Individual Action
Marching and educating are critical components of the movement. And what better way to get some exercise and/or meet your neighbors. But beyond teach-ins and rallies, what can we do in our daily lives? Teach ourselves how to "OCCUPY THE ECONOMY" and "OCCUPY OUR CULTURE" and "OCCUPY THE SYSTEM"...to evoke change from within and without.
Here are some ideas...
From Sage:
"What i do every day is where the rubber meets the road ... talking with people to raise radical consciousness, shifting people's frames, getting people to see outside the box, creative actions that get people to think and to see the Matrix-like control society that we live in, and the Mordor-like rapacious extraction of resources from the Earth, and the cancerous growth machine that is praised on TV."
Other ideas...
SUBVERSIVE/INVISIBLECATALYSM
Subversive evolutionary CATALYSM is the art of figuring out how to change systems without anyone noticing, or noticing so little that they don't care. Big change can be made this way. Click here for more info: CATALYSM
BECOME A "FREEGAN"
[Give up money all together...here's how], at this link, scroll down and look at the buttons on the left
ECONOMIC VOTING (vote w/yo buck)
- BUY LOCAL, whereever possible, including buying from locally owned stores. doing so keeps half of your money local, more if you focus on locally MADE products.
- move your money from big-bank to local credit union (credit unions are run by members who control the direction/policies)
- buy from "responsible companies", who support living wages for their employees and practice environmentally responsible sourcing.
-- want a more detailed definiton of a "responsible company?" get a defintion here
-- the ["Good Guide"] has great suggestions:
- support healthy food chains (buy local, eat as much organic as you can, try not to support toxic chemical companies, make new page w/details]
- join in on the other work going on in the [Sustainable Economy Working Group] The WG will be posting a list of what it thinks are "good rating groups" to decide where to put your money. Stay tuned! Better yet, join us!
- [AWESOME economic and education action suggestion site]
Start a Coperative and/or a Social Enterprise
Start your own (or join up with a) horizontally and democratically run organization such as a "co-operative" or [social enterprise]. See the link for resources, including lists of co-ops that are already in place..
As an example of a coop that's starting up, check out the Sheba Green Cleaning Coop.
"Take Over" your LOCAL GOVERNMENT
- get involved in your local government. go to meetings and voice concerns about things. You may laugh, but most serious long, term activists have taken over some part of their local government, either getting budgets directed to support their cause, taking control of certain departments, or creating "study groups" as a prelude to changing laws, legislative process, and/or entire Master Plans
Here are some specific ideas on how you can change your local governemtn
-- put in place "Local Rights-Based Ordinances" to establish rights over commerce/profit. This is a direct and successfully proven challenge to illegitimate government action to suppress "natural laws".
-- buy local/sustainable policies (most governments do this, but check to be sure yours is doing so)
-- divesting government money from multi-national banks (investing in credit unions and local banks helps the local economy)
-- getting toxins out of government operations, weed killers, fertilizers, cleaning products, office products, etc etc.
-- getting things on line and reducing paper usage
-- increasing opportunities for low income housing by allowing rooming houses, etc (BEWARE of "affordable housing" scams in the suburbs promoted by developers, though! Conscientious developers have plenty of ways to develop affordable housing, if they want to...they don't need us to give out "corporate welfare" by destroying our communities with "zoning incentives". These work great in high density urban environments...but not where precious green space still exists.)
-- increase "access" to government, by putting more online, having evening hours, etc. government is controlled by the people who are lucky enough to be able to go to meetings. most working people can not go. so government ends up being run by elites. online access helps remove that barrier to the people.
- register to vote (yeah, a lot of us don't like "the system", but we're in it, so let's at least vote)
And...of course:
SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL "OCCUPY"
- Put a tent in your yard! A sign on your car! - Hand out flyers...poster your town... Meet with local community groups. - March! (it's great exercise and you get to meet interesting people! - Organize a meeting in your town - JOIN a [Working Group!] - START A WORKING GROUP! - volunteer@occupyboston.org - If there's an encampment, camp, Cook food, bring blankets, donate cash, come and help...
MARCH/PROTEST/HOLD A SIGN
- get involved with local activists who care about the same issues you do.
- MARCH! it's good exercise! and keeps the issues in the media
- make up a BIG SIGN out of cardboard and stand on any street corner. Check out the Sign Tent for inspiration on what to say on your sign. Or just say what you mean!
- contact us for dates of marches/rallies, or look at the calendar at www.occupyboston.org (on the right side)
MAKE ART and WRITE!
Write and blog EVERYWHERE. Put your mark on everything you feel comfortable putting your mark on. Here's a suggestion for Moss Grafitti
TEACHING CHILDREN ACTIVISM
READ A BOOK... Give up commercial "stuff"
We know it sounds like it couldn't possibly amount to much, but imagine is everyone stopped buying crap, and watching TV? I mean how exactly do you stop being afraid of terrorism? well, turn off the TV!