosure, and working to help them through the process. Enrique has a family that may be the first candidate for support. It’s tricky. Folks can feelthere is a lot of guilt and failure. We are in the process of finding the right family. We are confident it will happen.

On a similar note, Al Parks in 2006 was Public Regulation Commissioner and was used as a pawn of the wealthy to pass a bill that changed the situation for homeowners so that instead of holding a mortgage, they hold a deed of trust. This makes it super easy for financial institutions to reclaim houses. He is now running for PRC and it would do us well to come out against him.

AGENDA

-Encampment Tactics discussed

-Friday, 12/23 Special General Assembly Agenda creation discussed, proposal to further discuss 12/23 Special GA Agenda Tuesday and Thursday.

-Coalition Building: Rachael went to a 501 table meeting Monday. It was great to talk to allies who have the Occupy movement in their minds. I’d like to have a meeting to all come together with other groups who have been working on our grievances for a long time—give respect for that. If anyone has any contact information of Occupy-ally organizations, please forward that information out to RachaelMatier@hotmail.com. Proposal passed to add Rachael to contact list for Coalition Working Group, and to meet Tuesday, 12.20, at the Frontier, 6pm.

-There is a group that wants to march from Albuquerque to Santa Fe for the January 17th March to the Roundhouse action. We don’t need a huge commitment from people. We only need a few people to march to make a statement, plus vehicle support. And people don’t have to march the whole time, they could come march with us for a little bit, for the first couple of miles, for the last mile, whatever. We will need to check into long marches in the past to see what people have needed for something like this. Also, it could be cool to have a group of people who take the rail runner, quietly protesting. People who work at the legislature ride the train. Jessica will be the contact person for the ABQàSF March, becuriousimserious@gmail.com. She will be at the Tuesday working group meeting at the Frontier.

For the Jan. 17th action, it would be great to use every vehicle possible—marching in from Albuquerque, loading up the Rail Runner, marching in from four directions. Every idea is real and valuable. Awesome!

Check freewayblogger.com out

OPEN DISCUSSION

-Mischa is a food, permaculture activist into teaching/gardening for free. NM can garden all year long, but I understand it’s cold here for those used to the weather. In the Spring I’d like to facilitate gardening activities, with a large focus on families, working to change the way we gather food.

-Robert mentioned the idea of leaving something lasting, a community garden of sorts.

-Mischa has been an activist for a long time, worn out of the holding signs end of things. A garden is a practical, tangible, real life thing. Growing food isn’t a theory, it’s a living, breathing tradition that we need to keep. Current permaculture has become very elitist and classist. And people may not have the budget to pay for a plot in a community garden. It’s time to start claiming land back, and planting gardens. I love to build soil, a layering technique I call lasanga soil.

-Maria mentioned that La Placita and Sanchez farms has some community garden space.

-Amalia noted that the name (un)Occupy has to do with colonization. Indigenous people have been working the land for thousands of years. Colonization changed all of that. We need to honor the people that have been taking care. (un)Occupy honors that. We should be proud of us. We called it out right there in the beginning. We should be proud we keep that conversation going.

-Jason: there is a natural coexistence between man and work. We need to be resilient to financial changes. This food thing is vital. We should also be mindful of local business, small business

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