Continue reading »]]> Doing Something About Drone Killing

by Dennis DuVall

• Join in asking for the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memo that gives the legal arguments for President Obama’s right to kill American citizens with drone strikes.
• Ask if the U.S. is conducting secondary (“double-tap”) drone strikes.  Should secondary strikes be U.S. policy?
• Pressure the government to publicize what it knows about civilian casualties of U.S. drone strikes.  If only 49 al-Qaeda/Taliban high level leaders have been killed in Pakistan since 2004, while the New America Foundation reports that 2,400-3,500 people (including 176 children) have been killed in U.S. drone strikes, shouldn’t the United States investigate civilian harm and offer compensation?
• Tell the government to fully comply with the United Nations investigation of U.S. drone strikes.
• Question our government’s policy that the U.S. has the right to target “those who harbor al-Qaeda or its affiliates” in a perpetual war global battlefield.

Continue reading »]]> Military Recruiters Leave No Child Behind

Our local secondary schools receiving federal fund assistance through the “No Child Left Behind Act” (NCLBA), e.g. Prescott High School, must provide military recruiters with students’ names, addresses, and telephone listings upon request by the recruiters, unless the student or the student’s parent expressly requests the school not provide such information, i.e. “opt-out.” Moreover, our schools are required to notify parents and students of these requirements of the NCLBA. So, identification and contact information of students is provided to military recruiters upon request unless a parent or student affirmatively acts to prevent it. Facing alternative prospects of unemployment and high costs of college education, graduating high school students are candidates for pressure tactics of military recruiters.

Prescott High School principal Totsy McCraley recently met with Frances Thomas of Grandmothers for Peace and Occupy Prescott, Nancy Hinshaw of Pax Christi, and Ralph Hess of Veterans for Peace and Occupy Prescott to discuss flaws in the notice letter and “opt-out” form provided to parents and students by PHS. Mrs. McCraley opened the meeting with an acknowledgement that the PHS form was unclear; yet, she assured us that PHS did not release student information to military recruiters unless the parents or student expressly authorized release of the information.  The meeting closed with Mrs. McCraley assuring us that PHS would modify its “opt-out” notice form to comply with the requirements of NCLBA, which it has done.  (The original and modified forms are below.)

The cooperative efforts of PHS administration and participants from Pax Christi, Grandmothers for Peace, Veterans for Peace, and Occupy Prescott will help inform students and parents of their right and need to control information provided by PHS to military recruiters.

-        Ralph Hess, February 12, 2013             Full Article Here Militarizing American Youth

Continue reading »]]> Lincoln OP Movie Night flyer

OccupyPrescott Goes to the Movies: Please, join us Sunday December 16 at 4pm to watch LINCOLN at Prescott Valley Harkins Theaters, and be sure and participate in a Discussion afterward at IHOP (the International House of Pancakes across the street) beginning around 7pm. Bring along a friend, too!

If you already have seen LINCOLN, still come out for the discussion and share your thoughts and impressions.

Several Potential Topics for Discussion at 7pm: What did you learn about the Civil War and the 13th Amendment, that you never knew or understood before? Is there a better way to pass an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution? Do the ends justify the means? Thaddeus Stevens (acted by Tommie Lee Jones) adjusts his remarks, or bites his tongue—for the sake of persuading his opponents—is this the right way to advance one’s cause? Mary Todd Lincoln (portrayed by Sally Field) pleads with her husband to forestall their son Robert’s entry into the Army—do you sympathize with her serious concerns and desperate plight? Did the director S. Spielberg and writer T. Kushner ingeniously address values we hold important in this day and age? Was Daniel Day Lewis’ performance worthy of an Oscar?  After watching  LINCOLN, what sparked your political imagination or encouraged your activism?

Thanks, and see you there,

Paul, following up on the

Resolution passed at the GA*

Continue reading »]]> A Thanksgiving Teach-in and Hunger Strike for Gaza

       I was looking forward to Thanksgiving with Iris and her cranberry relish and stuffing.  The looming possibility of another Gaza massacre changed that.  My anger built up over a week of Iraeli air attacks killing Palestinian civilians, women and children, with bombs and missiles made in the USA.  My anger was at myself that I was not doing something.  I knew on Thanksgiving I would only be feeling despondent and deeply disappointed in myself.

