So much of what’s being expressed today at this conference will be outlining where we are in terms of the relationship between campaigners and the political structures in the UK, and where we’re likely to be in the near future. People who make futurological predictions about what’s going to change tend to be fairly fatalistic about the potential for change – it’s built into the kind of observational science that they indulge in.
So this post is intended to be a place where we will pull together your suggestions for transformative change in the way that campaigning organisations are formed, managed and maintain their radical edge, but still manage to access the kind of funding they need to keep going. Please do post them in the comments, cross post good things you’ve found elsewhere and discuss the potential.
It would be great for this to be the place for some big thinking, big ideas, hopes and dreams for how we can make sure that campaigning organisations don’t get sucked into a government funding vortex that removes any power they have to be the thorn in the flesh of the political establishment where required.
Over to you – please post your ideas and comments below:
A few questions you might want to tackle:
How does govt funding compromise a charities independence? What are the alternatives? How can a campaigning organisation have a commercial wing but still maintain its ideological independence?
How do social tech tools like Facebook and Twitter change the flow of information from organisers to campaigners, and back up the chain? How does this impact on funding, organising and strategy?
What is the role of support from incumbent politicians – are they key allies to be courted or should we maintain a visible distance? (x-ref the problems around the G8 summit in edinburgh and the hijacking of the protest platform by politicians looking for populist support on the back of a whole load of broken promises about debt relief.)
[...] of the conversations going on? Got some big ideas of your own? Join in on the comments thread of this post. var addthis_pub = ''; var addthis_language = 'en';var addthis_options = 'email, favorites, digg, [...]
[...] of the conversations going on? Got some big ideas of your own? Join in on the comments thread of this post. var addthis_pub = ''; var addthis_language = 'en';var addthis_options = 'email, favorites, digg, [...]