[Campaignforrealdemocracy] Thurs 23rd, CRD Minutes

[Simon]

Mark,

Thats fine, people can amend, add to these points I picked up, no one 
owns the minutes/notes, it gives a general drift and flow of the 
conversation and some points for next meeting and ideas for action in 
between.

Simon

Mark Barrett wrote:
> 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*  <mailto: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 
> <http://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