Climate speech for local community group

I’ve had my first request for a speech!! Not a paid gig, of course, but since virtue is its own reward I’m gonna give it my best shot. The brief is “a climate speech to spring on a group gathered for local/community action but not yet directed to climate action…” It is, of course, anti-copyright. If there’s anything in here that is of any use, please take it. Hello everyone. This will be short and hopefully sweet. I want us to ask ourselves two questions. The first is obvious, and perhaps easy to answer. It’s “Why are we here today?” We all have our own answers for that, but I’ll force some of mine down your throats.. The second is a bit more tricky – “Where might we travel together from this moment?” So, the first question. Are we here to get famous? Are we here to get rich? [Laughter, I hope] Of course not. These fame and fortune carrots, that we are told are what everyone is chasing, are not what we have dangled in front of ourselves. Why are we here? To feel good about ourselves and our community. To put names to strangers’ faces, to feel like we belong, that we are useful. Some of those strangers will become acquaintances. Some of those acquaintances become new friends. Not Facebook friends, from halfway around the world at the click of a mouse. These are friends who will go to the corner shop for you when you can’t. Friends who’ll ready with a smile or a cup of sugar or another pair of hands when there’s furniture to move, or hanging pots to plant, children to mind. Why are we here? To learn about each other. To learn from each other. To use our skills to help each other. Did anyone force us to be here? Was there someone from the Town Hall, or Downing Street who told us to do this? Don’t be daft. So, didn’t have the carrot of wealth and fame, and we didn’t have the stick of compulsion. Essentially, we are here because we know we can make our own lives better. We know that if there are problems to solve on these streets, then nobody is better placed than us to solve them. We are the people with the desire and the local knowledge to sort things out. And we believe we can solve problems. And we believe we can have fun as we solve them. So, no-one has pelted me with rotten tomatoes from their allotment yet, so I’ll take that as a sign that I still have five minutes of your time. And I’ll use it to give my answer to the second question – where we go from here. I think we can be confident that energy prices are going to go up and up over the next ten years. And because we use energy to grow and transport food, that means that it won’t just be your leccy and gas bills that go up. It’ll be the weekly shop, for milk, bread and… for those of us who indulge, beer. We will all of us feel a pinch. For some the pinch may well be more like a bite. So I propose the following: that we gather the warmth, the relationships and the possibilities which we have discovered in ourselves and each other so far. That we harness those things to a decade-long local task. The task has three elements. I’m going to sandwich the abstract one in a “practicality sandwich.” First slice of bread: How do we grow more food locally? The abstract filling: How do we create increase the cleverness and self-confidence of us as individuals and as a community? Second slice of bread: How do we spend less bread on heating our homes in a world of really expensive energy? Do we insulate our homes better? Do we club together to buy or create cheap renewable energy? Is there something else that none of us has thought of yet? It’s an adventure where there are challenges we can’t yet name. So why do this? The motives the same and yet different from what we’ve done so far. I promise you that one thing is the same – we’re not going to get famous. But unlike what we’ve done so far this will be about saving money. And as an added bonus – and this the only time I’ve used the dreaded words – do something about climate change. And in the same way nobody told us to get together to do what we’ve done, nobody can tell us to do this. We have the skills – the mix of hands and heads – that we need to do this. It’s a choice that we can make that can benefit ourselves as individuals, as a community both local and further afield. I want to be part of making that happen, and I hope you do too. So, I’m done. I want to finish with a quote from Gilead , a novel by Marilyn Robinson, who once wrote a very powerful book about the environment. In Gilead there’s a line – and although it’s about men, it kinda applies to everyone – “To be useful was the best thing the old men ever hoped for themselves, and to be aimless was their worst fear.” Thank you. See also Climate Rally Speech I’ll Never Give Gay Marriage Rally and Movement Building

Actually “New” social movements required

Between about 1968 and 1970 women, people of colour and a bunch of other “minorities” (sic) woke up. Suddenly the “bosses” (white educated men) of the social movement organisations that claimed to speak for “everyone” didn’t look so heroic no more. And so, women, homosexuals and so on challenged – with the same tools (of disruption, delegitimisation, denunciation) that had been used against The System/The State/The Corporations – the make-up of the movement elites and the assumptions of their “betters”. No, women’s rights were not a distraction from the War. No, homosexuality was not a deformation that would vanish in a communist society. No, no and no again. It has made for a much healthier and more civilised society in the long run.

