[Campaignforrealdemocracy] [project2012] Community Networking

Mon Sep 14 12:27:01 BST 2009

Mark

Happy to try and see about this

Yes there is a body of people who have this interest, which would include the CSC (Community Sector Coalition) members - in particular your 5 points connect with two areas that are live for the voluntary / community sector - namely the work in part sponsored by DEFRA and related statutory bods on climate change (where there is frustration and hope in equal measures about going beyond narrow top down and individual behaviour change models to collective action and social justice rooted action; and also the democracy / localism angle is for me, absolutely key to what the community sector is all about, albeit the contract culture / service delivery mantra has created a division in our sector so that increasingly voluntary sector groups define themselves in narrow professional criteria which is not helpful.

Taking it forward, one thing is how geographically located is this union of democratic localists?  Is it primarily London?  That will make a difference - CSC is national and because I live in London I have range of local contacts here.  Secondly I think the voluntary / community sector identity can take a bit of working through, which will need a bit of attention.  Personally I connect what I do in the sector in very broad social terms whereby everything relates to political structures but I believe it is sadly often the case that community / voluntary sector workers struggle to make the connections with wider activist campaigns being the same common cause as theirs; so in order to reap the benefits a bit of chatting through how it all fits together, where goals and objectives unite is usually required so everyone gets it.  All a bit obvious but worth considering.  I am keen to take this forward so lets follow up soon

Matt

Matthew Scott

CSC Director

020 7336 9461

Work mobile: 07827 258411

Website: www.communitysectorcoalition.org.uk

This message is intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law.  If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivering the message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify us immediately by return e-mail and delete this e-mail and all attachments from your system.
________________________________
From: Mark Barrett [mailto:marknbarrett at googlemail.com]
Sent: 14 September 2009 12:08
To: campaignforrealdemocracy at lists.aktivix.org; project2012 at googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [Campaignforrealdemocracy] [project2012] Community Networking

Hi Matt

Thanks for this.

I'm trying to work out a way in which the Project 2012 / CRD work can connect effectively with these networks.

I know you're only subscribed to CRD list, which has a more reduced traffic but the Project 2012 list has been humming with good ideas and debate over the last 6 months and there's been, especially in the first period of discussion a reasonable level of agreement about structural changes (some of which I mentioned to you at our meeting at the Royal Festival Hall) that would be good to put out to a wider audience for deliberation. (More recently we've been debating values and taxation and how to connect these two to the proposals for structural change but that is all still quite open-ended)

Matt do you think there is a body of people who you could connect with who would be interested to develop an alternative civil society manifesto for real political and economic power at the local community level. Something with the aims of, say
1. challenging the politicians rhetoric on decentralisation with a clear set of proposals for a decentralised sovereignty (by pointing out the gap between what they are taling about and what the policies they support will actually achieve)
2. maintain and develop a level of critical and operational independence and pursue the same for everyone
3. possibly fighting for some strategic seats in local / general / other elections after GE 2010
4. encourage greater (ie real) democracy amongst all its members
5 challenge and attract activists, from transition towns to climate camp and beyond to help out with direct action / electioneering as they feel comfortable..

Something akin to a Union for Democratic Localists with the desire to join together across the regions..?

What do you think?

Mark

2009/9/14 Matthew Scott <Matt at communitysectorcoalition.org.uk<mailto:Matt at communitysectorcoalition.org.uk>>
Hi Mark

Community Matters are a well established national community umbrella org - they have around 1,000 members, typically community centres are their core supporters / constituency so there is a strong local connection.  Likewise CM is part of the Community Alliance which is a significant force in the sector around the idea of community 'anchors' - i.e. local multi purpose infrastructure.  CA are also one of my members, i.e. of the Community Sector Coalition.  Yes they are funded by government, as are most community orgs at that level and would not, I think, see themselves as the 'opposition' or as a counter hegemonic block (for those of you who know about the 'in and against the state' work of the early 1980s), so the idea of revolution is a tad rhetorical in my view, but there is a very strong connection with local communities and a strong interest in the civil as opposed to civic sphere and in deeper local democracy and there is a critical and independent element to it

Matt

Matthew Scott

CSC Director

020 7336 9461

Work mobile: 07827 258411

Website: www.communitysectorcoalition.org.uk<http://www.communitysectorcoalition.org.uk/>

This message is intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law.  If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivering the message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify us immediately by return e-mail and delete this e-mail and all attachments from your system.
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Barrett [mailto:marknbarrett at googlemail.com<mailto:marknbarrett at googlemail.com>]
Sent: 12 September 2009 22:48
To: campaignforrealdemocracy at lists.aktivix.org<mailto:campaignforrealdemocracy at lists.aktivix.org>; project2012 at googlegroups.com<mailto:project2012 at googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [Campaignforrealdemocracy] [project2012] Community Networking

Hi Matt and All

Thanks for this Steve.

Matt, and others, what are your thoughts on Community Matters? I note
their Leicester AGM, titled "Planning the Revolution" is taking place
this weekend, and that it is co-sponsored by the government and costs
upwards of 70 pounds to attend.

Mark

2009/9/12 Steve Gwynne <satoritree at yahoo.co.uk<mailto:satoritree at yahoo.co.uk>>:
>
>  Possibly another community network to liase with.
>
>  http://www.communitymatters.org.uk/community-matters-locally/london/
>
> Steve
>
>
> --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "Project2012" group.
>  To post to this group, send email to project2012 at googlegroups.com<mailto:project2012 at googlegroups.com>
>  To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> project2012+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com<mailto:project2012%2Bunsubscribe at googlegroups.com>
>  For more options, visit this group at
> http://groups.google.com/group/project2012?hl=en-GB
>
> -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
>
>

--
"We hear men speaking for us of new laws strong and sweet /Yet is
there no man speaketh as we speak in the street."
_______________________________________________
Campaignforrealdemocracy mailing list
Campaignforrealdemocracy at lists.aktivix.org<mailto:Campaignforrealdemocracy at lists.aktivix.org>
https://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/campaignforrealdemocracy

This message has been scanned by vsl mailsafe

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

  This message has been scanned by vsl mailsafe
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.aktivix.org/pipermail/campaignforrealdemocracy/attachments/20090914/5b80685c/attachment-0001.htm>