Infrastructure of Occupation Camps

This topic NEEDS discussion

Geno — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 23:24:11 -0600

I am desperately trying to help ORGANIZE the Jacksonville, FL occupation. I am working on using Drupal as the CMS and I see a lot of potential with the platform where the movement is concerned.

First and most importantly, it's open source, so we can modify it to suit our needs.
Second is it's very modular so that helps keep the coding down.
And third, it has a very strong community to help out with things.

I was hoping that there are some very competent drupal developers out there who could put together a "prepackaged" installation geared toward Occupy movements. This would help keep all of the information consistent across the board for when a better system is developed.

Just an idea. Please share your solutions so we can all get on the same page.

Tactic: to stop them from moving the camp :)

whatcanisayimste — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 07:31:13 -0700

http://www.concretecanvas.co.uk/

about 6 months ago i witnessed the concrete cancvas which is a quickly erectible permanent structure in under 2 hours

id like to see them try and dismantle these world wide

Time for a new strategy: Bivouac, not Encampment.

ialdabaoth — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 13:02:50 -0700

Phase 1 of the Occupation has been resisted, and temporarily disrupted, by the "local authorities" in multiple locations.
A proposal: - All 'camping' should be made of quickly assembled, disassemblable and transportable equipment, with an eye towards rapid relocation when necessary. - All media broadcast equipment should be limited to hand-held devices. - All documents should be digital and distributed. - Any paper documentation necessary should be generated.
The keyword for Phase 2 should be "Agility".
Let's make a permanent, ever-shifting Flash Mob; a Mobile Army for Peace. Those with military training can facilitate the "deployment readiness" of the rest of the movement.
We have done admirably thus far with our non-violent tactics, there is no need to violate these tactics to maintain our solidarity and viability. Military deployment and encampment tactics do not require military-style violence. That said, our brothers and sisters from the armed forces have a vast knowledge of quickly setting up and breaking down bivouac-style encampments; let's learn from them and organize some kind of 'deployment committee' wherever we continue to Occupy.

Some basic ideas:

- Bivy bags instead of tents
- Survival and first-aid kits on each medical personnel instead of (or in addition to) medical tents.
- Hatamoto-style flags instead of (or in addition to) fixed media/info/medical/food tents.
- Backpacks full of "cook-in-the-pouch" style MRE's.

All public parks should have restrooms.

Old_Hippie_Tips — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 21:47:46 -0700

All public parks should have restrooms.. Let's say that I am a regular person, it's a nice day and I decide to go to the park and read a book or kindle. Suddenly, nature calls. Why should I have to leave the park and inconvenience a local business to use the restroom? These parks were built with taxpayer money and restrooms should have been in the budgets along with benches, trees and stupid statures. Until these parks are retrofitted, they should stand in portable toilets. OWS has a good record of not littering and could keep restrooms clean if given a chance. Liberty Plaza is not a park and should have a save the trees movement.

Something to keep in mind: Protest where people can see you. Occupy camp space to support that.

Sky — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 02:28:18 -0700

For the Occupy San Diego crowd, what I have noticed is they created two Occupation sites.

One was overflow from the crowd at the first location. And this got me to thinking about other Occupations.

Basically, you want people to be seen protesting. This gets your message out, and shows you demand action for change. The longer you protest, the greater the pressure.

The Occupations are to shelter those protesting so they can continue their protest.

So, in every community, figure out (with community leaders) what you want to protest, and where it can be done.

In this way, you can have a line of people with signs, standing on the street in front of Wall Street banks or wherever, and the encampment they use can be located elsewhere, hopefully within walking distance. This is the base of operations that supplies the protestors.

Does this make sense?

Open Source Occupy Together Field Manual

iam_occupy — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 08:48:47 -0700

Leader or no leader, you must have had some leadership and organization skills to have ended up in this discussion in the first place. Like yourself, I am moved to Act Now!

The question is where and how to go forward? I have a tent and spare time. Can I just go outside and Occupy random space in my village? Do we need infrastructure, fixed dates and planning permission for it to have an effect?

Just a tip: www.howtooccupy.org published a wiki called 'Occupy Together Field Manual' for anyone to use as a guideline when setting up camp. Move it forward peacefully. Let's take this one outside. That's where you can find me.