My analogy* is this: We have social movements that claim to represent everyone but – via the format of their meetings and rallies and marches and so on – encourage the participation only of those with the right social capital, the right economic capital and free time. What looks “normal” and “natural” is actually a constraining and funnelling process that only allows a few to be seen as ‘leaders’. Everyone else is passive, and their muteness taken as assent, consent.

What is needed (but won’t happen) is a similar upsurge of people storming the stages, grabbing the microphones and saying “enough. Stop claiming to represent us, when you are just using us to make up the numbers. Stop claiming to know how to make a revolution when all you have done is reinforce the very systems you claim to oppose.”

* These are the obvious problems with the analogy
a) The comparison is slightly skew-whiff. I’m comparing real full-on discrimination and power-over with the fact that it’s a small minority of people who ‘run’ meetings and rallies and so on. That’s apples and oranges.
b) I – a straight white middle class male – am claiming via analogy the same moral authority for my point of view as folks who were – and sadly still are – facing real disadvantage today both in the real world and in various social movements.
c) The likelihood of success is vastly different. The meek, and those who have only a certain amount of time/energy to give, are not going to (be able to) rise up and seize the moment in the way the feminists etc did. There’s less at stake (well, if you ignore the fact that only a mass outbreak of civil society sanity is going to give us any chance of preparing for the crash landing that’s coming).

See also
From Cannon Fodder to Ego Fodder
Gay Marriage and Movements
Welcome to the Smugosphere

A speech to give at a rally…

Went to a Gay Marriage rally today. As the name would suggest, it was a rally. There were speakers with microphones. The ones I heard ranged from good to brilliant (the first post-organiser speaker was “Mr Chuckles” – funny, smart, passionate.) Everyone sat and listened to their wisdom. At one point between sets of speeches the organiser led everyone in a dreadful chant (one two three four… etc)
So, all of us to speak one voice, to speak one sentence as chosen by the organisers. It was embarrassing and infuriating and my cue to leave. It didn’t have to be like that.
There was nothing malicious in what the organisers had done. This is Just the Way We Do Things.
Here’s what I would have said, if invited to do so. What do folks think?

Thank you so much for coming here today. The most important thing about you being here is what you have done before coming here today, and what you do AFTER. This moment, though beautiful, is only an opportunity. It’s an opportunity for us to show our strength and build on it by creating links among you who don’t already know each other.

To the people here who are straight, I ask – are you going to challenge homophobia when you hear it at work, at home, in your church or mosque. If you do already, great –I hope you do it more, and get more effective. If you don’t, why not? It’s time to do so. Is it because you are afraid of being labelled queer? Is it because you’re afraid of having to confront bigotry in those people who pay your bills, or who you love and don’t want to think of as bigots?
To those of you who are closeted, is it possible to come out? It is difficult, it can be dangerous. It’s not my place to say that you “must”. But many have done so, and it’s made them stronger, and it’s made them great role models for other closeted people. If you need advice or someone to talk to, then go to the stall.
To those who are out and proud, congratulations – it’s not easy. What have you learnt that you want to pass on? Why does marriage matter to YOU? How can YOU become a more effective advocate for gay marriage?

Because although it’s good that we are here, this rally on its own won’t do the job.
This movement is about the pressure you put on politicians – via emails, letters to them, letters to the paper, talk-radio, those conversations you have with acquaintances.
This movement is about the defense of gay rights that YOU make in arenas less welcoming than this one – in school, at work, at church.
This movement is about living as an example of tolerance, strength, compassion and wisdom.
Those steps won’t happen because the leaders of this movement are especially wise and wonderful (though they might be!)
Those moves won’t become more frequent and irresistible by listening to speeches, no matter how funny or astute they are.
And those pressures won’t be sustained indefinitely all on your own. You’ll get tired, down-hearted. We need to support each other, to challenge each other, to teach each other and to encourage each other.
We can give each other heart, we can learn and teach from others’ mis-steps and our own. There is someone within five metres of you who has something to teach you. There is someone within five metres of you who has something to learn from you. That’s the power of this moment in our movement.

