[Notes from Isolde's session] Sunday session --------------------- Introduction from yesterday's arrivals Dave: Pobal an Du'lra magazine distributing Earthwatch magazine Liz: Intentional communities in America Works in Evolution Isolde: Taking back control over our lives ----------------------------------------------------------- The food for this weekend - properly produced, traded Wanted input: Like to investigate the level to which we have control in / over our daily lives - level we want to change.... In your day-to-day life, what are the things that you don't have direct control over: - the time the sun gets up in the AM - supplies of electricity generation - weather - type of food in the supermarket - what someone else will say to you - what's going to happen in the day - only have control over yourself - what we say, what we do ?? What is beyond our direct control: - Anglesey's useless public transport policy At the simplest level: - the work relations we are in - my daughter wakes me up - the hands go round the clock - the way I feel when I wake up in the AM - the telephone - people's behaviour Is control a good thing? Get beyond the idea that it is badly out of control or something you will leave other people to do. Hoping we could see how many things are going on that we don't affect: Easier to see what I can have a direct effect on. IC: What are the things (simple) where you are happy to let other people take care of it: - taking care of the sewer - hospitals - interaction generally. The food that we might buy in the supermarket - happy to let someone else grow it, prepare it, get it to the shop. Jason: thanks a friend for growing great food, who thanks him for doing politics LC: difference between control & power. Happy not to control things if the person has the power - control and influence: feeling that I have it & others don't & vice-versa. Control takes the power away. Alex: way of looking at the world. We actually have more than we think.... IC: sidestep the very political thinking and get down to the simplest things, like water coming out of the tap, food in the shops. Yes, you have influence to change power relation but [?] where you have to say "I don't have the particular skill or energy to do these things." Bring it to a simple level: have identified simplest things that we pass on to others to do; now we come back to the things we don't have direct influence over & are not happy about it: what are the frustrations - - not being any cycle lanes - NATO bombing Yugoslavia - lack of Dublin transport - Car alarms & burglar alarms - Laws that are passed, the way the country is being run IC: what is the power of the individual: what is one thing that you don't have direct power over? Richard - almost no power over most things, like trying to control. Grahame - key is meditation: to control the mind, focus your intent. Donal - poster of a guru on a surfboard - you can't stop the waves but you can learn how to surf. Richard - like people's houses - that's their world. Outside, lost control. Pauline - apparently only. We all need other people to live. Illusion of control LC - the collective business of living in a city: so scary to think of that & think what would it be like to think of it as different; prefer Leitrim than having to face that - getting away from personal control to communicative control - how we would do Dublin. Pauline - it takes one person to cause chaos in a city but there is already so much going on that makes it work - we realise at some level that we do compromise & take other people into account. Alex - the crappy jobs - do those people feel interconnected? The people that keep the city going. Richard - what's more predictable, a machine or a person ... people can be much more predictable IC - The effect of one person refuses to go along with the system, what can [?] Can you think of one thing that might change that ... - get a bike - get a babyseat on the bike - pull out the telephone - chuck out the TV - reduce the amount of input IC - Anything that would have an effect on NATO actions in Kosova? LC - Hamburg, Gulf War, schoolkids paraded around busy intersections & shut the city down. Alex - proactive & reactive strategies: candlelit vigils in Downing St; or get out to Albanian refugee camps. Even on an individual level, walk into an Oxfam shop & give up money Mary - set up workshops & give an insight into history LC - the 2nd Gulf War; political turning point; Hamburg, 100,000 on the demo; public opinion shifted to pro-war - in spite of the protests. Structures outside that control. Alex - about communication; debates that don't get on the agenda. LC - running an alternative magazine .... takes a long time to get an issue out Alex - long-term consciousness-raising LC - recognise barriers, situations, quite tangible, difference is power Monica [?] - how long it took to stop the Vietnam war IC: If analysis is in terms of structures, what can alter the structures and the power the structures have: Grahame - the poly? system has to be removed take the issue of finance away from the banks & into the control of the state. IC: One - sidestep the fiscal economy e.g. LETS system: "Meitheal" Grahame - Institutions like Bank of England are owned by private individual banking families, not owned by the state. IC: Are there other things that we sidestep the structures Alex - Is society constructed of individuals or do individuals make society; (collapse the distinction); Individuals can change the system if they work together - but no clear answers. We have more power than the structure would have us realise. IC: Want to take this down to the individual level - how the most basic things we do contribute to the structure or change it. LC - Some psychologists believe we start out manic because we want to control everything - but your question is odd to ask of a group of activists ... unusual for people to devote their entire life to politics but the people who do are part of large groups of people ... down to the much larger classes, gender ec. that we came out of - are ordinary people going to continue with capitalism or not Liz - People can say I don't want GM foods & supermarkets repond. Very powerful. & CFCs: Tobacco industry was considered unstoppable. The structures are not unstoppable. Take something very small to get the ball rolling. Monica [?] - Pessimis point - we have to be realistically aware .... need a really good analysis before deciding on strategies. IC: Generate optimism by showing there is something one person can do. Resistance in one's own life - certain effects Liz - People think it's to big ... but if tons of people do it ... Every little bit helps Maire [?] - There is nothing more powerful than an idea. Through work people's ideas can change. The more we are undermining the system in our thoughts. Something essentially uncontrollable about life. We are working on different levels; direct action, planting seeds. IC: Is there one thing you have done on a personal level that you can pass on Dave - Don't be fooled by what everyone else is doing Grahame - Determine what the truth is for yourself Jason - I like to let institutions know if I don't like something ASAP Pauline - believe that change is possible Maeve [?] - not to be frightened of change Monica [?] - the support & idea of collective activists IC: Wrap up: Passing on the strategies so that other people can do it with you.