Nabble - Creative Forum

Tonight Reminder

2009-11-24T23:23:09Z

Wednesday 25th November from 6pm
Campaign for Real Democracy meeting & presentation
1 Richmond Road
Dalston Hackney E8

Draft Agenda - pls suggest any other items

- Local Reports
- Future meetings with PnW / others
- Egality Now
- Dec 2nd CRD with 21st Century Network
- Dec 15th CRD stall at House of Commons event
- Proposed Feb meeting with Community Sector Coalition
- Report/discuss 2010 direct action election campaign
- Leaflet Distribution

-------------

Wed meeting kindly hosted by Peace not War and Passing Clouds:

"Discussions and friendliness from 6pm, Campaign for Real Democracy

presentation/meeting at 7:30, "Money as Debt" presentation at 8:30.

Great musicians and performers from 9pm. Brandy hot chocolate! Mulled
wine (and spiced alcohol-free punch). Delicious vegan food.

The Campaign for Real Democracy (CRD) aims at encouraging

1. local democracy cells to form in every neighbourhood
2. consensus based democratic decision making

3. a movement under one banner and a transformed culture

Free entry before 9.30pm - £2 after.

All proceeds to Solar Aid

Please can people be there to debate, take leaflets
for distribution, help out with event (and therefore, team building
for future events) and generally show a face to each other

Cheers

Mark

TONIGHT: Transition Session @ Passing Clouds #3

2009-11-17T06:12:47Z

* This email is sent via the Creative Forum mail-list. 'Reply' will send your response to that list *

The goal of the Transition Sessions project is to write and record an
album and play that tells the story of how humanity rose to the
challenges of climate, energy and economic uncertainty, overcame the
domination of Empire and grew an Earth Community founded on
partnership based relationships.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=163681869810

After two lovely events so far, this month we're going to try and take
the event to the next level...

Everyone who attends will be given a bunch of key words/ concepts and
encouraged to participate in the jam session by shouting out and
sharing stories of positive change in their own communities.

We're all in this story and play together. We are the actors and the
world is our stage. Lets all live the story we're trying to tell.
Together We Have Everything.

Entry: FREE - donation most welcome
Doors open 7.30pm
Film: 8pm A Farm for the Future.

Probably the best/ most important thing that's been on TV this millennium!

Wildlife film maker Rebecca Hosking investigates how to transform her
family's farm in Devon into a low energy farm for the future, and
discovers that nature holds the key.

With her father close to retirement, Rebecca returns to her family's
wildlife-friendly farm in Devon, to become the next generation to farm
the land. But last year's high fuel prices were a wake-up call for
Rebecca. Realising that all food production in the UK is completely
dependent on abundant cheap fossil fuel, particularly oil, she sets
out to discover just how secure this oil supply is.

Alarmed by the answers, she explores ways of farming without using
fossil fuel. With the help of pioneering farmers and growers, Rebecca
learns that it is actually nature that holds the key to farming in a
low-energy future.

Jam session after film featuring:

Sam Ritchie and band
http://myspace.com/mrsamritchie
http://myspace.com/qdosmusic

Plus lots of other special guests.

Delicious nutritious food from The Treehouse Cafe
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=89001602545

Expect our usual dose of inspiration and wonderment :)

--
Josef Davies-Coates
07974 88 88 95
http://uniteddiversity.com
Together We Have Everything
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CRD Meeting 25th November

2009-11-12T03:24:33Z

Please find info on next CRD meeting, on the eve of Wed 25th November at Passing Clouds, Dalston Hackney, and hosted by Peace Not War, here

http://project2012.googlegroups.com/attach/68cc5de400380aae/pnw+flyer+25th.jpg?view=1&part=4

Also, Facebook event

http://www.facebook.com/photo_search.php?oid=172190819086&view=user#/event.php?eid=172190819086

The Campaign for Real Democracy is a new campaign aimed at encouraging

local democracy cells to form in every neighbourhood

consensus based democratic decision making

the building of a democratic society and a transformed culture based on ordinary folk working together at the grassroots level

a creative, joined up movement in support and operating under one inclusive banner

Come along if you'd like to find out more, maybe bring food to share and please spread the word. If you're not in London, or to join the mailing list email crdlondon@...

Thanks

Mark

Fwd: Oasis Politics

2009-10-31T10:25:09Z

C421 case Study, fyi.. sorry for cross post

The Southgate Market Campaign Experience 2006-2009

It started at the C421 2006 London Fora when picnic campaigners, A World to Win and others from the London Social Forum, and then follow on discussions and our statement of intention to pursue local, independent people's assemblies as the correct way to build a democratic constitution for peace, justice and equality for all (see, if you haven't already http://www.peopleincommon.org/C421.html ).

Hence the ongoing work to encourage real democracy cells to form in boroughs and neighbourhoods under one (white flag?) banner of which Project 2012 and Campaign for Real Democracy CRD are the most recent staging post.

To rewind to 2006 / 07, following the 2006 C421 fora by the time of spring / summer 2007, following our agreement to focus on a local indie democracy strategy, I'd set up a small informal local network in N14, and, after a number of meetings our group agreed - in fine democratic styel - to campaign for a community-owned street market as it was seen as a nice practical activity, which could help regenerate the area without resort to Tescos, Costa Coffee et Al, plus it helped the individual and collective entrepreneurial spirit we'd identified in our group. And - and this bit helped a lot, in fact it came 1st - we'd also identified a good spot on a wide bit of pavement near the tube for just such an endeavour: called Ashfield Parade

Next step, we made enquiries of the Council. They gave us mixed messages, but overall we were told the spot in question was an appropriate place to apply for permission ( can you see how I hated this already? ) for a street market. I decided to follow the rules, treat it as an educational experience as i knew that most local people would not jump straight in at the direct action deep end. T

Official council response was given after officials had ample time to consider the rules and regs, and the exact legal status of street in question. Indeed we even attended a meeting in the Council building at which are local MP, keen to offer his moral support. Although, because of our strange and muddled UK constitution he has no power to actually help us make it happen even though he is our local MP, all the licensing decisions are made by the local state (ie the Council) until MPs make a national law to supercede or re-regulate them, still it was good to have the support.

Anyway, on the basis of the local state's considered reponse a great deal of time and energy was spent on making a formal application which we were told would take 3 months to process. Although there were no guarantees, we were told there was a very good chance we would be given permission, because our proposal fit very well with the agenda for regeneration of towns, of which our town havng been blighted by a new ASDA and the 90s recessions, at the same time in a double whammy for local high street shops, scores of which had closed in last 15 years.

Although we were warned how expensive the licence would be; I/we did not allow ourselves to be put off by, because althogh what we were aiming for was a community owned market ( so that the rents from stall holders therefrom could be used to finance local services to the people in the area) on balance it was probably best to just getting on with organising the market, and cross the licence fee bridge as and when we came to it cos if people let obstacles on th efuture horizon put them off, nothing would ever change, (basically my naive trust in the goodness of the campaign!) and anyway, it will all come out in the wash, in a way this is an educational experience for everyone including me so let's just do it etc.

Incidentally, by now my mind had raced away with the possibilities. The space in question (Ashfield Parade) has two very wide pavements and an almost square 5 lane road in between the pavements, aswell as being possible to close down (to road traffic) completely because of the way the town (Southgate) area's streets are designed (ie there is a perfectly adequate alternative way of getting around town if the street was closed, especially on a Sunday when it's not busy anyway) so (and here's where my mind raced, egged on by a local colleague who is a planner and seemed to think it a great idea.. )

..this means it would make the perfect space to campaign for a uprooted concrete, ie reclaimed for nature (greened over) town square (which the area lacks) with fountains, trees, bandstand etc etc instead of the 5 lane road / car park it presently is ie it could be the peoples square! (in the spirit of the Peoples Palace Picnic last month, hey, maybe we should hold a picnic next to the Ashfield Parade space..? which incidentally some of us woul like to be named Phoenix Square one day.

Anyway, sorry for digression : back to the first step of the N14 community ownership of assets agenda as we saw it at the time:

Sep 2007 we put in our official application for a free licence to hold a street market on Ashfield Parade, which, given the Council advised 3 month process time meant in theory we should've got the green light in Dec / Jan 2008. At this time, we had in mind a spring 2008 start in mind, as the weather would've started warming up by then.

So, following this, we started making contact with the local org farmer, and arts and crafts people across London markets who might be free on a Sunday (the day we planned for the market, as there is free parking that day and a lot of the shops on the Parade in question would be closed which would give us more pavement space). And then, while we awaited their reponse, a stroke of good fortune unexpectedly struck...

As part of our initial enquries we'd discovered that the small green space (Crown Lane) next to the big street pavement in question (Ashfield Parade) was owned by TfL. By way of the tactic of 'try anything and everything' I'd written an email to an anon/office info email address at TfL requesting permission to hold a charity market there. 'Charity' in that revenues from the market rent would go to support the local community group we'd formed, in its mission to offer local, democratic not state / private public services to the neighbourhood and wider world. At the time of writing I had precisely zero expectation they'd even reply, let alone say yes, but lo and behold they emailed back. And then we had a chat on phone and we struck it off, and somehow they said yes. Yes to us doing four (but only four) Christmas street markets there, on the small (and lovely) green space next to our eventual target space of Ashfield Parade.

So, we'd got a nice break: TfL gave us permission as technically they are a private landowner to hold a market on their land. We could go ahead immediately, in Dec as a preparation (and take full use of the Christmas economy) for the bigger step into the Parade alongside, which hopefully would follow soon after in the early spring as planned from our Council application. Yoc can imagine that, for the first bit of the campaign, it really felt as though fate was smiling on our plucky project, because we were being given a free licence right from the start, and we were therefore able to going without going through all the dreaded council hoops.

Paranoid that this was too good to be true, we then called the Council and asked them if there were any payments or licences we would need to take out to do the Dec markets. They said no, if it was private land no licences or payments were necessary.

So! We had already struck gold and had every reason to believe (naively) that, after testing in Dec on the green space, with the minimum of hassle we could then build a great new democratic owned market (the real common market as i called it half jokingly) in Ashfield Parade alongside. (Incidentally the Parade itself is big enough to have 40 stalls with the road still open, and possibly 120 or so with road closed. To give you an idea of the financial restrictions that we were already aware of, the Council had said it would charge in the region of 1300 pounds to have the road closed down, each and every time. Still, we had and still somehow have faith we can get the market up, one day, our way, and so we carried on with the first stage of the campaign.)

What happened next? Energised by the possibility, as quick as lightning we got the public liabilty insurance for the market, we begged borrowed and stole gazebos, tables and street lighting from other local charities, and the arts department of the council. We got posters and fliers designed and distributed. We recruited stallholders. Hell, I even bought a van. And the market happened. It was great fun, freezing cold and even Sarah Bear came to play at one of them, so PnW were there already.. also we had Milli Moonstone who was a trooper in absolutely freezing temps. Children of all ages ran the stalls, Down2Earth our lovely friends from Peckham had as stall, and we had a giant Mexican Pinata on Xmas eve, Santa of the Jazz Volcanoes showed up and even the Enfield Brass Band played. It was a great experience.

And then, on Xmas eve reality kicked in. The Council, whose bloody Cllrs had actually come along on the first day to bask in the glorious localism, innovation, and potential economic and environmental benefits of our endeavour, then hit us with their whammy. On Dec 24th, as we were doing the last of our four plucky Crown Lane markets, we got the call saying the state was very sorry but there had been an error in the initial advice it had given us. Ashfield Parade, it turned out was a "designated street trading area" but it was not, as they had led us to believe, a street trading area designated for street markets (even though there had been the odd French touring market there in the past, presumably in breach of the Councils own regs, although they must have granted permission for them) rather it was actually just for the shops on the street to apply for licences to sell their wares outside their shops. So, we could not possibly get a green light as they had suggested would be the case. Rather, in order to make the Parade "designated" in a way that markets would be allowable, there would have to be a change in the law which would require consultation which would of course take months and months.

So, as a result of state incompetency we were encouraged to spend a lot of time and money - all on a voluntary basis - before being stopped in our tracks by the same people who had encouraged us. But the Council was then pushed into the position whereby it had to launch a Borough wide consultation on the future of street trading on a number of streets throughout the Borough. So, we launched a follow on campaign to push the Council to set aside Ashfield Parade as an area suitable for a innovative people owned market (which we did via a newsletter, the Phoenix see http://www.peopleincommon.org/Southgate%20Phoenix%20summer08.pdf which we now want to do a second edition of ). As a result of this, the Council accepted the Parade could be a place for 'specialty / seasonal / farmers' markets, although not at all on the terms we are calling for (ie local, democratically owned).

And now? After a long time in hiatus (mainly due to exhaustion) I am now in talks with the local 6th Form College (situated next door to the Parade) about running the next phase of the campaign through them, with assistance from the students as it would be great experience for them and the Council can bloody well stay out of the whole thing!!!!

Incidentally, and sorry to go on but I am trying to illustrate the point of what we are up against we were also told that,not only had they got the advice wrong about Ashfield Parade, but also, due to another error the Council actually should have charged us to hold the market on Tfl's green space at Crown Lane. I can't remember what the regulation they'd dug up was, but the long and short of it was that according to their rules they SHOULD have charged us near 300 pounds for each day, so 1200 for the four that we did. There is no sense that civil society should be given space to do its thing, and sort out the problems of cohesion and community fabric we face, only intead the market or state agenda to increase revenue and social control. Community / civil society independence and autonomy, outside of the corporate or state model doesn't get a look in - tolerated as a necessary evil at best. yet that is where all the solutions exist!

As it was, we barely broke even, so if what this means is that not only did they stop us in our tracks but also, if they had actually been following their own regs, in effect we would have done nothing, we would have been unable to do anything at all. arguably there would have been no consultation as it was outr our momentum that at least attained that. And all of this because of the state's obsession with social control even in the face of an overwhelmingly positive, potentially win win (as evidenced by the albeit superficial supprt and presence of the local Cllrs and MP). Basically, if they were to give us space and suppor to shine, they can bask in the regenerative, cutting edge innovative and cohesive success of it, us, we the people. Also, we can then provide services in the area that they are freed from having to worry about. But do the powers that be see this:? Do they, in the words of Fantastic Mr Fox, do they cuss! No, all they see is something that could get out of control and, worse still threaten their power base (essentially their jobs). Essentially they - like most of the establishment politicians, business people, journalists alike - are not democrats. They do not trust people. And so they would rather shut us down and so they prevent anything really good and beautiful from taking root. We are seen by many of the as annoy, wilful potential obstacles to them getting their way and their say.

