[OccupyComms] new version (some spelling mistakes) Safe Spaces Testimony

[Mark Barrett]

Hello Everyone

I am cc'ing the London list into these messages from Anna and Mac so that
other individuals involved can have their right of reply.

Mark
On 18 February 2012 17:20, Anna Harris <anna at shsh.co.uk> wrote:

> Hi Mac,
>
> I really appreciate you sharing your experience with us all, about the
> events leading up to an attempt to bar a group of women from the GA.  This
> is not a question of taking sides or pointing blame, but we do need  to
> understand that because we are in the Occupy movement does not mean that we
> have become open minded and left behind all the prejudices we have
> accumulated living with the toxic values of this society.
>
> I know there are other such incidents happening in other Occupy groups.
> Just today I received an email from a woman in US who received a hostile
> reaction when she tried to get help for someone in London Occupy who had
> been mugged, and ended up in hospital.
>
> Perhaps people did not want to publicise these events because it would
> give a bad name to the Occupy movement. But it seems to me that it is good
> that people now are talking about these experiences, and bringing them out
> into the open.
>
> We all have blind spots, and we need others to show us where we are being
> insensitive. I think this is particularly something that women can bring,
> and we should not be frightened off by people not wanting to know.
>
> We should also not be too shocked to discover that many of the values that
> are prevalent in society generally are still there among occupiers. This is
> no instantaneous transformation, neither is it a conspiracy by
> infiltrators. This is the challenge we have to face, and working on
> ourselves is a big part of it, though up to now there has been little
> recognition of that fact.
>
> These sort of incidents may bring it home to more people that we can't
> just march into the future hoping to leave behind all the parts of
> ourselves that have been damaged by our addiction to the toxic values of
> this industrial growth society. They pervade our whole being, we have been
> steeped in them all our lives. And we need to begin to breathe the fresh
> air of a more unified humanity where we can see we are all one family and
> naturally care for each other.
>
> But to do that will take time and effort. First there is the
> acknowledgement that we need to develop our consciousness, and then focus
> on working on ourselves to 'be the change we want to see in the world'.
>
> Recently I ran a workshop in Leeds on Sacred Economics which looked at
> questioning the beliefs we have grown up with, and supporting the changes
> in our beliefs which will endorse a different social system, where we
> really care for each other whether close family or unknown on the other
> side of the world.
>
> Thank you for the contribution you are making to bringing this about.
>
> With love, Anna
> On Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 3:34 PM, Alma Segundo <alma.segundo at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I am Mac and some of you might know me already. I am Chilean and I am
>> active member in the UK Occupy Movement in the National Level in Media and
>> Women's Network, and I am currently based in Glasgow.
>>
>>
>> On Thursday Feb 9th, 2012 I had the chance to participate in the GA in
>> Saint Paul's camp, where we agreed on several important agenda points,
>> specially: How to enforce Safe Spaces Policies, Occupy LSX Statement of
>> Support to their Homeless Community and a proposal of support to Movements
>> Against NHS and Welfare Reforms.
>>
>> Alongside with Kiki, Didi and Sara, members of the Women's National
>> Network, we participated in the Process meeting before the GA, facilitated
>> by Phil and we agreed on opening the Safe Spaces conversation with Sara's
>> testimony, then mine and finally move into the Stick Exercise to encourage
>> people to share their experiences regarding Safe Spaces without
>> interruptions or pressures.
>>
>>
>> The Process meeting was a positive experience where John and Ben joined
>> us in the conversation among others, and we managed to make a
>> schedule/time/topics plan for the afternoon.
>>
>> In the GA, Sara brought our attention to the multiple different people
>> that are part of our movement, nevertheless we forget about their
>> conditions and we need to work for them too to create a Safe Space, like
>> the members of Saint Paul's kitchen, who go through endless shifts to
>> prepare great food and keep us fed. Since her work in the Women's Centre in
>> London, Sara was able to bring our attention to asylum seekers, immigrants,
>> people of colour, single mothers raising families, and our homeless
>> community present in every camp and occupation in UK. All of them are
>> actual or future members of our camps and need to be respected in a Safe
>> Space as we all expect to.
>>
>>
>> Then, I had the chance to share my experience, meeting Sara, the Women's
>> Centre and being part of the Women's National Network. I shared how I
>> realized how lucky I've been without knowing it. Before joining Occupy
>> Movement, I thought everybody shared the same feeling I felt about my
>> position in life. I thought everybody was entitle to share their opinions,
>> to put their points across, to feel they are important and they are
>> respected.
>>
>> Sadly, working with Sara, Didi, Nina, Ruth and Lisa, I realized it is not
>> like that for everybody. Many people become invisible and they get used to
>> not be heard. Therefore, visible people need to acknowledge the invisible
>> and make them bloom.
>>
>>
>> I shared I believe Safe Spaces is a culture, a way to be with each other
>> and that is exactly what I think occupy should be, a safe space for
>> everybody to be in this world. I recognized how lucky I've been since I was
>> raised to think I am ok just the way we are and that Occupy Movement should
>> spread the same message to everybody, you are OK just the way you are!
>> Specially to those, who constantly hear it is not true.
>>
>>
>> After this, everybody shared their experiences and concerns holding the
>> stick, a few members decided they didn't want to. It was a beautiful
>> experience, which I recorded with my photo/video camera, after asking
>> permission to the GA. We realized many people didn't feel safe, or felt
>> insecure in the camp or had experienced violence, negligent or mistreatment
>> on site. Specially shocking was the testimony of a black/wheel chair user,
