The Occupy Austin Welcome Wagon has planned a series of anti-oppression teach-ins and community potlucks. The following is a schedule of dates, times, and locations for planned events:
Sunday, May 13, 2012 (Mother’s Day) 5 PM at Austin Java – City Hall
Celebrate Mother’s Day with Occupy Austin’s Lainie Duro. Let’s drink mimosas and discuss anti-oppressive parenting tactics.
Summary of Discussion Points:
-What can we do to teach children about oppression and how it plays out in their relationships with others?
-How does oppression play into the parent-child relationship?
-Should we place limits on the freedom of children? If so, when and how? If not, how do we ensure our children do not exercise their freedom at the expense of others?
-How can non-parents help?
Sunday, May 20, 2012 1 PM at Pease Park – Near the volleyball courts
Occupy Austin Community Potluck
Join us for food, fun, and discussion about the NATO protests, among other things.
Bring something to eat and share, games to play, art supplies, great ideas, laughter, and friends.
Stick around afterwards for a teach-in on Environmental racism at 5 PM.
We should be posted up somewhere near the volleyball courts, so bring a volleyball, too! ♥ ♥ ♥
Sunday, May 20, 2012 5 PM at Pease Park – Near the volleyball courts
Occupy Austin Sunday Anti-Oppression Teach-in Series – Environmental Racism
***This Teach-in will be facilitated by Adrian Boutureira and Dave Cortez***
The definition of environmental racism is inequality — in the form of racism linked with environmental factors and practices — that causes disproportionate distress on minority communities. It is a heavily debated phenomenon incorporating a hybrid of environmental concerns and human welfare. Environmental racism is often used to describe specific policies, events, and outcomes in which minority communities are targeted for the placement of polluting industries and factories. Environmental racism can also be connected to the exclusion of minority groups from the decision-making process in their communities.
The environmental justice movement aims in part to combat environmental racism; environmental justice is “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, colour, sex, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.”
Please join us for lively discussion and fun! Invite your friends! <3
OccuQueers educating commuters and Plaza Saltillo. Photo by Kit O'Connell.
Today the Occupy Austin OccuQueers visited the Obama for America headquarters in Austin, Texas for our second #WeCantWait action. Our first action was a silent protest with Get Equal Texas where we delivered pens and a letter about our cause.
The 5 of us in attendance at this action took the streets in an impromptu march from Plaza Saltillo to the Obama or America office, chanting “We Can’t Wait! Take the Streets!” As you can see in the video below, we were met respectfully by Megan Klein, the Central Texas Regional Field Director, who promised to share our concern with her boss, Texas director Hector Nieto.
In addition to the direct action, OccuQueers members also educated commuters at the Plaza by holding signs and handing out fliers.
Kit O’Connell will follow up with Megan Klein to make sure she gets the information requested. If possible, he will also follow up with her boss Hector Nieto.
This is just the latest in a series of actions to support what the media calls the “Executive Nondiscrimination Order,” which is an executive order Barack Obama promised to sign in 2008, protecting federal contractors from work place discrimination due to sexual orientation and gender identity. More actions are planne in this campaign until the order is signed and the Executive Nondiscrimination Act passes.
President Obama should sign promised non-discrimination order now!
Austin, TX – May 10th, 2012: The Occupy Austin OccuQueers Working Group will be joining with allies from GetEqualTX, today at 4:30 pm at Plaza Saltillo for the second installment of a series of actions targeting the Executive Non-Discrimination Order. This is the executive order that (if signed by President Obama) would grant protection from workplace discrimination for all lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer or transgender workers in federal jobs, at corporations which have federal contracts, and in some federal housing situations. The Act would protect 25% of workers who work in federal jobs from discrimination based on LGBTQ identity or orientation.
OccuQueers working group organizer, Kit O’Connell states, “President Barack Obama needs to keep his promise and sign the Executive Nondiscrimination Order. It’s so basic and even less controversial than same-sex marriage. Over 70 US representatives and over 20 faith based groups have signed a letter urging Obama to sign. We’re glad Obama publically supports same-sex marriages and families but it’s time to back up words with action. We can’t wait any longer.”
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About the OccuQueers Working Group: Occupy Austin OccuQueers is a group for gay, bi, trans, queer, asexual, pansexual, sapiosexual, polyamorous, straight allies — humans of any orientation and gender-identity — who want to discuss why queer people occupy. We meet regularly to share our experiences & plan actions.
About Occupy Austin: Occupy Austin is a standing protest against the unjust and harmful power of large corporations over the world’s economic and political systems and against threats to civil liberties and democracy at home and abroad. Our Occupation began on October 6, 2011.
If you would like more information on this topic or would like to schedule an interview, please contact: media@occupyaustin.org
First, I am not a member of the Occupy Austin General Assembly. I communicate with its members via e-mail and social media. That disclosure should lead any reporter—even Katha Pollitt—to the conclusion that I’m incapable of speaking on behalf of any member of Occupy Austin. I’ll do you one better: I’m a contributing writer for Occupy Austin and the Occupied Washington Times and I occupied a tent behind Dallas, not Austin’s City Hall.
