General Assembly

Welcome to the General Assembly of Occupy London.

See what’s coming up at the General Assembly by visiting the  schedule of assemblies and proposals.

The General Assembly minutes are normally taken and made available within 24 hours.

The General Assembly is a gathering of people committed to discussing issues and making decisions based upon a collective agreement or “consensus”. There is no single leader or governing body of the General Assembly – everyone’s voice is equal. Anyone is free to propose an idea or express an opinion as part of the General Assembly.

So that people have time to think about the issues and decisions that are coming up, discussion topics and proposals for consensus are scheduled in advance. A facilitator guides the General Assembly through an agenda created within open planning meetings.

Making a consensus decision about a proposal follows a basic format. An individual shares what is being proposed, why it is being proposed, and, if there is enough agreement, how it can be carried out. The General Assembly will express its opinion for each proposal through a series of hand gestures. If there is positive consensus for a proposal – meaning no outright opposition – then it is accepted and the proposed action will be taken. If there is not consensus, the responsible group or individual is asked to revise the proposal with the contribution of the blocker, and submit again at the following General Assembly until a consensus is achieved.

For each discussion topic, the General Assembly will break up into groups of about ten people for a closer discussion of particular issues, before each group feeds back a summary of their discussion for everybody to hear. This is a highly constructive process, where fresh concerns are raised and new proposals are created.

The General Assembly is broadcast live across the Internet, so that people outside the camp can observe what is happening.

Everybody expects the processes surrounding the General Assembly to be democratic, transparent, and accountable. The General Assembly working group maintains templates for the facilitator’s plan and descriptions of planning meeting activities, so that everybody can understand how to produce the General Assembly. All the General Assembly planning meetings are open. Everybody is welcome to attend and contribute to the activities of the meetings, or simply observe. There are two “forward planning” meetings per week to decide and schedule the discussion topics for the evening general assemblies. There is one “issue resolutions” meeting per week when proposals to resolve issues that have been raised with the processes surrounding the General Assembly can be decided. The time and location of all planning meetings is published in advance. Planning meeting minutes are taken and normally available within a few days.

Beyond the General Assembly, there are smaller gatherings known as Working Groups that focus on supporting specific initiatives or topics relevant to the movement. These range from Food, Medical, and Legal Committees to Media, Tranquility, Direct Action and many more. All groups are open to anyone interested in supporting. Please visit the Info tent for more information about the working groups.

If you’re interested to create your own General Assembly, check out the Occupy London’s Toolkit for Occupy Everywhere which was produced for the day of action on December 15th.

 

 

14 thoughts on “General Assembly”

  1. hello everyone ! the group Royal Family & the Poor hereby donate the tracks `vaneigem mix` and `art on 45` for your enjoyment and any use you want to put them to. they`re on Youtube art on 45 is also on the fac.dance compilation of early Factory Records issued by Strut Records last monday. there`s other stuff by us Youtube, feel free to mix. best situationist wishes A

  2. It would be helpful if the minutes of the meetings could be made publically available, both to inform generally and strengthen democratic credentials.

  4. Hello – Facilitator from Los Angeles coming in next week. Would love to check out your facilitation meetings. Let me know the time and place of your committee meetings and let’s share process. If you want to check me out before sharing that info, please go to Occupy Los Angeles website and look up my writing. Cheers. See you in London.

  5. Revd Graeme Knowles had to quit, it would not have been right for him to support any move to remove the people outside St.Pauls, which would no doubt have had to involve police action. Goes against the teaching of Jesus. Sad for him but the sign of the times. The Government should take heed and people need to listen. This is serious.

  9. Can you explain to me why when the final deadline for the eviction hit the media headlines, your occupy protestors turned up at Dale Farm brandishing weapons and attacking police and baliffs, if I understand this then it means elements of your cause are currently armed outside a place of worship waiting for the opportunity to reignite the riots of recent months which claimed the lives of 5 people.
    Also explian to me why Annonymous UK a group which is Pro – Capitalism is on your side? they have hakced the details of banks and hoarded credit details for their own malicious gains to be used when they need but are putting on a show face to you that they are attacking the injust system, you realise Annonymous UK is the group which trolls pages online laughing at dead children right? and was also initially formed from a forum of internet perverts and paedophiles? it’s not setting a good image for your group to be fair, if you’re in contact with their group tell them Whitehaven didn’t appreciate their worship of a mass murderer, thank you.

    • Anonymous is an organisation with no heirarchy, there is heirarchy in Capitalism. That comment was baseless. People from all regions of life feel the need to get self-gratification out of trolling so yet another baseless comment. Finally they were all perverts and paedophiles in the beginning were they, thank God I mean I was just starting to think that you were nothing more than a troll/disinformation agent then that came up and I was like ‘this guy’s finally talking sense’….. or not! Stop trolling false information that’s harmful and offensive!!

  11. I think your ‘Initial Statement’ is laudable but somewhat diffuse and general. I would suggest you all agree on a clear proclamation that is concise and bullet pointed. Thi proclamation would then be published on large publications and fixed to the doors of the Stock Exchange, in a similar way that Luther famously did in the 16th century.