[OccupyComms] Participation in UK Peoples Assembly against Austerity

[Mark Barrett]

Regarding support for the *participatory approach at local Peoples Assembly
meetings   *

Some of us are working on this by way of a support group for participatory
(bottom up inclusive as opposed to top down / centralised) minded types
within the Peoples Assembly against Austerity movement and beyond. You can
read about our work at
http://participativeassemblies.<http://participativeassemblies.wordpress.com/>
wordpress.com/ <http://participativeassemblies.wordpress.com/>

Please join up with us at
http://lists.appropriatesoftware.org/listinfo/assembly-discuss if you'd
like to participate - we are very interested to map what is going on across
the UK and ideally we will have at least one 'point' person at each local
PA who we can support and also learn from in terms of what is going on.

The 50/50 approach (referred to below this email by a comrade in East
London)  is a strategy some of us are employing / arguing for in the
Peoples Assembly against Austerity.

What we mean by it is that we have 50% of meetings / events / discussions
on the old format of top table and possibly (depending on how top table
runs meeting) questions / proposals / votes from floor and 50% on the
participative horizontalist model. This way perhaps  we can showcase how it
will work in practice, demonstrate its attraction bringing in new people
interested in a new way of doing politics and generally help shape the
movement over time ( while still suporting the campaign against austerity
and being in solidarity with the unions etc)

By way of background info I spoke with John Rees of the national peoples
assembly co-ordinating group and Coalition of resistance last week at
length about this, and Mr Rees says we have the right to suggest
participatory meetings as a part of the whole movement, and that people
should feel empowered to plan and propose them as part of the events being
planned and they should be *supported in that by the convenors of the local
PAs*. And if that's not happening, we need to let John know so he can
support us. He says we are* a legitimate strand to the movement against
austerity / the left spectrum and we have a right to have our views heard
and our processes honoured and supported*.  Definitely given this we need
to come up with a strategy to get the word out to local activists to
present the case for a participatory approach in a professional way and to
have a systematic approach to supporting their work on that from this
platform. John basically said to me if you are getting a unreasonable
response to a  reasonable, sensibly thought out and clearly presented
proposal then I should let him know so he can tell the local convenors to
respond appropriately (ie supportively instead).

I will share more info about how this is going as and when but also please
can people let  me know if they have info about their local PA in this
regard and / or do sign up to the discussion list at
http://lists.appropriatesoftware.org/listinfo/assembly-discuss so we can
start to co-ordinate ourselves as a platform across the land.

Also we should definitely be thinking about 5th Nov and encourage eg Occupy
Uncut others to get stuck in as it is definitely the day to do Direct
Action rather than just march as  on  Sep 29 at Tory conference. TUC
members have just endorsed this a a day of civil disobedience btw and it's
also being called around the world. Autonomous actions eg occupying banks
and so forth are being encouraged [and also there is a planing meeting  for
the overall call out wording strategy etc this Thurs 19th Sep 2pm at Unite
HQ for those who are in / can reach London].

Cheers

Mark


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Hey all,

Just to let you know that today 7-9pm at Chats Place on Brooksby Walk in
Hackney, we are having the Hackney Peoples Assembly.
Will be a good opportunity to see how this 50/50 approach works out and
what chance there is for really moving forward in this process.

Heres further details of the event:
https://www.facebook.com/ <https://www.facebook.com/events/640218589336340/>
events/640218589336340/ <https://www.facebook.com/events/640218589336340/>
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