All that energy, all that good will from civil society and for the building of one - all of it closed down by the local state. Once again.

So, for the next stage, we will have to try a different tack..

Anyway, sorry for the length of that. I left out quite a bit believe it or not including my near arrest a few months later when I faced a coppers handcuff for refusing to 'step away from that cappucino` as the local newspapers gleefully reported it. Me, I was simply trying to defend a local shopkeepers right to have his tables and chairs outside hisr shop, as is preferred by the local community who like the piazza feel so far secured on Ashfield Parade. Unfortunately for the shop keeper in question, Council sees things otherwise and so they sent in their environmental crime (yes, environmental crime) unit at lunchtime on the day in question. 8 or so heavies plus cops to confiscate 5 tables, 15 chairs and break up our refreshments in the sun, harassiung the local populace simple to defend thee state's 'right' to turn every thing they touch into a barren wasteland. All in the name of bureacratic nicety (not to mention imperial control of the revenue stream) .

So anyway, here's a Mary Beard article on Roman ways, and sorry for the (hopefully informative and, at least partially entertaining) rant..

Remind you of anything..? :-)

THEY MAKE A DESERT AND CALL IT PEACE

I am usually suspicious of claims that understanding the history of the ancient world helps you to understand the history of our own. When people tell me that antiquity was so like today, I tend to object that it was very different in almost every respect. But two of the topics in Roman history that I teach have come to seem almost uncomfortably topical — and raw.

The first is the whole theme of “native” resistance to the Roman Empire. If you didn’t have the military resources, how could you stand up against the ancient world’s only superpower? Between the 3rd century BC and the 1st century AD, Rome extended its control over the world from the Sahara to Scotland. As with most empires, it was not without advantages for at least some of the conquered. I’m not just talking about consumer goods, literacy, water and drains (which didn’t impact on as much of the Roman world as we often imagine). Rome’s imperial strategy was first to incorporate the local elites and then spread citizenship, with all its advantages, throughout its territory. It was generosity, even if sprung from self-interest.That said, what could you do if you didn’t fancy being taken over by Rome ? The Roman legions represented an insuperable military force. They might occasionally be delayed but, while their power was at its height, they could not be defeated. Barbarians were not stupid. They did not waste their men’s lives in formal battle lines against the superpower. Instead, they did what the disadvantaged will always do against overwhelming military odds: they ignored the rules of war and resorted to guerrilla tactics, trickery and terrorism.

Much of this was ghastly and cruel. Our image of plucky little Asterix with his Boy Scout-like japes against the Roman occupation is about as true to life as a cartoon strip would be that made suicide bombing seem like fun. Boudicca’s scythed chariots (if they existed) were the ancient equivalent of car bombs. In terrorising the occupying forces, she was said to have had the breasts slashed off the Roman civilian women and sewn into their mouths. Roman writers were outraged at barbarians’ tactics in war, decried their illegal weapons and their flouting of military law (“terrorist” sometimes captures the Roman sense of the Latin word barbarus better than the more obvious “barbarian”). But in the face of invincible imperialism, they must have felt they were using the only option they had. Does it sound familiar?

My second teaching topic is the account by the Roman historian Tacitus of the career of his father-in-law, Agricola, who was governor of Britain in the late 1st century and extended Roman power north into Scotland. On one occasion, the barbarians were foolish enough to risk a pitched battle — and, just before it, Tacitus puts into the mouth of the British leader, Calgacus, a rousing speech denouncing not only Roman rule but the corruption of language that follows imperial domination. Slaughter and robbery go under the name of “power”. And, in a now famous phrase, he says: “They make a desert and call it peace.” This is often treated, and quoted, as a barbarian denunciation of Roman rule. It is nothing of the sort. No real words of Calgacus or of any British “barbarians” have survived. As with many imperial powers, the most acute critiques often came from within the Roman system. This is an analysis by Tacitus himself, a leading member of the Roman elite, observing the consequences of Roman expansion and daring to put himself into the place of the conquered. As such, it makes an even more appropriate message for us. Whatever forms our “deserts” take — whether it is the poppy fields of Afghanistan or the ruins that will be left of Beirut when Israel and Hezbollah (and our own culpable inactivity) have finished — we are still making them and calling them “peace”.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/book_extracts/article6896091.ece

POCA In case you missed

2009-10-29T09:33:58Z

Last Request for CTT Support

2009-10-29T05:39:45Z

Hi All

Ok here's one last try at getting numbers up to the magic 100 on my tax and CAP justice petition, which expires on the 12th November. I'll transfer details to another webspace before it expires, but in the meantime pls put your name to it if you haven't already, and thanks to everyone who's alread signed it. http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/tobintaxnow/

For those that haven't read it in detail, petition is about (1) closing down tax havens (2) bringing in a global currency transaction tax (CTT, aka Tobin) to fund public goods at the grassroots level worldwide and (3) reform of the Common Agricuktural Policy (CAP) to (a) protect small co-operative endeavours and real democracy (b) end state-capitalist protectionism and (c) level the global economic playing field so that the global south can compete as per the doctrine of international comparative advantage.

So, here again, in case you missed it is link to petition http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/tobintaxnow/

And finally, here is another key article, this just out in support of FSA Chief "Red" Adair Turner, who also favours Tobin.

Mark

Why Turner is right

John Eatwell 21st October 2009 — Issue 164

A leading economist explains why a Tobin tax is a good way to bring the market to heel

In his interview in September’s Prospect, Adair Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, argued that many financial activities were “socially useless” and raised the possibility of a Tobin or transactions tax to restrain the explosive growth in financial transactions seen in recent years. Although criticised in many quarters, Turner’s proposals should be taken seriously.

The object of economic activity is to produce goods and services. Financial transactions are the means by which that production is funded. But in recent years transactions have grown much more rapidly than production and trade. This raises two big questions. First, why have they grown so rapidly? Second, what should be the ideal volume of transactions, relative to the trade and production they support?

In the 1960s, world trade grew by 8.2 per cent a year. That trade, together with long-term investment flows, was financed by foreign exchange transactions that were roughly double the value of the trade deals themselves. Between 2000 and 2007 growth in trade had slowed to just 5.8 per cent. Yet the value of foreign exchange transactions had risen to more than 50 times the value of the underlying trade and long-term investment.

Consider another example of transactions growth, particularly relevant to the current financial distress. At the centre of much of the turbulence have been financial instruments known as credit default swaps (CDSs). Essentially a CDS is an insurance contract that protects an investor if someone defaults on their obligations—say a loan or a mortgage. The Bank for International Settlements estimated that, at the end of June 2008, the value of CDSs outstanding in major financial markets was $57.3 trillion. In late 2008, the US Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation revealed that the value of CDS transactions was ten times greater than the value of risk being insured.

What explains these increases? The sharp rise in international capital flows coincided with the collapse of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates in the 1970s. After Bretton Woods, fluctuations in exchange rates became commonplace, opportunities for profit proliferated, and rules restricting flows of capital were removed. And this, in turn, reinforced the need for investors to hedge against fluctuating rates: under the new system, foreign exchange risk was no longer borne by the public sector, but by the private sector

This privatisation of risk created an expansion in the scale and variety of derivative instruments designed to hedge risks. The total value of such contracts rose from just over $1 trillion in 1986, to around $516 trillion in 2007. And less than a third of these were standardised traded instruments, bought and sold on exchanges. The rest were customised transactions between two parties, provided, as the jargon goes, “over the counter” (OTC).

When confidence collapsed last year, liquidity vanished because it was impossible to sell on OTC assets, or to use them as collateral. It became clear that neither the senior executives of sophisticated banks, nor their regulators, understood the deals made in their names.

But the risk to the economy as a whole was not just a function of complexity, but also of the sheer size of the transactions themselves, relative to the underlying trade or loan on which they were written. For example, Lehman Brother’s OTC credit default swap book had a notional value of $72bn, yet Lehman’s net exposure to OTC credit default contracts is estimated to have been only about $5.2bn. When the credit rating of AIG was downgraded, it had to post new collateral of $13bn on its gross liabilities—something it was unable to do.

The problem of the seemingly ever-growing tower of transactions erected on foundations of relatively small underlying assets has led to a now widely accepted policy response: as many assets as possible should be forced into clearing systems, or markets where they can be readily bought and sold. If financial instruments are traded, this reveals what they are actually worth. And it has the further advantage of encouraging the development of simpler “plain vanilla” assets, rather than complicated derivatives. The British and US authorities, as well as international bodies such as the G20, the Financial Stability Board and the EU are now all proposing some form of central clearing for CDSs. Some, including the US treasury and the EU, are calling for all standardised contracts to be traded through a clearing house or an exchange.

This would be a major improvement, but there will still be the issue of the growing volume of non-standard, over-the-counter contracts, and the apparently inexorable growth of the ratio of gross-to-net transactions. That is where Adair Turner’s transactions tax comes in. The growth of transactions imposes a risk on society as a whole. Those who impose that risk should pay for it. If they don’t, then risk is mis-priced.

But what should be the socially desirable volume of transactions? How high should the tax be? The truth is nobody knows. But it’s rather like drinking too much. Exactly what is “too much” might be an imprecise science. But we all know a drunk when we see one. Turner is attempting to reduce the damage that inebriated markets can do.

Many people argue that Turner’s idea is doomed to failure in a world of global financial markets, where companies readily threaten to abandon London for more favourable jurisdictions. But this is not necessarily so. First, Britain already has a transactions tax in the form of stamp duty on share transfers (albeit not levied on professional traders). Second, if the major economies, in their current determined mood, agree to sober up drunken markets by common action, and deny legal status to transactions in non tax-collecting jurisdictions, then clearing houses would refuse to settle such transactions and the game would be up. Of course, there would still be evaders. But just as drinking and driving has become unacceptable, so tax evaders would become economic pariahs. And we would be some way towards discovering the true socially useful ratio of financial transactions to the production of real wealth.

And once again, the petition http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/tobintaxnow/

Please forward this mail far and wide before the petition expires. Thanks

Re: Parliament On Trial - Our Welfare, Our Liberty - Reclaiming Our Sovereignty - Saturday 31st October 2009 - Friend's House, 177 Euston Road, London

2009-10-28T04:20:52Z

* This email is sent via the Creative Forum mail-list. 'Reply' will send your response to that list *

Sorry Michelle but I am quite happy with this country's EU citizenship
unlike the BC group. Indeed I actually look forward to an even more
global government, made up of all the nations, suitably democratised
from the ground up of course. So, I really can't get involved with
this group, although I will forward the invite so that others can make
up their own minds.

But really, alongside nationalism, charging 15/13 pounds is hardly inclusive!

Instead, in the name of a more democratic globalisation process, I
would strongly urge people to consider, and where possible act upon
the following:

(1) We need a global coalition ready to struggle for a new, democratic
constitution. Not a nationalist one, but rather a movement of
independent civil society activists, all under one banner for
democracy and civil rights. All of us dedicated to the defence, and
where necessary rebuilding of, the community fabric, and to full
inclusion, equality and yes - real democracy!

"How?" I hear you ask.

(2) Via the formation of locally focused, but globally aware real
democracy cells, all of us individuals and groups together, ready to
act in our neighbourhoods and on the wider stage. And all dedicated to
a new, human-scale local to global sovereignty and a defence of all
that is good, fair and just.

(3) For more info, pls check for updates, and join the forum at
www.peopleincommon.org

(4) And please forward this message.

Up the revolution!

Mark
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/tobintaxnow/

2009/10/28 Michelle Ma Belle <ladybelle888@...>:

> Parliament On Trial
>
> The silent majority can stay silent no longer!
>
> Saturday, 31
>
> st October 2009 - Friend's House, 177 Euston Road, London
>
> The
>
> British Constitution Group will make the case:
>
> ✔
>
> that Treason has been committed by successive governments since the 1970s
>
> ✔
>
> that our Constitution, our institutions and the very fabric of our nation
> have been deliberately dismantled
>
> ✔ that the collective political establishment is not working in the
> interests of the British people
>
> ✔
>
> that these acts have been unconstitutional, unlawful, and represent crimes
> of treason and sedition
>
> ✔
>
> that greed, corruption and deviancy have been the driving force behind this
> betrayal
>
> We will name names.
>
> We invite
>
> you as ordinary, decent people to bear witness to the evidence we present,
> and invite you to act as jury to decide whether or not our case is made, and
> if it is, join us in instigating a police investigation into those
> responsible.
>
> Tickets £15 (£13 for members) Book online at:
>
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Fwd: [allgendergroup] RAWA

2009-10-28T03:28:17Z

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ZNet | Vision & Strategy
RAWA: a Model for Activism and Social Transformation
by Sonali Kolhatkar
June 01, 2006

The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
(RAWA) rose to international prominence after the attacks on
the US on September 11th, 2001. Despite interviews with
Larry King Live, and promotion by Oprah, few mainstream
media outlets examined the radical nature of RAWA's
political vision and strategy, or their organizational
structure. Sadly, many on the left have also overlooked the
lessons we can learn from this extraordinary women's
movement, choosing instead to relegate support of RAWA to
mainstream feminist groups.

Within the context of on-going brutal war, that such a
political organization of women exists and thrives, is
reason enough to study RAWA. Additionally, their political
vision is basic and non-sectarian, espousing universal human
rights, women's rights, economic democracy, and a
progressive education policy. They create and distribute
their own media and have successfully harnessed new
technologies to further their goals. RAWA is an
extraordinarily resilient organization that uses a
horizontal structure with an emphasis on the collective over
the individual, and employs practical and democratic
decision-making and internal conflict-resolution. In fact,
RAWA has been operating in a manner that progressive
political organizations in the West could only dream of.
What can Western social movements learn from RAWA?

To answer this question I draw heavily from my own personal
experience of working in solidarity with RAWA for the past 6
years, supplemented with information from the book, "With
All Our Strength" by Anne Brodsky, (New York: Routledge, 2003).

