[Campaignforrealdemocracy] updated draft statement

[james holland]

i missed off a couple of main points

2 methods for increasing community democracy

- community owned space or buildings
- helping communities who are already involved in campaigns (that are 
likely to be, at least partly, a result of a failure of democracy)




James Holland

http://risingclevel.blogspot.com/

james holland wrote:
> hi there, good meeting last night, i've redrafted the CRD statement 
> based on our discussions. i want to flag up one element particularly. 
> Although in the CRD meetings we will discuss (perhaps endlessley!) 
> details and ideas about different ways of arranging and structuring 
> society the bulk of the practical benefit of real democracy will occur 
> very quickly and easily by communities simply deciding that they want to 
> take responsibility - all the rest is, albeit enjoyable and useful, 
> academic speculation!
> 
> anyway - here's the redrafted statement
> 
> 
> - current systems labelled 'democratic' are anything but
> - real democracy means everyone having an equal say about what happens 
> and being empowered to enact these decisions
> - the CRD will not dictate the structures or character of 'real 
> democracy' it will simply encourage communities to take responsibility 
> and be a forum for people to discuss potential structures / ways forward
> - the bulk of the benefit of real democracy will occur very quickly and 
> easily by communities simply deciding that they want to take 
> responsibility themselves, whatever structure they eventually decide on.
> - however, real democracy means, at the minimum, completely open 
> community based decision making run broadly on consensus principles 
> being the primary unit of administration
> 
> 
> a few notes
> 
> Although these units will be the primary unit there's no reason why 
> other structures can't continue to exist while they continue to provide 
> useful services. communities could equally decide to create other 
> structures.
> what is a community - communities define themselves and can be virtual 
> as well as real, people can be part of many communities but it is up to 
> communities themselves how they define membership and what rights 
> different kinds of members might have (e.g. only residents have a right 
> to block proposals). However, The CRD will focus on helping small 
> geographical based communities where there are disputes between members 
> of the community and current governing institutions to define 
> themselves, increase participation / legitimacy use that to resist 
> unwelcome activity and take positive actions for the benefit of the 
> communities.
> Real communities are rarely described by political boundaries (councils, 
> wards etc) they are more often based around high streets and in fact 
> postal districts, which were established around real communities.
>