[Campaignforrealdemocracy] Ladies & Gentlemen.. An Important Question for your Kind Consideration

[Mark Barrett]

 I have an important question for everyone, please consider and say
publically what you think about following proposal for next years'
election.

The question is: how best to bring local groups and wider disaffected
together on the street in context of the 2010 general election? Here's the
proposal:
"what could work is for us to put the word around as of from now that on
general election eve, or day, may 6th or june ?6th or whenever it ends up
being, we could end up at local town halls across london/elsewhere for a
real political 'party' ( ie food share, camp fire, breaking down into ward
and sub ward barrios) and therefore with the potential, in places to be a
healthy, non violent stand off with the state or just a festival picnic and
everything imbetween. Why? Because this is what democracy looks like, not
voting for others to make decisions on our behalf but  people meeting,
independently, sharing ideas, gifts of food and other human things and
creating the structures, even in just embryonic form, for the building
of the new and better society. And then, from there: to exercise together,
and individually, and responsibly, for humanity and planet: whatever power
that process brings ie at the town halls on the day or in follow on or
both."

As someone put it in response to this suggestion: "can tv really ignore it
if there are democracy camps outside every town hall? and if it gets into
public consciousness that the alternatives are there (that's not happened
yet) then perhaps the demand from the public to know more would become
irresistible"

Please don't say it isn't practical. Can we please focus just on whether we
think it makes sense as a strategic aim? There are plenty of groups talking
about what to do for the election, and there will be a meeting in January to
discuss a possible 'rainbow coalition' direct action response, so what's
important at this point is to maximise the possibility of all or most of the
groups coming together under one riveting campaign..

To expand: the idea so far discussed off list is to replicate the mobilising
success of the April G20 at the Bank of England, aswell as the press work
that was done back then on a new political economy, both of which worked
quite well for the Bank action. People came in numbers and the press read
and reported on some of the ideas we stood for, albeit only alongside their
obsession with violence which usually overshadowed the ideas. So we would
improve upon this. Mobilising in such a way that a new non-violent direct
action movement, with clear aims is launched, and done in such a way as to
reflect and embody the decentralised, autonomous, compassionate,
community-orientated society which the revolutionary part of the
movement collectively believes in. Hence the idea to converge locally at
Town Halls for a democratic party. Who's going to put on the best
one I wonder? Every camp could in theory be filmed and uploaded on line,
so the public ie us and lots of others could see enjoy and have their say on
that too!

In tandem we'd also need to put forward the ideas necessary for an
alternative political economy, based on the ideals of real democracy, local
community sovereignty and the structures to achieve it that we have been
discussing here over the course of the last 11 months, and in other places
before that.

So, as a result of the election and our rainbow coalition response, a
turning point could be achieved. A new, grassroots democratic force to be
reckoned with in domestic UK politics will have found its way into the
public consciousness, convincing a growing portion of society of its power
and importance, not just by the success of it getting people onto the
streets (which may well appeal to the heart and the guts) but also by the
power of the ideas it puts forward, which will help to convince the thinking
side of society, appealing to the head too.

And if we can achieve that, the skies the limit. Politicised people will
start joining up with local groups in a viral way and unpoliticised people
will start see clearly what they know dimly already, which is to say it is
ordinary people who have the solutions to the crises in politics, economics
and the environment, and not the state, nor the Tories, New Labour, Lib
Dems, BNP, UKIP or Greens, with their party political shenanigans and
aspirations (well meaning or otherwise) towards the elite that will always,
left unchecked continue to socially control everyone else.

What do people think? Would you support / offer this suggestion of a
convergence on Town Halls as a really good response to the general election?
Remember, at this point it is not really about feasibility, as if we get the
groups on board that will be a breeze. At this point, the important question
is really about whether you think it would be the right direct action
response. Once we have a strong group in support of it, we can persuade
others.

My view is that it is the right thing to do because (a) it symbolises what
we stand for (b) it will get press coverage (c) it will be a way of building
/ strengthening the movement and the groups that make it up, in itself and
(d) I am bloody lazy so I just want to be able to walk to the demo or take a
short bus ride :-)

On that note, another good side to this is that many people take half a day
of work to vote on election day, so we could get quite a few people there if
it's well publicised in advance..

As I mentioned, the plan is to have a gathering in January of various
tendencies within the movement, to discuss this and other proposals. It sure
would be good to know you'd support it there too.

So PLEASE let's have a nice debate about it now. That would seem to me a
very good use of this list!

Obviously we'll also be mooting it tomorrow night at Passing Clouds..

Mark
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.aktivix.org/pipermail/campaignforrealdemocracy/attachments/20091124/ab400eae/attachment.htm>