[OPIRG-EVENTS] New Politics Initiative - First National Conference October 18-20

["shawn." <digitalindependence@riseup.net>]

The initiative is trying to engage all Canadians in the process of building a 
new kind of participatory, democratic politics, so all are welcome!  The 
conference schedule includes:

Hilary Wainwright will be speaking at the conference on Friday night. She is 
one of the major thinkers of the New Left, a British feminist and socialist who 
has thought a lot about participatory democracy, and helped implement one of 
the biggest experiments in participatory democracy through the Greater London 
Council's Popular Planning process in the early 1980's. (It was scrapped by 
Thatcher, along with the GLC.) She is also the editor of Red Pepper magazine, 
which you can visit at www.redpepper.org.uk .

The roundtable on Saturday morning is going to tackle head on one of the major 
questions facing the Canadian left: the absence of a strong relationship 
between social movements and left political parties, a relationship that exists 
elsewhere in the world (in France and Brazil, for example). Speaking will be 
movement activists who represent very different points of view on this issue. 
This debate will help frame the discussion for the rest of the weekend.

The rest of the conference will be a participatory decision-making process that 
we have worked hard on developing. We're very excited by it and hope to hear 
from as many people as possible about the future political direction of the 
NPI, its relation to the NDP, and how it should be structured. There are many 
proposals to discuss, including our consulta (democratic consultation of 
movements), a new model for organizing municipal election campaigns, and how to 
initiate social forums in your region.

The Friday day, Friday night and Saturday morning of the conference will be 
open to the public. Decision-making events will only be open to endorsers and 
supporters of the NPI. If you believe in most all of:

*participatory democracy

*environmental sustainability

*economic democracy

*anti-oppression politics (feminism, anti-racism, anti-colonialism, anti-ablism)

*and, whether you think it should include the NDP or not, if you believe that 
we need a new kind of political party on the left that is activist and has a 
strong relation to the social movements, and a strong emphasis on democracy 
inside and outside the party then you are welcome to participate in decisions 
at this conference: simply endorse on your arrival. 

You can read more about the conference and the NPI at www.newpolitics.ca -- 
there is also a registration form there that you can fax, mail, or email.


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