3-6 April, 2005

Who was behind this initiative?
Through 2004 the ideas underpinning the School were discussed at larger forums convened at NCOSS, Centre for Popular Education forums and the Education and Social Action Conference and at smaller planning meetings at Unions NSW.

A group of individuals with the support of their organisatons jointly co-ordinated the School. These include:

Unions NSW

Western Sydney Community Forum Search Foundation

Asian Women at Work

Australian Services Union

Environmental Advocacy Project

Centre for Popular Education, UTS

Background
Throughout 2004 a group of union, community, social movement and academic workers have met to discuss the concept and practice of community organising and how it might be extended in Australia. The experience of community organising in the US and a lesser extent in the UK has provided some inspiration, as has the interest in establishing broader, more effective coalitions that has been expressed by unions and other social movement groups. In addition, the negative consequences of nine years of the Coalition government and the toll their policies have taken on communities, community organisations, advocacy groups and the right to organise, has led many to re-think the best ways we can learn from our experience in order to build a stronger movement for equality and justice in Australia.

In late 2004 the group decided to plan for a Community Organising School to be held in Sydney in April 2005. The intention is to organise a School that will include organisers and activists in the environment, social justice, community development, unions, indigenous and student movements.

This paper sets out our current thinking about the proposal and is circulated for discussion among prospective supporting organizations.

Rationale
We start from the premise that there is interest in bringing together activists and organisers from different fields of practice.

Community groups, unions and social movements all practice organising, and all organisers face similar challenges. They include - how to recruit new members, to inspire and mobilise people, to build confidence that change is possible, and to articulate a vision of a community or society that works for the majority and not a powerful minority. Central to that vision is re-generating a solidarity that says that what happens to other people concerns me, and building the collective strength that equips people to act together.

This common set of organising skills and vision has the potential to bring us together as we go about rebuilding and strengthening our movements.

Like unions, community groups have experienced their own difficulties in the past twenty years. Many community groups were born out of struggles in the 1960s and 1970s. For example, women organised refuges, self-help organizations, and feminist agencies; indigenous people established their own organizations and councils; public housing residents and tenants formed resident action groups, neighbourhood and community centres were established, community child care groups, advocacy groups were formed, and peak community associations grew.

Nearly all these organizations have come to rely on grant and/or project income from the State. Today many community groups report that the pressures to meet stringent government accountability requirements, the stress associated with dwindling resources and short term employment contracts, the constant demand to compete for government tenders and so on has changed the scope and ability of their organizations to be effective community advocates or activists.

In response to these pressures there is an interest in re-examining their relationships with the State, and examining new ways of organising at the community level.

Unions have looked overseas to learn lessons for organising. But what is interesting about the US unions is that they looked to community organisers to craft their organising techniques. Those methods were honed over decades and draw on different traditions that include the industrial organising drives of the 1930s and neighbourhood organising in the Depression, the post war urban renewal and organising strategies pioneered by Saul Alinsky and the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), and the civil rights movement and new left community organising of the 1960s and 70s. An important catalyst in these movements was the Highlander popular education centre of Myles Horton.

Why a School?
A school provides the opportunity for people to spend time together, and to learn from each other in an organised manner that combines formal and informal sessions. Spending time together is a critical glue in building awareness, trust, ideas and plans for collaboration and cross-movement strengthening.

Currently different movements provide their own organiser and leadership training for their own constituencies. They are thorough courses aimed at inculcating skills and knowledge of their traditions. Yet they are mostly self-contained as they speak to activists from within the particular movement. They often do not benefit from the experience and skills of organisers and activists in other movements. This is an opportunity lost. For instance, could union organisers learn useful knowledge from environmental activists and vice versa? Could campaigns of mutual interest such as against James Hardie be strengthened by joint discussion and planning? Could discussions of values and strategies be enhanced by including social justice campaigners in common discussion? Could skills involved in one-to-one recruiting or waging media campaigns be shared by drawing on the experience of community workers or Greenpeace activists? Could the union campaigns on One Tel or the campaigns against low pay offer lessons for other activists? And so on.

In the current climate a School provides a good starting point for bringing people together, examining practice, campaigns and objectives, and examining the possibilities for, and nature of, future collaborations.

A school is seen as a stepping stone to meeting other pressing needs which include for example providing methodical training for community organisers, and in pursuing specific community organising projects that complement workplace organising.

What is the aim?
It’s about movement building, about extending skills, discussing strategies and learning from other activists and organisers. It is oriented to building grassroots strength in geographic communities and communities of interest/practice based on democratic principles.

Who would it be for?
The school would be aimed at bringing experienced activists together to share their experience and expertise. We do not shy away from aiming at experienced organisers. But we do not associate experience with length of service. Instead we see ideal participants as those who will bring what they have learned from their involvement in student, union, environmental, social justice and other campaigns and movements. They may not occupy senior positions but they will have the skills involved in organising and a willingness to organise organisers.

Most obviously potential participants are working in the union movement, social movements, environmental organisations, some church based groups, and community-based organisations.

FOR MORE INFORMATION go to:
http://www.cpe.uts.edu.au/courses/CommOS.html