Our story

Our Story!

CLAIMING OUR FUTURE DECEMBER 2016

Introduction Claiming our Future was established in 2010. It sought to advance alternative approaches for economic and social development; promote new values to underpin these approaches; build a movement to advance them; and enhance the capacity of civil society to play a central role in achieving this change.

It emerged in a context of economic and social crisis, deepening social and economic inequalities, and failure to grapple with issues of climate change. Austerity policies created a stifling context for any ambition for change. Civil society needed to step forward as a creative force in imagining alternatives for a more equal and environmentally sustainable future.

A blueprint for an alternative society and economy was needed, based on values different to those that were predominant among power-holders. Civil society held and could champion the values to shape this blueprint. An empowered and connected civil society was key to effectively advancing this alternative. Claiming Our Future identified the need to bring together the different sectors of civil society and break down the silos that existed. Public spaces were necessary involving both organisations and individuals to develop and build support for this blueprint. Enabling deliberation in such public spaces was an important part of Claiming Our Future’s strategy.

Strategy

Roots

Movement building was central to the early ambition of Claiming Our Future.

Attempts to build a movement were a focus for ongoing and creative debate and tension. This ambition was hard to realise in a context where inequality and hardship made it difficult to mobilise people and where civil society was beset with problems of fragmentation purpose and vision, that were products of economic boom and crisis.

An informal group calling itself Is Feidir Linn formed in 2008. This coincided with Obama’s USA presidential campaign and the hope captured in the slogan ‘Yes We Can’. It grew out of the work of national anti-poverty networks concerned about the state curtailing the space and activities of civil society through a series of legislative, funding and institutional changes. In 2009 Is Feidir Linn launched ‘Shaping our Future’ as an initial sketch of an alternative balanced model of development.

There were tensions between the need to have short‐term relevance to the immediate needs of local activists and to address the vaguer long‐term objectives of policy alternatives and political re-imagining. It was difficult to be responsive to demands for immediate action on issues without duplicating the work of existing single issue campaign groups. While the aim was to show solidarity with other campaigns, there was considerable demand to initiate or get involved directly in specific campaigns.

Claiming Our Future proved unable to imagine a way towards realising its movement building ambition. Over time, it evolved into a networking space for civil society with capacity and ambition to bring forward new ideas, construct cross-sectoral initiatives, and deliberate and create alternative directions for policy and for the pursuit of change.

Is Feidir Linn opened a formal dialogue with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, some organisations from the environmental movement, the Community Platform, TASC and Social Justice Ireland. These organisations had all published alternative models for development. They identified barriers to putting an alternative analysis into the public domain including a tendency to work in silos, the difficulty in engaging mainstream media, and the problems in linking national work to local groups.

They agreed three principles in working together to advance these alternatives.

This work should be: • •

Society led, not vulnerable to being controlled by the state, and involve a state free public sphere.

Cross‐sectoral in bringing together

•

groups previously working in narrow silos.

Based on national and local mobilisation.

Taking Off An inaugural Claiming Our Future event was developed by this group of organisations on the 30th October 2010 in the RDS in Dublin. The aim was to provide an opportunity for individuals and organisations to deliberate on values and the implications of these values for new policy choices, and to identify ways of cooperating to advance these values and policy choices.

Local meetings and activities were held around the country in the lead up to the event and there was extensive use of social media.

Demand significantly exceeded capacity on the day with over 1,300 booked.

100 trained facilitators volunteered to assist the deliberation. â‚Ź60,000 was raised from philanthr opic organisations and trade unions. Office space, bookkeeping, information technology, and event management skills were all volunteered.

The event agreed five priority values: equality; environmental sustainability; accountability from those in power; participation by people in decision making; and solidarity. Six priority

policy agendas were agreed under broad headings of making the economy work for the people and reforming the state to work for the people. Policy priorities agreed were the need to change the current development model, regulate banking, achieve greater income equality and reduce poverty, create high levels of decent employment, reform representative democracy, develop deliberative forms of citizen engagement, provide universal access to quality healthcare, and invest in equality of access to and participation in all levels of education.

Operation Claiming Our Future was organised in working groups, a central group, and an assembly to pursue this agenda.

These structures were open and sought to include those engaged in the work of building Claiming Our Future and advancing its aims. Working groups met regularly and drove the priority policy agendas to varying degrees of success and scale. The Central Group met every one or two months and drove the core building and development of Claiming Our Future. The assembly met at least once a year and was a time for reflection and strategising.

Claiming Our Future produced a regular email newsletter for supporters and engaged in social media. A community of some 7,000 supporters

registered through its website. SIPTU (Liberty), Mandate (Shopfloor), and Village Magazine supported regular articles on the activities of Claiming Our Future. Focus Ireland facilitated all administrative matters for Claiming Our Future. Claiming Our Future secured core funding of €50,000 annually (2012‐ 2016) from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.

Claiming Our Future avoided the need for any form of legal incorporation with the support of key allies in order to maintain a focus on movement building rather than organisation building.

