MINUTES OF THE LAST DEMOCRACY GROUP MEETING
held on 8th March 2003

- please read this relatively urgently as decisions may affect the monthly meeting of 3 April.

PREPARING THE PEOPLE'S ASSEMBLY was the main focus of the Democracy Group meeting last Wednesday. Within this context, a discussion took place on just how exactly to approach the planning and organisation of this event. One possibility that was suggested would be for the LSF to act as the 'organiser and host', making the decisions as to when and where the Assembly should be held, booking the venue and then inviting as many individuals, groups and organisations as possible. However, the drawback of this method - top down and undemocratic as it is - would be that it may not really give us any idea of what it is that LONDONERS are looking for in a People's Assembly, nor how they might visualise the shape which a People's Assembly should take.

An alternative - preferred by the Democracy Group - would therefore be to actively try and broaden out the process of creating the Assembly itself so that decisions are made as a result of debate and discussion with others. The ideal would be to open up this process (and thus the LSF) to such an extent that we start making contact with people from ALL walks of life. By that we mean academia, the arts, the public, the private (certainly social enterprises) and the so called third sector (NGO's, etc) as well as the unions and the general public - including individuals who are not necessarily 'activist' as such, but perhaps feel that their democratic rights are being rapidly eroded, yet don't know what to do about it. This is obviously a very ambitious aim, and will most certainly take time to realise.

In the meantime, it was suggested that we build on what the LSF has achieved so far, make contact with those individuals/groups who have attended previous LSF events (including the one in October) and to invite them to the next LSF monthly meeting on 3 April, when a first extended discussion on the People's Assembly would take place.

Initial proposals as to whom to contact were: Those on the email list gathered at the October event (to be provided by Teresa) • The London Civic Forum • Red Pepper • The Chartist (a magazine) • Steve Shaw (Communities Sustainability Bill) • The Wombles • Valery Alzaga (The Cleaners' Campaign?)

What next?

1) The short-term goal is to invite as many people as possible to the LSF meeting of 3 April to discuss the People's Assembly. The Democracy Group will meet later on in March to work out a programme for this meeting and circulate it for discussion the next day.

2) We already know that we need to discuss Athens and LSF participation in the ESF, so one suggestion was to discuss Athens in the earlier part of the meeting at 6.30/7pm and start the discussion on the People's Assembly an hour later, at 7.30/8pm.

3) It goes without saying that anyone on the list who has any ideas/suggestions as to whom else to invite is welcome to send their proposals to the list. However, it would be up to that person to then carryout the invite so that all the work doesn't fall on a few individuals.

4) There are (supposedly) 200 people or more on the list itself - it would be very welcome to see more of you at the 3/4 meeting!

5) As there may well be a number of newcomers knocking at our door we need to tell them where to come to and what to expect - i.e. post the address, room number and how to get there alongside the programme on the website.

As a final point, some tension did surface in our discussions around the idea of how 'open' the space within the People's Assembly should be - whether those with differing, or even opposite, ideas should be included or whether the space should be focused on developing the general objectives of the SF movement, ie. to generate alternatives to neoliberal forms of globalisation. LSF Democracy Group

Posted by : "Helena K" <helena_ko17@hotmail.com>
13/3/2006