Every year the Rural Organizing Project brings together rural and small town leaders, activists, organizers and concerned community members for a day of strategizing. We look back on our last year – what we have accomplished, what has changed in our political climate – and we strategize for the year to come.
This year’s Rural Caucus & Strategy Session will be on Saturday, May 12th from 8:30am – 5pm in Woodburn, Oregon.
A lot has happened since we last came together for last year’s Caucus in Central Oregon. The Occupy movement has ignited our imaginations and redefined our economic moment. Oregon is helping shape this movement with more rural Occupations than any other state in the country. Our “Resources for Small Town Occupations” posted on the national HowToOccupy website, received over 10,000 hits. When word spread about our 23 “Occupy Our Post Office” actions in December, union leaders from Ohio called ROP to learn how to build a rural post office response.
At this year’s Rural Caucus and Strategy Session we’ll come together — new rural Occupiers and long term human dignity leadership alike –to reflect, connect and strategize together in Oregon’s farmerworker union hall.
Mark your calendars today for the weekend of May 12th! The Caucus will be all day on Saturday, and there will be some additional activities to join before and after in Woodburn if you are interested.
A few highlights for this year’s Caucus include:
- Strategy sessions on strengthening the rural and small town movement for justice: saving rural post offices, building welcoming communities for immigrants, lessons from Occupy Walden, election year planning and more
- An occupy track by and for rural and small town occupiers and those inspired by the movement
We will be gathering at the PCUN Union Hall – a movement center in Oregon not only for the farmworker justice but as a welcoming center for all movements for dignity. In the early 1990s the PCUN Union Hall was one of the few places that opened its doors to LGBTQ activists and allies marching against Ballot Measure 9. A few years later ROPers and friends gathered in Woodburn to support the farmworkers in the strawberry campaign. Again PCUN became a place for rural Oregonians trying to understand the complexity of race after Sept. 11th. It was only natural for PCUN & CAUSA to be partners in our 2005 Walk for Truth, Justice and Community when we marched for a week from Salem to Portland together. In 2012 rural and small town Oregonians will once again come together in the heart and home of the Oregon’s immigrant rights movement to celebrate victories, share stories and deepen our connection and commitment for a long haul movement.
Download a registration form here (Word Doc, PDF version) and let us know who will be representing your community this year for the Rural Caucus & Strategy Session on Saturday, May 12th in Woodburn.