Notes from the GA May 16, 2012
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OGR Weekly: 5/17
OGR Spring Training – June 16
MoveOn’s 99% Spring co-optation effort got ya down? Or just want to learn some mad skillz? Then come out to Occupy Grand Rapid’s Spring Training.
On Saturday, June 16 at 12pm, we’ll be making our triumphant return to Ah-Nab-Awen Park (the site of last fall’s occupation) for an afternoon of workshops and discussions aimed at increasing our collective knowledge base to get ready for our re-occupation.
We’ll be talking about all sorts of practical, hands-on stuff that anyone participating in an occupation or any activist project would likely need to know: basic legal and “know your rights” info, how to work or not work with the media, direct action (different tactics, why use direct action, etc), health and safety, and more surprises TBA.
RSVP on Facebook and invite all your cool friends!
Exciting New Occupy Grand Rapids Policies
While the passing of policies through the Occupy Grand Rapids General Assembly (GA) might not seem like the most exciting of news, it’s a critical step in paving the way for our re-occupation.
At a recent GA, Occupy Grand Rapids passed an anti-oppression policy that will help to foster an inclusive and safe space for all people and is an important commitment to fighting oppression and recognizing privilege.
In addition, the group also agreed to abide by the St. Paul Principles. Those principles include respect for a diversity of tactics, opposition to state repression of dissent, and a commitment to not denouncing other activists with whom you might disagree in the media.
New Teams
As Occupy Grand Rapids gets ready for the re-occupation, we’ve started to have many discussions about all of the work that needs to happen. We’ve identified several core areas of logistical stuff that will need to be taken care of (based on the occupation last fall and what we have learned since that time). In response, we’ve created several “Teams” to work on these needs:
Security
- Provide a night watch during the occupation, communicate with police
Legal
- Provide legal trainings and basic legal info to participants, provide legal support as needed
Childcare
- Provide childcare during occupation
Medical & Safety
- Wellness, first aid, medical trainings as needed
Facilitation
- Facilitate meetings, train additional facilitators, teach people consensus process
Food
- Prepare food for the occupation, acquire food, seek donations, provide water
Media
- Interact and talk with media, seek out media when they enter the camp, convey media points agreed to by the group
Working with a “Team” is a great way to get involved in the re-occupation, so please come to a GA meeting (we talk about the re-occupation exclusively at our Wednesday meetings) to get involved, or get in touch with us.
WMEAC Won’t Support A Ban On Fracking
In recent weeks, Occupy Grand Rapids participants have been involved in the fight against fracking in West Michigan, specifically at Yankee Springs. The DNR recently auctioned off mineral rights for Yankee Springs which will open the door to fracking. The auction was met by a disruptive protest in Lansing while other groups are working on a ballot initiative to ban fracking in Michigan.
Recently, West Michigan’s largest environmental group – WMEAC – came out in opposition to a ban on fracking. Instead, they support a temporary moratorium while the issue is “studied.” The legislation that WMEAC is supporting has been opposed by the grassroots group Ban Michigan Fracking who says the bills will simply lead to more fracking. The local independent media watchdog GRIID has a good article critiquing WMEAC’s position.
Report-Back: Occupy Everything
An Occupy Grand Rapids participant wrote a report-back from the Occupy Everything event at The DAAC. Check it out!
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OGR Weekly: 5/10
Disruptive Anti-Fracking Protest in Lansing
On May 8, protestors–including some Occupy Grand Rapids participants–participated in a protest against fracking in Lansing. The protest was held both outside and inside of an auction of mineral rights on public lands, including the Yankee Springs Recreation Area south of Grand Rapids. Protestors outside banged on drums and made tons of noise, while protestors inside disrupted the auction. You can read more about the anti-fracking protest on GRIID.ORG.
For more information and continued updates on the fight against fracking in Michigan, check out Ban Michigan Fracking.
Wednesday General Assemblies Now Focused on Re-Occupation
As part of Occupy Grand Rapids plans to re-establish an occupation on July 4, our Wednesday General Assembly (GA) meetings are now devoted to planning for the occupation.
So far the conversation has been going well, with people talking about all kinds of inspiring, empowering, and fun stuff. If you would like to be part of the conversation, please come to share your ideas! We need people who are excited about making this happen to get involved. We’re incorporating what we learned since last fall’s occupation to come back with something unforgettable.
The GA meeting is every Wednesday at 6:00pm at Fountain Street Church.
No Sunday GA on May 12
The Sunday, May 12 general assembly (GA) meeting is cancelled.
New Occupy Grand Rapids Website
We recently made some changes to our website to make it look cooler and to be a more useful resource for all things related to Occupy Grand Rapids. Check it out at Occupygr.org!
You can find all sorts of fun things on it including notes from the latest GA meetings, news about events, and more.
More Actions Planned For Chicago NATO Protests
In addition to the permitted march (May 20) that has been in the works for months, more news is starting to filter out of Chicago about other actions planned against NATO. The website NATOPROTEST.ORG has a huge list of anti-NATO events including a direct action aimed at shutting down Boeing on May 21. There is also a Facebook page for more information on the protests.
