[Ssf] MPH meeting

Thu Jan 20 17:06:09 GMT 2005

I did make the MPH meeting today, and Dan, if it makes you feel any
better, your apology made it even if you didn't.

The key point for us as the SSF is that MPH events should where possible
be driven by individual organisations rather than the Steering Group,
which will act to coordinate. Therefore, its vital that we should get in
the driving seat with ideas such as for PiP, but also for any
contributions we can make to things like the Global week of action.

Also, if people want to go to Scotland for the whole G8, there is not
currently (that I am aware of) any coordination of transport, so it
would make sense to start sounding out numbers and seeing whether we can
get a group together if anyone does want to do that. I do.

Anyway, I'll give you all a quick update on what was said:

On recruitment of support:

The TUC have said they would like to be kept in the loop but not attend
local meetings. The Mother's Guild (something like that anyway) are not
unsympathetic but have their own activities to pursue. Friends of the
Earth are on board. Greenpeace are sympathetic, but will consult with
national office before formally endorsing. Wilpf (Women's international
league for peace and freedom, I think) are on board and represented.

Events upcoming:

Tomorrow (Friday) night, Caroline Lucas, Green Alternatives to
Globalisation, Victoria Hall, 7.30pm. She's great.

Jan 27th CAAT(Campaign Against the Arms Trade) meeting with MPH focus,
Friends Meeting House on James Street.

Feb 2nd Wednesday, speaker from Somaliland at Christian Aid meeting,
'supper' time at St Matthews apon Carver's Street.

Feb 15th will be SMPH launch event held at the university and organised
by People and Planet with support of Christian Aid, Oxfam, WDM and
Cafod. There will be stalls and information outside somewhere around the
  underpass during the day, and speakers on each campaign strand in the
Arts Tower in a Lecture theatre at 7.30, poss. with a short film. The
campaign in Sheffield will be intorduced by the SMPH chair, and the
university campaign will be introduced by People and Planet.

Feb 21st Oxfam at REM concert in Arena by invitation, rasing Make Trade
Fair and MPH issues and flyering.

March 1-13 Fairtrade Fortnight

Global week of action (9th-16th April)

9th - Oxfam, Christian Aid etc organise training conference in
Manchester for 'multipliers' ie people who go otu and get more people
involved. All welcome, £5.

Wilpf will be sending Patricia hewitt postcards emphasising the effect
on women of poverty.

13th - Religious(!) lobby of parliament. One for the bible bashers
amongst us.

15th - Candlelit overnight vigils for the poverty stricken to be held in
Whitehall, and locally in Leeds at holy Trinity Church and outside it
weather permitting

Ideas for further eents actively encouraged, led by member organisations.

The G8 summit:

July 2nd, Saturday, protest in Edinburgh in support of MPH. SMPH will
send a coach, 48 people. leave Fridsay, return Saturday.
children/students £25 or others £30 for travel only. With overnight
accommodation included: £70/£75. If anyone on this list is interested,
contact me, and i will find the relevant contact details.

Next meeting is 12.30-2pm, Thursday 24th Feb, venue tbc.

Chris

PS. I didn't mind so much the content of Mozaz's little excerpt, as the
fact that it demanded to be read. The demand to be read was rather
inappropriate. I thought.

