[Januaryfirst] A few notes from our meeting, announcement/reminder of next meeting this Wed. Jan 15

[Gil]

Hi everyone,

Our last meeting/brunch was awesome! Thanks a lot to Dave and Teresa for
hosting and offering yummy food and snacks!

I don't know if someone else will send their notes or ideas, but I'll get
the ball rolling. Also, one of the main reasons is to let you all know
that *our
next meeting is scheduled for Wed. Jan 15, at 7 PM at the Heartwood Cafe*.
I've announced it on FB and will email it to the list of people who
expressed interest, just in case.

At our Saturday meeting we had Joseph from Rising Tide as a guest. He
offered some info of what they're up to in the next little while, like
organizing a training with rising tide in Seattle and Portland,  and we
brainstormed a few possible actions that we could do together. One was to
organize a potluck between our collectives to meet each other and start
building connections, and a possible mobilization for some time in
mid-spring, possibly May/June.

Dave then reminded us of the possibility of organizing an event on Jan. 27
at Calvary Baptist. We brainstormed how this could be linked to the Jan.
31st day of action, and went back and forth around how each event could
take shape. Some of the discussion was around the need to make sure we
deepen our understanding of the TPP and how it relates to NAFTA, and by
doing so we also facilitate this to the general public. Then we discussed
about how the day of action is sort of pushing us to organize something
without knowing exactly what we can do, based on our own capacity.

We also discussed that it was important to go beyond the idea of being an
"activist" and constantly react to events, call-outs, etc., but also that
it's important to show our solidarity and be responsive to spaces that can
help our own work. In the end, this is the plan that sort of took shape:

*Chips+Salsa vs Free Trade*
Let's learn about TPP, NAFTA, and how to make a free trade-killing salsa!
Jan. 27 at Calvary Baptist. 6-9 PM.

The general gist of the event is to mix a "public dialogue/discussion"
about "free trade", including TPP and NAFTA, leading into a discussion of
ways to become active and participate. The callout will be mostly emails
and facebook as we don't have that much time to poster/leaflet around town.
We will ask people to come with a tomato, avocado or lime (or all, though
not bringing any will not mean you're not allowed in!) to make sure we can
have enough for everyone.

The first part will be a bit of a "cooking lesson" kinda like they do on
tv. We'll set up a "demo" table at the front, with two "chefs" who will
lead the making of salsa/guacamole, using the ingredients and cooking
process to introduce ideas like importing avocados from Mexico, bringing
temporary workers to produce "BC local" tomatoes, having to check if our
corn chips are gmo corn from the US, etc. Their presentation will be
scripted to make sure we keep on time and topic. The chefs will make a
larger batch of salsa, and each table (approx. 6 tables) will have all the
ingredients and tools to make a smaller bowl of their own. The idea is that
they can make the salsa themselves as they follow along to the chefs.

And afterwards, as we all enjoy our chips and salsa, we'll have a brief
presentation about TPP/Trade agreements based on Harjap and Karin's
presentation that they've used with Council of Canadians.

Then we'll have a discussion and planning session for further actions,
events, etc.

*Jan. 31st Day of Action*
Thinking that we have organized already a march on Jan. 1st, and that we
most likely won't have capacity to do a mobilization, we threw ideas of
banner drops, and other low-effort possibilities. Then we discussed that
perhaps a more solid way of showing support against free trade policies is
to strengthen community connections, which is after all one of the main
targets of capitalism: to destroy communities and isolate us into alienated
individuals that don't give a sh#t :-p

So we figured that this could be a good opportunity of taking up  the idea
of having a potluck between Rising Tide and our collective. We did not come
to a clear agreement if we would invite others, or if we'd do something
else, since people in Washington are interested in organizing something in
coordination with us. This is the most "lose end" after the meeting, as it
would be good to keep the momentum and not let it die down by letting too
much time go by without doing something.

That's a LOT of writing :-p

See ya Wednesday!

gil
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