OntheWilderSide

Some photos of the meeting are at Flickr: here.

On Tuesday evening, November 1, 2011, Suffolk Peace Network held their regular, monthly meeting at The Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington. Central to the agenda was a discussion about how Suffolk Peace Network could support local occupations throughout Long Island. Due to the excitement of the occupy movement, there were about double the number of attendees at the meeting. There were some new faces, and more than usual amount of folks attending as individuals (instead of representing a group).

There were decisions made about how to connect Long Island groups, and proposals for how to coordinate things such as communications, publicizing each others’ events, doing joint events, and coordinating donations of warm clothes and blankets to Occupy Wall Street in Liberty Square.

People who either organized or attended the following occupations gave reports: Occupy The Hamptons (Lisa), Occupy Huntington (Nicole and Chris), Occupy Patchogue (Michelle), and Occupy Port Jefferson (Bob). Other groups were mentioned for folks to follow up with.

The group decided as a temporary measure to Twitter using #OccupyLI, which is currently used by a different occupy group. There was a proposal put forward that, some time in the future, we might have a “backwards Peace Train”, inviting people from Occupy Wall Street in NYC to visit one of the Long Island occupations for a joint event.

There was a great sense of teamwork, networking, and satisfaction in having come together. When the meeting got bogged down a bit in website banter and Twitter decisions, one attendee gave an uplifting speech about the central purpose and the profound implications of everyone coming together under the occupy banner. While Suffolk Peace Network is by name focused on peace, the group understands economic justice and occupy issues as related missions.

Filed under: activism, Anti-War, grassroots democracy, local, long island, Long Island Politics, News, Peace, politics, progressive politics, social & economic justice, suffolk, suffolk county, US Politics, war Tagged: | Huntington news, Huntington politics, Long Island occupations, Long Island peace groups, Occupy LI, Occupy Long Island, Suffolk County news, Suffolk County occupations, Suffolk County peace, Suffolk County peace groups, Suffolk County politics, Town of Huntington