The Occupy Movements reach decisiosn basic-democratically in consensus-based General Assemblies. At a General Assembly (GA), everyone can take part. Everyone is welcome.

The Basic Democracy of the Occupy Movement makes it possible for all participants to help shape decisions. A mederator maintains a respectful climate for conversation and sees that everyone who wants to gets a word in. In this way anyone who has something to offer the GA’s current topic should feel encouraged to contribute their information, experiences, and opinions. As a consequence, of course, a GA receives rich and myriad inputs – but through intellegent synthesis of these disparate elements consensus emerges, consensus that all participants can stand behind.

A General Assembly’s decisions normally turn out much…smarter than those of a single person or of a hierarchical organization. Finding true consensus fosters a good kind of ‘hive-mind’ in the group, because the knowledge of all present is available and flows into the ultimate decision. For this reason, GA resolutions have a great advantage over the majority-rule decisions we see in all present-day democratic structures: they ignore nobody; no minority is overpowered. Since everyone agrees with a given solution, a consensus-based decision from an Occupy GA has incredible power and energy that operates in the full extent of the decision and its realization in practice.

The General Assemblies of Occupy Zürich take place on Monday and Wednesday nights in the Church of St. Jacob Community Center at 19.00.

On Thursdays our GAs take place in the Lichthof at the University of Zurich, and are not consensus-oriented; instead they are open discussions on various topics (normally decided in advance).

Every Saturday at 13.00 on Paradeplatz there is also a large GA intended to draw more participation from the general public and passersby.