Do you prefer to be home or away from it?!
Despite living in between the undiscovered beauty of Battersea Square and the melancholic raucousness of the Thames, I can never sit still and always have to be somewhere different.
Where was it that you caught the travel bug?
On the TGV down to the Alps, vomiting over a Swiss version of Cruella. I was 18 months...Seriously though, that is my first memory of travelling!
Have you ever lived abroad, taught abroad?
I went to university in Paris up until Masters level, but still couldn't sit still and during my time there I went to live in Spain about three times, went to Barcelona on an Erasmus study exchange – never having learnt Spanish let alone Catalan. When I finished my degree a couple of years later, I missed the pomp of my graduation ceremony to go to the Costa del Sol to work as a waiter for the summer season. Except for the drug-fuelled manager and the whisky-fuelled cook, no-one had worked for the restaurant – it was like the tower of babel with students from all over Europe. I randomly went back to Barcelona as part of my Masters, managing at the end of my stay there to even string along ten minutes of Catalan – more listening than speaking. Now I don't work abroad, but I do organise campaigning abroad – nothing like surprising locals you're canvassing when you tell them you're English campaigning in Sweden or France.
Do you prefer hotels to hostels?
Hostels, it's not just recession chic, it's like turning up at a friend's house – you listen to the stories (and the snoring, vomiting, banging, etc) of the people sharing your room, you get a feel of the locals, their tips on where to go, the complementary can of beer or cup of coffee. Only downside to hostels is that they lock up far too early and you have to sleep rough in the presidential gardens like I did in Sofia. I also feel guilty about my recent experiences of hotels – being all four star, and all paid for by campaigning organisations in areas which suffer from poverty (except for in Swaziland when I pulled the short straw and stayed in a hotel which hadn't yet been fully built). Although hotels are making a comeback, having woken up after a hangover in a four star hotel, discovering a 50 metre breakfast buffet in a hotel in Madrid (Auditorium Hotel) which started with a tropical fruit bar and ended up with a fry up frenzy.
Solo or group travel? Group, it's better sleeping rough with others than on your own. You feel more adventurous in a group – egging each other on to try new things – like staying up all night to eat scorpion in raspberry coulis, because the “insect bar” that sells it only opens in the morning in La Boqueria market in Barcelona – or getting a DJ slot a an underground jazz bar run by the mafia, and finding out all the exchange students...and their Spanish flatmates have got free drinks by saying they were with the DJ. Travelling with locals just opens you up to so much more – it's like discovering a different city to the one described in the tourist guides – like with volunteers who took us through the Swazi countryside to meet women with HIV who through growing and selling vegetables - really gave them a sense of dignity and pride, but also power to be able to make a living independently. Although solo travel can have its advantages, if you join up to “Useful Vistors” (sorry for the plug).
A lot of your tips come from Barcelona - is that a place you went to for any particular reason?
I lived there twice – the first time on an Erasmus exchange as part of my degree, only having learnt Spanish for a term – and the second time for my Masters, managing to string along 10 minutes of Catalan by the end of my stay there.
What do you love about the city?
Although most of my friends never actually went to the university, despite it being on the main shopping street – Las Ramblas – I would turn up to lessons at 9am sharp after having returned home clubbing only a few hours before. In every nook and crannie of the city, whether it's an old school pharmacy or a cafe that sells jelly and ice cream, everyone goes out of their way to wow people and ultimately make Barcelona more than just a city. It's like they all feel a sense of pride and responsibility to want to be part of creating Barcelona's identity – to reflect the people that live, work and play there – and given how many people come to the city to do all of those things (usually in reverse order) – those people are never the same. It's like a melting pot of the minds of all the people that come there. From Salsitas, a restaurant which when the clock turns midnight, waiters start taking the chairs around your table if you haven't finished eating and the clubbers start pouring in, Pipa Club which is officially a pipe-smoking members' club but actually turns into a messy post-clubbing hangout on weekday nights if there aren't any doughnuts left down the Lancaster bakery and you've returned from the all time favourite discotheque – La Paloma. But it's never over the top – because the trendiness is so inclusive, it's less lounge bars with new age music and more comfortable sofas found on a skip in a reconverted old-man's tapas bar with the barman flicking over the vinyl when he's taking time-out from making cocktails. So much that you'd almost forget the Mediterranean was only a short walk away. However much you've been out all night, working out all day or...lying on the beach, you just want to keep going – there's always something in the corner of your eye you want to go and check out. I remember writing this about Las Ramblas, but it goes for Barcelona itself. “The best advice when it comes to (this city) is to plunge in, go with the flow and enjoy the constant weird and wonderful activities taking place around you. “
If you had to sum up your travelling style in three words what would you say?
Nooks and crannies
Where are you planning to go to next and why?
Berlin. Haven't been there for years and after sampling its culture – whether it's the music (BPitch), the films (Goodbye Lenin) or just friends going on about how raw and raucous – it just makes me want to go back for more.
Where is your favourite view?
On the beach on the Lac d'Annecy where I used to go on holiday to see my relatives as a child – whether it's the summer and you can feel the warm glow of the sun on the lake and the shadow of a sombrero from the doughnut seller, or it's the winter and you can feel the snowflakes dropping down from the mountains towering around you.
Do you feel like your life has been enhanced through travelling? In what way?
When you discover a new place and take a wander down the streets – you might be shocked by it inequality and its decadence, you might be amazed by it's beauty and authenticity. At the end of the day, you're opening up to new experiences without knowing what's going to happen next, you're discovering as much about yourself as you are about the locals and immersing yourself in their culture. Those experiences are always different and that's why I always feel goosebumps when I set foot in a new country.
Describe a weekend day in your hometown.
Can't help having a peek down the South Bank and Brick Lane – ironically I know there will always be something going on – and there's no shame in going to places filled with tourists, if they are drawn to areas which are so multicultural, vivacious and authentic, then that can only make us Londoners proud of where we live and invite more people to come and share those experiences.
Can you tell us about your best moment travelling - even if it's in your hometown?
