What is happening in community activism - what kind of message are we putting out - are folk getting it - bored - no time - disengaged. are we reaching ordinary people? Is anybody listening? How do we find out? How much reinventing the wheel goes on? Is the network working? How do we create mass movements in the fragmented society?...

 

To run up to this years Document7 Human Rights Film Festival October 2009, a collection of audio and video material will be compiled into a thumb print of what we are thinking about when we think about organising. The collected material will be presented around the time of Document7 as ideas towards Community Organising Workshops

 

We want to cover the wide spectrum of what is going on but particularly from folk on the peripheries of community activism. Ideas for running workshops will come out of the "Asking people what they think" interview part of the project - so it is important that the questions are informed by the people who might find the workshops useful.

 

What shape these activities take will rely entirely on what can be done in the time frame and volume of participation. (nae funding)

 

The (New) Bridge Network Website being developed at the Electron Club will act as a base for this project and will also be launched in October but will be up and running before then and used to organise activities.

 

We am collecting a list of people, ideas and topics for discussion - what questions need to be asking - who else is doing this kind of work - what formats could be used - If you are interested in helping to film and record  this type of event - or have something you think worth including - or want to organise interviews, discussions or help in any way you can. Please get in touch. Bob

Phase 1. will be collecting information on on what people are thinking through recorded interviews, discussions. Finding out what is happening, who is doing what. Connecting linking, groups, people and ideas.

Phase 2. Will be about looking at these ideas - thinking about how different interests can work together - support each other and win things.

Phase 3. Start to build solidarity - Create workshops in community organising using the knowledge gained from the sources, issues and people the workshops are to benefit.

 

What is presented here is the bare bones of a project - a starting point  that can be altered, shaped and adapted to needs.  A filing cabinet of links and ideas. The real work will be and is being done in the community. If we  listen to people and shape our ideas on what we hear.

 

Organising for the future and our time

We each have set amounts of time to do things. It is therefor useful to use our time as constructively as possible. We do not have the money the time the personnel of business and governments to set out and implement our ideas and wishes - so we need to be more decisive and economic in what we do and how we work.

 

A series of discussions, talks, brain-storming workshops

You are invited to take part in a recorded discussion on "How do we organise" with three other people from  different organisations from the Glasgow scene. The purpose of the discussion/s is to inform ideas for a workshop/s during Document 7 Human Rights Film Festival October 2009. The workshop will be part of the launch of a series of ideas that can be offered to people in the community to help them self-organise. The project will be supported by the Bridge network website.

 

It is understandable folk are under pressure from all directions; work - or the lack of, rent, schools, looking after families, older people, their environment and so on. The project is not here to give answers to these problems - only those involved can do that. What this project is aimed at is to help in some small way to attempt to improve organisational skills in order that people can fight more efficiently and collectively against the issues that stand in the way of a happy life.
We do not need to create power for people - they already have it. We only have to encourage each other -  to use it