Occupy New Orleans

GA Minutes Saturday 04/28/2012
Note-takers: MN, MA Livestream
Stack and Facilitator/Moderator: JH

Announcements:

MA: Information booth very near the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage festival w/ info about past actions, GAs, and actions coming up.

MN: Was contacted by Melissa Johnson “Occupy The Media May Day”of FreeSpeechTV who is interested in Occupy NOLA’s plans for this march. They want to connect every occupation and connect to each group live. They want to know our plans. Digital Media should contact her. This will be very good for Occupy NOLA. Livestream this – maybe livestream this to FreeSpeechTV while march is going on.
MH: Supposed to have a flyering on Canal. Didn’t work out. We’re going to flier the 14th hundred block of Canal street. Friday at 4:00 PM May 4.
JW: Things are going well at Occupy The Stage. Lofts getting built. Plans to make OTS in to a bicycle shop. Things took a hit during DC action and plans for A28 show suffered. OTS needs sound equipment. A loft is being built; woodworking shop being set-up. Motorizing bicycles being outfitted w/ one-cylinder engines. There is a show at OTS. Free beer, free music.
LMS: Jazz Fest takes money. We need to recall Bobby Jindal. Mayor needs to be recalled. Senator Landrieu needs to be urged to keep her promises. Need for outreach with the younger parents in New Orleans. The children are good. Teenagers interested in protests about no hospital in New Orleans East. Every Thursday at City Hall there is a protest – WC Johnson from 12-1 protest. We try to sneak into the meetings at the conference at City Hall. Letting community know what is going on.
JH: Next City Council meeting May 3rd at 9:00.
JH: Meeting for Unity of Purpose May 8th Tuesday 4:00 pm at Bayou Saint John Footbridge near Cabrini High School.

Proposals:
MA: Chalkupy immediately after GA. Proposal passes.

Teach-In:
MH: Why Occupy Is A Child of The Public Space. Education on Occupy is about public and private space acquisition as a form of civil disobedience. Occupy is about taking public space. Taking public space is a very powerful tool for our movement. Advantages of organizing public space vs. taking private space. One thing that makes having actions possible is the public space. The 99% believe as we do that we have a right to conduct actions in the public space. It’s really crucial when it comes to organizing actions of the public space and private. By definition private spaces are exclusive. A Catholic church is mostly reserved for Catholics. A socialist bookstores is for socialists. A university is for faculty and staff. Public spaces in theory are different. Public spaces are for everybody. I have just as much right to be here in this park as Barrack Obama or George W. Bush. Everybody, including the 99%, have a right to speak in a public space. When it comes to private space, the owner or lease owner is the dictator when it comes to private space. If push comes to shove, the owner at a meeting can tell everyone to shove it. You’re more likely to win a legal battle, as a rule if it’s a public space. But it’s hard for the 99% it’s hard to win a battle about private space. The lease holders of a radical bookstore excluded him from a meeting.

Questions for MH:
B: I am new to the occupy movement. The best use of Occupy is the use of public space but it can’t only be about that. You can’t just have public space and have what you do challenged.
JW: Public space necessary for outreach. We are fighting for the 1st amendment right to peacefully protest and assemble. We should not discount the use of public space. Occupy is also about our right to assemble.
H: What happens when hundreds of people occupy public space?
Problem galvanizing the 99 percent b/c they are not affected personally. If they are given resources they will join. Misguided use of public space is a problem. GA in park is great for outreach but personal private space is important. Main point of private space is to bring other people inside of this – problem of galvanizing 99% is not galvanizing them; they know work they know play they don’t see that they are massively in debt. If you galvanize the 99% by connecting with them personally with what would affect you (livlihood, giving houses, using collective community to help 99% and 1% will see this. Making the 99% want to be a part of this is better than flyering. Helping one man accomplish his dream of getting home in the country is more effective than flyering. Occupy should take a poll and get a 100 people together who want to live on a farm and then you can start a commune. It costs a lot less if every single person pulls their weight. Public space should be used for something not just right to assemble.

(MN & H leave but people wish they could respond to H. MA begins to take minutes).

