I'm not going to call this a proposal, because I don't have any intention of organizing under your guys' umbrella any time soon. Consider this a friendly suggestion, from someone who is broadly in solidarity with the aims of your movement.
But it might be worthwhile for you as an organization to consider, and I'm open to a friendly back-and-forth on here about the merits and pitfalls of the idea. I think other stakeholders in this discussion might feel encouraged to chip in as well.
I am bringing this forward in the hopes of remedying some of the hurdles I face when I am organizing which make it more difficult for me to reach out to #OB.
I suggest that OB adopt some version of the St. Paul Principles, in harmony with the principles of direct action undergirding the Occupy movement nationally.
The St. Paul Principles, as adopted by the the RNC Welcoming Committee, the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War, the Anti-war Committee, SDS-U of MN, Communities United Against Police Brutality, the Welfare Rights Committee, and the Chicago chapter of Unconventional Action in order to organize their disparate but overlapping tactics at the 2008 Republican National Convention, read as follows (explication and annotation in brackets):
1. Our solidarity will be based on respect for a diversity of tactics and the plans of other groups.
[Occupy Bellingham doesn't have to support all the actions of other groups with which they organize from time to time. Sometimes, it's okay to agree to disagree. We can all be a part of the same movement even if we have different focuses or tactical preferences.]
2. The actions and tactics used will be organized to maintain a separation of time or space.
[For instance, if Occupy Bellingham is organizing an event which they wish to remain law-abiding, it is bad solidarity for other groups to crash that event and make a scene with arrests. Likewise, if one group is organizing an event which they expect to result in arrests, then it would be bad solidarity for another group to crash that event and try to prevent arrests from occurring.
Building on Principle 1: we don't have to agree on everything all the time, but when we disagree, we'll make sure to make it clear among ourselves and to the public more generally that we are not acting in concert.]
3. Any debates or criticisms will stay internal to the movement, avoiding any public or media denunciations of fellow activists and events.
[If OB does something I disagree with, I will bring my concerns and criticisms of what they do to them, and I will not turn around and attack OB in public, ie on a Facebook page, or talk smack about them in the media, and OB and members will avoid doing the same to me.
Rhetorically, we've got each other's backs. We don't have to publicly agree on everything all the time, but we don't publicly attack or denounce each other. This hurts solidarity with other groups.]
4. We oppose any state repression of dissent, including surveillance, infiltration, disruption and violence. We agree not to assist law enforcement actions against activists and others.
[If someone, say, undertakes a direct action which results in police attention, it is bad solidarity to sell that person up the river.
You won't have any comrades if you sell them all out to the police.]
|
Author
A Friendly Suggestion
