General Assembly Minutes, May 6, 2013

PRESENT: Alan, Mike Coburn (TM), Aaron, Vince

BUSINESS: The meeting was rather brief and informal as there were few attendees. Several items were discussed.

WEB SITES: Alan reported on the status of the web sites.

  • Our FaceBook page had 31 “Talking about this” hits and a total outreach of 687 during the previous week.
  • On our blog site, www.occupytacoma.org, over the previous 30 day, we had in excess of 10,000 unique visits. About a third of those are estimated to be bots, but 2/3rds are humans. Spammers continue to barrage the site, but Alan manually ensures that the spam that slips through our filters does not appear on our site. We continue to get a few spammers attempting to register, and Alan is keeping on top of that. He also continues to monitor the gmail and respond when appropriate.

TM discussed his progress on the plug-in, and we all expressed our support for this project. Continue reading General Assembly Minutes, May 6, 2013

Tent City Tacoma Facebook Web Page

Tent City Tacoma organizers have set up a Facebook page. If you are a Facebook member, you can click on the graphic below to get to the page.

Op-Ed: City Council Does the Right Thing

This article is an editorial opinion of the author. This is not an official statement of the Occupy Tacoma General Assembly.

On Tuesday, December 18, the Tacoma City Council did the right thing. They passed a resolution supporting an amendment to the United States Constitution that would overturn the infamous Citizen’s United decision. You can read that resolution by clicking here. If you don’t know what the Citizens United decision is, please click here.

This author expected the Tacoma City Council to pass a resolution opposing Citizens United. But what this author did not expect was how strong the City Council resolution would be. Continue reading Op-Ed: City Council Does the Right Thing

Our New Menu Items

We have a new menu tab called Issues. If you hover over that tab, you will see three submenu items
  • US Economy
  • Spirituality
  • Op Ed Pieces

And if you click on one of those sub tabs, you will be taken to that area and see issues posts.

US ECONOMY
This item will have discussion on the US economy, although articles on the world economy might logically also be placed here. Right now, we have several articles submitted by TruthMerchant. One, titled Too Little, Too Late, had 2,071 views since it was posted on Sept 20, 2012 and has engendered a lot of commentary. The other was just posted a few days ago and is titled About Money.

Readers are encouraged to contribute comments or even consider submitting articles. If interested in submitting articles, please contact us here, and we will facilitate that. Continue reading Our New Menu Items

Phone & Email Zap to Demand Clemency for Leonard Peltier

This is a request from Marilyn Kimmerling asking you to participate in a concentrated phone/email zap to petition President Obama to grant clemency for Leonard Peltier, internationally recognized as a political prisoner. You can see Marilyn’s previous article by clicking here.

PLEASE SUPPORT CLEMENCY FOR LEONARD PELTIER
NORTHWEST WHITE HOUSE PHONE AND E-MAIL ZAP, DECEMBER 9 TO 15, 2012

CALL OR EMAIL HERE

White House Comments Line – 202-456-1111; 202-456-1112
E-mail: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

It is important to keep phone calls, e-mails, and letters going to the White House during the clemency campaign. We want to make sure it is very clear that the NorthWest supports clemency for Leonard Peltier., So we have called for a phone and e-mail Zap the week of December 9th-15th (a phone Zap is when a lot of people call around the same time). Continue reading Phone & Email Zap to Demand Clemency for Leonard Peltier

Free Leonard Peltier in 2012

Here’s a way you can help right a terrible wrong.

Here’s a way to fight the on-going discrimination against Native peoples in the US today.


Leonard Peltier has been in US Federal Prisons since 1977 due to a conviction relating to the murders of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1975. It was never proven that he was the murderer, but the jury nonetheless found him guilty. Amnesty International states his trial was “unfair,” citing concerns with the proceedings, based on allegations and inconsistencies regarding the FBI and prosecution’s handling of this case. (For details click here).

Peltier’s conviction sparked great controversy and has drawn criticism from around the world. Numerous appeals have been filed on his behalf. He has received support from individuals and groups including Continue reading Free Leonard Peltier in 2012

A Tent City in Tacoma, Part 2

This is the second in a series of articles on a tent city for Tacoma. The first can be found by clicking here. Based on my past experiences in tent cities, a Tacoma Tent City could well be organized and governed as follows:

Camp Organization

  1. The responsibility of electing leadership and establishing permanent rules within the camp shall fall upon the residents of the camp at the time by a consensus vote (consensus as determined by the camp as a whole).
  2. The responsibility of enforcing rules, resolving disputes, establishing temporary rules, and coordinating ongoing and day-to-day operations of the camp shall fall upon an executive committee (EC), comprised of five primary members and two alternates. These executive committee members shall be elected once a month and shall not serve a term of more than two consecutive months. Continue reading A Tent City in Tacoma, Part 2

A Tent City in Tacoma, Part 1

This is Part 1 of a 2-part series. Click here to see Part 2
Editor

Have you ever pondered on the homeless and how they fit in the society we have now? The plain answer is that they do not fit in. Homeless people are forced to live on the fringes of society, forced to live under oppressive systems without any say in how they are run. Their critics scream at them to get a job, yet homeless agencies forbid them the tools to do so.

Established social service agencies expect no protest or complaint when they tell their clients they cannot take their personal belongings with them into the shelters. The shelters expect them to adhere to a meal schedule that forbids the possibility of a job search. The shelters expect them to come at specific times, or they don’t get a bed. This makes taking night jobs impossible. In short, the homeless are denied the rights that Occupys all over the country have been fighting for.

Continue reading A Tent City in Tacoma, Part 1

Too Little, Too Late

NOTE!! This page has not been reviewed by the members of Occupy Tacoma or the smaller group of members that regularly attend the General Assemblies. The post does not necessarily reflect the views of Occupy Tacoma as a group. The ideas presented here are my own presentation of the realities with which we must deal in our quest for justice in regard to the 99%. — TruthMerchant


The Fed’s latest effort at reviving the economy is called “QE3″ or “Quantitative Easing – phase 3″. This action comes too late to help the administration in the upcoming elections, but the announcement by the Fed that it will buy $40 billion in mortgage backed securities every month until the unemployment rate falls to a more acceptable level is very good news for the “producer class”. According to Seeking Alpha website, a website widely read and highly regarded by investment professionals:

The Fed said that it will purchase $40 billion of mortgage-backed debt each month until there is a significant improvement in the labor market.

Most people are not aware of the actual role of the Fed in the US economy and in the economy of the world. So I will attempt to do a “Teach In” here:

The Fed’s current “reason for existence” is to balance the value of the currency against the value of labor. (Reference here)

Continue reading Too Little, Too Late

Occupy Tacoma's GA Unanimously Supports Chicago Teachers!

On Sunday, September 16, which was both the Jewish New Year and Mexican Independence Day, the Occupy Tacoma General Assembly unanimously supported the Chicago Teachers Union strike. We join with hundreds of other trade unions, Occupy affiliates, individuals, and organizations all around the world in this fight for teachers’ rights, as employees, and as human beings responsible for educating our children.

Superficially, this struggle seems only to involve Chicago’s 29,000 educational workers and the children they work with.

But in reality, these teachers are a part of the 99% like the rest of us. Their opponents are our opponents. Like us, they fight against the 1% and their political servants. Chicago’s teachers are fighting our struggle because they fight for a fair deal from the 1% establishment. In so doing, they educate us all in the best sense of the word. Continue reading Occupy Tacoma’s GA Unanimously Supports Chicago Teachers!