Occupy Across Vermont News, April 2012

by Stephen Marshall, Point for the Occupy Vermont Communications Working Group. Please see to get an explanation of how the Group is organized, and how to join. We need people from across the state as key point-persons.



Laura Simon of the Upper Valley reports that Occupy the Upper Valley is planning a MayDay celebration in Lebanon at the town green. They will have a postal worker speakout, a union rally, music, a traditional may pole, and free food. Their GA is held on Sundays at 4:30 at St Paul's Church in Wilder.

Nick Cohen of Occupy the Upper Valley ( otuv-discuss@listserv.dresden.us ) informed me that
"We are considering the suggestion of OVT to have the next statewide GA in our area. Carol Langstaff has tentatively agreed to have the event at her place in Sharon, VT. We have a dance/drama event planned for the last two weekends in July with the Flock troupe, of which Carol is the director and producer. I am a member of the troupe. We would have accommodations for a potluck lunch during the meeting, with the show later (probably 6:30 PM, which is the usual time)."



From Putney Vermont, Emily Peyton wrote:

"ON Earth Day, We will occupy the press with appropriate policy on industrial Hemp, and create an obligation to respond in contract. Our Hemp Public Legal Notice has been crafted to dispel idiotic issues around the agriculture of industrial hemp, and to encourage common sense action sooner rather than later. Please help spread the word that we are creating better contract with our government, as we the people are a contractural party, and thus have the absolute right to engage in creating new contract. When in print, our words have a power that creates the better paradigm. Please contact me for copies of the Hemp Legal notice, and please help post them, and we also need outreach by way of letters to the editor that we are doing this to major News outlets in the US. 88peyton@gmail.com www.emilypeyton.org. If anyone in the occupy group is considering entering the political arena for that podium, I will support them with my experience, and the fact that I am doing it once more since public banking is gaining ground."


From occupycentralvt, Marie Countryman reports they are going to the "99% spring" Non-violence training on Saturday 14th 12-3 at the Dept of Labor Building.



Central Vermont is otherwise very busy with planning for the May Day rally in Montpelier, and is taking the lead in organizing our next Occupy Vermont general assembly.

Marie continues: "May Day is a rally starting at the Town Hall and ending at State House. Several things are planned. A[nother] focus is the closing of the POs in VT. There will be an action in white river junction on the day that it actually closes or is due to close.... "

Occupy Central Vermont is also spearheading the Village Gathering in Brookfield June 22 - 24, at Twin Pond retreat. This promises to be a great weekend of play for Occupiers and Transition-Town people (a convergence indeed!!). I can't help with more details now, but look up OCVT to get the low-down.



Occupy Rutland's Kathleen Krevetski said that their core group of 10 occupied a street corner all winter, and have now decided to put their energy into more creative ways of making their point. Their big project right now is a video production of a song, written by a local performer, called "Mute the Loot" which encourages people to mute the audio on their TVs when the expensive Super-Pac advertising airs. As part of the Video, they hope to attend the May Day rally in Montpelier and get the crowd to sing and sway "LaLaLa" while holding their hands over their ears. This will provide the chorus. In addition to letter writing "to put people first", they plan to do Street Theater during their upcoming farmers markets.


In Pownal at Green Mountain College, Scott Chernoff reports their group is facilitating the "99% Spring" training in nonviolent direct action training. They apparently are very interested in the move-your-money campaign, and plan to take their message to the Bank of America shareholders meetings. One tactic they are considering is to write up a list of demands and to solicit signatures around the state to take with them to Atlanta, where the bank is based.


I'm not sure if Springfield Vermont isn't part of the Upper Valley occupy, but Chuck Gregory reported that in Springfield:

--the Vermont Worker's Center is hosting a Community Meeting on Saturday, April 21st to get residents engaged in the struggle for universal, affordable health care, the focus on a people-centered state budget and the right to meet their obligations to themselves, their family and their community.

--Carol Langstaff of WIRED and the Occupy the Upper Valley GA is asking everybody in her social network between now and May 1st to move their money out of the Big and Criminal Banks into locally owned banks, credit unions and S&L's. If anybody has a question as to whether the bank they used is locally owned, they can ask her (or me).

--Springfield residents will be attending the Saturday 4/14 99% activism training on interactive TV at the Howard Dean Center.

--Over 5,000 people have enrolled to vote for delegates to the Continental Congress 2.0, to be held in Philadelphia on July 4th. Two candidates have already enrolled for Vermont-- Mary Murphy and Tim Price. To vote for them to go, visit the 99% Declaration site. If you agree with the points stated, by all means, sign on and vote!

--So far, nobody has expressed interest in helping to get one statewide race in 2014 operated under a radically different form of campaign finance regulation. If anybody would like to work on it, have them contact me at


I didn't hear from the 99% Group in Newport, nor Occupy North East Kingdom in Hardwick, and I don't have contacts in other parts of the state. I'd like to hear from Brattleboro, Bennington, St. J, and otherwise, so if you have contact info, please write to me at