Reports From Open Space

8/13/2019 Reports From Open Space

1/22

REPORTS FROMOPEN SPACE


2/22

Session Title:Reaching out to groups that weren't involved/ say they aren'tinterested in politics.

Session Convener:James Jess Liam and Caroline In combination

List of participants present:N/A

Discussion and recommendations:Issues discussed:

- Out reach should be about discussion and not about pushing a certainmessage. We need to listen to others concerns rather than pushing our own.

- We need to let go of our assumptions about what is important to others andwhat others value.

- We need to tap into new networks and step outside of our comfort zones -

talk to new and different people.

- In this way we should be the change ourselves. Do we even know theneighborhoods where we live? Can we start talking to people in out ownneighborhoods?

- We need to spend sometime thinking about the psychology of changingminds. This could include tailored messages for certain groups.

- We need a positive outlook. There's no point telling people what we areagainst they want to know what we are for. We need an alternative vision tosell.

- There are so many organisations out there already doing work incommunities we need to use these networks and build links between differentorganisations. (Not just political organisations)

- The arts and creativity can be good access points to put across differentpolitical messages.

- There is a space created by the disenfranchisement of many people from

politics (the Russel Brand syndrome) how can we exploit this to open upspaces for dialogue outside of party lines?

-- We need to look at what we can learn from other models of good practicefor out reach even if they come from areas which makes us uncomfortablee.g. marketing.

Recommendations:

- Get out in yourneighborhood and talk to people!!Especially people not like yourself. Listen to their ideas and problems and tell

them yours. You might find you have a lot of common ground and decide toget together to start doing something about it.


3/22

- Train trainers from within different organisations to present issues to theirgroups.

- Think about yourmessage and make it positive - have a future vision rather

than a depressing analysis of problems now.

Email:[email protected]@hotmail.co.uk
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


4/22

Session Title:How can we begin to live with more vulnerability andopenness?

Session Convener:Matt Currey

List of participants present:Apologies here for lack of names.

Discussion and recommendations:We agreed that vulnerability andopenness are increasingly important for integrity and meaningful engagement.It's an emerging/emergent exploration. Vulnerability needs reframing andremaining.

Rich Wilson's anti hero idea very compelling

Really key and linked to this is work of Brene Brown

www.brenebrown.comher research is compelling and her TED talk onvulnerability and writing. Daring Greatly and The Gift of imperfection. Greatbooks.

Brene sees vulnerability as being highly courageous. It's not weakness butstrength. Humility, integrity.

Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change

Good, we can be the change, take a risk and change the culture.

In an activist culture, contemplation is good, being open can lead to greaterempathy, it's not about being overly introspective

Twitter:@mattcurrey
http://brown.com/http://brown.com/http://brown.com/http://brown.com/


5/22

Session Title:What do we do locally and nationally about poverty and ill-health globally?

Session Convener:Andy Guise

List of participants present:I tried to start this discussion half way throughthe open space session, but it never got going, so just me!

Discussion and recommendations:Most, if not all, of the topics in the openspace referred to issues with global dimensionse.g. tax havens, the powerof large companiesand so we could also relate these to other countries,especially those bracketed as low income, and where poverty is prevalent.

It seems that global poverty and development need to figure in our thinking, inlight of: i) poverty and development are part of everyday media and politicaldiscourse, as in the responses to tragic events and natural disasters, ii) the

rise in the budget of the Dept for International Development when others fall,and iii) how a vision for social justice would need to be a global vision.

In that light I thought I would raise a few questions that relate to the overallthemes of discussion across the open space that I heard:- To what extent do we relate the causes of poverty and injustice cited acrossother discussions to global causes? And so to what extent do we also try andpursue responses to those solutions on a global scale?- Is development still a useful idea for how to address poverty globally? Howdo we respond to the process where defining others as living in poverty andin need of development can simply open up new ways of controlling andinterfering in ways of life?- How are we part of global movements? Or linked with movements in othercountries?- Should the UK Dept for Int Development continue to have its large andgrowing budget? How do we defend this if so?

These seem like some key questions which it would be good to explore, tosee how global poverty, global health and development figure in our approachto change.

