Claiming Our Future

by Soundmigration Sun Oct 31, 2010 17:35

An open letter to the participants of "Claiming Our Future"

from activists on the CEESA MA

This pioneering gathering of people will be a first in creating a space to explore real change. By beginning this process in overcoming mistrust and engaging in genuine conversations, will demonstrate the power of dialogue, even in the bleakest times can abolish despair and offer hope.

This letter seeks to be one departure point for a conversation amongst those in Ireland who are committed to the ideas, practices and values that underpinned the concepts of social justice, equality and participatory democracy. We welcome the conveners call to “foster a unity across civil society and to power a progressive movement to reshape Ireland’s recovery and claim our social values.” We seek to play a proactive role in the creation and sustaining of such a movement.

How we look forward is shaped by our shared lived experiences and critical perspectives of the historical and structural forces that have lead us to where we are today. We feel that there is a need to state in the clearest possible terms both what values we see at the core of our vision for our future, and the steps we will take to make such transformations plausible and sustainable. We seek to be both proactive and positive, though it would be naïve and counterproductive for us to remain silent about what our experiences and history has taught us so far.

Our understanding of equality, social justice, sustainability and democracy are shaped as much by an understanding of all that negates these possibilities -what doesn’t work - as it is by what we think will work. These values only have meaning in practice, and can only be found in the process of creating them if they are to be more than nice ideas. As such any moments for genuine change are as much movements of organised hope as they are movements against inequality. All things/structures/institutions that inhibit them, regardless of rhetoric, should be seen as historical remnants to be radically reformed or replaced entirely.

We reject the model of social partnership with political and economic elite. Our communities, workplaces, health systems and environment have been ripped asunder and plundered. As programmes and projects collapse through dependency on a political and economic system that does not serve us, it would be a foolish strategy to travel that road again. Partnership served only a few, whilst our voices have been mediated, professionalised, managed and ultimately discarded. We need to draw the lesson from this and never again let our movements become toothless. We need to look at ways of building strategic autonomy into how we do this so that our movements will not become dependent upon the very structures and elites that threaten our futures today

Social justice, equality and democracy cannot be fully realised under capitalism. Indeed, the structures of capitalism are perhaps the single biggest cause of injustice in the world. It has not and never will be a friend of the voiceless. We hear a lot about “economic reality” as if it is the only issue of concern and that its recovery is the solution to all the wrongs. We are now asked to press pause on the need for a genuine democracy so that abstract “markets” can have “confidence”.

We argue that another reality exists. What has been called an "economic” crisis is actually a structural crisis within our societies It is simultaneously a democratic crisis, an ecological crisis and an energy crisis. It is our reality that unelected unaccountable institutions like the IMF, European Central Bank, and World Bank, alongside corporations and servile political systems, have been the instruments of injustice and inequality across the globe. These institutions have no legitimacy in defining the quality of life for the majority of the world, including us here in Ireland. They neither seek to represent us, nor ask us for our consent in making decisions that affect our lives now and future generations. As such our movements should seek to dismantle these institutions and give power back to ordinary people. Whilst changes may take time, we need to be clear that our ultimate aims require the removal of all structures of domination, coercion and exploitation.

Whilst we seek to explore and begin to build towards movements that embody our visions in Ireland, we are mindful of the millions across the globe who are participating in the same project. In finding solutions to the problems we have in Ireland, we understand their global nature, and we should actively seek to learn and link up with those beyond our borders who are doing the same. Rebuilding our lives and helping our global communities will inspire growth in a new generation of real social justice, equality and participatory democracy, and assist in a better understanding our environments and ourselves.

Let us use the opportunity that is being presented to us in this crisis to build connections across sectors. It is an opportunity to build unity through focusing on common goals and putting aside our differences. We need to listen to each other, really listen, in order to understand what is being said, not so that we can defend ourselves, but so that we can really learn from each other’s experiences. We need to relearn to think and act collectively in contradiction to the individualisation that the capitalist regime foisted on us. We need to ensure as we move forward that we do so slowly so that those who are now excluded can be brought in, welcomed and that what they have to say is heard. We need to find a new way to build a new world, one where gender equality is a given and where all oppressed groups equally participate.

