September 2011
13 posts
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“Around three in the afternoon we reconvened our General Assembly. There was a brief discussion on how the Assembly worked due to the new members that were among us. We work as an ordered democratic body that passes proposals through a modified-consensus. Anyone can speak, but there is a list, we call it a stack. Our stack isn’t first come first serve – socially marginalized voices are given priority. We use hand signals to express assent (wave your hand high), dissent (wave your hand low), points of process (make a triangle with your forefingers and thumbs), and blocks (make an X with your forearms). A point of process indicates a query or an objection, or, rarely, a valued interruption. A block is used to indicate that the Assembly is disobeying its principles. A block voices its principled objection and the Assembly votes again, a vote of 90% 1 can overturn a block.”
—OccupyWallSt.org | The American Revolution Begins Sept 17th
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“David Starkey and Melanie Phillips have promulgated an outmoded fear of foreign cultures’ influence on British ‘identity’, which continues to bind this country to an idealised past, as if that identity is something fixed and in no need of changing. For strict nationalists, the British state is a finished sculpture, complete and exquisite. Foreign influence is like a chisel incessantly whittling away at something that is already perfect and divine.”
—Resisting the Riot Fearmongers: lessons from 1958 and beyond | openDemocracy
