Two things- There will be a meeting for May Day and final planning tomorrow night. We’ll meet at 7pm in the Macarthur Park, right in front of the mall and by the Tide station. Call the Occuphone for details (757-298-6787). Also, Food not Bombs will be tomorrow. We’ll meet at the church at 31st and Colonial in Park Place. We’ll prepare local produce and bread to hand out afterwards. Great activist opportunity!

To the activist community, Greetings once again. Just wanted to bring everyone up to speed on things that are going on here in Hampton Roads. Please continue to send us updates and we will post them all.

1) The YWCA has organized a “Stand Together Against Racism”. This will be tomorrow afternoon, April 27th, at 3pm. It will be at the Chrysler Museum in the Diamonstein Education Workshop. The exhibit opens at 10am and the discussion will begin at 3pm.

2) Occupy Virginia Beach is having Ann Wright speak Sunday, May 6, 2012 at Great Neck Park. They will have a cookout/potluck there from 3-7 at Shelter 3…more to come later in the way of directions, etc. She is a retired Army Colonel and was a diplomat. During the run up to the Iraq War she resigned from her her State Dept post. She has a book: DISSENT, Voices of Conscience, Government Insiders Speak Out Against the War in Iraq

3) Food Not Bombs will meet this Sunday as well. This is a great grassroots organization that is similar to and precedes the Occupy movement. They have no leaders or formal structure. They meet at the Park Place Baptist Church on Sunday afternoons to prepare vegan meals (food donated by the Five Points Farmer’s Market) to those in the community who are in need or who are homeless. After preparation they serve the food free of charge and it is truly a great service that is open to everyone who wants to participate. They usually start at 3pm. Call the Occuphone (757-298-6787) or e-mail the site for directions/information.

4) Father Greg Boyle will also be visiting the area and he is involved with a lot of community organization and activism in Los Angeles. By all accounts this will be a great opportunity. This will be Tuesday, May 8, from 7-9pm at the Church of the Holy Family (1279 N. Great Neck Road, Virginia Beach, Virginia, 23454).

5) There will also be a planning meeting tomorrow night at Al’s place for the Hampton Roads May Day, a celebration of labor, the working class, and their struggle right here in Hampton Roads. We’re currently planning to start gathering at the Commercial Place Park at noon and hold various activities, such as drumming, poetry, art, etc./prepare the park for the day. We’ll have a work group meeting at 4pm for the local Occupations, an action around 5:15 to spread awareness of the celebration of May Day, and then a regional General Assembly for Occupy Hampton Roads at 6pm. Call the Occuphone (757-298-6787) for directions to Al’s or e-mail the site here. We need to lock in a schedule and contact as many people as possible over the weekend. Seems like there is a lot of enthusiasm for this and we want to support the great things they are doing in NYC, Spain, and all over the planet.

6) There are also a lot of activists in the network who want to hone in on Citizens United with a lot of focus. There will be a meeting scheduled for May 9th to plan further activities. Details and location will emerge over the next week or so and we’ll keep you updated.

7) Next week, at the Occupy Norfolk GA (May 3rd), we will entertain nominations for the Spokes Council and for the working group representatives. The elections will then be held at the General Assembly in two weeks (May 10th). The assembly will put forth nominations for the Spokes Council and 3 at-large members will be elected. In addition to these at-large members each working group will also put forth at least one representative and one auxiliary representative for each working group (Finance, Legal, Communications, Outreach, Action). These representatives will attend the Spokes Council meeting and assume new duties as delegated per the recent proposals. We’ll continue to post the proposals and qualifications that we are looking for but please attend next week armed with ideas.

Also, there will be a seminar for small business and how they will be affected by health care reform. Very relevant and important topics include what Virginia as a state government is doing, how it will affect businesses, how to apply for tax credits, comply with the law, and so on. Please spread the word to business owners and contact bob@bobbecker.org or call 804-937-0752 for more information. Ok, that is all for this week. Please stay in touch and we will continue to update you as they come in. Virginia Social Justice and Liberty Coalition

To all friends and supporters of the Occupy movement,

We’d like to once again extend a heartfelt invitation to everyone to attend the General Assembly tomorrow night, Thursday, April 19th, at 7pm.  We will gather in the Waterside Mall Food Court and, if the weather permits, maybe the theater out back, which is directly behind and within eyesight of where we sit. Call the Occuphone for questions/directions.

We’ll be going over a lot of work that our organizational team has been preparing to improve our organization for what promises to be a year of activism and change.  These are substantial and thoughtful changes that we would like to hear input on and prepare for a vote.

