things to do in Salem

Things to do in Salem:  2013 Oregon Legislative Session
Working Draft of the Occupy Portland Solutions Committee

Introduction
In early 2012, Occupy Portland joined with Occupy movements from around the state, and formed partnerships with other advocacy groups, to begin to take back the state legislative process from entrenched special interests.  On Feb. 1st, participants converged on the State Capitol for the opening day of the 2012 State Legislature for a combination of teach-ins, demonstrations and direct actions.  This document lists some of the results of several meetings of an informal OPDX working group,   which met to review what we learned from the experience, what worked, what didn't work, and what insight was gained from the experience.  What follows is an outline of general themes, strategies and possible tactics to use for the upcoming 2013 state legislative session.  It is presented here with the intent to foster more brainstorming and discussion to a wider group.


Guiding Principles for 2013 activities:
We need to stay focused on the central theme of the Occupy movement --- the concentration of power by corporate interests and the continued inequality of the economic system.   Anything we do should trace directly to one of these 2 ideas.

Realities and strategies:

*we can't have a sustained presence during the legislative session, so we have to plan single-day events that have potential for media impact

*meeting with individual legislators in Salem on a particular day can be effective if done in a coordinated way and in sufficient numbers

*embarassing our ALEC legislators is effective -- it forces the target to defend their actions, it can draw media, and more importantly, it gets the attention of the other legislators.

*since the system for drafting legislation is closed to most outsiders, it's unlikely that we can get bills drafted during the session.

*Many of the bills will already have pre-determined outcomes:  they'll either die in committee or will pass with wide support.

*Bills won't be released to the public until mid to late January, giving little time to identify bills of interest and mobilize support or opposition.

*The Oregon House is now controlled by a 34-26 Democratic majority. 3 ALEC members on the Republican side lost their seats in the election, but ALEC still has 16 known members in the House.

*Repubs will push for 'reforms' that weaken PERS and reduce benefits for public employees, Democrats will try to shore up K-12 education.

*Both sides will try to pass legislation aimed at 'creating jobs'.  One side will push tax cuts, the other will push economic development.  Both approaches could amount to nothing more that big giveaways to their respective constituencies.

*Austerity measures will undoubtedly be a big part of this session.


Goals and Possible Tactics:

-We want to create a media splash on one or two issues,
-We want to hold both Dems and Repubs equally responsible for Oregon's state of affairs.
-We want to disrupt and expose the 'lobbyist culture' and the 'fixed' system of legislative process in Salem


Possible ways to do this:

1) penetrating the Lobbyist Room (The Capitol Club)  in the Capitol Building.  Take photos, broadcast ustream video from there

2) Setting up a 'People's Lobbyist' to attend committee hearings, broadcast them via Livestream, and testify on behalf of 'the 99%'

3) 'Adopt-a-Lobbyist' - as they come out of the Capitol Club, Shadow lobbyists as they go about their business in the Capitol.  Livestream, take pictures, follow them around. Publish a 'diary' of what they do, who they see.

4) picket Associated Oregon Industries, whose office is located kitty-corner across the street from the Capitol Building.  (AOI is the lobbying arm of the Koch Brothers in our state, employing 4 full time lobbyists.)

5) Continued harrasment of ALEC members

6) Stunts to illustrate the influence of money in state politics.

7) Host an anti-fundraiser:  a “$1 Dollar a Plate Dinner” for State Legislators to meet with average citizens over a donated meal.  The price is free to the public, but costs $1 per State Legislator.

Other possible targets: disrupt the Salem Chamber of Commerce dinner , disrupt the Dorchester conference in Seaside in March.


Specific Issues to watch:

* There will be an anti-corporate personhood resolution introduced in session by Rep. Clem.  We'll want to see that every legislator in the Portland area is a co-sponsor or has pledged support.

* Sen. Dingfelder will introduce a very weak resolution that calls on Congress to Amend the Constitution to fix Citizen's United.  This was originally the state corporate personhood resolution, but she's since stripped out the 'corporations aren't people' piece.  We need to make sure that Rep. Clem's bill passes over hers.  But perhaps we can work with her to turn her bill into something that addresses real campaign contribution limits in Oregon.

* Rep Dembrow might introduce a version of the Working Families Party's 'Pay it Forward' bill for higher education.  We should support this.

* Mortgage/Foreclosure reform bills will back, hopefully to strengthen the heavily compromised SB1552 from last session.  This time maybe there'll be some teeth in it.

*A version of Responsible Banking legislation similar to Portland's may be introduced in session, allowing state funds to be held by community banks and credit unions.


Challenges:
-defining and organizing our constituency
-reaching out to other organizations and coordination with them
-Having a significant presence in Salem
-Competing against established interests for the attention of our legislators
-difficulties with traditional lobbying blocs such as labor (and other Occupy orgs)
-For austerity measures in particular,  finding ways to highlight and personalize the choices that lawmakers make:  funding teachers, schools and social services  vs.  prisons, privatization, tax breaks, etc