I recently read a blog posted on OccupyAustin.org titled What Occupy Is and Is Not. It was obvious to me after reading the blog that the writer (a member of the Language of Unity Working Group) must have began their editorial with the intention of relaying some relatively unknown demographic information: There are republican occupiers. Okay. Proving this is often the defensive response to FOX News’ claims that Occupy is the brainchild of the Obama 2012 campaign or far-left liberals. Fair enough. I’ve met Republican occupiers, and even members of the Tea Party, that frequently join Occupy demonstrations. Lets move on to the differences between the 99% and the Occupy movement itself.
I was once at a protest in downtown Dallas. We positioned ourselves between a Chase bank and a community owned credit union. With groups of protesters on all four corners chanting and banging drums, we were an unavoidable spectacle. One of the buildings adjacent to Chase had apartments above the ground level shops and from one of the fifth story windows a paper air plane was thrown. Almost magically, the airplane landed at our feet and we opened it up. It read: “I love your cause, but please stop drumming. The rest of the 99%.” We obliged.
The reason I tell that story is to show an important contrast between members of the Occupy movement and the so-called 99%. The term 99% is an economic distinction. The number 99 wasn’t derived from a mathematical study of wealth in America. 99 percent is meant to show just how many of Them there are compared to Us; the uber-wealthy and the rest of us, respectively. Many economists (who seem oblivious to the point) have even come out to say it’s really the .01 percent. So, once again, Charles Manson, Joe the Plumber and Antoine Dodson are all members of the demographic, symbolically identified as the 99%, whether they agree with the objectives of the Occupy movement or not.
The blogger also made a false statement that Occupy had thus far intentionally removed itself from abortion related conversations. I say false because I remember a number of large protests both defending Woman’s rights and attacking groups that attempted to pull resources away from healthcare organizations such as Planned Parenthood. In Dallas, Occupy protesters (after establishing consent in a General Assembly) joined with demonstrators from MoveOn.org, CREDO Action and UltraViolet to shame Susan G. Komen for the Cure after they attempted to cut funding to Planned Parenthood.
After informing readers that Occupy was not a leftist organization and told them Occupy kept Women’s issues at arms length, the aforementioned blog, What Occupy Is and Is Not, deteriorated with a number of uncouth and presumptuous remarks about women and abortion. A writer at The Nation quickly picked up on these remarks and incorporated them into an article titled, Women: Occupy the Left. Pollitt, who authored the editorial, obviously took offense to chauvinistic comments that labeling middle aged female demonstrators as, “soccer moms in need of a cause”. You know what? I do too.
I’m an occasional reader of The Nation. Specifically, I am a fan of contributing writer Ari Berman, whom I believe is one of the few great progressive journalists in a dying breed. I’d like to label Pollitt’s mention of Occupy Austin’s blog as feeble. When describing the grievances declared by the General Assembly of New York City, she chose animal rights and colonialism as the two ends of the spectrum. She could have just as easily chosen illegal foreclosures, exorbitant CEO bonuses or job outsourcing to describe OWS’s cause.
Occupy Wall St. didn’t begin their list with animal rights nor did it end with colonialism. Pollitt’s sly attempt to show how OWS singled out animals more than women is laughable. When Pollitt says, “women’s rights… tend to get set aside whenever economics or ‘class” is the focus,” and then later says, “women’s rights are economic rights, too“, she obnoxiously and perhaps intentionally contradicts herself. The first two OWS grievances (not mentioned or linked to by Pollitt) are references to economic injustice. Pollitt seems to infer that while economic rights are women’s rights, it’s necessary for any writer to point out they are including women when referring to said rights or we can’t be sure they are.
In conclusion, I’d like to say that the “Language of Unity Working Group” stated that Occupy has no clearly defined demands and that is also false. We clearly desire the Supreme Court to reverse ‘United vs FEC’ and to outlaw large corporate donations for political means. It’s also evident that the Occupy movement demands equality for women (and men), in the workplace and any other place they choose to be. To suggest otherwise is ignorant when thousands have marched to petition for a redress of those grievances specifically.
When it comes to women, the 99% or the Occupy movement itself, my advise to Katha Pollitt and the Language of Unity Working Group is: Speak for yourself.
Ableism (pronounced ey-buh-liz-uhm) is a form of discrimination or social prejudice against people with disabilities.
Sunday May 6th, 5-6pm Sunday anti-oppression teach-in series: Introduction to Ableism by Sarah Watkins, Nolan Darileck 1. What is ableism? 2. How does ableism manifest in interpersonal and structural ways? 3. How do we recognize and interrupt ableism, both as disabled and non-disabled people?
Goal of Discussion: To raise consciousness around the negative impacts of ableism, to identify tools for recognizing and interrupting ableism, and to foster discussion about ways to reduce ableism in the Occupy movement.
Call(s) to Action: Learn how to be a better ally to people with disabilities.
