Hi Everyone.

I hope that it is okay for me to send this to you all.  Please advise me
where best to send out INVITES to the proposed *G99% International People's
Assembly* - this November in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia - following
the G20 Summit...

This article has been posted on the website,
http://interoccupy.net/natgat2014/an-aussies-reflections-on-occupy-natgat-2014-and-where-to-from-here/

and on fb page https://www.facebook.com/OccupyNationalGathering/

DEEPEST REGARDS and FIERCE LOVE to ALL,
Katharine Dawn
Byron Bay, NSW -- where I am calling an *Inaugural Northern Rivers Regional
People's Assembly* :
http://www.earthholocracy.org/northern-rivers-regional-peoples-assembly


*An Aussie’s Reflections on Occupy NATGAT 2014 and Where To From Here*

Big huge Blessings and Gratitude to all the #Occupiers who gathered from
across the United States (and the few of us from abroad) to participate in
the #Occupy National Gathering 2014 (Sacramento, July 31 - August 3) and
make it such a deeply enriching and inspiring event ! #OCCUPY LIVES !

Here’s a rather uniquely positioned account of the NATGAT 2014 - coming
from one who has been a Very Enthusiastic Fan of the movement (having
personally created two large websites - *www.Global-Spring.net*
<http://www.global-spring.net/> and *www.EarthHolocracy.org*
<http://www.earthholocracy.org/> - that fundamentally owe their very
inspiration and existence to #OCCUPY !) while living remote from its
centers of activation.

NATGAT 2014 was my first Direct Experience of the movement and the Heroes
and Sheroes that are dedicatedly keeping this highly significant
socio-political evolutionary process ALIVE. My dear #Occupiers : you are a
testimony to the indestructibility of the human spirit. You have not
relinquished your authentic humanity to the dominant paradigm of greed and
selfishness. Rather, as abundantly clear at NATGAT 2014, the outstanding
and unifying quality of this movement is that its champions CARE : we
actually CARE - about everyone and everything. #Occupiers CARE about the
world and the Quality of Life that we will bequeath to future generations.
Echoing the words of Leonard Peltier, ’I want to thank you from the bottom
of my heart to the top of my soul’ (The Nuclear Resister, No. 174).

The best I can do here is to offer some flashing glimpses of the bright
lights of creativity, exciting projects and initiatives, common-sense
visioning and awareness-raising endeavors that filled and over-filled the 4
days of NATGAT 2014. Deep breath, and here we go!

>From the Indigenous Nations Network, Lakota man William Underbaggage set
the tone for the Gathering opening the event with his impassioned words of
fire and truth, calling forth our humanity to act now with integrity and
dedication so as to effectively address the many very real issues of our
times.

Brother of the Zapatista Movement, Mario Galván brought the voice of
Mexico’s grassroots proclamation YA BASTA! : ENOUGH ALREADY! into the heart
of #Occupy and the common ground of humanity’s shared aspirations.

The Light Brigade provided the fairy lights and fancy board-work so that
#Occupy could light up Sacramento overpasses with shiny images of PEACE and
LOVE. What a gorgeous form of cultural creativity and consciousness
raising! Yay!

Carl Pinkston, an Afro-American Sacramento resident, shared the awesome
story of a small local community that just wouldn’t give up -- and
eventually SUCCEEDED in stopping the PUC, a natural gas company, from
carrying out its plans to pump and then store natural gas under the
community’s housing area - despite serious potential risks to community
health. POWER TO THE PEOPLE, RIGHT ON!