Email:[email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


6/22

Session Title:What 5 progressive common sense policies does the UK mostneed? (Compass Greens)

Session Convener:Sian Berry

List of participants present:We were about 20 people, the majority GreenParty members, but several from no party, a couple from Labour and one fromPlaid Cymru. One member was also from the Transition movement.

Discussion and recommendations:The session came out of discussionsCompass Greens have recently been having where we asked how we mightpush the election agenda in a left/green direction, to counter the damaginginfluence of UKIP in pushing things to the right on issues such as tax,immigration and welfare.

One idea we have had is to have a 'charter' of 5-10 policies or principles that

candidates in the GE can sign up to to. Once signed up they would formagrouping that is committed to doing things in parliament, and they can be heldto account. It's not a 'manifesto' dependent on being in government, butsomething any MP can commit to standing up for, or pushing through, viaamendments and votes etc.

We want to look widely for ideas of what could be put in the charter beforedeveloping the idea further.

At the session we started by introducing ourselves and each putting forwardthe one policy or principle we'd most like to see in the list, and some themesemerged. These iniital ideas were:

- Rail renationalisation- Redistribution of wealth- More universal institutions, cf NHS, state schools- Pay differential cap (2 suggested this)- Important to have the environment included- Everyday green measures that help people's lives- Demilitarisation of the economy and foreign policy- Real jobs for greening the economy

- Redistribution via controls and taking wealth back from finance/banking- Public ownership of services- Mandatory living wage- Public and community ownership of energy infrastructure- Land tax- Public health - food and advertising regulation, air pollution- Cycling and green transport- Robin Hood tax- Migration as a benefit- State funding of political parties - framed as taking corporate money out ofpolitics

- Press standards- Ban on advertising to children


7/22


8/22

Session Title:Jeremy Gilbert says Captial always knows what to do aboutthe future. What have we to learn from Capital's methods?

Session Convener:Christopher Owens

List of participants present:We didn't make a list

Discussion and recommendations:Capital gathers or steals, ideas andinvests in them for profit.Tax avoidance.Lobbying - the Government (all recent ones) have lost confidence in dealingwith lobbyist: when did that happen? - with the birth of Neo-Liberalism? WhenBlair could not face down Bernie Ecclestone? Callaghan?Sees the EU as an enemy, because it upholds Social Democracy. (Cf theSwiss referendum on limiting maximum wages to 12 times the average: onethird of the population voted for!! Cf also Works Councils in Germany).

AdvertisingAdaptive, flexible, not locked into the long term.We need to chose our own ground, not fight on Capital's. Who is going to voteagainst taxing corporations?



9/22

Session Title:Election strategy 2015: how do we change the outcome in keyseats to vote in a more progressive parliament?

Session Convener:Tim Nichols

List of participants present:There were around 12 participants. Apologies,but we did not take a list of participants. However, they represented a range ofuseful experience - e.g. election agent, environmental campaigner usingmarginal seat strategy

Discussion and recommendations:The group agreed that a progressivealliance strategy for the 2015 election is an urgent priority with just 18 monthsto get organised around a strategy.

The convener proposed a strategy based on horizontal self-organisation,using digital tools, around a shared set of principles:

- Try and make the profile of parliament more progressive

- Do this with a focus only on the key marginal seats that are likely to changehands and by supporting the best realistic progressive option

- Only support the type of Labour and Lib Dem MPs/candidates who areprogressive within their party - i.e. we would not help protect or elect Blairitesor economic neoliberal Orange Bookers. This approach aims to make theparties profiles more progressive, as well as the whole parliament

- Protect the one Green MP, Caroline Lucas, and try and help the Greensprogress in other key seats - except those in which it is likely to split the votesuch that a more regressive outcome results with a Conservative/Ukipsuccess

- Prioritize those constituencies where we can unseat the most regressiveConservatives over those with moderate Conservatives i.e. focus more onunseating climate change deniers and hardcore market fundamentalists

A chief aim should be to provide progressives alienated from the mainstream

parties (and who may be non-voters) with a clear plan that they can supportfor engagement with the election to try and ensure the most progressiveparliament that we can possibly elect.

The approach recognizes that 'the perfect is the enemy of the good'. Thisstrategy would not be for anyone who has unrealistic expectations and whotakes an all-or-nothing approach to the government they want.

