Welcome to People in Common. Find here information and news about various campaigns relating to freedom and justice, begun one fine day with a surreal ticking off for unaccountable, multinational money lenders, followed by a lovely picnic in defence of the right to protest and free assembly in Parliament Square, various debates about the state of our constitution and, finally how to build a viable, responsible coalition for the future.

Other news:

1) There is yet another government consultation (on the issues of freedom to protest and free assembly). You can find out more about this via the Campaign For Free Assembly.

And 2) we are now in a new campaigning phase, Project 2012. This, in concert with CAMPACC, Guantanamo London and others is about how to to build a grassroots Civil Liberties Coalition to make the UK Human Rights Compliant by 2012..

What is Project 2012..?

10 December 2008 (10.12) will mark 60 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the basis for modern international and national human rights law, including within the UK. From 2008, once the Beijing Olympics are over, international focus will shift to the UK (2012). 'Project 10.12 - 2012' aims to reclaim Human Rights for all, from the grassroots, and to actively secure them within every community. Basically, we want everyone to be more involved in decision-making, and we aim to develop a programme to ensure the implementation of all key rights in the UK by 2012.

Our plan is to facilitate a series of rights (or, if you prefer, rights and resistance) workshops, each on a different theme, from May to November leading to a larger event on 10 December 2008 ('Humanity in the UK'). Each themed workshop will begin the important process of teasing out areas of concern to grassroots people working in the field in question. This process will help us to develop a cogent programme, while also educating others about the concrete work needed to make 'inalienable Human Rights' a reality for all.

First Project 2012 Workshop & Video Session Saturday 31st May 2-5pm
Conservatory Café, Methodist Central Hall, Near Parliament Square, Westminster
To develop the Project 2012 campaign, get closer to a workable model and share facilitation skills for the coming months our first workshop on May 31st will be on the topic of 'how to hold workshops'. Individuals or group reps may wish to attend to learn facilitation skills from our expert trainers aswell as find out more about the overall project. After the workshop session there will be an opportunity to go on camera in Westminster with Rikki Blue (film maker behind Socpa The Movie). This will allow participants to raise the profile of their issue on-line and engage with members of the public about Human Rights in the UK at the same time.

Wider Aims

The overall aims of the 10.12 -2012 Human Rights in the UK project and the workshops associated with it are to develop a programme or living manifesto for change:

* Commemorating the 60th anniversary of the UDHR, reflecting on the history of human rights
* Connecting individuals and groups involved in rights-based work
* Encouraging the development of a workable model of civil society and new forms of constructive resistance
* Considering the practical application of Article 1 of the ICCPR, the right to self determination
* Considering the EU project's overall emphasis in the context of rights and democracy
* Encouraging mobilisation for 2012 in the UK and further afield

Volunteers - How to Get Involved..

We're looking to involve any groups and individuals who wish to promote key human rights for workshop facilitation. This is a wide project, so a long list is inevitable, but those interested in rights relating to constitution, planning, land, housing, healthcare, education, public services, right to protest, freedom of association, women's rights, workers' rights, migrants' rights, disability rights, prisoners rights, children's right, homeless rights, mental health, animals, nature and/or others are all very welcome.

Also, we would like to hear from people skilled at networking, workshop facilitation, conference organisation, leafleting, performance art, funding, venue provision and anyone else with time, skill or resources to offer! Basically any/all of the above - please get in touch.

For more info, or to offer a skill, suggest a workshop or register a place on the 31st please email: greenpeaproject@gmail.com, text / call0785 439 0408 or check for updates on www.peopleincommon.org

Best wishes
The Project 2012 Team

Self Determination

"In order to maximise our own liberty, we must cease to put our trust in princes, and instead take charge of the public arena for ourselves, [constructing a genuine democracy] in which government is for the people as result of being by the people".

This is the Zapatistan call to think of every locality: where we live, work or study - and by extension the whole UK, Europe and wider world  - as one people, a multicultural sovereign in the making. Zapatistans look for novel, inspiring ways to bring people together, interculturally to get to know one another better, but also to start the necessary reorganisation of society, independent and from the ground up - ie along genuinely democratic lines. For 'we the people' yearn to be truly free, for justice to prevail. And for this to happen, we must collectively build our own government, from the ground up..
 
Towards a New Social Covenant:

(1) The reordering of society from the ground up so that executive power vests with the people on the street and in each locality, in accordance with the UN right to self-determination, EU subsidiarity and democracy as 'government by the people', and by way of the concept of Free Assembly.

(2) People's (Community Land Trust, CLT) buildings, with garden on every street: each to be run by the people who live around it as they see fit (and each Locality to be recognised in *meta-law* as a new social covenant Free Assembly).

(3) New communities enclosures: the ring fencing of parcels of land for the facilitation of low-impact, intentional, human-scale communities (kibbutz/commune style CLTs), each standing independently as a Free Assembly, with security of tenure and the same constitutional status as enjoyed by each locality outlined in (2) and (4).

(4) Free Assemblies to enjoy full executive and judicial powers of first instance, to be constitutionally recognised and include, alongside electoral processes delegate-system voting rights in Parliament, local taxation powers, the right to petition for and challenge new legislation, and constitutionality on all matters.

(5) Widespread expansion of affordable, low impact self-governing CLT,
self-build, 4th Option and SPAN style housing projects.

(6) A new regime of Currency Transaction CTT and other Corporate Taxation on bank speculation and other multinational profits, monies to be ring fenced for grassroots development projects, to pay for basic sanitation, emergency relief, education and housing in the poorest sections of the world.

(7) EU Common Agricultural Policy CAP funds (currently 30 billion pounds of EU taxpayers budget per annum, and of enormous adverse effect on fair trade for developing agricultural economies) to be diverted for new CLT purchases outlined in (2) (3) and (5).

(8) A written constitution with built-in sunset clause (constitution to lapse every 15 years) to incorporate these and other policy demands and allow for judicial appeal procedures.

(9) To reign in on the absolute and unaccountable doctrine of Parliamentary Sovereignty, and guarantee the rights set out above, terms of written constitution (subject to sunset clause) to be recognised as new covenant *meta-law*, judicially enforceable against the state, as in the US.

(10) Terms of 'meta-law' (new social covenant/constitution) to include fundamental democratic rights of freedom of conscience, expression, protest and assembly, plus other rights set out in the UDHR and other aspirational texts.

Encouraging Decentralised Mobilisation and A New Sovereignty
Built from Below..