Web Conferencing Solution for Offsite/Onsite Collabortative Meetings

Cyberinga — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 23:28:02 -0600

I'm Inga Jensen, a member of the Social Media Work Group. I'm trying to find a web conferencing resource which would provide a cooperative environment for our work group meetings which include both onsite and offsite members. We are hoping this solution can be scalable to our General Assembly and Inter-Occupy group meetings.

I'm taking a multi-prong approach to finding a solution by contacting OccupyTogether, people in the media who have expressed some knowledge of the need for web conferencing in the Occupy movement and application developers who may or may not have a solution. I am hoping to find a group or groups who are currently using web conferencing successfully.

A Template For Occupation Tips and Opinion

Old_Hippie_Tips — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 18:35:53 -0600

Infrastructure requires organization,dedication and responsibility. At first glance, it was abstract but I zoomed out and viewed the entire United States. The infrastructure is connecting it altogether to make it easier for new occupations to form.
We use to say “If you're not part of the Solution, you're part of the Problem” which was used to urge people to the front and sober those being silly. Although the rhetoric is all people are represented here, the fact is we have two categories, those who have a place to go and those with no place to go. These people need the most care, but have the most to offer to building infrastructure because they are always there. Occupations should poll their people to identify those in this category and issue them a token like a poker chip to carry on their person. NO, I'm not building a class system, but rather a safety system. If you are in a police confrontation and a fellow demonstrator shows you the chip, run some interference so they can get out and avoid arrest. Being homeless, results from circumstances with many possible entanglements like outstanding warrants or insufficient identification. These people should be offered a position in one of the stations in the occupation to help and it becomes their shelter. I was watching the stream last night where outside people were offering warm rooms but those running the stream could not supply the number for Comfort. What? This resulted in 6 occupiers needing hospital attention due to hypothermia. There were many people asking the where about s of others and not one was known. You can't spell infrastructure without structure, may be too simple. Considering all the coal powered electronic devices the occupiers carry they don't seem to use them with a common link. During my protest days I didn't have a phone. I gave a phone booth number and we agreed on a time to call. We had no internet, facebook or twitter or even TV. By the time you got to read the “underground” paper, it was conformation and not news. The human mic is brilliant and a powerful weapon on the streets. It comes off as you have a command structure and have the ability to focus the entire group on a single detail. It does lose some luster when the speaker uses a bullhorn as I've seen in other cities. The bullhorn is the voice of the police.
What ever infrastructure is fashioned, it should be sent directly to every listed occupation. We don't want occupations to fall off the list because they couldn't get help from NYC. The corporation's Media will cover every detail of an occupation failure! These remote occupations don't have the the creativity pool as available in NYC and many lack a good education. I recommend assembling a supply kit to not only welcome but implement a common set or rules and goals to combine all occupations as if one. This models franchising but your enemy will view it as we view a Walmart coming to our small town. With organized labor wanting to be a part, let them distribute information and supplies to occupations using their established infrastructure. They have the ability to organize and are a sturdy group of people. I view their role in this revolution as I viewed the Hells Angels in mine. Enforcers. In today’s encounters, I'll prefer a teamster watching my back over a 20 something with a smart phone. We have military personal returning and they will need the new knowledge and have a unique skill set to offer.
If occupying on a national level, a legal infrastructure can be created. The rights we are being denied are guaranteed by US law and supersede state and local ordinances. Permits are for Parades not Revolutions. You can't beat your enemy until he fears you. We use to FREAK OUT people just by coming face to face. It was a little upside down but if you didn't freak them out they hated you ..Freak them and they still don't like you but fear you. It was a non violent mind game that certainly left a mark. The current method of two breaths followed with a specific question of what they don't agree with has great purity but doesn't work with the “Oh Yeah”? groups.
You might realize by now I have no plans for roads, bridges tunnels and light rail.
A video network is part of our infrastructure and must be mastered quickly. “The Whole World is Watching” poor quality video on live-stream. Visual marketing is very important to this movement because the corporate media is paid to not cover it unless it goes all wrong. Live-streaming from a phone in bad light and the holder unaware of how slow the auto-focus responds to movement while giggling and talking about snacks makes us look as if we can't attract talented media people. I currently shoot video of vintage and historic auto racing and have built layers of redundancy to attempt perfect video. I don't get a second take! Occasionally I will walk back to the truck with the video still running, but I’m not streaming. I shoot for free and give it to the drivers for them to share with their family and friends. It's BS compared to what you are shooting which is history and evidence. Most cameras have low light settings and the white balance can be set compensate the light color temperature. The Live-stream would be quite watchable if it were a live broadcast between occupations. We can have a nightly news program. Currently it is a person looking depraved reading a laptop screen and filtering the trash talk and trying to reply to information requests while what appears to be hiding in a tent. Bad Press.
