Occupation Education Speaker Series

Occupy Eugene, in collaboration with the Civil Liberties Defense Center, presents a 15-week organizer training series for social justice activists. Come learn everything you need to know to be a strategic, confident organizer! All training sessions will be held at Occupy Eugene V (1274 W. 7th Ave., Eugene) and will be led by expert trainers from various progressive social change movements. Each session is designed to build upon prior sessions. One of the end goals of this training series will be to create a draft strategic campaign plan for the Occupy Eugene movement and empower activists to step up their organizing and actions.

Everyone is welcome. Donations are accepted but no one is turned away for lack of funds. Bring a folding chair, notebook and pen. We are planning to have each session video recorded and live streamed so that activists outside of Eugene can participate via the internet as well.

View the Livestream!
Livestream will begin about 10 minutes prior to the start of each training.

When: Wednesday, March 14, 6:30 – 8:30 pm
Where: OE V, 1274 W. 7th, Eugene
If you are interested in participating please email Mary @ marib.eugene@gmail.com.

Syllabus

(subject to change—please visit this page for updates)

Brought to you by the Civil Liberties Defense Center, in cooperation with Occupy Eugene.
Coordinator:  Lauren Regan, Attorney & Director, CLDC
Contact: Mary B. at  marib.eugene@gmail.com

March 14

Intro/Fundamentals of Community Organizing (Click for video)

Note: the training starts about 10 minutes in.

Lauren Regan, trainer

Download Material

March 18 (week 1b)

Strategic Campaign Planning Intensive—Part 1

Gordon Lafer, trainer

Download Material #1
Download Material #2

1. What kinds of goals should the movement have – things people want to accomplish in 2012?
2. given those goals, how many people need to be actively involved?
3. how do you get to that number from where things are now?
4. in thinking about what specific goals to try and accomplish, what criteria make sense to use in evaluating possible goals?
5. how can we possibly think about seriously winning some of these goals when it means going up against very powerful interests?
6. how do you make a concrete, serious plan for winning something like that within 6 months or so?

Week 1b: Strategic Campaign Planning with Gordon Lafer (Notes)

March 21 (week 2)

Planning, Accountability and Using Work Plans

Postponed due to weather. Please see week 3.

March 28 (week 3)

Planning, Accountability and Using Work Plans (Click for video)

Marion Malcolm, Jean Stacy, trainers

Campaign Planning Tools
Campaign Planning Checklist
Campaign Examples
Accountability for Actions
Work Plan Spreadsheets (.zip file)

As activists, there is a lot to do to change the world and it needs to be done as quickly as possible!  This session will help organizers get organized!  We will cover how to responsibly plan and delegate activities and events so that they are done well and on time, how to communicate progress within committees or groups, and how to use workplans for large campaigns, single events, or your individual activism.

Activist Computer Skills (if time is available)

Jamil Jonna, trainer

1. Building websites
2. Creating and managing listservs
3. Alternatives for collaborative publishing: Crabgrass and Wikis
4. Communications etiquette, compliance with the St. Paul Principles
5. Secure communication

April 4 (week 4)

“It Takes a Community”: Alliance Building for the 99% (Click for video)

The Civil Rights Movement and Strategy in the Occupy Movement by Andrew Levison

Bob Bussel, trainer

1. Introductions and Review of Agenda
2. Why Do We Need Allies?
3. Choosing and Evaluating Allies
4. Reaching Out to Potential Allies

April 11 (week 5)

How to plan an Action

Action Logistical Roles [PDF]
Tactics Star [PDF]
Direct Action Survival Guide [PDF]

Kim Marks, trainer

1. Walk through the basic components of planning a protest, rally, demonstration, boycott, civil disobedience, or direct action
2. Learn the basic components of each—planning, including security culture, exit plan, back up plans, cop plans, how to do recon and surveillance, how to do proper background research on a target and more….

April 18 (week 6)

Foreclosure Activism

Max Rameau, trainer

Learn the basics regarding foreclosure activism, which will allow us to better advocate for homeowner’s rights and stop banks from illegally foreclosing on Americans.

Max Rameau is a Haitian born Pan-African theorist, campaign strategist, organizer and author. In October 2007, Take Back the Land initiated a bold campaign that sparked a national movement: “liberating” vacant government owned and foreclosed homes by moving homeless families into them. In addition, the organization began waging “eviction defenses” by physically blockading homes to prevent police from evicting families.

April 25 (week 7)

Political Economics 101 for Activists

Disposable Workers: Today’s Reserve Army of Labor
The Jobs Disaster in the United States

Jamil Jonna and Dr. John Bellamy Foster, trainers

This session will provide a background on national and global economics. The trainers will focus on the primary causes wealth and income inequality, as well as their unequal impact on racial minorities, immigrants and developing nations. The training will conclude with a discussion of useful talking points for occupy activists in campaigns.

May 2 (week 8)

Strategic Campaign Planning Part 2 [partly cancelled]

Gordan Lafer, who was supposed to head up this training, has cancelled. However, we will still be coordinating a discussion around campaign planning with Michael Carrigan facilitating. Here is a tentative agenda of the discussion.

1. Report back on the  two GA discussions about the idea of OE choosing a campaign (or set of campaigns).
2. Discussion started by Jamil about some of the potential goals of campaign, why OE’s might develop its own particular sort of campaign, and some ideas on the components of a campaign.
3. Q & A and discussion with campaign proposal creators.
4. Potential proposal for the GA on campaigns.

May 9 (week 9)

Building and Using Organizational Power

The trainers will lead a discussion about how to build movement power and create change by effectively engaging the public, and effectively influencing elected officials  and city and county staff.

May 16 (week 10)

Media and Outreach Campaigns

Peter Lafeuer, UO Journalism Professor, Michael Carrigan, trainers

This session will cover how to craft your message, draft a press release, hold a press conference and get your message in various media outlets.  It will also include how to maintain informational communication with members, allies and the general public via email, phone trees, newsletters and other outreach vehicles.

Content from the OE Media Group

Video of media training workshop @ Occupy Portland
Media training workbook from Occupy Portland workshop

May 23 (week 11)

Empowering Activists:  How to Prevent Burnout

Please note: At the instructors request, this training will not be livestreamed so please come and participate in person!

Kate Gessert, trainer

Please review “The Work that Reconnects” section of joannamacy.net prior to the training.

Utilizing Joanna Macy exercises from “the Work That Reconnects,” activists will be led through a series of exercises connected with despair and empowerment and building connections amongst each other. Intended to inspire and rejuvenate. Now go save the world!