Early in the morning of November 21, the hour of the wolf (the darkest hour before dawn), I knew I would visit the Army Recruiting Office at Gateway Mall, the symbolic nexus of war and militarism in our community, and speak out about the situation in Gaza.  To remain neutral in situations of injustice, is to be complicit in that injustice – Archbishop Desmond Tutu.  As a Veteran for Peace I would lead a peaceful and nonviolent teach-in on the complicity of the U.S. in the death and destruction raining down on the already war-battered and impoverished refugee camp of Gaza City.

About noon I walked into the recruiting office and took a chair.  Sgt. Yazzie asked if she could help me.  I said I was there to hold a teach-in on Gaza.  I asked her if she knew that, as we speak, American-made bombs were killing Palestinian women and children in Gaza.  After 1,500 Israeli air strikes, the Palestinian death toll was 161, half of which were civilians, including 40 children.  Three days earlier ten members of the Dalu family were killed in Gaza City, all but one of them women and young children.    She was sorry she had to ask me to leave.  I went ahead with my teach-in anyway and Sgt. Yazzie told me to speak with Sgt. Parker who would return shortly.

When Sgt. Parker returned to his desk I introduced myself and said I was leading a teach-in on Gaza in view of the events taking place there.  I asked if he knew U.S. taxpayers give Israel $3 billion a year in military aid that is used to maintain an illegal military occupation of Palestinians and an illegal siege of Gaza.  He said he had important work to do and I should return another day.  I replied the bombing in Gaza was more important to me than business-as-usual and I really wanted to talk about it.

Again I was asked to leave.  Sgt. Parker threw my backpack out the door and intended to expedite my exit in similar fashion, whereupon I went to the rear of the office and sat on the floor.  During the time Sgt. Parker was calling Mall security and the police we did carry on a civil discourse.  Sgt. Parker explained that Israel had the right to defend itself from Hamas rockets; I replied people under siege have the right to resist and Israel’s cruel and barbaric siege of Gaza leads to the rockets.  Gaza is a prison for 1.7 million people subjected to deplorable living conditions:  people are starving, children are suffering from anemia and malnutrition, water is polluted, 20 million gallons of sewage a day are discharged into the sea, and depleted uranium is poisoning the environment.  Israel controls all border crossings and building materials like steel, cement and glass are banned from entering Gaza.  The IDF says 100 trucks a day of air are needed to sustain life, but less than half are allowed in.  Israel’s siege is intended to strangle Hamas, but after five years Hamas continues to resist Israel’s military blockade.

I knew I didn’t have a lot of time to continue my teach-in, so I was passionate about the horrific loss of life endured by Palestinians under Israeli occupation.  I asked Sgt. Parker if he could imagine what it would be like to live in a city that was being bombed for three straight weeks.  In December 2008, Israel’s Cast Lead air assault on Gaza killed 1,400 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, victims of U.S.-made weapons such as Abrams tanks, Apache attack helicopters (made in Phoenix) and Lockheed-Martin F-16s dropping cluster bombs, white phosphorus and depleted uranium (DU).

            Palestinians experience daily violence in a campaign of genocide that has gone on for 44 years.  According to the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, the Israeli military killed at least 2,969 unarmed Palestinians, including 1,128 children under the age if 18, from September 2000 through December 2009 in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).

            I spoke out against Israeli apartheid, condemning 5 million people to live as prisoners in their own land without legal, political or human rights.  I spoke out against the Separation Wall, dividing farms and villages and making normal travel impossible, declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004.  I spoke out against illegal settlements and confiscations of Palestinian land that are fragmenting the West Bank and making a contiguous Palestinian state impossible.  From their sparkling white adobe settlements atop hills overlooking Palestinian villages, Israeli settlers throw trash, human waste and grapefruit-size rocks down on Palestinians below.

The Israeli occupation violates the preface to the United Nations Charter banning the acquisition of territory by war.  Israeli settlements also violate the Fourth Geneva Convention that forbids the transfer of populations to and from such areas.

