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18 February 2013:
Flags--can we now have a serious debate?
The flags protests may eventually die down but the issue will
have to be faced by all the 11 new local authorities in Northern
Ireland after the reorganisation of the district councils, and
it has been symptomatic of a wider failure of reconciliation.
The next
platform
for change
event is a panel discussion on this challenge in the Holiday
Inn, Ormeau Avenue, Belfast, on Monday 18 February at
7:30.
Our panel will comprise
three MLAs, John
McCallister of the Ulster
Unionist Party, Chris Lyttle,
representing Alliance in East Belfast, and the Green Party
leader Steven Agnew
MLA. They will be joined by Claire Hanna
of the SDLP and her fellow
Belfast city councillor John Kyle.
Trevor Ringland
will speak on behalf of the Conservative Party and
Rebecca Hall will represent
Labour.
We are still awaiting
confirmation from the DUP and Sinn Fein. Dr
Dominic Bryan
of Queen's University will be an independent expert discussant. This event promises to
be an exciting chance to look deeply at how we move forward on
identity issues as a society.
6 October 2012: Time for a
debate on how we are governed
The Northern Ireland Office has launched a consultation to look
at measures to improve the operation of the assembly. The
consultation
is seeking views on double jobbing, the size of the Assembly,
the length of Assembly terms and development of an Opposition.
As a group
platform
for change
has a vital voice to contribute to this debate; therefore we are
planning a public meeting to discuss our submission to the
consultation. Come along to the Chinese Resource Centre,
Belfast at 10:00am on Saturday October 6.
There will be a debate around the need for reform--including
our own Robin Wilson and Professor Colin Harvey
from Queen’s University Belfast.
26 March 2012: Platform for Change general meeting:
From a politics of identity to a politics of
ideas
What is the future for politics is Northern Ireland? Is there a
way to move on from voting based on communal identity? Can we
create a political environment of dynamic ideas and
comprehensive debate? These are the central issues that will be
addressed in our next public event. A panel discussion ’From
a politics if identity to a politics of ideas’ will take
place in the Black Box, Hill Street, Belfast,
at 7.30 on Monday, March 26. The discussion
will be chaired by Julia Paul of the BBC and panel will
be a compilation of political and civic voices: Tom Elliot
(UUP Party Leader), Dolores Kelly (SDLP Deputy
Leader), Steven Agnew (Green Party), Eamonn Deane
(Holywell Trust), Anna Lo (Alliance), Tony McMullan
(Co-op Party), Trevor Ringland (former rugby international)
and Kellie Turtle (Belfast Feminist Network).
5 September
2011: Platform for Change general meeting
Always ready to discuss the toughest issues,
platform
for change will be holding its next meeting on the
them of Dealing with the Past on the evening of Monday, 5
September, at 7.30 in the Black Box, Hill Street, Belfast. The
meeting will begin with a dramatic presentation by the women who
comprise Theatre
of Witness of their personal stories of Northern Ireland's
troubled past. This will stimulate a general discussion, amid
the continuing controversy over the appointment of an individual
convicted of the murder of a civilian as a ministerial special
adviser and as a decade of centenaries approaches which will
revisit the region's formative violent years.
4 June
2011: Platform for Change Annual General Meeting
Our AGM was held on Saturday, 4 June from 10am-1pm at the
Chinese Welfare Centre in Belfast. There, a group of 30 or more
members discussed the future of the campaign based in part on
officers' reports and the results of our
membership survey.
Elections to the committee were held, and followed by a debate
on the question 'where now for the middle ground?', for which we
were joined by John Barry (Green Party), David McClarty MLA
(Independent Unionist), Conall McDevitt MLA (SDLP) and Chris
Lyttle MLA (Alliance Party). A new PfC Action Plan is to follow!
6-18 April 2011: Northern Ireland Assembly election hustings
As part of the campaign to promote our
electoral agenda,
platform
for change organised a series of hustings at which
members of the public could challenge a panel of candidates from
different parties. Our main hustings took place at the Junction
in Derry on April 11 and at the Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast
on April 14. We also lent our support to a hustings on gender
equality that was organised by the Belfast Feminist Network on
April 6. Unfortunately our event which was planned for Armagh on
April 18 had to be cancelled
due to low attendance.
25
January 2011: Platform for
Change/Belfast Feminist Network meeting
platform
for change was pleased to accept an invitation to
speak with members of the Belfast Feminist Network on
Tuesday, 25 January,
at the
Belfast LGBT centre.
At the meeting, our representatives facilitated a lively
discussion on feminist politics, and how feminist issues can
become live issues in our assembly election campaign. We are
looking forward to future conversation and joint action with the
Feminist Network, and invite any comments or queries to
contact@platformforchange.net
15 January 2011: Platform for Change general meeting
platform
for change held a public meeting to discuss the next
Programme for Government and the current power-sharing
system on Saturday, 15 January, from 10am to 1pm in
Queen's University Belfast.
The meeting was called in response to two papers written by
some of our committee members. The draft versions of the
papers are available
here and
here. Comment is
still welcome on the content of the papers and how these
issues can be addressed publicly in the run-up to the next
assembly elections.