Historical context

Afghanistan's brutal history of war naturally shapes RAWA
dramatically. The 1970s were a time of intense student
activism and protest. In 1977, a young Kabul University
student named Meena founded RAWA to struggle for women's
rights. RAWA was born into a nation on the brink of imperial
war, occupation, and reactionary forces from which it has
yet to emerge. A year after RAWA's formation, the Soviet
Union invaded Afghanistan and began a ten year long
occupation. RAWA's initial goal of women's emancipation, was
broadened to include national emancipation. They
participated in the nation-wide non-violent resistance, or
jihad, against the occupation. But RAWA was also seen as a
threat by the fundamentalist, misogynist forces which the US
chose to work with. In fact, RAWA's work was increasingly
threatening to both Soviet imperialists and Islamic
fundamentalists. In 1987, Meena was assassinated by a
collaboration of both forces -- KHAD (Afghan secret police,
controlled by the Soviet government), and Gulbuddin
Hekmatyar (the largest recipient of US financial aid).

Rather that destroying the organization, Meena's
assassination drove RAWA underground and actually provoked
them to broaden their goals even more. Since then, they see
imperialism and religious fundamentalism as twin injustices
to be resisted and eradicated. Meena is seen as a martyr by
RAWA members. Her photograph adorns the otherwise bare walls
of RAWA houses, classrooms, orphanages, hospitals, and
clinics. Because RAWA members operate incognito, Meena's
face has essentially become RAWA's face.

Political Vision

RAWA's underlying philosophy sees women's rights as integral
to the struggle for human rights, democracy, and national
sovereignty. Because women are the main victims of war,
religious fundamentalism, and economic globalization,
women's rights are crucial markers of injustice worldwide.
As in the US, leftist Afghan women like Meena realized that
the men in their movements paid lip service to women's
rights but did not see it as important as class, or other
struggles. Women were told that their freedom would
automatically follow from other social changes and that it
was not necessary for women's rights to be central to their
struggles.

RAWA has not adopted any specific economic or social
ideology. They do advocate "economic democracy," and
secularism. While most RAWA members are Muslim, as are the
majority of Afghans, they have seen Islam being used as a
political tool of oppression by fundamentalist warlords in
government positions.

Excerpts from RAWA's Charter (twice revised since its
inception, to address socio-political changes), define their
main aims[1] as:

(1) women's emancipation, "which cannot be abstracted from
the freedom and emancipation of the people as a whole,"
(2) separation of religion and politics, "so that no entity
can misuse religion as a means for furthering their
political objectives,"
(3) equal rights of all Afghan ethnic groups,
(4) "economic democracy and the disappearance of exploitation,"
(5) commitment to "struggle against illiteracy, ignorance,
reactionary, and misogynistic culture,"
(6) "to draw women out of the incarceration of their homes
into social and political activity, so that they can
liberate themselves economically, politically, legally, and
socially,"
(7) to serve and assist "affected and deserved women and
children, in the fields of education, healthcare, and economy,"
(8) establish and strengthen relations with other
pro-democracy and pro-women's rights groups nationally and
internationally, with such relations "based on the principle
of equality and non-interference in each others affairs,"
(9) "support for other freedom and women's movements worldwide."

RAWA bases their struggle on universal principles of human
rights and democracy, consistent with the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. They are not bound by the
inevitable dogma that results from sectarianism and "the
party line."

Additionally, RAWA realizes the importance of connecting
their struggle with those of other groups worldwide. They
regularly express international solidarity in their
statements, such as this one:

We declare our unequivocal and unreserved support and
solidarity with the struggles of the people and the
pro-democracy and progressive forces of Iran, Palestine,
Kashmir, Kurdistan, Sudan and other fettered peoples of
Asia, Africa and Latin America fighting for their rights
against reactionary and anti-liberty states and powers.[2]

Strategy

For the formation of a free, independent and democratic
Afghanistan the joint striving and struggle of pro-liberty
and democratic forces is indispensable. This objective can
only be achieved through relentless struggle, not through
compromise and capitulation.
-- RAWA statement on 50th anniversary of Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, December 1998.

RAWA's strategies, like their political aims, are broad.
They are a balance of long-term and short-term strategies of
political agitation and humanitarian aid.

Education

Education is seen as part of RAWA's long-term struggle and
is considered their most important strategy. Education of
women in particular, is based on the understanding that when
women are empowered through literacy and skills, they are
more inclined and better equipped to fight for their rights.
However, RAWA also educates boys, providing a practical
alternative to the brain-washing of religious madrassas.
They believe that male domination is a social phenomenon
that can be eradicated through education for both boys and
girls.

RAWA's educational projects range from full-fledged schools
for girls and boys, all the way down to home-based literacy
courses and skills training for adult women. Many women and
girls who discover RAWA through these institutions choose to
become members. Education also includes skills training for
adult women who are struggling to raise families. RAWA
teaches women embroidery, sewing, handicrafts, etc. They
also teach women farming skills like raising hens for eggs,
fish farming, and goat farming. Such courses are labeled
"income-generating projects." The goal is to enable women to
become financially self-sufficient.

RAWA's educational policy (see Appendix A) evolved over the
years through trial and error. It is based on principles of
freedom, peace, non-violence, respect for the environment,
as well as gender, ethnic, and religious tolerance. Anne
Brodsky observes that "Paolo Freire's groundbreaking work on
emancipatory education . . . speaks to some of the very same
approaches that RAWA espouses." RAWA members are not
familiar with the highly influential Pedagogy of the
Oppressed by Freire and have developed their own methods
based on an intimate understanding of their communities.

Health Care and Humanitarian Aid

Despite much-touted progress, Afghanistan still suffers from
shockingly high rates of infant mortality and maternal
mortality. In 2005, Afghanistan ranked 173 out of 178 in the
UN's Human Development Index. With so much suffering around
them, it is impossible for RAWA to speak of human rights and
women's political rights, without also addressing the lack
of access to food and health care, which are prerequisites
to other rights.

RAWA runs clinics and mobile health teams both inside
Afghanistan and in Pakistan's refugee camps. In many cases,
the people they serve have no other access to health care.
When the need arises, RAWA conducts emergency relief
operations alongside their political and educational work.
They often assist refugees during harsh winter months with
blankets, food, and medical aid.

Because of the large numbers of orphans in Afghanistan, RAWA
runs several orphanages for boys and girls in Pakistan and
Afghanistan. (They do not, however, offer Afghan children up
for adoption in Western countries and urge instead urge
Western supporters to sponsor orphans so that the children
can remain in their own country while having access to
education, shelter, etc.)

Media, Documentation, and Technology

From their inception RAWA realized that they needed a means
of spreading news from independent sources throughout the
country, as well as a way to convey news of their activities
and achievements.

Payam-e-Zan (translated as "Woman's Voice) is RAWA's main
publication -- a magazine that first published in 1981, only
four years after they were founded. Payam-e-Zan started out
being produced by hand, with several hundred mimeographed
copies stealthily passed across the country. Some issues,
produced during the most dangerous years, were published in
miniature, to make them easier to hide. According to
Brodsky, Payam-e-Zan "operates as an educational vehicle
through which literacy skills as well as political
consciousness are cultivated. The magazine is also a highly
effective recruitment tool" for RAWA, "serv[ing] as a place
to document RAWA's concerns and standpoints, and as a
vehicle to present these ideas to a wide audience."

As the casualties of US-backed fundamentalists mounted in
the early 1990s, RAWA, realizing that the world had moved on
from Afghanistan, decided to document the rampant human
rights abuses through still photography and video.
Photographs documenting the victims of the fundamentalists,
or in some cases, violence in action, are published on their
website and magazine, along side reports by the RAWA members
with details such as the date, time, names of victims, and
perpetrators, etc. Digital cameras have made RAWA's
documentation much easier and also enabled RAWA to share the
images of human rights violations more easily with an
international audience via their website.

Videos of human rights abuses are circulated to news media
and documentary film makers, and added to RAWA's own
archive. The most famous example of RAWA's video
documentation was the 1999 public execution of a woman named
Zarmeena, by the Taliban in Kabul stadium. After 9/11, this
video was viewed all over the world, despite the fact that
it was more than 2 years old. When initially offered to news
media in 1999, no one would touch the gruesome footage until
it was politically convenient. The footage was also used in
Saira Shah's widely acclaimed documentary, Behind the Veil,
which was re-aired repeatedly on CNN after 9/11.

he advent of the internet catapulted RAWA into the
international like no other new technology. Wisely seeing
the potential for international solidarity, and drawing
world attention to a forgotten crisis, RAWA launched
http://www.rawa.org in late 1996. One member explained:

We never imagined the internet would bring such a positive
result for us. It is very important and something that now
we can't imagine we could work without . . . At the time I
remember it was kind of amazing. The first email from the US
that we got, we all called each other to come see this and
our eyes were so big . . . [3]

Most of the relations between RAWA and their international
supporters have developed through their website and e-mail.
I too first discovered RAWA through their website and wrote
to them expressing my solidarity.

RAWA's website is the perfect portal for them to express
their political views and publish their documents while
preserving the anonymity of their members. Additionally,
large amounts of material can be published and archived with
little additional cost.

While Payam-e-Zan is still RAWA's primary outlet to reach
the majority of Afghans -- who live in a poor country with
little internet access, RAWA's website is the main method of
communicating with the outside world.

Political Demonstrations

RAWA organizes public protests up to several times a year to
mark various dates: March 8th, International Women's Day;
April 28th, the "black day" when the fundamentalists entered
Kabul in 1992; and December 10th, International Human Rights
Day. According to Brodsky, "demonstrations are one of the
large-scale non-traditional ways that RAWA educates and
enlightens people."[4] They are usually held in Pakistan, as
Afghanistan is still too dangerous. Thousands of women are
bussed in from across the border to march with signs and
banners. Sometimes the women carry sticks for self-defense,
or are accompanied by male supporters who walk beside the
march. The demonstrations often culminate in a rally in
front of the United Nations Office in Islamabad and elsewhere.

One member of RAWA explains the importance of demonstrations:

When a demonstration happens, some in backward places can't
even think a woman can stage such a thing. Our mission is to
change that mentality and let women know they are human
beings and equal to men.[5]

RAWA's demonstrations also highlight events in Afghan
history that either are forgotten or have been re-written.
For example, the bloody events of fundamentalist infighting
and civil war that followed April 28th 1992 are resurrected
each year on RAWA's signs and placards.

The women in RAWA's demonstrations march militantly with
faces uncovered and fists in the air. Their signs are
explicitly pro-democracy and anti-fundamentalist. As such,
the public demonstrations also challenge pervading
assumptions among Westerners who were obsessed by images of
mute, burqa-clad, helpless looking Afghan women, after 9/11.

Organizational Structure and Decision making

While RAWA had adopted a committee structure from the
beginning, their founder Meena operated as a de-facto
President. Her tragic assassination in 1987 highlighted the
organization's vulnerability with having a high-profile
"leader" who could be easily targeted. After Meena's death,
RAWA changed its structure so that no single member could
assume a leadership role. Their goal was to "create a
leadership structure that was democratic, collective, and as
non-hierarchical as possible, thus promoting the equality
and democracy that RAWA seeks for Afghanistan at large."
[6]This manifested itself in the form of a "leadership
council" of 11 members. These members are elected every two
years by the entire membership.

The election of the Leadership Council is to my knowledge,
unique among "subversive movements." Because of RAWA's
underground nature, its members are geographically dispersed
and cannot communicate with one another frequently.
Consequently there are no nominations or election campaigns.
Members simply submit in writing 11 names of members that
they think ought to comprise the Council. The top 11
vote-getters are then elected.

Leadership Council members simply continue in their daily
functions as RAWA members, while taking on the
responsibilities of that particular committee. They meet
several times a year to oversee RAWA's operations and author
RAWA's standpoints and statements in a way that reflects the
membership's sentiments by conferring with the spokespeople
from all the underlying committees. Their names are never
revealed outside the membership for security reasons. RAWA's
structure is consistent with their philosophy of the
collective being more important than the individual.

The remaining RAWA members join any one of the following
seven standing committees (see Appendix B). These are:

1. Education
2. Social (humanitarian)
3. Finance
4. Reports
5. Publications
6. Foreign Affairs
7. Cultural[7]

Each committee has a number of sub-committees focused on its
various responsibilities. All committees, including the
Leadership Council, are composed of an odd number of members
to avoid deadlock in decision making.

Each committee has a "mas'ul" which is Persian for
"responsible person." The mas'ul functions like a
spokesperson for the committee, to whom members can turn for
mediation, or to make complaints. They are also responsible
for communication between various committees. Brodsky
elaborates: "Overall, RAWA's committee structure can be
thought of as having branches in which each mas'ul is the
sole connection between the committees and members she is
responsible for and the next level up in the committee
structure." This fosters the "relatively independent
operation of each committee," and ensures projects that are
"locally responsive."[8]

As any serious activist knows, committees cannot function
without regular meetings, and RAWA members have their fair
share of frequent meetings. One of RAWA's most interesting
type of meeting is a mechanism that enables them to deal
with internal conflict: the "jelse entaqady" or "mistake
meeting." This is an "evaluation and correction mechanism
that operates at all levels of the organization in order to
facilitate RAWA's distributed decision making style, and
address mistakes, problems, and differences of opinion."[9]
Differences of opinion or disagreements are directly
addressed with the people involved. The committee mas'ul is
often a mediator in such meetings, and an odd number of
attendees ensure that there can be no deadlock.

Secrecy is a huge factor in RAWA's operations because of the
dangerous nature of their work. As a result most members
often know only a small number of other members personally
at any given time. RAWA's dispersed committee structure, and
its members' belief in the collective having more importance
than the individual, ensures the organization's continued
functioning.

Only Afghan women based in Afghanistan or the refugee camps
of Pakistan and Iran can be RAWA members. Men are not
allowed to be members. However, many male relatives of RAWA
members are dedicated to supporting the organization in any
manner available to them. Male supporters often help with
security at public events, escorting foreign supporters,
passing out RAWA literature, etc.

What we can learn from RAWA

RAWA's approach to activism is very practical and tailored
to suit the needs of their situation. Their political vision
is simple, yet adheres to some basic fundamental truths such
as the universality of human rights and democracy. While
this may make some Western leftist ideologues scoff, it is
an approach that, at the very least, works in a country like
Afghanistan which has lost so much and is struggling to
preserve the most basic of rights.

However, RAWA's simple political vision enables it to be
flexible to situations as they arise. For example, RAWA does
not denounce capitalism. Rather they call for "economic
democracy." This enables them to train women in marketable
skills through their "income-generating projects." The
practical short-term goal of enabling economic independence
for a poor struggling, often illiterate woman, is achieved
in this manner. RAWA does not engage in micro-lending
however, preferring to grant women the basic foundation they
may need to start up an operation, free of charge.

