[Campaignforrealdemocracy] [project2012] Re: Passing Clouds Real Democracy Meeting

Thu Nov 26 22:30:30 GMT 2009

Hi guys,

it was nice to meet and chat with you last night. Mark, thanks for organising and following up with your mail.

 The local Swedish political party which were elected on the basis of that other kind of democracy model that I talked about last night are called DemoEx. There's a wikipedia page about them here: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demoex 

...and their own website is here...

http://demoex.net/en. 

I went to visit a couple of them in the summer to interview them about DemoEx as part of my ongoing project / obsession about trying to find a better method for decision making at a national / international level. My own headscratchings / evil masterplan on the subject plus links to more or less relevant bits and pieces is here...

http://wiki.liquiddemocracy.net/index.php?title=Rich

The two guys I met up with were very nice and friendly. Apparently the model of their website is free for use if we wanted to set up something similar for this country (I seem to remember it's based on a Drupal template, just in case that
kind of thing means anything to you, I'd say that it just about does to me, but only just). I'll see if I can get a copy of it, and make any sense of it. I don't suppose anyone is a web developer are they?

xx

Rich

________________________________
From: Mark Barrett <marknbarrett at googlemail.com>
To: project2012 at googlegroups.com; campaignforrealdemocracy at lists.aktivix.org
Cc: Mark <mark at tlio.org.uk>
Sent: Thu, 26 November, 2009 21:44:57
Subject: Re: [project2012] Re: Passing Clouds Real Democracy Meeting

Hi Jocelyn, Space Girl, and Everyone

Space Girl the contact number for Passing Clouds is 07903 443 849

Thanks all for coming last night, and to everyone that made it possible. And if it was your first time to a CRD, welcome to the Project 2012 /  Real Democracy email discussion / planning lists! (there are two just to keep everyone on their toes. The first, Project 2012 is an open discussion list started to consider and organise an effective coalition for a new constitution, civil rights and democracy in time for 2012. Why 2012? Well, some say there is something in the air for that date, to do with the earth and the calendar and a new age. But whatever the case, it gives us something to aim for. The other, Campaign for Real Democracy is a lower traffic list ONLY concerned with posts about real democracy so if you find the traffic at 2012 is too much for you, subscribe to CRD by emailing James at  <james at dogmanet.org> 

For those who didn't make it last night we had a very positive, convivial meeting, as you should be able to see from Jocelyn's note below :-)

And for thos that had to go, after the meeting a number of ideas were continued in smaller group discussion, one of which was: if the town hall idea does fly for the General Election,  one way of it working could be if different groups were invited to organise different activities at different times, all synchronised to be taking place at the same times at town halls across London / UK. So, for example, there could be a food share across the city / country at 12 noon. And then Jocelyn your activities could be synchronised across more than one place at, say 1pm. Thomas, who organised the 7 Tangos at 7 different London locations on 7/7 anniversary could maybe do the same thing at 2. And Sylvia of the amazing looking group http://www.theworldmarch.org/ suggested that as her network had recently been organising renditions of Imagine at various capital cities, that could maybe also be organised. And maybe climate camp could be persuaded to do their still to
 be decided / suggested burning of the ballot books (kind of like a bonfire of the vanities, real democracy style) at the town halls too. Other groups might want to do something more confrontational, for example a climate rush type activity, or a non-violent blockade or an occupation. And so the idea of lots of different activities, some quite organised and synchronised, so we can provide the public and the press with at least a partial time table of interesting attractive activities that the different groups would  want to put on. This idea reminded me of the Zapatista call out of autumn last year at which the idea of a "global festival of dignified rage" was suggested. Maybe we could call it something similar. Or just "crazy demonstration" as per Fela Kuti's interpretation :-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usnznJZ0XvA

Anyway, welcome again and I'll keep chatting to others about this. Please spread the word to whatever groups you think might be amenable at this point. 

And please let's have more conversation here about any of the points raised last night. Especially would like to hear from Rich with more info on his interesting suggestion about how to make representatives do out bidding (and thereby transform the relationship into one more akin to a delegate function).. 

Love
Mark
PS I forgot to give out the flier last night but there is one attached. Please feel free to forward it or print out / pass on.

2009/11/26 Jocelyn Chaplin <jochaplin at yahoo.com>

>Hi Mark and Everyone,
>It was an interesting meeting last night.Liked you describing yourself as a democratic communist Mark!The old state communism imposed equality from above,while I guess we are all trying to grow it from below and from inside our hearts and minds.
>
>General ideas and plan for election day great. But we do need some clear general principles, maybe 3 including equality????????Just some thoughts...Big question - what do all the radical alternative groups have in common? Some answers might include....... a belief in 'think global, act local(planetary citizenship and decentralisation)'...non hierarchical structures(equalising)externally, politically and economically and internally, psychologically and mentally.....sustainable (not growth orientated)living and ....for most people......the sacredness,preciousness of mother earth(Gaia). And...other ideas?
>
>Time is running out, and connections, commonalities feel so much more vital than differences encouraged by the old hierarchic paradigm of superior/inferior.
>
>For the actions on election day I would like to offer ceremonies to evoke the spirit of equality and real democracy, like those during the French revolution. Then they  held ceremonies in woods and churches to honor liberty and egalite with singing etc. The election day events would include circles of sharing as well as drama, ritual, music and art. Hope to talk about it more at the January meeting.
>
>Love,
>Jocelyn.
>
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>--- On Thu, 26/11/09, Sian Thomas-coel <spacegirl001 at hotmail.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> From: Sian Thomas-coel <spacegirl001 at hotmail.co.uk>
>>> Subject: [project2012] Peace Not War at Passing Clouds
>> To: "2012" <project2012 at googlegroups.com>
>> Date: Thursday, 26 November, 2009, 15:08
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Hi everyone, I had a great time with you all last night,
>> please can we do it again? Does anyone have a
>> telephone/contact for Passing Clouds as I left some
>> belongings there and hope they can put them to one side for
>>> me until next time. Ta. Spacegirl :-)
>>
>> View your other email accounts from
>> your Hotmail inbox. Add
>> them now.
>>
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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-- 
"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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