June 25^th: A room fizzing of “cautious optimism”, new friendships forming. and flipcharts filling with good ideas; tonight in a room in Central Manchester the first steps were taken on a journey that can lead to a greener, fairer and climate-safe Manchester.

Just under twenty people – part of a broader number interested in preparing for the world beyond endless economic growth – came together at the Friends Meeting House, in response to a recent Council meeting at which “steady-state economics” was discussed briefly and dismissed out of hand. The people in the room, with those who could not be there, will form into teams to produce a report, to be published in late October. This report, [title to be decided, but it won’t be a gazillion miles from “Beyond Growth: prosperity, justice and climate safety for Manchester”] will lay out what is already being done in Manchester, and suggest how that activity can be massively amplified to meet the social and ecological problems we face. Fuel poverty, the loss of biodiversity, unemployment, depression, carbon emissions that remain persistently high; all these will be looked. By outlining the nature of a steady-state economy, the report will also look at the benefits of preparing now for the post-growth world, and the steps that civil society, businesses, the City Council (and other public bodies) can take in the next one to four years to be ready for it.

During the meeting, rather than sit in rows and be death-by-powerpointed, participants formed into pairs, introduced each other and identified what they wanted from the session. For several people this meant a discussion of the nature of a steady-state economy, and how the concept interacted with notions of “de-growth”, “de-coupling” and “closed loop” economy. These ideas will be explored more fully on the steadystatemanchester.net website.

Others focussed on what we would need to do to make the report – and all the other means of communication, such as youtube videos, cartoons, workshops, briefing papers etc – into a reality.

Next steps
Teams will form around topics like food, transport, education, council engagement, business, economics, etc. If you want to get involved, please email steadystatemanchester@gmail.com

One of those teams will be the “Meme Team,” tasked with dreaming up, creating and testing out metaphors, analogies, stories, slogans, jokes etc that are relevant to Manchester and talk about the need for a massive reduction in our energy usage and preparing for the challenges ahead. We already have several people keen to be involved, but need more. Please contact steadystatemanchester@gmail.com if you are interested.

If you want to get involved more peripherally, please get in touch. We want to assure you that we do NOT expect an open-ended commitment from anyone. If you have a day and a half in July, but only three hours in August, then another day or two in September, that’s great. If you can do a regular hour a week, that’s great. We WILL involve you in this process at the level you want.

What went well

• People met new friends, got to mingle
• Lots of ideas were generated, and concerns raised about the dangers ahead in the process
• Training needs were identified
• Lots of people sent their apologies (as in, genuinely wanted to be there) and also filled in the short survey online.

What didn’t go well
Gender and race representation were, predictably, skewed

“Next” time
More advance notice
Very specific questions being asked, alongside the opportunities to mingle and talk.

Of the flipcharts we put up, so far we’ve only typed up
“What would practical solidarity with people in the Majority World look like”

• Making their voices heard here (speaker tours, pen pals, video link-ups, interviews etc)
• Empowering them to deal with their own problems (i.e. Not trying to save the world on their behalf)
• Find another city in the south to run the process together – learn together and come up with joint demands – will create more momentum/visibility
• Talking to them, finding out what they need
• Skype series
• Like the twinning option, practical solidarity acknowledges we are the 10% and they are the 90%, only then can progress develop.

but these below will be typed up in the coming days, and links created to pages where YOU can leave your comments.

Immediate tasks
What makes an effective group?
How can Manchester’s “eco” campaigning raise its game?
How do we radically raise the amount of food being grown ?
What does “success” look like for this project? Measured how?
Inspiring projects
How do we radically increase the numbers of people cycling?
How can we make the elephants tapdance (how do we make bureaucracies transparent and quick)
How do we make “binge-flying” as socially unacceptable as drink-driving?