Join Occupy National Gathering June 30 to July 4th in Philly

[Joanne O'Neill]

 

Important Notice: We still need a couple of people to volunteer to help at the Trenton Train Station to direct people.  If you can help please contact Jim Doria  jimd...@gmail.com

 

Occupy National Gathering in Philadelphia. http://www.occupynationalgathering.com

Promo Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3TTqexXq5VQ

SCHEDULE

Occupy National Gathering Schedule
View a complete list of speakers, workshops, and trainings here: LEARN & CREATE

Occupy National Gathering Schedule (printable version: right click, save link as…)

SATURDAY, JUNE 30TH

All activities will be on Independence Mall (5th and Market) and surrounding parks unless otherwise noted.
9am – Set-up – Independence Mall and surrounding location
10am – 1pm – Occupy Cafe, Friends Center, 15th & Cherry
11am – 3pm – Occupy Caravans arrive
11am – 1:30pm – Speakers
1:45pm – 3pm – Open Space, Workshops, and Speaker Follow-up Sessions
3pm – NatGat Welcome – Main Stage
3:30pm – “Know Your Rights” training – Main Stage
4pm – “Summer Training” – Community/Solidarity/Skill-Building Exercises
6pm – March
7:30pm – Dinner served*
8pm – 9pm – OccuArts – On-stage Performances (if you’d like to perform, contact Jacob at wja...@gmail.com)
9pm – Festivities: Panic Hour Comedy Show

*All meals will be “first come, first served”, but we’ll do our best to get everyone fed. Please bring food to share if you can.

SUNDAY, JULY 1ST

10am – Welcome & NatGat Announcements – Main Stage
10am – 12pm – Topical/thematic meet-ups (find a group discussion – or start your own)
11am – 1:30pm – Speakers & Daily NatGat Announcements – Main stage (Announcements will be at Noon)
11:30am – 2pm – Peoples’ History Walking Tour of Old City Philadelphia – meet at the Chief Tamenend statue, Market Street @ Front (1st)    Street
1pm – 4pm – Occupy Cafe, Friends Center, 15th & Cherry
2pm – 5pm – “Occupy My Soul” art project workshop w/ Elise Kraemer *Off-site, Location TBA
1:45pm – 2:45pm – Open Space / Workshops / Speaker Follow Up Sessions A (Schedule TBA)
3pm – 4pm – Open Space / Workshops / Speaker Follow Up Sessions B (Schedule TBA)
3pm – 4:30pm – Open Mic – On the Soapbox
3pm – 5:30pm – Trainings
4:15pm – 5:15pm – Open Space / Workshops / Speaker Follow Up Sessions C (Schedule TBA)
6pm – 7:30pm – Dinner
6pm – 7pm – OccuArts – On-stage Performances (if you’d like to perform, contact Jacob at wja...@gmail.com)
7pm – FemGA – Main Stage
8:30pm – Visioning discussions
10pm – Festivities

MONDAY, JULY 2ND

9am – Announcements
9am – 12pm – Occupy Cafe, Friends Center, 15th & Cherry
10am – 12pm – Meet-ups
11am – 1:30pm – Speakers & Daily NatGat Announcements – Main stage (Announcements will be at Noon)
1:45pm – 2:45pm – Open Space / Workshops / Speaker Follow Up Sessions A (Schedule TBA)
3pm – 4pm – Open Space / Workshops / Speaker Follow Up Sessions B (Schedule TBA)
3pm – 4:30pm – Open Mic – On the Soapbox
3pm – 5:30pm – Trainings
4pm – Direct Actions (focused on corporate accountability; details TBA)
4:15pm – 5:15pm – Open Space / Workshops / Speaker Follow Up Sessions C (Schedule TBA)
6pm – 7:30pm – Dinner
6:30pm – 7:30pm – OccuArts – On-stage Performances (if you’d like to perform, contact Jacob at wja...@gmail.com)
7:30pm – Community Assembly – Main Stage
8:30pm – Visioning discussions – Independence Mall
10pm – Festivities – Independence Mall and environs

