[OccupyComms] (no subject)

Wed Mar 21 01:56:11 GMT 2012

Hi Everyone,

(This is a really long email and I apologise now. It's my whole last
month's worth of news in one long go!)

Great to hear talk of the next national conference!

I totally agree that it would be good to get momentum again, and it would
be brilliant see all you inspirational people again and start sharing ideas
for spring and beyond.

I hope I can attend the next conference, but if not, there are still lots
of you I would want to make an effort to get together with in the near
future - wherever and whenever! -  because I've found the support and
inspiration I get from our gatherings has helped me keep going through some
of the tougher Occupy moments.

I also have some really exciting news and a plan to share with you for the
Global day of action against Military Spending on 17th April.

I've been a bit quiet since we last met in Sheffield. I haven't been able
to get to a GA in Leeds for weeks, and am a little out of the loop, but
it’s been for two very good reasons.

One is that I needed to take some time to occupy my family again, fix a few
domestic things I'd been neglecting and get over a few doubtful and
depressed moments, then recharge my batteries, absorb the learning from
what we've all undertaken these past months, and figure out how I wanted to
contribute next. It's done me the world of good, and I'm feeling full of
ideas, positivity and energy again and ready to raise my game. (But I have
missed all you good folk, and am really sorry I haven't been better at
keeping in touch or doing more to help when Liverpool was in jeopardy.)

The other reason is that a few of us from Leeds have been really busy
working on a campaign against the US Spy Base Menwith Hill, and we now have
a concrete and well supported plan to Occupy it – in a slightly different
kind of way though.

In case anyone doesn’t know what Menwith Hill is about, I’ve attached some
of the press coverage we’ve managed to get so far above. (and you can read
the guardian article
here<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/01/menwith-hill-eavesdropping-base-expansion?INTCMP=SRCH>).
Dom and I have been laying the local foundations these past few weeks with
a campaign around the new CND report which you can also download and read
here <http://www.natowatch.org/sites/default/files/liftingthelid.pdf>.

Please, please guys, I can’t beg you enough to read it. This stuff is
really relevant to our struggle.

Now that the ground work is done, this week we will gather together for the
first time as Occupy Menwith Hill. We hope to have a website and official
channels of communication up and running next week.

At the moment we are just an affinity/organising group, roughly made up of
six members of Occupy Leeds and another six newbie occupiers
from Harrogate. But we have the firm support of Steve Schofield (peace
activist and author of the report), Dave Webb (Chair of CND), Lindis Percy
(veteran Menwith Campaigner and chair of C.A.A.B), The One in Twelve Club
(Bradford Anarchists). Leeds ArtCollege, Harrogate Quaker community and
Leeds Amnesty International. And this is before any real outreach has got
started. Every day we seem to be gathering amazing natural momentum. On
Saturday Dom was at the Campaign Against the Arms Trade regional gathering
and apparently 10 of that group will also join us.

We’ve been working quietly up until now, because we wanted to be fairly
confident of what was possible before going too public with our plans.
Because of the sensitivity of the base we know we’ll be under scrutiny and
want to be sure we get things right. After our first informal gathering
last Thursday, we know that together we have the resources and
infrastructure to Occupy, but in a slightly different way.

Our plan is to Occupy a piece of rural land as close as possible to Menwth
Hill for a long as possible spanning the Global Day of Action Against
Military Spending on 17th April.

We plan to Occupy on Monday 16th, and have a HUGE day of creative,
beautiful protest on 17th. CND and Amnesty are helping with resources on
the day bringing lots of activists by bus to support us. But beyond this
first, because the issue is so volatile. we are not sure how things will
go.

If we think we can make it last longer, then we will - we want to have a
really potent and intense week of peaceful, beautiful, poetic protest,
mixed with powerful workshops and direct action. But we fully expect that
the military police and MoD will pull out all stops to move us, and so are
working to secure a site with landowners permission to help our durability.

We’re really excited about what we might be able to achieve by pulling
together Occupiers and the Yorkshire peace activist community, and we’ve
already got a great list of speakers, workshops, creative direct actions in
mind. But we’ve still got a lot of work to do!!!