JC – Solidarity economy creating worker co-ops, community land-trusts, intentional community so people can stay in New Orleans (or elsewhere). People want control over jobs, homes; we want to create a world that shows what is possible in this world and remember it won’t change the whole world but have idea about how it can lead to more global change. Problem with public space relates to assumption that it is public. Political economic space dominates huge movement in India tried to build place in village. A private community where people oame together to talk. Gift of land and gift of community. Co-operative village. Public means the state. We get into trouble b/c public space does not belong to the community. Public does not belong to community When people march saying “Whose streets? Our streets” they’re talking about streets that don’t really belong to us. We need to have a system in which we have democratic control over them. We need transformative vision to get beyond public versus private. Instead focus on the commons. “Common Ground.” Public space should be utilized for something great. – worker cooperatives Solidarity Economy. Rethink public & private need transformative vision Common Ground
LMS: How is NOPD & mayor not allowed to show up when we need them? We need to know where money is going. We should focus on City Hall demanding transparency from mayor.
Comments:
JW- Plans to start petition for local and national voting bloc. Plans to gather numbers and get list of representatives of our own to start locally/nationally/globally. Has been spreading the seed. Networking efforts have been well-received. Unless things get so bad that there is no option to take to the streets, they won’t come to the streets, but Occupy can get support to become a political powerhouse if not the overwhelming political force. The 2 party system does not work.

Working group to start new political party will be proposed next GA!

JH - We don’t have anything closely resembling local representation. It’s a tough balance dividing line of ONOLA community. Fundamentally it comes down to decentralizing wealth. Every day our representation is diminished since 1929. Would like to double representation to see what effect it has. Divorces us from having any say so; we have to be empowered. He wants to be empowered, not bitch about being getting f-ed. Problem is that we endorse capitalism when we buy things. How do we live on less? We must address this.
JW - Movement toward renewable resources particularly energy is starting point for addressing problems.
JC - Discussion Soviet Union and how bureaucrats were employed. Moscow City Council had 5000 members under Stalin. Discusses City Council. People understand debt. They feel the weight of debt. We also have human nature. The commons is the answer. Keep reflecting on where the power is and has power at base.
MR: Thinks MH highlighted premise that public space is more welcoming. He doesn’t think Mike was saying we should limit ourselves to only limit ourselves to public spaces. We should not limit ourselves. Public space inherently more welcoming. How would Washington Park be better if it were owned by a small enterprise? We might have to pay to get to it. It’s not owned only for the purpose of making profit. Soviet Union and China are good illustrations of how public ownership of banks leads to higher growth and technology. Refers to Soviet Union as managers (not owners of factories). Discusses Cuba and public ownership. Third world countries like China have grown into super powers with developed economies. Soviet Union and China have grown more than in U.S. No homeless people in China. Expand public ownership and this will develop humanity.

May Day

The May Day GA is at 3pm (after this GA).
JH - Was anyone at the last meeting?
MA - No. Point of information – last week, MN was only person at ONOLA GA.
JC - It was raining. NolaAnarcha met inside about propaganda and put flyers at Loyola. Meeting was about publicizing/ distributing flyers. There is a MayDay NOLA website with dozens of posters. (There are a total of 5). http://www.maydaynola.org/
MA - Point of information – a lot of flyers hung up Uptown, Irish Channel, Riverbend, Jazz Fest area heavily flyered.
JW - More flyers at warehouse. Occupy NOLA is also making their own flyer.
MH – Flyer distribution occurred at NAACP march for justice. Everyone there got a flyer with all of our actions. He has put at least 400 flyers advertising MayDay at other actions.
United New Orleans Front has meeting on Monday and it would be a good place to learn about police brutality and give flyers. St. James A.M.E. Church, 222 N. Derbigny Street 6:30 pm.
JH - Action at bank on May Day.
MA - Other occupy groups did this to represent foreclosed homes. “Hey, you took my house, it’s a gift.” It doesn’t have to be disruptive.
JW - Throw rug, coffee table, couch, plant. Question to JH – Are you still up for this?
JH - Agrees to transport furniture in a truck. Asks if people will help remove it from truck and go into bank.
MA - Which bank?
JH - Whitney on Poydras b/c he thinks he can park truck there.
MH - Chase Bank makes more sense; it’s the main bank foreclosing in Louisiana.
MA – Chase at 201 Saint Charles is near beginning of march.

