---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: <[email protected]> Date: Wed, Dec 12, 2012 at 5:35 AM Subject: [May 19th Movement] Announcing A New Affinity Group: "Occupy the Ballot!" To: [email protected], [email protected], occupy-la-facilitation-and-group-dynamics-assem...@googlegroups.com, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
[image: aclu03_vr_minority.jpg] Dear Occupy Friends: A few months ago, I followed some communications by some in the Occupy Movement that were advocating that people burn their voter's registration cards as a form of protest against the corruption and disenfranchisement of the average citizen within our current political system. I did not relate to that --- at all. Most Black people in this country didn't. That's not necessarily because we don't understand that the political system has disenfranchised us. Most of us do. We simply don't believe we have the luxury of throwing away ANY of the civil or human rights we've been able to establish for ourselves in a society that has generally sought to deprive us of any rights whatsoever! Last year, while we were still at City Hall, our GA passed a resolution (after literally weeks of contention) against allowing either of the corporate-controlled political parties (Democrats or Republicans) to campaign in our encampment. I supported that because I do not support either (or any) corporate party. However, I do believe that it would be useful to organize a political movement or party that would reflect the fundamental values of the Occupy Movement and provide a means for the poor, working people, and others who are exploited, oppressed and marginalized by our current political and economic institutions to make an impact on the policies and decisions that determine the quality of their daily lives. For this reason, I have decided to join with others in initiating an affinity group which I will tentatively call "Occupy the Ballot!" The purpose of this group is to organize people independently, outside of the two party system. Our use of the ballot for our own political purposes should be seen as both a form of active self-defense and as a means of advancing the political and economic struggles of all those who actually fall within the parameters of the 99%. As I see it, much of the work of "Occupy the Ballot!" should center around ISSUES, not candidates. We should help to support or initiate ballot initiatives, build mass lobbies for and against various pieces of legislation or acts of government, and, in general, help to educate and activate more and more people around the critical issues that confront us daily as a result of the various forms of social inequality, the concentration of wealth and power into the hands of the few, and the increasing trends toward repression and the destruction of democratic rights for the many. But, unlike some who've come through the Occupy Movement, we collectively do not believe that we should ignore the struggle over immediate public policy decisions or abstain from EVERY form of electoral activism. Nor do we believe that all forms of representative democracy are irrelevant. On the contrary, we believe that, especially in a period such as we are living through, people must utilize every form of democracy that is available to them in order to organize themselves and counteract the determined efforts of a small minority of society to establish absolute power over the rest of us. On the other hand, I cannot personally see much sense in running people for statewide or national offices before you have demonstrated the capacity to win the broad support of the people in the local community that you live in! Many "Left" parties and movements have attempted to organize electoral campaigns almost "in a vacuum", because they refuse to start from the bottom up, and their electoral work isn't well grounded in an effective strategy for community and workplace organizing. In my personal opinion, both those who reject electoral work altogether, and those who attempt to build independent politics without an adequate base of support have actually contributed to a sense of futility on the part of literally millions of Americans. These frustrated Americans have generally thrown up their hands and crawled back into the Democratic Party in hopes of getting SOMETHING DONE (no matter how little or much) about their concerns! As we know, within the "two-party system", the Democratic Party is generally cast as "the lesser of the two evils". Many people who voted for Obama this year only did so reluctantly. He merely became a default candidate as the false hopes and promises built up around his 2008 election were exposed by day-to-day experience in the course of his first administration. The main thing that has been demonstrated by the Obama experience thus far is that even having a Black person in the White House doesn't change the basic workings of the system. The time is actually more than ripe for a movement to displace the Democratic Party. The problem is that most of the "Left" and the independent politics movement have been mired in "get-rich-quick" approaches in the electoral arena that are incapable of succeeding. In my personal opinion, only a long-term bottom-up strategy, rooted in a hard-core approach to both labor and community organizing, is capable of accomplishing this task. As for electoral politics, as such, "Occupy the Ballot!" should first seek to organize around local