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#OSF-Ed Circles
#OSF-Ed Circles: #Occupy San Francisco Educational Circles:
found at: http://groups.occupyboston.org/wg/free-school-university/pages/osf-ed-circles
Weekly free education gatherings of 2-4 hours, Sundays.
To foster education the foundation of democracy, liberty and justice. As well as, circles to birth circles. Circles to empower you to call Educational Circles. Be an invitation for autonomous education everywhere ... occupy your mind with your heart and your convictions. Choose to widen your eyes to the horrors and possibilities of life.
The world is not endangered by those who do bad things, but by those who allow bad things to happen. - Albert Einstein
1 research vision
1 research corporate power
1 book discussion
1 special guest in addition to workshops and in the near future, movies
The first "circle" was a workshop on poetry writing which Angelina Llongueras gave on a Friday, either September 30th or October 7th, some two weeks after the camp started. The idea is that these circles expand, people create new ones in different districts, cafes, libraries, etc,,,
What are Educational Circles?
They are about DECOLONIZING EDUCATION turning it from an “exclusive”, “competitive” “individualized” “efficient” institution into an inclusive, cooperative, communal, process-thinking organization.
What do we need to do in the circles?
We need to research, read, study, discuss, share and act as circle-centers for other circles of our own creation elsewhere in the city-state-country-world. {Spokes Counsel}
How do we discuss things?
Discussions are non-confrontational and subject-centered following the working class {indigenous?} model of creating understanding by adding our perceptions, like people trying to create or repair something: each one contributes). We use talking-sticks for a period of up to 5 minutes. Except in the Special Guests circle where the presenter(s) are given up to ½ hour followed by another ½ hour discussion. There is no second round before the whole first round of people willing to share have finished.
How important it is to research in advance?
The more we do so, the more we deepen the conversation by adding our own thoughts to those of others and becoming at the same time, providers and recipients of knowledge and understanding.
What is the purpose of the educational circles?
The circles create an ongoing, open, community think-tank that helps ripen our collective actions and strategies and the circles serve as initiators of ever expanding educational circles in the districts, AS EACH ONE OF US CAN START A CIRCLE IN A DIFFERENT COLLECTIVE, PART OF TOWN and country.
I am committed to creating Educational Circles, perhaps grown from my experience while educating in Mexico and Spain. I am sure holding circles is intertwined with my participation in Latin American Popular Theatre Events, such as, Entepolas (Encuentros de Teatro Popular Latinoamericano) and with my being a co-founder of the Cátedra Latinoameircana de Teatro José Martí in G¡Havana, 2003. I follow in the tradition of 'Teach-ins', Stewart Brand, 1966, Designed and organized “Whatever It Is,” an all-night multi-stage event at San Francisco State Experimental College. and 'The Meeting is the Message", Marshal McClen.
Why are ongoing-spreading Educational Circles an essential part of Occupy?
Why do we need to do ongoing cultural work? .... If you're not in the drivers-seat, you are being taken for a ride ... both of these are answered in more detale at the bottom of this file.
Support: GLIDE Church, libraries, Revolutionary Poets Brigade, UOTC.org: University of the Commons
As soon as you understand that to obey unjust laws is contrary to your human dignity, no tyranny can control you. Mahatma Gandhi
THE CIRCLES:
Sundays, January, 15th & 29th & February 12th and likely 3 more, every two weeks held at Main Library, discussoin limited to 15 people. For more info look below discussion date is bold and listed under the type of circle.
Jan 15th, Sycip Room, 4th floor, Main Library
noon-1:15pm: Book Readers Discussion, The Cost of Living, Arundhati Roy.
1:30-4:30pm: Films for Discussion Circle: Even the Rain.
