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  • From: Tompkins County Relocalization Project <tcrp-news AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • To: tcrp-news AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Cc: Samuel Bosco <samuel.bosco AT gmail.com>
  • Subject: [tcrp-news] A new Union? -- Transition & Occupy
  • Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:28:51 -0500

Dear Friends--There appears to be some collaboration evolving between Transition and Occupy folks.  There as also been a substantial amount of tension and sometimes metal sparing between various elements of both "movements".  The following series of e-mails illustrates some of both.  From the tus-initiatives mailing list.  It will be interesting (or maybe not?) to see where this leads.  Tom

**********************  Forwarded E-mail ***************************

From: Patricia Fenkell <pfenkell AT gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 27 Nov 2011 21:43:24 -0800
Subject: Re: [tus-initiatives] Transition & Occupy
To: David Herron <david AT davidherron.com>

We've just attended our first a joint meeting of Transition and Occupy Reno.  (I wear both hats.)  An idea of creating a combined entity, an autonomous Green Group of sorts, has been mentioned to create a green demonstration - garden, aquaculture, and or hydroponics farm - the park situated over a hot springs.  The idea to plan and present the city council with a 5 - 10 year plan to be discussed.  As OR has been given a 90 day permit at an abandoned city park/pool and possibly the adjoining baseball diamond, dreams are already beginning to sprout.  Transition has an open invitation to present reskilling classes - schedule TBA.  Already members joint members of Transition Reno and our local Permaculture group are helping build a hoop house at the Occupy site for a winter garden.

Occupy and Transition are a good match.  As Naomi Klein noted on the videoed panel discussion "Occupy Everything,"  the economic and ecological crisis are one.  The principles of sustainability and resilence that will be integral to bringing us through.  http://www.nationofchange.org/occupy-everywhere-michael-moore-naomi-klein-next-steps-movement-against-corporate-power-1322239158

Love the idea of a "do-acracy."  I'll use that for my next protest sign. 

We'll keep you posted.  Look forward to hearing how it's going for you all.

Patricia Fenkell
Transition Reno


On Sun, Nov 27, 2011 at 6:09 PM, David Herron <david AT davidherron.com> wrote:
In Silicon Valley we're organizing a pair of Occupy/Transition meetup's over the next two Friday's.  FWIW. 

Maybe we could report back afterwards.

We're working on bringing together several local Occupy groups from San Jose to Palo Alto ..

+ David Herron
Transition Silicon Valley


On Sun, Nov 27, 2011 at 5:53 PM, Jim Barton <smithmillcreek AT gmail.com > wrote:
Hi-
Our Transition group in Asheville tends to be more on the grayhair side,
though a Transition talk here by the late Frank Cook in April 2008 was mostly under 35. So setting and invitation group makes a big difference.

[Strange how "tolerant" people are still nervous about going to strange territory
(punkish kids feel more comfortable in the anarchist bookstore, and it's harder to get them to a Church; and vice versa for the folks at the Church).]

I totally agree with Jill that we are in an amazing time.

As someone hooked into the national Occupy discussions (what? you thought there was just one?), it is amazing to watch the phenomenon of simultaneous co-arising.
It may be that the mayors are coordinated through an FBI-related phone call, but certainly groups on the ground are evolving as they work though the same issues
[limits of consensus, tendency of disturbed/alcoholic/panhandling folks to take over the energy of encampments; a move towards spokescouncils and stronger Working Groups as opposed to nightly General Assemblies held out in the cold weather].

For me, the highlight of the last month, and maybe one of the whole year, has been the calm, coordinated, principled nonviolent response to the UC Davis pepperspray incident. Here is the video if you haven't seen it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8775ZmNGFY8

It has received 1.2 million views, though that feels too small-- almost everyone
I've talked to has seen it.

I wonder if, with the cold weather here, we might do a national same-day Occupy/Transition meetup in January or February? If that idea appeals to you, drop me a line.

Sincerely,
Jim Barton

PS- Check out Herbert Gans' take on longterm unemployment:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/25/opinion/the-age-of-the-superfluous-worker.html
He doesn't get Transition, but might be ripe for a debate about it.

smithmillcreek AT gmail.com


On 11/27/11 8:08 PM, JILL GIEGERICH wrote:
I've been following this interesting dialog. I'm the initiator of Transition Joshua Tree in California. I'm also a supporter of Occupy L.A. and Occupy Yucca Valley (the town next to Joshua Tree). From my point of view, the western paradigm has now broken down to the point where no single approach will be the magic bullet. Just as Eric Garza points out that his experience with Transition on the east coast was distinctly disheartening in terms of attracting younger people, I will attest to the fact that at the Training for Transition in Joshua Tree the under 40's were in the slight majority and that they were all deeply engaged in the process.  Why do we have these two different experiences with Transition? Why is Occupy vibrant in one location and fizzles out in another? Probably for any number of reasons. The real question is "what works here and now?". In this moment in history the answer will be fluid and temporal and constantly evolving.