            I spoke out against the uprooting of thousands of citrus and olive trees, sources of sustenance and symbols of Palestine’s ancient ties to the land.  I spoke out against forced evictions of Palestinians from their homes based on bogus legal documents.  I spoke out against the demolition of Palestinian houses by Caterpillar bulldozers made in the USA — and the deliberate murder of American peace worker Rachel Corrie in an IDF demolition.  I spoke out about the daily humiliation of Palestinians at Israeli checkpoints, treated like cattle, subjected to arbitrary rules that make going to work or school or to a hospital a deliberately arduous journey taking hours.  I know; I had to pass through one of these checkpoints in January 2010.

Why does the most powerful nation in the world support Israel’s illegal colonization of Palestine and policy of racial discrimination toward Palestinians?  I spoke out against the siege of Gaza and Israeli apartheid because the United States is complicit in this situation of great injustice and it is my responsibility to raise the level of nonviolent civil resistance that I am willing to do to confront the U.S./Israeli military occupation of Palestine.

            When the police arrived I assured them I was peaceful but I would not help them to arrest me.  Taken into custody, I was held down, cuffed and carried to the police SUV outside.  Downtown I was booked, fingerprinted and given a retinal scan, the latest law enforcement gadget.  I sat in a holding cell for four hours waiting to be bused to Yavapai County Jail in Camp Verde.

Since I spoke out against the siege of Gaza and illegal Israeli military occupation of Palestine that I believe to be unconscionable, I considered myself to be a prisoner of conscience and I refused to cooperate with my imprisonment in any way.  I made the decision to begin a hunger strike to end the siege of Gaza and wrote on my medical form that I would refuse food.

In Yavapai County Jail on Thanksgiving, I told a magistrate judge that I refused bond and would not sign my conditions of release.  He said I would remain in confinement until my arraignment five days later.  Inmates in my Place of Detention (POD) were indifferent to curious that I was refusing food.  I did not simply give my food to my fellow inmates so the jail would know I was refusing to eat.  As days passed, inmates saw I was serious and grew more curious, giving me the opportunity to talk about Gaza and U.S. military aid to Israel.  My cellie, a Viet Nam vet and a POW for seven months in Cambodia in 1972, thought at first I “didn’t like Jews.”  He was later supportive of my jail resistance and for “sticking to what I believe in.”  Several other inmates also gave support and encouragement.

On the third day of my hunger strike the floor officer was irritated that I was still not eating and told me if I refused 10 meals I would be placed in suicide watch.  I would be put in a cell naked wearing only a “turtle suit” on my upper torso with no bed or blanket and the light would always be on (I noted in a news story about Bradley Manning that the “turtle suit” was called a “suicide-prevention smock.”  A United Nations torture investigator called Manning’s treatment “cruel, inhuman and degrading”).

On the seventh day of my hunger strike, November 27, I was taken to the jail psychologist, Mike, for an “interview.”  Again I was given implied threats of the “turtle suit” and intravenous feeding if I persisted in my hunger strike.  I assured Mike I was fasting to end the siege of Gaza, not to end my life, and I would certainly continue my fast.  The interview ended abruptly as I informed Mike that it was his taxes that were paying for Israel’s bombs that were killing Palestinian women and children in Gaza.

Later that day I went to video court for my arraignment and Judge Markham released me to my own recognizance (OR).  I noticed my copy of the proceedings said “Friends and relatives are Present.”  Later I realized Iris had done terrific jail support for me, even while still feeling angry and resentful that I had not told her my plans to speak out about Gaza and disrupt business as usual (I knew she would know what to do).  I’m deeply grateful to Iris and genuinely appreciate the support and solidarity of several friends who were in the courtroom in Prescott, including Grayson, Kathy, Fran, Paul R., George, Paul H. and Tom H.

I was released about 6PM on November 27, gulping a few breaths of freedom and in time to see a spectacular Arizona sunset.  Fellow Veteran for Peace Ray Cage was there to meet me, gave me a hug and a ride back to Prescott.  I would be back on ‘Protest Corner” on Friday for our weekly peace and justice vigil, holding my neon yellow “No War With Iran” sign and handing out flyers.

