Sonoma County, which lies just north of the bustle of San Francisco and Oakland, is not immune to the crimes of the 1%.

In fact, our reputation as “Wine Country” is a prime factor in making this beautiful region a playground for the mega-wealthy. Not surprisingly, much about the region's politics caters to the interests of the ruling class - both those who live here and those who come to visit, to invest, etc.

As a result, public transit, education, housing and social services have all taken a hit in Santa Rosa, the County seat, while officials continue to put a premium on making the city “tourist-friendly” through increased corporate development and a beefed-up police presence, further marginalizing the “undesirable” elements (i.e. poor people). This is the invisible hand of austerity striking the 99% in Northern California.

Now, the Community Action Lab - a new working group of Occupy Santa Rosa - is emerging to fight back.

The Community Action Lab grew out of the Action Working Group that helped plan large marches and acts of civil disobedience throughout 2012. It was formed specifically to combat austerity, budget cuts and debt.

The group is comprised of two projects. The first is the Student Union, a local chapter of the newly formed California Student Union, which was inspired by the massive student strike that rocked Quebec last year. Tess McDermott, a student who has been organizing with Occupy Santa Rosa since its inception in October 2011, explains:

"Whether we're talking about healthcare, public services or education, everyone in the working and middle classes either is or knows someone who is affected by budget cuts, which are the modern manifestation of austerity measures.

"For students in particular, going to school has become quite the struggle: faced with a financial aid system that is stretched thin and getting thinner, as well as fewer and fewer classes with less money going to our schools every year, we are stressed out, poor, and in debt, unable to afford classes we count ourselves lucky to get into, if we manage to. Education is how we get people to the point where they can begin to solve economic problems in the first place; of all the areas to cut, why are we cutting what we need most?"

CAL's second project, currently known as the Robin Hood Project, has been studying how to organize against austerity and cuts to public services, as well as foreclosures. The group has learned from the work being organized by Strike Debt in New York City, the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign, the broader Take Back the Land movement, as well as the organizing efforts of the LA Bus Riders Union.

Most of our community members rely on public services to survive. They have been directly affected by massive regional budget cuts, put in place largely so that our cities can pay back loans to Wall Street firms -- and so that the wealthy don't have to pay their share of taxes. Rachel Sonnenschein, who has been centrally involved in local Occupy efforts for over a year, says why she is driven to work with the Robin Hood Project:

“I want [and] need to do something to help keep austerity measures from making the rich richer and the poor poorer. I have a huge amount of debt from credit cards, student loans and money I owe friends and families. I never made frivolous purchases. I put myself through both undergrad and grad school. I have never owned a new car and I doubt I'll ever be able to buy a house since I already have the equivalent of a small mortgage in student loans. And even if I was to declare bankruptcy I wouldn't be able to include my student loans in it. "No, my debt came from things like schoolbooks, a computer (to use for school), medical expenses (including things like prescriptions I need, eyeglasses, dental work), car repairs, rent, food, etc. These are things I needed, not things I wanted! What I want is change and that is why I am trying to make a difference. The measures the Federal Government did to keep us from "falling off the fiscal cliff” affect the poor even more so than they do the middle class and upper class. And they just want to keep cutting more public services.”

The Community Action Lab kicks off its efforts with a teach-in on Thursday, January 17, under the title “All Roads Lead to Wall Street” (a slogan borrowed from Occupy Wall Street's anniversary events last September). People are invited to bring ideas, strategies and a desire to discuss new ways of thinking about and analyzing how austerity is affecting us -- and what we, as a movement, can do to push back against the 1%.