RAWA's organizational structure is also quite practical,
having preserved the organization for nearly two decades
after Meena's death. Rather than strain to achieve some
idealistic but impractical notion of absolute participatory
democracy, they have instead conceived a structure that has
limited hierarchy (the Leadership Council), which is
outweighed by ample democracy through simple and functional
elections and committee membership.

RAWA's emphasis on the collective over the individual is
also a philosophy worth aspiring to. Among Western activists
we have seen an increasing tendency to valorize individual
figures, at the expense of collective action.

Appendix A

RAWA's Educational Policy, from http://www.rawa.org

We teach our students:

Recognition of these basic principles and values:
· Everyone must respect all human beings regardless of
language, religion, race, color, etc.
· There is no difference between people; no human being is
superior to any other because of class, color, language,
race, or religion.
· All human beings do not have to think alike or live the
same way.
· It's to the benefit of society that all human beings live
in peace, understanding, and harmony.

Religious Tolerance:
· Respect all religions and their followers.
· Understand that followers of all religions can live in
harmony and peace.
· Do not discriminate against the followers of religious
sects different from your own.
· Understand that religion is a private matter that cannot
be forced on anyone else and nobody should be allowed to
misuse it for any end, it must be kept separated from politics.
· Do not allow criminals in the future to dare to commit
crimes in the name of religion, as did the Jahadis and Taliban.

Ethnic Tolerance:
· Respect all ethnic groups in Afghanistan.
· No ethnic group is superior to any other and no one
should be allowed to look down on others.
· All members of all ethnic groups have the right to speak
their own languages.
· Respect for each language means respect for the culture
of those people who live in different regions and cities.
· Prevent ethnic divisions and the kind of conflicts that,
unfortunately, today have reached their peak because it is
practiced by the criminal fundamentalists.
· To know the history of their own and other countries and
about those who sacrificed their lives for freedom; set them
as an example for themselves.

Gender Tolerance:
· No human being is better than any other because of
gender; contrary to the belief of the fundamentalists who
treat our women as cattle and represent them as mentally
deficient.
· Avoid any kind of behavior that promotes gender apartheid.
· Invalidate antiquated myths stories or poetry wrapped
with religious, traditional or cultural reasons that portray
women as powerless and less equal than men.

Handicapped:
· Respect all people who have infirmity, whether physical,
mental, or emotional.
· Promote a good relationship with the handicapped, and
promote their involvement in society.
· Respect and promote the right of all children to live in
harmony.

Environmental Sensitivity:
· Save mother earth with all its richness.
· Avoid using items that pollute the environment.
· Teach that animals have a right to live and avoid wanton
killing; don't kill them except for food purposes.
· Do not injure animals.
· Preserve animals that are endangered or threatened species.
· Preserve trees and jungles and don't pollute the air and
water.
· A culture of peace is not possible if it does not promote
conservation of the environment.

Violence:
· Avoid harsh treatment of human beings and animals.
· Recognize the causes of anger and actively try to help
diminish the causes.
· Never hurt any human being who is not going to hurt you.
· Recognize the execution and killing of human beings as
unacceptable and cruel.
· Avoid words, programs, toys, entertainment, and movies
that promote and glorify violence and anger.
· Promote an understanding that anger and the exercise of
violence is not the first and only way of solving problems.

Core Values of Life:
· Encourage a respect for the value of life and implement
them in their lives.
· Honesty, decency, simplicity, unity, love, patience,
responsibility, happiness, respect, and help for others are
the values of life that should be inculcated and practiced
routinely by everyone.
· Encourage eagerness in understanding the ideas of others.

Family Values:
· Encourage respect for one's own family and those of others.
· Promote the understanding that everyone, regardless of
where they live (suburb, city, or our country), is part of
the bigger family that we all belong to.
· Respect the wisdom and dignity of the elders in every family.

Partnership Values:
· Encourage listening to the ideas of others.
· Respect teamwork and focus on the success of common goals.
· Engage in the activities of others and involve others in
one's own activities.
· Avoid unilateral decision-making and imposing one's will
on the majority.
· Should not allow themselves to make decisions
individually and impose them on others.

Freedom Values:
· Promote respect for the difference between human beings
and an understanding that all human beings don't have to
think alike.
· Avoid pre judgment.
· Avoid anything that damages and debases the values of
human beings.
· Respect freedom of thought and avoid imposing one's ideas
on others arbitrarily.
· Respect the freedom of all human beings.
· That freedom has real meaning only with justice and
democracy.
· Teach the idea that freedom doesn't exist without justice.

Individual rights:
· Encourage an understanding of one's own rights.
· Understand human rights and respect them.

Peace Values:
· Encourage work for world peace and make peace a priority
over conflict.
· Exercise love for human beings.
· Promote peace by learning other countries' cultures, and
learn that living in peace and harmony is the only right way
for human beings.
· Understand that peace will come to our country only when
there is no sign of Jahadi/Talibi fundamentalists as
military, terrorist and troublemaker force.
· To never let Afghanistan, which today has become a field
for dogfighting and bloodbaths, be a place for the monster
like fundamentalists, Parchami and Khalqi traitors.

Appendix B

From Anne Brodsky's "With All Our Strength" (p. 159)

[1] Anne Brodsky, With All Our Strength: The Revolutionary
Association of the Women of Afghanistan, (New York:
Routledge, 2003), p169.
[2] RAWA statement, Overthrow of Jihadi and Taliban
Criminals is the Only Guarantee of Human Rights in
Afghanistan, December 10, 1998,
http://www.rawa.org/dec10-98.htm.
[3] Brodsky, p160.
[4] Brodsky, p110.
[5] Brodsky, p110.
[6] Brodsky, p153.
[7] Brodsky, p156.
[8] Brodsky, p157.
[9] Brodsky, p170.
----------------------------------------------
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Re: Transition Sessions #2 - Tues Oct 20th

2009-10-15T07:59:25Z

I also have an idea for a song, it's been in my mind for ages and would love to see it made. Unfortunately I won't be able to make it on Tuesday, but will be at Passing Clouds the following night for the Peace Not War monthly gig. Are there plans to join the two projects as time passes? Would be great! Mark

2009/10/14 Josef Davies-Coates <josef@...>

The goal of the Transition Sessions project is to write and record an album and play that tells the story of how humanity rose to the challenges of climate, energy and economic uncertainty, overcame the domination of Empire and grew an Earth Community founded on partnership based relationships. Together We Have Everything.

After a lovely intimate beginning last month we're back at Passing Clouds for another night of delicious food served up with inspirational film and music.

Doors: 7.30pm FREE/ donation.

Film: 8pm start
The Take: Occupy, Resist, Produce.
http://www.thetake.org/

Tells the inspiring story of Argentina's movement of worker occupied factories turned co-ops and powerfully contrasts politics, old and new. Must see viewing.

Followed by a Jam Session with:

Sam Ritchie
http://myspace.com/mrsamritchie
http://myspace.com/qdosmusic

Josh Solnick and Greg from Fur
http://myspace.com/furcats

Tansay Omar (ex-Bjork drummer)
http://myspace.com/naturalrhythmrecordings

Byron Biroli
http://myspace.com/gravytrainlondon

Djanan Turan
http://myspace.com/djanansings
http://myspace.com/djananturanalbum

Plus special guests.

Delicious nutritious food from The Treehouse Cafe
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=89001602545

--
Josef Davies-Coates
07974 88 88 95
http://uniteddiversity.com
Together We Have Everything

--
"We hear men speaking for us of new laws strong and sweet /Yet is there no man speaketh as we speak in the street.”

Re: Re: Transition Sessions #2 - Tues Oct 20th

2009-10-15T02:30:05Z

2009/10/14 david cozens <davidcozens@...>

sounds wicked , i have already started on a script in my head now only tricky bit is the begining , is it being filmed by the way?

Hoping to have some camera's down there on the night yes, to start documenting the journey :)

It is still very early days...

Anyone out there who wants to help with that more than welcome :)

Cheers,

Josef.

--
Josef Davies-Coates
07974 88 88 95
http://uniteddiversity.com
Together We Have Everything

Re: Re: Transition Sessions #2 - Tues Oct 20th

2009-10-14T15:48:45Z

sounds wicked , i have already started on a script in my head now only tricky bit is the begining , is it being filmed by the way?

David Cozens

(IX+XI)

--- On Wed, 14/10/09, Josef Davies-Coates <josef@...> wrote:

From: Josef Davies-Coates <josef@...>
Subject: [creativeforum] Re: Transition Sessions #2 - Tues Oct 20th
To: "uniteddiversity" <uniteddiversity@...>, "Hub Members" <london.members@...>, "creativeforum" <creativeforum@...>, "internal" <internal@...>
Date: Wednesday, 14 October, 2009, 3:35 PM

Whoops, forgot link to facebook event:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=154323973619

2009/10/14 Josef Davies-Coates <josef@...>

The goal of the Transition Sessions project is to write and record an album and play that tells the story of how humanity rose to the challenges of climate, energy and economic uncertainty, overcame the domination of Empire and grew an Earth Community founded on partnership based relationships. Together We Have Everything.

After a lovely intimate beginning last month we're back at Passing Clouds for another night of delicious food served up with inspirational film and music.

Doors: 7.30pm FREE/ donation.

Film: 8pm start
The Take: Occupy, Resist, Produce.
http://www.thetake.org/

Tells the inspiring story of Argentina's movement of worker occupied factories turned co-ops and powerfully contrasts politics, old and new. Must see viewing.

Followed by a Jam Session with:

Sam Ritchie
http://myspace.com/mrsamritchie
http://myspace.com/qdosmusic

Josh Solnick and Greg from Fur
http://myspace.com/furcats

Tansay Omar (ex-Bjork drummer)
http://myspace.com/naturalrhythmrecordings

Byron Biroli
http://myspace.com/gravytrainlondon

Djanan Turan
http://myspace.com/djanansings
http://myspace.com/djananturanalbum

Plus special guests.

Delicious nutritious food from The Treehouse Cafe
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=89001602545

--
Josef Davies-Coates
07974 88 88 95
http://uniteddiversity.com
Together We Have Everything

--
Josef Davies-Coates
07974 88 88 95
http://uniteddiversity.com
Together We Have Everything

Re: Transition Sessions #2 - Tues Oct 20th

2009-10-14T07:35:43Z

Whoops, forgot link to facebook event:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=154323973619

2009/10/14 Josef Davies-Coates <josef@...>

The goal of the Transition Sessions project is to write and record an album and play that tells the story of how humanity rose to the challenges of climate, energy and economic uncertainty, overcame the domination of Empire and grew an Earth Community founded on partnership based relationships. Together We Have Everything.

After a lovely intimate beginning last month we're back at Passing Clouds for another night of delicious food served up with inspirational film and music.

Doors: 7.30pm FREE/ donation.

Film: 8pm start
The Take: Occupy, Resist, Produce.
http://www.thetake.org/

Tells the inspiring story of Argentina's movement of worker occupied factories turned co-ops and powerfully contrasts politics, old and new. Must see viewing.

Followed by a Jam Session with:

Sam Ritchie
http://myspace.com/mrsamritchie
http://myspace.com/qdosmusic

Josh Solnick and Greg from Fur
http://myspace.com/furcats

Tansay Omar (ex-Bjork drummer)
http://myspace.com/naturalrhythmrecordings

Byron Biroli
http://myspace.com/gravytrainlondon

Djanan Turan
http://myspace.com/djanansings
http://myspace.com/djananturanalbum

Plus special guests.

Delicious nutritious food from The Treehouse Cafe
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=89001602545

--
Josef Davies-Coates
07974 88 88 95
http://uniteddiversity.com
Together We Have Everything

--
Josef Davies-Coates
07974 88 88 95
http://uniteddiversity.com
Together We Have Everything

Transition Sessions #2 - Tues Oct 20th

2009-10-14T07:33:56Z

The goal of the Transition Sessions project is to write and record an album and play that tells the story of how humanity rose to the challenges of climate, energy and economic uncertainty, overcame the domination of Empire and grew an Earth Community founded on partnership based relationships. Together We Have Everything.

After a lovely intimate beginning last month we're back at Passing Clouds for another night of delicious food served up with inspirational film and music.

Doors: 7.30pm FREE/ donation.

Film: 8pm start
The Take: Occupy, Resist, Produce.
http://www.thetake.org/

Tells the inspiring story of Argentina's movement of worker occupied factories turned co-ops and powerfully contrasts politics, old and new. Must see viewing.

Followed by a Jam Session with:

Sam Ritchie
http://myspace.com/mrsamritchie
http://myspace.com/qdosmusic

Josh Solnick and Greg from Fur
http://myspace.com/furcats

Tansay Omar (ex-Bjork drummer)
http://myspace.com/naturalrhythmrecordings

Byron Biroli
http://myspace.com/gravytrainlondon

Djanan Turan
http://myspace.com/djanansings
http://myspace.com/djananturanalbum

Plus special guests.

Delicious nutritious food from The Treehouse Cafe
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=89001602545

--
Josef Davies-Coates
07974 88 88 95
http://uniteddiversity.com
Together We Have Everything

Dumping Censorship

2009-10-13T03:02:19Z

* This email is sent via the Creative Forum mail-list. 'Reply' will send your response to that list *

Fwd// Subject: Censorship in the UK

Hello,

So a UK newspaper (The Guardian) has been hit with an injunction to
prevent it reporting a question, asked in parliament by an MP paid by
the taxpayer.

The question relates to a report into toxic dumping off the Ivory Coast.

Astoundingly, the paper is also banned from identifying the MP who has
asked the question, what the question is, which minister might answer
it, or where the question is to be found, and from telling its readers
why the paper cannot reporting parliament. "Legal obstacles, which
cannot be identified, involve proceedings, which cannot be mentioned,
on behalf of a client who must remain secret."

We are sure The Guardian will challenge this legally, but surely
parliament itself and the office of the speaker - if it is interested
in open democracy - should be seen to act to maintain the trust of the
public.

If you agree, e mail the speaker's office to say so: hcinfo@...
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FREE Favela Rising screening Sat afternoon (and more)

2009-10-09T06:09:01Z

Favela Rising is one of my "must see" films. Its an amazing, inspirational and moving story.

If you've not seen it yet, please head down to the FREE screening of it tomorrow afternoon organised by our friends at Alborada.

