Fifty Years on: Learning from the Hidden Histories of. Community Activism.

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Bethanie Hicks
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1 Fifty Years on: Learning from the Hidden Histories of. Community Activism. Marion Bowl, Helen White, Angus McCabe. Aims. Community Activism a definition. To explore the meanings and implications of community activism in Birmingham, from the perspectives of those involved To develop an understanding of the processes within community activism and the way in which aims are influenced by policy, funding and changing ideas and ideologies To create an accessible archive which relates the histories of ideas, organisations and individual activists from the past 50 years To trace the links between community activism and other forms of activism: trade union organisation, women s and anti-racist movements To analyse different approaches in community activism To reflect on lessons for the future of community activism and development Activities which arise from the actions of local communities of place or interest, and which are directed towards advancing or impeding social, political or economic change. They may include: lobbying political activity public demonstrations meetings letter writing and media activity performance and exhibitions production of leaflets/ pamphlets/newsletters social media use direct service provision advice and information work education The research. Interviews with current and former community activists Collection and analysis of archive material from 1960s to present Timeline of local and national developments which have influenced/been influenced by community activism Construction of historical narratives Creation of a history/archive of community activism in Birmingham, covering themes of play, youth work, planning, urban renewal and housing, community arts and media, community education, migration, nationality and anti-racism and anti-deportation activism. Issues for this discussion 1 Community activism aims and orientations 2 Is paid activism feasible or sustainable? 3 How does community activism become co-opted? 4 Looking to the future learning from activists accounts

2 Orientations and aims for. community activism:. A tentative framework. I get really confused with activism! Because we all want different aims, nobody can actually agree on what the aims are that you want to achieve. If I am working with refugees, their aim is to get the right to remain in the country and be safe, whereas my aim is to help people to understand that people shouldn t need to be refugees, and they should go back to their country. But they have to be safe first! And I can support that, but that is not my aim! Lara: refugee and women s campaigns Protecting rights Personal Political Advocating for change Reflection and Discussion 1 Does this framework fit with your own experience? 2 Are there tensions between the two ends of each spectrum? 3 What factors influence the balance between protecting rights and advocating for change? 4 What alternative frameworks might appropriately describe orientations and aims for community activism?

3 Themes from. the Interview data. I think it is dependent on funding; if you can persuade somebody that they want to fund you to be an activist, and some people do, there must be some community I mean look at The Campaign Against the Arms Trade jobs, they do pay campaigners and, I think, Action Aid? I mean there are some jobs that are specifically for that But a lot of people actually they get burnt out, and they don t continue. They will do a year or two and then they will just kind of potter off and do something else, because the system is kind of demoralising. You have to choose a way to continue with the campaigning with your activities or you leave it. So you don t have a choice, to be honest with you, and you don t even have funding so you are at the weakest point as well, which means that people who are most energetic and active are the ones who end up running the activities for free who end up doing the job as opposed to those who are paid to do the job. I don t think community activism should particularly be a paid job, I think you do it because people feel they want to do it, and they want to change something. And if some people get paid and some people don t, it is a bit of a problem. So if you want to change something, it would be nice if it was everybody in it together, in an equal way. Whether it will be that, because it seems that some people get funded as community activists, and then they are tasked with leading that group. When the Manpower Services Commission stuff came along, people who would be volunteering for nothing could get paid, some of them could get paid. You also then brought in a slightly lower that sounds terrible low-wage people who you wouldn t have attracted as a volunteer because they could come as a job. I think it had a detrimental effect on the ethos of contributing either your time or money to a charity. Brian: Housing, trade union and community campaigns since 1968 Passion not money, absolutely However, if this can be like history I can tell my son that, you know, your mum did this and she s proud of it, you can write a book, but she s got zero money in the bank account.

situation. And the fact that people were held indefinitely without any time [limit].