Let us act together with courage and not through fear.

Bridie Costelloe (Le Cheile Adult Education, Research and Consultancy)

Sian Crowley (Seomra Spraoi)

Alice McDonnell (Women 2000, CAL - Children and Adults Learning, Le Cheile Adult Education, Research and Consultancy)

Mark Malone (Workers Solidarity Movement)

Ray McKinlay (CEESA MA)

Breda Murphy (Waterford Women's Centre)

Simon O Donovan (CEESA MA)

Laurence Cox (Grassroots Gatherings, Interface)

Jerrieann Sullivan (Gluaiseacht)

and other participants in the "Community Education, Equality and Social Activism" MA

All signatories are in a personal capacity only.

by A.C Sat Oct 30, 2010 15:37

These BP ads ran during the lunch hour interval.

by Anti-capitalist Sat Oct 30, 2010 15:21

The web feed from the Claiming our Future Conference is running a series of ads. from BP across the bottom of the video. The conference is proclaiming the values of equality and sustainability. Let's add one more: HYPOCRISY.
Surely having BP ads running on the video shows a depressing lack of political awareness on the part of the organizers. Depending on the murderers of Ken Saro-Wiwa to finance this conference is a political obscenity.
-Ogoniland is in the eastern part of the Niger Delta. Half a million Ogoni tribespeople live there. Shell-BP, operating under the protection of the ex-colonial power Great Britain, found oil there in 1956 and have robbed £100 billion of black gold from the region. The Ogoni got nothing but the utter ruination of their lands and livelihoods. The money was split between the corrupt Nigerian elite and the corrupt Corporate elite. The Ogoni continue to live in abject poverty, with many villages lacking clean water, electricity, schools or basic health care.-
http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news520.htm

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party Tue Oct 26, 2010 14:05

I dunno.Its plain enough english, more cliched than jargonised. I'd always look for the good fraction of the curate's egg. I only glanced down it, but found what I think has to be central, not to recovery(back to the same bullshit) but for transformation.

That one about a maximal personal income being restricted to a set multiple of the minimal wage and an absolute limit to individual control of resources. Also the tax on financial transactions.

Lotsa cotton wool, aspiration and platitude smelling of Mom 'n' Apple Pie, but as V said somewhere, pie in the sky can constitute food for thought.
Notta lotta bout the global elements.

by tired of being lied to Tue Oct 26, 2010 13:16

Unfortunately a lot of the organisers of this event have "form" in terms of talking up a storm about how bad things are - then doing their very best to get back into partnership on any terms possible. This goes for ICTU (very obviously), Is Feidir Linn, the environmental pillar and TASC for example.

Rather than genuinely build a movement it's clear that a number of the organisers (there are also some genuine people among them) are mainly interested in a rebuilt partnership arrangement once Labour are in coalition with FG - bringing it down to the basics.

The very elaborate process looks good on paper but is liable to break down as soon as it becomes clear that there are huge controversies over the basic issue of what the ultimate goals ("values") should be and how they should be achieved. In which case no doubt a committee of the usual suspects will draw up further plans reflecting their own core priorities of partnership at any cost and as conservative a programme as can possibly be sold to activists who are hopping mad about the outcomes of two decades of cosying up to the rich and powerful and being left in the gutter at the end of it.

Have a look at their "choices" document - http://www.claimingourfuture.ie/?page_id=2 - to see what this is likely to look like: and then think who this can possibly be addressed to.

by No Con Man - Ex Parish Council Tue Oct 19, 2010 12:52

This conference is an academic talking shop for people wo do not want change but to go along with the status quo. Are you finally being won over by the right Con? It looks that way

by JC - None Tue Oct 19, 2010 10:42

Some of the comments from people in Claiming Our Future last night on Frontline were quite worrying. Niall Crowley bottled it on the question of corporation tax. Also the contribution from Tasc person was shockingly bad.
What do others think?

by D_D Mon Oct 18, 2010 17:23

This event is totally oversubscribed.

Amazing!