For more info about the film see:
http://favelarising.com

For detail of the event (film starts at 4.20pm) see:
http://alborada.net/favelarising-brazil-documentary-october10th2009-compass
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=165957345338

ALSO:

TONIGHT:
Electric Circus @ Scala - phenomenal line-up and raising funds for Gaza
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=146041158618
http://www.circus2iraq.org

TOMORROW NIGHT:
Speakers Corner and Peace Not War at Brixton Jamm
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=173619695069

Have a great weekend! :)

Smiles,

Josef.

--
Josef Davies-Coates
07974 88 88 95
http://uniteddiversity.com
Together We Have Everything

Tomorrow night: Transition Sessions @ Passing Clouds

2009-09-28T08:55:10Z

Hey, check out the beginnings of our Transition Sessions project...

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=146185156427

An intimate little get together to kick off United Diversity's Transition Sessions project.

The aspiration for the Transition Sessions project it to create a new album (and maybe stage show too) of timeless freedom songs that tell the story of how humanity rose to the challenges of of climate, energy and economic uncertainty, overcame the domination of Empire and created an Earth Community built on partnership based relationships.

Food from the Treehouse Cafe

Film: Power of Community - How Cuba Survived Peak Oil

Jam session with:
Joe Driscoll http://www.myspace.com/joedriscoll
Dizraeli http://www.myspace.com/dizraeli
Sam from http://www.myspace.com/qdosmusic
Josh and Greg from http://www.myspace.com/furcats
plus guests.

Note, this is mostly just a get together for artists to get to know about each other and not really a public gig as such. There will no doubt be some intimate amazing spontaneous stuff happening though. Such is the nature of United Diversity gatherings, such great acts and the wonderful venue that is Passing Clouds :)

Come along if you'd like to get involved!

Smiles,

Josef.

--
Josef Davies-Coates
07974 88 88 95
http://uniteddiversity.com
Together We Have Everything

this sunday, democracy picnic :-)

2009-09-24T16:39:03Z

Darlings

Come join us this Sunday for shared food, hot tea, graffiti art, blank placards and more - help us make it as special as last time!

See B's lovely video of last picnic at

http://current.com/items/91015338_people-in-common-democracy-on-hampstead-heath.htm

Full info on this Sunday and other stuff at www.peopleincommon.org [or, see invitation below]

Pls forward this invite, and text your friends if you can

Love

Mark

Democracy Picnic, Alexandra Palace this Sunday 27th Sept

Ladies and Gentlemen, you are cordially invited to join us at 1pm on Sunday in the grounds of Alexandra Palace, for the second in our series of family friendly Big Democracy Picnics!

In support of real democracy and a shared freedom, this picnic will be an opportunity to meet with other people of like mind, share food, connect, discuss, create, debate and perform. And of course, to consider further how best to campaign for a really democratic London (and elsewhere...) We will also be showing support for local campaigns such as Haringey Solidarity [http://www.haringey.org.uk)] and The Peoples Palace [http://www.thepeoplespalace.org.uk].

Bring veggie food to share, good vibes, poems, songs and ideas! Also, pls bring / look out for the white flag / blank placards (to symbolise, a new start, blank canvas or..)

By car/bike: look left from the cricket ground at the end of Nightingale Lane (off Priory Rd) enter the Palace grounds near the cricket pitch and and bear left along the small grass path for approx 200m! (We will be almost opposite the rose window on the flat part at the very bottom of the hill.)

By tube: from Finsbury Park take the Wells Terrace exit, and then the W3 bus. Get off at Priory Rd and then walk to the top of Nightingale Lane,

By train: walk from Alexandra Palace mainline station, exiting left from the platform stairs and left again out of the walkway. Through the white gate immediately visible and along the tree lined path until you reach the open green. Then walk towards approximately 10 o'clock across the grass towards the trees at the bottom of the palace grounds. Not far.

Map [http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&source=hp&q=alexandra+palace&ie=UTF8&start=0&ll=51.590883,-0.118103&spn=0.011918,0.042186&z=15 ]

If weather is very bad: meet in the Palm Court next to The Phoenix pub, on west side of the palace building. W3 to 'Alexandra Palace' or overground to Alexandra Palace.

For more info, either on or before the day, call Sally on 07989 513 577 or Mark on 07854 390 408

Longer Term Plan

Longer term plan is to initiate a series of picnics at high-points around London, before heading to the City Hall (the Greater London Assembly) for a theatrical picnic-festival, in May 2010. You can read about our last picnic, here [ http://groups.google.co.uk/group/project2012/browse_thread/thread/66a545441bab658a ] and find photos on Facebook here [http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=541171315&k=52D456TZPTXN4AAHSB4&oid=1155570183836 ]

Come along and help write the script..!

Climate Justice Fast!: Time to pull out all the stops.

2009-09-21T04:03:12Z

Dear friends,

It is with great excitement that I report to you the progress of the upcoming international hunger strike for climate action: Climate Justice Fast!

In the last month, the international response to CJF has been inspiring and overwhelming. There are now over 50 people from 11 different countries world wide preparing to fast, for periods ranging from a few days to 45 and beyond, from the 2^nd of November, to coincide with the UN climate talks in Barcelona, until at least the end of Copenhagen climate conference, on the 19th of December. Some of these fasters will even be inside the Copenhagen conference itself.

We are offering the strongest form of moral protest against climate inaction, and standing up for true climate justice. We call on both the global public and their political representatives to fulfil their moral responsibility to undertake every action possible to halt and reverse climate change, and to protect the world’s most vulnerable people from its effects.

The participants of CJF will show the world that climate change is not just another issue, but is an unprecedented emergency, which calls for unprecedented action. We will symbolize the passion and commitment of the global climate movement, a movement destined to become the greatest social movement the world has ever known, and destined to succeed.

But we need your help. There are a number of ways that you can help CJF achieve its enormous potential for creating change.

Fast: Join the hunger strike, or undertake a shorter solidarity fast. Find out more here.

Volunteer: Help us with promotion, media, or logistics. Find out more here.

Donate: We need funding for IT costs, promotion (T-shirts, banners), logistics, and professional media support, Details are here.

Create: Filmmaker? Musician? Artist? Designer? Your skills can help CJF to reach and move people, and by so doing change the world. Contact us here.

So please, don’t hesitate to become a part of CJF. Past generations did not know about climate change, and future generations will be too late to stop it. It’s up to us.

It’s time to pull out all the stops.

Sincerely,

Paul Connor

PS, Please circulate this message to any individuals or groups who it may interest.

‘The golden rule is to act fearlessly upon what one believes to be right’. -Mahatma Gandhi.

G20 and CTT Tobin

2009-09-20T03:50:04Z

In run up to G20 Pittsburgh (see below) pls sign / forward this, which includes

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/tobintaxnow/

And thanks to everyone that already has.

Britain stalls on new deal to rescue Africa

Chancellor claims fund-raising charge on all global banking transactions is not workable

Britain was last night accused of stalling on a deal to use banks' multibillion-pound profits to help the world's poorest nations as new figures show that the global recession has opened up a $70bn (£43bn) black hole in the budgets of sub-Saharan Africa.

Chancellor Alistair Darling is accused of blocking plans for a tax on worldwide currency transactions that could raise up to £30bn for developing countries.

But the plan which is being pushed by the German and French governments at a meeting of G20 leaders in Pittsburgh this week, has the sympathetic ear of the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband. The need for a lifeboat for poor nations was given added urgency last night when research by Oxfam revealed that sub-Saharan African countries face a £30bn deficit this year – on top of £12bn debts from last year, leaving a total black hole of £43bn – because of the economic crisis.

African governments are increasingly unable to protect their citizens from falling trade, investment and remittances, and from hunger and the impact of climate change, Oxfam said. The charity and other anti-poverty campaigners have joined some EU governments in pushing for a 0.005 per cent tax on currency transactions – which it is calculated would raise between £18bn and £30bn.

The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is expected to lobby US and British governments on the currency transaction tax (CTT) proposal – known as the "Tobin tax" – at the G20 meeting this Thursday.

A day earlier Britain will attempt to push forward a separate scheme at the UN General Assembly in New York to boost funding for health in Africa and other developing regions. Gordon Brown will lead an international drive to provide free healthcare for the world's poorest people, focusing on women and children. But campaigners said there was a growing momentum for the CTT to be raised at the summit.

Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, has backed the idea of a Tobin tax, describing it as a "nice, sensible revenue source for funding global public goods".

But the Treasury is blocking the move, arguing that it would be "unworkable" to get all markets around the world to agree to the levy. Instead governments should give set amounts of aid to Africa and the developing world, Mr Darling believes. Britain has a target of 0.7 per cent of GDP for international aid. The US is also likely to block the idea.

However, Mr Miliband has agreed with his French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner, that a Tobin tax should be on the table in next month's ministerial talks in Paris. A source close to the Foreign Secretary said he had not agreed to the CTT, but told Mr Kouchner it "should not be excluded" from the discussions.

Campaigners said one billion people across the planet are now hungry and a promised £30bn bailout for poor countries at the G20 London meeting in April has not been fully delivered, according to the European Network on Debt and Development. Schools and health clinics are also at risk, they say.

The World Bank has warned that 50 million more people will be pushed into extreme poverty this year as a result of the financial crisis, and could reach 90 million by the end of 2010.

Writing in today's IoS, Phil Bloomer, campaigns and policy director at Oxfam, says: "At a time of anger against the banks, this could be a rare example of a popular tax.

"Unfortunately the understandable push to cap bankers' bonuses is in danger of obscuring the needs of the poor. Surely if anyone is deserving of a bonus it is those in Bolivia, Bangladesh and Burundi who are suffering as a result of greed on Wall Street and in the City of London."

Ms Merkel said last week that the levy had support from Mr Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. But Downing Street poured cold water on the plans and Treasury sources said: "This is not something we are actively pursuing at the G20. If you are looking at a way to fund development, it should come from government funds. We would be concerned that this [Tobin tax] is unworkable because you would have to have it for all markets around the world."

The G-Class: Who's Who

G3: A 1995 free-trade agreement between Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela. Looking for a new member after Hugo Chavez withdrew Venezuela in 2006.

G4: Comprising Brazil, Germany, India and Japan to support each other's bids for permanent seats on the UN Security Council.

G6: Formed in 1975, an informal gathering between the finance ministers of the US, West Germany, France, the UK, Italy and Japan.

G7: Appeared a year later when Canada joined the G6.

G8: An informal group of the heads of state and government of the G7 countries plus Russia. It meets annually to find solutions to global problems.

G20: Established in 1999 to bring together industrialised and developing economies to discuss key issues in the global economy. It comprises the finance ministers and central bank governors of the G8, 11 other key countries (including China and India) and the European Union presidency.

G77: A coalition of developing nations at the UN established in 1964.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/britain-stalls-on-new-deal-to-rescue-africa-1790439.html

2009/8/27 Mark Barrett <marknbarrett@...>:

> Hi Alison and all

> I've been shockingly lax in promoting the Tax Justice petition I gave into

> Number 11 last year with Parly Square Maria, but Alison's email (see below)

> about Brown's FSA vs BOE on Tobin has prompted me to re-circulate it before

> it's too late (it runs out in Nov).. pls support!

> We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Abolish Tax Havens, Enact

> Tobin Tax & Reform CAP for an end to poverty world-wide.

> Pls read full details of proposals

> at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/tobintaxnow/

> 2009/8/27 Alison Banville <alisonbanville@...>

>> The head of the FSA has suggested bringing in the Tobin tax and has been

>> attacked for it. (Channel 4 News today, 12pm. Might be available online to

>> watch). See the spokesperson for the British Bankers Assoc say why it won't

>> work.

Fwd: [Hub Members] Fw: The London Paper Library

2009-09-14T10:50:32Z

This sounds fun :)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mica Lamb <micalamb@...>
Date: 2009/9/14
Subject: [Hub Members] Fw: The London Paper Library
To: london.members@...

This looks like good fun. I can't make it that day but perhaps some of you fancy it?

Mica x

> Date: Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:49:45 +0100
> Subject: The London Paper Library
> From: lastmangoinparis@...
> To: lastmangoinparis@...
>
> The London Paper Library needs you!
>
> On Monday 21st September 2009, there will be no more smiling Indians dressed
> in purple windcheaters thrusting empty news into tired hands. That¹s right
> the London Paper will be no more!
>
> Taking advantage of the hole in the infosphere, we are organising a
> guerrilla intervention on the London Underground.
>
> Come and be librarian in a one-day library of free books on the first day
> without the London Paper!
>
> The library will materialise on a tube train between 3pm and 7pm next
> Monday. We have the books; we¹re looking for you to play the part of a
> librarian. You won¹t have to hand the books out; all you¹ll need to do is
> help us install the library (i.e. put the books on the train), and then
> settle back, pretend to be a passenger, and watch as the fun unfoldsŠ
>
> We need as many librarians as we can get, so if you¹re free at the time and
> fancy being a part of this fun intervention, please contact me and I¹ll tell
> you more.
>
> xShane
>
>
>

New! Receive and respond to mail from other email accounts from within Hotmail Find out how.

_______________________________________________
london.members@..., a Hub mailing list
If you have questions read https://mailman.the-hub.net/faq or contact
Hub Islington Hosts: <islington.hosts@...>, +44 207 841 8900
Hub Kings Cross Hosts: <kingscross.hosts@...>, +44 20 7841 3450

--
Josef Davies-Coates
07974 88 88 95
http://uniteddiversity.com
Together We Have Everything

Democracy | Pls forward :-)

2009-09-14T08:10:29Z

Democracy Picnic at Alexandra Palace Sunday 27th Sept

Ladies and Gentlemen, on Sunday 27th September from 1pm, you are cordially invited to join us in the grounds of Alexandra Palace, for the second in our series of family friendly Big Democracy Picnics!

In support of real democracy and a shared freedom, this picnic will be an opportunity to meet with other people of like mind, share food, connect, discuss, create, debate and perform. And of course, to consider further how best to campaign for a really democratic London (and elsewhere...) On the day we (members of the Campaign for Real Democracy, CRD) will also be showing support for local campaigns such as Haringey Solidarity (www.haringey.org.uk) and, thanks to CRD member Sally Wood, The Peoples Palace (www.thepeoplespalace.org.uk).

Bring veggie food to share, good vibes, poems, songs and ideas! Also, pls bring / look out for the white flag / blank placards (to symbolise, a new start, blank canvas or..)