Electrical power needs to be a major component in the infrastructure. Having your generators stolen might be a mixed blessing. The units i saw them load only the large yellow unit was 100% duty cycle. Before long, someone would point at your carbon footprint and they would require servicing. Deep Cycle Marine batteries connected to inverters will provide 120V AC power. Laptops can be used with their AC adapters and will charge the internal battery at the same time. Deep Cycle batteries can be discharged further than car batteries without damage. Rotate the batteries to an off site location for recharging but keep the inverter at the camp. Camp lighting should be LED which are available in 12 volt for automotive and 120 Volt for home use. The current draw is very low and the light is white. The inverter is quiet except for the cooling fan and should be rated twice as high as your expected current draw. This system can be replicated and distributed to other occupations. I have a 2400watt unit in my video truck which is good for about 1000 watts and I attached a voltmeter to monitor the battery. A “Mic Check” in to you group will find an electrician or maybe an engineer more than willing to pilot the task. In 1970 Abby Hoffman wrote a book called “STEAL THIS BOOK” which is a survival guide for the revolution and contains many tip and tricks. You don't have to steal it just Google it.
The tents currently being used are meant for privacy only. They can be use to hide a porta potties or provide a place to change clothes. I recommend EZ-UP which are available in sizes up to 10 X 20 feet. They have sidewalls and do not require staking. They also have telescoping legs to vary the height. They can be lowered at night for sleeping. They also have a top aluminum frames structure where lights can be mounted. In the lower position, they can be over tarped to provide more protection then stuff it full of campers just this side of rude. Collective warmth and communication instead of walking back to your cold wet pop up.
There was a music group named Three Dog Night which was a reference to how many sled dogs to bring into your tent to keep from freezing. This is another item that should be shared or distributed to other occupations.
This occupation should not extend beyond our borders. The war is against the banks and corporations controlling our government and they won't go down without a fight and plan on dirty tactics.. Remember, we have already lost many battles while the opium of consumer electronics, sports, social activities and reality TV lulled us into denial. We should take the fight to them in the winter. Wait until spring and they will be jamming our phones and crashing our websites. Wikileaks did many mirrors for protection.
A piece of the infrastructure that I have little knowledge is how to provide health care while we bring down the insurance industry. All insurance is pure extortion and should become the term used. We have Health Extortion so we don't loose our house and possessions. We have mandated Auto Extortion so we don't loose our house and possessions. We have Home Owners Extortion so we don't loose our house and possessions? And my favorite, Life Extortion so our remaining family doesn't loose the house and possessions.
When I was a boy, the doctor would come to our house and my dad never had trouble paying him.
This chunk of infrastructure will get me some flack. Security and Defense of occupations. Right now, if you were breaking windows, burning car and tires, looting for supplies, the police are trained to handle you, and would do so. They are all dressed up in the stormtroopers outfits , taping their baton into a gloved hand glaring at people that are making sense. They are not trained for this duty. An occupation needs security with scouts and bouncers. We had to deal with undercover narks. One tactic was to put followers on his tail and exposing him to everyone you encountered until he left. We have many among us with military service and special training. These people would be the best scouts and have a record of protecting American citizens. I will not discuss the bouncers in this discussion because of the big red box at the top of the screen.
We are the 99% but not even 1% of the people. The non violent methods will work on the police even if the National Guard is needed to explain our rights. But then they will send the thugs and mercenaries to kick your ass and there won't be a cop in sight. While you are targeting the corporations, you are also upsetting the agendas of evangelical Christians and the social conservatives that want to bring their gun to church. As a group, they own a good piece of the running our government. Fox and talk radio will fan the flames of hatred and there is the possibility of counter demonstrations which will paint us as pinko socialist job killers.
This distraction will allow the banksters to load the last piece of pie into their golden parachutes and with corporate jets waiting, book, crashing the economy with us to blame. Last but not least, The Patriot Act.............
I know I rant, but please understand that I've been waiting nearly 40 years for this revolution. I want success for you but fear for your safety.