Note: This IS NOT the “99 Percent Declaration” event. This is coming more organically out of Occupy Philadelphia.

Occupy National Gathering Proposal

On January 7, 2012, the Philadelphia General Assembly came to
consensus on a proposal from the Philadelphia Committee of Correspondence
to form a national working group dedicated to conceiving of, and implementing
a strategy towards, a National Gathering of the Occupy Movement.1 This
National Gathering Working Group (NGWG) has met seven times via conference
call with people from across the country using the InterOccupy system to
debate the merits and discuss the logistics of convening a mass convergence of
the Movement in one place at one time.2 Participants have included Occupy
activists from Sacramento, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Asheville, Missoula,
Phoenix, Las Vegas, New York City, Houston, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa
Cruz, Palo Alto, Denver, DC, Oakland, Albany, Schenectady, Delaware,
Alabama, Chicago, Tampa, San Francisco, Boston, New Hampshire, and
Kalamazoo, as well as Canada.

After several weeks discussing several locations, dates, and purposes we
would like to submit the following proposal to General Assemblies across the
Occupy Movement for general ratification:

We, the National Gathering Working Group (NGWG), propose a National
Gathering of the Occupy Movement on July 4, 2012 in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania at Independence Mall in order to collectively craft a Vision for a
Democratic Future. We further propose that our convergence begin on June 30,
2012 for four days of community and Movement building exercises including
speakers, teach-ins, and free-flowing open discussion at a location to be
determined by the Philadelphia General Assembly.

To facilitate the visioning process we also propose the use of the attached
“National Gathering Visioning Process Proposal” which utilizes a small network
model of communication to organically produce a vision statement of all those in
attendance. We also encourage the creation of local or national processes by
which movement resources could be directed towards funding travel for active
movement participants who otherwise would not be able to attend. We fully
understand that no single gathering can be representative of our entire
movement, but we cannot ignore the value derived from face-to-face contact.
We recognize that attending in person will be challenging or impossible for
many, so we also commit to pursuing an online component through which
anyone can participate via the Internet.

In keeping with principles of the Occupy Movement, the NGWG will
continue planning this gathering only if this proposal is ratified by a

http://interoccupy.org/philadelphia-coc-national-gathering-process-proposal-communique-1/

For full notes see: http://tinyurl.com/NGAgendaView

preponderance of General Assemblies from across the Movement. We are
committed to operating in an open, inclusive, and transparent way. Therefore, all
planning will be done via direct democratic conference calls through the
InterOccupy system. We convene every Tuesday at 9PM EST/6 PM PST.3 All are
welcome to participate. We endeavor to convene an historic gathering that will
require a great deal of organization, so we invite participants from every
Assembly to join us in the planning and facilitation of this effort.

We have included a copy of the process proposal that outlines how to
effectively and efficiently produce a collectively written document. By utilizing
this small network, consensus-based model, we will work together to produce a
vision for the future. We will also prove, through the entire process leading up to
July 4th, that our movement is capable of coordinating mass action and
collaborating on a broad scale, while still holding fast to our principles. In many
ways, the process is more important than the gathering itself.

This Movement will always live primarily at the local level, but every great
Movement should have the chance to gather en masse as a demonstration of
solidarity and strength. A National Gathering of the movement will provide such a
demonstration. At this pivotal stage in human history, we feel we owe nothing
less than a beautiful expression of our collective will to an anxious world
grasping for reasons to hope again.

Once your Assembly as considered this proposal please email your decision
to NationalGathering@gmail.com. For media purposes please feel free to utilize
@OccupyNG and #NationalGathering for social media coordination. Updates will
be posted to InterOccupy.org and OccupyNationalGathering.com.

-The National Gathering Working Group

To register for the call see: http://interoccupy.org/natgatcall/