Occupy Burque Day 2

Schedule - Noon: Meeting
5:30PM Protest at Bank of The West (Central & San Mateo)

Now is a good time to build a broader movement that includes the intersection of class, race, gender and other oppressions. It is also a good time to build an understanding of the long-term nature of social change. It is a good time to talk about how to coordinate direct action and electoral work.

Ultimately we need to change the rules of the game. The US is not only the most economically unequal country but also a very non-democratic country. We need public financing, same day voter registration, and also instant runoff voting. We should strive for proportional representation. These changes seem small but they change power dynamics. These changes will improve voter turnout for the working class and people of color. With concentrated effort we can also ensure that the elected start to look more like the rest of us - more working people, more people of color, and more women.

This reduces poverty. It isn't the solution but we have two ways to work toward this. One is to fight item by item to improve our welfare state system or we can change the electoral system and then be able to fight from both inside AND outside.

The social and economic justice movement has an amazing boost of energy. How do we better coordinate direct and electoral action?