As a member of the TJT Initiating Group we are constantly reassessing. Right now we're thinking a lot about the TransitionUS suggestion that a Transition Initiative try its very best to not be seen as political. How's that going to work? All you have to do is say "Fair Share" to some people and you're a communist. It's unrealistic to think that Transition can be apolitical. Likewise, the Occupy movements reliance on pure consensus is equally as unrealistic in my opinion. We are at the tipping point, people! Decisions have to be made! A bogged down and ineffective decision making process is exactly where Occupy is in danger of losing the 99%.

I see these two powerful movements as mutually beneficial. Transition can learn from the scrappy chaos of the Occupiers who can learn a thing or two from Transition about the benefits of an orderly decision making process. Just as both these movements can and have learned a great deal from the long and honorable history of dedicated activists before them.

Right now Transition and Occupy are dynamic and interwoven forces for change in my local community. They are both useful as long as they work. If they stop working, the community will reassess.

-Jill Giegerich

------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* Eric Garza <minimalystic AT gmail.com >
*To:* TUS mail list < tus-initiatives AT lists.transitionus.org>
*Sent:* Sunday, November 27, 2011 3:39 PM
*Subject:* Re: [tus-initiatives] Debate about Transition on the Energy Bulletin

Hi Scott: I read through your response below and the original post and comments. Why didn't you add your comments to the list on Energy Bulletin where someone might actually see them? To the extent that your claims are legitimate, I'd like to see Luane and others respond to them.

Also, I have to say that I think your perceptions of the Transition Movement are somewhat idealized. Perhaps things are working better for you in Sebastopol than they are for us in the Eastern US, but as a mid-30s guy who's been struggling to remain involved in the "Transition Movement" I can identify far better with Luane Todd's experience than yours.

I went to a Transition Training a couple weekends back, and there were four of us (out of maybe 30 people) who were under 40. The other man who was under 40 (I think he was about 25) abandoned ship within a few hours of the training starting. I couldn't blame him. I considered not coming back for the second day, but figured my investment in the class was already a sunk cost so I may as well attend.

How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?

-Eric


On Sun, Nov 27, 2011 at 3:24 PM, Scott McKeown < scott AT transitionsebastopol.org < mailto:scott AT transitionsebastopol.org>> wrote:


       Transitioners--

   For some folks on this list who might be interested, I thought I'd
   share a back-and-forth debate that has been going on in the
   /Energy Bulletin/ < http://www.energybulletin.net/> that started
   from a posting put up the day before Thanksgiving titled, /Why
   Occupy has taken off/
   < http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2011-11-22/why-occupy-has-taken >     by Luane Todd. I felt compelled to make a rebuttal to her article
   to correct what I felt were some gross mischaracterizations about
   the Transition movement in her posting. You can read /my response
   here/
   < http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2011-11-24/transition-participants-response-luane-todd > and
   also posted below. There are also some interesting comments in the
   comments field.

   Kindly,

   Scott

   Scott McKeown
   scott AT transitionsebastopol.org < mailto:scott AT transitionsebastopol.org>
   Purrington Creek – Green Valley Creek – Russian River Watersheds