This strategy also recognises that changing the profile of parliament to make itmuch more progressive will be achieved stepwise over several elections. Itrecognises that progress in democracy is often gradual.

The group shared their current view on what they would each most likely be


10/22

doing at the next election. They all answered demonstrating that they werealready taking individuals on what to do in line with this strategy.

There were constructive criticisms offered and an important highlighting thatthis kind of strategy has been done previously - usually called 'tactical voting'.

It was suggested that the idea goes much further than tactical votingnotleast in that for most people who engage in it, their own personal vote will beof no significance and they may as well not votebut it was recognised thatuseful lessons could be learned from tactical voting campaigns in previouscampaigns because there are some similarities.

One participant is already involved in a project focussing on marginal seatsand mobilising environmental campaigners to influence the outcome. She willfollow up with the convener.

Please contact the convenor, Tim Nichols, by email putting 'election strategy2015' in the subject if you would like to help develop the idea (you did nothave to be present at the open space group to become involved in furtherdeveloping the idea). His email is timnich0ls[at]hotmail.com(please note thatyou should use a zero digit rather than a letter 'o' in the email address).

In particular, people with skills in creating digital tools for social media will beneeded.

http://hotmail.com/http://hotmail.com/http://hotmail.com/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://hotmail.com/


11/22

Session Title:How do we bring Compass ideas into the Labour Party?

Session Convener:Danny Golding

List of participants present:Around 20 people

Discussion and recommendations:Why did I want to hold this workshop?

The Labour Party now has a leader who is not only sympathetic to manyCompass ideas, but is now putting forward the sort of critique of moderncapitalism and New Labours failings that should be music to the ears of mostCompass members. Other Compass friends and supporters are nowprominent in Ed Milibands new leadership, most notably John Cruddas who isleading Labours policy review.

But rather than celebrate and build on what should be seen as a rare moment

of success for a left of centre pressure group, the Compass leadership seemsto have chosen this moment to distance itself from Labour, and at times givesthe impression that the Labour Party is now seen as part of the problem andnot the solution.

Of course we can all find a long list of reasons to be disappointed with thepace of change in the Labour Partythe timidity shown by the Labourleadership in opposing cuts in social spending, or attacks on immigration, andof course the glacial pace at which the Party is reforming its structures.

But it would be perverse to give up on Labour just as the point when Party atlast has a leader trying to bring in just the sorts of changes to the way we dopolitics that Compass members want to see.

So my aim in organising this session was for Labour party members andsupporters to discuss how we can work work together to build on the changesbeing introduced by Ed Miliband and start to nudge local Labour Parties intoadopting a more open way of doing politics.

Our discussion

There were some pretty wide ranging views expressed during the discussion,and this summary inevitably is not going to do justice to everything that wassaid.

Some felt that Labour was still way behind the curve in developing a critiqueof modern neo-liberal capitalism or alternative economic policies. Perhapsmore concretely, it was pointed out that while senior Labour figures like StellaCreasey had been successful in highlighting the issue of payday loans, theywerent asking why so many people need to take out payday loans in the firstplace.

Others responded by pointing that Labour had always been a relatively timidsocial democratic party and, with the exception of 1945, had never been on


12/22

the leading edge of social change. Anyone expecting much more from theLabour Party is doomed to be disappointed.

We also discussed why it has been so difficult to change the way the LabourParty does politics. The Party still has a very top down, relationship with its

members whose role is effectively limited to delivering leaflets and respondingto fundraising appeals. Local Party meetings are still boring, bureaucratic, andoften unwelcomingthough some constituencies are making efforts to dothings differently.

At both a local and national level there is still too much tribalism and anunwillingness to work with members of other parties. At the last Labourconference John Harris found it difficult to get anyone interested in discussingfracking because of the hostility that many delegates felt toward CarolineLucas and the Greens. And at a local level only one member of our group hadsucceeded in organising joint activities with members of other partiesand

only then by doing it in secret!

