Hundreds of people in Manchester participated in two exciting events we organised over the summer:
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A People’s Hustings for the new Greater Manchester Mayor, and
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Take Your Seat, an event calling for a more people-powered democracy in Greater Manchester,
People take power at our Take Your Seat event
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‘Hope, vision, and joy’ was how one attendee described our packed-out Take Your Seat event on 21 June. Featuring performances, a film showcase, an art display and other creative activities, the family-friendly event took over the Engine Room and Learning Studio for the afternoon at Manchester’s People’s History Museum.
More than 80 people, including multiple community and democracy organisations attended the event, which featured inspiring voices from across Greater Manchester including short speeches from people with lived experience of participating in citizens’ assemblies.
A key part of the event involved a card game facilitated by democracy organisation Our House, exploring different models of democracy to help participants at tables agree on shared demands for upgrading our democratic system.
The GM Citizens Assembly Campaign is building a movement towards a democratic upgrade in Greater Manchester. Organising with residents and working in partnership with Greater Manchester community groups and campaigns, the campaign is shaping demands for a more people-powered democracy in Greater Manchester.
Our Greater Manchester organisers Liv Ouwehand and Beth Powell collaborated with other community groups to create a fun, festival-type atmosphere, build relationships across the city, and to give people a sense of what a people-powered Manchester could look like - as well as the potential impact on people’s lives. Judging from attendee feedback, they succeeded: find out more in this short film about the event.
Watch the Take Your Seat video:
Community-run Manchester Mayor hustings: Bev Craig promises to share more power with local residents
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Several hundred Greater Manchester residents gathered at Stretford Public Hall and online in July at a hustings with a difference - one organised and shaped by the community, and framed around a demand for more power-sharing from Manchester Mayoral candidates. The hustings were held on 8 July, shortly before fresh Mayoral elections to replace outgoing Mayor Andy Burnham, and jointly organised by the Greater Manchester Citizens’ Assembly Campaign, Creative City, Our House, Trafford North and Trafford South Foodbank and We’re Right Here.
All the candidates agreed with residents that politics needs to change and pledged that if elected, they would give Greater Manchester residents more meaningful say over how the city-region is run.
'We need to make sure that any new powers coming to our region from Westminster don’t stop with local politicians, but are shared with the people who live and work here’
Labour candidate Bev Craig, now the new Mayor, promised to share more power with local residents and expressed support for the People’s Charter for Greater Manchester, a growing set of demands for a more people-powered democracy.
‘Politicians don’t have a monopoly on good ideas,’ she said, describing the Charter concept as ‘energising’. Craig pledged that, if elected, ‘I’ll continue and expand the panels that already exist across Greater Manchester, but I’ll go further — I’ll use commissions on difficult issues, and I’ll also set up a community ownership fund, because giving people money, agency and control where they live is so important.’
Greater Manchester organiser Beth Powell said: ‘We need to make sure that any new powers coming to our region from Westminster don’t stop with local politicians, but are shared with the people who live and work here. We’ll be watching to see if Bev throws her weight behind the Charter. It’s time to upgrade democracy in Greater Manchester.’
Manchester residents want a citizens’ assembly
Polling carried out earlier this year by the Sortition Foundation and IPPR shows that Manchester citizens have very low levels of trust in politicians and national political institutions; only 5% have high levels of trust in their MP. The same polling showed that nearly 60% of Manchester residents want a citizens’ assembly to bring decision-making closer to them, with people living in Rochdale, Oldham and Bolton even more strongly in favour.
Speaking at the time, Dr Ryan Swift, Research Fellow at IPPR North said: “People still feel that politics is something that is done to them, not with them. All too often citizens are merely spectators as decisions are taken that shape their lives. Greater Manchester has led the way on devolution, now they should do the same on democratic reform.”
The Greater Manchester People's Charter is a set of demands from all ten boroughs’ residents for greater power-sharing, inspired by the Chartist movement, and organised by Our House in partnership with the GM Citizens Assembly Campaign and Creative City.