Dear London Community Psychology Network, (28th July 2014)

Happy Summer!

Hope you are all well. 

I keep hearing more and more about exciting Comm Psych events and practice. Please do let me know if I can promote London CP relevant events, ideas, collaborations or if you have ideas for sessions  - get in touch.

Some quick links

Don't forget the Comm Psych UK Ning for networking and posting: 

http://communitypsychologyuk.ning.com/ 

and the Community and Critical Psychology JISC mailing list where there has been activity responding to the horrors in Gaza and beyond:

https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK

or the BPS Community Psychology Section  

http://cps.bps.org.uk/

Meanwhile... two exciting points to this message. 

1) Report back on the London network austerity meeting and actual plans for a campaign, (yes that's right our own campaign) in the run up the general election. Plus please come along a meeting on Weds 27th August to get the campaign going. More below.

2) Details of the next London Comm Psych network meeting organised by Dave Harper. Should ready us for the campaign. More below.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1) Report back on the London network austerity meeting - we're launching a campaign! Next meeting Weds 27th August - all welcome!

A recent meeting of the London Community Psychology Network on the topic of austerity brought up some suggestions for a project that we, as psychologists,  could engage in concerning austerity. We are emailing to ask if anyone is interested in being involved or has any suggestions for it.

Our plan is to launch a very specific campaign against the cuts, inequality and scapegoating that have been constructed as ‘Austerity’ using a clear campaign manifesto. We could give the campaign a finite time period by having it run between the end of the summer and the 2015 general election. In order to be realistic and to make people feel it’s worth coming on board we don’t have to necessarily append ourselves to grand narratives of change (such as changing policy or changing psychological practice) rather -

‘through collaboration with other community partners, play an active and progressive role in public understandings of austerity between now and May 2015’.

This could involve writing public letters, getting into the national media, collecting names via a petition, using critical psychological forms of knowledge to publicly challenge the various pronouncements which will form part of the lead in to the general election.

The key functions of this campaign could be to

•         Contribute to awareness raising of the damage of austerity

•         Publically challenge, counter and deconstruct austerity myths using, where possible,  national media

•         Work with the BPS on a possible public statement

•         Use the London Network NING to collate relevant critical research and evidence

•         Focus on ‘toxic societies’ rather than damaged people

•         Enrol as many psychologists as possible through a petition. We could publicise it through the BPS, UK CP and London network lists and recruit through the BPS, UK CP and London network lists.

•         Undertake a mapping exercise of organizations (eg Taxpayers Against Poverty, The People's Assembly and NEF) in order to link the campaign with relevant progressive organisations to contribute to alternative visions for our public services

Importantly the campaign is to help us as a network of psychologists - to not just talk critically - but to act critically as well.

So, we’d love to know if anyone wants to be involved in some capacity, has any ideas to contribute or indeed thinks it’s a good idea or not. 

Involvement doesn’t have to be onerous. It might just be being put on an email list of updates on the activities we’re undertaking. 

We are planning another meeting of the London network on the evening of Weds 27^th August (details TBC) to formalise some clear, discrete activities like linking to NEF, writing specific letters, creating petitions, writing to the press, creating newspaper pieces, etc. If anyone wants to come along, we’d welcome as many as possible.

I appreciate it won’t be possible for all so if you want to contact us with any suggestions/interest/critiques that we can feed into the meeting then we’d be very grateful.

With best wishes 

Carl Walker and Sally Zlotowitz 

Carl Walker

SASS

University of Brighton

01273 643475 or CC-ed into this email

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2) A Film Screening of 'How To Start a Revolution' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Start_a_Revolution - Weds 10th Sept - all welcome!

Hosted by Dave Harper from University of East London - this film screening should get us ready for the austerity campaign launch! 

Bring popcorn, bring your friends and colleagues and bring your solidarity! Come and join us from 6.30pm for 7pm start on Weds 10th Sept. 

It will be here:

At UEL in AE 1.01 (i.e. on the first floor of the Arthur Edwards building) on our main Stratford campus. Folk should arrive at our Stratford campus main entrance on The Green off Water Lane (which itself is off Romford Road): http://www.uel.ac.uk/about/campuses/stratford/