By tube - from Finsbury Park take the Wells Terrace exit, and then the W3 bus. Get off at Priory Rd and then walk to the top of Nightingale Lane,

By train - walk from Alexandra Palace mainline station, exiting left from the platform stairs and left again out of the walkway. Through the white gate immediately visible and along the tree lined path until you reach the open green. Then walk towards approximately 10 o'clock across the grass towards the trees at the bottom of the palace grounds. Not far.

Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&source=hp&q=alexandra+palace&ie=UTF8&start=0&ll=51.590883,-0.118103&spn=0.011918,0.042186&z=15

If weather is very bad: meet in the Palm Court next to The Phoenix pub, on west side of the palace building. W3 to 'Alexandra Palace' or overground to Alexandra Palace.

For more info, either on or before the day, call Sally on 07989 513 577 or Mark on 07854 390 408

Longer Term Plan

Our longer term plan is to initiate a series of picnics at high-points around London, before heading to the City Hall (the Greater London Assembly) for a theatrical picnic-festival, in May 2010. You can read about our last picnic at http://groups.google.co.uk/group/project2012/browse_thread/thread/66a545441bab658a or look out for updates at www.peopleincommon.org

Come along and help write the script!

Elected Representatives (Prohibition of Deception) Bill Fwd: FW: Inquiry re. support - The Ministry of Truth

2009-09-07T14:23:55Z

Pls see below re interesting Bill and consider supporting :-)

Dear Friends,

Further to my email of 17th July, I wondered if you had a chance to look through the Elected Representatives (Prohibition of Deception) Bill. I would be very interested in any thoughts you may have and if you would consider supporting the Bill.

I have again attached the Bill for your perusal and very much look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,
Rachel

--
Rachel Bird
Spirit Level Film

Tel: 020 7569 3039
Mob: 07952 145854
Email: rachel@...
Web: www.ministry-of-truth.net

------ Forwarded Message
Conversation: Inquiry re. support - The Ministry of Truth

Subject: Inquiry re. support - The Ministry of Truth

Dear Friends,

In 2007 Spirit Level Films made the documentary, The Ministry of Truth, which was screened on the BBC as part of their ‘Why Democracy?’ season. The Ministry of Truth is part film, part deadly serious campaign. It led to the Elected Representatives (Prohibition of Deception) Bill - a law that makes it illegal for politicians to deceive the public. Unsurprisingly, without Government support the Bill fell at second reading but the media and the public were very keen on the idea.

Two years on the DVD is being released and these issues are clearly more relevant than ever. We are now calling for the Government to make parliamentary time for the Bill, a call supported by a wide range of people and organisations including Baroness Helena Kennedy, Dom Joly, Martin Bell, Mark Thomas, the Jury Team and numerous cross party MPs.

The Bill is seen by constitutional experts like Professor John Keane of Westminster University as the key to restoring public trust and Sir Alistair Graham, Committee of Standards and Privileges Chairman 2004-2007 has also endorsed the Bill, adding his name to the growing list of supporters. Last week our AOL poll found an astonishing 93% of 77,000 people supported such legislation and inside Westminster support is growing every day.

Along with a whole raft of extras the DVD shows two versions of the film; the original as screened by the BBC and a second version with extra footage that couldn’t be shown for legal reasons featuring Dom Joly as The Professor guiding the viewer along the journey.

Firstly we’d be delighted to have People in Common on board in supporting this call for the Bill to be reintroduced and debated in the House. It would also be great to talk about the possibility and options of advertising the DVD at reduced cost to your members and supporters. The film is a fantastic educational tool for informing people of their rights with regard to their elected representatives.

I have attached the Bill for your perusal and it would be great to have a chat with someone about this.

Thank you for your help and I very much look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,
Rachel

--
Rachel Bird
Spirit Level Film

Tel: 020 7569 3039
Mob: 07952 145854
Email: rachel@...
Web: www.ministry-of-truth.net

------ End of Forwarded Message

elected_representatives_prohibition_of_deception_bill.pdf (75K) Download Attachment

Fwd: FW: Free Commissioning and Procurement Training for Women's Organisations

2009-08-30T03:27:09Z

* This email is sent via the Creative Forum mail-list. 'Reply' will send your response to that list *

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Hi Mark

Please circulate

Thanks

Maria

________________________________
From: Samantha@...
To: Samantha@...
Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:04:14 +0100
Subject: Commissioning and Procurement Training for Women's Organisations

Dear Colleague,

You recently attended a borough funding seminar with the Women’s
Resource Centre as part of our Building Futures project. I am please
to let you know that we are also running FREE training courses to
build upon some of the topics covered in the seminar. All of our
trainings are specially tailored to the needs and experiences of
Women’s organisations. Upcoming courses include:

Commissioning and procurement - understanding the basics: 24 September 09

For organisations new to commissioning that want to understand how to
tender for a government contract

Social enterprise and the women's sector: 14 October 09

For organisations that want to explore the possibility of earning a
trading income

These trainings are free and open to all women’s organisations in
London. Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

For further information call Samantha on 020 7324 3031 or visit the
WRC website. To book your place, please return the attached booking
form by post or email to Samantha at Women’s Resource Centre, Ground
Floor East, 33-41 Dallington Street, London EC1V 0BB or
samantha@....

Best wishes,

Samantha

Samantha Smallcombe
Development Assistant
Women's Resource Centre
samantha@...

Understanding and supporting women and their organisations
Ground Floor East, 33-41 Dallington Street, London, EC1V 0BB
020 7324 3030 www.wrc.org.uk

Reg. Charity 1070606 Limited Company 2462336

Please save paper and only print this email if you need to

________________________________
Windows Live Messenger: Happy 10-Year Anniversary—get free winks and
emoticons. Get Them Now

--
"We hear men speaking for us of new laws strong and sweet /Yet is
there no man speaketh as we speak in the street.”
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Re: FSA and Tobin Re: [peopleincommon] Fwd: [project2012] Re: CRD workshop at climate camp - FRIDAY 4.30pm (Blackheath)

2009-08-27T11:08:32Z

* This email is sent via the Creative Forum mail-list. 'Reply' will send your response to that list *

Thanks for this Jenny :-)
Petition is at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/tobintaxnow/
Let's put some more names on there & spread the word!

2009/8/27 Jenny Bates <jenny.bates@...>:

> Hi all,
>
> re Turner speaking out:
>
> http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2009/08/how-to-tame-global-finance/
>
> the channel 4 news link:
>
> http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/business_money/turner+considers+banking+taxes/3322532
>
> and which was picked up by the Today programme today at 8.18
>
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8223663.stm
>
>
>
> jenny
>
>
>
> Jenny Bates
> Friends of the Earth London Campaigns Co-ordinator
> 26-28 Underwood Street
> London N1 7JQ
> 020-7566 1633, mobile 07884 003107
> jenny.bates@...
> www.foe.co.uk/london
>
> From: Mark Barrett [mailto:marknbarrett@...]
> Sent: 27 August 2009 12:31
> To: Alison Banville; g20_meltdown@...;
> global_justice_forum@...
> Cc: campaignforrealdemocracy@...; Planners Network UK;
> peopleincommon@...; 21st-century-network@...;
> creativeforum@...; londonsocialforum2003@...;
> londonhousingactionnow@...; allgendergroup@...;
> Politics and Spirit Network; civilisation@...;
> studentcoordination@...
> Subject: FSA and Tobin Re: [peopleincommon] Fwd: [project2012] Re: CRD
> workshop at climate camp - FRIDAY 4.30pm (Blackheath)
>
>
>
> Hi Alison and all
>
>
>
> I've been shocking lax in promoting the Tax Justice petition I gave into
> Number 11 last year with Parly Square Maria, but Alison's email (see below)
> about Brown's FSA vs BOE on Tobin has prompted me to re-circulate it before
> it's too late (it runs out in Nov).. pls support!
>
> We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Abolish Tax Havens, Enact
> Tobin Tax & Reform CAP for an end to poverty world-wide.
>
>
>
> Pls read full details of proposals
> at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/tobintaxnow/
>
>
>
> Also, see info below about Campaign for Real Democracy workshop-meeting at
> Climate Camp this Friday
>
>
>
> Apologies for cross posting
>
>
>
> Cheers, Mark
>
> 2009/8/27 Alison Banville <alisonbanville@...>
>
> The head of the FSA has suggested bringing in the Tobin tax and has been
> attacked for it. (Channel 4 News today, 12pm. Might be available online to
> watch). See the spokesperson for the British Bankers Assoc say why it won't
> work.
>
> --- On Wed, 26/8/09, Mark Barrett <marknbarrett@...> wrote:
>
>> From: Mark Barrett <marknbarrett@...>
>> Subject: [peopleincommon] Fwd: [project2012] Re: CRD workshop at climate
>> camp - FRIDAY 4.30pm (Blackheath)
>
>> To: campaignforrealdemocracy@..., "Planners Network UK"
>> <pnuk@...>, peopleincommon@...,
>> 21st-century-network@..., creativeforum@...,
>> londonsocialforum2003@...,
>> londonhousingactionnow@..., allgendergroup@...,
>> "Politics and Spirit Network" <politicsandspiritnetwork@...>,
>> civilisation@...
>
>> Date: Wednesday, 26 August, 2009, 5:00 PM
>
>> --------- Forwarded
>> message ----------
>>
>> Great to hear
>> there's more of this sort of thing at Camp this year.
>> Last year, Graham Smith (Republic) and I ran one called
>> "You call this democracy!", which worked very well
>> as a workshop.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 26/08/2009 11:07, james holland wrote:
>>
>> Due to a bit of a cock up
>> the CRD (Campaign for Real Democracy) workshop didn't
>> get included in the handbook, but it's at 4.30 on
>> friday, would be good if you could all come
>> along.
>>
>> -------------
>>
>> [pls note,
>> CRD is not the same as the "You call this
>> Democracy!" 2008 session, but I've included the
>> PDFs sent to us by Neale Upstone as they might be useful to
>> some. Hope to see you there. Mark]
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> "We hear men speaking for us of new laws strong and sweet /Yet is there no
> man speaketh as we speak in the street.”
>
> --
> Support Friends of the Earth
>
> Friends of the Earth Limited - Company No 1012357
> Friends of the Earth Trust - Company No 1533942
> Registered Charity No 281681
> Registered Office - 26 - 28 Underwood Street, London. N1 7JQ
>

FSA and Tobin Re: [peopleincommon] Fwd: [project2012] Re: CRD workshop at climate camp - FRIDAY 4.30pm (Blackheath)

2009-08-27T04:30:46Z

Hi Alison and all

I've been shocking lax in promoting the Tax Justice petition I gave into Number 11 last year with Parly Square Maria, but Alison's email (see below) about Brown's FSA vs BOE on Tobin has prompted me to re-circulate it before it's too late (it runs out in Nov).. pls support!

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Abolish Tax Havens, Enact Tobin Tax & Reform CAP for an end to poverty world-wide.

Pls read full details of proposals at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/tobintaxnow/

Also, see info below about Campaign for Real Democracy workshop-meeting at Climate Camp this Friday

Apologies for cross posting

Cheers, Mark

2009/8/27 Alison Banville <alisonbanville@...>

The head of the FSA has suggested bringing in the Tobin tax and has been attacked for it. (Channel 4 News today, 12pm. Might be available online to watch). See the spokesperson for the British Bankers Assoc say why it won't work.

--- On Wed, 26/8/09, Mark Barrett <marknbarrett@...> wrote:

> From: Mark Barrett <marknbarrett@...>
> Subject: [peopleincommon] Fwd: [project2012] Re: CRD workshop at climate camp - FRIDAY 4.30pm (Blackheath)

> To: campaignforrealdemocracy@..., "Planners Network UK" <pnuk@...>, peopleincommon@..., 21st-century-network@..., creativeforum@..., londonsocialforum2003@..., londonhousingactionnow@..., allgendergroup@..., "Politics and Spirit Network" <politicsandspiritnetwork@...>, civilisation@...

> Date: Wednesday, 26 August, 2009, 5:00 PM

> --------- Forwarded
> message ----------
>
> Great to hear
> there's more of this sort of thing at Camp this year.
> Last year, Graham Smith (Republic) and I ran one called
> "You call this democracy!", which worked very well
> as a workshop.
>
>
>
>
> On 26/08/2009 11:07, james holland wrote:
>
> Due to a bit of a cock up
> the CRD (Campaign for Real Democracy) workshop didn't
> get included in the handbook, but it's at 4.30 on
> friday, would be good if you could all come
> along.
>
> -------------
>
> [pls note,
> CRD is not the same as the "You call this
> Democracy!" 2008 session, but I've included the
> PDFs sent to us by Neale Upstone as they might be useful to
> some. Hope to see you there. Mark]
>
>
>
>

--
"We hear men speaking for us of new laws strong and sweet /Yet is there no man speaketh as we speak in the street.”

Fwd: [project2012] Re: CRD workshop at climate camp - FRIDAY 4.30pm (Blackheath)

2009-08-26T09:00:14Z

--------- Forwarded message ----------

Great to hear there's more of this sort of thing at Camp this year. Last year, Graham Smith (Republic) and I ran one called "You call this democracy!", which worked very well as a workshop.

On 26/08/2009 11:07, james holland wrote:

Due to a bit of a cock up the CRD (Campaign for Real Democracy) workshop didn't get included in the handbook, but it's at 4.30 on friday, would be good if you could all come along.

-------------

[pls note, CRD is not the same as the "You call this Democracy!" 2008 session, but I've included the PDFs sent to us by Neale Upstone as they might be useful to some. Hope to see you there. Mark]

You call this democracy - notes.pdf (92K) Download Attachment
You call this democracy - handout.pdf (27K) Download Attachment

Fwd: Details about Guernica Room

2009-08-24T11:56:46Z

Hi Dave

Here are the details below. Looking forward to the meeting..

As I mentioned at the picnic, we are planning to have a follow up Campaign for Real Democracy meeting in the same space, in Sept or October, athough no date for this is set as yet. Be great if we can join forces :-)

Best wishes

Mark

Thank you very much for your inquiry about the use of the Guernica
table. ..Our hours are Tues-Sun 11 -6 pm, and Thurs 11- 9 pm. We will
be closed Wed 17 July. I’m attaching some guidelines for using the
space and a booking form for you to complete should you decide to
book. It would be great if you could fill it out and put in 2 dates
and times (first and second choice), so that we can accommodate you in
the best way possible.