And so the way we build the future we want, and the movement to get us there, here, now, in the next five minutes, is that YOU talk to someone you don’t know. Talk to them about why you’re here, what you’re doing, what you want to do. And if you need a question to get you going , try this- “what can we do in the next week to advance the cause of gay marriage?” Thank you.

See also: “From Cannon Fodder to Ego Fodder“

Cannon-fodder and ego-fodder

According to Wikipedia the first person to use exact phrase “cannon fodder was a French writer, François-René de Chateaubriand in his 1814 anti-Napoleonic pamphlet “De Buonaparte et des Bourbons” – “the contempt for the lives of men and for France herself has come to the point of calling the conscripts ‘the raw material’ and ‘the cannon fodder.”
The phrase came to be associated with World War 1 and its ‘human waves’ attacks. Millions of human beings, with their hopes and their talents, their families and their friends, were fed into the cannons as food. As the slogan used to go “a bayonet is a weapon with a worker at both ends”.
Leaving behind the fields of Flanders, what’s “ego-fodder”?

Ego-fodder is what I call the audience at any public event (big or small) which has not been structured by the organisers to provoke the highest possible amount of participation, engagement and mingling.
“Passivity” can of course be okay. Sometimes there is a “contractual” relationship that is about being entertained – by a singer, a comedian, whatever.
What is an unforgivable fraud is the organisers and the speakers claiming that they are trying to engage and/or inspire the public, (to tackle an issue or grow a movement) when they have designed and executed a meeting that is something akin to death by powerpoint.
The organisers may say they want engaged citizens, but if through idleness, ignorance or – most seriously – control-freakery, they organise another static drone-on-and-drone-on talkfest by this or that Expert, followed by ritualistic questions, then they have used all the audience, with their hopes and their ideas and their talents, their connections to families and friends and other organisations, as ego-fodder.

And it’s way past the time we can afford that.

Of course, people go to these things expecting to be ego-fodder. Sad to say, some of them seem happy enough with that. “Ooh, I didn’t come here to be asked what I think. I came to (be seen to) hear the Great Oracle. Anyone who isn’t obedient to old white men has ideas above their station…”
But I wonder – how many people go hoping they’ll meet like-minded folks, get a chance to give their ideas, and hear others’, and maybe get together with others and DO something?

See also
The falseness of flipcharts
Meetings from above

Sensible Advice re Meetings, from… 1975

There’s gold in this post. Only the beginning, here, the rest by clicking on the title below

Meeting Facilitation –The No-Magic Method

by Berit Lakey

From Network Service Collective, Movement for a New Society, 4722 Baltimore Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19143; 215 724-1464.

Meetings are occasions when people come together to get something done, whether it is sharing information or making decisions. They may be good, bad or indifferent.

* Some of the ingredients of good meetings are:
* Commonly understood goals;
* A clear process for reaching those goals;
* An awareness that people come with their personal preoccupations and feelings as well as in interest in the subject at hand; and
* A sense of involvement and empowerment (people feeling that the decisions are their decisions; that they are able to do what needs doing).

While there is no foolproof way to insure successful meetings, there are a number of guidelines that will go a long way toward helping groups to meet both joyfully and productively. Most people can learn how to facilitate a good meeting but it does take some time and attention. The more people within a group who are aware of good group process skills, the easier the task of the facilitator and the more satisfactory the meeting.

A facilitator is not quite the same as a leader or chairperson, but more like a clerk in a Quaker meeting. A facilitator accepts responsibility to help the group accomplish a common task: to move through the agenda in the time available and to make necessary decisions and plans for implementation.

A facilitator makes no decisions for the group, but suggests ways that will help the group to move forward. He or she works in such a way that the people present at the meeting are aware that they are in charge, that it is their business that is being conducted, and that each person has a role to play.

It is important to emphasize that the responsibility of the facilitator is to the group and its work rather than to the individuals within the group. Furthermore, a person with a high stake in the issues discussed will have a more difficult task functioning as a good facilitator.

Tools for White Guys who are Working for Social Change

Thank goodness none of this applies to me…

(reposted from here, and originally from the (defunct?) Colours of Resistance site.)

Tools for White Guys who are Working for Social Change
(and other people socialized in a society based on domination)

1. Practice noticing who’s in the room at meetings – how many men, how many women, how many white people, how many people of color, is it majority heterosexual, are there out queers, what are people’s class backgrounds. Don’t assume to know people, but also work at being more aware.
2a. Count how many times you speak and keep track of how long you speak.
2b. Count how many times other people speak and keep track of how long they speak.

