Strategic Planning
Many will cheer. And many will groan. But the fact of the matter is...
There is no ["Strategic Planning"] working group in and of itself at Occupy Boston. Feedback appears to be that having "a" strategic planning group is too reminiscent of heirarchical structured centralized control that created this mess in the beginning...
And so... we are engaging in the type of "horizontal strategic coordination" that has been used by organizations working for "social change" for decades.
And if you are interested in planning, here are a few groups you may want to pay attention to.
Strategic Action Planning
This group is focusing on allocation of money as a basis for developing a "participatory action planning" process. Participatory Budgeting is on the menu this money. Help develop the process for OB by getting your Work Group to fill out a form describing its goals and its need for resources to accomplish its mission.
Strategic Roadmapping Exercises
The [Roadmap Working Group] is holding planning summits to help educate people on what strategic planning is. It is hoped that as more people understand the organizational tools available to them, that the Working Groups can be more coordinated. And we can leverage the strengths to overcome our weaknesses and address our opportunities. It is hoped that the tools will help the group prioritize and utilize resources more effectively.
Ideas: Values/Principles
The [Ideas Working Group] is gathering up "concerns" that brought people to the movement. The group discusses "large social issues" and frames the discussion which will lead to specific reforms/actions. The group meets online via an email listserv, and also meets in person. Most recently, the group has been focusing on distilling the concerns that have been gathered in recent weeks.
Strategies, Proposals, Positions
The [Strategies, Proposals, and Positions Working Group] (also known as "SPP")is primarily an online listserv (no onsite meetings). The group discusses reforms and ideas to get to those reforms. And then posts the ideas on the [SPP Working Group page]. The group focuses on long term objectives for "more technical" aspects of reforms, like what to do about banking regulation. For more "human-centric" topics, like "social objectives" like "justice" and what that means, see the Ideas Working Group in the next paragraph.
Tactics: Direct Action and Outreach
The [[1]] Direct Action group and the [Outreach group] are working on planning their tactics. They are organizing "Action Summits" to gather and prioritize ideas for action, and timeline them. Obviously, if we're to have a "diversity of tactics", having them all laid out isn't good. But as a movement, if the different planning groups have a sense of what the tactics groups want to do, we're better able to plan. And if the tactics groups can benefit from the strategic groups, all the better.
Back to [the main Working Group page]
Education
Articles talking to Occupy Strategy
[[http://killpoke.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/chris-hedges-brace-yourself-the-american-empire-is-over-the-descent-is-going-to-be-horrifying/ “Brace Yourself! The American Empire Is Over & The Descent Is Going To Be Horrifying!”]]
Chris Hedges Interview, 3 hour interview about International Economics, Global and Social decay of coloniziation tactics and growth, please watch at least 20 minutes. A big part of this is about Occupy. About 45 minutes in, there's a talk specifically about Occupy: Importance of non-violence in movements:
[Chris Hedges article about Black Bloc] and the importance of strategic non-violence