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<div class="gmail_quote">A reminder about this weekend in Manchester!! Also, below the message I've set out a brief <a href="http://www.peoplesassemblies.org/" target="_blank">www.peoplesassemblies.org</a> Network summary & a number of proposals for the gathering. </div>
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<div class="gmail_quote">In solidarity </div>
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<div class="gmail_quote">Mark<br><br>Our first gathering is to be held at MMU – Manchester Metropolitan’s<br>Student Union – on the 15th and 16th of January from 10am to 6pm each day.<br><a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&tab=wl" target="_blank">http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&tab=wl</a><br>
<br>Almost all the details are on our wordpress site.<br><a href="http://networkxuk.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">networkxuk.wordpress.com</a><br>We would love it if you took a little time to check over everything there. We<br>
have information on food, accommodation, travel, proposals, the agenda and the<br>organisational process and other important bits.<br><br>A couple of practical notes for the e-mail though.<br>• We are providing food, but are short on cutlery, if you can bring your<br>
own bowl and fork, spoon and or/knife that would be wicked.<br>• If you would like to have a stall at the gathering please let us know<br>(or just bring your stuff), e-mail <a href="mailto:knightrose.geo@yahoo.com" target="_blank">knightrose.geo@yahoo.com</a>. There is plenty of<br>
space and we’ll accept donations of what you think is reasonable. We can<br>probably even accommodate you on the day, but please mail ahead.<br>• There will be an info desk, if you have info on local/national groups<br>
that you are in and wish to share please bring it along, we want these to be a<br>space to share and find other like minded souls.<br>• Please, please, please contact us if you want crash space, we have it,<br>but are unsure how many are coming. <a href="mailto:ninjaction@riseup.net" target="_blank">ninjaction@riseup.net</a> – title CRASH SPACE<br>
• If you have confirmed yourself on facebook but can’t come can you<br>de-confirm yourself, or vice versa – for cooking and crash space it would be<br>great to get an accurate number of attendees.<br><br>It has been astounding to hear from everyone that is coming, from Scotland and<br>
South Wales, Bristol, Birmingham and Brighton, to sunny Sheffield and so many<br>other places, and from so many diverse groups.<br>We know the time is now to make a change and we know there is a hunger to do it<br>in a different and better way. As such we hope that weekend will be an awesome<br>
experience for all involved and that together we can build something special.</div>
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<div class="gmail_quote"><strong>PA Network Summary</strong> </div>
<p>(1) To briefly summarise the views of the PA network meeting that met on Dec 11th, and other comments from comrades overseas<br>(2) To put forward some concrete proposals for Network X<br>(3) To supplement, and include the submission on Peoples Assemblies by A World to Win <br>
<br><strong>(1) Views</strong><br> <br>Coming out of Dec 11th ( see notes at <a href="http://www.peoplesassemblies.org/" target="_blank">www.peoplesassemblies.org</a> ) there is a sense that PAs (radical, "peoples assemblies") have the capacity to work as a new organisational form, aswell as operating as sites of power in and of themselves. Such Assemblies are not parties, nor are they unions, they are an organisational form which, by avoiding bureacracy and staying solidly at the grassroots, embody inclusive, autonomous democratic practices. Popular Assemblies have a strong revolutionary history, and appear to hold contemporary resonance in both South and North America, Africa, Asia and Europe. We have heard of Peoples Assemblies forming internationally in recent months, in various sectoral contexts eg education (UK and France) workers power (Canada), Climate Justice (Europe and Canada with a strong interest also in West Africa). <br>
<br>Broadly speaking, in political terms the Dec 11th meeting put forward that Assemblies are democratic forums for decision making and for communities to change the status quo / take power from the ground up, and that they can happen anywhere. They are an inclusive, grassroots organisational strategy distinct from unions, parties and other hierarchical forms of coalition building. <br>
<br>So, how do we help link them up and encourage more of them without centralising control ?<br> <br><strong>(2) Concrete Proposals</strong><br> <br><strong>Utilising/Developing PA site:</strong> an open working group is now developing the PA URL (<a href="http://peoplesassemblies.org/" target="_blank">peoplesassemblies.org</a> - presently in holding stage) into what we hope will make it into a collaborative site offered to all interested in developing radical assemblies, whether in the UK or elsewhere. In the next few weeks we plan to offer multiple community blog & collaborative alternative politics (and economics) building spaces, with live feeds to the front. Additionally we hope to add geomaps and other functions later on, but to begin with simply on-site blogs and / or feeds from PA orientated blogs already going. The basic aim of site is so we all learn about and publicise each other's struggles and ideas and help build a movement of PAs. <br>
<br>Do Network X-ers think this makes sense, and would they be interested in participating ? We want to the site to be collectively owned and run by the movement..! Also, a tech request: we are looking for someone with DRUPAL skills so if anyone has them and fancies helping take the site forward, please say so. <br>
