Unclaimed Future - Village Magazine

December - January 2017 3 3

LAIMING OUR FUTURE was ‘waked’ on 10th

December in Tailors Hall in Dublin. There was

a good attendance, some sadness, and, as

ever, a bit of deliberation. It was felt the

deceased had had a good life and that longev-

ity was never the appropriate ambition for such a

creation. It had a potential that was never fully realised

but made a contribution that was worth celebrating, a

contribution that should be built on in the future.

Claiming Our Future emphasised the need for cross-

sectoral civil society action for change. Fragmentation

between the different parts of civil society has increased

as a result of austerity. There is a lack of networking and

collaboration between sectors of civil society, more spe-

cifically the trade union, community, cultural,

global-justice, environmental and cultural sectors. Each

finds it difficult to move beyond its own agendas.

Cross-sectoral initiatives led by Claiming Our Future

included: online campaigns on the minimum wage,

gender quotas in politics, and a wealth tax; the creation

of an economic equality steering group involving organi-

sations in each sector working on the annual Budget;

and a campaign for the introduction of a Financial Trans-

action Tax. Developing cross-sectoral approaches was

not easy. There remain challenges to provide leadership

and to sustain commitment, to collaboration.

Claiming Our Future brought values centre stage. It

was founded in a crowded Industries Hall in the RDS in

2010 with equality, environmental sustainability,

accountability, participation, and solidarity identified as

its core values. At first values were seen as the link to

draw together the different parts of civil society and to

enable them to work together, more coherently and more

powerfully, for social change. Then these values became

the lens through which Claiming Our Future assessed

issues and developed positions. Alignment with these

values was the test of any key decision.

However, it took time before the full importance of

values became clear. Values are the motor of social

change. They motivate people in the perspectives they

hold and the choices they make. Change will come about

by finding ways to convince a wider public to give prior-

ity to the values of Claiming Our Future. Lobbying the

increasingly unresponsive powerful and hoping the

mainstream media will carry our ideas are no longer

effective enough, for change.

We are up against powerful forces in a cultural battle

as we seek to have these values prioritised. The individ

ual, the consumer, the market, and wealth get prioritised

as values. The advertising industry, the media, the edu-

cation system and even political discourse provide the

skills and the resources that sustain this. Civil society

must gear up to compete so that a different set of values

gets prioritised.

Claiming Our Future promoted deliberation and the

creation of public spaces for deliberation. Deliberation

events were hosted on ‘an economy for society’, ‘income

equality’, ‘political reform’, ‘international development

goals’, ‘local resilience’, ‘new forms of energy produc-

tion, distribution, and consumption’, and our ‘broken

politics’. Deliberation was based on an open invitation

to participate in developing a position and plan of action

on these themes. Participants worked on tables of ten

people to debate and build consensus on a position and

how to advance that position. A form of consensus

voting, developed by the de Borda Institute, was used to

find the consensus across all the tables in the hall.

This was a powerful means of exploring alternatives

to current models of development. Civil society had been

found wanting for convincing alternatives when the eco-

nomic crisis first hit. A tradition of deliberation had to be

rebuilt and needs sustaining and further development if

alternatives are to be devised and put forward as the

crisis changes and evolves.

Claiming Our Future worked to bring the activist and

the artist together. Dialogues between activists and art-

ists were organised, creative expression was a

centrepiece at all deliberation events, and a summer

school on the ‘Art of Campaigning’ was organised. This

recognised the central role for creativity in action for

social change and in convincing people to prioritise dif-

ferent values.

Art has the power to move people, to capture their

imagination and attention, and to draw them into seeing

new perspectives. It enables people to express them-

selves and to articulate different futures. Activists are

challenged to learn to recognise and draw upon their

creative talents. Artists are challenged to contribute

their skills to issues they care about and to bring a new

focus and meaning to their work.

It remains to be seen where these different ideas that

have been developed and tested by Claiming Our Future

will be taken up. The ‘wake’ will, we hope, be the start

of something new and ambitious for civil society as it

strives, creatively and cross-sectorally, for change.

Niall Crowley was convenor of Claiming Our Future

Unclaimed Future

Claiming our Future pioneered cross-

sectoral collaboration and creativity and

the values of equality, sustainability,

accountability, participation, and solidarity

but the powerful and the media resisted

Lobbying the

increasingly

unresponsive

powerful and

hoping the

mainstream

media will carry

our ideas is no

longer adequate

for change to be

realised

by Niall Crowley

Learning lessons