Dan wrote:
> DECSY (Development Education Centre South Yorkshire) have sent off for 
> the J8 info packs.
> 
> Once they come through, I suggest we arrange a meeting, here at Scotia, 
> with the following:
> 
> DECSY
> SSF
> People n Planet
> PiP
> Make Poverty History folk
> 
> ... to work out a plan leading up to PiP, involving schools and warping 
> little children's minds.
> 
> Oh bugger, I've just realised I missed a Make Poverty History meeting 
> today...
> 
> Dan
> ----
> 
> 
> Chris Malins wrote:
> 
>> Doing a little red propagandist day-school sounds great, I love 
>> propagandising at kids. I'll volunteer to talk to them about any given 
>> issue, preferably trade justice if it goes ahead at all.
>>
>> Chris
>>
>> Dan wrote:
>>
>>> Dammit!  Loads of cool stuff to write about!
>>>
>>> First thing to say is that there's SO MUCH going on, G8-wise, already...
>>>
>>> A few things to mention first:
>>>
>>> 1. Make Poverty History meeting, Quaker Meeting House, Thursday 20th, 
>>> 12:30 - mostly Sheffield's Christian campaigning groups and P&P.  But 
>>> note that the new WDM head has gone on record saying that lobbying 
>>> will acheive nothing, and that groups like his need to start direct 
>>> action.  There's some synergy to be had here...
>>>
>>> 2. Peace in the Park: I'm gonna be proposing to SSF that we do a 
>>> 'Leftfield' a la Glastonbury.  (PiP folk have already agreed in 
>>> principle for SSF to lead on this...) -  a large tent, with many 
>>> political goings-on, workshops, debates, exhibitions (e.g. 'this is 
>>> what war looks like - only for the strong-stomached!), bits of music, 
>>> food and drink hopefully supplied by New Roots (I haven't asked them 
>>> yet, but it worked really well last year)
>>> This wouldn't replace any of the free-standing political stalls - but 
>>> would offer a space for folk to argue, debate, learn and plan - 
>>> rather than just lining up like a bunch of traders in the free market 
>>> of ideas... (I'll have a pound of Strawberries, half a pound of 
>>> Leninism and an Anarchist please...)
>>>
>>> I propose we nick Joss's idea for a new democracy cafe name, and call 
>>> it the 'Speak-Easy'.
>>>
>>> Note: this was agreed last night at the PiP meeting: Norfolk Park, 
>>> 11th June.  This is a few days before the Sheffield mini-summit, and 
>>> a month before the main G8.  So - CIRCA will be doing some training, 
>>> and maybe they'll do some at PiP.  Also, there's plenty of other 
>>> G8-counter possibilities, including asking the Trapeze lot to come 
>>> along and do their pub quiz!
>>>
>>> 3. J8 - the youth G8 global citizenship programme -  
>>> http://www.j8changetheworld.com/
>>>
>>> Awful as the name is (stealing J18 as someone pointed out), it does 
>>> offer a door for us filthy radicals to get in there and warp the 
>>> minds of the little ones...!  This is also a way to get 13-16 
>>> year-olds involved in PiP - we could organise our own 
>>> mini-youth-conference on the J8 themes as part of the Speak-Easy.
>>>
>>>> The two ideas are not necessarily counterposed. First, the clearer 
>>>> we are about the issues, the clearer we will be when we try to 
>>>> present them in simpler and condensed form Second, far more more can 
>>>> be done with the
>>>> conference/day-school format than people just rolling up on the day 
>>>> to hear some experts... IF we could organise it so that people 
>>>> interested in coming (or  those interested in the issues but who 
>>>> can't come) could get (buy) a kit of crucial info material to help 
>>>> prepare them for the day; IF we could set up a website where this 
>>>> material could also be downloaded, IF we could persuade a few people 
>>>> from Sheffield's activist ranks to go away and research and prepare 
>>>> a brief workshop paper (so much is spent providing people with these 
>>>> skills which they end up never using!), then the conf/school would 
>>>> be the culmination of an interactive education process, not the sum 
>>>> total of it. Why not a Red Open University???
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Again, I think SSF working with others towards PiP is going to be the 
>>> best way of doing this... It gives us a focus.  Any thoughts?
>>>
>>>>
>>>> One way such an event could be promoted is through a monthly newsletter
>>>> which would carry informative articles written by ourselves or 
>>>> reprinted
>>>> from elsewhere. I can imagine one headlined something like "Adding 
>>>> Insult to Injury - Gordon Brown's Giant Debt Reduction Con-Trick".
>>>>
>>> Dunno if you've seen, but there's a suggestion of starting a monthly 
