Planning Meeting, Feb 17th, 2012

= Notes from Occupy the MBTA Planning Meeting, February 17, 2012 =

Agenda:

 * Intros
 * Relevant Dates
 * Assessment of 2/15 Rally
 * Strategy for Occupy the MBTA
 * Wrap-up & Action Steps
 * Next Meeting

Relevant Dates:
February 18th - Mass GA at UMB

February 25th - Action planned by J. Murphy

Febraury 28th - Somerville hearing

March 7th - ??

March 14th - MBTA Board of Directors Public Meeting discussing proposal. 1pm @ Transportation building, 10 Park plaza. Mass Senior Action will be there!

April 4th - MBTA Board of Directors Public meeting finalizing proposal. 1pm @ Transportation building, 10 Park plaza. Mass Senior Action will be there!

July 1st - proposal goes into effect.

Febrary 13th recap
The Good: Great build up, mobilization and energy at the rally.

The Bad: not enough occupy signs. Not enough networking post-rally. 100 people locked out of hearing but no occupiers there to talk to them. Not many people identified as occupiers during the hearing and all late in the cue.

Goals of the Campaign
1) DEMAND no fare hikes, no service cuts, and no worker layoffs!

2) DEMAND a comprehensive transportation plan that works for the 99% of Massachusetts

3) raise awareness of economic inequality, privatization and other mechanisms of class warfare

4) to further unite the 99% of Boston and Massachusetts

other suggestions: Refusal to pay debt or DEFAULT, workers and riders assume collective control over MBTA, run democratically, expanded T service, Free public transport

General Strategy
-Emphasize Transportation plan   so that they can't divide us against eachother, neighbohood angainst neighborhood, east vs. west, rural vs, urban, etc...

-be aware that the final solution will probably be beeter than either solution 1 or solution 2, but it is still unacceptable if it makes poor and working classs people pay more than their share and if it doesn't look further into the future that 1 or 2 years.

-We are occupy Boston so we should emphasize the banks role

Many small vs. Few Big Actions
-we need the small actions to build momentum for the big ones so we need both

Strategic Dates for BIG actions: March 14th and April 4th
Q: Should we move one to the weekend before or after to get more people?

A: No, Mass Senior Action is bussing people into boston on these dates and we don't want to miss those opportunities. We can focus actions on the lunch hour and the evening commute.

-The focus of March 14th should be covering the 2012 deficit, and preventing the hikes, cuts, and layoffs.

-The focus of April 4th should be on a Long-term comprehensive transportation plan.

-April 4th Probably too late for long-term solution in 2013 budget, house committee on ways and means releases mid-April.

Small Actions
-Mic-checking, soap-boxing, flyering...can happen on an ongoing basis. Joe does it twice a week.

-Upcoming hearings - we should have a presence at as many as possible.

-impotant hearings: Winthrop (Speaker DeLeo's district), Cambridge, Somerville, Waltham (city council denounced proposals)

'Mobile Hit Squad'
-Ridgely's proposal is a scalable way for occupiers to maintain a presence.

-could include: music, signs, props (bandaids, cotumes), mobile projection, literature, buttons, sign-up sheets

-word cloud of testimonies

Messaging
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