Tuesday, 20 December 2011
Sunday, 11 December 2011
see you soon...
Comrades
As many of my friends in SL know, I have not been able to
come in to work with you on SL Left Unity projects over the past few
months. I have not forgotten you, and I
am still very much in support of the Left Unity project we began way back in
2006.
I have documented my part in SLLU from 2006 on this blog and
also on http://plotsplot.blogspot.com,
so won’t go over all of the superb campaigns and events that have made me proud
to be part of. The comrades and real
friendships I have made when helping in different left projects have been beautiful
and inspiring and I know many of them are going to continue working in SL on
projects that educate and inspire.
I am glad to see SLLU and SLLU members at the heart of the
Occupy SL movement. This is an important
movement and the left need to be a loud voice within it (as well as without –
real change will always need critical friends to help steer it towards fair
change).
I will be coming and going from SL when I can, but my real
life is becoming much too busy at the moment to let me immerse in our work in
SL as I would like to. SL is extremely
time consuming, and this is doubly so when planning events and bringing
comrades together through agitation and conversation. This, of course, can change, so I am not
bowing out of SL completely. My activity
from December to January of this year was intense because I was at home with
broken bones, and coming into SL in the first place back in 2006 was because of
an illness – so I imagine there will be times will be able to come in and help
out in the coming years.
Please – if you see me inworld, contact me and let me know
how SLLU and other social justice projects in SL are going.
Thanks for all the fish.
Sunday, 30 October 2011
Occupy SL website: http://occupysl.org/
I have set up a website for Occupy SL this weekend: http://occupysl.org/
That link will take you to the blog. Look there for a link to the Forums. In the Forums I have created categories for each of the working groups to talk and coordinate. This should be where the working groups can discuss and come to agreement on important issues, ideas, and actions.
I still need to add a lot of introductory content to the blog and the forums. And everyone needs to add content too. If you are a good writer and want to contribute, please let me know. Everybody, let me know what you think needs to be added to the site. Thanks! ~Merriam~
OCCUPY SL WEBSITE/ forum!
New Occupy SL site HERE
Thursday, 27 October 2011
Three working groups (or "committees") were created.
1. Direct Action working group
2. Media Communications working group
3. Facilitation working group
These working groups, or committees, are open groups of ppl who are talking together to generate ideas, discuss and work out the details and feasibility, and then to present and make proposals in GA meetings. A working group is simply a collection of ppl who are focused on one issue or aspect of OSL. Anybody can be a part of a working group by just "showing up" i.e. presenting yourself to the group, listening to what is being said, and offering input. You may be involved in as many working groups as you care to keep up with.
Working groups are not new SL groups. They won't be posting their own groups notices. Though they can use the OSL sl group to make Notices for meetups and solicit for ideas. I'm looking into setting up online forums the working groups can use for asynchonous discussions.
The Direct Action working group's focus is to work on the overall Occupy SL campaign and specific protest actions or other kinds of direct action. Contact any1 Gynoid to get involved with that group.
The Media working group is tasked with developing a media policy and discussing how we should talk and interact with the media in sl. Primarily, this was in regard to non-OSL bloggers. There were concerns about how OSL might get represented if we weren't careful. Contact Flashing Merlin to get involved with that group
The Facilitation working group is to review and refine how we do meetings and how we communicate to work together in OSL. This group would talk with other working groups and develope the agenda for the next GA. Contact Merriam Galaxy to get involved with that group.
*these working group contacts are not meant to be leaders, but are just points of contact for now to get ppl connected.
There is still room for other working groups around the meat-and-potatos of what OSL can/should be doing: specfic issues (unemployment, banking reform, electorial reform, foreclosures, student debt, public welfare and cuts to services, war, poverty, etc), how to do education in sl on these issues, teaching ppl in sl about what OWS is about, how to get involved in rl, activism in general, direct democracy and other models of political organization ...and whatever else ppl want to focus on. People are encouraged to start working groups on their own and..Get Involved!
At the 4th GA meeting we also had announcements from ppl. Miso Susanova told us about OccupyLEA (Linden Endowment for the Arts) and how they are protesting Linden Lab policies that are hurting the artist community in sl. She said that A LOT of artists got onboard with that and also joined OSL. OccupyLEA is losing its space at the LEA sandbox but has been offered and encouraged to setup on Caerleon Arts Collective sims, a big name in SL. Caerleon is about to lose their sims because they can't meet the new tier (rent) schedule that LL has established.
From the letter Miso received from Caerleon Arts Collective:
OCCUPY SL! Hi everyone. As you know, after building SL from the unpaid collective labor of thousands of artists and educators, LL is unceremoniously evicting us by doubling our tier. In the handful of months we have left, we invite you to OCCUPY SL by establishing a tent city of artists and others on the three Caerleon sims.
We want artworks, meetings, discussions, a General Assembly and, in general, joyous mayhem. Press are invited.
Having the arts community onboard with us in OSL is HUGE and great resource. Many artists are already coming to us wanting to do projects.
Flashing Merlin contacted Rodrick Linden this last week asking him to donate space for a virtual Zucotti Park. Rodvik has yet to receive a response. Flashing also contacted Hamlet Au, of New World Notes Blog. Hamlet Au wants to write about OSL, but there was hesitation voiced from members at the meeting on whether Hamlet would present us well in his blog. This in part lead to the formation of the Media working group.
Wara Ysabel from Bolivia shared this about what is happening in her country:
[2011-10-26 19:39:36] Wara Ysabel (vampi.zapatero): thanks .. Well, I am from Bolivia, last 9 weeks we have supporting an indigenous machs from low lands to La Paz, 600 Km long.
