May, 2012
When Occupy Sacramento was birthed in our local community in the fall of 2011, WILPF - Sacramento became inspired. We developed an education campaign, "The People's Budget and More!" with the idea that, if knowledge of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) People's Budget spreads throughout the nation, along with knowledge of other alternative federal budgets for the 99%, the power of Occupy Wall Street would be magnified.
The idea was that Occupy would spread the word through a video link (coming soon!) on the Occupy Sacramento website that the People's Budget exists, and that it aligns with the values of Occupy--to stop the wars and tax the rich, to increase affordable housing, healthcare and education, to protect Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, to provide good jobs for all.
Occupy would spread the word that the People's Budget has found at least $5.6 trillion to create good jobs across the nation and save our safety nets, getting coverage on commercial media for the 99% to see, just as we see bank protests.
This idea was unanimously approved by the Occupy Sacramento General Assembly on November 30, 2011.
To set the groundwork for Occupy and the 99% to achieve political power and economic equity in the new political landscape created by Occupy Wall Street, Occupy would also spread the word about the People's Budget.
Read more about the background of the People's Budget and other alternative budgets.
On December 13, 2011 speakers from WILPF and the Sacramento community, presented two resolutions during the public comment period at the Sacramento City Council meeting in an effort to educate city council members, Sacramento residents and Occupiers nationwide on the People's Budget and more. (Metro Cable records council meetings on DVDs available at Sacramento Public Library. Read the text of the presentations. Our hope was to livestream the presentation and then link it to the Occupy website. Since the Occupy livestream was not available that night, WILPF did a Teach-In on the People's Budget and More! It was video-recorded April 7, 2012 and will be linked to the Occupy website.
Just as we were preparing for the teach-in, the Congressional Progressive Caucus released its new budget for fiscal year 2013 called the Budget for All. This budget finds almost a trillion dollars more in savings than the People's Budget found. The WILPF-Sacramento teach-in included an update, which compares the improvements the Congressional Progressive Caucus put into the Budget 4 All. Click here for a comparison of the two budgets.
For a look towards the future of the 99% based on this education campaign, click here.
Read the Budget For All which targets the main causes of the deficit, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Read and share the one page summary (Adobe Acrobat format; requires Adobe Reader).
Explore the analysis of last year’s Peoples Budget, and a chart of its 10-year impact, from Dollars&Sense magazine.
Note for teachers/ educators:
The links on our WILPF - Sacramento website connect you with proposals presented to OCCUPY Sacramento, resolutions presented to Sacramento City Council, speeches presented to city council, source material from the Congressional Progressive Caucus on the People's Budget and on the Budget for All, and a WILPF comparison of these two budgets. Also included are links to alternative budgets, to the slide show, and to the People's Budget and More! Teach-In at Occupy Sacramento.
The WILPF/Occupy Proposal can be used to role play presenting a proposal/motion for consideration at an Occupy General Assembly. Hand signals used at General Assemblies, as well as the Occupy Consensus process, can make it a more authentic experience.
The resolutions presented to Sacramento City Council, along with the speeches could be used to role play a presentation before a city council.
Note for activists:
Our education campaign is focused on educating folks through Occupy websites and other Occupy links, rather than on getting our city council to pass the resolutions we presented. At the same time, the above material may be helpful if you decide to follow through on comprehensively lobbying your city council to support Occupy as a means of accessing federal funds through supporting the Budget for All for FY2013.
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