PRINCIPLES OF FURNESS AGAINST THE CUTS

                  FURNESS AGAINST THE CUTS

           

                               Steering Group agreed principles

• The name of the campaign will be Furness Against the Cuts (FAC)
• Steering Group (SG) meetings will be held at Greengate Children’s Centre, Greengate Street, Barrow from 6.30 until 7.30pm on the first Wednesday of each month.
• Membership of the SG is open to any individual representing a democratic, progressive organisation which subscribes to the principles outlined here, and will have the right to vote at Steering Group meetings.  Organisations may have up to two delegates on the SG.
• The SG will be responsible for ensuring these principles are upheld.
• Supportive individuals not representing an organisation can attend SG meetings and contribute to discussions but will have no vote.  This is solely to prevent ‘mobbing’ - whereby members of a group deliberately swamp a meeting and by sheer weight of numbers are able to corrupt an organisation and distort and completely undermine it.
• There will be no discrimination on grounds of age, gender, disability, colour, race, sexual orientation or religious belief.
• The SG will be democratic - one person one vote, and majority decisions will stand.
• FAC will not be a fund-raising organisation but contribution of voluntary donations to meet the cost of an agreed action e.g. printing of leaflets, is acceptable.
• SG meetings will be relatively informal - bureaucratic procedures will be avoided whenever possible and there will be no elected officials e.g. chair, secretary, treasurer etc although, each month, a volunteer will be appointed to conduct the meeting.
• Nobody attending an SG meeting will be denied the right to express an opinion, and anyone having misgivings about a decision must make their feelings known immediately for there must no destructive ‘festering’ resentments.
• SG meetings will not be formally ‘minuted’ but at each meeting a volunteer will make a record of all decisions made and note any plans accepted for an agreed event.
• Whenever possible, discussions on anti-cuts business held anytime between SG meetings will be conducted by all-inclusive emails i.e. open and available to all.
• Use will be made of a Street Presence to promote the anti-cuts campaign utilizing a folding table and, initially, existing People’s Charter materials (banners, leaflets etc) until such time as FAC is able to produce campaigning materials of its own.
• Democratic, progressive organisations e.g. trade unions, community groups and voluntary associations, will be welcome to join the Street Presence and use their own materials but it should be noted that FAC will not ‘do their work for them’ (organisations give their support to the FAC campaign whilst maintaining their own autonomy)
• Genuine, nationally recognised political parties will be welcome to use their organization’s anti-cuts propaganda materials and to promote any publication that is supportive of the anti-cuts campaign.

The agreed principles described above are intended to assist the creation of a democratic, honestly transparent and fair structure on which FAC can grow.

FURNESS AGAINST THE CUTS,  April 2011