EPILOGUE

          A cease fire between Israel and Hamas went into effect the day before Thanksgiving, so I guess I could have been thankful that an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza did not happen and more senseless killing was averted.  But even though Israel promises to “ease” its blockade, people of conscience must keep up the resistance to end the siege of Gaza.

On November 29, the United Nations General Assembly voted 138 to 9 to welcome Palestine into the UN as a non-member observer state giving Palestinians access to international organizations and agencies they did not have before.  Predictably, the U.S. and Israel vehemently fought against the vote, continuing to support Israeli apartheid, standing alone against the rest of the world in denying Palestinians any legal, political or human rights.

UN Ambassador Susan Rice called the vote “unfortunate and counterproductive,” the greatest fear being Palestinians will charge Israel with war crimes in the International Criminal Court (ICC).  Palestinians would have plenty of reasons to do so, and as Palestinian leader Hanan Ashwari points out, the vote “shows Israel is occupying another state.”  If Palestine goes to the ICC, the U.S. and Israel promise to charge Palestine with war crimes for Hamas rocket attacks.  Israel’s skewed sense of proportionality is evident in comparing Hamas rockets to Israeli bombs:  Hamas Quassam rockets have 12 pounds of explosives, and longer range Fajr-5 rockets have 90 pounds of explosives, while Israel drops 500-1,000 pound bombs on Gaza.

On November 30, Israel announced it will expand Jewish colonization of Palestinian land by building 3,000 new homes and settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.  The “E-1″ settlement plan would reach from East Jerusalem to the Jordan River Valley, deliberately dismembering the contiguous Palestinian state essential to a two-state solution.

On December 2, Israel announced it was withholding $100 million in tax revenues from sales taxes on imports to the Palestinian Authority (PA), collective punishment for the UN vote and plunging the Palestinian economy toward imminent bankruptcy.  The PA already has a $1 billion annual deficit and is dependent on foreign aid and food and fuel imports from Israel.  The Palestinian economy already had been edging closer to total collapse as aid donations dropped by half since 2010.

When Gaza appeared on the brink of another massacre two weeks earlier, Pres. Obama’s timid admonishment against an Israeli ground invasion reflected the reality that Congress and U.S. Middle East foreign policy remain  subservient to the Israel lobby (well documented in Mearsheimer and Walt’s study, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy).  With reelection, Pres. Obama now has the opportunity to bring human rights and justice to the  Palestinians.

Now is the time for the United States to draw its own Red Line: illegal Israeli settlements must cease or face cessation of U.S. military and economic aid, bringing to an end to Israel’s unrestrained 44-year-old theft and colonization of Palestinian land and resources.  Pres. Obama must then be willing to act in unison with the international community to end Israel’s apartheid military occupation of Palestine and end the siege of Gaza.

Failing to assert the power and prestige of the United States at this critical time will only prolong the bloody cycle of Palestinian desperation and Israeli retaliation.

Dennis DuVall

928-778-6844

azgeezer42@yahoo.com

Continue reading »]]> Arizona Republican Form of Government Includes (and needs) Direct Democracy

by Ralph Hess

At the end of its Regular Meeting of September 25, 2012, the Prescott City Council denied a petition submitted by local citizen Tom Atkins asking the Council to adopt a resolution supporting a “corporations are not people” amendment to the US Constitution. Whether you agreed with the Council or Mr. Atkins, a broader concern arising from this meeting is the revelations provided by Prescott Mayor Marlin Kuykendall and Mayor Pro Tem Jim Lamerson that they oppose direct citizen participation in local policy decision-making. Messrs. Kuykendall and Lamerson expressly decried such direct citizen participation as a circumvention of their authority as elected representatives of those same citizens.

In Arizona’s Constitution, the citizens of Arizona reserved to themselves the powers of initiative and referendum. By collecting the requisite number of registered voter signatures, anyone can present a referendum proposition challenging actions of their elected representatives or an initiative proposition directly to the electorate. Two such initiatives were on the ballot for the November 6^th Arizona election.