Now #Occupy well understands that you can’t seriously further aspirations
for Real Democracy without simultaneously advancing Local Self Reliance :
as Henry Kissinger (who didn’t make it to the NATGAT) made crystal clear,
“Control the Food and you Control the People”. NATGAT 2014 had a strong and
YUMMY presence on this front - with actual food, as well as presentations,
information and banners from the verdant fields of Guerrilla Gardening,
Occupy the Farm and Disobeying with Great Love! Awesome

crew from the Giltrack Farming Coalition at the University of California
shared their inspiring story of claiming a portion of UC’s agricultural
research lands (formerly held in entirety by GMO / Monsanto-based research
projects) for Community Organic Food Production.
*http://www.takebackthetract.com/* <http://www.takebackthetract.com/>
Fierce Love in Action - Power to you, Brothers and Sisters of the Real
Revolution. You can be sure that I will be sporting the RADICAL iconography
of the Eugene Avant-Gardeners when back home in Australia : proudly
displaying their great symbol of People Power : the fist raised in
solidarity wielding the gardener’s shovel and pitch fork.
*http://www.sustainableeugene.org/cascadia-food-not-lawns/*
<http://www.sustainableeugene.org/cascadia-food-not-lawns/>

Let it be Known : THIS is a Peaceful Revolution.

Indeed it is. NATGAT 2014 had the great honor and pleasure of hearing
co-founder of FOOD NOT BOMBS, Keith McHenry, offer a retrospective on the
principles and world-transforming history of this radical volunteer
organization that in thirty years has grown from a group of eight
anti-nuclear protesters cooking for their friends in Harvard Square to a
global movement boasting more than 1000 chapters worldwide. As Keith
explained, anyone can set up a FOOD NOT BOMBS chapter. All chapters work
autonomously, united by just a few key and common features : serve
vegetarian meals to all equally; use the abundance of wasted food in our
society to redistribute it to those in need; and try to end war and poverty
while you’re at it! *www.foodnotbombs.net* <http://www.foodnotbombs.net/>

Sacramento Occupier Laurie Funaroff contributed a fantastic presentation of
the Better-Off Budget, a People-Centered Budget supported by the majority
of congressional Democrats via their involvement in the Congressional
Progressive Caucus. This Caucus identifies the availability of 6.1 trillion
dollars for the Better Off Budget; characteristically, the Obama
Administration denies the existence of such funds, insisting upon
neo-liberal business-as-usual where the masses are necessarily doomed to
suffer more of the same and worse - with further Cuts in Public
Expenditure, more home foreclosures, etc, etc… Part of the Better Off
Budget is the proposed Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street. Check it out and
explore ways to get involved in the formerly endorsed Occupy National
Education Campaign about the Better Off Budget (formerly the People’s
Budget) at
*http://www.sacwilpf.org/2012/05/the-peoples-budget-and-more-a-project-of-wilpf-and-occupy-sacramento.html#more*
<http://www.sacwilpf.org/2012/05/the-peoples-budget-and-more-a-project-of-wilpf-and-occupy-sacramento.html>
. #OCCUPY WALL STREET!

NATGAT 2014 of course held a number of General Assemblies. Six Proposals
were endorsed. I was very keen to see and experience a General Assembly in
Action - as currently I am working towards the igniting of ‘An Australian
Spring’ founded upon a significant expansion of Australia’s participation
in the worldwide Real Democracy Movement via a widespread establishment of
People‘s Assemblies in the ‘Great Southern Land’- see
*http://www.earthholocracy.org/real-global-democracy-2014*
<http://www.earthholocracy.org/real-global-democracy-2014>. Although time
constraints meant that the Proposals I had hoped to present never did reach
the floor, the informal support I received from many of the NATGAT 2014
participants has greatly encouraged me on my humble way…

So, I return to Australia more inspired, with many new friends and faces
and contacts in the Movement, and also with a strengthened sense of the
value, significance and relevance of what from afar I had already
considered to be important Next Steps of the global Real Democracy Movement
- steps that could potentially catalyze a major expansion of broad civil
engagement. As UK Guardian columnist David Graeber noted at the outset of
#Occupy Wall Street : "It's becoming increasingly obvious that the real
priority of those running the world for the last few decades has not been
creating a viable form of capitalism, but rather, convincing us all that
the current form of capitalism is the only conceivable economic system, so
its flaws are irrelevant... .. the debt crisis has come home to Europe and
North America, replete with the [classic] approach: declare a financial
crisis, appoint supposedly neutral technocrats to manage it, and then
engage in an orgy of plunder in the name of 'austerity'… When the history
is finally written, though, it's likely all of this tumult – beginning with
the Arab Spring – will be remembered as the opening salvo in a wave of
negotiations over the dissolution of the American Empire. ... If the
occupiers finally manage to break the 30-year stranglehold that has been
placed on the human imagination... everything will once again be on the
table – and the occupiers of Wall Street and other cities around the US
will have done us the greatest favor anyone possibly can." *Guardian.co.UK
Sunday 25 September 2011*
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/sep/25/occupy-wall-street-protest>