Jan. 29th Paley Room,3rd floor, Main Library
noon-1:15pm: Education in Spanish: Book Discussion, Hay Alternativas, Vicenc Navarro, Juan Torres Lopez y Alberto Garzon Espinosa
1:30-2:45pm: Special Guest, Dottie Payne, Non-violent Action: Methodology and Philosophy
3-4:30pm: Research and Discussion, Latin American Techniques of Popular Theatre
Feb. 12th Main Library description, TBA
WORKSHOP:
_______Poetry Writing _______________________
FILMS for DISCUSSION CIRCLE:
January 15th, Even the Rain: Tambien la Lluvia, directed by Iciar Bollain, Spainish language, about Bolivia struggles against privatization of water (colonization re: water rights).
EDUCATIONAL CIRCLES in SPANISH:
BOOK DISCUSSION in SPANISH
January 29th, Hay Alternativas, Vicenc Navarro, Juan Torres Lopez y Alberto Garzon Espinosa. Three economists of the Indignados Movement in Spain challenge the main myths of the neo-liberal economy and give althernatives on how to get out of the 'crisis'. email Angelina[dot]llongueras[at]gmail.com for a pdf of the book.
BOOK READER'S DISCUSSION CIRCLE, please read the book and contribute to the discussion:
________ The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klien
December 2nd, The Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon, an old however, classic book on De-colonization
January 15, The Cost of Living, Arundhati Roy
CIRCLE of RESEARCH of ALTERNATIVE VISIONS/METHODS:
_____Dutch alternate currency service, NOPPES (page was removed: The Netherlands has spawned a number of innovative concepts based on the LETS formula, some of which try to lower participation barriers by completely moving their exchange platforms online, like NOPPES.) Quote found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_exchange_trading_system (random mention http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjan_Borsjes) resources for:
_____Bolivian, Law on the Rights of Mother Earth "
Sunday December 11th, Discussion on Communal Styles of Living "
January 29th, Latin American Techniques of Popular Theatre. Angelina will introduce the subject and asks other contributers ot to add especially about: Boal, Freire, Buenaventura, school of Collective Creation ...
CIRCLE of RESEARCH of CORPORATION/POWER GROUPS:
this is a circle of research and discussion. Meaning, even if you only take half an hour to research the subject - via books, friends, organizations, books, libraries, conferences, colleges or whatever you find easiest, most interesting, most challenging, etc...you are getting into the habit of questioning data and finding out about things, which is the opposite of denial. This is the right attitude to educate yourself and others ... so let me encourage you to come to the discussion with some contribution you can share with others ... if 10 of us do 30 minutes of research we can share from 5 hours of research plus our collective understanding. Please google, read, ask, use computers, libraries, colleges, etc ... they are yours!
____________ Monsanto ___________________
November 25th, Blackwater:Xe & FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) Book, by Jerome Scahill, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army is the unauthorized story of the epic rise of one of the most powerful and secretive forces to emerge from the U.S. military-industrial complex, hailed by the Bush administration as a revolution in military affairs, but considered by others as a dire threat to American democracy.
December 18th, FHFA (Federal Housing Financing, Agency) and other Government Agencies controlling foreclosures & evictions, held at: Bradley Manning Plaza
SPECIAL GUEST CIRCLE:
________ Miguel Robles, Corporate Personhood
November 27th, Cecile Pineda will present: "What you need to know about the nuclear industry and were afraid to ask" followed by a half hour Q & A. Books: About a Mountain, by D’Agata, and Half Truths, Half Lies, and Vulture Capitalism
_________ Hannah Meyer, The School of the Americas
_________ Shimaa, The Egyptian Revolution today
January 1st, Eden of #Occupy Boston's Free School University see: http://wiki.occupyboston.org/wiki/Solidarity/FSU http://www.youtube.com/user/FSUOccupyBoston
January 29th, Dottie Payne, Non-violent Action: Methodology and Philosophy
MOVIES that may be coming to #SFO-Ed Circles:
Agora, directed by Alejandor Amenábara (about an Hypathia, woman physicist & mathematician, professor at Alexandria library)
Other subjects for discussion were also suggested, and I am listing them here because they may serve as an inspiration for any of you to dig into, or even create an educational circle about them, in the camp, or in any of the districts. Please remember that we can all spread these circles of public education/awareness.