Going to South Africa – it was a surreal experience, which started off checking into the trendiest hotel I’ve ever seen. It was like the TV programme Hotel Babylon – with lifts themed around shark cages and cable cars - a swimming pool circling the restaurant and a climbing wall outside the hotel, so much for fighting consumerism. Experiencing the emotional distress of a terminal AIDS sufferer, talking to a nurse on the same day as meeting women with HIV working in the fields reskilling as farmers, manage the tensions between the taking part in amazing street interventions on Soweto market to raise awareness about AIDS with a group that promotes abstinence before contraception (although we did also meet TAC whose volunteers compete for who can distribute the most condoms in their communities), being deluded into getting into a casspir as part of a rehearsal for a CSR initiative of a famous fizzy drinks company – basically a truck that used to threaten the corners of every township in the apartheid years – and amazed at witnessing the courage of volunteers walking through a rape crisis centre in the face of the shadow of the state no no longer threatening by its presence but in many ways by its absence, attending the annual youth day, which celebrates the past – the Soweto uprising – as much as the future – err...young people. All of this was summed up when we met Dennis Goldberg – an anti-apartheid activist who stood in the Rivonia trial in 1964. It was strangely wonderful that the barbeque he organised brought together community organisers from local townships and ourselves from the UK, or to put it more simply, getting people from different backgrounds to be able to share stories, laughs and share good food together without feeling the chains of inequality and inferiority. This type of benign event on a winter's night (our summer!) was what he had dreamt about all these years ago. It's what kept him going from when he started as a political activist through to the famous Rivonia trial and through the mind crushing years in prison. Although he argued that South Africa wasn't a rainbow nation yet, but more a nation of diverse cultures, I felt both awkward and inspired throughout the trip at how every time you turn round, someone is there to take your rubbish, fill up your cup of coffee, lend you a hand. It's that genuine sense of solidarity and fraternity, put simply neighbourliness that we so miss in this country. At the end of the day, it's about creating the spaces to listen and let people open up and explore their insecurities which may be crystallised through prejudice, such as racism, sexism or ageism.
Ipod or book?
Book, I haven't got an Ipod
Most essential item?
A camera
First published here.
Out of office, out of sight, out of reach - Generation Why?
I remember walking into a briefing on the Erasmus scheme while at university. I remember thinking this scheme reflected the principles of the European Union - uniting Europeans from all backgrounds behind a common identity by creating it together. The film, the "Auberge Espagnole", itself epitomised this Erasmus experience of what the European good society could look like. But did it really reflect how young people lived their lives in the noughties?
What else united young Europeans? More and more us got places at university, more and more us got into debt paying for tuition fees and more and more of us were betrayed by the myth that graduates would get graduate jobs. The only bar we had a chance of practising at was at the local pub, bistrot or discoteca. All we've done is wait. Wait by the phone in the hope of a job, wait restaurant tables to pay the bills and wait in the queue for the dole.
For those who of us who couldn't get into university, we were promised that employers preferred vocational skills to degrees, so more and more of us took up apprenticeships. The only vocation that united us was trying to hard to please the employers who ignored these new diplomas and preferred recruiting from their old boys networks.
To stop the rise in youth unemployment, governments traded off our wellbeing with employers by allowing them to pay us as little as possible. In many cases we were paid less than the minimum allowed, providing loopholes for the most powerful professions - accountants, lawyers and politicians - to recruit first class talent on pocket money wages. Despite our governments' blind belief in economic growth, wages in relation to the cost of living fell. We became the "Generation Precaire".
And now the recession's turned up on our doorstep, young workers are the first to be shown the door. Youth unemployment has shot up across the continent - between 30 to 40% of young people are out of work in most of Europe and that's not even including all those who graduated this autumn and have just joined the queue.
We may look back at the noughties and forget the fads that came and went - from Big Brother to X Factor - but we won't forget being unemployed even when we get older. Not being in work means we lose valuable experience and training and even when we get a job, we're going to go back to the cycle of low self esteem and lack of job security, low wages and lack of career advancement.
As a generation, we don't know where to turn back to. Like other under-represented groups in the places of power, young people are marginalised. In politics, we are too often restricted to "youth issues". In the economy, we are treated as ideal bait for consumption. In society we are asked to wait our turn, we are the "next generation", but next never means now.
It's partly why we are least likely to take part in the structures defined by the generation that preceded them - such as political parties and trade unions. With the crisis we face, people are crying out for a new way of doing politics. It's not that young people aren't interested in politics, it's that they see no way of being able to make change happen.
That's why so many are refusing the compromises of the centre left and putting their trust in the parties on the fringes - from the greens to the far left, just look at the recent election results in Germany and France. Many more aren't even bothering to vote and instead taking to the streets to fight the marketisation of their education, storming the runways to make sure future generations don't pay the price.
Our grandparent's generation fought and got the welfare state, our parents took to the streets for individual liberties. The challenges for our generation can only be solved by working together across borders. Only doing this can provide us with a decent future across Europe.
Noel Hatch is the National Chair for Compass Youth and co-author of "Radical Future, Politics for the Next Generation" (Soundings, forthcoming April 2010).
What else united young Europeans? More and more us got places at university, more and more us got into debt paying for tuition fees and more and more of us were betrayed by the myth that graduates would get graduate jobs. The only bar we had a chance of practising at was at the local pub, bistrot or discoteca. All we've done is wait. Wait by the phone in the hope of a job, wait restaurant tables to pay the bills and wait in the queue for the dole.
For those who of us who couldn't get into university, we were promised that employers preferred vocational skills to degrees, so more and more of us took up apprenticeships. The only vocation that united us was trying to hard to please the employers who ignored these new diplomas and preferred recruiting from their old boys networks.
To stop the rise in youth unemployment, governments traded off our wellbeing with employers by allowing them to pay us as little as possible. In many cases we were paid less than the minimum allowed, providing loopholes for the most powerful professions - accountants, lawyers and politicians - to recruit first class talent on pocket money wages. Despite our governments' blind belief in economic growth, wages in relation to the cost of living fell. We became the "Generation Precaire".
And now the recession's turned up on our doorstep, young workers are the first to be shown the door. Youth unemployment has shot up across the continent - between 30 to 40% of young people are out of work in most of Europe and that's not even including all those who graduated this autumn and have just joined the queue.
We may look back at the noughties and forget the fads that came and went - from Big Brother to X Factor - but we won't forget being unemployed even when we get older. Not being in work means we lose valuable experience and training and even when we get a job, we're going to go back to the cycle of low self esteem and lack of job security, low wages and lack of career advancement.