TUESDAY, JULY 3RD

9am – Announcements
9am – 12pm – Occupy Cafe, Friends Center, 15th & Cherry
10am – 12pm – Meet-ups
11am – 1:30pm – Speakers & Daily NatGat Announcements – Main stage (Announcements will be at Noon)
1:45pm – 2:45pm – Open Space / Workshops / Speaker Follow Up Sessions A (Schedule TBA)
3pm – 4pm – Open Space / Workshops / Speaker Follow Up Sessions B (Schedule TBA)
3pm – 4:30pm – Open Mic – On the Soapbox
3pm – 5:30pm – Trainings
3pm – Solidarity Action with ACT UP, Tax Wall Street 1900 Market Street
4pm – Direct Action (focused on bank accountability; details TBA)
4:15pm – 5:15pm – Open Space / Workshops / Speaker Follow Up Sessions C (Schedule TBA)
5pm – Circus on Independence Mall
6pm – 7:30pm – Dinner
6:30pm – 7:30pm – OccuArts – On-stage Performances (if you’d like to perform, contact Jacob at wja...@gmail.com)
7:30pm – Community Assembly – Main Stage
8:30pm – Visioning discussions
10pm – Festivities: Guitarmy

WEDNESDAY, JULY 4TH

9am – Announcements
9am – 12pm – Occupy Cafe, Friends Center, 15th & Cherry
10am – Noon – Visioning Exercise – drafting a blueprint for a better future
Noon – Lunch Break
2pm – 5pm – Visioning Exercise continues
5pm – Final Community Assembly – including reading of any collectively crafted document(s)
6pm -  7:30pm – Dinner
8pm – Final march – Route TBA
11pm – Final Camp-Out & Party – Location TBA

THURSDAY, JULY 5TH

9am – Courtroom Solidarity for a Philly Occupier
9am – #99MileMarch March to Wall Street embarks from Philadelphia Museum of Art -  OWS Guitarmy will be leading an epic 99 mile march from Independence Mall to Wall Street on the 5th for all those that want to join in the quest to deliver the Vision for a Democratic Future! RSVP on their FACEBOOK

SPEAKERS, ARTISTS & MUSICIANS

The following speakers are confirmed.

Saturday, June 30

Molly Gambardella

How Occupy Can Stay Mobile and Counter the Dangers and Consequences of Raids
Brian Sonenstein

Alexa O’Brian

Bringing the Banks to Justice–What Will It Take?
Alexis Goldstein is an activist, programmer, teacher, artist, and occupier. She teachers for Girl Develop It, a group that conducts low-cost programming classes where women can learn in a non-intimidating environment. Ms. Goldstein is a member of the Break up B of A Campaign as well as the OWS Occupy the SEC Working Group. In February 2012, Occupy the SEC submitted a 325-page comment letter to the financial regulators urging them towards a strong Volcker Rule. Before Ms. Goldstein occupied Wall Street, Wall Street occupied Ms. Goldstein.  She spent seven years working in technology on Wall Street. She worked in both the cash equity and equity derivatives spaces.  Her website can be found here: http://alexisgo.com/

Michael Hardt

Effects of the Drug War on American Society
Major Neill Franklin, a 33-year law enforcement veteran, retired from the Maryland State Police in 1999. During his time as an active duty police officer he led multi-jurisdictional, anti-narcotics task forces for the Maryland State Police and commanded the Education and Training Division for the Baltimore Police Department. After seeing several of his law enforcement friends killed in the line of duty while enforcing drug policies, Major Franklin knew that he needed to work to change these laws that cause so much harm but do nothing to reduce drug use. He now serves as Executive Director for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a non-profit international organization spanning 80 countries that works to educate people on the harmful effects of drug prohibition and the reasons that current drug policies must change. Major Franklin is married to Denise, his wife of 25 years and has one son, Brandon. He is also very active in his church, The Place of Grace, where he serves as a board member.