It was argued that this was a generational problem. The Labour Party ispredominantly made up of older members who are wedded to traditional waysof doing politics. The challenge of course being how to attract more youngpeople to the Labour Party. One participant argued passionately that what isrequired is a fundamental change in the membership offer so that Partymembership become more meaningful

Sadly there was not enough time to discuss what we could do as Compassmembers to influence our local parties. The one practical suggestion that wasmade was that we should all go back and suggest to our local GCs that theyorganise a joint event with members of other partiesthough I suspect theground needs laying carefully if such a suggestion is going to be takenseriously.

In order to try and continue the discussion I have created a Compass groupon the Labour Membersnet siteathttp://members.labour.org.uk/group/Compass

Membersnet is open to both Labour Party members and supports, but you

need to register first before you can join in discussions.


Twitter:danny_golding
http://members.labour.org.uk/group/Compasshttp://members.labour.org.uk/group/Compasshttp://members.labour.org.uk/group/Compassmailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://members.labour.org.uk/group/Compass


13/22

Session Title:How Should We Do Democracy?

Session Convener:Ben Cobley

List of participants present:[not known - but around fifteen people

participated]

Thanks to Deborah Mills for taking most of these notes and passing them on.

Discussion and recommendations:Capturing the main points / commentsand questions from the conversation ... [most of these notes provided byDeborah Mills]

It is time to re-imagine and begin to re-build democracy from the bottom-up; Political Parties need to change and become more genuine in their actions; A new notion of Public Service is required what does it really mean to

represent your local community? Should it be about serving the communityand not about a profession or career for Politicians? An example was given of democratic participation through projects in Brazilin which ordinary citizens decide how to allocate parts of the public budget(participatory budgeting: Porto Alegre Brazil). The question was raised of the importance of the INTERFACE betweendirect and representational democracywhat could this look like and howmight it facilitate a more democratic participation at local level? Local Government is currently run through a dictatorial, bureaucratic Cabinetsystem; this is the way local decision making is controlled (comment from aLiberal Democrat councillor in Horsham, Sussex). A five year term for Government may be too long. It was suggested that weneed more frequent electionspeople need to be able to change theirrepresentation more often. The question was raised about the quality of decision making. If decisionsare made at community level through democratic participation, will this affectthe quality of the decisions being made? Often the people who couldcontribute positively to quality decision making processes do not have thetime to participate in the conversation. Who is best qualified to make qualitydecisions? The importance of empowering local communitiesreference was made to

the Labour White PaperCommunities in Control: Real People Real Power(2008). Communities in Control aims to pass power into the hands of localcommunities. We want to generate vibrant local democracy in every part ofthe country and to give real control over local decisions and services to awider pool of active local citizens Could the Big Society be redefined through ideas from this White Paper?Could the Labour Party run with this for the next election? The role of education we need to be teaching children and young peopleabout democracy, participation, politics through active citizenship as part ofthe curriculum. The importance of the right to VOTE. History reminds us of the cost paid to

achieve the right to vote and people often do not exercise this right now. It issometimes felt to be fine not to vote. A mark of disengagement with


14/22

contemporary politics. Democracy is a way of doing things based on an ethic of inclusivity andinvolvement. Decisions reached under such democratic practice are right in ademocratic sense: that is their justification.


Twitter:@bencobley


15/22

Session Title:How can we build healthy, sustainable groups of activists (notburnt out, conflict ridden) in a way which helps us out of the psychology ofdisempowerment and passivity?

Session Convener:Gillian Woodward

List of participants present:More name to be collected, submitted by GillianWoodward

Discussion and recommendations:1-The importance of group process- theparamount importance of attention to group process, the feelings andrelationships within any activist group. There needs to be space toacknowledge fears and to value the uniqueness of what each individual has tooffer in order to make the working group sustainable. It was pointed out, thereis a great deal of experience and knowledge around how to make groupswork(recommended bks below), but we came to no conclusions as to how to

engage people in the first place except to agree there was a need to de-jargonise and that authenticity has to be preserved in face of potentialpersonality cult

2- The need to accept and build on what we do have- we need to be willing tocarry on , accepting what is, even when attendance low: this parallels best ofprocess of Open Space, where whoever turns up are the right people. We canhelp ourselves keeping alive in our minds a list of positive changes whichhave already been achieved

Books

The Empowerment Manual by Starhawk

Active Hope by Joanna Macey and Chris Johnstone

Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit


16/22

Session Title:'How best do we re-build the energy economy from the groundup?' and 'It's 2023. 'We' have just installed a ground-source* heat pump in ourlocal, urban area to supply all the local community. How did we get here?Who were 'we'?'

