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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dear Mark,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Thank you and Simon for useful meeting notes which
capture very well the flavour of last weeks' discussion. This somewhat
fragmentary vision does however highlight the need now to put together some
distillation of all that into an initial position statement. This would
then hopefully attract some agreement amongst the plethora
of complementary groups and organisations 'out there' which, whilst
retaining their own particularities, nevertheless can subscribe to a common
social democratic understanding and its need for translation into mutually
reinforcing action.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The scope for a mobilisation of civil society which
that requires might, I believe, be shaped by</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>what I have for some years described as a spatial
order corresponding with appropriate levels of need, a 'natural' organisational
principle. The mapping of a hierarchy of social territories, local to
global ( communities of communities), and its processes of local civic
engagement can then be pursued in a coherent manner through delegative chains of
accountability, bottom up. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>My statement to the House of Commons Health
Committee (January 2007) responded to their invitation for evidence enabling the
design of local involvement networks in the performance of local health and
welfare services. This set down the detailed case for and organisation of such
networks, which I referred to in our discussion, and which can be accessed in
Google under my name. Sorry you could not find it Mark but I it is still there.
This framework of approach to a local reconfiguration</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>of all services, locally controlled and
administered, offers I believe an incremental/evolutionary process of change
that can be unthreatening to current management, bringing all service
patterns into common focus with a plethora of cross-disciplinary agencies
(cf Baby P etc), with local publics, and with their representatives. A
framework for real democracy?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Cordially yours,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Barry Fineberg.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV>----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=marknbarrett@googlemail.com
href="mailto:marknbarrett@googlemail.com">Mark Barrett</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=campaignforrealdemocracy@lists.aktivix.org
href="mailto:campaignforrealdemocracy@lists.aktivix.org">campaignforrealdemocracy@lists.aktivix.org</A>
; <A title=project2012@googlegroups.com
href="mailto:project2012@googlegroups.com">project2012@googlegroups.com</A> ;
<A title=londonhousingactionnow@googlegroups.com
href="mailto:londonhousingactionnow@googlegroups.com">londonhousingactionnow@googlegroups.com</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Cc:</B> <A title=barry@fineberg.co.uk
href="mailto:barry@fineberg.co.uk">barry@fineberg.co.uk</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, July 26, 2009 4:33 PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Thurs 23rd, CRD Minutes</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>Hi folks </DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote> </DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>Please find below some notes about last Thurs 23rd's
CRD meeting. Thanks for these Simon :-) and to everyone who came and made
meeting a good one. Simon I've made a few additions / changes, mainly
typos, hope that's ok. </DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote> </DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>---------- Forwarded message ----------<BR>From: <B
class=gmail_sendername>Simon</B><SPAN dir=ltr><A
href="mailto:wellssimo@googlemail.com"
target=_blank> </A></SPAN><BR><BR>Hi Mark and James,<BR><BR>Can you
forward these notes/points of the discussion of last Thursday of CRD at the
Whitechapel Gallery, 23 July. 10 people were in attendance.<BR><BR>Recap of
last meeting - Discussion about looking for organisations making democratic
decison making, some features of those organisations, would be that the
individuals/organisations would be the owners of the decison whether through
localism, workplace, place of study, the objective of this would be to bring
groups together.<BR><BR>Action points from last meeting - Map of democracy
groups in London; calendar of meetings and other group events.<BR><BR>Proposed
items for agenda, (1) Proposal for action/demonstration around land issues,
(2) Usury, (3) What do we mean by real democracy, and what other bodies are
exploring the issue, (4) Talking circles, (5) Next meeting.<BR><BR>General
discussion around finding a community space.<BR>Comrade noted that he was
working with Land Reform Group with the objective of creating structures that
get people working together.<BR>Maloka - International School of Bottom up
Organising - Squating/Requisition.<BR>Suggestion of film evening showing the
Bill Douglas film, 'Comrades' about the Tolpuddle Martyrs and origins of trade
unionism</DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>Vision - Space where powerful decisions are
made.<BR>Campaign for building constituionally based peoples
palace.<BR>Suggestion - Lewisham Bridge School - an example of where people
are dissatisfied with what the authorities are doing.</DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>Also Wards Corner in Seven Sisters. Kew Bridge land
occupation <BR><BR>Discussion over what spaces means, squatting, hierarchy and
bottom up organising.<BR>Boundary/geographical definition, the high
street/town centre is the natural centre.<BR>Seven is a significant number in
terms of townships.<BR>Discussion - Strong and local powerful
communiites.<BR>People know which postcode they live in, discussion on what
areas are most suitable for communities, natural watersheds for
example.<BR>Cannot artificially set boundaries.<BR>Question - what are people
doing in their local communities.<BR>To be effective, people have to have a
conituing purpose for the local management of the area they live in, a
purposeful framework.<BR>Democracy - freedom<BR>Suggestion - meaning of
democracy, democracy halfway between anarchy and fascism [this view needs
quite a bit of elaboration, to say the least. MB] & 'the world as a
permaculture garden' idea...</DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote><BR>Final round up - what are individuals involved in?
</DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote> </DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>Various including 21st Century Network, Ally Pally
People's Palace, Tree Watering, supporting other initiatives (eg Wards Corner,
Lewisham School), Climate Camp, Ecotort, Government of the Dead and various
local community endeavours <BR><BR>And Theoretical Projects:
</DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>Barry Fineberg - see ?? = Barry pls advise</DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>MB working on CRD manifesto [more on this at end of
August] . </DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote><BR>Dates:<BR>July 27 Camden Town Hall (Housing Sell
Off Campaign, public meeting) <BR>August 15 - Picnic (Parliament
Hill)</DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>Aug 27 - Climate Camp <A
href="http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/gatherings">http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/gatherings</A></DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>August 30th - Peoples Palace meeting at the Royal
Festival Hall </DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote> </DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>---------------------------------------</DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>
<DIV class=gmail_quote><STRONG>Next CRD meeting</STRONG> will be
either a Monday or Thurs eve in mid /
late Sept. </DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>More info and calendar details at newly updated, yet
still to be tweaked further <A href="http://www.peopleincommon.org/"
target=_blank>www.peopleincommon.org</A> (thanks Anna :-)!)</DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote> </DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>Finally, Barry, please can you provide us with a link
to your work about spatial ordering as I'm struggling to locate via
google, would be happy to pass on the info. Also, Barry you may be
interested in the work of Anthony Jay, which I posted about before (thanks to
Mark Brown for sending me a reminder about this), see at <A
href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6684542.ece">http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6684542.ece</A> </DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote> </DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>Cheers, Mark </DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>