[2011-10-26 19:40:09] Wara Ysabel (vampi.zapatero): the reason for that, was the president, pretended to build a higwayt trhoug the National Park and Indigenous terrytry (TIPNIS)
[2011-10-26 19:40:28] Wara Ysabel (vampi.zapatero): well, what happend from the march start (1200 person aprox)
[2011-10-26 19:40:45] Wara Ysabel (vampi.zapatero): we was warking very hard in many aspects
[2011-10-26 19:41:15] Wara Ysabel (vampi.zapatero): 1) Sharing, educating and publishing news (when media stop informing, so walls start talking)
[2011-10-26 19:41:42] Wara Ysabel (vampi.zapatero): 2) Humanitty support to the marchers And we have aprooblem ehere
[2011-10-26 19:42:00] Wara Ysabel (vampi.zapatero): at day 35, police and ppl is close to Evo Morales (coca growers)
[2011-10-26 19:42:28] Wara Ysabel (vampi.zapatero): bloked the march, and close the ways to give them even water
[2011-10-26 19:42:42] Wara Ysabel (vampi.zapatero): note the march include 102 childs, womens, and olds
[2011-10-26 19:43:11] Wara Ysabel (vampi.zapatero): on september 25, police violente breake the march, it was very very sad
[2011-10-26 19:43:15] Wara Ysabel (vampi.zapatero): i will share with you some videos later
[2011-10-26 19:43:42] Wara Ysabel (vampi.zapatero): but that event, makes all the country join. Several ocuppys was made in cityes
[2011-10-26 19:44:12] Wara Ysabel (vampi.zapatero): and the ppol start supporting the march with everything. from water to clowns to make childs be better
[2011-10-26 19:44:23] Wara Ysabel (vampi.zapatero): ok, after 66 days and 600km
[2011-10-26 19:44:32] Wara Ysabel (vampi.zapatero): march reach La PAz
[2011-10-26 19:44:45] Wara Ysabel (vampi.zapatero): and finally, the goverment off the 480USD millons porject
[2011-10-26 19:44:59] Wara Ysabel (vampi.zapatero): so, for now, we won, and most important, we learned
[2011-10-26 19:45:30] Wara Ysabel (vampi.zapatero): the riught way to the union, is the difference betwean every one
[2011-10-26 19:45:44] Wara Ysabel (vampi.zapatero): thanks, and congrast for ocuppySL
So, very cool... :)
Sunday, 23 October 2011
a summary update...
Occupy SL is really taking off. We're running our meetings on the same direct democracy, consensus driven method that OWS and other rl occupation groups are using. One member has done training in rl and prepared a teach-in in sl presenting how the rl ows general assemblies work. He's giving his presentation every Sunday at 6:30am from now on. This is a really valuable contribution to sl and it's great that Occupy SL is able to host it.
We're having our 4th GA meeting this week on Wednesday at 6:30pm slt. Meetings are going great. People have many ideas, a lot of energy, and want to contribute. I've talked to several artists this weekend and our very own, Trill Zapatero is wanting to pull more artists in to do a lot of art supporting Occupy SL. People have ideas for doing sculpture and machinima and I don't know what else. Along with this we are working on having an entertainment event every weekend in order to draw more people in and to bolster any demos, art, or other events happening that weekend. And of course, just to have fun ourselves. We had the Virtual Live Band performing last weekend and we're having a corporate zombie and blood-sucking capitalist vampire Halloween party this coming weekend.
We did a demonstration on a sim this weekend. It was the SL Stock Exchange. It was really just a good iconic image to demo at. The owner didn't see it that way though and ejected and banded us from the sim in the first 10 minutes! It was fast, but fun, and just what we expected. We then followed Miso Susanova over to the LEA Self-Curated Gallery sandbox where she is setting up an ows occupation of tents and media booth modeled after rl occupations. Here we all laughed and talked about what had just happened at the stock exchange place and about what to do next. Miso blogged more about it here: http://gomiso.blogspot.com/2011/10/occupysl-occupylea.html
More ppl are blogging about us and we had a sl talk show host stop by looking for a story for a show. I'm hoping at our Wednesday meeting we can focus on how to get the word out more deliberately and broadly about us...in sl and rl.
I can feel a synergy building in the group......
Fast and fun and just what we expected
The demonstration at CapEx went great today. Maybe a few more minutes to take more pictures would have been nice, but that's okay. The sim owner came (or was already there) when we arrived. We were very nice to him and tried hard to explain what we were about, but I'm afraid he took our presence there very personally and was upset from the very start. He kicked us all off within 10 minutes. :-)
As planned we all followed Miso over to the LEA Self-Curated Gallery (http://slurl.com/secondlife/LEA5/86/14/23) where she is setting up an OccupyLEA tent camp and info board. This is something I'm hoping we can duplicate and setup up at sandboxes and anywhere we can rezz it all over SL. :)
At OccupyLEA we all laughed and talked about what had just happened at CapEx. How do we make the message clearer and spread it farther next time. What more fun can we plan for SL? Things look exciting ahead.
Thursday, 20 October 2011
Let's get this occupation going down, comrades!
from Merriam Galaxy
Can we do one a demonstration/occupatioin this weekend? ppl have been talking about where and how to do it. Let's get together and make definite plans. And after that, let's talk about whatever else comes up. Let's meet at 7PM slt http://slurl.com/secondlife/Flagg/221/64/94 If you can't come to a meeting, can you make your ideas and feelings known? either by dropping a notecard to the group or posting on our facebook page
Sunday, 16 October 2011
Occupy SL on Flickr
Dil Spitz have set up a flickr group to share images and dropped some snappies of the supporting VLB concert
If some like to (co-)moderate please give him a sign.
If some like to (co-)moderate please give him a sign.
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