As a generation, we don't know where to turn back to. Like other under-represented groups in the places of power, young people are marginalised. In politics, we are too often restricted to "youth issues". In the economy, we are treated as ideal bait for consumption. In society we are asked to wait our turn, we are the "next generation", but next never means now.
It's partly why we are least likely to take part in the structures defined by the generation that preceded them - such as political parties and trade unions. With the crisis we face, people are crying out for a new way of doing politics. It's not that young people aren't interested in politics, it's that they see no way of being able to make change happen.
That's why so many are refusing the compromises of the centre left and putting their trust in the parties on the fringes - from the greens to the far left, just look at the recent election results in Germany and France. Many more aren't even bothering to vote and instead taking to the streets to fight the marketisation of their education, storming the runways to make sure future generations don't pay the price.
Our grandparent's generation fought and got the welfare state, our parents took to the streets for individual liberties. The challenges for our generation can only be solved by working together across borders. Only doing this can provide us with a decent future across Europe.
Noel Hatch is the National Chair for Compass Youth and co-author of "Radical Future, Politics for the Next Generation" (Soundings, forthcoming April 2010).
CREATIVE CAMPAIGNS CAMP - 7 FEBRUARY
Do you want to learn creative campaigning techniques and use them to help shape our campaign?
We’re launching "All Doled Up" our campaign on youth unemployment and we want you to try out new techniques to help develop it!
Almost one in five young people are out of work. Unemployment affects us all, whether we're out of work or our friends and family are.
That's why we want to work with you so you can do something about it together. So you can get together with other young people to campaign on youth unemployment where you live or study.
Toynbee Hall and Compass Youth want to invite you to an all day training day. So you’ll be able to
- Use stories young people have shared with us on youth unemployment to spread the word about our campaign and get those in power to support and act on our pledges
- Learn creative campaigning techniques - such as making viral videos, get your message out to the media and designing campaign visuals
You'll be able to try these out on the day itself with other young people and most importantly what you create will be what we use to campaign on youth unemployment - your videos, your slogans, your flyers!
This is what our last campaigns camp was like, just imagine you could take part in our next one!
Creative Campaigns Day 09 from Creative Campaigns Day on Vimeo.
What are you waiting for?
THE CUTS DON'T WORK
Do you want to vote which ideas we campaign on youth unemployment?
Do you want to help develop how we campaign on this?
The Cuts Don’t Work
Saturday 30 Jan - 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Congress House, Great Russell Street, London, United Kingdom
Why do we have to pay the price for their crisis? When they want to charge us more to get into university and get housing? While they carry on slashing our pay, our jobs and our services. It’s time to fight the recession. It’s time to take back our future.
Whether you’ve been involved in organizing before or not, you’re probably curious about how to campaign and maybe even fired up about an issue you’d like to campaign on.
You’ll be able to help develop campaign strategies on issues that are affecting young people the most through the recession. You can then work out with us and other young activists how we spread the word and how we target those in power to act.
We’ve also invited a cracking line up of speakers who are organising for young people right across the country:
Noel Hatch – Chair of Compass Youth
Rowenna Davis – Journalist at the Guardian, Independent and Headliners
Sam Tarry – Hope not Hate Organiser and Chair of Young Labour
Nizam Uddin – President of University of London Union
Bell Ribeiro-Addy – Black Students’ Officer for NUS
As well as the Mercury Music Award Winner – Speech Debelle!
So come and join us and Progressive London on Saturday 30th January between 10-5pm.
Sign up here!
Everyone who signs up to this session will get a free campaign toolkit on the day
Ideas are nothing without action. But together we can build the London we want to see.
This session is part of a wider conference that will bring together leading figures in London and beyond to discuss the most important issues for progressive politics in 2010, nationally, internationally and in London and the ideas, alliances and policies we need to move forward.
Progressive London was initiated by Ken Livingstone in 2008 as a cross-party, multi-community forum involving politicians, artists, trade unionists, bloggers, community activists and campaigners to promote social progress in the capital.
What will you pledge?
1. Sign up now
2. Bring along three of your friends
3. Come along
WHERE ARE THE YOUNG WOMEN IN POLITICS?
With the current political debate taking place on families and marriage it looks like issues close to women will be being discussed in the coming election campaign.
That's why we at Compass Youth hope we can use the platform to discuss women's representation in UK politics and beyond as well as 'women's issues' on the political agenda.
All four of our amazing speakers have different areas of interest and expertise so it should make for a really broad meeting and hopefully we should get some ideas for the future too.
Speakers confirmed:
- Emily Thornberry, Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury
- Dr Rainbow Murray, Politics Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London
- Bellavia Ribeiro, Black Students' Officer, National Union of Students
- Tulip Siddiq, Labour Party council candidate in Regent's Park and BAME Officer for Young Labour
What will you pledge?
1. Sign up now
2. Bring along three of your friends
3. Come along
THE RESOLUTIONS WON'T BE TELEVISED
I’ve been reflecting on some of the trends of 2009 and thinking about what New Year’s resolutions public services could start thinking about.
Thanks to digital technologies, more people are creating content and collaborating online in ways that weren’t possible before.
If we want radical efficiencies, it can’t be about doing the same for less, but about doing things differently and better, as well as measuring what matters.
If we look at where the web is most successful at driving social change, it’s where it mobilises untapped resources – people’s energy and innovation – for mutual benefit. It’s what we could call the gift economy.
So what’s this all about? When you receive gifts for Christmas this year, you don’t pay them the amount it was worth. At the same time, if you stop giving gifts to friends, you may find there’ll be less inclined to give you a present.
Our relationship with our citizens is different – it would be like offering a gift to a random person in the street, they wouldn’t necessarily return the favour.
So we need to find how to create relationships with people to mobilise their intrinsic motivation. Relationships affect how people behave and how they’re motivated. Transformation in society doesn’t happen when it adopts new tools, it happens when it adopts new behaviours.
That’s why developing approaches that gain a better understanding of these trends can help us find the innovators we want to work with.
Why not use techniques like relationship mapping or social network analysis? These could enable you to find people innovating to meet the needs of your customers, and they may even be working in your office.
Listen and make sense of stories
You might be able to find who’s been involved in an innovative project before that’s saved time and money but how do you come up with an innovative idea?
