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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
4 0 July 2016
T
he talk these days is all about ‘new
politics’. Claiming Our Future sug-
gests we should be talking about
‘broken politics’. That is some gap to
be bridged. It goes back to how we
judge our politics. The ‘new politics’ seem to be
confined to how the Dáil goes about making
decisions. ‘Broken politics’ is more concerned
with the decisions made.
‘New politics’ give us better debate at Dáil
Committee level and the strange sight of the
main opposition party keeping the Government
in place. ‘Broken politics’ give us decisions that
have no evident capacity to address the big
issues of our day such as inequality or climate
change.
In convening a national
deliberation for civil soci-
ety activists and
organisations Claiming
Our Future recently chose
to focus on ‘broken poli-
tics’. The deliberation,
however, was not about
politicians and political
reform, but about how civil
society organisations
could best step up to the
mark to advance their
vision of transformative
change for society in a
context of ‘broken
politics’.
Participants celebrated the potential and cre
-
ativity of civil society. This was based on
testaments from an emerging disability move-
ment, the People’s Energy Charter network,
the challenge to the cultural sector to re-pur-
pose itself, and the achievements of the
Right2Change movement. In a context where
change is elusive and hardship widespread, the
need to inspire hope was emphasised and,
within that, the importance of taking time to cel-
ebrate success.
The event, however, was also one of reflec-
tion, a rare moment for people from across the
different strands of civil society to talk together
about the shared challenges faced in working
and co-operating to make change happen.
There were no speakers, only conversations
involving people from community, trade-union,
environmental, culture, and global-justice
organisations.
There was discussion about the agendas pur-
sued by civil society and how these were
developed. Tensions were pointed to in the
agenda-setting process between paid workers
and unpaid activists, between working-class
communities and middle-class NGOs, and in
the invisibility of some groups like people with
disabilities. There was a strong sense that fur-
ther action was needed to empower these
agendas. There was a challenge posed to build
a greater popular understanding of and commit-
ment to the values and issues raised by
organisations. The
further develop
-
ment of civil-society
media was sug-
gested to enable
this.
The strategies
being implemented
by civil-society
organisations were
explored and ana
-
lysed. The
importance of mobi-
lising people,
engaging them in the issues and offering differ-
ent ways and levels for them to get involved in
seeking change was emphasised. Local activ-
ism needs to be stimulated and supported.
There was a strong desire for greater creativ-
ity in strategies and the cultural sector was
identified as holding potential in offering new
ways of engaging and educating people. A chal
-
lenge was posed to move outside the
parameters set by the political and administra-
tive system in seeking change.
The need for civil society to connect and col-
laborate more effectively was debated.
Fragmentation
between the differ-
ent parts of civil
society was seen to
have increased over the
period of economic crisis. Leadership within
civil society for greater collaboration was called
for. Collaboration is not only needed between
the different sectors of civil society, but also
between the different levels of action (local,
national, and international).
A set of propositions emerged from the delib-
eration. The first focused on the need to build
effective solidarity behind different campaigns
currently being pursued. A task force of alli-
ance-builders was proposed to identify the
campaigns that civil society organisations
could collaborate on to achieve greater impact.
The need to create formal spaces where
organisations can discuss and build collabora-
tion on shared issues was put forward. Ideas
for less formal networking were also mooted,
using digital platforms to share information,
advance campaigns and secure active solidar-
ity between organisations. New structures,
such as Public Participation Networks that
include community, voluntary, cultural, and
environmental organisations, could be used to
build shared actions at local level.
The value of creating new links for civil soci-
ety with both politics and academia was
stressed. These links need to be thought
through to reflect new types of relationships.
Organisations across all sectors need a rela-
tionship with politics that goes beyond
lobbying and negotiation to include partner-
ships with those parts of politics that share
their values. A more active engagement by aca-
demics with civil society could facilitate
penetrating analysis and generate evidence to
ground the call for action to seek change,
fuelled by innovation
Claiming Our Future is now planning a ‘reflec-
tion’ meeting to consider the various
propositions and how they might be imple
-
mented.
Our politics is
broken not new!
Needed: Creativity, Collaboration,
Communication
Tensions in agenda-setting
between paid workers
and unpaid activists,
between working-class
communities and middle-
class NGOs, and in the
invisibility of groups like
people with disabilities
OPINION
Niall Crowley
EGALITARIAN
THE
OPINION
