Author Archives: r_garcia

Occupy Atlanta Marches to Bank of America HQ

Posted on October 11, 2011 by r_garcia

Posted in Headlines | 4 Comments

We Need You NOW!

Posted on October 10, 2011 by r_garcia

For immediate release
Occupy Atlanta Media Committee

Occupy Atlanta participants met with Chief Turner and his staff today and were warned that the police intended to enforce the city ordinances against camping and against being in the park after 11 pm. Arrests are expected.

Statement:

Here in the “city too busy to hate,” the city where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born, attended college, and preached, we come to speak our own dreams.

We believe that the American political process is so corrupted by the influx of lobbyists, “free speech” corporate cash, and politicians beholden to both that it has failed us completely. Our only option left is to occupy public spaces in order to assert our right to freely assemble and to redress our grievances, rights guaranteed to us by the First Amendment. Exerting that right has ironically become an act of civil disobedience, a fact which points out exactly what the problem really is. We owe no obedience to laws which abridge our Constitutional rights.

In the face of threatened police action to stop the peaceful “Occupy Atlanta” protest in Woodruff Park, one of hundreds of such protests all over the country inspired by Occupy Wall Street, we call on all supporters of the Occupy Together movement and defenders of the first amendment to to come down to Woodruff Park before 11 PM and stay as long as you can to forestall police action.

We encourage you to bring a camcorder or camera to document the peaceful nature of our protest and any police action.

Posted in Press Release | 6 Comments

Re: Congressman John Lewis

Posted on October 9, 2011 by r_garcia

For immediate release
Occupy Atlanta Media Committee

Today Occupy Atlanta General Assembly unanimously agreed to invite Congressman John Lewis to come and speak.

Occupy groups are governed by procedural rules that allow them to function in chaotic circumstances and to exercise participatory democracy in a large group. These rules are based on the principle of absolute equality and each voice being heard.

Anyone may come and speak to or participate in a General Assembly. There is a set order which includes a point where the floor is opened for comments. Anyone present may put their name on the “stack” as it is called and speak. It might seem a simple thing to break the order, but in a large crowd where everyone is supposed to get a chance to be heard, deviating from it quickly causes chaos. Each deviation encourages the next until no conversation can be maintained.

All of the speakers who have attended a General Assembly in New York have followed this process. Occupy Atlanta is unaware of any exceptions. Congressman Lewis, who attended Occupy Atlanta’s 5th General Assembly on October 7, is familiar with consensus from his days as a civil rights leader but was unable to stay long enough to allow the process to unfold due to prior commitments.

Statement:

We hope that explaining our process will go a long way towards preventing any future problems or misunderstandings so that we do not inadvertently give offense to those whose voices and knowledge we would very much like to hear. We are dismayed that anything we have done would seem to show disrespect for a man whom many of us revere, and apologize to everyone who was hurt or angered by our actions.

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