Session Convener:Peter Winbourne

List of participants present:Robert Hutchison, Chris MacDonald, PeterWinbourne plus 9 others to be collected

Discussion and recommendations:Starting out

With whom and where:

.Start with community assets, looking to focus and build upon communityaction/activity.

.Climate campaigners:

.Fuel Poverty Action

.Transition Towns

.People closest to climate change

.Basing change around existing public facilities (Schools, GP practices)

.And what goes on inside those institutions

This brought our conversation around to collective action and activity: theunfortunate privileging of individual action over collective activity; theabsence of a public discourse that would afford a reorientation towardscollective/community activity.

Some practical steps:

.Any new housing (social and other) required to be green and sustainable;

.Within community, sort liability, responsibility and legality.

.Require efficient insulation, extending to rolling retro-fitting for bottom5% (in terms of insulation category)

.Combined CHP units in all new estates, community facilities

.Challenge fossil fuel dependence.

Scale:

.Think about appropriate scale


17/22

.Acknowledge and work with the historically inevitable

.Such local developments are going to be essential

.The grid is wearing out

.Peak energy

.Lights going out



18/22

Session Title:Are Co-opsand Credit Unions - the Answer to all ourPrayers?

Session Convener:Paul Harman

List of participants present:12 people present. Called by Paul Harman &Mike Davies

Discussion and recommendations:

Starting Point: The current scandal affecting the Co-operative Bank calls intoquestion the ability of democratically organised financial and businessinstitutions to compete successfully with conventional capitalist structures.

Democratic co-operatives have difficulty in resisting pressure from powerful

social, economic and political pressures. Change in Israels Kibbutzim fromcollective to individual ethos was given as an international example.Co-operatives are open to corruption if they get too big and leadershipbecomes remote. Demutualisation of the big building societies followed socialchange in favour of individualism. As the political pendulum swung back, theCo-op Bank was encouraged by Government to expand to buy both theBritannia and Lloyds branches. Both policies have proved disastrous.Apathy among co-op members? The group found conflicting examples.

Arkward Facts.(1) The Co-operative bank is not itself a co-op but a private bank originallyowned by retail and other co-operative businesses. By borrowing to get biggerit lost control to hedge fund investors.(2) Well attended meetings of activists do not necessarily mean soundpolicies are followed.(3) Incentives are the key to engagement and therefore the possibility ofeffective democratic decision making. Examples are Housing Co-operativesand local credit unions.(4) Retail co-ops may no longer be useful in the modern world when Tesco,Sainsburys or Waitrose can offer better service on quality or price.(5) Co-ops have 6 million card-holders but have not turned them into a

significant political force.

Key next steps:(a) It takes time and energy to set up a Credit Union but as a start everyoneshould join if they have a local one.(b) Young people may be drawn in if the focus is a topic of immediate interest.As examples; self-build and energy co-ops offer the possibility of direct activeengagement and the reward of reaching a defined objective.(Example:www.altgen.org.uk)(c) Self-management can improve the quality of the working environment(d) Government policy should favour co-operative enterprises through

procurement preferences and capital support. Example is current 38 millionfor credit unions as alternative to payday loans.
http://www.altgen.org.uk/http://www.altgen.org.uk/http://www.altgen.org.uk/http://www.altgen.org.uk/


19/22

(e) Ethical investors have established alternatives such as Triodos Bank.(f) Networks of co-ops can increase strength of all.(g) Promote successful models, such as social care co-ops, which arecurrently under the radar.

Conclusions1) Incentives are crucial to engagement2) State support has a role3) Co-operative ideas cross ideological divides4) In the modern world, co-operative structures are more a contribution to thequality of life and a valuable channel for individual expression of socialconcern than a major challenge to capitalism.



20/22

Session Title:Social media for social action: How can we use social media togive a voice to the voiceless?