The City of Prescott has framed a city charter approved by Prescott voters for its governance. In addition to the citizen reserved powers of initiative and referendum identical to those of the Arizona Constitution, the Prescott City Charter reserves to each citizen the ability to compel council action by submitting a petition to the council to act. This petition process is the sole reason our reticent Council acted upon the proposed resolution submitted by Mr. Atkins and supported by more than 800 Prescott signatories.

Prior to the vote to deny Mr. Atkins’s petition, Mayor Kuykendall confirmed his recently reported opposition to local referendums as “a method to circumvent the decisions of your elected people.” A visibly irritated Mayor Pro Tem Jim Lamerson concurred with Mayor Kuykendall and touted his election to office as a mandate of broad citizen support for his values and decision-making. What was the message received by those 800 Prescott inhabitants who supported the resolution and those attending or viewing the meeting? The message is citizen-initiated actions are unwelcome. The inference drawn from these comments is that after we vote, all of us should sit back, be quiet, and let the council members rule until the next election because that is how our republican form of government works. A growing number of Americans are getting a similar message from their elected state and national representatives. Such messages from public representatives demonstrate an erosion of recognition among elected representatives of who is serving whom in government, ignore the reserved powers of initiative and referendum, and reveal the need for direct action from citizens to protect themselves from subjugation to the influence of special interests, whether they are international corporations or local “insiders.”

The City Council’s agenda for September 25^th included a number of contract reviews that were expeditiously dispatched by the Council.  Most of the Prescott citizenry invest neither the time nor the interest to involve themselves in such operational needs of the city and are, or should be, justifiably grateful to the city council members for their service in attending to these important matters. Yet, from the beginning, Prescott citizens have retained the means to directly present and participate in policy decisions affecting their lives. All of us will not always agree and some of us will never agree; still, all of us have the right to participate directly in determining how we will live together.

Voting and working with our elected representatives to assist them in fulfilling their decision-making service is just one component of our citizenship. When our representatives are unresponsive or appear beholding to special interests that, in the words of retired Justice David Souter, “drown out other speech,” to whom can we turn to overcome the resulting inequality that suppresses the liberty interests of the rest of us? Those to whom we have always had to look – each other and ourselves. Three non-exclusive ways to do this are initiative petitions, referendum petitions, and petitions to the city council. Let’s get busy! I am hoping our elected representatives will embrace and support their constituents’ participation in these decision-making methods as a complement rather than a circumvention of their role.

Continue reading »]]>

by Gray Sun Light

What Can Occupy Prescott Do to Remain Vital and Relevant? The Necessity of a Physical Presence, and the Idea of a Community Center.

This is a question that I have been contemplating a lot lately, and it is very similar to the question that gave the Occupy movement its original spark: “What can we/I do?” In September 2011, people were desperate and willing to take some comparatively extreme steps to create our movement.  People still want to do SOMETHING. They want to be part of something greater than themselves, and feel as if they are contributing to the solution in an efficacious way. The major criticism I’ve heard about our local movement and the movement in general is that we aren’t doing anything worthy of (these specific individual’s) participation. To this criticism I usually counter: “Well, what are you doing?” or “Why don’t you get involved and that way you could see the movement ‘do something’?” and “we are doing SOMETHING and that is what is important. We are doing infinitely more now than what was happening before there was an Occupy Movement. Protesting is something. Lobbying City Council is something. Meeting in the library to talk about what course of action we can take IS DOING SOMETHING.” Then I will usually quote FDR’s famous “above all, try something” or the essential “All the sentiments in the world   weigh less than a single action” followed by “Better to light a candle than curse the darkness”; and my newest favorite by the father of Evolutionary Socialism (a very intriguing political philosophy which red-faced conservatives would surely denounce as communism) Eduard Bernstein: “The goal is nothing, the movement is everything.” If at all possible, I try to hold entire conversations just quoting famous and infamous individuals from the past. The point being: we need to keep it positive and the expectations low. There is no possible way that we can measure the impact the Occupy movement has had, surely we have managed to ruffle some feathers and get under the skins of some people who actually can do the “something” that  these disgruntled 99%ers are demanding of us on the ground in ye ole’ Prescott Arizona .  I have been saying from the very onset that our continued presence will be the true test and the true power of our message.