>> who shared with us that he was beaten and locked for two days in the Bank
>> of Ideas and finally spent 3 days in hospital. This story was specially
>> outrageous, since we couldn't understand why this person was hit and mostly
>> tortured, taking his liberty away inside of one of our buildings in the
>> Occupy Movement.
>>
>>
>> Of course, this needed further research and clarification and support
>> mainly for the person involved. The facilitator prioritized to continue
>> with the agenda, even when some members in the GA asked for a change on the
>> schedule to hear the man's story and help him. We moved on into the agenda
>> and we agreed on staying after the meeting to address the safe space issue
>> and support this man.
>>
>>
>> The GA carried on with the Homeless Statement and discussion of the NHS
>> and Welfare Reforms. We couldn't agreed at the time on both statements to
>> reach consensus and we agreed to work on them further for Saturday's GA.
>>
>>
>> At the end of the meeting, everybody stood up, some members left and I
>> decided to go outside the university tent and take some pictures of Saint
>> Paul's under the snow. When I got back I ran into Didi, Kiki, Phil and the
>> man in the wheel chair. I realized they had already discussed with him
>> briefly what has happened in the Bank of Ideas, to take further actions.
>> They agreed that somebody from the Legal Working Group was going to take an
>> statement of the events.
>>
>> At that point, John approached the group and started to say to Didi that
>> she had affected deeply an other member in the GA, Em, and that she was
>> crying because of her behavior. John pressed Didi over and over again to go
>> to her and apologize, at the moment I didn't know it was Em. Didi
>> explained, Nina, a colleague in the Women's Network was talking with Em to
>> find out what has happened and that she didn't think going over there was
>> going to help. John was quite pushy about his requirements and he said he
>> couldn't believe that Didi didn't have the heart to go over there and
>> apologize. Didi kept saying that Nina was taking care of it and that she
>> didn't think they attacked the person since it was an straight forward
>> conversation.
>>
>> Finally, John left after the requirement of Didi. I thought his physical
>> behavior and tone of voice were a little aggressive and probably unhelpful
>> to clear the situation.
>>
>> I asked Didi what has happened, and she said that they approached the
>> black man to talk about his story. Em was also part of the group that
>> approached him. Since Em, in the GA, didn't agree with the statement of
>> support to the homeless community questioning the length and the way to put
>> forward the message and committing to work in a new version, the black man
>> asked her if she had blocked the document. She said yes and left the
>> conversation.
>>
>> Nina went to talk to her and asked why she blocked the document. Em said
>> she didn't want to discuss it; and Nina said: Fair enough.
>>
>> After that, Em was crying.
>>
>>
>> The day after, we found out that through group space email list, John had
>> sent a letter to the LSX community asking for the Women's group to be
>> banned from the GA for 6 weeks after attacking Em. Even when, Em said the
>> issue was resolved.
>>
>>
>> I shared this letter with you and my partial knowledge of the experience
>> as I recall it.
>>
>>
>> I would like to open the conversation to try to understand why are we
>> asking for a group of women, where I believed I was included too to be
>> banned from the GA. These women have been a major support network for women
>> and women's issues in London and in every city in the country where we have
>> hold a national conference: Edinburgh and Sheffield.
>>
>> Without going into details I have to say that I have been able to count
>> with their support, knowledge and friendship to feel safe and secure while
>> I am a member of the Occupy movement, even when I had to faced pressures
>> and threats, and false accusations among members in Glasgow.
>>
>>
>> I want to also say, that I had the chance to be part of Occupy
>> Conferences in London, Edinburgh, Sheffield and now I am working in the
>> organization of the Liverpool one. I have been in LSX a couple of times and
>> I am an active member in Occupy Glasgow. And I keep close contact with
>> several occupiers in Birmingham, Exeter, Edinburgh, Leeds, Sheffield,
>> Newcastle, London and Brighton and I participate in the International
>> European Occupy Movement, through internet.
>>
>>
>> I have realized that many forms of attacks are reaching our community
>> everywhere in UK and probably around the world.
>>
>> 1. Facebook pages hacked, Glasgow, Brighton.
>>
>> 2. Twitters pages hacked. Leeds, Glasgow.
>>
>> 3. Main Occupy websites temporarily hacked. London.
>>
>> 4. Arson attacks in London and Glasgow.
>>
>> 5. Anti-Occupy Media/Bloggers Campaign: Glasgow, Edinburgh, lately The
>> Guardian in a national level, though they dropped the article.
>>
>> (Just to point out some examples)
>>
>> 6. False accusations to core members of being undercover journalists or
>> paid policemen, while real one go quite.
>>
>> 7. Constant attempt to interrupt process and hold the movement from
>> reaching consensus in local and national GAs, specially in the last one in
>> Sheffield.
>>
>> 8. Secret groups and independent working groups not accountable to GAs
>> popping out. Autonomous actions driven by ego, power, or money control.
>>
>>
>> My invitation is to take care of ourselves and of our movement; to work
>> hard on process during direct democracy consensus, to grow in the culture
>> of safe space and transparency and to have an open heart to keep working.
>>
>> There are no short-cuts, just to walk the walk! ;)
>>
>>
>> Finally, I want to say that you should take care of Saint Paul's, it is
>> our little Zakutti Park, it is the national image of the movement. From
>> many cities in the country, we are supporting you and worried about you.
>>
>> When I was in London I realized, some people are just waiting for Saint
>> Paul's to disappear, also I realized they don't want Saint Paul's to go
>> tranquil. Some people want Saint Paul's to fail, go away with no Safe
>> Spaces, with no Accountability and no Direct Democracy supported and born
>> out of the GA.
>>
>> Keep an eye!
>>
>>
>> Best wishes to everybody,
>>
>> Feel free to re-send this letter to other occupiers.
>>
>>
>> Mac
>>
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>
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