heroes & villains
I drank a bottle of Moet last week, the first time in two decades. Just felt right. But we’re now left with a political headache and a conversation that has been going on for hundreds of years. What does it mean to be political right now?
Minus the pom-pom-pom of the Big Meeting brass bands at the annual Durham Miners’ Gala, Hilary Cave, head of education for the NUM during the miners’ strike and me, Elizabeth Cotton, who was in another life head of education for the miners’ international were invited a few years ago to talk about the ‘doing it’ of building political processes at work.
We talked about the politics of work in the kind of tired and modest way that that experienced folk do. No magic solutions, no shiny new organising techniques, just the digested experience of the people we have known and loved who have fought to improve our working lives.
“Most people are worried about how do you do this? - it’s often not an ideological debate that’s going on its a psychological war that’s going on and it’s a practical one too - what do we do?”
“But there’s a push and a pull in communities - you’re in the community but in any community there’s huge diversity there’s huge conflict and there are people who are sort of in and sort of out..which is why if you want to do anything you have to face some uncomfortable truths…it’s a really provocative discussion but its a really important one if we want to move on…”
“Education is where the real dissent, differences, diversities and conflicts come up and that is very threatening to organisations, particularly when they are defensive…so there is a conscious downgrading of education…”
“As I get older I get more purist about it and I think the reality of saying what brought you here today? or, what do you think? Free Association if you’re Freud or freedom of association for trade unions, just the political power of those methods….That’s what keeps me going as an activist because…relationality is the big problem for all of us. How do we have relationships with people we work with who are different from us who we don't agree with. I use the ideas of Freud and Freire every day of my life.”
There is a place for podiums and positioning in politics - as 15 minutes of Dennis Skinner in full flow on a rainy day in Durham can testify. But in the everyday of working life our capacity to build relationships with each other in a way where we can draw and hold the lines of decent work matter much more. Not posturing, just being political.
To hear an extract of this conversation between Hilary and Elizabeth click here. To hear the full conversation click here. The event was organised by Keith Venables of the Independent Working Class Education Network.
Organising in Psychotherapy & Counselling
If you are working as a counsellor or psychotherapist we need you to be part of building the Psychotherapy & Counselling Union. As part of a national organizing drive setting up regional structures, the first ever meeting of the South West and Wales Region Psychotherapy and Counselling Union will be held on Saturday 30th July 11.00- 13.00 on zoom.
If you’re not already a member you can join the PCU HERE
To book your place email to ruthjpcu@gmail.com and you will be sent a link for the meeting.