That being said, I too share some of the same frustrations of those folks who are dismissive of Occupy’s non-violent, civil-disobedience approach. I want to do SOMETHING. I have some stymied creative energy that I wish to put to use employing my “wits and my hands” helping to make the world a better place. In the past, I have channeled this energy as art, poetry, music, and in helping to organize and volunteer for some community gardens that have sprung up around town. While these activities can be cathartic, soothing, and even materially productive; I still feel like there’s more the collective WE could do if WE all came together with similar objectives and values in mind. What wracks my mind the most in our current system, is that we are practically all obliged to be passive consumers of goods and services from afar. Very few of us are actual producers of anything anymore. No I am not advocating that we all go back to being peasants and wrest a living out of our land through the sweat of our brows and the toisl of our labors, but with just a little bit of collective will, we could provide very effective hedges in our local communities against manipulation and coercion by either large governments, large corporations, natural disasters, or some combination thereof.

This is the whole idea behind the “Transitions Movment” (http://www.transitionnetwork.org/), that local communities will be the primary arbiters of local life and producers of necessities in the near-future with peak-oil. We have tentatively planned to view the documentary: “The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil” (http://www.powerofcommunity.org/cm/index.php) at the library or some other public venue. The movie outlines some of the measures Cuba took in the early 90s to survive once the USSR collapsed and not submit to pressure from the US to resort to a market-economy (the pros and cons of this system can be argued another time, this is a very powerful example of how with collective will we can face the challenges before us and adapt). Cuba is a different country, and as close to a different world, as one could imagine from Prescott, Arizona, USA. Their government can allocate land and property at will for different purposes for whatever use it deems is the best for the country. Here, we are thoroughly enamored with the institution of private property and property rights, regardless of how deleterious that institution has proven to be when taken to its extreme. In this town, unless you have money, you are not going to be able to use land and resources in an effective way (Karma Farm maybe an exception to this rule, as noble a movement as this is, and as I outlined above; most of us are not willing or able to live like peasants, and I dare posit that we don’t have to in order to live sustainably). So, given our lack of financial resources, how can we “do something” that will serve our community?

One of Occupy’s novelties and its attraction in many places was presence of an actual occupation (which we lacked here in Prescott). There was a physical presence and community which people could dive into and participate in, regardless of their qualifications, religious affiliation, or some other  factor which usually dictates what opportunities are available for people to participate in in modern civil-society. A spontaneous, non-hierarchical community of like-minded individuals with a common goal. What a thrill! Anyone could show up and donate their time or their resources to helping to occupation. There were food-service and waste-disposal working groups, libraries, medical-tents, and really all the other rudiments and makings of a self-contained community. Hurricane Sandy has allowed for Occupy’s spontaneity to resurface, but not with the same goals (at least not with the same political implications as #OWS). With all this in mind, I have often wondered what we here in Prescott could do to give our movement some of these elements and some staying power.

I walk everywhere in this town, which is one of it’s perks. You can get almost anywhere on foot, usually avoiding major roads. Everyday, I walk by abandoned buildings and neglected properties that have sat vacant for close to five years if not longer. I think to myself “what would I do with this building or property? What could be here that would benefit the community at large?” One of the most poignant examples of one of these buildings is the former “Banana Tree Furniture Store” located near the intersection of Sheldon and Montezuma. This is a large space, I would estimate over 10,000 square feet, and it has been in a state of disuse for more than 3 years (probably longer). I keep thinking that one day I will walk by and see a Dollar Store being installed in or maybe another bar/club. At any rate, whatever goes in there will probably not be a boon our community but rather a vector for some individual or small number of individuals to extract a profit. I have often thought that this town desperate needs a secular communal hub that doesn’t revolve around the sale and consumption of alcohol. A place that could serve everyone in this town, from the homeless to the elderly. A facility that would house opportunities for recreation, artistic expression, music (there are no good venues in Prescott, especially now that Coyote Joe’s has shut down), leisure, networking, computer classes, teach-ins, pot-lucks, you-name-it. Something like the former Catalyst anarchist book-store meets the YMCA. A free center open 24 hours that would be as close a public “commons” as one could hope to achieve given our society’s current conditions and conditioning. Something like an indoor park. A center where Occupy and our sympathizers could work to change the world. A permanent occupy. In short: A head-quarters. I brought up this idea at the last action working group, and it was well received. Little did I know that there are people in our movement who have the gumption to take such a ludicrous notion seriously, with applicable experience that could actually make such a pipe-dream come to fruition.