25 September 2010:
Platform for Change
general meeting
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platform
for change
meeting to discuss the CSI document took
place on Saturday, September 25,
from 10am to 1pm in the Chinese Welfare Association Centre.
The
platform
for change
Round Robin on CSI found
here and why
not join the
debate on our
discussion forums. You can also make your
points here if you are unable to come to this meeting.
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19 June 2010:
Platform for Change AGM
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platform
for change
will soon be
a year old and our first AGM is coming up. AGMs don’t often get
people jumping in the aisles, but there are two very good
reasons for coming to this event, which will be on Saturday,
June 19, in the Black Box in Belfast. The meeting will start
at 10.00, with a presentation by the founders last year
of the Forum for an
Alternative Belfast. We haven’t discussed planning issues in
Platform for Change yet, so this will be an interesting front to
open, with hopefully some of the ideas of as much interest in
Derry or other towns and cities across the region.
After the coffee break, the
meeting will become the AGM with reports from officers on the
first year and election of a new committee. This will be an
opportunity for new members to come forward and take a more
active role, as we roll out our plan for the year ahead (see
below). The meeting will finish at 13.00. Please note that
taking part in the formal AGM part of proceedings will require
that you not just be a signatory but have also become a member
of Platform for Change (as you will be able to do on the day if
you haven’t already).
The
platform
for change
Action Plan can be found
here and why on join the
debate on our
discussion forums. You can also make your
points here if you are unable to come to this meeting. |
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17 April 2010:
The future of the campaign
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platform
for change
is shaped by you its supporters so a meeting was held on Saturday, April 17 to discuss how
to build on the solid foundation provided by the launch.
The first
half of the meeting focused on the upcoming Westminster General
Election and Rick Wilford presented some background
information and chaired a lively debate.
This was
followed by a discussion on the Draft
Action Plan,
the aim of which is
to help focus the campaign as it evolves, the key
messages it should present and the activities/events it should
support.
The
platform
for change
Action Plan can be found
here and why on join the
debate on our
discussion forums. You can also make your points
here if you were unable to come to this meeting. |
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1 April 2010:
Sport for Change
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platform
for change
organised a ‘Sport for Change’ discussion, in conjunction with
Peace Players International, in the Harbour Commissioner’s
Office in Belfast on April 1.
As Trevor Ringland, the former Irish rugby
international, explained, the aim was to develop a
platform
for change
policy on the contribution sport can make to building
intercommunal relationships. Michael Boyd (Irish Football
Association), Ryan Feeney (Gaelic Athletic Association) and
Chris Webster (Irish Rugby Football Union) all expressed a
commitment to ‘a shared future’ on behalf of the three major
governing bodies, reflected in the backing they had given to a
shared stadium at the Maze—a project on which the executive at
Stormont has failed to agree.
Duncan Morrow from the Community Relations
Council pointed out how the association of Gaelic sports with a
strong sense of place, the Irish structure at the peak of Ulster
rugby and the universal nature of football meant that, in
different ways, these sports could positively address the
challenge of identity.
Robin Wilson from
platform
for change
argued that the three sports were each working towards the
impartiality required of public authority in multi-ethnic and
multi-national societies, providing a model for government to
follow. Each was based on the unit of the club, and each could
develop the idea of the ‘open club’—welcoming to members of
other religions, to members of minority communities and,
critically, to women—which translate their official commitments
into good practice on the ground. |
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25 February 2010:
Platform for Change Launched
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 The
platform
for change
launch at the Black Box on February 25th was a
dazzling occasion and fizzing with energy. Many Platform for
Change signatories were there; and thanks if you were one of
them, you really contributed to the atmosphere and set the tone
for what is very fast growing supporter-driven movement.
There were great individual contributions, as several
signatories explained what the platform meant to them
personally: Keith Crossan, former Irish rugby winger; Jonny
Donnelly, youth worker for reconciliation; Edna Longley, writer
and critic; Bill Jeffrey, small businessperson; Damian McAteer,
active in business and charitable ventures in Derry; Frances
McCandless, voluntary sector worker; Tony McMullan, trade
unionist; and Neill Morton, head of Portora Royal School. Two
other supporters who would have contributed but were unable to
make it on the day were Catherine McCartney of the Justice for
Robert campaign and the former Gaelic inter-county player Paul
McErlane. See more photographs...
platform
for change
was immediately welcomed by the SDLP and the Alliance Party.
Notably, given Northern Ireland’s notorious ‘blame game’, no
party saw fit to denounce it, perhaps an appreciation of the
breadth of support its universal message has the potential to
realise as the campaign builds.
Also quick to support the new initiative was the Belfast
Telegraph, which not only offered space for an piece on the day
but also reported on the event and endorsed
platform
for change
in an editorial. There was an interview on Radio Foyle that
morning and a TV slot on Hearts and Minds that night. There were
reports next day in the Irish News and Irish Times, and later as
far afield as the Boston Globe and Danish radio.
Read the press coverage...
Many thanks are due to all who made this possible, including to
Liz Fawcett for her help with media liaison, the two young women
from Circus School who warmed up the proceedings with a nifty
political ‘balancing act’ and Alfredo for the fantastic buffet
lunch at the end of the launch. |
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