When someone asks you for an innovative idea, many of us feel put on the spot. Often, it’s informal conversations that spark off ideas. It’s what’s called the “water cooler” effect”.
Yet we don’t congregate around the water cooler to bounce off ideas, we go there to catch up and share stories about what’s been going on in the office – trying to get our heads around something or solve a difficult problem.
There are various ways that digital technologies are enabling that, not just in the office like micro blogging or communities of practice but also in our local communities with social reporting. It’s because people want to share their stories of what’s going on where they work or live.
So we’ve got stories and we’ve got data on what’s going on in our local areas – but how do we make sense of it all? It’s not just about evidence or consultation was carried out last year, it’s about what data and conversations people have been publishing to the web last night.
Why not use tools that can help you visualise all of this information to pick up new trends as well as open your expertise to the public so they can make better decisions on areas that affect them? With these tools, a picture quite literally is worth a thousand words.
Why not also use tools that enable people to re-use your public information and customise it create their own online information services in ways that suit them?
Get people together to make stuff that matters
So now we’ve listened to people and made sense of their networks and stories, we can start building relationship and mobilising people’s resources, their energy, creativity and goodwill.
Digital technologies make it easier to mobilise these resources. They also bring substantial opportunities for individuals, businesses and other groups to create innovative models to meet these new demands.
These models can be found in very niche web services like Enabled by Design or MyPolice. Both of these haven’t just created new models that wouldn’t have been possible before, they’ve exploited the power of the web to create approaches that offer a form of public service.
What’s more important is they weren’t created by councils or businesses – they were created by groups of people in their spare time. You might think, why would anyone want to do that? I asked the creators of both of these services.
So we can create an environment that nurtures the capacity for innovators to develop and take these models to scale.
Who not bring people together to develop prototypes of online services that meet specific challenges in just a day?
Join up the dots to involve everyone
We may have mobilised the innovators to help us tackle problems, but the strength of innovators is often at the edge of what we do, not at the centre, so how do we scale up innovations so that the wider public can benefit, especially those not online?
Why not reach out to local innovators who can use the web to help people help each other offline, so that the opportunities that digital technologies bring meet those that community engagement bring.
Transform services by transforming ourselves
The following quote captures the lesson I've learnt over 2009. "Transformation isn’t just about transforming services, it’s about transforming ourselves, it’s a new way of thinking, it’s a new mindset."
The challenge for all of us is to harness all those people in public services and the community who are intrinsically motivated to make things better – to make stuff that matters.
YOUTH RESPONSE TO THE ECONOMIC CRISIS - 23 JANUARY
Crunch time - what's happening?
The number of 16 to 24-year-olds out of work is now 952,000 - the highest figure since records began. We’re in a down turn, but we refuse to believe we’ve crashed.
We want your support in Barking and Dagenham
From 11 to 12.30 we’ll be running a listening session with young people on the problems’s we face and the solutions we propose.
We’ll then take our conversation to the streets and campaign with Jon Cruddas on the issue of the economic crisis locally.
What next?
What will you pledge?
The number of 16 to 24-year-olds out of work is now 952,000 - the highest figure since records began. We’re in a down turn, but we refuse to believe we’ve crashed.
We’re the upside of down and it’s up to us to take action. Working with you, Compass Youth are developing a campaign that’s going to be led by you to start the bounce back.
Who's been queuing up?
Over the last six months, young people across the country from universities, youth groups, schools, graduates on the street and people in the job centre have been listening to each other and developing ideas for that we’ll then act on to make change happen.
We want your support in Barking and Dagenham
Whatever your background or situation we believe you’ve got a voice and the ability to act. Young people have come together across the country and now we’re bringing people together in Barking and Dagenham between 23 January between 10.30-3pm to explore the impact of the crisis and develop ideas for action.
From 11 to 12.30 we’ll be running a listening session with young people on the problems’s we face and the solutions we propose.
We’ll then take our conversation to the streets and campaign with Jon Cruddas on the issue of the economic crisis locally.
What next?
After listening to young people of all ages and backgrounds across the country we’ll work with you to decide the three most effective ideas for action at the session we're holding at the Progressive London conference on 30 January and then enable you to learn campaigning techniques to shape our campaign on 7th February at Toynbee Hall, before campaigning over the coming months.
What will you pledge?
1. Sign up now
2. Bring along three of your friends
KEEP YOUR COINS, WE WANT CHANGE!
A couple of friends and I have decided to organise a rather last-minute stunt to raise awareness about the Copenhagen talks on 6-18th Dec and The Wave march on Saturday 5th Dec.
We're calling on all buskers / musicians / street performers / out of work actors / photographers to take to streets in the lead-up, and instead of busking for money, to provide passers-by with entertainment and flyers to raise awareness. Hence the (borrowed) name, "Keep your coins, we want change!"
The aim is to try and inspire a decentralised thing where people can just go and do it in whichever town or city they live on whatever day they're free. However, we also want to gather a group of people in London on the weekend of 28/29 November and spend an hour or so busking and spreading the word.
Although we are particularly looking for musicians, we also need flyerers and photographers. So noone is free from the invite. ;-)
If you are interested in helping, here are a few things you can do:
Sign up to the Facebook event
Follow us on Twitter
Add to our collaborative Spotify playlist of busking songs
Let me know if you can make it on the 28th/29th Nov
Spread the word!
As you may have guessed, this is a bit of an experiment. However, it also feels like something that could just spark an interest in the wider public, something that The Wave, and climate discussions drastically needs.
So, if you wanna get on board, get in touch, or forward this to all your friends!
Many thanks,
Becky
Do you have a story to tell about how you're using exciting campaigning techniques to make a difference to the issue you care about? Let me know!
It's time to clean up the house, It's time to take back our democracy
We say that young people aren't interested in politics, let alone democratic reform. If you asked them whether they were in favour of PR, the first thing that would come to their mind would be spin doctors not proportional representation.
They may not have known before what actually happens in the corridors of power, but they knew their voices weren't being heard, let alone represented. Let's be clear, the expenses crisis didn't create distrust between young people and MPs, it exacerbated it.
Young people don't listen any more to the rhetoric on local community that all parties bang on about, because what they see is supermarkets being allowed to crush any competition from local shops.