The following ensued. We discussed how to fund-raise, would we need to incorporate as a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation? Does that go against the whole premise of Occupy to begin with? Wasn’t one of the conditions leading up to the occupy movement the fact that of the myriad of well-meaning non-profits out there–from environmental groups to civil-rights advocacy organizations to accountability in government and whistle-blowing  groups to community centers–have failed to produce the equitable, just, and sustainable society that we all deserve? We discussed grant-writing and how to find donors. Would that make us beholden to some wealthy do-gooder who would ensure that we couldn’t promote the subversive agenda associated with our vision of a community center? With all the questions in mind, we did some preliminary research and found-out the following. The building was purchased by a real-estate agency in Florida in 2010 for $1.5 million, probably with the intention to sit on it until the “market rebounds”. Could we ask these entrepreneurs to kindly let us use this space to fulfill a public good? Could we possibly raise the kind of money needed to purchase this building out-right? These are obstacles that probably don’t fall within Occupy’s ability to address, or that in facing would align with our mission-statement. However, I am writing about this to find out if there is real will amongst our followership to take up a challenge such as this. Would we even be attached to this particular location. The fact that this building has sat vacant for this long strikes me as unjust and completely symptomatic of the problems society faces at-large.

Anyway, how can we can people involved in our movement? Folks want to be productive, and given the opportunities, will be. Can we come together to create a sustainable world?

Continue reading »]]> Prescott Volunteers for Black Mesa Indigenous Support cordially invite members of Occupy Prescott to attend:
A Delightful Wine Dinner & Live Community Art Auction.
An evening for festivity, education, and support.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

6:30 – 9:30pm in Prescott College Crossroads Cafe

220 Grove Avenue (Parking off Western Ave.) 21+ please
Featuring a guest speaker who will discuss stories of struggles of indigenous communities in Northern Arizona.
Suggested Donation $10-$20 per person.

100% of proceeds directly benefit the indigenous peoples of Black Mesa, AZ who are in their fourth decade of protection their communities, ancestral homelands, and future generations from massive coal mining operations & forced relocation policies. For more information visit http://www.blackmesais.org.

For any questions or if your business would like to contribute funds or an auction item, please contact pzigo@prescott.edu.
BMIS is fiscally sponsored my Media Island International and donations are tax deductible.
Our 501(c)3 federal tax ID number is 91-1514384

Official Invitation Letter

Continue reading »]]> by Gray Sun Light

Second Installment

Well Obama got reelected, and the democrats did well in the general election, I am cautiously optimistic. I even let out a couple of hollers of celebration in downtown Prescott that fateful Tuesday night. Elizabeth Warren got elected to the senate for Massachusetts, and she has been a champion of many of the causes of Occupy. Progressives, of which I am one, should be very happy about these developments, but we should not be content to put all of our faith in these elected officials to advance a progressive agenda in a politically stagnant system. What is Occupy’s role in society now that there are more and more powerful politicians in Washington who have adopted our rhetoric and say they will work for economic justice? Does that render Occupy obsolete and so “2011”? Has Occupy prevailed, are we victorious? Can we rest now? Has our appetite for revolution been sated? Perhaps. I certainly feel a better about our country moving (and I hesitate to use this word given it’s partisan connotation now) forward and not regressing towards an authoritarian corporate regime as appeared to be a very real possibility not all that long ago (it’s still possibility). There still needs to be a groundswell of committed citizens working towards justice everywhere. What can Occupy do to remain relevant? In recent weeks, the fighting in Gaza has reached a breaking point, with Israel prepared to launch a full-scale ground assault. This is a messy situation and has been for years, and I won’t delve into all the history and my opinions on it now; but suffice it to say, I am anti-war, and anti US involvement in the middle east, which includes our military backing of Israel. Occupy has made it’s stance known by staging two marches, which had limited attendance but received warm responses from the public, on Monday and Tuesday of this week. “No War with Iran” was the major theme here. America cannot afford another oil war. These are worth-while actions for our local movement to take, but haven’t generated a great deal of participation. In the event that Israel does launch a full-scale invasion, it has been proposed that Occupy Prescott actually starts camping out in protest. We shall see, nobody wants to see this happen, but we must be prepared to resist and make our voices heard if it does. As of now, it’s looking as though protesting of war has become a dominant theme.

