A long weekend in Staffordshire doesn't sound like the kind of sentence that you'd automatically associate with revolution.
But this is exactly what I have just experienced, a revolution of the best kind, and one that I think will just keep building momentum.
June 20th-23rd, at the Yarnfield Centre, hundreds of people on the national community organising programme, including volunteers, teachers, activists, women, men, and children, from every corner of England...came together under one canopy- to share their knowledge, wisdom and their dreams.With plenaries and workshops on everything from Anarchism in the board room to Community bridging techniques.Since joining the Community Organising programme just over 6 months ago I've seen, heard and been a part of a wave of change, that has now gained the weight and size of a Movement.
Up and down the country people are actually taking power into their own hands and doing something about systems that are not working for them, their families, friends and communities.
Set into action by community organizers in their local area, people are owning their rights, understanding the value of their voice through putting their ideas into action and speaking to 'power', whether that power be a local councillor or a stakeholder who they've never sought to ask anything of before. It could even just be as simple a starting point as one neighbour willing to start the change off by asking other neighbours their views.
Old issues are becoming galvanized into new actions. Isolated individuals are transforming into inspired groups. Previous divides are becoming powerful bridges.
For example, I've seen my colleague Elle's work have an impact the scale of which can not be measured. In only a period of months, she has generated over 6 projects with the community in Manchester's Gay Village; and bought together major LGBTQ organisations and groups who before she began organising would not talk to each other... now they are working TOGETHER to support the needs of the community.
So bridge building really means more than jargon-phrases such as 'capacity building' and 'new-wave localism' but in real people having real influence- where they live, and beyond. Community Organising really does strengthen the very roots of society- the human-tier.The stories of this 'human-tier' were for me, the most life-changing part of the Action Camp weekend.
They spoke of the spirit of this programme in words of genuine revolution through the voices of volunteers and CO's all over the country. And of a new kind of people's alchemy. Changing silence and suffering into conversations and action.
A man named Steve stood up in front of a room full of hundreds of people and explained how community organizing had helped him to transform the area he lives in and in doing so he has seen his own life transform.
After three years of almost never leaving his house after his son's suicide Steve found finally the courage to do so;
The turning point was through an 'annoying friend' (or maybe persistent is another word for it!) who nagged Steve to speak to a local CO about Community Organising, and after a knock on his door to ask what he loved and what he'd like to change about his area Steve got up and out and started changing things.
Growin Spaces in Sneinton, Nottingham is an urban allotment project led by Steve that allows local residents the chance to take time out and use a community garden space to grow their own, meet new faces, learn new skills and gain in confidence.
Among other stirring accounts were that of a man from Dudley who, at 90 years of age organizes bulk buying of food in his residential building, of organizers themselves who have been victims of discrimination, repression in and out of the workplace who now can find voice and value in their own actions as organisers, and a sense of truly belonging and being a part of a meaningful community- that goes far beyond money-driven agendas.
I met some incredible people. In fact, every single person I met had an extraordinary story to tell of their journey through community organising.
The programme is revolutionary because...it is led by people, for people, and there are no top-down agendas.
The outcomes are so far reaching that their ripples are overlapping all over this country.
The programme is revolutionary because it gives voice to some of the most vulnerable and ignored members of society.
Their voices and ideas are fast re-weaving the fabric of our society.
The programme is revolutionary, because, in a time of 'austerity' where people are more and more identifying themselves as victims of a state that does not count them before the coffers, now those 'victims' are able to transform their positions through working with other members of their community.
The programme is revolutionary because it does not punish, patronize, segregate or oppress, it does not distance itself from the people it aims to affect change with. It hands them the mandate to affect change, and the power to move from victim to decision maker.
I want to thank Locality, Regenerate and everyone I met, for making this weekend an indescribably powerful experience. Here are just some of the memories of conversations I took away from the workshops, plenaries and partying at Action Camp. Listening to their thoughts and experiences will inform the way I work and live for the rest of my days:
Junior, thank you for inspiring me with your passion and strength in challenging the lack of provision & acknowledgment of the needs of disabled people in today's society.
Robin, thank you for sharing your vision and commitment to challenging the systems which dictate our wages, welfare and our rights as workers and citizens, and introducing me to the power of being a part of a union.
Steve, thank you for sharing with me the incredible range of experience and impact you've had through your work in Nottingham, in becoming a teacher and the way in which you are creating an academy so your volunteers can gain the core skills to embed their work as organisers and make a brighter future for themselves.
To be surrounded by the energy, kindness and vision of these people was like seeing one candle light a thousand more in the blink of an eye; it's undeniable that the People, are the Power to generate Action.