It worked through volunteers, in particular Brid Nolan, and relied on borrowed office space and administrative support. Over time it had to work though internships and benefited from the contributions of Tanya Shevel, Daragh McCarthy, Richie Keane, and Keelin Fitzgerald. In the last two years it employed a parttime co-ordinator, a role played with skill and dedication by Nina Sachau.

Strands of Action Key strands of action were deliberation, cross sectoral campaigns, and shared agenda development.

Deliberation National deliberative events were held to debate Income Equality in Galway in May 2011, an Economy for Society in Cork in November 2011, and Reinventing Democracy in Dublin in May 2012. These themes reflected priorities identified at the inaugural event. Working groups organised the events and took on to follow-up the outcomes.

Deliberations were held in partnership with other organisations. In 2012 a local deliberation on Resilience in Communities and in the Economy was organised with the Transition Kerry network. This provided an agenda for county based action that was taken up

by Transition Kerry. In the same year a deliberation on energy production, distribution and conservation was organised with LEAF, an environmental action group in Laois. This resulted in LEAF stimulating the emergence of an active and effective People’s Energy Charter network. Claiming Our Future organised an event with Dochas and the Wheel in 2013 to debate the development of what became the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

There was an internal focus on civil society in this work. A ‘futures’ event for leaders from across diverse civil society sectors was hosted. This explored future perspectives, including both likely futures and futures we would like, with a view to building a shared vision for change across civil society. A public event entitled ‘Broken Politics’ was held in 2016 to explore shared agenda development, strategies for change, and cooperation and connecting within civil society in a context of some disillusionment with the ability of mainstream politics to deliver change.

Cross Sectoral Campaigns Early Claiming Our Future campaigns were internet based and focused on protecting the minimum wage, securing gender quotas in politics, and introducing a wealth tax. Subsequent longer term campaigns were driven by different working groups.

The Income Equality Working Group promoted the idea of a maximum income through a range of initiatives.

It convened cross-sectoral meetings of key organisations campaigning on economic equality issues to promote mutual support, coherence of effort, and shared campaign messages. Cap the Gap, an innovation that emerged in this work, sought to build a community of activists from across civil society to speak out on the issue of income equality. Another working group promoted the introduction

of a Financial Transactions Tax as part of an EU enhanced cooperation procedure that saw ten Member States sign up to such a tax, but not Ireland. The Democracy Working Group campaigned on political reform, including a focus on local government reform, electoral reform, and Dail and Seanad reform.

Claiming Our Future focused on the relationship between civil society and political society and strategies for building a new left. A public event on ‘Building a Left Alternative’ with Prof. Eduardo Silva, Tulane University (USA) was hosted. This concluded that Ireland has much to learn from the Latin American experience and practices there of brokerage, framing, and agenda development. The challenge for civil society to build new types of relationships with political society was posed.

The Art of Campaigning Working Group explored the relationship between the activist and the artist, integrating the cultural sector within broader civil society campaigns, and the issue of creative campaigning. Actions included a joint seminar with the Advocacy Initiative, a dialogue between artists and activists, and a series of summer camps. This work will be continued by Blue Drum.

Shared Agenda Development

building.

A ‘Plan B’ Working Group developed a framework for an alternative budget that eschewed austerity policies. It campaigned on this at budget time. Another working group developed a ‘Declaration for New Republic’ to coincide with the 2016 commemorations as a new ‘proclamation’.

A series of ‘future news’ video clips were developed by groups and individuals from around the country and across civil society to inform this Declaration. It was published, launched and widely disseminated.

There was a significant range of ideas generated and actions initiated by Claiming Our Future. There was success in the individual activities and many spin-offs.

However, the collective whole did not generate a critical mass of new or engaged activists. Those remaining found themselves spread too thinly over too many initiatives.

In the end, time, money and energy ran dry.

In July 2016 Claiming Our Future made the difficult decision to wind down.

Looking Back & Looking Forward It was always a challenge for Claiming Our Future to maintain these cross‐sectoral spaces. The people involved from different sectors use different language and have different starting points in approaching debate about alternatives There were more activists from the community sector than the environmental, trade union, cultural and global justice sectors. There was a danger of being self‐reinforcing as the language, culture and work patterns of one sector can dominate, the space can appear exclusive, and there is the risk of an absence of new dynamics. While leaders in other sectors were supportive it was perhaps the case that, unless the issue had direct and immediate relevance, few in other sectors felt able to invest in cross sectoral alliance

Claiming Our Future provided a deliberative sphere that many valued, a space where people found solidarity and hope at key stages during the crisis.

It was an important attempt to articulate the need for alternatives and to work with others to put shape on what an alternative set of values, policies and programmes could and should look like.

New ideas gathered pace such as the importance of values, maximum income, relationships between political society and civil society, resilience, and the artist-activist engagement. Useful lessons were learned at different stages about cross-sectoral work and the seeds for new collaborations were sown.

Who knows what the future harvest from this will deliver and who might do that harvesting.

This pamphlet was drafted by Niall Crowley and Mary Murphy. The publication of

this pamphlet was made possible by support from St Stephen’s Green Trust Fund and Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.