A NEW movement, reflecting “deep dissatisfaction with Government policies” and representing groups from across the State, will hold its first national meeting at the end of the month.
Claiming Our Future is supported by about 50 national groups including the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu), the National Women’s Council, the Disability Federation, the TASC think tank, Social Justice Ireland, the Community Platform and the Society of St Vincent de Paul.
Its first national meeting will be at the RDS, Dublin on October 30th. Its aim is to co-ordinate the views of hundreds of local and national groups in civil society who disagree with the way the crisis is being handled by the Government.
In germination for about two years, the movement was founded after discussions between the Is Féidir Linn network of community groups and other groups including Ictu and the Community Platform.
“There has been a lot of local protesting and being clear about what we don’t want. There was a sense in the discussions about shared values and shared barriers,” said the group’s co-founder, Niall Crowley, former chief executive of the Equality Authority.
“There was a sense of a need to mobilise civil society and make the links between local needs and a national strategy, to challenge the prevailing wisdom that there is no alternative to the way things are being done in our name.
“We do not accept that there is no alternative to the current direction. We believe there are alternatives, that we do have choices.”
In preparation for the national event, a discussion paper has been drawn up, with six headings for debate: the economy; the environment; society and culture; the public sector, income and tax; and democratic reform. The underpinning values are equality, sustainability and government for the people rather than the markets.
Meetings are being held by member organisations across the State said Mr Crowley, the views from which would be fed into the national meeting.
The event, financially supported by the Joseph Rowntree Trust, the Community Foundation for Ireland and the One Foundation, is expected to attract up to 1,000.
“Anyone can attend,” stressed Mr Crowley. “It’s a real grassroots movement. Our aim is not to compete with political parties, or to oppose. It’s more to propose that there are achievable, supported alternatives. Claiming Our Future is about seeing the current crisis as a turning point and opportunity to reshape politics, reappraise values.”
Siobhán O’Donoghue, one of the group’s co-founders and director of the Migrant Rights Centre of Ireland, said the group was inspired by movements for social change like those in South America. “I am hearing the enormous dissatisfaction among ordinary people, but they are afraid to put their head above the parapet. They are afraid of being seen as too political, too ideological.
“But democracy needs civil society to be involved in the decisions about our future,” she added.
For more information, visit www.claimingourfuture.ie
