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Title: Occupy Eugene Ongoing - Consensus model working so far [My home city's Occupy protest]
Source:
eugeneweekly.com
URL Source: http://eugeneweekly.com/2011/10/20/news1.html
Published: Oct 22, 2011
Author: By Andrew Hitz and Camilla Mortensen. Ph
Post Date: 2011-10-22 17:00:35 by Ferret Mike
Keywords: None
Views: 70106
Comments: 163
People in suits and people in casual clothes, cubical workers and day laborers, Duck fans and tie-dye hippies all made their way from the Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza down to the Ferry Street Bridge Oct. 15 around 4 pm to Occupy Eugene. The crowd of 2,000 beamed smiles at each other — and high-fived the Eugene police — as they marched in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. The group has drawn together as a nonviolent movement for accountability that is not longer content to let “corporate and special interests run their government,” according to occupyeugene.com “We — are — the 99 percent!” some chanted at the front of the crowd of almost 2,000. Eugene’s Saturday gathering was the 11th largest occupy event in the nation. “The people — united — will never be divided!” chanted others farther back. “I believe in independence, true independence and justice,” said a young woman who gave her name only as Ariel. “I think there is a serious lack of that at the moment. Everyone here is standing for so many different things but, I think when it comes down to it we can agree on those two things — as Americans.” Lauren Regan of the Civil Liberties Defense Center said, “The group has consensed upon Occupy Wall Street’s demands, but not yet our own demands which may address local issues.” Occupy Wall Street’s demands, which include disavowing corporations as individuals, “are pretty damn clear,” she says. Regan adds, “This is a nonpartisan, very broad movement that includes everyone from Republicans to anarchists.” Occupy Eugene, like Occupy Wall Street and other occupy gatherings, is run by a consensus process that Regan says is remarkably efficient. The webpage downtwinkles.com, which features a video of a Cascadia Forest Defender at Occupy Portland explaining the consensus process, is becoming a viral hit. Occupy Eugene’s Saturday general assembly reached consensus on following the St. Paul Principles, which are principles of solidarity that came out of the 2008 protests at the Republican National Convention in Minnesota. The principles include not denouncing fellow activists and events and respect for a diversity of tactics and the plans of other groups. John Flanery, a facilitator of general assemblies at the occupation and a We The People activist who participated in the march, said, “I’m tired of the collusion between big business and government am no longer willing to be ruled by the one percent.” Cooperative efforts were made Saturday night by Food Not Bombs and The Last Stand Coffee Co., among others, to provide food and drink for those occupying; the more tech-savvy connected a live stream at http://occupyeugenemedia.org/livestream/ to the web. About 100 or so of the supporters have been meeting up on a daily basis for the general assemblies that occur at 7 am and 7 pm. Fewer have been spending the night at the occupation, but supplies like tents, sleeping bags and food abound, and a first aid tent is available. How long the occupation will last is a matter of community dialogue and coordination, organizers say. Theoretically, the Saturday Market will take place on the Park Blocks next week as usual. This has caused concern for some artisans from the Saturday Market, a number of whom made a showing at the Sunday evening general assembly. Occupy Eugene says there has been an ongoing dialogue between the market and Occupy Eugene. Embodied in a spirit of collective uprising and self-reliance is not only the recognition of a broken system, but a willingness to repair it, occupiers say. David Parziale, a senior environmental studies major at the UO, say this was the Eugene he had heard of before entering school. “I came to Eugene because I thought this was a place where there would be a nice mix of between university and the activism that Eugene has a history of having,” he says. “I came here because I thought it was a place where there would be people rising up because there were unjust wars going on. This, finally, after I’m almost done with college — this is why occupy is happening. There’s finally people trying to speak up.” 
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 55.
#1. To: Ferret Mike (#0)
It's about time the left work up and realized they have been getting hosed as badly as those of us on the right. At this point in history the fight shouldn't be between the right and the left. It should be between the citizens and those who would be our masters and destroy our culture for personal profits.
What you say is so right on the money. Look at the French Resistance for example; French communist party members worked side by side with very rightwing people united in the goal of expelling the foul invaders. They were united in their goal, and brothers and sisters in arms against the German Nazi foe. Those we oppose want us to fight among ourselves and to be unable to form a united front. Right wing people are not my ememies in this struggle; they are my brothers and sisters in this battle.
Then lets stand together and rid the nation of the illegal aliens? Then lets stand together and prosecute Obama for war crimes. Then lets stand together and Get rid of Obama the man with a treasury secretary from wall street.
I look at Alabama where the draconian new law has created a severe labor shortage that is forcing farmers to plow under their crops and plan for smaller harvests next year. They have been unsucessful at the task of getting American citizens to do the hard work with low pay to get in the crops. We had slaves brought in from Africa to work for very little to keep costs down on Southern farms which for better or worse, helped this country prosper and grow. And now we have Latinos and Latinas willing to do the same for very little pay, we persecute and bedevil them for this. I want them here keepng costs down. Sorry, I am for amnesty on this issue. That won't change. You also forget they don't decide to come here in a vacuum. They are enticed here by people wanting the low cost labor every bit as much as they decide to come. Yet, many on the right only pick on them, because it's dangerous to pick on well moneied and connected people doing the labor recruitment. And as for going after Obama, it is pointless unless you go after those doing Neocon policy promotion on both the right and left at the same time. Otherwise you create an senario where the one percenters with most the capital have a situation that acts as a crowbar prying people apart getting them to fight among themselves forgetting who the real problem is in creating and perpetuating bad economic times. You can't fight side by side with people against a common foe if they are always worried about fratricide.
