since last autumn i've been critically evaluating the CRD project and i've come up with a few thoughts that have informed me on where to put my efforts.<br><br>'real democracy' is a long term goal, and so i tried to work out what some intermediate goals might be<br>
<br>i think the idea of people from a local community coming together, organising horizonally / non hierachically and taking (direct) action to improve their lives and community is a crucial first step. There is already a thriving movement of groups and networks taking this kind of 'community action' - one of the most well known is haringey solidarity group <a href="http://www.haringey.org.uk/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54:billboard-bombardment&catid=35:consumersociety&Itemid=54" target="_blank"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2">http://www.haringey.org.uk</font></font></a>
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P { margin-bottom: 0.08in }</style>but there are loads of others. (see below for a draft definition i've been working with)<br><br>So, the project i'm focussing on is building, developing, publicising and supporting the idea and practice of 'community action'. The first thing i want to do is to get people who are activists currently working on big, national or global issues to see how this is relevant to where they live and get involved in community action, to that end i've submitted a proposal to to the climate camp.<br>
<br>I'm keen to get involved and link this with any other CRD strands that any one else is working on, please get in touch<br><br clear="all">
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</p><p><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2"><u><b>'community
action' proposal to climate camp (submitted 02.01.10)</b></u></font></font></p>
<font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2">We
start a national 'community action' working group to encourage
climate campers to get involved in (or help start) local
groups/networks where they live that use a similar ethos and
tactics to the climate camp to support action based campaigns on
all issues that are relevant to local people (not just climate) and
by doing this start the process of moving their community towards
being more empowered, sustainable and consensually organised.</font></font><p></p>
<br>
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<font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2"><b><u>(Draft) definition of community action i'm using</u></b><br></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2">Community action could
mean any number of things, but here is a definition of the type of
action I am refferring to:</font></font></p>
<p style="text-decoration: none;"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2"><i>Any
open and horizontally organised grassroots action involving members
of a localised community which directly benefits that community
and/or helps a local community to be more empowered or organised.</i></font></font></p>
<p style="text-decoration: none;"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2">The
first seems an obvious definition, but the second part might not be
the kind of thing that comes to mind when we think of what community
action is. It means that even actions that are not specifically
designed to help people of a community but in which people get
involved in and, perhaps even as a by-product, help them to be more
organised, skilled or empowered also count as community action.</font></font></p>
<p style="text-decoration: none;"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2">A
good example of this is the community work done by climate camp in
gillingham – they opened a info shop called 'tipping point' as part
of their campaign to stop kingsnorth, this campaign wasn't aimed at
helping the local peope directly but film showings, skill sharing and
information distribution meant that many local people benefitted from
tipping point. This kind of community action can (and perhaps should)
be added into almost any other campaigning activity</font></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2">This definition of CA
brings together classic charitable volunteering, the activity of more
general groupings such as residents associations, stuff that might
well be seen as classic 'activist' stuff on 'big issues' in a local
area, stuff that might be seen as local NIMBY activism (campaigning
against a new supermaket) and also individual casework (as practiced
by LCAP) all organised in a comletely open and horizontal way.</font></font></p>
<br>-- <br><br><br><br><br>James Holland <br>