[Campaignforrealdemocracy] Thurs 23rd, CRD Minutes

[Mark Barrett]

Hi folks

Please find below some notes about last Thurs 23rd's CRD meeting. Thanks for
these Simon :-) and to everyone who came and made meeting a good one. Simon
I've made a few additions / changes, mainly typos, hope that's ok.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Simon  <wellssimo at googlemail.com>

Hi Mark and James,

Can you forward these notes/points of the discussion of last Thursday of CRD
at the Whitechapel Gallery, 23 July. 10 people were in attendance.

Recap of last meeting - Discussion about looking for organisations making
democratic decison making, some features of those organisations, would be
that the individuals/organisations would be the owners of the decison
whether through localism, workplace, place of study, the objective of this
would be to bring groups together.

Action points from last meeting - Map of democracy groups in London;
calendar of meetings and other group events.

Proposed items for agenda, (1) Proposal for action/demonstration around land
issues, (2) Usury, (3) What do we mean by real democracy, and what other
bodies are exploring the issue, (4) Talking circles, (5) Next meeting.

General discussion around finding a community space.
Comrade noted that he was working with Land Reform Group with the objective
of creating structures that get people working together.
Maloka - International School of Bottom up Organising -
Squating/Requisition.
Suggestion of film evening showing the Bill Douglas film, 'Comrades' about
the Tolpuddle Martyrs and origins of trade unionism
Vision - Space where powerful decisions are made.
Campaign for building constituionally based peoples palace.
Suggestion - Lewisham Bridge School - an example of where people are
dissatisfied with what the authorities are doing.
Also Wards Corner in Seven Sisters. Kew Bridge land occupation

Discussion over what spaces means, squatting, hierarchy and bottom up
organising.
Boundary/geographical definition, the high street/town centre is the natural
centre.
Seven is a significant number in terms of townships.
Discussion - Strong and local powerful communiites.
People know which postcode they live in, discussion on what areas are most
suitable for communities, natural watersheds for example.
Cannot artificially set boundaries.
Question - what are people doing in their local communities.
To be effective, people have to have a conituing purpose for the local
management of the area they live in, a purposeful framework.
Democracy - freedom
Suggestion - meaning of democracy, democracy halfway between anarchy and
fascism [this view needs quite a bit of elaboration, to say the least. MB] &
'the world as a permaculture garden' idea...

Final round up - what are individuals involved in?

Various including 21st Century Network, Ally Pally People's Palace, Tree
Watering, supporting other initiatives (eg Wards Corner, Lewisham School),
Climate Camp, Ecotort, Government of the Dead and various local community
endeavours

And Theoretical Projects:
Barry Fineberg - see ?? = Barry pls advise
MB working on CRD manifesto [more on this at end of August] .

Dates:
July 27 Camden Town Hall (Housing Sell Off Campaign, public meeting)
August 15 - Picnic (Parliament Hill)
Aug 27 - Climate Camp http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/gatherings
August 30th - Peoples Palace meeting at the Royal Festival Hall

---------------------------------------
  *Next CRD meeting* will be either a Monday or Thurs eve in mid /
late Sept.
More info and calendar details at newly updated, yet still to be tweaked
further www.peopleincommon.org (thanks Anna :-)!)

Finally, Barry, please can you provide us with a link to your work about
spatial ordering as I'm struggling to locate via google, would be happy to
pass on the info. Also, Barry you may be interested in the work of Anthony
Jay, which I posted about before (thanks to Mark Brown for sending me a
reminder about this), see at
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6684542.ece


Cheers, Mark
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