Comments on: Discussing the Assemblies and Consensus of #OccupyWallStreet (1): Is Consensus vs. Majority All There Is? https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/is-consensus-vs-majority-all-there-is/2011/11/14 Researching, documenting and promoting peer to peer practices Sun, 20 Nov 2011 07:45:41 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.5.15 By: MarkDilley https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/is-consensus-vs-majority-all-there-is/2011/11/14/comment-page-1#comment-486820 Sun, 20 Nov 2011 07:45:41 +0000 http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/?p=20913#comment-486820 Many many challenges in brining consensus to a large group of people who may have never experienced it. The growth of community in the encampment may have need to be higher than it got to. On one occasion I saw the street families organize themselves to challenge how the General Assembly was operating. I failed at following my organizing instinct to join them on the stage and lost the moment to gather some steam to change up things a little for the night… but it was more GA as usual.

Not that the attempt was bad – not at all. It just wasn’t reaching its fullest capacity.

I am working with a few people to try and get an OpenSpace meeting going. We will see how well that goes! 🙂

]]> By: Tree Bressen https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/is-consensus-vs-majority-all-there-is/2011/11/14/comment-page-1#comment-486755 Wed, 16 Nov 2011 08:10:26 +0000 http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/?p=20913#comment-486755 Miki wrote:

“[I]f I stand in line to speak at a decision-making meeting, and what’s truly important to me has been named already, even if in different words and through a different opinion, then I can sit down knowing that my need is already included, especially if I trust that some other context exists for me to be fully heard as a human being.”

That’s one of the keys to the unique challenge of facilitating at Occupy. Many of the participants really do not feel heard in their lives, thus they bring that need to this table, with vigor! So it is hard for them to listen well.

“I am not satisfied with the outcome because it left the people who wanted to send a letter without a way to address what’s important to them.”

Another way to think about this is pointed to by Occupy Portland’s “Open Consensus Philosophy,” see here: http://occupyportland.org/occupation/pdx-general-assembly/occupy-portland-consensus-philosphy/. In that way of looking at things, one possible successful outcome of the process Miki witnessed would be for each of the 100 people who wanted to send the letter to realize, “Hey, there are 99 other people here who want to send a letter too,” and then to go ahead with organizing and doing so–being careful to name themselves as only one subgroup within the movement and clearly stating that they were not authorized to take action on behalf of or in the voice of the whole. In other words, the GAs become one of the containers where people who share some agreement can find each other and act from that agreement, and they aren’t only about the entire group coming to unity.

Cheers,

–Tree

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