For those who need a way to get to Chicago, The Bloom Collective is coordinating carpooling from Grand Rapids.
Food Not Bombs Lookin’ For Help
Over the past several months, the Grand Rapids chapter of Food Not Bombs has helped to provide food at many Occupy Grand Rapids events. Some of the people involved in making Food Not Bombs happen are no longer able to contribute as much time as they used to. If you would like to help out, get in touch with them via Facebook.
If you have a pertinent announcement or event you’d like included in
the weekly e-mail, please send it (as you want it displayed) to
occupytogethergr@gmail.com. It should be an unbiased, non-opinionated
announcement, this is not the avenue for soap-boxing… that’s why we
have speak-outs 
For more on Occupy Grand Rapids, visit http://occupygr.org
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GA Notes: Wed. May 2nd ’12
Highlights:
1. Wed. May 9th at Noon, OGR will pass out Occupy Our Homes literature at Bank of America, as part of MoveOn’s action.
2. Wed. GA’s are now dedicated to working on Re-Occupation
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OGR Weekly: 5/2
5/10: Occupy Everything: Anarchy, Occupy, and the Oakland Commune
May 10 // 7 PM // The DAAC (115 S Division)
Join Occupy Grand Rapids and friends for a discussion on anarchy, Occupy, and the Oakland Commune. Hosted by Aragorn!, editor of the new book Occupy Everything: Anarchists in the Occupy Movement, this discussion will look at the flexibility, energy, and experience that anarchists brought to The Occupy Movement as it moved beyond lower Manhattan onto the docks and streets of Oakland, the town square of Philadelphia, and abandoned buildings around the country.
Check out the Facebook event or our website for more info!
Occupy grand Rapids Protests GE in Detroit
A participant in Occupy Grand Rapids recently attended the GE protest in Detroit at their annual meeting. The protests got a fair amount of attention in the news, but if you haven’t heard about them (or even if you have) check out the following article: “Grand Rapids Activist Takes Part in GE Protest in Detroit.”
Car Pooling to Upcoming Occupy Events
There are numerous opportunities for car pooling to upcoming Occupy events that are happening outside of Grand Rapids.
Occupy Grand Rapids is coordinating car pooling to the Occupy the PGA events (5/23 – 5/27) in Benton Harbor, see Facebook for more information.
The Bloom Collective is organizing car pooling to Occupy the PGA as well as the anti-NATO protest in Chicago (May 20). See their website for more information.
RE-OCCUpation is on: build the hype
So, have you heard Occupy Grand Rapids is doing a re-occupation on July 4? Start dreaming big, coming up with ideas, and look out for ways to get involved.
For now, please join the Facebook event and invite your friends!
The ABCs of Occupy Coloring Book
Check out a new-ish unofficial project of Occupy Grand Rapids: The ABCs of Occupy Coloring Book. From the website:
“This is a coloring book project done by members of Occupy Grand Rapids to support the larger movement of the 99%. “You can write it down and say we never gave in, The mind of a child is where the revolution begins so if the solution has never been to look in yourself, how do you expect to find it anywhere else?”
“Like” the Michigan Inter-Occupy Facebook Page
People involved with Occupy Grand Rapids have been attending the various Michigan Inter-Occupy Summits over the past several months (and we also hosted one back in March. They have been a good way to network with other Occupy participants in Michigan.
If you would like to keep updated on the Summits, check out the Michigan Inter-Occupy Facebook page.
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Event: Occupy Everything: Anarchy, Occupy, & the Oakland Commune
Occupy Everything: Anarchy, Occupy, & the Oakland Commune
May 10 // 7 PM // The DAAC (115 S Division)
Facebook event: Help spread the word!
Join Occupy Grand Rapids and friends for a discussion on anarchy, Occupy, and the Oakland Commune. Hosted by Aragorn!, editor of the new book Occupy Everything: Anarchists in the Occupy Movement, this discussion will look at the flexibility, energy, and experience that anarchists brought to The Occupy Movement as it moved beyond lower Manhattan onto the docks and streets of Oakland, the town square of Philadelphia, and abandoned buildings around the country.
“The anarchists’ way of operating was changing our very idea of what politics could be in the first place. This was exhilarating. Some occupiers told me they wanted to take it home with them, to organize assemblies in their own communities. It’s no accident, therefore, that when occupations spread around the country, the horizontal assemblies spread too.” - From Nathan Schneider in The Nation
Check out a flyer for the event!
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GA Notes for Wed. April 18th ’12
GA Notes for Wed. April 18th ’12
Announcements:
-On 4/20 folks are encouraged by a member to do their own thing in opposition to drug wars and prohibition
-Inter-Occupy Summit Report-back from Lansing: “It was cool, but not many people showed up. We talked about moveon.org co-opting the Occupy memes (“99% spring”, etc.), we talked about Occupy the PGA and we talked about various groups’ plans/dreams to re-occupy with a physical encampment.”
