25 Ways to Occupy Without Camping
by Sue Basko
You can “occupy” your town without camping. In many places, running a camping protest is illegal or too much hassle. In most locations, winter weather and camping don’t go together. You can still start an “occupy” group, because the point is to occupy peoples’ minds with building a better future. In fact, you may be able to do that better without worrying about tents, police, arrests, rodents, porta-potties, etc.
Even if there is a camping Occupy protest going in your town, that will just be a small portion of the local people. Many others will want to participate without camping. Here are some ideas how. If you come up with ideas, please email them in to OccupyPeace@gmail.com
Even if there is a camping Occupy protest going in your town, that will just be a small portion of the local people. Many others will want to participate without camping. Here are some ideas how. If you come up with ideas, please email them in to OccupyPeace@gmail.com
25 Ways to Occupy Without Camping:
1) Form a group in your area and meet once a week.
2) Hold a town hall or open mic at a public space, such as a library.
3) Get a coffeehouse or café to host an Occupy Music night.
4) Gather food donations and hold a dinner for whoever wants to come.
5) Hold a potluck vegetarian dinner.
6) Hold a meaningful protest for an afternoon.
7) Volunteer to do a clean-up of a park or beach.
8) Paint or do repairs on a shelter or other place that needs it.
9) Find a local house that is being foreclosed upon and protest the lender asking them to refinance so the people don’t lose their home.
10) Hold a family event with activities for children and adults.
11) Start a time share or time bank so local people can trade their skills with each other.
12) Have a group where everyone reads the same article and meets to discuss it.
13) Hold a discussion group where people give ideas on what they think would work to improve the economy.
14) Make a list of locally-owned businesses and ask the local people to patronize those businesses.
15) Plan a holiday donation drive to provide food and gifts for local families in need.
16) Gather volunteers to help local seniors with chores such as shopping, shoveling snow, etc.
17) Start a website or facebook for your local Occupy group.
18) Hold a local gathering for tea and cookies and a protest music sing-along.
19) Try to find and identify the local homeless and give them a list of any local resources.
20) Identify and make a list of local resources where people can apply for food stamps, where they can get medical or dental care for free or lower priced, food pantries, shelters, etc. Distribute the list locally.
21) Identify empty houses in the area and see if families can rent them at cost.
22) Have nonviolence training.
23) Start a bicycle group that shows people how to ride bikes for transportation and how to maintain their bikes.
24) Have a skateboard awareness group that shows how skating is good for transportation and also keeps teens out of trouble.