Becoming a Member

 

How do I get involved?

There are a few different ways of being involved in this process. Every six months we run a congress (with the groups taking it in turns to host) that fellow travellers and people interested in learning more can attend, there are also a number of working groups and research projects going on within and adjacent to plan C that don’t necessarily require you to be a Plan C member to participate (depending on how the specific project is being organised). Best of all though, you could become a member.  

What do I need to agree with in order to be a member?

One of the ways in which we try to work with one another in Plan C is on the basis that engagement is more important than uniform agreement. We certainly have nothing against agreeing with one another but feel that to insist upon it as a requirement can result in a dogmatic politics with no space for new ideas, innovations, or strategies based on our constantly changing everyday experiences. Instead, we’re interested in finding the minimum amount of agreement necessary in order to coordinate our struggles together (this is, after all, why we want to build a national organisation). In the statement in pink below, we outline in the simplest possible way who we are, where we want to be heading, and how we want to behave with other members. By signing up to be a member, you endorse this as a desirable approach. Of course things need always to be allowed to change, but this is our collective starting point.

Plan C is an organisation of people who are politically active in their workplaces and communities. We work together to support each other, amplify our struggles and think strategically.
We want to go beyond network-based organisation, without falling back on the model of a party. We are committed to ongoing experimentation to find the forms of collective activity needed to build a world beyond capitalism.
Plan C is also concerned with making plans – plans to survive and resist capitalism’s attack on our lives, and plans for collective self-organisation.

What could I expect?

We think that it’s vitally important to take the struggles in which our members are involved seriously (whether at work, at home, or anywhere else). We sometimes call this a ‘community of reference’. By this we mean that each of us is committed to providing critical support to the struggles, protests, campaigns, and political projects that Plan C members are involved in regardless of whether these are ‘Plan C initiatives’. In other words, we’ll talk it through collectively in order to look for its strengths and weaknesses and the new questions it suggests. Of course, we might also, as an organisation, provide more practical support too but this is case-dependent. We’ve found this to be very useful in terms of developing the group’s politics and also in fostering a mutually supportive environment. We’re also committed to trying to make it as easy as possible for our members to be involved in our projects and attend congresses, delegate meetings, and other events we organise. In addition to the staples of access such as mobility and dietary needs, this might take the form of financial assistance via the organisation-wide sharing of travel costs, Equally though it involves taking people’s care-responsibilities seriously (by providing crèche space for example). We don’t see these things that we have to do to keep ourselves and our household alive and well as things that happen when we’re not doing politics so we try to make them a part of the same process as best we can.  

What would be expected of me?

There are two basic requirements. The first is the paying of subscription fees. We encourage people to decide what to pay based on what they can afford as long as they pay something. We suggest that £1 to £10 per month is the kind of scale you ought to be thinking about but obviously, if you feel like you want to pay more, you would be extremely welcome to do so. The second is engagement with proposals made before congresses and delegate meetings. Each of the groups is expected to send two delegates to these latter meetings and at least two (but hopefully many more) to the former. If you’re not in one of the local groups and can’t attend these yourself, you should at the very least give some written feedback. We also hope that members will be a part of the community of reference outlined above. In addition to this we want to encourage members who don’t live in places where groups already exist (or near to them) to set up groups of their own. You wouldn’t be alone in this though. The other members can help and advise.  

How do I join?

a)   

If I’m in a place where a Plan C group already exists?

Get in contact with the group and go and meet them. The different groups may have different systems and/or different etiquettes about meetings. Some might encourage people who are interested to dive right in and come along to their next one, others may prefer to meet for a chat first. Either way, the best first port of call is to send an email to the relevant group. The addresses can be found here (LINK) or you can get in touch via their Facebook page if you’d rather. Ultimately, you have to fill in the online membership form (LINK) but the process of introduction and of getting involved in Plan C projects is all far easier if you’re able to go via one of the groups.

b)   

If I’m in a place where there’s no Plan C group?

Fill in the online form below. When this gets processed you’ll be put on the email list and be introduced by one of the membership group. We can then set about trying to work out together which existing group might represent the best contact point for you until you (with the rest of us) are able to set up a group in the place you live. We encourage all members to come to our congresses but this is particularly important if you’re a lone member in your location.

What happens with subscription fees? (Temporary clause)

At our last delegates meeting it was agreed that subscription fees would be centralised rather than being held onto by local groups. In part this is because the size of the groups doesn’t necessarily bear any correlation to the running costs or the possibilities for effective fund raising that they might encounter on their home turf, so having a national pot better enables us to share the burden. However…because this is a complicated thing to sort out, we’re not quite there yet. In the meantime, the local groups are collecting their own subscription fees and using them as they see fit. We would suggest that if you’re in a location with no group, forget about the subs. This is a short-term situation though.