On October 28th over 60 people gathered in the Galway City Museum on a wet and windy night under the banner of Claiming our Future to explore the naked truth about economics. ”Economics the naked truth: exploring & dispelling the myths” was addressed by Terrence McDonagh (Economist NUI Galway) who told us that economics is ideologically driven and the current dominant ideology has resulted (and continues to result ) in the policies that we have seen fail us economically, socially and environmentally. Michael Taft (Economist Unite Trade Union) outlined the way that current Government policy is not working and will result in deflation. Crucially Michael provided tangible alternatives to this direction. Building on this, Anne Costello (Community Platform) outlined a concrete example of alternatives to the current emphasis on cuts in her presentation of the 4Steps2Recovery Progressive Tax Campaign. One of the key messages was that there is no consensus that the current policy direction is inevitable amongst economists (despite what the media would have us believe) and there are alternatives.
In her introduction Rachel Doyle (National Women’s Council) outlined the Claiming our Future movement and spoke about the need to motivate people locally. The subsequent very dynamic discussion was chaired by Ann Irwin (Community Workers’ Co-operative). There were suggestions for moving forward in Galway and an overwhelming consensus that Galway will play its part in the development of a very necessary social movement.
Our next steps will include a meeting to feedback from the Claiming our Future event in the RDS and a bit of planning for the other suggestions that included organising a mini Claiming our Future event in Galway and organising meetings with political candidates in the ever looming election to outline the values and policies agreed.
Thanks to the speakers who were very generous with their time & thanks to the great and diverse crowd. Keep an eye on the Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Claiming-Our-Future-Galway/153905024642878 ) for details of further events.
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I would suggest COF|Galway join up to boards.ie (founded by Galway native John Breslin in NUIG!) and post on there (http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056036826) when the next event is happening.
The forum is very active, albeit a tad despondent and apathetic, but they are exactly the people we need to motivate to act!
All the best, John
S0 glad you have come into being in such an organic way. I am very pleased to be part of the process, and am forwarding your address etc to lots of people. I am retired and worked in community development for 30 years or so as tutor, facilitator, counsellor and loved my work. Congratulations!