Draft Paper
Blocks and barriers to an alignment within Civil Society Introduction This short briefing paper is concerned with addressing the impediments to developing greater cooperation and effective leadership within the emerging Civil Society movement in Ireland. It identifies the primary sectors that can be seen to comprise Civil Society at present and poses some questions as to why there is little by way of engaged dialogue and common cause between these sectors. Ultimately this short paper is an invitation to consider these matters – privately, through your organisation and tradition of work - and thereafter to engage and help enliven a new Civil Society initiative underway in 2016. This initiative is envisaged as a creative encounter – organised over three stages – drawing on the best instincts and abilities of the leadership spectrum in Ireland concerned with advancing a new model of society. The first stage involves sharing contemporary thinking and ideas – through briefing papers and preliminary exchanges - on the key issues concerning Civil Society. It will also involve navigating a clear and agreed basis on which to design and convene a major assembly in the Spring of 2016. This assembly / event will have as its central purpose the creation of a more conscious and carefully aligned Civil Society movement. The core content and means by which the event is animated will arise naturally from the first stage of consultation. Following the assembly / event there will be a third stage where review and reflection upon the central tenets and experience of the initiative will be organised. It is anticipated that there will then be a set of arising actions – cross sectoral, practical and collaborative in nature – that will be proposed by way of refreshing leadership and dynamism within the Civil Society movement in 2016 and beyond.
Civil Society It is of course a loose term, but for convenience sake we have organised the topography of the Civil Society movement into six sectors as following, each of which has its own distinctive origins, constituencies and ways of working. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Global Justice NGO’s Trade Unions Community and Voluntary Environmental Groups Campaigns Spontaneous & Unaffiliated
Taken together these sectoral references offer a recognisable map legible in part due to the commonality of shared values related to human rights / equality and principles of participative democracy. But the same map also belies a territoriality– comprised of sometimes singular and obsessive organisational behaviours – which has stunted the development of a genuinely open, persuasive and imaginative movement for change. A Fragmented Reality It is fair to state that within the Civil Society movement there is a widely held, indeed compelling analysis and critique of the particular political and economic model functioning in Ireland and its various democratic and systemic deficiencies. It is noteworthy however that there is a strangely commensurate difficulty with this analysis being properly articulated, channelled and represented in such a manner as to awaken popular recognition and response. There is no apparent lack of spokespersons and campaigns, no shortage of flashpoints and media attention yet the extent of public confusion and apparent political atrophy remains – obdurate. Is there a some unseen conformism, an unhelpful self importance and unwillingness or inability on the part of the various sectors within Civil Society to acknowledge and address this particular impasse? Are we as Irish activists and organisations so preoccupied by our personal narratives that separatism and competition for resources and airspace is the default position? If so is there not a fundamental poverty of the will, a lack of confidence in the necessity of creating, conscientising and challenging our sense of citizenship together?
One cannot but recognise the extent of public fatigue and often incomprehension at the fractiousness and aggression often on display among those of us publicly opposing the dominant political / economic model. The ubiquitous and alienating languages – union babble / lefty spiel / high moral ground hysteria / academic speak / righteous indignation / poor mouthism etc. - remain a damaging and enduring drain on the national psyche and something that surely warrants some careful study and consideration by all involved. Our mainstream and social media culture in Ireland with its adversarial style of conducting public affairs further fuels the habitual clamour of noise and intrigue that characterises so much of public discourse. Such combativeness is invariably reductive and concussive in its effect. It constantly denies our capacity to advance a more dignified, assured and evolutionary form of 'meaning making' and intelligent communications within our society. So why is it we repeatedly fall so easily into that particular trap? And what is it about the preoccupation of the closely related, filial sectors in Civil Society that - unintentionally perhaps - perpetuates separatism ahead of cultivating unity of purpose? Some venture the view that it is a consequence of too few resources and / or a too competitive or too compliant a mindset looking to find the perfect fit or outcome. A situation clearly worsened by the confusion and anxieties arising from the hostile austerity measures of recent times. Others instance our native tendency to factionalism and a mutual, often cynical disregard for our different traditions of work. The persistent cult of personality, historical bias and blame are a further factor cited as an impediment to progressive change – so where does that leave us? Leadership and vision making are in short supply in such times. Our discourse appears thin and ineffectual while our country is strung out on the vagaries of an increasingly deadening, consumerist politic that is going nowhere fast. So it follows that each of us a part of this Civil Society map is now being asked to pause and look again at the underlying pathology that renders us so stuck and intransigent. This paper – among others – are an appeal to raise up our shared values, connect our practices and together find the quiet strength necessary to forge a deeper, conscious and enduring matrix of relationship, fit for purpose in a hopefully more principled and inclusive republic.
One where the future public discourse and discipline of creating a participative democracy will be founded on plain, straight talking, common sense steps – to be arrived at through an unerring need to lance the lie of self interest and to liberate the energies of the common good. It is perhaps best conceived as a movement of heart / minds engendering mutual trust, respect and a collective responsibility for acting in clearly ethical, imaginative and meaningful ways. Such ways as these – though sometimes latent and difficult to substantiate in a rational manner- are intrinsic to the human spirit and capable of generating the much necessary felt enthusiasm for personal and societal transformation. The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step – the Civil Society Initiative in the first six months of 2016 is an opportunity to help set us all on a new path. Considering this and related papers and engaging in the three stages outlined earlier is your personal invitation. Please approach this Initiative with as much courage and humility possible. Together it might just be possible to create a new climate and mode of catalysing our future. For further information contact