North East Anarchist Network
Third Network-wide Assembly
June 2-3, 2007 - Syracuse, NY

Saturday, June 2nd 2007

Welcome/Intro (10:00 am)

CAUCUS MEETINGS:
People of Color, Queer, Trans, WIFB (Women Identified, Female Bodied), Working Class

AGENDA (3:15pm)
1) Caucus Reports (Inter-Caucus tabled until Sunday)
2) Points of Unity (Tabled until after Structure)
3) Structure/ Formation

Caucus Reports::

People of Color :

That we should (continue) keep our focus in communities we live in.

Queer:

During initial go around introductions we should state a preferred pronoun

That there should be a “greeter” of sorts to try to catch up people who are late arrivals of who have missed part of the meeting.

That there should be a vibes watcher for the room.

That there should be a pair of facilitators with an un-experienced comrade learning from an experienced comrade

Woman identified / Female bodied:

(there was issue with the name from some comrades, but I don’t know if there was a name change that happened)
Wimin, feminista :

That there be a separate facilitator and Stack keeper

That the facilitator and the group, as well as individuals checking themselves , in short all of us keep track of who is being heard .

That we need to strive to avoid tokenization

That we start to ( work out a plan to , consider using) a “weighted” stack to ensure that everyone is being heard and feels like they are able to be heard

Working class:

I actually don’t seem to have these notes. From what I remember…(note taker comments)

That we start a news letter thang.

That we re-asses the meaning and definition of class away from the liberal understanding of income level based meaning and toward the radical analysis of the access to capital one has and the ability to abstain comfortably from waged labor

I know there was more but I cant recall them. (note taker comments)

Structure/ Formation

A) i. Concern: Call for a weighted vote or increase in minimum number of members constituting local groups.
ii. Agreed: Groups (regardless of size) are pre-approved by the network. In emergency situations, there will be no fractionalization of members of groups or of sub-regions composed by local groups due to their pre-affilliation and cooperation with the larger network.

B) i. Concern: Network-wide projects VS Sub-Regional projects.
ii. Agreed: Network-wide projects are supported by and dependent upon sub-regional networks and thus by local groups.

C) i. Concern: Need for consistency of terminology.
ii. Agreed: The term “regional” will henceforth be replaced by sub-regional as the term regional makes reference to the entire North East region. The term “General Assembly” will henceforth be replaced by Network Assembly”.

D) Sub-Regional areas and Structure are to be defined tomorrow, Sunday.

Discussion on Networks in General

1. CONSENTED AMENDMENT to Emergency Situation Proposal, regarding the formation of a Communications Committee (To be discussed tomorrow, Sunday):
i. An emergency situation proposal (and thus, the voting process) may be initiated by any local group.
ii. Point people from each local group in the regional network will be contacted directly and must report back within a specified time frame to the Communications Committee.
iii. The formation of Communications Committee to count votes in emergency voting situation of report back to all local groups on status of decision-making.

2. Dissemination of Information: Phone trees work better than circular systems which depend on the availability of each individual appointed as a local groups’ point person.

3. Consented Name for group: North East Anarchist Network (NEAN): 40 consents, 3 stand asides, 0 blocks.

4. CONCERN regarding non-emergency decisions: The Network Assembly meets once every 6 months. We need to create a communication infrastructure present to relay local and sub-regional agreements to the entire network for a regional, network-wide vote.

Form/ Structure Discussion Tabled.

Points of Unity
(see Northeast Anarchist Network Structure as of June 2, 2007)

1. Discussion on Point 4: necessity for a more open-ended statement.
Consented amendment is as follows:
A call to direct action and support for emancipatory social movements, advocating for the liberation of all as well as the construction of local alternatives.

2. Consented Addition: A 6th point; a new inclusice point of unity

3. Consented Addition: A conclusionary statement encompassing the six points of unity.

Proposal : to strike in the eleventh paragraph “through general
assemblies” from end of second sentence Consented upon

Proposal : Change in paragraph 12 “Regional “ to “sub-regional “ as the network is a regional organization. Consented upon

--At this point there was confusion about usage of some terminology and we discussed this.--

Proposal: to change instances of Regional to North East Network to avoid confusion. Consented upon

Proposal: use consistent language and terminology through out the structure document of the network Consented upon

Proposal: that the name of the organization be ( drum roll) the North East Anarchist Network Consented upon

Proposal: re-word paragraph 7 as follows:

Any group in the network may call for an emergency decision. They will relate this call the communications committee , which will , be responsible for contacting point people from each group in the Network, so that these groups can inform and consult with their groups.
The groups will report back to the Communications committee with a yes no or stand aside decision. Each group will have one vote and a 2/3 majority of groups who report back to the Communications committee will be required to act under the auspices of the network. Reporting back to be counted will happen in a specified period of time. The Communications committee will then contact each group with the result of the vote.

Proposal: Name of organization shall be the: “North Eastern Anarchist Network” Consented to , with 3 stand asides, who stood aside rather than block consent because they felt that the name of said organization was not a priority to discuss.

Definitions of Terms

Caucus- A group of similarly identified individuals sharing common experiences who unite to ensure that their voices, which have been historically oppressed, are heard.