Many thanks

Sara Guerrero

Public Events Intern

on behalf of Goshka Macuga
Whitechapel Gallery
guernica@...

www.whitechapelgallery.org

The Nature of the Beast Booking Guidelines.doc (53K) Download Attachment
BOOKING FORM.doc (39K) Download Attachment

Re: Fwd: Last Saturday's Democracy Picnic, Minutes and Request for Help

2009-08-22T11:20:26Z

Hi mark
boy do you work hard power to you this line is primarily to establish how we can access the white chapple gallery for debate forum successfully last night need you on board in so far as you know of our exhistance but the intension is to make our vision of the world become a reality
love and light

David Cozens

--- On Thu, 20/8/09, Mark Barrett <marknbarrett@...> wrote:

From: Mark Barrett <marknbarrett@...>
Subject: [creativeforum] Fwd: Last Saturday's Democracy Picnic, Minutes and Request for Help
To: peopleincommon@..., "Politics and Spirit Network" <politicsandspiritnetwork@...>, civilisation@..., creativeforum@...
Date: Thursday, 20 August, 2009, 4:39 PM

Hi Everyone :-)

Am in the middle of a million things, so, this sent in haste..

Whether with words, ideas, plans, music or poetry, a huge thanks to all who came along and made the Parliament Hill Democracy picnic last Saturday such a lovely event. Especial thanks to the musicians and poets who we all had the pleasure to enjoy, and to Sandra and Attica for hospitality afterwards. A brief report is given below.

Hopefully some photos will follow (do send if you have any for the website..) ?

Also, Sally, Baraka & I need a bit of help with getting the next picnic organised. Any offers of help with Facebook admin and designing / putting up posters much appreciated  (see below)

Next Democracy Picnic: provisionally scheduled for SUNDAY SEP 27th at ALEXANDRA PALACE. PLs join the Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19199003786 and consider becoming an administrator so we can share the load of getting the info out there. Also we need people to help put up posters in the local area; we can all go together one day and do it if people are up for it.. will be fun. Again,pls email me if you'd be able to help with this.

Rough Future Plan is to travelling democracy picnic now and next spring at a number of London highpoints, eg Ally Pally, Greenwich, Crystal Palace, Richmond Park, Primrose Hill before descending from the heavens to the bowels of hell (aka the GLA) Scoop Amphitheatre for a theatrical festival type picnicky thing. Plans are also afoot for a nationwide real democracy gathering in the midlands in November. More on this later. Especially appropriate to send this message today as it is the 20th Anniversary of the Pan European Picnic which helped to bring down the Iron Curtain and so make possible a united, grassroots Europe. Scroll down to below the following Picnic Minutes section to where it says The Pan European Picnic Anniversary for more info. Picnics rock!

Picnic Minutes

For all those that couldn't make it on the 15th, here is a quick report...

Sun shone, view great, blank placards (though not enough) were in attendance. Including children, around 40 people (plus, wider Heath public who enjoyed various performances). Atmospher: fun, spiritual-political, fam-friendly, a bit bolshy in places but overall good natured: serious yet light-hearted - a good start :-)

First we enjoyed delicious food together, then chaotic but lovely go-round with introductions, a bit of scrapping for attention between young and old, some spontaneous poems, songs and various statements of information and belief. Turned out, not only was it Indian Independence day on Saturday, it was also the eve of mother Mary's (Catholic) Feast of Assumption, which supplanted the original, Pagan sacred day of Isis. Someone pointed out that the stars on the EU flag apparently represent the stars of Mary's crown ("When I went down to the river to pray, studying about that good old way and who will wear the starry crown, oh Lord show me the way") so here's to a Europe Grassroots United for REAL Democracy!

Also, it turned out that Saturday was the good Raga's 68th birthday, which we calculated to be 884 years in lunar cycles. A good sing song was of course had by all.

Intros were then followed by a lively debate. About democracy, its failings, potentials, requirements for realisation and origins. Controversy over whether we live in one (ie a democracy) or not, how much further we can go on the present paradigm, what democracy might actually look/ feel like and whether there has ever been a successful, good, democratic society in the past. On latter point, some wanted to big up the Greeks, subject to obvious failings in excluded women and slaves from Forum, but as instigators of first "real-ish" democracy (in that they required their people (or, more accurately "free citizens") to attend and (directly) make decisions, even going so far as paying them.

Others put forward the view that many indigenous have been practicising forms of democracy for eons, way before flashy Athenians. Debate ensued as no-one could actually name a good tribe that had a fully democratic society. Eventually the Iroquois were put forward as a model, although I have since been told they practised cannibalism. ha ha .

ANYWAY, what we seemed to agree on - in that no-one took issue to these points - was that (a) democracy works best at the human -scale, face to face level (b) this means a much needed revival of community will come with it if we achieve it (c) it's about genuine and a truly radical equality at heart and (d) a democratic society in which communities are strong will be good for both the environment and renewed social relations and(e) things need to change a lot and that therefore, perhaps, real democracy - whatever that actually is - is our only hope.

Important questions about how to link cultural / social change HER with changes to the world economic system, so that our struggle supports not only our fellow man and woman here, but everywhere else at the same time, were also raised

Go-round included a discussion - and some controversy about - process. So, what actually makes for democratic process? Following this, some wayward use of a hastily introduced piece of serioulsy advanced technology: the talking "broad bean pod" - in place of a stick - ensued. This was far from perfect, but seeing as we hardly new each other and we were made up mainly of a bunch of opinionated types. a humourous balance between rules, flexibility, ego and discipline was, er, at times approached ;-)

Some may have found the anarchic quality of proceedings frustrating. although undeniably amusing. Myself, I was just happy to hear Blake being quoted and even sung at every opportunity, and to meet some lovely people who had made the effort to come along and find out more.

And then, thanks to the good lady Baraka, the head-part was followed by the heart. A beautiful maori(?) song in honour of our brothers and sisters struggling on the other side of the world - thanks for this, really really special.

Ok, enough discipline already - back to the picnic!



Last but most definitely not least, we split off to enjoy each others individual company before enjoying performances from, among others, space girl, david pepper, poet tree man, rob rub and rainbow lizzie. huge thanks to all of you, and to everyone else who made it so sweet and special. Here is Space Girl's poetry page..

http://www.myspace.com/spacegirlspoetrysalon

Next picnic, as mentioned will be at Alexandra Palace, which has great access and also we can support Sally and the local people there's project to make it what it should be, the People's Palace (see http://sallyallypally.wordpress.com and (now out-of date http://www.saveallypally.com ) Provisional date for this is Sunday 27th

Sept; pls put in yr diary for - "the peoples' palace picnic", and as mentioned before, pls can people volunteer to be Facebook administrators (and promoters) and / or to help put up posters the local area?

What Would Gandhi Do? One thing we didn't do, which was the original idea, lost in the spontaneity was debate what Mohandas Gandhi would do, if alive today, about the state of democracy and community in this land. Answers on a postcard or recycled paper picnic plate, please :-)!

The Pan - European Picnic Anniversary

Today August 19th is the anniversary of the first pan - european picnic, which helped to bring down the iron curtain (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-European_Picnic and see also today's article by Adam Lebor, below). Can we make another one happen in coming years, only this time for the walls to come down in a different kind of way?

Will now subscribe newcomers to the project 2012 forum / planning list...

And thanks again for a lovely day!!



Peas,

Mark

PS here's that article and more info about the 1989 picnic

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6801126.ece

Freedom is now flowing from West to East

In August 1989 as communism collapsed, Britain was a beacon to the new regimes. Today we are squandering our liberty

Adam LeBor

I’ve spent much of the past 20 years living in or reporting on the former communist countries of Eastern Europe. Nowadays, with Budapest, Prague and Warsaw two hours away by budget airline, it’s hard to imagine that before 1989, half a continent was imprisoned behind landmines and barbed wire, its citizens terrorised by secret police, intentionally ground down by the endless, intrusive demands of the one-party state.

I saw those borders torn down, democracies arise and the basic freedoms that we take for granted — speech, movement and public protest — enthusiastically embraced.

Twenty years ago today the world witnessed the power of the crowd. Hungary’s reformist communist Government permitted the pan-European picnic near the city of Sopron, on the border with Austria, as a symbol of its commitment to a united Europe. The border was to be opened so that about 100 dignitaries and officially approved picnickers could cross freely back and forth. But Hungary was crowded with thousands of East Germans desperate to escape to the West. Many camped near the site of the picnic, waiting for the crucial moment. When the border was opened at three o’clock they surged forward. The guards did not open fire. They stepped back and allowed the East Germans to break through.

This, not the opening of the Berlin Wall in November, was the tipping point. August 19, 1989, accelerated a chain of events that brought down communism and the Soviet Union itself. Such is the power of the crowd.

After 1989 Big Brother was no longer welcome in Budapest, Prague or Warsaw — he moved to London to be ever more warmly embraced by successive Labour administrations. The birthplace of political liberties, the home of the Magna Carta, is now one of the most intrusive democracies in the world. Labour governments have introduced surveillance and monitoring systems of which the communists could only dream. Of course, Britain is not a real police state. But it is certainly sliding further into authoritarianism.

Perhaps because I live abroad, each time I return home I can clearly see quite how subtle and dangerous a process is unfolding. A series of Home Secretaries have presided over a steady, stealthy shredding of our civil liberties. I am amazed at how supine citizens allow local and national government to intrude ever further into their daily lives, logging, tracking and recording everything from household waste disposal to mobile telephone use.

These small changes seem to herald a more dramatic constitutional shift: the rewriting of the social contract under which citizens are apparently regarded not as active participants in society, but, at best as irritants to be monitored, and at worst as potential criminals to be pre-emptively arrested, just as George Orwell predicted in Nineteen Eighty-Four.

The phrase Big Brother has entered common parlance. But Orwell’s book was published in 1949 as communist regimes in Eastern Europe cemented their control through “salami tactics”. These were invented by Matyas Rakosi, Hungary’s communist leader from 1948-56. He sliced away freedoms sliver by sliver, until he established one of the most feared dictatorships in Eastern Europe. When the communists took over a town, for example, they did not appoint the mayor, but a deputy, to work behind the scenes and stealthily take control of the police and municipal administration.

In my more cynical moments I imagine Labour ministers following a similar methodology. They would never say openly: “We intend to criminalise public protest; to grant sweeping blanket powers of arrest to the police and change the very foundation of law, making citizens prove their innocence, rather than have the police and judiciary prove their guilt while demonstrating.”

Nor would they say: “We intend to privatise formerly public spaces and hand over state functions of public order to armies of unaccountable security guards.” Instead, changes are introduced stealthily, rarely debated by Parliament and are nodded through with the acquiescence of the Opposition, in the name of that useful catch-all “security”.

Whether by design or not, that seems to me to be happening.

Security is an issue. Communist regimes sought control for its own sake, to preserve their monopolies of power. The Labour Government has had to respond to a new wave of terrorism, perpetrated by British citizens who use the internet and covert communication techniques.

Preventing further terrorist attacks is part of a government’s duty. But preventing government from intruding too far into our daily lives is our duty — one we have so far singularly failed to carry out.

In the communist era Hungarians, Czechs and Poles looked to Britain as a beacon of fairness. After 1989 our Parliament, judiciary and free press were models for them. The former one-party states are now vibrant democracies. Despite corruption and a sometimes prickly nationalism, most of the new EU members can be proud of their transformation into modern civic societies.

While our freedoms wither, theirs flourish. It’s a common sight to see far-right demonstrators in front of the Hungarian parliament, hurling abuse and calling for the resignation of the Government. The police watch, nobody is arrested and everyone goes home peacefully. And when the police do use force, there is a vigorous national debate about balancing the right to protest and public security.

Twenty years after the collapse of communism, Eastern Europe is showing us what freedom means. At last, there are signs that we are waking finally from our stupor. in 1989 the East Germans camped on the Hungarian-Austrian frontier showed the world the power of the crowd. So take to the streets, people. While you still can.

The Budapest Protocol, Adam LeBor’s thriller set in present-day Hungary, is published by Reportage Press

Also, for a more in-depth article on Aug 19th 1989, see

http://www.berliner-mauer.de/laszlo-nagy/lazslonagy-en.htm

Fwd: Last Saturday's Democracy Picnic, Minutes and Request for Help

2009-08-20T08:39:05Z

Hi Everyone :-)

Am in the middle of a million things, so, this sent in haste..

Whether with words, ideas, plans, music or poetry, a huge thanks to all who came along and made the Parliament Hill Democracy picnic last Saturday such a lovely event. Especial thanks to the musicians and poets who we all had the pleasure to enjoy, and to Sandra and Attica for hospitality afterwards. A brief report is given below.

Hopefully some photos will follow (do send if you have any for the website..) ?

Also, Sally, Baraka & I need a bit of help with getting the next picnic organised. Any offers of help with Facebook admin and designing / putting up posters much appreciated (see below)

Next Democracy Picnic: provisionally scheduled for SUNDAY SEP 27th at ALEXANDRA PALACE. PLs join the Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19199003786 and consider becoming an administrator so we can share the load of getting the info out there. Also we need people to help put up posters in the local area; we can all go together one day and do it if people are up for it.. will be fun. Again,pls email me if you'd be able to help with this.

Rough Future Plan is to travelling democracy picnic now and next spring at a number of London highpoints, eg Ally Pally, Greenwich, Crystal Palace, Richmond Park, Primrose Hill before descending from the heavens to the bowels of hell (aka the GLA) Scoop Amphitheatre for a theatrical festival type picnicky thing. Plans are also afoot for a nationwide real democracy gathering in the midlands in November. More on this later. Especially appropriate to send this message today as it is the 20th Anniversary of the Pan European Picnic which helped to bring down the Iron Curtain and so make possible a united, grassroots Europe. Scroll down to below the following Picnic Minutes section to where it says The Pan European Picnic Anniversary for more info. Picnics rock!

Picnic Minutes

For all those that couldn't make it on the 15th, here is a quick report...

