General Assembly Minute’s 26/11/11 3.30pm

General Assembly Minute’s 26/11/11 3.30pm
Facilitators: Dave / Mark
Notes: Thom

Reach out to the audience
What occupy means to them and how occupy can be improved.
Week 8:
We are Occupy Cork, Waterford, Limerick, Letterkenny, Belfast, and Galway!
Welcoming people from all the Occupies on the island to General Assembly.
March today – chant – mic check
Ordinary people / different ages.
Cork:        Great position – Occupy Ireland forging links.

Waterford:    We cannot go back to the way it was before. Change. Occupy your mind.

Galway:    Our problems are the same but different. You cannot kill a good idea. It’s all about the 99%.

Limerick:    They say you can’t change things, but we can go to the streets, create awareness – get other people involved – spread the word.

Belfast:    This is what democracy is.  We’re sending a message to people at home, giving hope. People agree, they think the same.

We have to work together. We will work. We are working together.

General Public:

• It is a long journey – it is civil obedience that has let this country go, we need disobedience.
• Last week 17 camps from Ireland and the UK linked up.
• Well received whilst visiting a class in Trinity last week.
• Occupy Liverpool has just started.
• This is a global Movement. One nation cannot do everything. It is a movement.
• Create a gift chain between Ireland and UK.
• Need to show solidarity with US occupations that have been moved. Picket the Embassy?
• Take part in reviewing the Constitution – Michael D. Proposal on this topic read out.
• We are the lawmakers. We can fire politicians if we so wish. Iceland are doing this.
• Become the lawmakers. Be the arrow not the target!
• Young girl: sees hope, revolution is not a one-time thing it is ongoing for all the poverty stricken countries that do not have a voice. We are their voice.
• €5 trillion, estimated, worth of natural gas off the west coast. Be aware the IMF will take that.
• Many different people are under financial pressure.
• Ruining kids chances of getting on in adult life.
• People from all walks of life gathering together, it’s amazing. Questions being asked that would never had been asked before and people talking. We have to work together in large numbers.
• Working class people and communities are under particular pressure. Community groups asking people to join the Spectacle of Defiance and Hope event on Saturday 3rd December
• Special Needs Assistants being taken away, and families of children with special needs are suffering
• Looking for social, political and economic change. Take inspiration from the global social justice movement, Zapatistas in 1994, Battle for Seattle in 1999. Remember the billion people around the world who are hungry, who are   suffering because of this economic system.
• Egypt: 200 people died protecting an area like Dame St. they’ve called out for an election, things are changing. The military are still in power, we want to put ourselves up for democracy. Can’t rely on the government as they’ll stay in power and nothing will change.
• Economic change
• Remember we are one planet and we need to care for the environment.