<div>Hi Rich </div>
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<div>>this means your not going to change much with your radical new plans.</div>
<div>>what practicaly (ignoring the slim posibility of a major revolution ) do to improve the plight of the home less? job less? </div>
<div>>or is this not the focus of this blog</div>
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<div>I'm not sure what post you're responding to, but for your benefit and other new members: in terms of "radical new plans" and the purpose of the Project 2012 and CRD lists, 2012 was started in 2008 on the basis that the UK and wider world needs a grassroots rights-based democracy movement, with clear aims. </div>
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<div>This, in turn was a follow-up initiative to the 2006 C421 project between members of People in Common (a picnic campaign group formed to fight restrictions on protest rights in Parliament Sqaure and debate the nature of our constitution), People's Assembly members and A World to Win. Together we looked at the nature of the political constitution in the summer of 2006. An interim campaign summary statement was then given, see: <a href="http://www.peopleincommon.org/C421.html">http://www.peopleincommon.org/C421.html</a></div>
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<div>Following a brief hiatus, the 2012 list was then set up in 2008 in order to organise a conference in Dec (2008), held on the anniversary of the UDHR & linking traditional human rights concerns with more collectivist concepts such as lebfevre's "the right to the city", Henry George's LVT and so forth. Following that, moving into 2009 Project 2012's focus shifted towards a grand debate on how to facilitate the building of a really focused coalition in the run up to 2012. </div>
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<div>To bring the story up to date in the early part of 2009 came discussions and meetings around the concept of Local Sovereignty (LS) as a possible uniting idea, and then, following Climate Camper James Holland and other's interventions amid concern that LS was not an accessible enough idea, a new list and three further meetings were held, this time around the concept of "Campaign for Real Democracy" or CRD. </div>
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<div>So far CRD appears to have 2 main strands: </div>
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<div>(1) the encouragement of greater ambition, more unity and a dedication to really democratic (ie consensus) decision making at the grassroots local level (ie in local neighbourhood campaign work) and a sharing of idea across the communities and </div>
<div>(2) the development of a CRD manifesto which so might be attractive to civil society / community groups and the independent voluntary sector. </div>
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<div>The idea behind (1) being that if grassroots groups push harder together, and are more clear about their shared aims and what makes for democratic means, change will happen as power relations shift, maybe in one, two or many more places. The prospect of Transition Towns people and Climate Camp people coming together on this basis is exciting for this reason as they are both national and international movements. </div>
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<div>About (2) more news as and when but the basic idea is that, as time progresses we, with others of like mind will be able to link art, radically democratic ideology and social action into one big civil society, or civil rights union. This list is for use in creating the conditions to make that coalition possible, which means I think working out areas of agreement and disagreement, across the political spectrum and ensuring we find a programme or series of programmes over which a cross-section of campaigners will be might agree and then campaign effectively together. </div>
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<div>About the question of joblessness, because the proposed CRD manifesto is about creating a parallel political economy, and specifically one in which each neighbourhood community becomes, in contrast with its emasculated status today, a powerful producer of a new culture which could effectively deal with these issues in ways that the state and private market cannot. This is what some of us consider to be a real third way, civil society independent and empowered, takling its rightful place as equal, if not higher power to the state and the market. </div>
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<div>To be more precise, with new structures and greater local sovereignty - the right to raise independent revenue, and get a basic budget from central govt equal to that given to all the other communities, + a building asset to make decisions and offer services as an absolute bare minumum - this new power could be exercised (by civil society, ie local people, directly) in one or more functional ways. For example operating as a democratic school, creche, governing assembly, resident owned bank and, in response to your concerns (1) housing provider and (2) benefits distributor / employer. So the manifesto seeks to answer that by putting forward the case for a community employment scheme, under which anyone without work would be able to choose between neighbourhoods, and therefore, because the neighbourhood cultures will be so diverse in this new world, effectively choose what work they do and the community for which they do it. So, in this inverted world order, parallel economy to which all are invited to take part, and where civil society is on top and the state and the market play second fiddle, effectively the communities, which have become employers and governing assemblies are on the one hand (ie given <strong>power*</strong>) on the other they are forced to develop / produce a new culture and compete with other communities for labour. So the jobless get more power to shape their destiny by applying themselves to a form of work they are desirous of and in a community that offers them terms that are fair (which might include a provision of housing / camp site or whatever to connect to your other point)</div>
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<div><strong>*about power:</strong> in accordance with the principles of CRD this must surely be exercised carefully, ie <strong>to include everyone in decision making and to not make decisions which are not full consensus</strong>. in the parallel democratic economy, there must be no "majority vote" version of democracy, which effectively shuts down and out a minority, nor secret decisions made behind closed doors. If a group is split. and can't decide what to spend its money on between one of two projects, they must look for another one that everyone can get behind, and not spend the cash yet. No harm in taking your time. When fascists take over, as they are prone to do in small communities from time to time, they must be forced, if necessary by cops to start the project all over again because inclusivity and consensus are cornerstones to the whole project. What if a whole community of racists forms, where no eg non-whites live? There attitudes will almost certainly merit them getting kicked out, because the new covenant must surely only be available to the people of the one?</div>
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<div>I am hoping to put on an event in 2010 around these ideas with members of the voluntary and community sector and others. </div>
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<div>Sorry for long reply!</div>
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<div>Mark <br><br></div>
<div class="gmail_quote">2009/10/11 rich harbo <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:richonelove2003@yahoo.co.uk">richonelove2003@yahoo.co.uk</a>></span><br>
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<div>In a democrasy everyone has the right to agree or disagree ?</div>
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<div>most people in UK have given their consent to long term blinkered compliance ?</div>
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<div>this means your not going to change much with your radical new plans.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>what practicaly (ignoring the slim posibility of a major revolution ) do to improve the plight of the home less? job less? </div>
<div> </div>
<div>or is this not the focus of this blog</div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<div>regards</div>
<div> </div>
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<div></div><br>-- <br>"We hear men speaking for us of new laws strong and sweet /Yet is there no man speaketh as we speak in the street.” <br>