Greet visitors and answer any questions they may have, along with giving them appropriate handouts; stock flyers and handouts for volunteers to distribute; encourage people to sign up for e-mail and workgroups lists; and keep contacts lists updated.
Point of Contact: Coleen
occupymadisoninfo@gmail.com
Thursday, Dec. 15 at 7 pm, Hillel Foundation, 611`Langdon St. is sponsoring a panel of UW faculty on the Occupy movement. It would be good to have some folks from the Madison Occupation present.
Allen
What do we have by way of flyers with current information to distribute? Have any suggestions come before the GA?
We have some general flyers about Occupy Madison that I’m trying to get printed up in much larger quantities and stocked at Info so that anybody can do flyering pretty much at-will independently.
Heather, I am interested in any revision/updating that might get done on these. If it’s appropriate, maybe another googledoc for the menagerie? Thanks.
Hi, Chelsea. I was sent a pdf of an outdated flyer via googledoc but don’t know how to update/edit it. I feel this is an urgent need–has been for some time–but can’t seem to get a handle on it.
I have updated the flyer–had to save it in MWord to edit it. Here’s what it says.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW OCCUPYMADISON
Occupy-madison.org (be sure to use the hyphen) http://WWW.Facebook.com/OccupyMadison
Occupy Madison is part of the broader movement sweeping the country and the world that is fundamentally about democracy. We want people to be the deciders, not corporations. There are local occupy actions taking place in cities ranging from Chicago IL and Lincoln Nebraska in the US, and from Karachi Pakistan to Hong Kong, China. The demand for to hold Wall Street accountable is global! Visit http://www.occupytogether.org for a full list of the over 1,500 participating cities around the world.
General Assemblies: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 6:00 p.m. at our new location, 800 E. Washington Ave. in Madison
Occupy Madison holds General Assemblies which is a space for democratic decision making. We discuss current events, make proposals, form committees, vote, and then ACT!
Committees After votes happen, the way that specific tasks get done is through committees.
There are many committees at Occupy Madison to participate in including demands, outreach, and art. Visit the Information Booth on site to learn more.
To form a committee, all it takes is for a group of people to identify a need—such as food, discussion facilitation, education, etc to start one. Committees develop proposals which they bring to the body of the General Assembly (that’s you!) to discuss and consider for a vote. Then we carry out that decision… that’s democracy.
What do we stand for?
We are beholden to no political affiliation, and simply seek to create a democratic space where the 99% can begin to represent, speak, and act for ourselves. We reject all political parties—they exist in a system run by corporate money. This is a movement growing out of people’s anger over the corporate domination of politics (from the President on down) and the reshaping of society to corporate interests. We are fed up with the traditional mechanisms of political expression, and this is why we take our movement to the streets. We know that voting is NOT a place where the average person’s needs can be responded to. We see power in gathering together to practice direct democracy to hold those accountable who hold the entire system: the media, the government, and the economy hostage to their will. We are uniting in cities all over the world, we are speaking louder and dreaming bigger—to push away the nightmare of pessimism and grief that the 1% holds out as the last scrap of doubt that pits us against each other.
We are the 99%.
We Are Wisconsin.
We act in the name of democracy!
JOIN US
OCCUPYMADISON
800 E. Washington Ave., Madison WI
WE ARE THE 99%! WE ARE WISCONSIN … EXPECT US
Something is very wrong with the system in which we live. Programs designed to feed and educate children are having their budgets slashed, families are being thrown out of their homes and the jobs of hard-working people are cut due to no real fault of their own while the wealthiest 1% are bailed out, make record profits and our people are being sent overseas to fight and die for the protection of this system. We find it unacceptable that the top 1% who caused the hardships we all face flourishes while the 99%
suffers in the economic crisis created by the 1%.
We are Wisconsin, we are the 99% and these are our demands:
1. A fair and just economic system that benefits all humanity not solely the 1%, including but not limited to substantial tax increases on the 1% to fully fund the needs of the 99% such as job creation, education and social services. Corporate America has refused to create jobs while it is
sitting on trillions of dollars in cash reserves. We need real jobs programs of public works that will give meaningful work to millions of people who are unemployed. We cannot do that or fully fund all our needs while the tax burden on the top 1% remains at historic lows. We draw a solid line against all cuts to social programs for the 99%. We did not cause this crisis. We shouldn’t have to pay for it.
2. End the wars and redirect military spending to social programs. The wars being waged serve not to protect the interests of the 99% but that of the top 1% who mean to secure markets, natural resources and cheap labor across the world while cementing their wealth and power over us.
Spending on weapons programs, hundreds of military bases all across the world and profits for the military contractors are a theft from the unemployed, the poor, the sick, the homeless and the hungry, as even former president Eisenhower said. We should bring all the troops home and spend the money on human needs in Madison and nationwide. The people upon whom war is being waged in the Middle East and Central Asia are not our enemies. We have more in common with the 99% of all those countries than with the top 1% of our own country who is the sole beneficiary of these wars.
3. Real democracy that allows the voices of the 99% to heard and acted upon.
There needs to be respect for the rights that are supposed to be guaranteed in the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. Police in NYC are abusing the basic rights of people at Occupy Wall Street–to assemble and to speak freely. This needs to stop. We should not have to seek permission to exercise our rights. The domination of politics by the wealth of the top 1% stifles democracy for the rest of us. This needs to stop. We need real campaign finance reform to throw corporate money out of politics.
4. An end to the assault of the top 1% on workers’ rights and repeal of all anti-union laws.
It was not enough that there are countless laws like the Taft-Hartley that restrict workers right to organize or to effectively enforce those rights. In Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan and numerous other states, the rightwing and their corporate backers have come for the jugular with respect to public sector workers. We stand in solidarity with all who came out last winter and spring in their hundreds of
thousands to defend the fundamental democratic rights of workers.
5. The end of institutionalized racism, sexism, homophobia and attacks on immigrants.
While the 99% as a whole has been hurt by the crisis made by the 1%, the suffering has been dealt in unequal ways. For example, the unemployment rate for people of color has been much higher than the average. Moreover, the politicians and media that represent the 1% have used policies that inspire division among the 99% so we may find it more difficult to unite and fight back.
6. Protection of the environment, a sustainable economy and an end to reckless pollution in order to preserve the planet for future generations. A society oriented exclusively to the short term profits of
the top 1% has deemed it more expedient to disregard the planet on which we live. It is more expedient for them to continue their horrendous mountain top mining, dangerous gas drilling methods and running of oil pipelines that leave us in danger of a poisoned environment. We need to make a bold stand to defend the environment not only because future generations will suffer but because people are suffering from environmental disasters and pollution today.
This is an evolving document, first ratified by OccupyMadison, General Assembly 10/03/11.
Join us: occupy-madison.org and facebook.com/OccupyMadison
Please change the name of our Working-Group on the list of Working-Groups from “Foreclosure” to “Homes For All”. Thanks.
Allen
P.S. We are concerned with home foreclosures and homelessness in Madison.