Democracy for New Mexico

10/15: Occupy Events in Albuquerque and Santa Fe!

Albuquerque's Hakim Bellamy: I'm in love with a 1%er (For Occupy Wall St.) Written on Day 26 of the Occupy Wall St. protest in New York City and Day 12 of the Occupy Albuquerque protest. They're making their move on NYC and Denver. Be prepared, my people. Love.

There will be a number of events this Saturday in New Mexico in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street and as part of activities in 719 cities and 71 countries being held internationally all over the globe on that day.

Join Occupy Albuquerque on Saturday, October 15, at 12:00 Noon at the Wells Fargo Bank Nob Hill located at Richmond and Central Avenue in Albuquerque, NM. Fight corporate greed! Invite your friends! Come to protest, stay to celebrate. The protest will be followed by a family-friendly fiesta at Camp Coyote (UNM Campus at Yale and Central). Join us for music, art, comedy, and good company. Bring your instruments if you want to join in!

This is a celebration of consensus, direct democracy, and the movement that is sweeping the nation and the world. This is also a time to get to know your community.

Join Rebuild the Dream in Solidarity with Occupy NM in working with MoveOn and Southwest Organizing Project at Nob Hill, Wells Fargo Bank at SW corner of Central Ave. & Richmond Dr. SE, 3022 Central Ave. SE, Albuquerque, NM, Saturday 10/15 from Noon to 2:00 PM.  .

Occupy Los Angeles - The Beginning Is Near from Marta Evry on Vimeo.

Let's stand together and demand a solution to the jobs crisis, corporate money out of politics, fairer tax rates, and policies that work for 99% of Americans instead of the 1% at the top. Wall Street isn't the only place where greed is undermining the American Dream. By bringing these speak outs to Albuquerque and as many communities as possible, we'll help to spread and amplify the energy of the Occupy Wall Street protest across the country.

Right here, right now. This is when we stand up to those who have brought us to financial ruin and proudly align ourselves with those whose democratic innovations are breathing life into our finest ideals.

Occupy Santa Fe Gathering in Solidarity with Occupy Wall Street on Saturday, October 15 from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM The Roundhouse, NM State Capital Bldg., Old SF Trail and Cerrillos, Santa Fe.

We will be gathering before 9:00 AM at our Base Camp location (St. Francis across from BOA) and we will march to The Roundhouse, arriving there by 10:00 AM. If you choose not to march, meet us there. Speakers are planned (with human microphone), break out groups, teach-ins, drumming, a meditation hour. We have chosen the state capitol grounds (East concourse) so that we have plenty of gathering space for general assembly.

Restrooms are open to us inside the building. Bring your placards and posters, water, a hat, your food. Dress for the weather. Leave no trash on the grounds.

Also check out related events organized by Occupy the Present Moment.

www.15october.net
www.occupytogether.com
www.occupywallstreet.org

Albuquerque Rebuild American Dream Gathering Ranked Top Priorities

This is a report on one of many Albuquerque gatherings held in connection with the Rebuild the American Dream movement. It's written by Marianne Dickinson, one of the participants. About 1600 of these house parties were held nationwide over the weekend.

Last weekend Rebuild the American Dream house parties popped up all over Albuquerque which, judging from the participants at our event, were largely motivated by Van Jones’ recent speeches (like this one). Jones inspired our home host Lora Lucero to take on the daunting meeting agenda because of his positive and ambitious message.

Our house party had twelve participants, most of us never having previously met each other, although our connections in the community are vast and diverse. Our group members are active in political, environmental, economic, voting integrity, human rights and church organizations. Networking to spread the Rebuild the Dream actions should be no problem for this group.

After introductions we launched right into sharing personal stories about the impact the current economy has had on us, or on someone we know. While some of our participants haven’t been directly affected by the downturn, everyone could think of others who have been. Threatened or existing cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid affect how would-be retirees survive rising costs of living and healthcare and those in need who will fall into desperate straits without an adequate safety net. Some mentioned the benefits that veterans once had that helped them obtain higher education and realize the American Dream, education that is now slipping out of reach of veterans and other young people. 

In our rating the 40 ideas in our agenda packets -- whittled down from the 23,000+ ideas submitted online -- our group had a clear consensus on our top priorities. We strongly supported the elimination of “corporate personhood,” investing in public education, keeping Social Security solvent, moving to a green energy future and, leading the list, (combined) ending the wars, cutting the military budget and investing in peace-building. Paul Stokes, who spent much of his career in peace-building, also suggested we add arms reduction to the effort. 

For all of us, the American Dream has to be recast and reaffirmed to move from an ultimately destructive and anti-social paradigm to a life-affirming one that provides opportunity for all without the destruction of our planet. Our group decided it would start with a coordinated letter-writing campaign and stay in touch to participate in future steps that are to be yet to be announced. Our elected officials and candidates are sure to hear from us. 

Photos by Laura Lucero.

Also see a recent post about a similar gathering in Southern New Mexico.

Southern New Mexicans Gather to Discuss Local "Kitchen Table" Values

Activist Maury Castro at his Sunday house meeting

Contributing writer Stephen Jones checks in with more on-the-ground coverage from Southern New Mexico.

Dozens of local neighborhood meetings were held across southern New Mexico this past weekend to discuss the nation's “kitchen table" values and to rebuild the American dream. Nearly 1600 "American Dream" house meetings were held in every Congressional District in the U.S., including the well-attended house meetings in New Mexico's 2nd Congressional District. The meetings focused on how the current economic downturn has affected average Americans lives and how local neighborhoods can begin to push back against the radical right-wing agenda of the Republicans and Tea Party extremists.

The meetings were sponsored by the American Dream Movement (Rebuild the Dream), a growing coalition of seventy-two progressive community, environmental, political and labor organizations including Moveon.org and ColorofChange.org. Community and environmental leader Van Jones launched the national grassroots agenda that led to this weekend's neighborhood meetings last month, urging local grassroots neighbors to find ways to rebuild what Jones termed the "American Dream" and make it more accessible to all Americans.

Long-time local neighborhood activist Maury Castro of Doña Ana, New Mexico led one of the local meetings on Sunday night at his home in the rural southern New Mexico community, which is just north of Las Cruces. Twenty two area neighbors came together at Castro's home on Sunday to introduce themselves to each other, and to help hammer out a community-driven issue agenda that common Americans, like themselves, can rally around.

At Castro's grassroots house meeting in Doña Ana, local neighbors heard a brief welcome via the Internet from Van Jones and from other national coalition organizers, then broke down into smaller groups to discuss the issues that they felt were most important to their neighborhoods, and to rank those they felt should be prioritized over the coming months, nationally. The group then sent their recommendations back to the national coalition.

Photo by Stephen Jones. To see more posts by Stephen, visit our archive.

REMINDER: Tonight's DFNM Meetup to Feature US Senate Candidate Martin Heinrich

Come on down at 7:00 PM tonight to the Democracy for New Mexico Meetup at the Social Hall of the First Unitarian Church on the SW corner of Carlisle and Comanche in Albuquerque. Take advantage of an opportunity to hear from Dem U.S. Senate candidate Martin Heinrich and get his answers to your questions in a small setting. All are welcome to attend. As you know by now, the Senate race in New Mexico is shaping up to be an exciting contest, so don't pass up your chance to interact at an informal event with Rep. Heinrich. (Never fear, we plan to host Dem challenger Hector Balderas at a Meetup soon.)

As usual, we'll also be discussing other topics like Van Jones' new Rebuild the Dream group and the NM-01 House race. You're encouraged to join the discussion. To learn more and/or join the Meetup group, click here.