Now is the time to take the Movement to the next level : we can break the
stranglehold on the human imagination, we can effect the dissolution of
Empire, we can inspire Hope beyond Helplessness, we can provide the
effective civil vehicle for THE 99% to RECLAIM our lives and our common
planetary future. To do so, we must operate effectively. As Arundhati Roy
points out about the 1% : “They need us more than we need them”. We, the
People, were always warned that if we do not stand up for our Rights, we
will LOSE them : the unconscionable specter of human suffering in our world
today bears tragic testimony to the fact that we have LOST our
‘inalienable’ Human Rights. NOW - when the worldwide Real Democracy
Movement has established our web platforms of Global Solidarity - now is
the time for the People to Rise Up in Solidarity to RECLAIM OUR RIGHTS.
Please see a customizable *Local Community Declaration of Rights *created
for this purpose :
*http://www.earthholocracy.org/local-communty-xm-declaration-of-rightsxm*
<http://www.earthholocracy.org/local-communty-xm-declaration-of-rightsxm>
This Declaration - which draws its Authority from the *International Bill
of Human Rights *(described as the singularly most powerful tool of the
People at this time), clarifies the nature of a genuinely democratic system
: Real Global Democracy would, by definition, HAVE to be a DECENTRALIZED
SYSTEM. Please see the *Earth Holocracy Proposal for Unfolding Real Global
Democracy via Universal Self Determination *:
*http://www.earthholocracy.org/the-proposal-xmfor-real-democracyxm*
<http://www.earthholocracy.org/the-proposal-xmfor-real-democracyxm>

In closing, I’d like to invite #Occupiers, Global Justice Advocates,
M15-ers, members of the Bolivarian Alliance, Iceland People’s Government
representatives and all the world’s Real Democracy Champions to attend in
person (if possible) or online a proposed *International G99% People’s
Assembly* in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia THIS!!! November (from the 17th
to the 20th) following the *G20 Summit *and week of community protests and
cultural activities based at the *Brisbane Aboriginal Sovereign Embassy *and
organized as *The First Nation’s and Wider Community’s Response to the G20 *
(8th to the 16th Nov).

Please see
*http://www.earthholocracy.org/real-global-democracy-2014/92-real-global-democracy-2014/194-the-g99-peoples-assembly-and-peoples-conference-follow-up-to-the-g20*
<http://www.earthholocracy.org/real-global-democracy-2014/92-real-global-democracy-2014/194-the-g99-peoples-assembly-and-peoples-conference-follow-up-to-the-g20>

On a final note, I’d like to advocate that the Real Democracy Movement take
a good look at evolving our organizational processes from Consensus-based
Decision-Making to the next level - sociocratic Consent-based
Decision-Making. The viability of the Earth Holocracy Proposal for Real
Global Democracy is significantly based upon the proposal’s customization
of Sociocracy - which replaces top-down methods with EFFECTIVE METHODS for
HORIZONTAL ORGANIZATION. It’s time for an ETHICAL REVOLUTION - inspiring
the Family of Humanity with a realistic way to Translate Core Ethics into
Life Experience. Please see *http://www.earthholocracy.org/holocracy*
<http://www.earthholocracy.org/holocracy> .

OCCUPY LIVES!!! The Heart of Humanity LIVES! Let’s take it to the next
level of REAL EMPOWERMENT and HOPE!

BLESSINGS and FIERCE LOVE !!

Katharine Dawn

Lot 3, English’s Rd

Upper Coopers Creek

NSW 2481

www.EarthHolocracy.org

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