Occupy Hartford Guidelines for Actions – Approved 3/31/12

As a decentralized people’s movement, Occupy Hartford encourages individuals and small groups to take action on behalf of the cause. Actions to date have included occupying land, marches and rallies, teach-in’s, and a variety of other activities. Below are guidelines allactions should follow in order to represent Occupy Hartford.

1. All actions should promote economic justice or similar justice issues. The Occupy Hartford Platform gives further guidance on the movement’s priority issues.
2. No action should be substantially in opposition to the Platform positions or the Occupy Hartford Points of Unity. For example, our Points of Unity state that we are opposed to all forms of oppression; thus actions should not be sexist, racist, etc. Our Platform states that we believe the rich and corporations should pay their fair and just share of taxes; thus an action that opposes such taxes would not represent Occupy Hartford.
3. No action should be destructive to other parts of the movement.
4. Those taking action should avoid putting the movement at unnecessary risk, forexample by antagonizing the police, being aggressively intoxicated at an action, ordoing illegal things during an action that are unrelated to the goals of the action.
5. Violence or destructive behavior toward other members of the movement or innocentby-standers (non-targets who are not antagonizing movement participants) is never acceptable. This includes verbal violence – such as threats, name-calling, or sexual harassment – and destruction of property.
6. No participant should initiate physical violence toward anyone. We recognize that some circumstances may require force in self-defense (not retaliation) to prevent extreme harm.
7. No weapons are to be used at any Occupy Hartford action.
8. Damage to property belonging to targets and violently resisting arrest are controversialactions and may cause loss of support for the action by the movement.
9. Actions which follow these guidelines and are small in scope do not need to beapproved by the Occupy Hartford General Assembly. However, individuals or small groups may wish to bring their ideas as proposals to the GA (or another decision- making body, such as a committee) for a clear statement of support and/or access to resources such as publicity or funds.
10. If a proposal for an action is brought before the GA or other decision-making body, and members of that body raise objections to the action, those objections should be respected even if the action could have gone forward without approval.

If for some reason, there is a need to make an exception to one of these principles, a proposal should be brought to the Occupy Hartford General Assembly or a similar decision-making entity for approval.