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NEWS • VIEWS • INFORMATION • ADVICE


Building Powerful Institutions for the Common Good

Roughly speaking, 85% of a child’s time is spent outside school: that’s when you take into consideration the time they spend at home, on holiday and playing (or not) outside. Only 15% or so is spent at school. The point is clear: many of the problems we face in our schools actually begin outside. Community organising is about addressing this and getting communities to take ownership of their destiny.

CITIZENS UK is the home of community organising in Britain. It is the umbrella body to which Citizens Alliances are affiliated, the largest being London Citizens (with its 200 member schools, colleges, churches, mosques, synagogues, unions, community associations, and universities). Its main purpose is power: power being what one needs to bring about change. And if you’re interested in what goes on in your classroom, you have to think about what you can do to address what’s going on outside it and what power you need to make it happen.

Building power across a great variety of institutions, CITIZENS UK’s team of professional Community Organisers build trust between community leaders, help them identify issues they have in common, such as safety, housing, poverty, etc., and train them to address these issues pragmatically. It other words, CITIZENS UK builds capacity amongst communities for them to act on their needs and become actors of change.

Take an example: safety. Following the death of 16 year old Jimmy Mizen in a bakery, in south-east London in 2008, his parents, their local congregation, and local schools have been working with London Citizens and have approached local shopkeepers to identify ways that could have prevented Jimmy’s tragic death. Children, parents, teachers, and local residents carried out some research and quickly realised that the great majority of the shopkeepers on the street where Jimmy’s death happened had given up: you could see broken windows, graffiti everywhere, shopkeepers having worked on the same street for years but yet not knowing their neighbours. A sense of hopelessness pervaded: ‘What’s the point?’ people would too often say.

Since the beginning of the campaign, more than 200 shops across London have become CitySafe Havens whereby shopkeepers have pledged to report crime and antisocial behaviour to the police, offer their premises as a place of refuge for those in immediate danger and spend time building relationships with their neighbours. The campaign not only builds trust between neighbours, but it also develops a sense of hope and citizenship amongst many who’d simply given up. It brings together citizens, the police and elected officials around issues they can’t address separately. Similar initiatives are now spreading across the UK.

These issues also affect schools. Some of our children don’t walk to or from school on their own as they feel too scared and the problems of poverty and overcrowded accommodation can also create barriers to learning for young people. CITIZENS UK is working to tackle these problems through community action.

"Since the beginning of the campaign, more than 200 shops across London have become CitySafe Havens…"

More details about CITIZENS UK are available on its website at www.citizensuk.org or from Sebastien Chapleau (Community Organiser, Education) at sebastien.chapleau@londoncitizens.org.uk.


International news

Iraq – The NASUWT is assisting Iraqi teacher activists to build a strong and free trade union movement.

Anti-trade union legislation introduced during the reign of Saddam Hussein is still hampering the growth and development of trade unionism in Iraq, but the NASUWT, in collaboration with Education International (EI), an umbrella organisation that represents the interests of education trade unions worldwide, has been supporting a programme of trade union training and education across Iraq.

Courses are being held across the country for members of the Iraqi Teachers’ Union and Kurdish Teachers’ Union, exploring issues like finance, organising, negotiation and recruitment.

The training is delivered by members of the country’s teacher unions, who have been supported and facilitated by the NASUWT and EI.

The training is part of the NASUWT’s ongoing programme of support and solidarity with colleagues in Iraq to help develop a democratic labour movement that represents and protects the rights of teachers.

Burma – Pressure is growing for an official United Nations inquiry into war crimes and abuses of human rights committed by the Burmese dictatorship.

The UK is among a number of nations calling on the UN to instigate a commission to examine claims of systematic abuse, oppression and crimes against humanity committed by the ruling junta.

The call is being echoed by the Burmese democracy movement, including Burma Campaign UK, which campaigns for human rights, democracy and development in Burma, many leading judges and parliamentarians worldwide and Nobel Laureates.

The NASUWT supports the campaign for a UN inquiry and is an active supporter of the Burma Campaign UK. For more information, visit www.burmacampaign.org.uk.

Go online: www.nasuwt.org.uk/International