Over the summer and early autumn of 2012, Penny Waterhouse from NCIA gathered information about activism springing up locally and about the different models of radical support for this action. Read here. The results are encouraging: Active Dissent is alive and well, and sometimes works!

The Inquiry threw up a number of questions:

Where do we put our energies – to save voluntary and community services from the grasp of the state and to urge them back into their communities? To get established umbrella groups to do their job properly? To focus on campaigning against cuts and austerity?

What is being built from all the agitation – how can we make it more, what links and common cause can be built across different or potential dissenters? Where are the homes for dissent and alternatives? Which will give us the greatest chance for social and economic change – all approaches or only certain ones? How do we stitch it all together, to have greater force?

At the NCIA Planning Group on 30th November, 30 people active in campaigns, community groups and unions debated, argued and sparked ideas for future action on these and other big questions. Ideas for action, locally and nationally, are:

 Small groups and individuals affected by cuts are the backbone and reality of resistance – encourage the growing connections between groups and individuals. Personal relationships are what it’s all about.

 Look for concrete actions around which to organize across different interests

 Gather together and share the alternative manifestos which are beginning to spring up. Find common understandings and rallying points for joint action. Make it practical and concrete, to tackle the material pressures on people.

 Use social and other media to broadcast these demands and to challenge the status quo

 Find the politics and stories in these manifestos, to share and debate

 Use the language of morality and reality: plain and honest vocabulary to express our ideas and relationships

 Create alliances and homes across all types of dissidents who share a common cause, whether inside or outside the system

 Be out there and visible, to make the changes.

We were also left with many big questions hanging:

 Can unions become again a home for resistance and alternatives?

 Where is the left? Is it relevant to see the left as a rallying call or is it divisive?

 Are voluntary services now too compromised by funding to speak out for people affected by cuts and austerity?

 How can we support each other in our different struggles and acknowledge our differences too?

And a new campaign name was suggested: The Plebs Campaign – enough already…..

So join the discussions on the NatCAN discussion forum here