Can you link me to a story of farmers plowing under their crops?
Farmers in states like Alabama that have passed strong anti-illegal immigration laws are fighting back, saying they are losing labor and that US workers are unwilling to take up farm work. Farmers fearing a labor shortage are protesting recent immigration laws they say are too harsh, forcing undocumented workers to flee to prevent deportation. They say US workers are unwilling to endure the rigorous conditions of farm work and that state legislators need to come up with solutions to prevent local agribusiness from going under.[snip] the state. The new immigration laws will result in a $40 million hit to the state’s economy, with 10,000 illegal workers, each making about $5,000 a year, set to leave, according to a report released this week by the University of Alabama’s Center for Business and Economic Research.[snip] A labor shortage of 5,244 workers in seven of the state’s primary crops – blueberry, blackberry, Vidalia onion, bell pepper, squash, cucumber, and watermelon – resulted in a $75 million loss, according to the University of Georgia Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development. The losses are “pretty significant,” says John McKissick, an agricultural economist at the University of Georgia. He says farmers participating in the survey say “they will either reduce acreage next year or reduce their harvest” as a result. [exerpts from piece in link.) Alabama immigration: crops rot as workers vanish to avoid crackdown (Second half of article) The blow to Cash can be measured in those $100,000 – money he says he had wanted to put aside as insurance against a poor crop in future years. But it can also be measured in other ways. Cash says that losing his pickers is much more than a commercial disaster. "Many of these people are friends and like family to us. They have been working for my family for years." The crew leader for Cash's fields has been working for his family for 17 years. "He's my age and we pretty much grew up together," he says. Cash has sponsored him in his application for American naturalisation – a process that the immigration authorities have said will take up to nine years and cost up to $17,000. The crew leader already has permanent residency status and his two children are US citizens, but because his wife is undocumented he was fearful of the new law and left abruptly along with the others the minute the provisions came in. Cash gets angry when people tell him that his Hispanic workforce was taking jobs away from Americans. Since the new law began two weeks ago only two American citizens have come by his farm asking for work. The couple had driven two hours from a city to offer their services, but they barely lasted that long in the fields. Cash discovered that they were trying to fiddle him by notching up two baskets of tomatoes for every one they picked – as they were paid by the basket that would have fraudulently doubled their earnings. "That's just the kind of stuff you come across. Somebody who really wants a good job and is prepared to work hard and honest for it isn't going to come up here for four months in the year. "But Hispanics will do that, and move on to Florida when the picking's finished." In a couple of weeks Cash says he will kiss goodbye to all the tomatoes left in the fields. He has already begun to pull up the stakes and remove the plastic ground cover, and then he will take a tractor out and bury the plants under ground. "It's going to be a little while, but eventually people will see what has been done here. The cost of food in the supermarkets is going to go up, and in the end we will all pay the price."
Maybe you should try paying them more? Whining about the workers that earn 5,000 a year being forced to leave ain't no way to get me on your side. Do you or any of YOUR children think a 5k a year job is a "good job"? If not,why did you describe it that way? There ain't no such thing as a free lunch,bucko! Step up to the plate and accept less profits due to paying your help more,and there won't be any shortage of workers. They damn sure don't have high-paying factory jobs to go to.
#62. To: sneakypete (#55)
When I worked in the woods planting trees and doing other reforestation work, I was paid well. I have gotten as much as 20.00 an hour doing a job i had to pay 200-400 dollars for boots, 50.00 for quality rain gear, sat in a work vehicle for hours at a time going to and from the job site, and because the work is bid out, companies with latino crews outbid Greenhill Reforestation and the Hoedads for whom I worked. So now people do this work for about ten bucks an hour which makes it much lower when you factor in the costs of material and unpaide travel time. You are preaching to the choir. I had to put aside my initial anger at how I was disenfranchized from work I loved to learn enough to se the bigger picture; that it made no sense to scape goat mexican pawns used by uncrupulous people to pit one workforce against another to profit from the savings. I don't waste time hating and villifying economic pawns; I save that for the people that use them.
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#3. To: sneakypete (#1)
"At this point in history the fight shouldn't be between the right and the left. It should be between the citizens and those who would be our masters and destroy our culture for personal profits."
#4. To: Ferret Mike (#3)
Right wing people are not my ememies in this struggle; they are my brothers and sisters in this battle.
#6. To: A K A Stone, sneakypete (#4)
(Edited)
#8. To: Ferret Mike (#6)
I look at Alabama where the draconian new law has created a severe labor shortage that is forcing farmers to plow under their crops and plan for smaller harvests next year. They have been unsucessful at the task of getting American citizens to do the hard work with low pay to get in the crops.
#24. To: A K A Stone (#8)
Anti-illegal immigration bill stokes backlash in Alabama fields
#55. To: Ferret Mike (#24)
"That's just the kind of stuff you come across. Somebody who really wants a good job and is prepared to work hard and honest for it isn't going to come up here for four months in the year.
Replies to Comment # 55. "Maybe you should try paying them more? Whining about the workers that earn 5,000 a year being forced to leave ain't no way to get me on your side."
End Trace Mode for Comment # 55.
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