[Campaignforrealdemocracy] campaign real democracy - actually starting to campaign!

Sun Oct 11 22:25:55 BST 2009

At the talk I went to recently by Brixton Transition Town's Duncan Law (he who grows CORN in his front garden there!) I got a copy of the Transition Handbook which is brill. I'm still poring over it but it's very cheap on Amazon, here's the page:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=transition+handbook
and here's BTT's phone number, they should be able to find you someone to help: 07958 635181

Alison

--- On Sun, 11/10/09, Mark Barrett <marknbarrett at googlemail.com> wrote:

> From: Mark Barrett <marknbarrett at googlemail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Campaignforrealdemocracy] campaign real democracy - actually starting to campaign!
> To: campaignforrealdemocracy at lists.aktivix.org, project2012 at googlegroups.com
> Date: Sunday, 11 October, 2009, 9:07 PM
> Hi James
>  
> Thanks for the update! 
>  
> From my side of things:
>  
> Here in Southgate I am continuing to work on
> developing a long term partnership between residents,
> traders, educational establishments, human rights and
> humanist/faith groups, encouraging them to come
> together for the accessible idea of a democratically run,
> and community owned street market on a small but suitable
> patch of pavement. From there, for me it is a short skip
> towards real local sovereignty - which I always mention in
> the same context - because the right to run a street market
> and receive the rental income from it (rather than it going
> to the Council) is a form of sovereignty in itself. A
> community owned asset..
> 
>  
> And so I agree 100% it's about working with people
> you wouldn't normally consider as allies.  So far
> I've got some support for the idea but I need to
> develop it further. Luckily I've been offered some
> collaboration with Southgate College, who are stationed
> right next to the site in question, so fingers crossed that
> will be a plus to the campaign's potential.
> 
>  
> Local Area Forums, which you mention are definitely in
> need of democratisation and if they are like the ones up
> here they cover three wards. So far I've found
> LAFs relatively good for info gathering (altho by no means
> perfect) and quite frustrating in other ways. There maybe
> room for common cause around the issue of over
> centralisation - half the time it seems that both Cllrs AND
> residents are equally frustrated by Westminster's huge
> powers over and so it's hard to feel anything other than
> it all being a big talk shop; an  exercise in Council being
> seen to be doing the right thing but actually not that
> effective because no real powers. As with consultations
> it's al quite top down. If you have some allies and can
> present yourselves as a decent sized coalition defintely
> consider pushing them to sit in the democratic fashion in a
> circle and all - can't wait to hear how you get
> on!
> 
>  
> Also there is now the possibility in London to create
> your own parish council althought I think that's quite a
> procedural obstacle course. Might be worth looking into
> though as PC's can raise there own revenue via taxation
> (ie in our case, democratically agree ie non compulsory
> subscription).              
> 
>  
> Other stuff moving forward:
>  
> (1) Theatre Project with Teresa Hoskyns and a number
> of pro-theatre people aimed at getting
> schools involved in the great issues via the old Greek
> democratic idea of Agon Theatre.. we are applying to do a
> show at the GLA Scoop Space and have some schools on board
> already
> 
>  
> (2) Local version of 21st Century Network in Enfield
> to bolster the other work that's going on. Francis and I
> are developing 'Make Politics Matter' initiative
> with local schools to get them interested in political
> issues and community action / sovereignty and tap into their
> creativity and we're getting interest from schools
> across the Borough. Email me for more info on
> this!  
> 
>  
> (3) Dec 2 Real Democracy and Right to the City
> meeting with 21CN; speaking Matt Scott of CRD and Community
> Sector Coalition, Teresa Hoskyns of Queens Market defence
> group, Project 2012 and me. We hope to make this a launch
> for a Civil Society union event in 2010 around the idea of
> Local Sovereignty. Glad to have yr support  - register at
> http://www.meetup.com/21stCenturyNetwork/       
> 
>  
> (4) I would like to link the local work I am doing
> with the Transition Towns initiative - be grateful of
> someone could put me in touch with anyone suitable in North
> London to talk me through what's involved. Also, did you
> see the flier for 21st Nov I put round earlier. See
> attached. I think it would be good to have a CRD presence
> there and I'm talking to Matt about this in the context
> of our planned event for next year and maybe making a short
> presentation there. 
> 
>  
> (5) Great to hear about the Climate Camp plans!
>  
> Mark     
>  
>  
> 
> 2009/10/11 James Holland <james at dogmanet.org>
> 
> 
> Hello CRD people. I've been really quiet on this
> list recently because I've been actually starting to do
> some campaigning groundwork for building some examples of
> real democracy. 
> 
> As the climate camp was in SE london, I have some
> connections in the area and there are loads of inspiring
> grassroots campaigns going on; I have moved into the area
> and have spent the last few weeks meeting with transition
> towns, anti gentrification campaigns, labour struggles, anti
> school closure groups, residents associations, community
> forums etc etc. 
> 
> 
> I've learned loads already including that you have
> to be more pragmatic about who you work with and how, and to
> look beyond people''s labels and affiliations.
> There's good people everywhere!   
>  I'm focusing my efforts generally on lewisham and
> southwark, but also on particular areas within those
> boroughs. both of these boroughs have council-created forums
> that cover a small area (1 ward or slightly larger) that  i
> think are good targets to try and increase their democracy
> (open agendas, using consensus, encouraging more people to
> be involved) but also gradually taking more power. the first
> steps are to talk to people already involved in these
> structures and find out what's already happening, then
> probably to get them to use some of their budgets to
> increase participation, a
> 
> 
> I'm planning to build on the definition I sent out
> before which was something like - real democracy is when all
> the people of a community take complete and equal control
> for doing everything their community needs, (and no one has
> any power to say what other communities should do.)
> 
> I can also report that there is an idea within climate
> camp to arrange something for the lead up to the election to
> expose the charade of democracy.
> 
> james holland
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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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