Significance of Occupy Movement for Human Rights in the USA
David Gespass graduated from the American University Washington College of Law in 1970 where he was the first president of the law school’s National Lawyers Guild (NLG) chapter.  He worked for one year with the Lawyers Guild’s Military Law Office in Japan and Okinawa.  Upon return to the United States, he helped found the NLG Military Law Task Force.  For the past twenty-five years, Gespass has maintained a general practice in Birmingham, Alabama.  He is the current president of the National Lawyers Guild and has previously served as the NLG southern regional vice-president. Gespass also served for four years on the editorial board of the Guild Practitioner, the Guild’s theoretical journal; from 2004 to 2009 in the position of editor-in-chief of the journal.  He has been a member of the National Police Accountability Project (NPAP) Advisory Board since its founding in 1999.

Sunday, July 1

Inequality is Crisis
Mark Provost has more than ten years experience as an equity analyst, specializing in the semiconductor and wireless industry. Mark writes regularly about the US economy for Dollars & Sense, ZMag, Truthout, and Global Research.

Toxic Effects of Corporatized Education: Communication, Education, Activism
David L. Palmer is an Associate Professor at the University of Northern Colorado. He earned his Ph.D. in Communication at Bowling GreenUniversity. He specializes in Critical Theory with an emphasis in Critical Education and social justice activism. Dr. Palmer’s scholarship envisions a transformed education system centered on critical civic activism as an instrument for social justice change. Dr. Palmer teaches undergraduate and graduate classes in Communication Education, Communication and Power, Communication and Rhetorical Theory, Music as Social Commentary, Organizational and Small Group Communication, Nonverbal Communication, and Research Methods. Dr. Palmer served for seven years as the Basic Course Director for the School of Communication and has served for over a decade as the Departmental Liaison to the Professional Teacher Education Program at the University of Northern Colorado.

Media Framing of OWS
Brandi Williams-Palmer first began her advocacy work as a special education teacher and autism specialist in Texas, Kansas and Colorado. After teaching for ten years in public schools, Ms. Williams-Palmer turned to social and economic justice activism as a second career. She was one of the early organizers of Occupy Denver, has worked consistently with the InterOccupy Conference Call group, is on the board for the Moment Resource Group, and is an active member in both Occupy Fort Collins and the Occupy National Gathering working group. Currently, Ms. Williams-Palmer is working towards a graduate degree in sociology at the University of Northern Colorado where she is doing research on media framing and the Occupy movement. She is also working on developing a social justice education center in northern Colorado.

“Reclaim the Money Power – with Publicly Owned Banks”
Mike Krauss

Lisa Fithian

Monday, July 2

Breaking Through the Wall of Silence; Why the Events of 9/11 Matter to Occupy
Wayne Coste is a registered professional engineer with over 35 years of professional experience. He was awarded his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Connecticut in 1977.  Since then, he has held many positions in the electric power industry with an expertise in national and regional energy issues. Wayne has been actively involved as a volunteer for the last three years with Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth.  He is a member of the Presenters Team, and the team leader for the Congressional Outreach Team.

How to be Truly Free from the 1%
Amadon DellErba

Inspiration is a Two Way Street
Cpt. Ray Lewis

How to Dismantle the Financial Pyramind of the 1% Over the 99%
Joseph H. Bryan Royster, PhD. is a doctoral graduate of the University of Metaphysics and is also an Ordained Metaphysical Minister as well as a Practitioner. An expert in applied metaphysics and an active member in the Intentional Communities Movement, Dr. Bryan Royster provides a unique perspective to the challenges Occupy faces and the solutions at its disposal. In order to break the dependence the 99% has on the 1% in providing for material needs, Dr Bryan Royster argues that we must fuse the Occupy and Intentional Community Movements together in order to create a viable  alternative to the market system.

Achieving Democracy
Gina McGill currently shepherds national level calls and online working groups via InterOccupy (IO) that are dedicated to advancing the Occupy Wall Street movement and she serves on various subgroups within the organization such as the IO Admin Team, the IO Call Planning Subgroup, and the IO Technical Assistants group.  Ms. McGill organized the first general assembly, protest rally, and public march for Occupy Huntsville.  She also helped design and manage their initial website. She is a contributing curator of occupy-related information for the national database on www.Occupy.net. Ms. McGill holds a Master of Science degree in Public Health from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor and her master’s thesis was published in a peer-reviewed international journal.  Ms. McGill has two cats, Brownie and Tiger.  She will be speaking on the topic of “achieving democracy – a solution oriented approach.”

