Common Action General Assembly Report

From Saturday, September 19th to Sunday, September 20th members of the anarchist organization Common Action met in Seattle, WA for our fifth general assembly. Common Action members from Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia were in attendance. There was an incredible amount for us to talk about, vote on and brainstorm together! We also had several skill shares and open working group meetings.

Common Action General Assembly Report September 2009

From Saturday, September 19th to Sunday, September 20th members of the anarchist organization Common Action met in Seattle, WA for our fifth general assembly. Common Action members from Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia were in attendance. There was an incredible amount for us to talk about, vote on and brainstorm together! We also had several skill shares and open working group meetings.
In upcoming months our members will be facilitating workshops at the Seattle Anarchist Bookfair and the ecoNvergence in Portland, OR. Our publication Intersections has just enjoyed another recently printed issue, with the next issue coming out in December. At general assembly we agreed to sponsor the Northwest tour for John Duda’s new book Wanted: Men to Fill the Jails of Spokane! January 2010.
Common Action branches have been very active over the past six months, engaging in local struggles and developing our own projects.

• The Seattle branch has been busy with numerous projects, but focused heavily on hosting several public events this summer. In July along with Casa Latina Workers Defense Committee and Seattle Solidarity Network, members’ hosted Vancouver based No One Is Illegal for a two-part event on migrant justice movements.

• The Kitsap branch has been focusing on issues of local public transportation, and they are preparing to hold an interest meeting.

• The Olympia branch launched their free clinic campaign with success, gaining local media attention and involvement from the community. Olympia branch members have also begun working on a foreclosure resistance campaign.

We spent a good portion of the weekend focusing on internal education. Through clarifying activities we continued working on our conceptions of transformative justice, and began our introduction into the ideas of collective liberation. This included group conversations and exercises to engage all of our collective experiences in the process.
Throughout the weekend we continued to discuss and question our strategy and tactics as an anarchist organization in the northwest. How best can we connect with other organizations and struggles regionally and nationally? How can we be most relevant? By the end of the two days our strengthening theoretically and tactical unity was clear. As times goes on Common Action continues to develop in line with our collective principles and communal struggles.

Contact us at nwcommonaction@gmail.com or join the Common Action Announcements listserv: http://groups.google.com/group/nwcommonactionannouncement for the occasional e-mail about sponsored events, publications, reports, and other fun stuff.