So, we implore you all, come and voice your opinion as we as a group move forward with this. Democracy works when we all come together to develop the largest and most effective consensus that we can.

Several things going on this weekend.

-Rally against the Education Cuts in Virginia Beach, tomorrow, at 1030 am. It will be in the Fountain Plaza in Virginia Beach Town Center. The Occupy VB phone is 757-828-3647 if you need directions or want information.

-Also, there will be yard sale for the local I.W.W. chapter at J.P.’s house. I don’t have the location on hand but call/text the Occuphone for Occupy Norfolk at 757-298-6787 if you want directions/information.

-Also, tomorrow at 4pm, there will be a rally for justice in the case of Trayvon Martin, as well as others who have been victims of a racist system. The Rally will be at Lafayette Park in Norfolk.

-Also, don’t forget to check out the petition below. We’ll be working with various Republicans, Democrats, Tea Party members, Libertarians, etc., to present this petition. which is against the portions of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 that pertain to indefinite detention. The petition revokes any violation of our Constitutional rights, per the NDAA, and encourages Gov. McDonell to sign into law a bill passed by the Virginia legislature. This bill would prevent any Virginia employee/agent from participating in the violation of an American’s constitutional rights. Please sign, pass it around, call/e-mail your representative, or make a visit with us.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/virginia-governor-mcdonnell-sign-house-bill-1160/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=system&utm_campaign=Send%2Bto%2BFriend

To all our friends,

Last night we took a temperature check and decided to proceed with several proposals until there can be a formal vote next week. We’ll post the proposals in the forums on our website this week (occupynorfolk.com) and we’ll take a formal vote next week, Thursday night, 7pm, at the General Assembly. Please attend GAs, if you have any concerns or questions. If you absolutely can’t make it, contact me and make sure I can take it to GA. Also, read carefully over these proposals, check the forums on the website once they’re posted, and think about the many changes we are proposing.

The proposals are to:

-Proceed with a non-violent resistance training open to all coalitions who are interested (this is a national call for training and supported by many coalitions, it is not an Occupy idea). This will be April 14th and Joe Cook is working to put it all together. Hopefully we’ll have a location before the weekend is out. We’d like to have a whole day of non-violent principles, teach-ins, and role playing. Any input on location would be very helpful at the moment. I believe that Occupy Virginia Beach, Virginia Organizing, and some others hosted a similar event recently so any tips on location would be great.

-Also, we’ll entertain a proposal next week to take a stance against the Portsmouth-Norfolk tunnel tolls. Dave Potvin and his business are already plaintiffs in the group lawsuit against the tolls and Occupy Portsmouth has already taken a stance against the tolls. In fact, they’re holding a sign waving today to spread information about the lawsuit and other activities against the tolls.

-Third, we’ll entertain a proposal about the Occupy the Warfare Summit that is being planned. We’ll hear information about what the summit is, why a protest would be significant/positive, and what we could do to assist.

-Fourth, we also decided to support a petition against the NDAA and to encourage Governor Bob McDonnell to support HB 1160, which is a bill passed by the Virginia legislature that would prevent any agents/employees of Virginia from participating in indefinite detentions or other violations of the Constitutional rights of an American citizen. I will send a e-mail to follow this one with more information and a link to the petition. The Tea Party, Libertarian Party, and several registered Republicans/Democrats have also decided to support it and would like to arrange a series of visits to our state and federal representatives from Virginia to show the broad opposition to these measures and other similar legislation, i.e. the protest trespass bill, the currently considered Enemy Expatriation Act, etc. Here is a link to the petition. http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/virginia-governor-mcdonnell-sign-house-bill-1160/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=system&utm_campaign=Send%2Bto%2BFriend. Please sign, contact our representative, and think about making a visit with us.

-We’re also continuing with the organizational meeting. We’ll hold a special General Assembly on April 12th to hear a report on all of our work and then we will take a vote on April 19th on the final version of the proposals. We hope to get a lot of input, see a lot of people at GA on April 12th, and have some awesome proposals to vote on by April 19th. We need as many people as are interested/concerned to attend these GAs and make your voice heard.

-Also, two important proposals up for consideration next week. We will introduce a new plank resolution that will apply our rules of conduct at GA to the facebook community. (i.e. civil discourse, refraining from obscenities, personal attacks, violence, etc.)

