15th July Assembly

Agenda:
1.Open round
2.Information point
3.October15th
4.Contact other groups/people
5.Occupied house in Ottakring
6.The use of we-rise-up

1.Open round

During the open round, a new member introduced himself, and we explained him how the assemblies work (consensus decisions, symbols used during the assemblies, that everyone has the right to have an opinion, etc.).

2.Information point

We discussed again the possibility (previously discussed at another assembly) to organize an information point somewhere in Vienna so we can reach to as many people as possible to introduce ourselves and inform them about what we are trying to do.

The idea is to search for actual facts that we can present at the stand, and make the people aware of the real situation. We discussed about the possibility to have different information flyers. Some longer (with a whole article, for those who are interested on one topic) and some other shorter with just a couple of facts and a short description followed by links where the people could continue to look for information if they are interested. We should also have different flyers (about society, economical system, etc.) so we can give the people information according to their interests without overwhelming them. We should inform about our sources during our research.

Most of the official texts use a complicated terminology so we discussed about the possibility to contact a business student or students group who could help us understand or simplify the more complicated terms and also help us with our research (maybe tell us what reliable sources should we check).

After that we decided to have a brainstorming about the facts/topics we would like to research about, and agreed to publish this list on the internet to start the research.

This led to a discussion about the use of we-rise-up or not. Some people do not agree on the use of this tool, but others think it is useful for some things we are now doing on the internet. We decided to add this conflict to the agenda and discuss it further afterwards (or at the next assembly if there was no time for it). This may be also discussed during an internal communication meeting.

Here are the topics from the brainstorming:

Politician’s salary
Cross-border leasing
Media manipulation / Disinformation / Press notes from political parties
New laws / resolutions
Number of empty apartments / houses in Austria
Abuse of power
Selective press
Lobbies
Corruption / “Vetternwirtschaft”
Social cuts
Public transportation
Percentage of unemployment / Support / “Mindestsicherung”
Manipulated numbers (for example with the unemployment rate)
Education fees (“Studiengebühren”) / What do I get from it
Relation between professors and students
Relation between Austrian students and foreign students
Health cuts / reforms
Number of public employees (“Beamten”)
Police violence / How do they help us?
Alternative media and blogs / Alternative media as 2nd perspective / 2 articles from different medias informing about the same event
People’s trust on mass media
How much money spend an average Austrian a day on taxes (apart from the taxes paid with the salary)
Illegal meetings / Private meetings from media, politicians, etc
Where is the money transferred to Greece? What has happened with this money? What was/will it be used for?
When was democracy instated in Austria? How does the Austrian electoral system work? When was it created?
Interest rates
Fiat money
Comparison between Rating agencies / Who is behind them?
Stock exchanges’ speculation
Tax havens
New world order / What is behind it?
The world’s rulers (“Herrscher der Welt”) in their own words
Requirements to get social help in Austria
Foreigners laws (“Ausländergesetze”)
Relation immigrants / refugees
Deportation
Conditions at homeless or refugees shelter

This brainstorming will be published in the forum where everyone can contribute, adding new topics, or adding information about these topics.

Os for finding out the people’s opinion, we agreed on making an inquiry to all the visitors, and also by having a box where everyone can give their opinion anonymously if they want.

We discussed about the possibility of this anonymous feedback on the internet but we didn’t find an agreement as we don’t think it is possible for it to be completely anonymous. This will be later discussed on future assemblies or meetings.

Then we discussed about the possibility to offer some food so people would come to the information point, but it will probably make it more difficult to get the authorization. First we will try to find out what kind of authorization is needed for the information point, and in case it is more difficult with food, then it will be discussed during the next assembly.

As for the authorization, we should try to find out about :
Which are the different classifications?
What do we need an authorization for and what kind of authorization?
Who can get these authorizations (associations or persons)?
Where can we get these authorizations?

We should collect this information that may be useful for future events as well.

Then we agreed on having the information point once and see how it works out. If it is a success, then we could do it again.

There was the proposal to show some videos as well so the people get interested and come to us. But most of it will be explained by us. It wouldn’t be giving just a flyer and move to the next person. We should interact with the people and get their attention and make them become interested.

At this point, we decided we will celebrating a meeting regarding the info point I the next days because there are many things to be discussed, and this would give the people who are interested to take part on it.

3.October15th

We decided to leave this point for the next assembly as many people were not present and it was getting late.

4.Contact to other groups/people / 5. Occupied house in Ottakring

We discussed both points together as they are connected.

Before we started the assembly, we wre informed there was a street fest taking place in front of the occupied house. We decided to celebrate the assembly first and then go there (if we still got time).
Someone asked if the group wanted to show solidarity with the people at the occupied house, because it had been a week and almost nobody from us had been there. We talked about it and decided there’s no need to make a decision as a group to come to a group and look for a cooperation regarding October 15th. We are a small group and everyone at the group can try to get to as many people as possible to get attention or support for October 15th. Nothing concrete was agreed regarding Ottakring.

Next Wednesday (July 20th) will take place the next “Stammtisch” from We are change Vienna at the Floriani Cafe at 19:00 hrs. Some of us will attend it in order to contact them and inform them about our movement.

Next Friday (July 22nd) will be Attac’s next meeting but this will be also discussed during the next assembly.

Our next Assembly will take place on Thursday July 21st at 19:00 hrs at Altes AKH Hof 2.

At this point we decided to end the assembly, leaving the points 2 and 6 to be discussed during the next assembly.