Livestream stops.

JW - Meet at OTS Warehouse Monday April 30 7pm to wrap up plans for May Day action.
B - Agrees to help w/ reconnaissance

May Day Info: Lafayette Square 5pm
The New Orleans May Day 2012 Anti-Capitalist March will take place at 5pm on May 1st to coincide with strikes and other direct actions being planned worldwide.

This is separate from Congress of Day Laborers March at 11:30 am on May 1.

4:30 Meet & Eat Lafayette Square.
5:00 pm March will begin.

Bring anything to make noise. Handmade instruments. Tentmonsters, flags, banners! Contact Legal team and Red Cross.
Chants are really needed!
NolaAnarcha after party is in City Park.

Solidarity with Occupy Birmingham

Occupy The Shrine Occupies Jazz Fest!

Located near the entrance of The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (which is sponsored by Shell Oil), the area formerly known as The International Special Sacred Shrine of Jon Bon Jovi is now decorated in the spirit of the 99% Occupy Movement.

OccupyNOLA

The curator of the shrine is one of the 99% who works two jobs and was unable to make her student loan payments in 2009 and 2010. She made jewelry out of found objects and hoped to use it to supplement her income. The Bon Jovi Shrine was originally created in 2009 so people who lived near the entrance to Jazz Fest could sell handmade jewelry and art on their porches without receiving citations from the City of New Orleans for “vending without permits.”

Michelle Krupa, The Times-Picayune reports:

City officials also plan to strictly enforce laws that bar transient vendors from operating during the festival dates — Friday through Sunday, and May 3 through 6 — inside the so-called “clean zone” around the Fair Grounds. The area is bounded by Florida Avenue, North Broad and Esplanade avenues and Bayou St. John.

In 2010, citations were issued to residents of this neighborhood who were holding “yard sales” or “art sales” during Jazz Fest. The JBJ Shrine was left alone.

The Bon Jovi Shrine offered free sunscreen, water, and Aqua Net hairspray and welcomed visitors and locals. A sign displaying the lyrics “It’s tough… so tough” was placed next to a donations jar. No profit was ever made at this location, but it received media attention from The Gambit Weekly, WWOZ, Chris Rose (when he was writing for The Times Picayune) and Tyler Wing from WGNO “News with A Twist.”

On May 6 of 2011, The Bon Jovi Shrine was dismantled when the curator’s long-haired Chihuahua (Guadalupe) was run over by a driver who was speeding away from Jazz Fest.

The curator had been on the phone with the student loan company for 4 hours prior to this accident because her income tax refund had been taken by the IRS despite the fact that she was enrolled in a student loan rehabilitation program and making payments. Guadalupe was a qualified service dog under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

This year, some kind neighbors erected a shrine to Guadalupe. The 2012 Jazz Fest Shrine to Saint Clare was established in an empty phone booth on the wall of a vacant store. It was erected to spread awareness about the importance of driving carefully and soberly when leaving Jazz Fest.

The abandoned storefront that housesThe 2012 Jazz Fest Shrine to Saint Clare is being decorated with a mural.

Currently, The Bruce Springsteen Shrine to the Common Man stands at the corner. Rumors of shrines devoted to other musicians are circulating in this area.

The area formerly known as the International Special Sacred Shrine of Jon Bon Jovi is in no way related to Shell Oil, Jazz Fest, or Jon Bon Jovi. This porch is decorated to celebrate the 99% Occupy Movement. Information about Occupy The Stage and Occupy New Orleans actions and events is available there.

KISS OUR BRASS: The unincorporated alternative to Jazz Fest via Occupy The Stage

Occupy The Stage Kiss Our Brass

May First – New Orleans, LA May Day activities Occupy New Orleans, Occupy The Stage, and other activist groups are participating in.

Here is a brief video about Occupy The Shrine.

http://bambuser.com/v/2589112

Expect more information and propaganda related to the Occupy movement soon! Anyone interested in the Occupy Movement and Jazz Fest can learn more about local actions on the 2900 block of Maurepas Street (home of the area formerly known as the Sacred Shrine of Jon Bon Jovi).

Follow @small_affair and @OccupyFun on Twitter for updates or check the Occupy NOLA Facebook page!