(Rent some toilets with that GA donation money, stupids.)
-- you realize that this has been tried, long ago. the city wasn't allowed them to have portajohns. what's with the arrogance and name calling?
as for the rest, we've wrestled with these problems since day one and i'm sure they have already done so at all other occupies. here are some problems we've encountered with CG's workerism.
1. there are people who want to contribute but who have limitations such as physical disabilities, unsupportive family, jobs, home life, fear, etc. etc. all of the usual reasons why some people elect to engage in a movement or mobilization or whatever epidsodically, rather than continuously. I mean, just ask yourself why you (general you) sit home and don't get involved. all the same reasons as others who are supportive, just don't "do work."
2. as someone pointed out when our venue for GAs was changed, it meant that the people who are always there end up getting favored due to always being there. as everyone here, locally, knows: being able to occupy 24/7 is something of a privilege. Right away, it was clear this was unfair because we're not operating on a "level playing field" (see #1) as to who can "do work".
3. if you limit participation to only those who can "do work", then you severely limit attendance at any event where you need bodies. i guess you could get around this by have lots of 25 person occupies or something.
4. locally, we are keenly aware of the need to ensure that people who do more work don't start using that as some sort of moral leverage on those who supposedly don't.
we're really not into promoting "workerism" where we decide that some work is more important than others. just as we don't give any special privileges to the person who has cash to donate, we don't give any special privileges to someone who has time to donate. that would be suggesting that the single mom who works 2 part-time jobs, raises two kids is somehow doing less for society than the people washing dishes in the food tent. we already live in that system, we figured we'd do our best not to reproduce it when we had a choice.
there are a lot of ways to deal with assholes. a bunch of good training videos are online for how to do that at an occupy. direct action network used to have a bunch too, as well as pamphlets and books they've published.
CG: Then there is a daily sign up list and duties assigned. People who don't show up get a check. People who will not sign up, get tagged. This is straight out of the old environmental group (Save the Stanislaus) where I was a participant-organizer, whatever you call it.
At some point, it is obivious who has to get kicked out, because they are not willing to contribute. People who work together in maintenance build a lot of solidary in shared work, especially in more odious tasks of dirty work.
CG of course, the problem with this suggestion has already been made manifest in our local occupy from the get go. these have also been discussed like crazy at ows in nyc.
-- http://cleandraws.com Wear Clean Draws ('coz there's 5 million ways to kill a CEO)