Session Convener:Antony Carpen

List of participants present:Hugh, CLlfford, Sue, Matt, Robin, Michael 1,Michael 2 & Antony

Discussion and recommendations:- The key word in the phrase 'socialmedia' is the word "Social"- Young people are using social media, but that does not equate to thembeing in our [politics and public policy types'] social networks- Social media is an integral part of the lives of more & more people- The approach of politicians has not changed - will they get left behind?- Importance of language and tone not being barriers. Eg 'Rap music' in 1980s= young people were writing, rhyming about issues they cared about, but the

music and lyrics were slammed by politicians of the day.- Getting disenfranchised groups into the social networks of politicians,political activists and public policy people requires these three groups to gowhere the disenfranchised people are - not the other way around.- Trade unions and large bureaucratic organisations fear losing control - eventhough they have already lost that control.

Next steps?

Consider hosting future events at the heart of communities that you want toreach out to - and advertise those events there. (Eg a further educationcollege, doing outreach work there before the event). Expand on theparticipatory elements, reduce the passive 'sit and watch/listen' elements.


Twitter:@Puffles2010


21/22

Session Title:What if Change:HOW was a sustained, emergent platform forconnecting and synergising our movements and initiatives for change?

Session Convener:George Por

List of participants present:Anna BetzDermot AlsfordGeorge PrIrene RidgeonMarion McCartneyNeal LawsonNigel Ridgeonplus two more people, of whom we didn't get the names

Discussion and recommendations:Our present system is bust, broken andthere is no going back. To move forward we need a sustainable, emergent

platform: a network of democratic communities and movements, generating anetwork of solutions, supported by a network of social media.

Such a platform of communities/initiatives for change would exist both onlineand offline, and hold space for diversity of opinions and approachesresonating with one overarching purpose.

Knowing what capabilities each part brings to the whole is important to theself-organizing coordination of large-scale collective action needed forestablishing a `good Society.

Creating conditions and situations that bring out the best in people will counterthe fear that most people have, i.e that everyone is just out for themselvesand that civilisation will break down easily.

How to organise ourselves as agents of social change? Look at how thecaterpillar becomes a butterfly. The imaginal cells carry the DNA of thebutterfly, and information of what kind of organ they will develop into.Which part of new society are we working on? Figuring that out, with the helpof the platform, we can develop functional alignment and know whom weneed to connect with.

Recommendation:We love the Change:HOW brand and suggest to hold occasional meetingsunder that name for building a Change:HOW platform, as introduced earlier.


Twitter:@technoshaman


22/22

Session Title:Are there others who believe that you cannot start how untilyou have determined what?

Session Convener:Vincent Tickner

List of participants present:8-10 partici[ants (3 women and the rest men)Names N/A

Discussion and recommendations:Vincent Tickner presented fleetinglywhy he posed the question. Others explained briefly why they had come tothat session. One person said it was a question of Process and Goals, andthe focus here had been put on process. One person said that they thoughtthe Compass organisers appear to have assumed that there was already acommon enough knowledge of the goals, and that is why they were focusingon the how, but others felt that the goals were still not clear. One personstarted from the position of wanting first to determine the object of life, which

he thought he knew, but which others felt was not so easy to establish. Oneperson advocated the principle of always endeavouring to not hurt others, oneof the need for more positively endeavouring to work towards a more generalsocial happiness. Moral approaches were questioned. One person indicatedthat we need social responses to survive, and another that this process needsto be linked with more democratic approaches. The concept of economicgrowth leading the framework was strongly questioned. Accordingly, thediscussion, though amiably engaged in, remained rather philosophical in thelimited time available, and did not get to trying to define more clearly anyparticular goals and difficulties in the process of achieving them.

Vincent Tickner's initial thoughts on this, which he did not have time topresent and discuss, were that some of the most urgent goals need toinclude:

1. Investigate and publicise the affluent and controllers in our society, andhow they influence our lives;2. Develop a combat strategy for the right wing media and their distortion ofpeople's attitudes;3. Challenge politically oriented myths and over-simplified political issues;4. Expose more the protected cliques (military-industrial, security etc.);

5. Establish frameworks for regular monitoring of, and response to, particulareconomic sectors, and civil service departments;6. Seeking ways to extend democratic approaches (democracy being anaspiration, not a fixed constitutional state);7. Deal more with hang-over culturesmonarchy, religions, celebrities,charities etc. - and expose their distorting influences.

Documents

Reports From Open Space