Network-wide Assembly- A Regular meeting of NorthEast Regional network known as the The North East Anarchist Network

Regional- Refers to the NorthEast Region

Sub-Regional- Refers to Sub-regions of the NorthEast region (Sub-regions to be defined tomorrow, Sunday.)

Point-Person- The position of an individual of a local group, dependent on their consistant availability to at any given time receive emergency notifications and productively mobilize resources and members of their local groups in the case of an emergency situation.

POINTS OF UNITY (resumed)

Proposal: re word paragraph 4
A call to direct action, support for emancipitory social movements, advocating for the liberation of all, as well as the construction of local alternatives. Consented upon

Proposal add 6th point of unity: This network is specifically inclusive of all anarchist struggles and supports all of them so long as they “adhere”
* to the points of unity, even though not everyone in the not everyone in the network might consider a particular struggle a priority. Anarchist must show solidarity with each others struggles as a principle of revolutionary necessity! Consented upon

Proposal to add a conclusive statement as such: In order to embody these values we see the need for an anarchist social revolution. Consented upon.

End Saturday Discussion: 6PM.

unday, June 3rd 2007: 12:25PM

AGENDA
12:30 – 2:00: Committees/ Sub-Regions
2:00 – 3:30: Leftover business (Inter-caucus meeting – this discussion did not occur due to time constraints)
3:30 – 4:30: Networking (Due to many groups having to leave early, there was no formal networking session)

Committees/ Sub-Regions

A. Sub-Regions
i. Proposal to split into sub-regions to foster better understanding of area networks.
ii. Sub-Region reports:
1. ME
2. NH/VT (Both ME and MA will aid NE/VT in the formation of local groups.)
3. Western MA/ Southern VT/ CT
4. Eastern MA/ RI
5. NY State: Watertown to Albany to Binghamton
6. NYC area: NY Metro Area, Five Boroughs, Jersey City, NYC

(note: no group which was formally part of the network was present from Eastern or Western Pennsylvania – PA Sub-regions included in list of sub-regions below)

Sub-Regions:

Maine and New Hampshire

Central and western New York state

Western Pennsylvania (north West Virginia, and Eastern Ohio)

Mass Eastern and Western , East will reach out to southern New Hampshire and Rhode Island
West Mass will reach out to Southern Vermont and Conneticut (sp?) sorry

Not yet represented (but should be):

Eastern NY state

Northern NY state

Eastern PA

Delaware

Mass and Maine will reach out to NH and Vermont

Proposal: make a list of committees raise volunteers and when it is needed a rep from each sub-region break out and apponint reps then define and Consent upon

B. Committees

1. Communications (Internal):
- Emergency contacts, phone tree
- Plugging people into network
- Updated point person list- monthly
- What’s up list- monthly

2. Communications (Media):
- Contact local media
- Trainings
- Working with different media venues

3. Communication (Outreach)
- involving unrepresented sub-regions
- outreach to local existing groups

4 Global outreach
- outreach beyond regional network
- global solidarity

5. Eductaion
- Producing local materials
- Distribute local information
- Network newspaper
- Propaghanda

6. Resource Coordination
- War Chest
- Facilitates exchange of resources

7. Defense
- Internal network defense
- Works closely with ABC
- Helps establish ABC’s in unrepresented areas
- Trainings

8. Website
- Create website (Contact Richard: Vallejo@riseup.net)
- Overview of network

Proposal: Going to go down list of committees and describe duties and responsibilities and have a show of hands on who wants to volunteer for said committees (as friendly amendment)
Consented upon

Committee Volunteers
INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS:
Monthy contact list monthly what going on with the network
Adrienne
Toby
Jon Lox
Jeff
Elise
Pending approval of group Pitsburgh organizing group (POG)
Emily

MEDIA
Stephen
Ariel
Jeff
Craig
Adrienne
POG

OUTREACH to radical groups //social movements
Toby
Lydia
Antonia
Ani
Brigid

RESOURCE
Caleb
Lydia
Jon lox
Stephen
POG
Antonia
Isaac

INTERNATIONAL OUTREACH
Jake
Juice
Eugene
Emily
Kate
James Herod

LEGAL DEFENSE SUPPORT (One name was illegible)
Juice
Jake
Patrick “patches” from Lowell
Eugene
Ted
Isaac
Toby

EDUCATION AGITATION
Eugene
Sera
Ted
Isaac
Jake
Kate
Elise
Juice

End Sunday formal discussion ~3 pm – informal discussion and closing notes below

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SUGGESTIONS (From post-meeting discussion)

1. Voting (Addressed Saturday Morning) - Local groups: each member has one vote, rather than each local group holding one vote.

2. Anti-Oppression Committee:
A) General conflict mediation
B) identify and propose solutions to oppression
C) allows allies and caucus members to work together
D) produce media
E) designated mediator group for meetings and general existence of network
F) training/ skillshares
G) cycle/ rotating individuals so as to distribute mediators
H) representative of anti-oppression committee present in each local group
- Decisions to be left to the committee

3. Suggestions for network-wide assembly in NYC, JULY

Attendance: ~50-60
Boston - 80
Amherst - 60