Picking up where I left off last post, Day 2 of protesting ALEC in Salt Lake City was a bit quieter than Monday, primarily because July 24^th is a very important holiday in Utah.  That day, called Pioneer Day, commemorates Brigham Young’s arrival into the Salt Lake valley in 1847; and as you might guess, all state employees, as well as many workers in private companies, have the day off.  The morning starts out with the Days of 47 Parade, which commences about 9 in the morning and lasts until around noon hour with the parade ending at Liberty Park,  a large 80-acre park in the downtown area.  The celebration continues well into the afternoon at the park, with thousands of people attending the festivities.  Seeing as how the local populace and the media were going to be focused on the parade and post-parade activities, and as there was not much ALEC activity going on at the Grand America Hotel (just registration), members of our ALEC welcoming committee thought it would be better to go over to Liberty Park rather than protest at the hotel.  So they took a bunch of fliers and handouts with them and walked the 9 blocks from Washington Square to the park.  That turned out to be more productive, as it became an education opportunity interacting with local residents.

Later in the afternoon, several went over to the hotel and chalked protest messages on the sidewalk, which the hotel groundskeepers didn’t appreciate, since they were sent out with a riding sweeper to clean them off, and there were words exchanged.

For Tuesday afternoon, we had a teach-in scheduled on Militarism and Corporate Rule, presented by one of our coalition partners, the Utah Antiwar Coalition, an up-and-coming group of young activists.  The day’s planned activities ended with the teach-in.  There was some media coverage on Tuesday by the local TV station(s), here and here. 

Things really picked up on Wednesday (Day 3), the first day of the ALEC task force meetings and workshops.  ALEC welcoming committee’s morning started out with a picket at the Grand America Hotel, followed by a teach-in called ALEC, Unions & Occupation of the Wisconsin Capitol given by Keith Roberts:

Teach-in: ALEC, Unions and the Occupation of the Wisconsin Capitol

When: Wed, July 25, 10am – 12pm

Where: City/County Building, Washington Square SW side (map)

Description: Taught by Keith Roberts, a senior research fellow at the University of Pittsburgh. Keith J. Roberts is a Senior Research Fellow at University of Pittsburgh’s Institute for International Studies in Education. Roberts has held multiple administrative positions at higher education institutions, including Vice President for Academics at Brigham Young University–Hawaii from January 2000 to April 2008. Under Dr. Roberts’ guidance, BYU–Hawaii established multiple culturally-sensitive articulation programs with universities in China, Mongolia, Thailand, Fiji, Samoa, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Tahiti.

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Over six months in the planning by OccupySLC ALEC Welcoming Committee, our efforts finally came to fruition on July the 23^rd.   The American Legislative Exchance Council was given a truly unforgettable welcome, one that should stick in their memory for a while, especially several of our state legislators who ended up being questioned by the media.  And boy howdy, it was fuuuunn!!

Resist ALEC poster

A bit of background on how this evolved is probably in order.  It all began when several OccupySLC  members ran across the website ALECexposed and began learning about ALEC and what it was about.  They learned not only that Utah and its mostly rightwing state legislators fit snugly into the mold of ALEC’s agenda, but also that ALEC was holding its 39^th annual conference was scheduled to be in Salt Lake in July, and also noticed that ALEC was getting plenty of attention by Common Cause and other progressive groups.  So it was proposed that OccupySLC set up a working group to do research and formulate ways to expose ALEC and foster public awareness.  And so the ALEC Welcoming Committee came into being in January, 2012, with a website , and over the next few weeks working groups were formed to give-teach-ins, work on outreach to local and national groups, plan actions, create art and theater, create and distribute fliers and literature, and arrange housing for out-of-town participants.

On April 02, 2012, after several drafts, and much back-and-forth discussion, and consensus, a formal Call To Action was posted on the website:

We the people of Salt Lake City invite all those opposed to the tyranny of the 1% to join us from July 23-28th 2012 in providing a warm welcome for the 39th Annual Meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council. This annual meeting by ALEC is paid for and attended by corporate sponsors who sit behind closed doors with our elected state legislators. At these meetings laws are created without the voice of the people that will later benefit those same corporate sponsors at the expense of our communities.

ALEC functions as the most influential mechanism by which corporations maintain their dominance over people and policy by occupying our political institutions. ALEC is responsible for thirty nine years worth of oppressive legislation. Model legislation proposed by ALEC and enacted by our elected representatives have destroyed workers rights and strangled free speech. These model policies have driven the privatization of agriculture, education, health care, and the prison industry all at the expense of the ecosystems that sustain us.

We will not allow this systemic corruption to continue. We the people have developed direct democratic communities and processes to challenge the status quo. We call for a local and national convergence of these communities from July 23-28 in Salt Lake City. We remain committed to nonviolence as we provide an open and inclusive space for resistance, rebellion and a diversity of tactics. We the People demand our frustrations be known as we develop solutions together where the voice of the people is heard over the voice of the corporations. It is by solidarity through struggle that we will find our greatest strength.

With Love,

ALEC Welcoming Committee of Occupy Salt Lake

P.S.
Bring a tent. Pitchforks Optional.

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