We’d love it if as many of you guys could join us and help us make this
something really special. Our plan was to outreach to local GA’s once we
have a rough plan and clear idea of our facilities on site. But seeing this
conversation about the next national conference prompted me to write
sooner, just to let you all know and bear it in mind.  If anyone was
interested, we might be able to arrange some transport from the conference
to Yorkshire on Monday 16th??

It’s a shame in a way, that the date falls so close after the next
conference, and I hope that some of us will still be able to attend in
South End amongst the preparations! We had hoped there might be a
conference or gathering sooner for a chance to tell you all about this in
person, and ask for some help and ideas planning and spreading the word.

We had even thought that if nothing else had been arranged by then, we
would invite you to hold the conference with us, as we think it would be
great to see how the energy of the GA might change in a beautiful, rural
environment – albeit in the shadow of a military death star!!

(But I am just glad to see we have got stuff moving and thankful to Carlus,
Symon and all at South End for getting the conversation going again and
their efforts to make it happen! It will be great to see you all, wherever.)

Meanwhile, Occupy Menwith Hill might also need to call for some help with
media and tech for the time we are on site, as we fully expect the base to
interfere with our communications from the site, and we also expect that
there might be a lot media to deal with, which we might struggle to do
ourselves if we have no communications.

We’ve been getting a lot of press around the issue even without an
Occupation and expect it will go a bit mental when we do Occupy, especially
given Menwith Hill’s connection to the Hague trial over drone strikes in
Pakistan. They will be doing their utmost to make it difficult for us to
communicate the issues!! Anyone who can help deal with this would be very
welcome! We also want to highlight the role and relevance of Menwith Hill
to ACTA, personal surveillance, coporate espionage and political coercion.

This is really techie stuff… and I would love to pick the brains of Sam and
Chris about this!

Away from the Menwith Hill campaign, we seem to also have a real
opportunity to do some Occupying the media here in Yorkshire, and I would
like your advice and input with it.

Last week I was asked to go on the politics show and comment on Osbournes
proposal to cut the upper tax rate. I was a bit out of my depth and kicking
myself afterwards for all the things I should’ve said – it was very quick
fire and on the spot and I had a real dose of nerves.

But I took comfort in the fact they are putting Occupiers on panel shows to
berate politians, shows how much the tide is turning and the impact we are
having  - and it was that thought that kept me through it!

I have been asked to go back and do Radio Leeds tomorrow, (now today as
it’s getting so late) and it has caused me a bit of a dilemma. Firstly,
that I haven’t been at a GA for ages, and secondly that they keep
specifically asking for me.

I think this has stemmed from an original interview I did for the politics
show in October when they sent a Tory supporter into camp and I stood my
ground well with him. I’ve made it clear that I would prefer a nominee from
a GA, but they’ve said they would prefer me to come on as an individual
rather than an occupier if that was the case, so it’s put me in a difficult
position and I’d rather see occupy represented than not at all, even though
I think there are loads of other people who might do a better job.
Obviously I keep the autonomy statement in mind!

But Sunday’s show was well received – my neighbours, people I haven’t
spoken to for years and even my kids school teachers have been in touch to
say they felt it. (You can watch it here
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01dbcd1/Sunday_Politics_Yorkshire_and_Lincolnshire_18_03_2012/>at
32 minutes). Its Occupied my neighbourhood without even intending to.

So I’m glad we’ve got an opportunity to Occupy the media, but uncomfortable
that its so specifically about me and that I’ve been a bit out of the loop
recently. And like anyone who puts their head above the parapet in this
way, I hate to think anyone will think this is about my ego. In fact it’s
kind of the opposite. Because I’ve worked in media and PR in Yorkshire all
my life, this is like professionally ‘coming out’ as a radical anarchist
activist. I've had an existential crisis about it :)  But it also means I
do have the skills and to do a good job on all of our behalf, and I hope
you all trust me with it.

I’ve done my research and clarified my argument better for tomorrow and
think I have my nerves in check. If anyone gets this in time tomorrow,
please send me any comments. I will check my mail before I go on at 9.40.
(And I’m really sorry to send this so late… I started writing at about
10pm!! )

Then, for the future, we seem to have the start of a positive relationship
with the BBC in Yorkshire and I’m mindful that we should be working
together as regional assemblies to make the most of this. Can we start
sharing ideas? I’m really sorry I’ve been so out of the loop.