3. Be conscious of how often you are actively listening to what other people are saying as opposed to just waiting your turn and/or thinking about what you’ll say next.

4. Practice going to meetings focused on listening and learning; go to some meetings and do not speak at all.

5a. Count how many times you put ideas out to the group.
5b. Count how many times you support other people’s ideas for the group.

6. Practice supporting people by asking them to expand on ideas and get more in-depth, before you decide to support the idea or not.

7a. Think about whose work and contribution to the group gets recognized.
7b. Practice recognizing more people for the work they do and try to do it more often.

8. Practice asking more people what they think about meetings, ideas, actions, strategy and vision. White guys tend to talk amongst themselves and develop strong bonds that manifest in organizing. This creates an internal organizing culture that is alienating for most people. Developing respect and solidarity across race, class, gender and sexuality is complex and difficult, but absolutely critical – and liberating.

9. Be aware of how often you ask people to do something as opposed to asking other people “what needs to be done”.

10. Think about and struggle with the saying, “you will be needed in the movement when you realize that you are not needed in the movement”.

11. Struggle with and work with the model of group leadership that says that the responsibility of leaders is to help develop more leaders, and think about what this means to you.

12. Remember that social change is a process, and that our individual transformation and individual liberation is intimately interconnected with social transformation and social liberation. Life is profoundly complex and there are many contradictions. Remember that the path we travel is guided by love, dignity and respect – even when it is bumpy and difficult to navigate.

13. This list is not limited to white guys, nor is it intended to reduce all white guys into one category. This list is intended to disrupt patterns of domination which hurt our movement and hurt each other. White guys have a lot of work to do, but it is the kind of work that makes life worth living.

14. Day-to-day patterns of domination are the glue that maintain systems of domination. The struggle against capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy, heterosexism and the state, is also the struggle towards collective liberation.

15. No one is free until all of us are free.

Gay-Pride Parade Sets Mainstream Acceptance Of Gays Back 50 Years

This is of course, satire.  From the wondrous Onion.

And as satire it can sidestep the live debate about “do we celebrate our difference or downplay it for acceptance.”

But for all that side-stepping, there’s a kernel of truth I think – we can be so busy being different and pure and so on that we don’t ever stop to think what message is being received (which can be very different from the one we think we are sending)

40:20:40

There’s a good bunch of stuff on  www.meetingtogether.org about how 40% of the work needs doing BEFORE a meeting, and another 40% after.  Certainly something that needs pursuing…

 

 

Some practical things that could be done

From a post written elsewhere-

Internally
Groups could;
· make a commitment to educate their ‘core’ and their periphery about the local political realities and policy developments. And commit to knowledge and skill share
· agree to devote a percentage (50%?) of their time on local issues
· sort out their truly appalling methods of holding meetings, methods which reinforce the cliques and make it really really difficult for ‘newbies’ to get involved. The ‘churn’ rate of people attending one or two meetings and then buggering off is humungous.
· generally escape from the smugosphere

Externally
Groups could tell systematically other groups what it is that they are doing, and commit to spreading the information they get from other groups to their membership
There could quite easily be an item on all the groups’ meetings agenda saying “here’s what all the other groups in [the city] are doing.”

And a really really exciting breakthrough (for me) today.
I was listening to someone whom I have a lot of respect for talk about her vision for what could happen next in the loose coalition that I am part of.  And I realised, emotionally, that she was very right and that the path I had been tentatively proposing and been a little (too) attached to was a false path, was wrong in the sense that it wasn’t going to achieve our aims, but was simply a repertoire I was familiar with.

And her goal, her desire, is just so much richer and more full of potential.  And it almost makes me sad to be leaving this city.  Almost.

A good(ish) man fallen among anarchists

Tomorrow I go to a “book fair” for libertarians and anarchists and generally people (rightly) disaffected with the world.

And I go not to fit in, or deliberately not to fit in, but to speak truth to powerlessness.  About the general half-arsed-ness of dissident groups and so on.

I really should re-read Doris Lessing’s “The Good Terrorist”.  She can be an arse (can’t. we. all.) and her writing can be turgid.  But she has an eye and an acid tongue…