European community organizers respond to crisis
By: Steve Hughes
Tags: Climate Action, Civicspace, Civic Engagement, Community Organizing, Community Organising

Participants in an online forum about organizing in the crisis.

EDITOR’S NOTE:

The following is from an October panel discussion organized by the European Community Organizing Network (ECON) as part of an on-going dialogue between organizers and members of the European philanthropic community. In April, ECON also organized a pair of sessions for organizers to think strategically about response to crisis. A write-up of that session can be found in this report.

This discussion was moderated by Romy Krämer of the Guerrilla Foundation. The text has been edited for length and clarity.

How has European community organizing evolved over the last year?

Dagmara Kubik: We started as organizers working with neighborhoods. But we realized that we needed to start working with concrete organizations that are taking up specific issues. For example, we started working in the area of climate, building relationships with movements in that space. In Poland, there are a lot of civic groups fighting stuff, protesting, but then they go home. Organizing can fill this gap, it can bring people together to do strategic work. Last year we started training movements and NGO’s to use organizing in their work. This started small, but a big change this year is how this work has grown. This year we are now organizing trainings on Zoom with 70 people on the call.

Maroš Chmelik: This last year was hell, but presented lots of opportunities. We started to think about scaling up in Slovakia. The questions I keep asking our organizers is what can we do so that the communities where we are not working will still benefit from our organizing? What kind of issues do we need take on with our communities to attack the systematic gaps? We should not just work with one Roma community that is lacking access to water — we need to go deeper. How many other communities are facing this, what are the systematic reasons for this? We want to take concrete issues and lift them up to things we can address at the national level.

Organizers in Slovakia showed up for their communities in the pandemic.

But…COVID raised so many issues that we needed to tackle right away. As organizers our role is to constantly monitor the situation and see what is changing. When we are working with vulnerable communities we still needed to be connected with them off line. However, we also needed to take care of our organizers. Because if we lose our organizers in this moment of crisis we lose the relationships and the connections they have.

“We trained others in the specific process of organizing: listen, build leadership, strategize, build an action plan. This first response to the crisis started to show results on a hyper-local level.”

Moussa Amine Sylla: It has been a challenging year. In North London where I work, we became part of a network of social action hubs. We trained others in the specific process of organizing: listen, build leadership, strategize, build an action plan. This first response to the crisis started to show results on a hyper-local level. People started organizing at street level around getting vulnerable people access to food, and we galvanized this energy organically. In this lockdown our local authority was absent. They are all professionals, they were all on home-work, and we were on the front line.

Ildikó Bárányi: If you are asking if there was an improvement in the environment for community organizing in Hungary over the last year, the answer is no. But in this crisis we have seen opportunities. I observed that in this situation we can show how important organizers are for the community. We are helping them practically. But charity is not our core business. We noticed how info is missing from the communities where we work — especially in marginalized communities. So we started printing out local info and posting the info around these areas. We are now enlarging this work to 60 places around Hungary. Through all these actions community organizers proved to be very useful to the community, and this proved to be a positive side of the crisis.

“As organizers it is important for us to be present, to think about what we can do, but not put pressure on ourselves that we are not doing enough. We need to take small steps. Stay calm. We need to continue to support our local groups to maintain their work even as the crisis is all around them.”

Vera Turcanu Spatari: During the lockdown in Romania we started to reach out to our local civic groups that we work with. We moved some stuff online, but not all of it could be transferred online. In September, we had local elections, and we decided to organize a candidate forum. We met with the top five candidates. There were 17 groups that helped organize the event and they helped shape the narrative of the forum. As organizers it is important for us to be present, to think about what we can do, but not put pressure on ourselves that we are not doing enough. We need to take small steps. Stay calm. We need to continue to support our local groups to maintain their work even as the crisis is all around them.

How does this work of mutual aid transition into community and political power?

Maroš: In our case, it was not a question of whether to provide humanitarian aid, but to what extent. As organizers we had to step out and get back to organizing. We pivoted back to working with the leaders in those communities. In times of crisis the issues in marginalized communities are even worse, so as organizers we had to find ways to move from the charity work and get back to pushing on the officials. If you did your homework in the community correctly, if you mapped who are the leaders, then you had the structure in place.

Organizers in Silesia, Poland organizing around climate and a Just Transition.

Dagmara: In our case, keeping some of our groups alive was a huge success in this period. That they would survive was not so obvious at the beginning of the crisis. But our organizers made the phone calls. They made sure the meetings happened. They went to leaders’ homes to help them connect online. Those actions meant we still have a group. Without that, we would be starting from zero when it comes to building power.

“We need to change stuff at the system level. Of course, they accuse us of ‘doing politics.’ But there is a difference. We are not doing work on behalf of a party. We are doing ‘public politics.’ To make these changes, we need to move legislation, and we need to pressure decision makers.”

Ildiko: We need to change stuff at the system level. Of course, they accuse us of “doing politics.” But there is a difference. We are not doing work on behalf of a party. We are doing “public politics.” To make these changes, we need to move legislation, and we need to pressure decision makers. In the elections last year in Hungary, local opposition won in many places. It turned out that many community organizers shifted over to becoming mayors and vice mayors in places. This can happen, and it is a very interesting shift, but is different than the public politics that we are doing in our local communities.

What successful frames are you using to orient the people you are working with to come out of this crisis stronger?

Dagmara: For us, COVID was a chance to experience our organizing differently. It was not all about pressure and action, in this period it was about holding the community together. It would have been so easy for our climate group to fall apart, but instead we were in a position to talk with our folks about the fact that COVID and climate have the same root cause. We pointed out the conditions in coal mines and how those are spreading COVID. We put that on the public agenda. At the same time, the government started to focus on closing coal mines. This was a very good time to start the conversation in Silesia about a Just Transition. People are now gathered around this issue, and the pandemic created this opening.

“Our organizing created the infrastructure where we can respond to crisis immediately, not react, and deal with local authorities as equals.”

Vera: Some of the work we were able to do was possible because there were local groups activated around other issues. Because of that work, we had developed relationships and identified local leaders. This fits into a bigger movement. Our organizing created the infrastructure where we can respond to crisis immediately, not react, and deal with local authorities as equals. |||