They don't listen any more to the rhetoric on fairness when what they see are fat cats bailed out once again lapping up the caviar and champagne from their bonuses, while young people are forced to lap up the rhetoric on the age of austerity and accept pay cuts and job cuts.
And they don't listen any more when faceless MPs who never rebel on our behalf just in case they get pushed off the greasy careerist pole, start rebelling to maintain their juicy perks.
When we get MPs who'd rather get a windfall payout than continue to represent their local constituents, we know that the game's up for the politics of greed and envy.
After all, why should MPs care about young people, when the only people they need to convince are "swing voters"?
We might not vote as much as other groups, but we'll certainly be voting for the MPs that pledge they will stand up for the issues we care about.
That's why Compass Youth teamed up with Power 2010 to hold a public debate on the change our democracy needs. Because we wanted to enable young people to be able to come together and come up with radical ideas on taking back our democracy. Because the ideas fed in through Power 2010 will go to a citizen's panel selected from across the country. Because the top five ideas will become the pledge that all candidates standing for the next elections will be asked to commit to. So we can see who's really progressive and who supports our politics.
And that's why the most popular idea at our session was to introduce a fairer voting system based on proportional representation. So that's why we are supporting the Vote for a Change campaign too.
So after touring London to film young people with Ed the Duck on what they would do if they were MP for a day, we dressed up as zombies for Halloween marching down Westminster as part of the Vote for a Change campaign.
Our democracy deserves better, we deserve better, let's change it.
They may not have known before what actually happens in the corridors of power, but they knew their voices weren't being heard, let alone represented. Let's be clear, the expenses crisis didn't create distrust between young people and MPs, it exacerbated it.
Young people don't listen any more to the rhetoric on local community that all parties bang on about, because what they see is supermarkets being allowed to crush any competition from local shops.
They don't listen any more to the rhetoric on fairness when what they see are fat cats bailed out once again lapping up the caviar and champagne from their bonuses, while young people are forced to lap up the rhetoric on the age of austerity and accept pay cuts and job cuts.
And they don't listen any more when faceless MPs who never rebel on our behalf just in case they get pushed off the greasy careerist pole, start rebelling to maintain their juicy perks.
When we get MPs who'd rather get a windfall payout than continue to represent their local constituents, we know that the game's up for the politics of greed and envy.
After all, why should MPs care about young people, when the only people they need to convince are "swing voters"?
We might not vote as much as other groups, but we'll certainly be voting for the MPs that pledge they will stand up for the issues we care about.
That's why Compass Youth teamed up with Power 2010 to hold a public debate on the change our democracy needs. Because we wanted to enable young people to be able to come together and come up with radical ideas on taking back our democracy. Because the ideas fed in through Power 2010 will go to a citizen's panel selected from across the country. Because the top five ideas will become the pledge that all candidates standing for the next elections will be asked to commit to. So we can see who's really progressive and who supports our politics.
And that's why the most popular idea at our session was to introduce a fairer voting system based on proportional representation. So that's why we are supporting the Vote for a Change campaign too.
So after touring London to film young people with Ed the Duck on what they would do if they were MP for a day, we dressed up as zombies for Halloween marching down Westminster as part of the Vote for a Change campaign.
Our democracy deserves better, we deserve better, let's change it.
Be scared, very scared
We’ve been out and about. People often confuse exciting and gimmicky. There is nothing gimmicky about cleaning up politics and fighting for a fairer voting system. This would transform our democracy. But with such a complex issue, the only way to get people fired up is to tap into what makes them tick.
As Crazy Epic says "Gen Y are politically motivated, politically mobilised, and have the tools to spread their opinions. Events such as Zombie Walk show that they also have the creativity to make themselves heard."
That's why we toured London to film young people with Ed the Duck on what they would do if they were MP for a day and dressed up as zombies for Halloween marching down Westminster as part of the Vote for a Change campaign. Watch the video and be scared, very scared.
As Crazy Epic says "Gen Y are politically motivated, politically mobilised, and have the tools to spread their opinions. Events such as Zombie Walk show that they also have the creativity to make themselves heard."
That's why we toured London to film young people with Ed the Duck on what they would do if they were MP for a day and dressed up as zombies for Halloween marching down Westminster as part of the Vote for a Change campaign. Watch the video and be scared, very scared.
Drop outs or start ups? Next generation social entrepreneurs
The more there will be people losing their jobs, the more there will be people with more time and less money.
What can young people do with their time and energy if they've got no job to go to? How can they spend their time more creatively? Can young people out of work be the next generation of social entrepreneurs?
We don't know...That's why we want you to come and tell us what ideas we should campaign on to tackle youth unemployment. That's why we want you to come to the first of a series of sessions focused on different ways young people out of work can develop their skills.
As well as being able to have your say in shaping our priority campaign for 2010, you'll be able to hear from an amazing trio of social entrepreneurs, David Floyd (Social Spider), Peter Ptashko (Young UnLtd) and Amisha Ghadiali (Amisha/The Hub) who'll share their stories.
Sign up here!
COMPASS YOUTH GOES CLIMATE CHIC!
You told us about your "green" ideas, from carbon taxes, green jobs to school gardening. Do you want to have your say on how to campaign on climate change and do something about it with others where you are?
If so, come and join Compass Youth & Change is Coming (ChiC) at "SWaP your Story" on Monday 19th October 6.30-8.30 pm at the Railway Tavern, Liverpool St (London).
Tell us why the environment matters more than ever in the recession. Find out how you can make change happen where you are with other activists and groups. Try out exciting techniques so you can get other people involved in the environmental movement.
Don't miss out, book your place now!
This workshop is open to all activists, whether you want to share your environmental involvement or if you want to make their first steps. Sign up at http://swapyourstory.eventbrite.com
Any questions or want to find out more? Email us now! If you can't see the video below, click here.
The only change worth fighting...
We don’t just listen to what you care about, we work with you so you can do something about it together. Because I know if you give people an inch, they'll give you a mile. That’s why I invited one of our activists Becky to run our first ever session on the environment.
Becky runs Change is Coming (ChiC), which encourages increased recognition of the power and responsibility of individuals in responding to and initiating change, through the use of creative & collaborative action. ChiC's primary venture is EnviroWiki.org.uk - a collaborative mapping directory compiling activity & debate for the growing environmental movement.
