When: July 4th @ Noon Where: Colorado State Capitol
The 1st Amendment is our permit to march. The only rights we have are the ones we fight to keep. All are welcome.
In solidarity with Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning. BRING WHISTLES!
We demand that the surveillance of any person be done with the direct oversight of the international public and that whistleblowers and truth tellers be protected from prosecution!
We demand the full freedom of press and privacy as promised by the U.S. Constitution! We demand all our constitutional rights!
The Patriot Act has accelerated the widespread use of illegal surveillance in violation of the spirit and letter of the 4th Amendment.
We demand the PATRIOT Act be repealed and the National Security Agency be fully investigated on the issue of unwarranted surveillance!
We ask for the involvement of all people in a sign-carrying march at Civic Center Park to HALO camera HQ (13th and cherokee/ police hq) on Independence Day, July 4, at high noon, to demand greater public awareness of surveillance and persecuted whistleblowers!
Meet at the Capitol!
Passed the Occupy Denver GA: 16 yea 0 no and 0 abstain
Occupy Denver rejects white supremacy, this march is governed by Occupy Denver’s anti-oppression commitments. We support a diversity of tactics when dealing with bigotry in our community.
When: First discussion on Tuesday, June 18th. from 5:30 to 6:45 p.m. Please complete chapters 1 & 2 for the first meeting. Where: Deerpile (above City O City at the corner of 13th Avenue and Sherman)
The Occupy and Educate Denver Reading Group reads and discusses books which present a distinctly radical perspective on political and social justice issues of urgent relevance to our community and world. Our goals are to educate ourselves and one another, inspire critical analysis and discussion, build community, and provide a welcoming space where activists can reflect on what we do, re-energize, increase commitment, and explore ways to improve our effectiveness.
Current Book: The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups by Starhawk
Collaborative organizations have the unique potential to harness their members’ ideals, passions, skills, and knowledge—if they can succeed in getting along together. The Empowerment Manual is a comprehensive guide for groups seeking to organize with shared power and bottom-up leadership to foster vision, trust, accountability and responsibility. This desperately needed toolkit provides keys to:
understanding group dynamics
facilitating communication and collective decision-making
dealing effectively with difficult people
Drawing on four decades of experience, Starhawk shows how collaborative groups can generate the cooperation, efficacy and commitment critical to success. Her extensive exploration of group process is woven together with the story of RootBound—a fictional ecovillage mired in conflict— and rounded out with a series of real-life case studies. The included exercises and facilitator’s toolbox show how to establish the necessary structures, ground rules and healthy norms. The Empowerment Manual is required reading for anyone who wants to help their group avoid disagreement and disillusionment and become a wellspring of creativity and innovation.
A team of Denver based Occupiers are conducting a large scale research project to understand Occupy GAs around the country. How many are still going? What are they like? Who attends them? What do they do?
The purpose of the research is to gather information about the practices and developments of Occupy General Assembly’s across the country since September 2011. The goal is to learn how GAs have been used within the Occupy movement; to learn why some GAs continued and others discontinued; to learn what procedures and facilitation techniques worked and did not work; to learn what the demographics of Occupy GAs has been and how marginalized communities have been represented; and to compare the GA methods of different Occupies around the country.
Interviews and surveys with participants in Occupy GAs across the country will be used to gather information about the developments of GAs. Surveys will be used to gather information from a large pool of respondents from each Occupy. A smaller number of interviews will ask for more in depth explanations and stories about the processes and development of each GA.
The results will be published on interoccupy, occupy websites, and other outlets.
What we need from you:
We are looking to get as many people as possible who have participated in Occupy and attended a GA to fill out the survey about how GAs have functioned in that city. We want to get survey responses from people in Occupies that still have GAs and Occupies that do not still have GAs.
Spread the word by: mass emails, inclusion in newsletters, endorsements by GAs, facebooks posts, on Occupy websites, or any other methods. If you would like to distribute printed versions of the survey, contact us and we’ll send a printable version.
Be sure to include this link when spreading the word.
This research project is being conducted by Terese Howard and Christopher Mandel. They have participated in at least 500 combined hours of Occupy Denver GAs since September 2011, and are frequent GA facilitators. Both researchers have done sociological research in academic settings before, but are proudly doing this project independent of any institutional structure.
This action seeks to highlight the role of The Palm and the Colorado Restaurant Association in pushing an ordinance through the city council that criminalized the survival act of sleeping by our homeless friends. Wendy Klein, the sales manager at The Palm, testified for the Downtown Denver Partnership in support of the “Urban Camping” Ban. Detailed information on the impact of the “Urban Camping” Ban on the homeless can be found at Denver Homeless Out Loud.
Wendy Klein, sales manager at The Palm, spoke in strong favor of the ordinance criminalizing homelessness at the April 30, 2012 city council public hearing about the “Urban Camping” Ban. She also brought the unanimous vote of the Colorado Restaurant Association in support of the ban to the City Council.
According to Kline who could only refer to the homeless as they or it, “they are lining up outside our doors even as we speak this evening placing their property on our property to save their nights real estate so that they will have a safe, warm place to sleep impeding our guests and even those who are walking back and forth from the restaurant…Now with the warmer weather descending, we are seeing it come back in full force. Our people are asking us what we can do.”
The wealthiest “movers and shakers” in Denver meet to eat, socialize and make deals at Palm Restaurant.
Occupy Denver calls on The Palm, the Colorado Restaurant Association, the Downtown Denver Partnership and the City Council to take the lead of other cities and pursue compassionate, justice-based alternatives instead of criminalizing homelessness. We call on business groups to increase funding for initiatives that will eradicate homelessness.
Instead of criminalizing homelessness, local governments, business groups, and law enforcement officials should work with homeless people, providers, and advocates for solutions to prevent and end homelessness.
Cities should dedicate more resources to creating more affordable housing, permanent supportive housing, emergency shelters, and homeless services in general. To address street homelessness, cities should adopt or dedicate more resources to outreach programs, emergency shelter, and permanent supportive housing.
Business groups can play a positive role in helping to address the issue of homelessness. Instead of advocating for criminalization measures, business groups can put resources into solutions to homelessness.
When cities work with homeless persons and advocate for solutions to homelessness, instead of punishing those who are homeless or poor, everyone benefits.
This action seeks to highlight the role of The Palm and the Colorado Restaurant Association in pushing an ordinance through the city council that criminalized the survival act of sleeping by our homeless friends.
When: July 4th @ Noon
