Notes for Democafe meeting

2-4pm on Sat 16th April 2016 – at The Forge, Delancey St, Camden.
Present: Sarah, Janos, Mary,

1. NOTES of the last minuted meeting held on Saturday 26th March 2016
2.  MATTERS ARISING from the NOTES other than on the agenda.

3.  EVENTS LISTINGS:

•  DemoCafe Events Listings: http://www.democafe.uk/events/
•  DRUK – Debt Resistance UK: https://www.facebook.com/DebtResistanceUK – http://debtresistance.uk
•  Global Table:  http://globaltable.org.uk/wp/forthcoming-events
•  Occupy Economics Working Group: events listing http://occupylondon.org.uk/events/
•  Momentum: http://www.peoplesmomentum.com/calendar
•  Pathways Network:  http://www.pathwaysnetwork.co.uk/meetings.htm
•  Positive Money: Events Calendar search 500 miles of London

4.  UPDATES

•  38 DEGREES: Current Campaigns: https://home.38degrees.org.uk
•  FREE CRITICAL THINKING:  Daily Pickings, edited by Clive Menzies: updates for March needed! – all links go to pages on: www.freecriticalthinking.org
•  ICUK (Constitutionalists): Meeting held on Wed 13th April.
•  LGOT: London Global Open Table: “Matters in the Air” are circulated in advance, providing background information for the weekly open meetings on Wednesdays 12noon to 2pm: http://globaltable.org.uk/wp/
• LONDON MAYORAL CAMPAIGN – request for volunteers to support Sadiq Khan’s campaign: www.sadiq.london/volunteer
•  POLITICS & SPIRIT: The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination – Defending the Zad: https://labofii.wordpress.com/2016/02/09/defending-the-zad-a-new-little-book-about-the-struggle-against-the-airport-and-its-world/
•  THE RUNNYMEDE GAZETTE: a Journal of the Democratic Resistance, produced by Frank Taylor and now in its seventh year, the March 2016 edition is now available.  See http://globaltable.org.uk/wp/links/newsletters/runnymede-gazette.
•  GREG PALAST: http://www.gregpalast.com

5.  Discussion Topics

5.1 Housing Event 20th February 2016:
Report of this event:  http://www.quaker.org.uk/events/housing-and-inequality-what-canst-thou-do – see papers uploaded on previous posting.

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5.2 “Meet where you are”  –  Recruiting new Democafeteers.
Our main topic for discussion was consideration of the Runnymede Project’s idea about setting up local “lodges”, and the proposal that we should seek to collaborate directly in extending the DemoCafe project to other areas of the country.  We could send out our agenda including links to Runnymede Gazette, and other sources of information, which might form a backdrop to consideration of local concerns. Linking out to other organisations might encourage them to propagate details of a common “agenda” to their own organisations.

Frank Taylor, Editor of the Runnymede Gazette kindly sent us a copy of the original paper putting forward this idea, as part of the Purton Declaration:  About Runnymede_Lodges.  In considering this paper, we realised that (a) it’s much more about action than discussion – but action does need to be informed by knowledge, (b) a great deal of updating is needed to bring the idea of local lodges in line with current current political concerns, (c) Mary felt it was reminiscent of advice that LETSlink had provided in its efforts to support local currencies, which could perhaps be part of the remit and would involve mixing knowledge with action.  We also noted that Global Table had also aspired to spawn local meeting tables, which had not happened either.  However we agreed that the idea, and especially the logistics of implementing it, is worthy of further consideration.

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6. A.O.B.

7.  NEXT MEETING: 

to be held on Sat 23rd April, and we invite all readers to suggest additional items by email and/or let us know about local meetings they have held and/or to send apologies for the Camden meeting to group@democafe.uk.

JA/mf