<br><strong>Encouraging PA Formation:</strong> In order to build resilience and horizontal decision making into the anti-cuts resistance in the UK, while also making links internationally, we propose that Network X activists encourage their local anti-cuts groups to form themselves into Peoples Assemblies. This will mean they retain complete autonomy about what they are trying to achieve while also connecting up with others internationally across the UK who feel the same way. It also means they will be establishing a greater resilience into what they are doing, as PAs have the capacity to include short as well as long term movement and we hope even the capacity of building a new society. And ideally also to then utilise the <a href="http://www.peoplesassemblies.org/" target="_blank">www.peoplesassemblies.org</a> site ( contact via <a href="mailto:info@peoplesassemblies.org" target="_blank">info@peoplesassemblies.org</a> ).<br>
<br><strong>Town Hall Militant Peoples Assemblies:</strong><br>One idea that people seem to like is that of holding PAs outside Town Halls (on budget, or other cuts sensitive local days) or other relevant local institutions being asked to implement the cuts, with the possibility of occupation (see also Dual Power idea below for March 26th). During the next few months target days will be fragmented, as different local institutions make decisions on cuts implementation on different days. But one future suggestion following on from this is for a rolling series of common days of action, with calls for work and school walkouts, and marches to Town Halls to occupy, and basically ideally make the country ungovernable with Assemblies being the new form of decentralised, community based, but also globally resonant form of organisation through which 'the below' can rise to power in the vacuum. <br>
<br><strong>Direct Action: Peoples Assembly Bloc and Dual Power on March 26th</strong><br> It is being proposed that an anti-capitalist Peoples Assemblies bloc takes part in the TUC March on the 26th. Also, last week a Peoples Assemblies direct action working group met to discuss mapping possible targets for 'detonator' occupations on the day. Occupations setting up 'dual power' Peoples Assembly occupations in key London spaces. See also <a href="http://meltdown.uk.net/election/Dual_Power.html" target="_blank">http://meltdown.uk.net/election/Dual_Power.html</a><br>
<br>[Please also note that March 25th is the anniversary of the founding of modern Europe (Treaty of Rome) so is a potentially European-wide mobilising day / weekend.] <br> <br><strong>Encouraging PA politics and economics:</strong> we want to develop content, debate and discussion about alternative political economy in a broad sense, but also on single issues relevant to Assemblies that have either formed, or that are in the process of forming. Any interest in developing ideas on this, please get in touch!<br>
<br><strong>(3) A World to Win<br></strong> <br>Am also forwarding the following in the one document, as it is relevant to whole PA idea:<br> <br>Proposal on creating People’s Assembles for the Network X strategy strand. Submitted by A World to Win.<br>
<br>We support the view put forward in the call for this weekend that it is not just the cuts but capitalism itself that is the problem, and we think this challenge can be addressed by a strategy based on creating People’s Assemblies. <br>
<br>People’s Assemblies can become a democratic alternative to the failed, undemocratic political and economic system. <br> <br>Delegates to Assemblies will represent ordinary people’s interests, whether they are young or old, in work or unemployed, in the public or private sectors, trade unionists, women, students, anti-capitalist political groups, minorities and community groups.<br>
<br>Communities whose services and living standards are being attacked by the Con-Lib coalition as part of their rescue package for the capitalist economic system, need a way of moving beyond resistance towards a direct challenge to the state.<br>
<br>A network of People’s Assemblies can facilitate a transition to a democratic society based on cooperation and self-determination in place of profit and corporate power. <br> <br>People will want to decide the way forward for their own local assembly, but the main thing is to challenge the lie that there is no alternative to the capitalist system. Some of the things they could do are:<br>
defend communities against closures, evictions, and job losses<br> campaign against the transfer of services to corporations and charities<br> fight for democracy and a charter of rights<br> campaign for action on climate change<br>
oppose war and the secret state<br> struggle against racism and attacks on minority communities<br> build international links with movements and people in other countries<br> make plans for not-for-profit economic and financial models<br>
develop models of democratic power to replace the present state.<br> <br>Local and regional People’s Assemblies would aim to democratise British society as a whole in new ways:<br> <br>Co-ownership of resources. The key areas of the production and financial process, including land, power, transport and mineral resources would transfer from private shareholder ownership into forms of co-ownership. These resources would be held in trust by locally-elected bodies and placed under democratic control.<br>
<br>The workplace. All workers should have the right to democracy at work, whether in a factory, hospital, call centre, in public transport, civil service, local government, offices, shops, schools, colleges or university. All major decisions would require the consent of the workforce. Self-management would be encouraged in place of hierarchies. <br>
<br>Education. School, college and university students and staff would have the right to jointly plan and run their institutions.<br> <br><strong>Liberation Beyond Resistance AWTW film on the crisis, and strategy of PAs (11 mins):<br>
</strong><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcnrEAwNgFo&feature=player_embedded" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcnrEAwNgFo&feature=player_embedded</a></p>
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