1. Vulture Capitalism, Greg Pallast’s new book on Vulture Capitalism who has a 40 page section on Nuclear waste and depleted uranium.
2. Shell Oil
3. The Black Eagle Trust
4.The Bank of International Settlements in Switzerland
NOTES from specific Circles: Cecile Pineda, Nuclear Industry, helped us all see with clarity the links between secrecy-corruption-planet and human lives destruction produced by this kind of energy. For anyone interested in researching this deeper, she also gave us some very interesting
Research Sources: NIRS (National Information Research Center), which you can all google
And a few most important books:
About a Mountain, by D’Agata,
Half Truths, Half Lies, by __________
BLACKWATER and it was very nice to see that more and more people get that it is important to do some research previous to the conversations because that deepens the discussion considerably. Some really interesting contributions came from the attendants who disclosed the religious, right-wing anti gay extremism of Erick Prince, the founder of Blackwater, as well as their involvement in the massacres in Fallujah and others (using chemical weapons long forbidden by the Geneva Convention) and that the Obama administration has already allotted them a quarter billion dollars. All these facts and many more can be checked by anyone interested in learning, by simply googling them and finding info about what happens. They have now changed their name to Xe, in an effort to get rid of their already enormous rap sheet.
There is a OWS blog that studies their implications in selective murders, etc…
There is also a book by Jerome Scahill, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army is the unauthorized story of the epic rise of one of the most powerful and secretive forces to emerge from the U.S. military-industrial complex, hailed by the Bush administration as a revolution in military affairs, but considered by others as a dire threat to American democracy.
We learned that there is a Blackwater branch near San Diego and that there have been groups in that area denouncing their activities. We suggested bringing somebody from the San Diego Occupiers to let us know more about this issue or maybe planning even an action together to educate people about them. If American people are aware of what they represent, they can decide to stop their government from having contracts with companies like them.
We also spoke about FEMA and learned that they had been previously involved in the building of concentration camps, among others.
_________________________________________________________________
Please have a look once again at the magnificent Educational data base, university and web page from Occupy Boston. We need something like that in San Francisco and we need people who can put our stuff online for anyone interested to share in it! http://wiki.occupyboston.org/wiki/Solidarity/FSU
Our Circles are growing, slowly but steadily, occupyfdsf@googlegroups.com
In #Occupy Tokyo a group pf women, have started a program on solar energy and who can help learn what has been happening in that country since (and before) Fukushima. I would be grateful if all of you who have been and are part of these circles can help spread the word about what we are all creating and can, in turn, create new ongoing circles so as to let people in this country become educated about these issues that are so closely linked to the policies of the 1% who destroy the planet, our livelihoods and even our lives!
As soon as you understand that to obey unjust laws is contrary to your human dignity, no tyranny can control you. -Mahatma Gandhi
The world is not endangered by those who do bad things, but by those who allow bad things to happen.-Albert Einstein
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Why are ongoing-spreading Educational Circles an essential part of Occupy?
Why do we need to do ongoing cultural work?
To build bridges among/within communities.
To break people’s denial.
They are the tissue that connects our community: blues, jazz, poetry, story-telling, drama…
They question history – tey question ourselves.
They preserve history.
They give voice to the voiceless.
They dismantle the “official” version of history.
They blend myths to create new mythologies.
They touch spiritual/soul issues.
They are a practice of equality within group work.
We listen to the collective wisdom of the group.
We have a direct experience of diversity.
They empower the collective.
They solve problems from the bottom up.
They reveal collective stories.
They create a culture or openness, vulnerability, sharing and dialogue.
They empower the collective and do not allow the consolidation of elites.
They teach people to take care of humanity as a whole.
They create empathy for people’s struggles and history.
They exchange everyone’s skills and experiences.
They heal individual wounds.
They expand our being.
They give individuals a sense of belonging.
They teach to think in a daring way, to talk aloud of what we (each one of us) carry inside.
They allow strategies to form alliances.
They create strategies for creative resistance.
They promote creative thinking.
They empower communities to resist decisions taken by an elite.