       A Transition participant's response to Luane Todd

   by Scott McKeown
   It has been interesting to observe so many commentators dispensing
   advice to the participants of the Occupy movement, telling them
   what they should or should not be doing. I have also seen this
   happening with Transition: activist pundits, one after another,
   issuing proclamations about how the Transition movement is too
   much this, or not enough that. The latest of these critiques can
   be found in Luane Todd’s recently published article on /Energy
   Bulletin/ on November 23, titled, /Why Occupy has Taken Off/. In
   her article, Ms Todd excoriates the Transition movement for not
   being as successful as the Occupy movement in attracting younger
   participants, and she charges Transition with being hierarchical,
   top-down, inflexible, and even — of all things — /religious/.
   While I agree with much of Ms Todd’s assessment about why the
   Occupy Movement is so attractive, and why it particularly speaks
   to a new generation of activists with its refreshing,
   non-hierarchical style, I was astounded by her bleak and
   inaccurate characterizations of the Transition movement. I do not
   know what personal experience Ms Todd has had with the Transition
   movement, but it has obviously not been very positive, nor has it
   given her an accurate view of what the Transition movement is all
   about. I am not invalidating her experience — which evidently must
   have been unfortunate — but I feel I must correct her
   mischaracterizations of the Transition movement as a whole.
   First, let me express how thrilled I am, as Ms Todd also appears
   to be, about the spectacular rise of the Occupy movement and how
   it has so brilliantly and powerfully focused our national
   conversation on economic inequality, as well as on a suite of
   other critically important issues. I share this excitement with
   thousands of people who are active in the Transition movement,
   many of whom are also deeply involved with on-the-ground Occupy
   actions in communities all across the US (offering teach-ins and
   information about community-building events, or simply standing in
   solidarity). It is also thrilling to witness how this new paradigm
   of non-hierarchical activism is emerging on such a wide scale, and
   how it is being driven by a new generation of activist-citizens
   who have discarded the vestiges of dysfunctional organizational
   dynamics that have hampered so many previous movements. It’s a
   glorious new day.
   As for the Transition movement, the most common criticism has been
   that it is too /unstructured/; that it doesn’t provide /enough/
   specific details about how to “do” Transition in a given
   community. That is because Transition leaves it up to local
   Transition Initiatives to decide how best to adopt the Transition
   model and principles for their communities. This hands-off,
   distributed-autonomy approach is a core element of the Transition
   model.
   It is appropriate to compare Transition with Permaculture, which
   has principles and not rules. So let us immediately dispense with
   the notion that Transition has any sort of “laundry list of what
   we ‘must’ do”. What the Transition movement /does/ provide, in the
   form of several handbooks (/The Transition Handbook/, /The
   Transition Companion/, and others), online resources, optional
   training courses, webinars, sharing forums, etc., is /access/ to
   resources and methodologies that local Transition Initiatives can
   consider adopting, but /only/ if they would be helpful.
   Anyone who is familiar with the Transition model knows that
   Transition offers a list of potential “/ingredients/” to use, as
   well as some principles that articulate the ethos of the movement,
   such as /inclusion/, and the idea that decision-making needs to
   happen at appropriately local levels—which means the movement is
   structured to be bottom-up, not top-down. When a Transition
   Initiative has grown to include multiple working groups, then the
   decisions in that Initiative are made by a core team consisting of
   representatives from each of those working groups. Embedded in the
   Transition ethos is the conviction that the most powerful levers
   of the movement are not in the possession of some small group of
   “leaders” who make decisions for the entire movement (this simply
   does not exist), but rather are in the hands of the active
   participants of local Transition working groups. The local-level
   participants are the drivers of the entire movement. Does this
   sound top-down?
   Regional Transition hubs are not created from on high by a group
   of self-selected leaders; rather, they coalesce naturally from
   clusters of existing active local Transition Initiatives who come
   together to create learning and sharing networks that are — once
   again — driven by local Initiatives.
   At the national level, Transition US, the national hub
   organization of the Transition movement, consists of a small staff
   of dedicated people whose sole function is to offer support and
   resources to citizen-activists around the US who are forming and
   growing Transition Initiatives in their local communities. As one
   of those staff persons, I came into the position by co-founding
   and working hard within my local Transition Initiative for the
   last three years, helping it grow it to the point where it now has
   twelve active working groups.
   Transition is a manifested form of social permaculture, with an
   organizational structure that can best be described as a
   /do-ocracy/: those who do the work get to make the decisions.
   There is no hierarchy anywhere in sight. For the many tens of
   thousands of us who are actually doing Transition work in over one
   hundred communities across the US (along with many hundreds of
   Transition Initiatives elsewhere in the world), we know from our
   direct experience that Transition is a post-hierarchical movement,
   as is Occupy.
   Working together, the Occupy movement, the Transition movement,
   and other new-paradigm movements can hospice the old, hierarchical
   models that no longer serve us, and midwife the emergence of a
   more sustainable, equitable, and sane form of society. Part of the
   old thinking we can do without is the tendency to cast everything
   as an /either/or choice/—a /false dilemma/. Here we have an
   excellent opportunity to take a more positive /both/and approach/.
   Let’s not create divisions where they need not be. Our communities
   and our planet will be better served if we build each other up.
   Scott McKeown
   Participant, Transition Sebastopol
   Training Coordinator, Transition US
   _______________________________________________________________________
   *Scott McKeown* is the co-founder of Transition Sebastopol
   < http://transitionsebastopol.org/>, which in 2008 became the 9th
   official Transition initiative in the US and which continues to
   grow, with twelve active working groups today. Currently, Scott
   works as the Training Coordinator for Transition US, the national
   hub organization of the Transition movement in the US.

******************************************
Tom Shelley
118 E. Court St.
Ithaca, NY 14850
607 342-0864
tjs1 AT cornell.edu

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