...It's time to get ChiC
You may be concerned about the threat of climate change, but find it hard to communicate it in times of recession and financial uncertainty. You may want to get involved in the environmental movement, but feel unsure where to start. You may just want to find out more. Either way, come and join us at SWaP the Story!
Noel Hatch
National Chair
Compass Youth
www.twitter.com/compassyouth
www.compassyouth.org
If so, come and join Compass Youth & Change is Coming (ChiC) at "SWaP your Story" on Monday 19th October 6.30-8.30 pm at the Railway Tavern, Liverpool St (London).
Tell us why the environment matters more than ever in the recession. Find out how you can make change happen where you are with other activists and groups. Try out exciting techniques so you can get other people involved in the environmental movement.
Don't miss out, book your place now!
This workshop is open to all activists, whether you want to share your environmental involvement or if you want to make their first steps. Sign up at http://swapyourstory.eventbrite.com
Any questions or want to find out more? Email us now! If you can't see the video below, click here.
The only change worth fighting...
We don’t just listen to what you care about, we work with you so you can do something about it together. Because I know if you give people an inch, they'll give you a mile. That’s why I invited one of our activists Becky to run our first ever session on the environment.
Becky runs Change is Coming (ChiC), which encourages increased recognition of the power and responsibility of individuals in responding to and initiating change, through the use of creative & collaborative action. ChiC's primary venture is EnviroWiki.org.uk - a collaborative mapping directory compiling activity & debate for the growing environmental movement.
...It's time to get ChiC
You may be concerned about the threat of climate change, but find it hard to communicate it in times of recession and financial uncertainty. You may want to get involved in the environmental movement, but feel unsure where to start. You may just want to find out more. Either way, come and join us at SWaP the Story!
Noel Hatch
National Chair
Compass Youth
www.twitter.com/compassyouth
www.compassyouth.org
stop the excess express
I watched Fox News for the first time last night. In a nutshell, along with occasional expert advice from our friend Dan Hannan, they try and make people believe that there’s a socialist conspiracy to take over the world. If only, I thought... And then something struck me maybe there is…
We had a Republican president going all socialist by providing around $1tn to bail out financial institutions so that the economy didn’t go bust.
We had Wall Street falling in love with nationalisation because it's all they had left.
We’ve got the Lord who runs the agency regulating financial services supporting the iconic Tobin Tax pledge of the anti globalisation movement.
And now we’ve got the conservative duo Sarkozy and Merkel making the running to tame excessive pay and bonuses in banks.
I never realised there were on our side! And then I realised they tried to convince us they were when they expalined how the excessive greed of the other “masters of the universe” was somehow contributing to the economy. “Yes we can” they all must have said when they gave themselves bigger and bigger bonuses, higher and higher pay.
So it does feel slightly strange that many people now applaud the Establishment for calling for policies which were deemed too radical when those less in thrawl to the City called for them?
As Jackie Ashley comments, “If everyone is a member of the soggy centrist consensus, serious thinking becomes flabby and the point of parliamentary politics declines…Who can now say that the iron discipline of New Labour MPs during the boom years was such a good thing? If it meant that there was very little probing of the City and banking practice, wasn't that a mistake?”
There was (is?) as much iron discipline by MPs towards the City as there was towards their party whips. From all sides of the house. While we warned that the excessive greed of the fat cats probably affects social cohesion more than a teenager spraying graffiti on your wall, the government are still giving out ASBOs to kids and letting bankers at government-controlled banks give themselves bonuses.
But let's move beyond the "we told you so" (we did…he did even earlier) and look at how we can get out of this mess.
There are many proposals around proposing maximum wage ratios or bonus taxation. Of course these all need to be considered and the thread that brings these all together is the urgent need to review excessive pay across the board.
Now that doesn't sound too radical does it? Well…no actually, as 65% of the public polled here agree we need a High Pay Commission that would do exactly that. OK, so surely all those people must have been socialists? Well…no, as 66% of Labour voters are up for it, but so are 63% of Tories and 75% of Lib Dems.
So are we going to wait for other “masters of the universe” to tell us what to think or are we going to start rocking the boat for the right reasons?
why I'm (re)standing for compass youth
I'm always amazed by the passion of members I meet and your energy in making change happen, from Sam & Dan for running Compass Youth, my comrades on the committee to those who've just joined - that's why I want to say thanks to all of you!
Young people are changing the world around them - fighting fascism, lobbying for a living wage, reclaiming the night or campaigning against climate change. What really motivates me to be involved in Compass Youth is supporting people to make change happen on the issue that matter to them. Because I know if you give people an inch, they'll give you a mile.
That's why I want Compass Youth to be a space where you can do all the things you didn't think possible before, knowing we will trust and support you:
So you can debate the issues you care about, like I've done by enabling you to promote your ideas through our blog and video and discuss them at workshops like Progressive London and TUC Young Members.
I would launch a listening tour (like this and that) to find out what issues are really affecting young people - like unemployment, debt and inequality - not just in London but across the country, hand in hand with trade & student unions, community groups and others. With this coalition, we would then work with you on your campuses or local areas to develop campaigns on these issues.
So you can learn how to create campaigns with the best organisers, which I've started by organising Creative Campaigns Camp (see here http://snurl.com/n2gly). I won't only bring the best organisers to develop campaigns camps on issues that matter to you, I want all of you to develop this programme together.
So you can campaign for progressive politics - like I've done helping run Sam Tarry's campaign for YoungLabourChair.
So we can help promote your local campaigns too, like I've done helping Love Difference in London, Bristol & Northampton, Pin The Pits in Doncaster and the Yes Congestion Charge campaign in Manchester. I've also made sure Compass Youth took part in campaigns on political reform, migrants rights and ending poverty, as well as organising campaign exchanges abroad.
I want to make sure this year we give a stronger platform to all our members, especially women, disabled, BME, LGBT and working class so you can make Compass Youth more diverse and more accountable.
I also want you to develop together a leadership training programme with the "movers and shakers" in the progressive movement, so that you can be the next leaders in your student clubs, trade unions and your campaigns.
To cut a long story short, I want to make sure that for each of you, Compass Youth can be exciting and rewarding. I want you to be able to have your say and do something about it with others where you are.
To find out more, contact me at noel.hatch1@gmail.com or www.twitter.com/noelito.
creative campaigns camp - next steps
Thank you for taking time out of your weekend to take part in Creative Campaigns Camp. It was a chance for all of us to step back from what we know and try out new ways to campaign using creative techniques.