4 How does community. activism become co-opted?. So we are focusing on something, and the Home Office will probably pick up on part of the research which said there were a lot of male guards watching women, and it was a really uncomfortable situation. And the fact that people were held indefinitely without any time [limit]. So they will probably come back with something saying we will put a time limit on how long people can be held; and we will have female-only people in there, in the detention centres. And even if they got rid of detention centres, people would still live in the community and be at risk of deportation. So it doesn t change the stresses that people go through; it doesn t change the system. And they will come and they will take the ideas out and after they will go and develop a book or an application for it and they will never get back and we just hear the project has ended. That s quite energywise disappointing. How many times can you do that? So many people have left the activity side of refugees or new communities because of that reason; they have felt they have been used. We have always avoided grant-dependency. And then along came what was the programme, SRB? SRB6, and blow me they gave a huge grant to [X] association to employ two workers in Saltley and Small Heath. And it nearly wrecked us! Because all they did was boost the membership, boost customers if you like, but they didn t develop the volunteer base. So when the funding which it inevitably did ran out or stopped, then certain things collapsed. So there was an awareness that grants were running out, and they are now, they have gone, haven t they? So it was like I suppose you had them while you can but it wasn t long-term sustainable was it? Graham: Housing and environmental campaigns since 1970 Behind this question actually is the issue of what happens when an organisation gets funded and how does that impact on their freedom to be politically active? And I think what was clear in Handsworth is that that caused huge problems. [Brian] reminded me last night that involvement with MSC, the Manpower Services Commission, was a similar kind of double-edged sword. Because like on the one hand, some people really did get involved in community work and went on to train to do different types of community type things. But on the other hand it very much changed it tended to change what organisations did and they were much more governed. Jane: Union, community and education campaigns since 1973 Yeah, because, as I say, when you don t have power and you are vulnerable, agencies or organisations that come to you aren t specifically the ones that you agree with, but it s just because they have contracts or they have funding to do so. So you choose between speaking up to them or leave it, you don t have a choice. It seems like they are funding some individuals to lead it forward, which I think you need. But I also think it creates some problems in terms of practice, because the people that are leading will be the ones that are making the decisions, and then you have just got to get the right people, to make sure that they are interested in the community. Where we collectively made the mistakes in the seventies and eighties, certain parts of the city had huge amounts of money thrown into them. There were lots of organisations doing the same thing when we should have worked together and we didn t because of various vested interests, localisms, all that sort of stuff. I hate to think how much money we d thrown at Handsworth at some point. It must be millions and millions and millions. And it created its own industry, it created the community worker, and that gave people jobs, it gave them educations, it motivated people, but also I think detracted from the bigger picture. If we could have got all that money together and somehow given all the residents of Handsworth a list of fifty things that should happen, and ask them to choose and vote on it, it may well have been more effective. Brian: Housing, trade union and community campaigns since 1968

Looking to the future Learning from activists accounts So without those people, it wouldn t have happened, these housing co-ops.

I think it is more a doggedness really; it is sticking it for the long term! It took them a long time.

And because she had experience and contacts, getting involved that taught me a lot I suppose. this isn t going to change overnight; this is a really difficult system.

5 Looking to the future Learning from activists accounts So without those people, it wouldn t have happened, these housing co-ops. I think there were six or seven housing co-ops formed, without outside stimulus. But at the same time, it couldn t have happened without the people living here and their determination to do it. I think it is more a doggedness really; it is sticking it for the long term! It took them a long time. Graham: Housing and environmental campaigns since 1970 I think community activism is really dependant on individuals, so when [Mary] was at the Peace House, she was leading on certain campaigns. And because she had experience and contacts, getting involved that taught me a lot I suppose. this isn t going to change overnight; this is a really difficult system. They are not just going to wake up one day and say: yes, we will give everybody the right to stay, and respect all human beings. They are not, so the length of time And I suppose to combat that, you have got to look at the small successes that you do have, and recognise them and get excited about them and publicise them and try and feel like you are getting somewhere. Lara: Refugee and women s campaigns since 200 I think myself and other people that I know who are active are not thinking strategically or planning. We react to issues that come up, and that is what gets campaigned on. It would be really nice if you had the time to think: how is this campaign going to be effective, and if you could sit down, because you can sit at the beginning and think okay: what are our aims, what do we want to get out of this campaign? However, the weakness of anything is that you spend too much energy. You have children, you have a life, you are even a refugee, you know, you have to build your life and when you re going campaigning you end up with no money, jobless and nobody is listening to you. [There s] a gap in the involvement of people, once they have got their right to remain and have the opportunity to move on and live their life. And when I say move on and live their life, I mean find a job, start working, support their family. And a lot of people do have families, so they have got responsibilities back home You have somehow got to backdate that. People then end up working really hard on themselves. And we live in an individualist society, I mean it is not about the community, and a lot of people have come from communities where there is a lot of back-stabbing, a lot of gossip, and they actually don t want to be involved in it any more. We have an office there but there is no funding there. So they stopped all the funding... But I think things are going from better to worse in terms of community leadership. We were developing but then, with the funding cuts, things changed, and I don t know what the government it all became politics and we re not supposed to do politics. So that s why we are forced to go into jobs now, finding some jobs elsewhere so that you can keep your passion open. But I still think that whether I think I will just die campaigning. So firstly it s been really difficult to get a critical mass of people who we could get to consistently work together. So usually there s been about three of us, which is not a great basis for an educational movement it has to be said What you can t get is critical mass; you can t get enough people to say, Okay, let s go for it. You just can t get enough people on side to create any momentum. Jane: Union, community and education campaigns since 1973 I think it is a struggle when places are small, so you are working with a small community, other people are working within small communities, and how you can link up with other people so it is a larger body of activism, going okay we want this change, because a small change is not Equally, we have still not recovered from the miners strike where we got our arse well and truly kicked, and the TUC and the Transport General Workers Union at that time let us down absolutely terribly. I firmly believe we could have won that, I really, really do, if we had worked together. It s just Thatcherism And people my family and people don t understand that hatred and passion and I just believe that I love my country in a working class socialist way and they ruined it, they absolutely ruined it. Brian: Housing, trade union and community campaigns since 1968 I think one of the big disappointments to me generally was the lack of cohesion between social and community groups and the Trade Union. It s a bit like what broke the thing in Paris; the arguments between the students and the Trade Unionists and we didn t learn from that. And to get Trade Unionists actively involved. Brian: Housing, trade union and community campaigns since 1968

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