I’m meeting Sean Stowell, the producer of the Yorkshire Sunday Politics
show, again on Thursday to talk about the menwith campaign. He’s keen to
cover it, and if we do it right, it gives us a chance to get some positive
mainstream media for occupy ahead of May actions. Could we host a regional
Yorkshire assembly to discuss?

The scale of this is much more than I can handle on my own and I would
really appreciate your help and advice, as it feels like I’m riding chaos a
little bit!!

Anyhow, it’s time I got some sleep, but I really hope to hear from you all
soon.

Big love, peace and solidarity as always,

Helen xxx

On 20 March 2012 02:47, Symon Bakunin Bailey <symonbailey at yahoo.co.uk>wrote:

> **
>
> Hi All,
>
> It's Symon here from Occupy Birmingham Planning Group.
>
> The mail I have pasted below my own was sent to our main 'Occupy Birmingham' email account yesterday. I am pleased to hear that the impasse of finding a solution to the hosting of the 4th National Gathering has been seemingly resolved. Birmingham remains actively interested in hosting a future NGA.
> I like to feel i have made good efforts to stay in the loop with regards to matters relating the 3 previous National meetings but it seems in the case of the selection of Southend as hosting the conference i missed the discussions.  Where can minutes prior to any camp GA minutes be located. I accept i may not have been present on such a such GA or discussion and missed it all but for my peace of mind does anyone know who to ask?
>
> That aside congrats we got it together again.  I have transferred our collaborative Piratepad effort for the postponed Liverpool conference to the link given in the note below.
>
> Peace and Solidarity
>
> Symon Bailey
>
> Occupy Birmingham
>
> Agitate, Educate, Organise...Unite
>
>  Occupy Southend is pleased to announce the hosting of the next National Conference on Friday 13th, Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th April. Southend has a rich history of long-term protest camps and is well placed to deliver a first rate conference. Our permanent camp at the disused Lookers car showroom car park on Priory Crescent sits adjacent to the world renowned burial site of the Saxon King Sebert. Following discovery and excavation of the tomb in 2003 the insensitive local council planned to widen the road past the site, impacting on the gra
> ve. One hundred and sixteen trees in the nearby park also came under threat. These two issues sparked a four and a half year full time occupation of the site by local campaigners, ending in victory over the Council. As a testament to the commitment shown by the occupiers of the Saxon King site, Occupy Southend will be theming the entertainment around the Saxon period.
> Over the next 10 days everyone's invited to join together and help develop the agenda for the conference on Pirate Pad - http://piratepad.net/**CKfEJYREa1 <http://piratepad.net/CKfEJYREa1> What would you like to see on the agenda? Which speakers do you feel we can benefit from? Which subjects do we need to address right now? Can we make discussion panels work? What priority do we give to skill sharing? What types of workshops would you like to see on the agenda? The end date for inp
> ut on Pirate Pad will be Thursday 29th March.
> Please RSVP your intention to attend as soon as possible together with your food requirements. We'll be catering for vegans and meat eaters alike.
> Our site offers a very large area to camp on and at present we have 12 tents on the ground, one bender, one 'meet and greet' tent, and a 900 sq ft undercover communal area. Other facilities will be added for the conference.
> Transport links are as follows:
> By RailTwo direct rail lines operate between London and Southend - Fenchurch Street to Southend Central (c2c line) and Liverpool Street to Southend Victoria (National Express). The journey time on both lines is approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour.
> By RoadTwo major roads - the A127 and A13 link Southend to the M25. From the north Southend is accessible via the A1, M11, M25 (Junction 29 - 20 miles) & A127. From the south, Southend is reached via the M25 (Junction 30 - 26 miles) Dartford Tunnel & A13.
> By CoachNational Express operates to/from London Victoria, with the 305' service connecting to Southend. The journey time is approximately 2 to 2½ hours.By Bus
> An extensive network of buses operates between Southend-on-Sea's Travel Centre just off the High Street in and around Southend and surrounding towns.The First X30 runs hourly 7 days a week from London Stansted Airport into Southend Travel Centre.
> The conference at Occupy Southend comes at a key moment in time for the Occupy Movement in the UK and Ireland, and will be an important contributor to its future direction and purpose. With our usual focus and enthusiasm we can leave the conference with one united voice, stronger, bolder and more determined than ever to bring equality and peace to this world.
>
>
>
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