Matt Taibbi is an acclaimed author and journalist reporting for the Rolling Stone and Men’s Journal. He has also edited and written for The eXile, the New York Press, and The Beast. Taibbi has covered everything from politics to sports to business–all with the wit, humor and gonzo spirit of a Hunter S. Thompson. In 2008, he won the National Magazine Award for his columns in Rolling Stone. As an author, Taibbi has written several books, including The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics and Religion and, most recently, the critically hailed Griftopia.

Tuesday, July 3

Decolonization and the Occupy Movement
Amalia Montoya, who is of Mexica and Apache descent, is a part of (un)Occupy Albuquerque.  She is a lifelong activist committed to decolonization and the restoration of this continent to its original inhabitants. Maria Brazil, who is Xicana, is a mother and also a part of (un)Occupy Albuquerque.  She believes that the secret to joy is resistance.  She comes from a long line of Quakers and worked thirty years as a non-traditional tradeswoman. Amalia and her life partner Maria Brazil are putting out a call to connect with other activists who are also committed to decolonization.

Occupy Peace: How the 99% Can Rise Up Against War
Medea Benjamin is a cofounder of both CODEPINK and the international human rights organization Global Exchange.  She has been an advocate for social justice for more than 30 years. Described as “one of America’s most committed — and most effective — fighters for human rights” by New York Newsday, and called “one of the high profile leaders of the peace movement” by the Los Angeles Times, Medea has distinguished herself as an eloquent and energetic figure in the progressive movement.

The Box of Allowable Activism
Terra Friedrichs

Creating Solidarity Economy
Julie Matthaei has been active in anti-war, feminist, ecology, lesbian/gay, and anti-racist movement in the U.S. since she went to college at Stanford in 1969, and is a big fan of (and participant in) the Social Forum movement. She has been teaching economics – including Feminist Economics – at Wellesley College for 30 years. Julie has written two books on gender in U.S. economic history, An Economic History of Women in America (1982) and, with Teresa Amott, Race, Gender and Work: A Multicultural Economic History of Women in the U.S. (1996), and has been researching and writing about feminist economic transformation with Barbara Brandt for the past seven years. With Carl Davidson and Jenna Allard, she is a co-editor of, Solidarity Economy: Building Alternatives for People and Planet. Julie was a member of the Working Group for the US Social Forum, which planned the caucuses and sessions which are documented in this book, and is currently a member of the U.S. Solidarity Economy Network Coordinating Committee.

Lessons from the Indignados in Madrid
Dani Álvarez-Gavela was born in Geneva, Switzerland, then moved as a kid to Madrid, Spain. Has ever since attempted to travel as much as possible, backpacking through all 5 continents and trying to absorb as much of the world and its differences as he can. He says that his “political background started with the Communist Youths of Spain. Then went through a few years of uncertainty, in which the only ‘official’ activism consisted of a few months in the Sindicato de Estudiantes. Since the start of the 15M indignados movement last year I have been virtually everywhere- camping of course for 3 weeks at Sol and then continuing the work started there through the local Neighborhood Assembly and through the University Assembly (both locally at my university and coordination the struggle between the different universities of Madrid and even Spain). Participated in demonstrations, general strikes, etc..”.

Cheri Honkala is a tireless advocate for the nation’s poor and homeless. She founded the local Kensington Welfare Rights Union (KWRU) and the national Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC), who work to help people who cannot get help through bureaucratic channels find solutions to their housing crises. Honkala was included in Philadelphia Magazine’s list of 100 Most Powerful women. She was Mother Jones Hellraiser award in 1995. Philadelphians and was named Philadelphia Weekly’s “Woman of the Year” in 1997 and she was Ms. Magazine’s Woman of the Year in 2001.