Sign up for our next session
Thanks for the feedback about how practical the workshops were, how organically things came together for you to learn new skills and create campaigns and how we might improve.
Do you want to meet up so we can work out together what we can do next? Sign up here for our next session on Thursday 9th July at the amazing Whitechapel Gallery.
We can talk about how we can take forward the campaigns you developed, how you might like to contribute to our activities or even organise a Campaigns Camp where you are.
Sign up for our next session
Thanks for the feedback about how practical the workshops were, how organically things came together for you to learn new skills and create campaigns and how we might improve.
Do you want to meet up so we can work out together what we can do next? Sign up here for our next session on Thursday 9th July at the amazing Whitechapel Gallery.
We can talk about how we can take forward the campaigns you developed, how you might like to contribute to our activities or even organise a Campaigns Camp where you are.
Sign up for our new website
We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. It was amazing at how you all bonded and worked with each other so well.
Do you want to relive the different journeys of your campaigns as well as your experiences of the day? Sign up here for our new Creative Campaigns website where we’ll show all the videos we filmed of the day.
This will also give you the opportunity to not just find out about upcoming activities but tell us about projects you may be involved in, to upload your experiences and stories of campaigns and issues that matter to you.
We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. It was amazing at how you all bonded and worked with each other so well.
Do you want to relive the different journeys of your campaigns as well as your experiences of the day? Sign up here for our new Creative Campaigns website where we’ll show all the videos we filmed of the day.
This will also give you the opportunity to not just find out about upcoming activities but tell us about projects you may be involved in, to upload your experiences and stories of campaigns and issues that matter to you.
If you have any queries or would like to chat further, feel free to contact us!
What will you pledge?
Sign up for our next session
Sign up for our next session
stop agonising, start organising
You might think that things couldn't get any worse after finding out politicians claiming to represent us are using taxpayers' money to build houses for ducks rather than homes for people and a government preferring to attack each other than attack the recession. With Big Brother back on our screens, it's like going from one reality show to another.
But in the real world, people are getting sacked, evicted and left on the scrapheap of the recession. And young people are getting hit the hardest, with unemployment rates much higher than other age group in "last to join, first to leave" jobs. These aren't just passing concerns but "permanent scars" even going as far as damaging their physical and mental health.
So rather than choose which sides to take in the political football games going on in Westminster village, isn't it time to stop agonising and start organising? To choose to campaign to fight the recession where we are, whether that's neighbourhoods, our campuses or our workplaces?
You may have set up an online group because you were getting ripped off. You may have invited people to a campaign session so people can live better off. You may have written to your MP to support the campaign you care about the most. You may have pitched up your tent to prevent the world turning to toast.
You may have stayed at a shelter to help the homeless. You may have gone down the beach to clean up the mess. You may have taken part in a flashmob to show people how exploitation of young people at work just isn't right. You may have marched through the streets to reclaim the night.
You may have been a street captain spreading hope not hate, you may have interviewed the wild and wonderful to instigate debate. You may have got into a bath of baked beans to raise money for comic relief...Or you may not have got involved with any of these.
Whether you've been involved in organizing before or not, you're might be curious about how to campaign and who knows even fired up about an issue you'd like to campaign on. There is no right or wrong way on how to turn an issue you care about into a campaign - just look at the examples above and you can see all the different and exciting ways people have gone about it.
So just imagine if you could bring together people who are campaigning in their communities, people that are getting their voice heard in the media and those using new and creative tools to put this in action.
Just imagine if you could work with each other to develop exciting ways to campaign, finding out how others are organising and creating the spaces where activists with different skills involved in different groups can affect real change together.
We have all been to conferences where most of the time the only way we have ever got input into our events is over a drink down the pub. Don't get me wrong, I'm still keen on having those sideline chats at the end of the bar, but there are probably other ways which are just as exciting.
That's why we've joined up with TUC Young Members and Toynbee Hall to launch a weekend to fight back against the recession. On Saturday 20th June, you'll be able to get together into groups to discuss what impacts the recession is having on young people and what the Government should be doing in response. You'll then be able to put forward ideas on how we might more effectively organise and campaign for the rights of young people in and out of work.
On Sunday 21st June, we'll share grassroots stories from local campaigners, get together with facilitators so you can develop your skills on new campaigning techniques. You'll be able to get involved with other young people in trying these out to create new campaigns together to fight the recession. We want the workshops to be driven as much by the people taking part as the speakers facilitating, as much by the intensity of developing a campaign in such a short space of time as the excitement of activists with such a diversity of experiences - working together to tackle issues which matter to you.
We do want to produce something at the end of the day however and although it will be intense, ultimately you'll have developed a campaign that you can take away together and take forward across your networks.
So let's dive right in, get our hands dirty and start campaigns - let's help people create change for themselves, from the grassroots up.
It's time to take back our future, it's time for you to take back your communities.
Noël Hatch, National Chair, Compass Youth
To take part and find out more about our activities next weekend, please go to www.compassyouth.org or contact noel.hatch1@gmail.com
But in the real world, people are getting sacked, evicted and left on the scrapheap of the recession. And young people are getting hit the hardest, with unemployment rates much higher than other age group in "last to join, first to leave" jobs. These aren't just passing concerns but "permanent scars" even going as far as damaging their physical and mental health.
So rather than choose which sides to take in the political football games going on in Westminster village, isn't it time to stop agonising and start organising? To choose to campaign to fight the recession where we are, whether that's neighbourhoods, our campuses or our workplaces?
You may have set up an online group because you were getting ripped off. You may have invited people to a campaign session so people can live better off. You may have written to your MP to support the campaign you care about the most. You may have pitched up your tent to prevent the world turning to toast.
You may have stayed at a shelter to help the homeless. You may have gone down the beach to clean up the mess. You may have taken part in a flashmob to show people how exploitation of young people at work just isn't right. You may have marched through the streets to reclaim the night.
You may have been a street captain spreading hope not hate, you may have interviewed the wild and wonderful to instigate debate. You may have got into a bath of baked beans to raise money for comic relief...Or you may not have got involved with any of these.
