[Campaignforrealdemocracy] southgate & beyond, report

[Mark Barrett]

Following my previous mail / report (see below) this is just a quick follow
on update


About Sept meetings:

(1) Francis and myself met with David Byrne at the College last week and we
agreed to start meetings this Sept. The 21st Century Network is a movement
which aims to open up public space for proper discourse on the burning
issues of the day. So far, 21CN has been a central London-wide affair. To
start a local 21CN group in Soutgate will be the next step in the evolution
of the project, which is great news! You can find out more about 21CN by
following the link(s) below. Will be great to connect this work, and the
groundwork the Southgate Community Anchor has already done, to the local
community and students of the College, and others. As outlined below,
proposal is for Tues eve meetings, possibly bi-weekly and alternating
between panel presentation (ie trad 21CN Meet Up structure) and action
/ campaign decision making (ie working in the round, democratically). And to
promote the group using Meetup.com and other new social media but also more
old fashioned means like fliers, newsletter, etc so that everyone gets a
chance to know about us.

(2) I'll be meeting with a teacher at Broomfield School is tomorrow. She has
already expressed  an interest in the 21CN project, aswell as a joined up
community project for Southgate which goes beyond discourse. I am going to
suggest a "reclaim Sunday" project as hook; ie what do students and teachers
think abot the idea of reclaiming the trad day for community? And how would
they like to do it? And then ask for suggestions, and also offer some of the
suggestions so far made (by the Southgate Community Anchor group, Project
2012, and others..). In the latter regard I am particularly indebted to
Sally Wood of the (Alexandra) People's Palace Project and V Involved for her
flagging this site which I think it would be great to emulate, for
N14 people & place http://www.harringayonline.com/

(3) I hope to be visiting other local schools soon too.

Comments very welcome!

(4) for those new to the Southgate project, pls see blog and Southgate
Phoenix newsletter at www.greenpeasouthgate.blogspot.com

More later but in meantime, pls read on for a full update. And keep August
15th in diary for picnic on Hampstead Heath!

Mark

2009/5/31 Mark Barrett <marknbarrett at googlemail.com>

> hi everyone
>
> i thought a brief report on where things are at, in southgate and beyond,
> might be in order.
>
> first, good news! i've been offered use of southgate college meeting
> facilities from september for our group.
>
> second, more good news! working with francis sealey (resident of
> palmers green) we'll be setting up the first 'local chapter'
> of his successful, & novel 21st century network (a philosophy & discussion
> group francis co-founded a few years back) in southgate, which we can use to
> develop the group further. hopefully the launch of this will coincide with
> our invitation to use the college facilities (ie, from september).
>
> the novel approach francis has taken is to use meetup's on-line
> software. this tool is for bringing people together on line but then also in
> person, around common interest. francis developed the 21st century network
> (21cn) with the aim of going beyond left and right politics, and opening up
> public space where it's been systematically closed down in recent
> years. read more about 21cn, (hopefully coming to a postcode near you
> v.soon) here http://www.meetup.com/21stCenturyNetwork/ and here
> http://21stcenturynetwork.ning.com/
>
> as you'll see, the meetings take the form of regular events with a panel
> speaking about an issue, with lots of audience participation afterwards.
> plus some food and drink at the end. hopefully we will be able to emulate
> this model in the college. at the moment i am guessing that we could make
> these meetings monthly to begin with, with smaller, consensus democracy
> community anchor meetings (perhaps weekly, or just monthly)
> imbetween. current plan is for tuesday nights for all of these.
>
> third, i am still determined to develop a democratic project for southgate.
> whether this be the market or some other endeavour will depend on
> what captures people's imagination.
>
> fourth, having spoken with david byrne of the 6th form college, stefan
> cadek & peter smith of enfield youth services we are broadly in agreement
> about the idea of going into the secondary schools and engaging teachers
> and students with the concept of a joined up "diy" local sovereignty project
> for the n14 area. hopefully stefan and/or peter and i will be able to attend
> a number of the local schools before the end of this term. basically to
> introduce ourselves & talk about the possibility of utilising the alan
> pullinger youth centre and see what the students and teachers are up
> for. but also, i want to use the opportunity to invite the schools to take
> part in a wider grassroots consultation - and possible action - project. the
> consultation, echoing the earlier one i did in cafes and other places of
> note in southgate, will be to see if any of the ideas we've already come up
> with fires the student and teachers' imagination, and also of course to see
> what ideas (for a transformed southgate) they come up with independently.
> and we'll see where we go from there..!
>
> fifth, myself and others are starting a london based 'campaign for real
> democracy'. this is for people interested in more local decision making
> powers and to strengthen the london network. we'll be having our inaugural
> meeting on monday 8th of june in the foyer of the royal festival hall. more
> info about the background to this can be found at the blog-site
> www.newsov.org
>
> sixth, the eden project are promoting "The Big Lunch" on 19th July
> throughout the UK. Would anyone on this list like to have a public picnic in
> Southgate or elsewhere that day?  Seems like a good way of connecting with
> local folk. More info at http://www.thebiglunch.com/ How about on the
> space we had the market, next to Blockbusters? or some other place? once
> we've decided we can register it on the url and see what happens on the day!
> as some of you may know, with others i started a picnic campaign group in
> 2005 to protest against the govt's restrictions on free speech around
> parliament (under the serious organised crime and police act) - the url for
> this group is www.peopleincommon.org
>
> seventh, there's going to be another picnic, this time without any
> corporate sponsors, on parliament hill, hampstead heath on august 15th which
> is the day of indian independence. hope some of you can make it! it's all
> about encouraging the people to take responsible control of london and all
> its localities. anyone up for making a big banner for the day? *also, we
> need a tipi if possible, does anyone know anyone with access to one? *Big
> Democracy Picnic facebook group
> http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=93829936659
>
> ok, thanks for your time. pls do let me know what you think about any of
> this
> :-)
>
> love, mark
>
>



-- 
"We hear men speaking for us of new laws strong and sweet /Yet is there no
man speaketh as we speak in the street.”
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