>>> radical newsletter... I'm gonna arrange a meeting about this in the 
>>> next couple of weeks.  Fancy writing an article on Gordon Brown's 
>>> Giant Debt Reduction Con-Trick?  (Each article can then be uploaded 
>>> to Indymedia, and the hard copy can say - 'want to comment on this? 
>>> Disagree with what's been said? Go to the article on Sheffield 
>>> Indymedia and have your say!)
>>>
>>> It wouldn't be purely a G8 thing - but having a global and a local 
>>> focus would be cool, and it would be good to use the chance to trace 
>>> G8 initiatives and other global institutional initiatives right back 
>>> to what's happening in the city centre.  (i.e. Solve Poverty?  Easy!  
>>> Get loads of tax-payer's money, privatise everything, then sell it to 
>>> the private sector with 'incentives'!  Bish, bash, bosh, 
>>> World-Bank-Tastic, one-size fits all, sorted!  Oh... still loads of 
>>> pesky poor people everywhere...)
>>>
>>>> The problem as I see it is whether there is the basis for a team of 
>>>> people of sufficient like mind and with time and energy. On both 
>>>> counts, I just don't know. Concerning the first of these, I accept 
>>>> that many people do not agree with me about Cuba, but I believe that 
>>>> it is necessary for Cuba's extraordinary success in protecting its 
>>>> people against natural disasters to be held up as a practical 
>>>> example of the alternative to the capitalist rule which condemns 
>>>> tens of thousands to death along the Indian Ocean coast and tens of 
>>>> millions elsewhere in the oppressed nations. This is the clearest, 
>>>> but far from the only issue where I do not feel on exactly the same 
>>>> wavelength as many of you, lovable as you may be. I feel that there 
>>>> is quite a large distance between anti-imperialism and 
>>>> 'anti-globalisation' This could be the source of creative tension, 
>>>> or just of friction.
>>>>
>>> Ooh, lots of things there!  People with time and energy?  That's why 
>>> I think we should work with what's happening - the Make Poverty 
>>> History stuff, and Peace in the Park especially.
>>> Local political success is down to co-operation - without groups 
>>> losing their identity.  I think SSF doing the 'Speak-Easy' will allow 
>>> us to do something pretty spectacular, whilst helping another 
>>> important event, *and* building for the G8.  Can't be bad, can it?
>>>
>>> On Cuba, John:  you might be interested to read the transcript from 
>>> the Hungry for Justice conference - Julia Wright spoke about Cuba and 
>>> food sovereignty. (Er... did you go?)  It's really interesting: 
>>> particularly the tension between statist and devolved solutions...
>>> Here's the download link:
>>>
>>> http://www.sheffieldsocialforum.org/docs/H4Jtranscript.doc
>>>
>>>> Maybe the way to explore all of these issues and possibilities is to 
>>>> agree to produce a pilot mini-pamphlet and see whether we can agree 
>>>> about what should go into it.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> A friend of mine is very keen on pampleteering!  I'd like to join in 
>>> too - we're going to be working on one for the Burngreave Masterplan 
>>> stuff, but G8 stuff too... yip!  And I guess this can relate in some 
>>> way to the monthly newsletter stuff...
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Greetings,
>>>>
>>>> JS
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Exactly.
>>>
>>> Dan
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: mud [mailto:adam at diamat.org.uk]
>>>> Sent: 17 January 2005 18:49
>>>> To: ssf at lists.aktivix.org
>>>> Cc: John Smith
>>>> Subject: Re: [Ssf] vacancy: 4 court jester of sheffield political 
>>>> circus
>>>> pleasefeel free to apply
>>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> 11/01/05 22:11 noone noone wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I am thinking along the lines of what practically  we would need to 
>>>>> organise in order to get some sort of counter-conference happening 
>>>>> (i.e.
>>>>> venue, speakers, groups, publicity etc.. etc..).  I also recognise 
>>>>> that i am not the best person for the job, in my opinion john smith 
>>>>> is the man because he has the vision, the knowledge and the 
>>>>> experience to carry it out and i am not keen on the responsibility 
>>>>> - plus it is his idea (more or less).
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Has John been invited to Thursdays meeting ?
>>>>
>>>> -- 
>>>> mud
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Ssf mailing list
>>>> Ssf at lists.aktivix.org
>>>> http://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/ssf
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
> 
> 