Naming the Moment to Seize the Future

Time: Saturday, April 2 · 11:00am – 3:00pm

Location: Windsor Workers’ Action Centre, 328 Pelissier St., Windsor, ON

 

The Premise

Borrowed from : Deborah Barndt: Naming the Moment:Political Analysis for Action, A Manual for Community Groups. (Ontario: The Moment Project, Jesuit Centre for Social Faith and Justice, 1989): 24-53

If we need to change how our society is constructed, and as a result, change the course of history “…we must see ourselves as part of that society and history.”  We probably know more than we think we do about how society is actually constructed but since we are immersed in a media landscape controlled by a capitalist framework, we are for the most part unable to stop long enough to properly assess our true situation.  This Naming the Moment to Seize the Future exercise is meant to “help us read history and act more effectively toward social change.” In short, how do we see society and do we think the structure ought to be changed.

To answer we start with ourselves – to situate ourselves in this particular historical moment.  Over the course of yet to be determined weeks, we’ll work through four phases of Naming the Moment:

Phase 1: Identifying ourselves and our interests

Phase 2: Naming the issues/struggles

Phase 3: Assessing the forces

Phase 4: Planning for action

Phase I

Identifying Ourselves and Our Interests

• Who are ‘we’ and how do we see the world
• How has our view(s) been shaped by our race, gender, class, age, sector, religion, etc?
• How do we define our ‘constituency’: are we of, with, for the people most affected by issues we work on or wish to work on?
• What do we believe about the current structure of Canada – about what it could be, about how we get there?

Barndt: ” It’s important to talk frankly about the different perspectives we bring to the longer term questions, even if we don’t agree. The differences, in fact, may offer both constraints to and possibilities for our proposed actions. They will inevitably affect how we read and use present moments for short-term goals as well as for longer-term objectives.” (p.28)

At this point it’s seems prudent to not get too far ahead. This exercise is meant to be participatory, self – led, adult education. We often don’t think of ourselves being in a ‘historical moment’  so we need to get as good a picture as we can of ourselves, what we bring to this process, and what we hope to get out of it. Then we can determine how we approach the other three phases.

The election is on, we are all busy, and this is short notice. If you can at all come out we can start a process of change in Windsor which will be able to challenge and then transform the societal structure we live with.