SHARESHEFFIELD
THE BUILDING - Embodying sustainability
Ideally, SHARE would have a purpose-built eco-building.
In its first few years, that is (probably) an unrealistic goal. (Longer term, not unrealistic at all.) But whatever building is chosen, it should be renovated / refitted to embody sustainable principles as far as possible.
SHARE should teach by example.
CAFE & SHOP AREA
Ethos
SHARE is not merely in competition with other local businesses; somewhere like Blue Moon Cafe also consists of people who we would be in social relationships with.
SHARE starts from the premise that market and social relations are not two discrete realms. (A fact that any freemason would be able to confirm!)
One aspect of the active research of SHARE will be to examine trade and market relations, with the aim of contributing in a small way toward a genuinely just local, national, regional and global trading regime.
The Front end of SHARE should embody the values that aims to promote.
layout and design
The Cafe and shop area will be the most visible aspect of SHARE.
It will be what people see as they go into the building, and will be a clear statement of SHARE’s overall aims.
It will be open plan, the cafe and shop not separated. There will also be an offset computer area, with a dedicated homepage for SHARE.
The shop
The shop manager should be someone who is willing and able to search out and identify new ethical products, to produce an audit of the fair-trade implications of purchasing decisions and to network with other groups doing similar work, nationally as well as locally.
This would be done by working with the research team.
The shop will consist of a minimum of two separate focuses:
1. Bookshop
The bookshop will stock a range of political and non-political books, and will also have a local Sheffield history focus. (As part of this, SHARE will commission local history works.)
The bookshop will not restrict itself to books – it will also have a browsing library, with daily papers and all the main magazines.
New publications and important running issues will feed into the activities. Authors / writers will be invited to present their books, run workshops, and offer advice on writing and publishing.
It will also include other goods. The NI catalogue offers a good idea of the range, although I would expect to be looking out for other possibilities.
2. Fairtrade shop
Teas, coffees, other items. As few drums as possible.
Again, the shop manager should ideally be someone who is able to push forward into new fairtrade areas. It could be that one line could be a year’s project. Fairtrade auditing is of course a very tricky issue, and it must be made clear that we would NEED people to draw attention to any exploitative links in the chain.
The café
The cafe will be open until late. It may or may not have an entertainments license, but drink will not be served: SHARE does not wish to alienate Sheffield’s large Muslim community.
As well as serving food and drink, the cafe will be the focal point for a number of the activities listed below. These will generally run in the evening. It will often be wearing it’s ‘democracy cafe’ hat, and there will be a papers corner for first thing in the morning, where discussion of the morning’s news issues can take place, and participation from new people will be encouraged, if not compulsory.
In the initial stages, there will have to be a very thorough monitoring and feedback process, to find out what is working and what isn’t.
Active Research
Active research means more than just pro-actively researching.
It encompasses campaigning, lobbying, press work and involvement of as many people as possible. It is designed to empower.
All of this work is underpinned by research, but there is no line drawn between them. The results of the campaigning work will feed back into the research results.
The SHARE website
Misc research ideas To provide various audits: Fairtrade audit / report Green audit social responsibility audit
This would mean coming to be respected as a source of information. CSR should not be a matter of Public Relations. (cf. Geronimo & public relations.)
Development
Learning and development is central to SHARE. Teaching and learning are mutual processes.
As part of this, SHARE will attempt to set up workshadowing and mentoring for SHARE workers, in groups that do active campaign work, both locally and more widely, in organisations such as Greenpeace and Oxfam.
As regards achieving real political change, SHARE will always be looking for what works, and for those people who have been making it work.
BUSINESS UNITS
SHARE businesses
These units are businesses whose profits will go back into SHARE directly. (This will include the cafe, shop and ICT training areas.)
Ideas for SHARE business units include:
Linux SME systems
A company that would provide Linux systems to business. Providing ongoing support for these systems would also be a vital part of this work. If SHARE could team up with ACCESS SPACE, this could also include providing recycled PCs for use with these systems.
Research would need to be done into those companies already taking this route; (e.g. Munich government) and problems associated with this.
Article on Munich opting for Linux: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4681004-102271,00.html
Note, however, that it was more expensive than Microsoft, and there was a huge retraining bill.
Freelance businesses
These are rentable units – the idea will be to attract like-minded enterprises, who will not simply lurk in their units uncommunicatively. It would be expected that they would be able to contribute in other areas of SHARE’s work – precisely where would not be something to be determined beforehand.
Thoughts and misc
Quotes
Some J.S.Mill for context:
“If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.” On liberty 85
“He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no-one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side; if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion.” On Liberty 104