[Dublin] Grassroots Strategy Weekend - Evening Debate and All Day Workshops

national | miscellaneous | event notice Monday February 16, 2015 20:59 by Laurence Cox - MA Community Education, Equality and Social Activism

The following groups, Gluaiseacht for Global Justice, We're Not Leaving, ATTAC Ireland, Third Level Workplace Watch, and Marea Granate Dublin invite you to a

Grassroots Strategy Weekend

Evening debate, Friday 6th March, 7 pm - 9 pm
All day workshops, Saturday 7th March, 10 am to 5 pm
Teacher's Club, Dublin 1

Vibrant and spirited grassroots campaigns, including water and housing, have invigorated and energised people, movements and political actors in Ireland. Many of us now speak about austerity, neoliberalism, and the ruling elite that has lost touch with the majority of the people. We speak about and see the connections between the water-tax, the nationalisation of private debt, the housing and homelessness crisis, the scandal of direct provision, the crumbling health care system, trade agreements like TTIP, privatisation of public goods, services and national resources, the decimation of the community sector, the assault of structural violence and institutional racism, and much, much more.

Still, this awakened public consciousness of how the powers that be operate and influence our lives is not yet visible in the collaboration of social movement groups who work on these issues.

Hence, we invite you to a weekend of discussion intended to establish what connects us and to work out collectively if there are common strategies or projects we can pursue together to strengthen all of our movements.

For who?

This event is for people active in progressive social movements in Ireland; anti-austerity, environmental, end direct provision, anti-racism, economic justice, debt justice, water justice, trade justice, anti-fracking, housing crisis, human rights, anti-discrimination, unions, choice, women's movement, anti-TTIP, and so on...

Panel Discussion, Friday March 6th 2015, 7pm to 9pm

Topic: “Routes to power - from social movements to political power.” Are there (or what are the) limits to what social movements can achieve?

Panel:

Emma Avilés Thurlow was involved in the wave of the 15M Spanish r-Evolution. She has also participated in Citizen Debt Audit Platform (PACD http://auditoriaciudadana.net/) and is part of Xnet (http://xnet-x.net/en/), the group of activists that has driven the initiatives that are behind the leaks of the major corruption cases that are shaking Spanish politics today with the devices of 15MpaRato https://15mparato.wordpress.com/legal-campaign/ (the main lawsuit against the Spanish bailed-out bank Bankia and its banksters) and BuzónX http://xnet-x.net/es/contactanos-para/buzonx (a system for citizen whistle-blowing).

Theodoros Karyotis is a sociologist, translator and activist participating in social movements that promote self-management, solidarity economy and defence of the commons. A member of the Initiative of Solidarity with the Vio.Me, a self-managed factory, (viome.org) and the Initiative 136 for the social control of Thessaloniki’s water services (136.gr). He helps organise the annual Direct Democracy Festival, an international event that brings together collectives, activists and academics around the issue of constructing radical alternatives to capitalism from below.

Cian O'Callaghan is an independent left wing councillor on Fingal County Council. He has being involved in both grassroots activism and electoral politics in Dublin since the 1990s.

Moderator:

Caoimhe Butterly has worked with social justice movements and grassroots community projects in Chiapas, Guatemala, Haiti, Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon for over 12 years. Presently engaged in post-graduate studies at Kimmage DSC, her research is focused on migrant women's activism and self-organisation. She is active with anti-racism, migrant justice and other movements in Ireland.

More panellists to be announced in the coming days.

Strategy Workshops, Saturday March 7th, 10 am to 5 pm

A full day of workshops and discussions all day on Saturday 7th March. For more information see below. Also check out Gluaiseacht for Global Justice on Facebook.

Childcare is available. If you require childcare please let us know in advance; email [email protected].

All day strategy workshops for grassroots campaigns

Saturday 7th March 10 am – 5 pm, The Teacher’s Club, Parnell Square

The second day of our Grassroots Strategy weekend will be a full day of workshops and discussions about what we have in common and how we might wish to work together across movements.

How to prepare:

If you have time, we have prepared some questions (see below) for participants to answer. You can do this either in your campaign group or individually in order to prepare for the workshops. Please send your answer back to [email protected].

Schedule:

Session 1: 10 am – 11 am, opening session
“Making Waves: voices from European and Irish social movements”
In this session, we will hear from movement organisers from Ireland, Spain, and Greece, who will speak about how movements in their countries have come together. This will be followed by an open discussion.

Session 2: 11 am – 12.30 am
“Creating links in Ireland”
What links all of our movements? What do we have in common? What are the common targets? What are the roots of the problems?

The attached questions sheet will be very helpful in preparing for this session, and will contribute to the following sessions.

Session 3: 12.45 am – 1.30 pm
Brainstorm sessions for workshops. Here we will ask questions like:

- How do we create stronger links between existing Irish initiatives?
- What initiatives and struggles needs to be developed?
- How do we dismantle media narratives that focus on misleading causes and bogus solutions? How can we build a counter narrative?
- How do we plan actions together? Should we?
- How can we avoid duplication of work?

Lunch: 1.30 pm – 2.30 pm

Lunch will be provided, please RSVP in advance so we order enough food.

Session 4: 2.30 pm – 4 pm
Workshops

Session 5: 4.15 pm – 5 pm
“Bringing it all back together”
Hearing the outcomes of the workshops.
Closing comments.

Preparatory Questions for Workshops, Saturday 7th March

Please answer these questions and send the answers to

[email protected] no later than 1st March 2015.

These questions are designed to form a common working document for the workshops. The answers will be collated, and we will give general feedback of the results to participants. The findings will be generalised and anonymous, and are intended to form a starting point for discussion in the workshops.

1. Present your group in one paragraph, if you are in a group (ethos, purpose, membership/who is in your group) in 3-5 sentences.

2. Have you or your group identified a root cause of the issues you're working on / what are the underlying issues? (e.g. lack of 'real' democracy, the markets, elites ruling in their own interests, etc.)

3. A: In the context of your campaign/group, who are the antagonists? (e.g. politicians, companies, etc.)

B: What are the obstacles? Are any of them global? Are any of them specific to the Irish context?

4. A: Which groups do you see as your allies?

B: If you could see your campaign moving to another issue what would it be?

C: What do you think connects you to them?

Please note that there will be another grassroots event in April - Joining the Dots: Grassroots Gathering 2015. The events will be relevant to each other and are not in competition. Check their website (http://grassroots.pageabode.com/content/joining-dots-gr...-2015) or the facebook events page (https://www.facebook.com/events/355005338020626/?ref=ts...ef=ts) for further details.

Websites of groups involved for this strategy weekend:

Gluaiseacht for Global Justice
http://www.gluaiseacht.ie/

We're Not Leaving
http://werenotleaving.com/

Attac Ireland
https://www.facebook.com/AttacIreland

Third Level Workplace Watch
https://www.facebook.com/ThirdLevelWorkplaceWatch

Marea Granate Dublin
http://mareagranate.org/?p=1276