What does this mean for our future? Should Occupy become an anti-war movement, or should it remain more concerned with financial regulation, abolishing corporate personhood, and other domestic issues that it has focused on in the past? I say that Occupy should not limit itself to any of these “stances”. As I said in the last publication of the newsletter, I see Occupy to be at least in part an extension of the anti-globalization/environmental movement of the 90s, which can be directly traced to too much power being wielded by corporations. Occupy is a rope with many threads. The core of this rope is the axiom “think globally, act locally”. There has also been a great deal of interest in working on solutions and alternatives to our societal problems and not just protesting the causes of the problems. At the Action Work Group discussion on Tuesday November 13^th, there was a lot of discussion about the “Transition Towns” movement, which is basically addressing creating communities that are sustainable for a post-oil future. I think this has the potential to generate a lot of interest and new participation in town. How can we make Prescott a town that is energy and food independent? On a national scale, this we make us less dependent on oil from the middle east and less prone to drastic financial shifts. Stay tuned…

Continue reading »]]> by Gray Sun Light

I would like to offer some of my reflections and thoughts about our local Occupy movement and the movement as a whole, and some ideas about what direction we can take from here. I will do so in several additions to this newsletter. In this first installment, I would like to write about what Occupy means to me, and my interpretation of what the movement is all about. As a member who has been involved since it’s inception, it has been a great thrill for me to witness it’s development, growth, expected decline, and now somewhat-seemingly-stabilized state of a handful of active participants meeting regularly and being engaged and visible in the civic process locally. All the expectations I had when a fellow malcontent and I decided to print out some fliers to organize people locally to attend the occupation in Phoenix have been thoroughly blown out of the water. I still hold to the notion that the fact that there is a movement of this sort at all, is a great success in-an-of-itself, regardless of the lack of “focus” or “goals” to move towards or achieve. It is a statement that is saying something, and proof of that something, that was previously unfathomable and fell outside the realm of the American political system’s understanding of itself—and that something is that there a problems that need addressing that are outside the scope and capabilities of the current political system’s functioning and ability to address (which is not to say those problems fall outside of humanity’s ability to deal with). In actuality, the aims and goals of the occupy movement have been clear since the onset, and were well articulated on the original flier, which stated: “Join the global protest against corporate rule”. This is not a new problem to confront our country or our world, but it has become particularly pressing in recent years, and required articulation in new a way. The blatant collusion and repeated demonstration of the inability of the dominant governing entities (banks and other corporations) in civil-society to act in the public interest gave rise to the need for such a movement as Occupy. Occupy’s message was one who’s urgency and importance needed to be imparted in a non-conventional way, it was a message that needed to be felt as well as seen and heard, therefore the camping-out was a vital component of the movement early on. The camping out said in a very concrete way: “here is a group of people willing to interrupt their daily lives, risk their health, forgo convenience, and even jeopardize there freedom and standing as law-abiding-citizens, in order to impart their message.” That was not something the Tea-Party was willing to do for all their nationalistic-fervor. So in a very clear way, the Occupy Movement is an extension after nearly a decade of dormancy, of the anti-globalization/environmental movement that was spawned by NAFTA and similar trade agreements in the 90s, which will become domestic policy in the event of a Romney win in his bid for the presidency, which will probably be known by the time most people read this.

Stay tuned for more next week!