elections, at the most basic level, in order to challenge the domination of local politics by big business interests and to promote the empowerment of disenfranchised people in the context of the communities in which they live. Part of this electoral activity needs to be focused in certain "non-traditional" local venues. One example of this is the elections for the local station board at KPFK Radio, 90.7 FM. This station is completely non-commercial and supported solely by voluntary donations from its listeners. Along with the other four anchor stations in the Pacifica Network, it constitutes one of the principal obstacles to complete domination of the broadcast media in the United States by corporate commercial interests. The political content of the programming at KPFK is of critical importance for all of us who are seeking viable options to the mindless pursuit of profits at the expense of people --- and every other form of life on this planet! Another "non-traditional" area in which Occupy the Ballot needs to work is within the existent neighborhood council system here in Los Angeles. There are currently nearly 100 such councils spread throughout the city. They were created by a charter amendment Neighborhood Councils are city-certified local groups made up of people who live, work, do business or perform voluntary service in a given neighborhood. Neighborhood Council Board Members are elected to their positions by the other "stakeholders" in the neighborhoods themselves. Neighborhood Council Board size varies across the City from 7 to over 30 individuals depending on what the neighborhood believes will best meet its needs. They hold regular meetings at least one every three months. Many Councils hold meetings more often and have working committees as well. Neighborhood Councils receive public funds of approximately $40,000 each year to support their activities. This may include creating events and programs that respond to the unique needs of their community or advocating on behalf of the issues they care about such as senior services, crime, roads and streets, the creation of safe spaces for children, gangs, housing, the environment or the economic development of their neighborhood. Representatives from Neighborhood Councils: - Meet with the Mayor, the City's department heads and employee organizations to discuss priorities in the annual development of the City budget, prior to its submittal and approval by City Council. - Receive advance notice of issues and projects that are important to them and their neighborhoods so they can understand, discuss them, and voice the opinions of the neighborhood to the City Council before final decisions are made. Neighborhood Councils represent neighborhoods with a minimum population of 20,000 people. The average population represented by a Neighborhood Council is 38,000 people. Several Neighborhood Councils acting together can get an issue placed on the agenda of the City Council. The Neighborhood Councils present a tremendous opportunity to build grassroots community power, but typically, they have been almost totally neglected by most of the activist Left in Los Angeles, which seems to think that holding constant street protests is more effective than organizing people in their own communities to achieve a greater degree of power over their own day-to-day conditions. Doing this kind of organizing requires a lot of patience, hard work, and the ability to win the respect of people who don't necessarily share all of your views. Just this week, Ron Gochez, a local community activist, qualified to have his name placed on the ballot as an independent candidate for City Council in the 9th District. (That seat is being vacated by Jan Perry, who has decided to run for Mayor.) For a number of reasons, Ron's campaign has the potential to have a serious impact --- win, lose or draw. Many of us feel that his effort to build an independent campaign in South L.A. could help to start a trend that would allow us to extend our work as community organizers, Occupy activists and resisters of various types into the arena of public policy on a new level. This is particularly so if more Left activists will begin to build effective community-based efforts focused on building community power inside (and outside of) the Neighborhood Councils over the next few years. This type of organizing is not a substitute for, but rather a compliment to the development of popular grassroots organizations and mass direct action campaigns. If any of the above resonates with you, you are invited to join the "Occupy the Ballot!" affinity group. Please feel free to contact me to get more information. --- Kwazi Nkrumah, [Kwazi Nkrumah is the founder and Co-Chair of the Martin Luther King Coalition of Los Angeles. He was one of the initiators of Occupy L.A. andthe Co-Founder of Occupy the Hood. He has worked with homeowners, community residents, neighborhood councils and other community groups to fight mortgage foreclosures in his own and other neighborhoods throughout L.A.for the past 3 1/2 years. He is currently serving his second term on his Neighborhood Council and represents 6 neighborhood councils as a Budget Advocate. As Co-Chair of the MLK Coalition, he has been working for 2 years to build an activist coalition to fight against the human rights impacts of global climate change.] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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