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Monthly Archives "October 2011"

Lingering impressions from Occupy Wall Street

October 3, 2011 By Chris Corrigan Collaboration, Community, Emergence, Facilitation, Leadership, Open Space, Organization, Youth One Comment

It’s been a week since I was in New York City visiting the camp in Zuccotti Park (renamed Liberty Park) where the Occupy Wall Street movement was in full swing.

I was struck mostly by their process, but also by the earnest and deliberate attention that these people, young and old are giving to the chance they have to open discourse on the big issues of wealth disparity and social equity in America.

When I was there earlier in the week they were engaging in a participatory process to create their demands. It was as much about defining why they were there as anything else. But the fact is that many people are gathered there and supporting the occupation for various reasons. Mostly it is to draw attention to the vast disparities of wealth in the United States and the effect that is having especially on the poor and otherwise marginalized. There was a lot of conversation going on there last week within the group as well as between the group and the Wall Street workers. Surprising amount of joint discerning about what is really going on in America.

What is interesting about the movement there is that they eschew leaders of any kind. This is a traditional anarchist approach, and it’s being put into practice quite deliberately.  There are many facilitators who are helping the group to decide themselves on what to say and do and so far the group has been very clear about non-violence and is even actively discouraging vandalism. I was in one meeting of the outreach team who were reporting on the controversial debate taking place about whether to mark subway maps with the local of the protest. in general, the group there wants to be very careful not to give the police any reason whatsoever to become violent with them. So they are staying away from anything that might be construed as violence or damage and are instead focusing on powerful speech, using their first amendment rights to talk about and explore what they stand for and what the issues are.  There is no presence of the Black Bloc or other masked militants who have brought the wrath of the police state reigning down on protests here in Canada in recent years.

And there is is no clear single agenda, because the totality of the problems facing the USA cannot be summarized with a pithy statement of demands. They are not hijackers and they are not holding anything ransom. They are trying to figure out how to discuss and actively represent the malaise and serious economic, social and political issues going on in the USA systemically and accurately. So much of this analysis and practice lies outside of the mainstream of American thought and debate that it is hard to say it all without seeming crazy. But the USA is coming apart in fundamental ways – even the Wall Street folks don’t dispute the fundamental economic analysis – and standing for possibilities is hard, hard work right now.

It is inspiring to watch them in General Assembly, where twice a day they work through an agenda of decisions using “the people’s mic” as their amplification system.  The police have banned megaphones of any kind and so they speak to the crowd by repeating what the speaker has just said.  This has the double effect of ensuring everyone can hear as well as bringing a quiet shared tone to everything.  It is slow and orderly discourse.  When the general Assembly isn’t meeting, the place runs in a big general Open Space – type gathering.  Anyone who wants to call a session calls out “mic check!” and everyone within hearing distance repeats the phrase.  When enough people are paying attention, an announcement is made, a time and place chosen and the group goes back to work.  It is beautiful to watch.

All people are going to have to challenge themselves to reach across divides if there is any hope of finding solutions to the current and looming crises. At Wall Street many protesters and many bankers were willing to do just that and many many conversations are happening there between suits and sleeping bags. Very little anger at all. They set the bar high for civil discourse despite looking scruffy.

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Wild travel

October 3, 2011 By Chris Corrigan Uncategorized 3 Comments

Back in transit after two weeks on the road. I had two short nights and a day at home to recharge, see the kids, take in the Vancouver Whitecaps BC Place opener against Portland and try to kick this cold/cough.

Things are busy right now. Most of my work is with faith based organizations, including several United Church of Canada congregations who have engaged me to work with them mostly around finding new levels of engagement within their congregations, or in collaboration with others. I am teaching a lot, on Art of Hosting teams in BC, Ontario, and next year Ireland and Utah. I’m back at SFU on Friday teaching Open Space and World Cafe in the dialogue program there. One of my students from last year had a nice article published about her work using Cafe to open up civic conversation in her town of Oak Bay. That one day course, taught once a year, continues to have interesting results.

By far the biggest piece of work I’m engaged in right now is with Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. We are hosting 12 conversations around the United States using the concept of “welcome” as a basis for the organization to reexamine their mission. We are using Cafe as way of exploring ways of belonging and we are engaged with Cognitive Edge to do some significant story gathering and analysis to understand how people’s experiences of welcome can be used by LIRS to discern new strategic patterns.

It’s exciting and interesting work and timely too. We have a lady held two conversations in Philadelphia and Fargo and we are heading to Tampa and Tucson in the new year. Yes Tucson. And I’m hoping we can go to Alabama too at some point so we can dive into the work in the hardest places to do it in the US.

On top of all of that there are little bits of work here and there, an extended piece on addictions related stigma in the health system and a house full of school going children, which is a new pattern for us. I want to blog more and reflect, and I’m just trying to find the time to do so.

Location:Air Canada 142 (YVR – YYZ)

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