The Legacy of Occupy: it's influence on the Seifert Format for the new MMM PSCC

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kirby urner

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Mar 4, 2015, 3:36:23 PM3/4/15
to Joanne & Ken Luchini, Carol Urner, cecilp...@hotmail.com, afsc...@googlegroups.com, MMM-PSC


On Sat, Feb 28, 2015 at 8:02 AM, kirby urner <kirby...@gmail.com> wrote in an APC memo (not archived here):



I just wanted to share my perspective that I think the new format, running PSCC as an Advisory Council to activists who may come forward and ask for help, is a hybrid of Oversight and of our own APC.  The difference is AFSC has paid staff and people who already have programs they're working on, whereas PSCC seems to expect people to wander in off the street saying "help us with our activism, you're Quakers, you know how it's done."  I call this the Seifert Format:  paternalistic, unrealistic.  Activists are usually proud and self motivated and aren't approaching others because clueless and needing direction.  Clueless people offering help is not a recipe for success in other words.

However, that did happen once, after Occupy.  Aside from Josh, who had an unclear-to-me role hovering near the medics (he's not a medic), Lindsey and Melody, sometime housemates, were actually living there.  We don't think of Lindsey as part of Multnomah but not for lack of trying on her part.  She staged a Quarterly Meeting talent night and a musical benefit for Sisters of the Road.  She was an activist in the truist sense in that chapter. 


Lindsey (housemate, now in Nepal) with Portland Police:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kirbyurner/6227234424/in/set-72157627710609369

Melody (housemate, now in Austin) storming the Park:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kirbyurner/6218988818/in/set-72157627710609369 
(note bike cart full of provisions for overnight camp)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kirbyurner/6218988528/in/set-72157627710609369
(Lindsey also prepared for Occupation)

Food Not Bombs starts the Food Tent:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kirbyurner/6225288704/in/set-72157627710609369
(FNB later moved to a smaller tent after OPDX was established)

I mention her in particular because she was on board with the organized retreat the night before the "eviction" i.e. through her our household was in touch with a lot of the "leadership" and we were sharing analysis and thinking about what to do next.[1]


Forgot the footnote earlier:
[1]  http://youtu.be/fwqFKEWV84M

Memo continues:
 
However, a group from Occupy did start showing up at Multnomah asking for advice, almost exactly per Rick's model.  He and others dispensed sage, paternalistic and probably vague / unrealistic advice (how much time did Rick spend at Occupy?). And that made an impression.  I think our new format is heavily influenced by that one experience:  of Occupy people coming to Multnomah for support.  That was exciting to our vanity as Friends.  "Lets do more of that" is the thinking.
(I think this is where Rick was coming from when he wrote the new job description for us)


(close up)

Kirby Urner
Thanks to Multnomah Meeting for supporting FNB in these stormy times:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kirbyurner/6104536580/in/set-72157627710609369
(Rick Seifert, then clerk, showing his support -- this was pre Tre Arrow climbing our tree)


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