Whether you've been involved in organizing before or not, you're might be curious about how to campaign and who knows even fired up about an issue you'd like to campaign on. There is no right or wrong way on how to turn an issue you care about into a campaign - just look at the examples above and you can see all the different and exciting ways people have gone about it.
So just imagine if you could bring together people who are campaigning in their communities, people that are getting their voice heard in the media and those using new and creative tools to put this in action.
Just imagine if you could work with each other to develop exciting ways to campaign, finding out how others are organising and creating the spaces where activists with different skills involved in different groups can affect real change together.
We have all been to conferences where most of the time the only way we have ever got input into our events is over a drink down the pub. Don't get me wrong, I'm still keen on having those sideline chats at the end of the bar, but there are probably other ways which are just as exciting.
That's why we've joined up with TUC Young Members and Toynbee Hall to launch a weekend to fight back against the recession. On Saturday 20th June, you'll be able to get together into groups to discuss what impacts the recession is having on young people and what the Government should be doing in response. You'll then be able to put forward ideas on how we might more effectively organise and campaign for the rights of young people in and out of work.
On Sunday 21st June, we'll share grassroots stories from local campaigners, get together with facilitators so you can develop your skills on new campaigning techniques. You'll be able to get involved with other young people in trying these out to create new campaigns together to fight the recession. We want the workshops to be driven as much by the people taking part as the speakers facilitating, as much by the intensity of developing a campaign in such a short space of time as the excitement of activists with such a diversity of experiences - working together to tackle issues which matter to you.
We do want to produce something at the end of the day however and although it will be intense, ultimately you'll have developed a campaign that you can take away together and take forward across your networks.
So let's dive right in, get our hands dirty and start campaigns - let's help people create change for themselves, from the grassroots up.
It's time to take back our future, it's time for you to take back your communities.
Noël Hatch, National Chair, Compass Youth
To take part and find out more about our activities next weekend, please go to www.compassyouth.org or contact noel.hatch1@gmail.com
WANT TO CREATE A CAMPAIGN TO FIGHT THE RECESSION?
Come and join Compass Youth & Toynbee Hall at our Creative Campaigns Camp on
SUNDAY 21ST JUNE BETWEEN 11-5PM
Toynbee Hall, 28 Commercial Street, London, E1 6LS (next to Aldgate East)
Just imagine if you could bring together people organising in their communities, getting their voice heard in the media and campaigning through through art, film or music.
We’re passionate about enabling you develop exciting ways to campaign, finding out how others are organising and creating spaces where you can make change.
That's why the camp will feature sessions for you to:
- GET INSPIRED by Toynbee Hall's experiences of campaigning from the bottom up - from That Money Thing campaign on student debt to the Post Office campaign.
- GET TOGETHER in workshops facilitated by film makers, vocal artists and animators and share their skills of turning people's hopes and fears into collective action.
- GET INVOLVED to create on the day with other young people, new campaigns to fight the recession that we will support you to take forward together where you are.
DON'T MISS OUT, SIGN UP NOW!
- BOOK YOUR PLACE - email noel.hatch1@gmail.com
- INVITE YOUR FRIENDS TOO - forward this to a friend.
Want to find out more? Call Ffiona on 02073922963.
treat yourself to a milky bar - is it time for a citizen's income?
In the recent Budget proposals, it was announced that children would get an extra £20 Child Tax Credit from April next year. The Chancellor highlighted that a third of a million families would get an average £35 a week more through tax credits. Given that nine in every ten families already qualify for tax credits, you could argue that’s good news. However, campaigners argue that amounts to an extra 38p a week to the three million children living in poverty – this was more a “milky bar budget” for them than a “people’s budget”…
So should we campaign for an even greater increase in tax credits then or would more of the same still prevent families climbing out of the poverty black hole?
We know that although financial equality doesn’t directly guarantee social equality, income inequality certainly aggravates other inequalities we face as The Spirit Level demonstrates. Despite the increase in tax credits, the proportion of wealth has fallen for the majority of us as much as it has risen for the richest 10% since the earlier 90s.
Up until now, the government has focused much more on opportunity much more than equality – it even has a name for it - “social mobility” and the most visible example of this is their approach to “getting people back into work”. The paradox though for the people that take this up is that they fall into a trap – they lose most of their benefits – housing & council tax as well as job seekers allowance while the rate of deduction of their tax rates rises significantly. This obviously discourages people from trying to get back into work, as well as the practical difficulties of being able to afford to get to job interviews or even broadband to search for jobs.
How will they be able to pay for the bills at the end of the month, not knowing how many hours their recruitment agency will give them to work and facing a sharp decrease in tax credits that takes place when you get a job?
Those who suffer the most are families with children – they experience marginal deduction rates of over 60%. The only benefit which reduces child poverty and does not contribute to deduction rates is Child Benefit. On the other hand, those benefits which increase the likelihood of entering a “poverty trap” are Working or Child Tax Credits. The difference between child benefit and tax credits is that the former is paid unconditionally and the latter is means-tested. In these times of change we can believe in, we would normally look to Obama, but the US is so far behind in terms of social protection, that it doesn't make sense this time round to be inspired. What we surely need then are more unconditional and non-withdrawable and less means-tested benefits to tackle child poverty?
How about a citizen's income?
A “citizen’s income” pushes all these buttons, so should the government need to reduce tax credits to pay for a “basic citizen's income” to everyone or should it increase taxes for those who earn more or even introduce a maximum wage to pay a “living citizen's income”?
What are the overriding benefits of a citizen’s income?
The Citizen’s Income Trust argues that it’s unconditional, so it would also reduce the stigma attached to means-tested benefits. Its non-withrawable, so it would also reduce the stress attached to working out how much they would be left with at the end of the month. It’s redistributive as income is redistributed from people who are better off more towards those less so. Those who earn the least would get a quarter more in come than they currently do, while those who earn the most would only get a bit less. The rest of us would either get an increase in income or would stay in the same position as we are now. It's empowering as it would also encourage more flexible working, lifelong learning and retraining which is so important at the moment.
A survey amongst MPs shows that there is support expressed right across the political spectrum that everyone would gain from getting a “citizen's income”. If we don’t want to turn back on our pledge to reduce child poverty by half by next year, we need to do better than the “milky bar budget” we got a few days ago. Isn’t it time for a citizen’s income?
Thanks to Cliph for the photo published under Creative Commons
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