-The next Inter-Occupy Summit is in Detroit, Sunday the 29th
-Occupy the PGA is happening in Benton Harbor, it’s going to be sweet (occupythepga.wordpress.com)
Occu-News:
-#OWS has been setting up sidewalk “sleepovers” to take advantage of a law that permits overnight camping (as political demonstration, provided that you take up less than half the width of the sidewalk and don’t block doors). it’s legal, but people are getting arrested anyway. OWS is hoping they can get enough sidewalk-campers to encircle the entirety of Wall Street in NYC.
-OWS-Radio group is looking for audio-based submissions for their “Mayday Mixtape”
Agenda:
-Discussion on Re-Occupation plans (on the 4th of July, we are asking everyone and their mother to join together and re-occupy the city and set up an encampment )
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Hydraulic Fracturing Comes to Yankee Springs
Participants in Occupy Grand Rapids are sharing the following information from Ban Michigan Fracking . Read more below, or check out a flyer:
Hydraulic Fracturing Comes to Yankee Springs – Auction May 8, 2012
On May 8, 2012, the Michigan DNR will auction mineral rights to nearly ALL of Yankee Springs Township – including the Yankee Springs Recreation Area – opening public lands to oil and gas drilling and the highly toxic, water-intensive practice of hydraulic fracturing.
The May 8 State of Michigan Oil and Gas Lease Auction includes state land from 23 counties with Barry, Gladwin, and Oakland counties among the biggest losers of public land and health.
In Barry County alone, the DNR is offering 211 numbered parcels totaling over 23,400 acres, with an average size of 111 acres per offering. With a typical oil and/or gas well requiring 40 acres, the Yankee Springs Recreation area could potentially become home to hundreds of wells, and with horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, this means deep, multi-directional drilling and the injection of toxic chemicals under area wetlands, streams, lakes, and recreational land.
The DNR is offering large parcels of land in Thornapple and Irving Townships directly north and west of Middleville, as well as most of Yankee Springs and some portions of Orangeville and Rutledge Townships. Bodies of water contained in these parcels include the eastern shores of Barlow and Gun Lakes as well as all surrounding land and waters of Shaw Lake, Bassett Lake, Baker Lake, Chief Noonday Lake, Payne Lake, Williams and McDonald Lakes, Long Lake, Hall Lake, Turner Lake, Deep Lake, Otis Lake, and all connecting waterways, recreational trails, and land.
Environmental, Public Health, and Water Hazards Involved with Oil / Gas Drilling and Hydro-Fracking or Hydraulic Fracturing:
Drinking Water Contamination (Methane migrating into water supplies)
Site Contamination (Toxic drilling muds buried in on-site pits)
Excessive Water Withdrawals (Wells use hundreds of thousands to millions of gallons of water per day, harvested from on-site water wells drilled alongside oil/gas wells.)
Poisonous Gases (Sour Gas wells emit and sometimes leak poisonous Hydrogen Sulfide.)
Earthquakes (Such as those caused in Ohio, due to deep injection wells where toxic fracking fluids are injected because these toxic chemicals cannot be disposed of above ground.)
The potential for toxic fracking fluids (known carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, and chemicals that cause neurological damage) to leak during on-site mixing and operations, and/or from deep injection wells used to bury these toxins.
May 8 Lansing Protest
The May 8 auction will open for bidder registration at 8:00am with the auction beginning at 9:00am at Constitution Hall, 525 West Allegan, Lansing, and is expected to draw a large number of protestors.
Ban Michigan Fracking / Notice of Auction of Public Lands
May 1 Oil & Gas Leasing Meeting at Pierce Cedar Creek Institute in Hastings
On May 1, from 6-8:30pm, Pierce Cedar Creek will host an informational meeting for landowners (and the public) interested in learning more about oil and gas leasing of private properties. The standard oil and gas leasing meeting offered through the MSU Extension office includes a presentation by the DEQ on hydraulic fracturing as well as information provided by the Michigan Oil and Gas Industry Educational Foundation (industry-funded).
May 2 “Fracking in Middleville’s Backyard” Meeting sponsored by Local Future
On May 2 at 7:00pm Local Future will host an informational meeting and discussion on the environmental impacts of fracking at the Thornapple Township Hall, 200 E. Main St., in Middleville.
Links to State of Michigan DNR/DEQ Auction Documents:
MI DNR Auction Notice:
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/dnr/PropPubNotice_379340_7.pdf
MI DNR Bid Document (423 Pages): (Barry County pages 35-81)
http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10368_11800-169044–,00.html
County by County Map of Auctioned State Lands: (Barry County shown here)
http://www.dnr.state.mi.us/spatialdatalibrary/pdf_maps/mineral_lease_information/
barry_nominations.pdf
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WZZM: Occupy Grand Rapids holds first rally of 2012
From WZZM 13:
Occupy Grand Rapids held its first rally of the year Saturday.
As part of the event, the group organized the “Really Really Free Market” where everyone was encouraged to bring items they no longer needed for others that might want it. Occupy members say the swap is meant to limit landfill waste while helping out community members struggling with unemployment and mounting bills.
“It’s one of the ways we figured out to try to help the community; be a positive presence,” said one occupy member who only wanted to be known as Sarah.
Read more and watch the video news story
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