[OccupySheffieldNews] unable to contribute to people's forum day

[stephen bollom]

This is a message from Steve about the planning meeting for the forthcoming people's forum n March.

I am afraid that I don't feel that I can be part of this project. Although on leaving the meeting last night I was told that "it was my idea", I disagree. I think that the general opinion of the planning group is to have a day almost exclusively devoted to open forum discussions about 'Debt' (mainly members of the public's personal experiences of being affected by the debt burdens in our society). However, I think that the proposed weighting and structuring of the day would make it a wasted opportunity. There are many groups and campaigns in the past and in the present that have sought to address the problem of debt, and many of them are unknown to the general public. Six things that immediately spring to mind are:
1. The Credit Union movement
2. Peer to peer lending (E.g. 'Zopa')
3. Positive Money Campaign
4. The Debt Resistors Handbook
5. The Rolling Jubilee idea  enacted in the USA
6. Local Economy Trading Schemes
These are all things that the public could, potentially get involved in straight away with tangible benefits for those who take them up. It makes sense to me to address the causes of inequality, debt slavery, declining public services (and several other aspects of what essentially is the same problem) rather than focusing just on the effects. However, the opinion seemed to be to make a large bulk of the day a chance for people to share their grievances about this unjust society, and to relegate any sort of presentation of ideas to a short slot at the beginning, and I don't think this would do them the justice they deserve.
Although such a plan for the day is perhaps coming from a place of compassion, I don't think it is very skillful. I wish you luck with facilitating what could be a very charged set of discussions on the day - especially as I don't think there is a high level of skill /experience in facilitation within the group (myself included). 
I sincerely wish you best of luck with the day.
Steve
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