Sun shone, view great, blank placards (though not enough) were in attendance. Including children, around 40 people (plus, wider Heath public who enjoyed various performances). Atmospher: fun, spiritual-political, fam-friendly, a bit bolshy in places but overall good natured: serious yet light-hearted - a good start :-)

First we enjoyed delicious food together, then chaotic but lovely go-round with introductions, a bit of scrapping for attention between young and old, some spontaneous poems, songs and various statements of information and belief. Turned out, not only was it Indian Independence day on Saturday, it was also the eve of mother Mary's (Catholic) Feast of Assumption, which supplanted the original, Pagan sacred day of Isis. Someone pointed out that the stars on the EU flag apparently represent the stars of Mary's crown ("When I went down to the river to pray, studying about that good old way and who will wear the starry crown, oh Lord show me the way") so here's to a Europe Grassroots United for REAL Democracy!

Also, it turned out that Saturday was the good Raga's 68th birthday, which we calculated to be 884 years in lunar cycles. A good sing song was of course had by all.

Intros were then followed by a lively debate. About democracy, its failings, potentials, requirements for realisation and origins. Controversy over whether we live in one (ie a democracy) or not, how much further we can go on the present paradigm, what democracy might actually look/ feel like and whether there has ever been a successful, good, democratic society in the past. On latter point, some wanted to big up the Greeks, subject to obvious failings in excluded women and slaves from Forum, but as instigators of first "real-ish" democracy (in that they required their people (or, more accurately "free citizens") to attend and (directly) make decisions, even going so far as paying them.

Others put forward the view that many indigenous have been practicising forms of democracy for eons, way before flashy Athenians. Debate ensued as no-one could actually name a good tribe that had a fully democratic society. Eventually the Iroquois were put forward as a model, although I have since been told they practised cannibalism. ha ha .

ANYWAY, what we seemed to agree on - in that no-one took issue to these points - was that (a) democracy works best at the human -scale, face to face level (b) this means a much needed revival of community will come with it if we achieve it (c) it's about genuine and a truly radical equality at heart and (d) a democratic society in which communities are strong will be good for both the environment and renewed social relations and(e) things need to change a lot and that therefore, perhaps, real democracy - whatever that actually is - is our only hope.

Important questions about how to link cultural / social change HER with changes to the world economic system, so that our struggle supports not only our fellow man and woman here, but everywhere else at the same time, were also raised

Go-round included a discussion - and some controversy about - process. So, what actually makes for democratic process? Following this, some wayward use of a hastily introduced piece of serioulsy advanced technology: the talking "broad bean pod" - in place of a stick - ensued. This was far from perfect, but seeing as we hardly new each other and we were made up mainly of a bunch of opinionated types. a humourous balance between rules, flexibility, ego and discipline was, er, at times approached ;-)

Some may have found the anarchic quality of proceedings frustrating. although undeniably amusing. Myself, I was just happy to hear Blake being quoted and even sung at every opportunity, and to meet some lovely people who had made the effort to come along and find out more.

And then, thanks to the good lady Baraka, the head-part was followed by the heart. A beautiful maori(?) song in honour of our brothers and sisters struggling on the other side of the world - thanks for this, really really special.

Ok, enough discipline already - back to the picnic!

Last but most definitely not least, we split off to enjoy each others individual company before enjoying performances from, among others, space girl, david pepper, poet tree man, rob rub and rainbow lizzie. huge thanks to all of you, and to everyone else who made it so sweet and special. Here is Space Girl's poetry page..

http://www.myspace.com/spacegirlspoetrysalon

Next picnic, as mentioned will be at Alexandra Palace, which has great access and also we can support Sally and the local people there's project to make it what it should be, the People's Palace (see http://sallyallypally.wordpress.com and (now out-of date http://www.saveallypally.com ) Provisional date for this is Sunday 27th

Sept; pls put in yr diary for - "the peoples' palace picnic", and as mentioned before, pls can people volunteer to be Facebook administrators (and promoters) and / or to help put up posters the local area?

What Would Gandhi Do? One thing we didn't do, which was the original idea, lost in the spontaneity was debate what Mohandas Gandhi would do, if alive today, about the state of democracy and community in this land. Answers on a postcard or recycled paper picnic plate, please :-)!

The Pan - European Picnic Anniversary

Today August 19th is the anniversary of the first pan - european picnic, which helped to bring down the iron curtain (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-European_Picnic and see also today's article by Adam Lebor, below). Can we make another one happen in coming years, only this time for the walls to come down in a different kind of way?

Will now subscribe newcomers to the project 2012 forum / planning list...

And thanks again for a lovely day!!

Peas,

Mark

PS here's that article and more info about the 1989 picnic

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6801126.ece

Freedom is now flowing from West to East

In August 1989 as communism collapsed, Britain was a beacon to the new regimes. Today we are squandering our liberty

Adam LeBor

I’ve spent much of the past 20 years living in or reporting on the former communist countries of Eastern Europe. Nowadays, with Budapest, Prague and Warsaw two hours away by budget airline, it’s hard to imagine that before 1989, half a continent was imprisoned behind landmines and barbed wire, its citizens terrorised by secret police, intentionally ground down by the endless, intrusive demands of the one-party state.

I saw those borders torn down, democracies arise and the basic freedoms that we take for granted — speech, movement and public protest — enthusiastically embraced.

Twenty years ago today the world witnessed the power of the crowd. Hungary’s reformist communist Government permitted the pan-European picnic near the city of Sopron, on the border with Austria, as a symbol of its commitment to a united Europe. The border was to be opened so that about 100 dignitaries and officially approved picnickers could cross freely back and forth. But Hungary was crowded with thousands of East Germans desperate to escape to the West. Many camped near the site of the picnic, waiting for the crucial moment. When the border was opened at three o’clock they surged forward. The guards did not open fire. They stepped back and allowed the East Germans to break through.

This, not the opening of the Berlin Wall in November, was the tipping point. August 19, 1989, accelerated a chain of events that brought down communism and the Soviet Union itself. Such is the power of the crowd.

After 1989 Big Brother was no longer welcome in Budapest, Prague or Warsaw — he moved to London to be ever more warmly embraced by successive Labour administrations. The birthplace of political liberties, the home of the Magna Carta, is now one of the most intrusive democracies in the world. Labour governments have introduced surveillance and monitoring systems of which the communists could only dream. Of course, Britain is not a real police state. But it is certainly sliding further into authoritarianism.

Perhaps because I live abroad, each time I return home I can clearly see quite how subtle and dangerous a process is unfolding. A series of Home Secretaries have presided over a steady, stealthy shredding of our civil liberties. I am amazed at how supine citizens allow local and national government to intrude ever further into their daily lives, logging, tracking and recording everything from household waste disposal to mobile telephone use.

These small changes seem to herald a more dramatic constitutional shift: the rewriting of the social contract under which citizens are apparently regarded not as active participants in society, but, at best as irritants to be monitored, and at worst as potential criminals to be pre-emptively arrested, just as George Orwell predicted in Nineteen Eighty-Four.

The phrase Big Brother has entered common parlance. But Orwell’s book was published in 1949 as communist regimes in Eastern Europe cemented their control through “salami tactics”. These were invented by Matyas Rakosi, Hungary’s communist leader from 1948-56. He sliced away freedoms sliver by sliver, until he established one of the most feared dictatorships in Eastern Europe. When the communists took over a town, for example, they did not appoint the mayor, but a deputy, to work behind the scenes and stealthily take control of the police and municipal administration.

In my more cynical moments I imagine Labour ministers following a similar methodology. They would never say openly: “We intend to criminalise public protest; to grant sweeping blanket powers of arrest to the police and change the very foundation of law, making citizens prove their innocence, rather than have the police and judiciary prove their guilt while demonstrating.”

Nor would they say: “We intend to privatise formerly public spaces and hand over state functions of public order to armies of unaccountable security guards.” Instead, changes are introduced stealthily, rarely debated by Parliament and are nodded through with the acquiescence of the Opposition, in the name of that useful catch-all “security”.

Whether by design or not, that seems to me to be happening.

Security is an issue. Communist regimes sought control for its own sake, to preserve their monopolies of power. The Labour Government has had to respond to a new wave of terrorism, perpetrated by British citizens who use the internet and covert communication techniques.

Preventing further terrorist attacks is part of a government’s duty. But preventing government from intruding too far into our daily lives is our duty — one we have so far singularly failed to carry out.

In the communist era Hungarians, Czechs and Poles looked to Britain as a beacon of fairness. After 1989 our Parliament, judiciary and free press were models for them. The former one-party states are now vibrant democracies. Despite corruption and a sometimes prickly nationalism, most of the new EU members can be proud of their transformation into modern civic societies.

While our freedoms wither, theirs flourish. It’s a common sight to see far-right demonstrators in front of the Hungarian parliament, hurling abuse and calling for the resignation of the Government. The police watch, nobody is arrested and everyone goes home peacefully. And when the police do use force, there is a vigorous national debate about balancing the right to protest and public security.

Twenty years after the collapse of communism, Eastern Europe is showing us what freedom means. At last, there are signs that we are waking finally from our stupor. in 1989 the East Germans camped on the Hungarian-Austrian frontier showed the world the power of the crowd. So take to the streets, people. While you still can.

The Budapest Protocol, Adam LeBor’s thriller set in present-day Hungary, is published by Reportage Press

Also, for a more in-depth article on Aug 19th 1989, see

http://www.berliner-mauer.de/laszlo-nagy/lazslonagy-en.htm

about tmrw | pls distribute!

2009-08-14T08:17:42Z

hi there, this one last reminder about tomorrow's picnic on hampstead heath. bring food to share, a blank placard and some coloured pens if you have them, maybe some music iif you have it, friends and family, and good ideas for the future.

should be lovely weather willing..!

be there from 12 noon @ parliament hill, overlooking london! all the info is at www.peopleincommon.org

theme: what would gandhi do about the state of democracy, if he was alive today.

if we have a good one, maybe we'll do a follow up next month at greenwich and, who knows maybe we'll have started a new tradition to repeat next year :-) and, eventually they'll be able to see us from central london.

hope to see you all there and do spread the word..!

love, mark x

ps solidarity with anti-fa in the midlands

pic update

2009-08-13T00:02:53Z

* This email is sent via the Creative Forum mail-list. 'Reply' will send your response to that list *

Hi everyone

The www.peopleincommon.org site has just been updated to include this
Saturday's Hampstead Heath democracy picnic info, with a video we made
a few weeks back. some may also be interested to know that the site
also has some info on the right to the city and real democracy
campaign work some of us have been developing. all this in the hope
that we can join up all our local campaigns in the coming months and
years.

hope you can network it, and maybe see you there

with apologies for cross posting

cheers, mark
ps all relevant info about local campaigns for the calendar and london
mapping project very welcome
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Fwd: [project2012] Calais updates: PROTEST 22nd Aug- New video- etc.

2009-08-12T23:32:42Z

---------- Forwarded message -------

SATURDAY 22nd AUGUST from 2pm
RALLY in front of the
DETENTION CENTRE (CRA) OF COQUELLES
near CALAIS
http://www.calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/coquelles-detention-centre-nr-calais-rally-2-00pm-22nd-august/
We denounce the migration policies of our European countries
We demand freedom of movement and settlement for everyone
We demand the closure of retention/detention centres and the opening of borders

New video of police violence:
In case anyone asks what No Borders activists are doing in Calais: we are trying to stop the daily indiscriminate violence against migrants. See: www.dailymotion.com/megaphone01
Often our presence has proved a deterrent for the police to harass and brutalise people, and the migrants very much appreciate our solidarity. Please get down there!

How to get involved/ If you are coming to Calais to show solidarity and want information call (from UK) 00 33 6 34 81 07 10 from France 06 34 81 07 10.
For more information and most recent updates:

http://www.calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/topics/migration/

Scabies operation 17th- 21st August

While we have concerns about the authorioties misusung the proposed Scabies Operation (Medecins du Monde and Medecins sans Frontiers) to not only clean up the jungle but also clear out the jungle, we are happy to facilitate volunteers from the UK. Either to help directly with the operation, or to be vigilant and carry on [...]

Link to a photo-reportage on "Life in the jungle and the port of Calais":
http://www.flickr.com/photos/saraprestianni/sets/72157621821593471/show/

Links to The Guardian films (by Harriet Grant and John Domokos):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2009/aug/03/calais-jungle

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2009/jul/30/eritrean-asylum-seeker-naga

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This Sat | Democracy Picnic

2009-08-10T09:50:43Z

Huge thanks to B for getting this lovely little message done: http://current.com/items/90631948_people-in-common-democracy-in-action.htm

Pls pass on!

PS url on video should read http://www.peopleincommon.org [not .org.uk]

Re: Trojan Virus at Newsov.org

2009-07-22T00:04:25Z

Hi David

Thanks for the message. Maybe come along to the meeting tomorrow? Whitechapel gallery, Guernica space, 6.30 / 7pm start.. for localists, real democracy .....

All the best

Mark

2009/7/21 david cozens <davidcozens@...>

thanks for the info mark,, you are a good egg , I hope we get to meet up for longer than a few minutes soon

David Cozens

--- On Wed, 15/7/09, Mark Barrett <marknbarrett@...> wrote:

From: Mark Barrett <marknbarrett@...>
Subject: [creativeforum] Trojan Virus at Newsov.org
To: peopleincommon@..., "Politics and Spirit Network" <politicsandspiritnetwork@...>, civilisation@..., londonsocialforum2003@..., creativeforum@..., g20_meltdown@..., studentcoordination@...
Date: Wednesday, 15 July, 2009, 10:32 AM

Just to let people know I'm told there is a virus at the site newsov.org probably put there around the time of the G20 as it was used for propaganda in press work and got a lot of hits. will advise when it gets removed. sorry for any inconvenience. Apols for cross posting. Mark

--
"We hear men speaking for us of new laws strong and sweet /Yet is there no man speaketh as we speak in the street.”

Re: Trojan Virus at Newsov.org

2009-07-21T13:11:26Z

thanks for the info mark,, you are a good egg , I hope we get to meet up for longer than a few minutes soon

David Cozens

--- On Wed, 15/7/09, Mark Barrett <marknbarrett@...> wrote:

From: Mark Barrett <marknbarrett@...>
Subject: [creativeforum] Trojan Virus at Newsov.org
To: peopleincommon@..., "Politics and Spirit Network" <politicsandspiritnetwork@...>, civilisation@..., londonsocialforum2003@..., creativeforum@..., g20_meltdown@..., studentcoordination@...
Date: Wednesday, 15 July, 2009, 10:32 AM

Just to let people know I'm told there is a virus at the site newsov.org probably put there around the time of the G20 as it was used for propaganda in press work and got a lot of hits. will advise when it gets removed. sorry for any inconvenience. Apols for cross posting. Mark