- We will also introduce a new proposal that would make it so that Occupy Norfolk can only offer its support to an event once it has been formally passed through the General Assembly. This is to clarify the process by which we plan, adopt, and coordinate events. For those events where time is sensitive and impossible to take through the formal process we will have an alternative method to gauge the group’s support. This is being developed by our organizational team.

Ok, so a lot of stuff is going on. Stay tuned to what we are up to and I hope to see you all soon.

Last week was a whirlwind of activity for some of us

-A number of Occupiers were at the Monday night meeting for Virginia Organizing and brought back great tidings, as expected.
-Tuesday’s organizational also went extremely well and we continue to hone in on exactly what we need to bring some ideas before the Occupy Norfolk general assembly.
-Wednesday some of us went to the NARO theater to see a documentary and speaker about the state of the U.S. intelligence community and foreign policy. The speaker is supposed to have been especially engaging.
-The last couple days of the week were spent preparing for Saturday’s march and rally, which had excellent weather, old and new faces, and a theme of “End the Police State”. A lot of frustration was expressed with the National Defense Authorization Act, the Enemy Expatriation Act, and the Patriot Act. Chants to the tune of “End foreign occupations, our jails are filled with non-violent criminals, no more indefinite detentions for anyone, and the right to privacy” were all in turn part of the march, expressing the many and varied ways in which these pieces of legislation have chipped away at all of our freedoms.

This upcoming week we also have several things planned

-Occupy Norfolk has an organizational meeting at 7pm on Tuesday night at Dave Potvin’s and General Assembly will be at 7pm on Thursday, at Waterside.
-Occupy Virginia Beach will meet Tuesday night at 7pm at Jobi’s Pizza in Virginia Beach.
-and most importantly for all of us, there is a very important court date on Friday. This will be the last of the charges against anyone from Occupy Norfolk or VB and will be for the alleged trespassing of December 14th at the World Trade Center. Please come out and show your support at 9 am in court room 6 at the General District Court. We will black colored clothing and red scarves or other adornments to show solidarity as we hope for a final dismissal.

Hope to see you all this week as we inch closer and closer to the American Spring. Exciting times and a year of activism are close at hand

Just wanted to bring everyone in on continuing plans for this Saturday. It’s going to be an awesome event and we’re all really excited!

This Monday night, March 12th, our Local Involvement Team and Occupy Norfolk will attend the VA Organizing meeting at 7pm.  This will be a great opportunity to see what they are up to and how we can get involved.  This is a fantastic organization that is involved with a number of excellent and Occupy-related issues.  The meeting will be from 7pm-9pm at the Thalia United Methodist Church, 4321 Virginia Beach Blvd., Virginia Beach, Va 23452.  Hope to see a  lot of you there!

Also, this Tuesday night, at 7pm, our Organizational Team will have another meeting.  We’re really making some progress and hope to emerge soon with some really well debated proposals for the General Assembly so that we are prepared for the spring and an increased amount of activism. Come out and join us at Dave Potvin’s to see what we’re up to there.

Wednesday night will be another fantastic opportunity.  The NARO movie theater in the Ghent area of Norfolk will be screening a movie called “The Man Nobody Knew”, a movie about the CIA agent William Colby, directed by his son.  It is a documentary and highly acclaimed.  Colby was very outspoken about U.S. foreign policy and his involvement in the CIA in later years.  There will also be another former agent-turned-activist there.  Ray McGovern will speak and share his experiences as someone with an intimate knowledge of U.S. foreign policy and the inner workings. The movie will start at 7:15 pm.

Thursday night, there will be a General Assembly at 7pm, our new meeting day and time. We’ll continue to meet in the Waterside mall food court for the time being.

Finally, next Saturday, March 17th, we will gather to protest the enactment of the National Defense Authorization Act and the currently debated Enemy Expatriation Act, which would further widen the government’s ability to circumvent due legal process in attacking those it deems as “hostile” or “terrorists”.  We will meet at Commercial Park (the old camp) at 1pm, make signs, share information, and rally.  We will leave for a march at 2pm and conduct some street theater and share information at symbolic parts of the city.  We will then picket from 3pm-5pm along St. Paul’s by the highway exits.  Come out with banners, literature related to the events, signs, and flags.  We will prepare some literature and information to pass out this week and hopefully be able to put it in everyone’s hands for Saturday.  We also need some props for our street theater, especially if you have military fatigues or orange jump suits. Come out and join us for a protest against a worthy cause and a good time as we take to the streets once again.

Friends,

General Assemblies will now be once a week, on Thursdays, at 7pm. Same location at the Waterside mall food court.  The decision was unanimous and minutes will be posted accordingly.