They challenge and deconstruct “taken for granted” “truths” about “how things are”…
Those who do not have power over the story that dominates their lives, the power to retell it, rethink it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as times change, truly are powerless, because they cannot think new thoughts. -Salman Rushdie
More notes:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decolonization
http://www.decolonizingsolidarity.blogspot.com/
- "Decolonizing the Mind. Ngugi wa Thiong'o. Excerpted from Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature. London: James Currey ..."
www.swaraj.org/ngugi.htm
A PLEA form Angelina:
Dear Occupiers and other socially conscious friends:
This last week I have witnessed and encountered these nightmares (which are more "local" than the ones we see every day on TV):
-One of our most dedicated campers from day one, and a person who has literally given himself to the movement, with so high a temperature that he was having convulsions, from having to sleep too many days in the damp, alone in the woods. Although I am a foreigner who has only been here for 3 years, and with capacity to only rent a room, with a contract that specifies "no overnight guests", I was able to negotiate having him here for 15 days by using the trust that I have been able to inspire in my landlady...I am happy to say he is recovering, but he risks everything if left again the damp...
-A woman who is a bit older than me, in her 6th decade in the planet, and who has worked since before day one, for the Occupy movement, and has solved very complicated issues for Occupy, becoming homeless now and with the natural terror that a woman our age feels at being at such a situation. She has let me know that she has been desperately asking for people who can put her up even if it is in a garage, without ANY one having bothered to answer her plight one way or another.
- Another dedicated 101er, who contacted me over 2 months ago to help him translate some urgent matters into Spanish. He is becoming homeless himself, and literally he was sleeping on the streets yesterday, and was "rousted by the porkers"...This young man was appalled at the lack of foresight, prevision, and, I would add, lack of political will, to create a STRONG NETWORK OF AVAILABLE SPACES FOR SPENDING THE WINTER so that our committed people can continue doing the work that they are still doing incessantly in spite of these inhuman conditions and the lack of coordination??? will??? awareness??? they are receiving...he is trying to create a network himself, and has done several general appeals - I know because I have received them, and he writes that "the situation is really tight right now.. and that no more spaces are appearing..."
These are the visions (no long term visions, but actual immediate ones) that I want/need to share with you all:
-I envisage a SF Occupy movement for whom priority number one is TAKING CARE OF OUR PEOPLE TO THE VERY BEST OF THE ABILITIES OF EACH AND EVERYONE OF US as the perfect lesson/ practice/ training for our commitment with deep global change na evolution.
I am aware that Occupy cannot solve the entire homelessness problem, that comprises millions of people and grows day by day...but I do feel that this movement MUST take care and ensure winter shelters and working spaces for OUR OWN PEOPLE that have given and are giving so much to the movement. This must be priority number one for all of us, if we really have principles and live by them, if we are sincere, committred and thorough in our endeavours...
I envisage thousands of San Franciscans who are capable and willing to renounce a little of their space and comfort for the benefit of all and are bale to share and trust that if they can help even one person, they do it.
I envisage an Occupy that can bring the issue of eviction and homelessness to the ears of our most progressive politicians, social workers, and media. I see that this issue is constantly raised in local radios, distrioct and city and state newspapers, local TVs, newsletters form organizations, churches and community organizations, that it is raised in all speaking languages in San Francisco, so that pur people can get spaces and shelters with our very diverse communities.
I envisage an Occupy that has been able to organize and maintain a network of health care professionals from the different branches that can tackle the traumas that being "rousted by the porkers imply", as well as the physical ailments that come from living like no human being should live and even less in one of the riches countries in the world.
I envisgae that all the different groups can work together for this goal and that spaces are found and used FAST!!!!!!!!
I envisage an Occupy that is capable of organizing teams that can occupy, protect leagalñy and explain the reasons for the occupation of specualted with buildings, abandoned and unused properties, etc,..
Forgive me if I am not succinct enough in this sharing. I may use an imperfect syntax and what American consider too many words, but they come from my heart and I trust they will be listened to, and acted upon.
Sincerely,
Angelina