About this Event
The system is broken — politics and democracy are unable to meet the needs of the people, and everyone knows it. Come and join us in shaping an alternative that works.
Up and down the country, local communities are fighting political and corporate interests for their basic rights. The ACA has been taking on the council and Berkeley Homes to protect our access to good, quality, affordable housing and the right development for that town centre site. But instead of just fighting for better policies, let’s build a new politics.
Our House is a movement for people-powered democracy, working to shape a fairer country for all. People’s Charters have won us power in the past – from the right to vote to secret ballots. That’s why, together, we’ll build the Peckham People’s Charter to join a national movement of communities across London and the UK that are demanding the power to make change.
What is Our House?
Our House is the movement for people-powered democracy. We are working to transform politics: to distribute power so everyone has the power to shape a fairer country for all. We’re following in the footsteps of the chartists who won us the right to vote, and building demands with communities across the country to shape a new People’s Charter.
Why build the Peckham People’s Charter?
We face too many challenges to fight on single issues alone. Peckham and Southwark are no different. We live in a fast-changing place. But while this is inevitable, the destruction of a long-standing community and culture isn’t. What if Aylesham Community Action and other local community groups didn’t just have to fight the power, but shared it? What if we had a democracy that gave local people power?
People’s Charters have been used in the 1800s to win us the right to vote and in the 1990s to win Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish Parliaments. Now, democracy is under threat — America and European nations are turning to authoritarianism. This is urgent, but we can’t protect a broken system, we need to build and demand one that works. The Peckham People’s Charter will join over 100 charters being written over the next 9 months to form part of a national movement demanding lasting change.
What happens at the event?
We’ve developed a fun and creative way for structuring the process of writing the People’s Charter - but the demands will come from YOU. Using a card game, we’ll discuss the different ways that we can do democracy and come up with demands for the changes we want to see locally and nationally.
6:45 Opening conversations
7:00 Welcome and update from ACA on the Aylesham campaign
7:05 Introduction from Our House
7:10 Introducing People’s Charters and imagining a people-powered democracy
7:20 Play the charter-building game and write your demands
8:00 Share back to draft the Peckham People’s Charter
8:15 Discussing what’s next: how do we want to bring this to life, use our demands to fight for local issues like the Aylesham development?
8:30 End, Informal conversations and networking in Peckham Levels public space.
There will be tea, good conversation and we’ll build hope for a Peckham and a nation that works for everyone.
What happens after the event?
We will discuss how to take our draft Peckham People’s Charter forward – who else needs to be involved, and how to develop the demands that we have written. We can also use the demands in the charter as actions that we can take as a community — e.g. run a People’s Assembly on the Aylesham development.
Later on, you will be invited to regional and national charter writing sessions, where we will hold assemblies to find consensus and build demands for each of the four nations.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Peckham Levels, 95a Rye Lane, London, United Kingdom
USD 0.00
