Life In Civic Society
by Kate Fearon
Even though small groups addressing local economic and social conditions were prevalent, by the mid-seventies a number of groups began to organise on a regional level. The NI Women's Rights Movement is one example of this. Sticking to a single issue, even though at a policy level, seemed to be the key to some longevity. Kilmurray notes 'In the neighbourhood crevices of this situation, community action flourished. It was less successful however when it sought to develop into a social movement that crossed neighbourhoods and sectarian boundaries-particularly a social movement that had the ambition of honing a populist political edge.' She cites the short-lived example of CONI-Community Organisations of NI.
The organisation that perhaps best exemplifies the inability of civic society organisations at that time to articulate a coherent set of political positions on the conflict was the Peace People. At the first rally, over 70,000 people attended. More rallies followed-in different parts of Belfast, in London, and in Drogheda. They ran peace camps in various countries, with Protestants and Catholics travelling together, but there was no real effort at conflict resolution. When political challenge was put to the Peace People the leadership began to fall apart. It could only handle a single theme-stop the violence.
The main Churches took virtually no part in the peace movement, such as it was, at an institutional level. On the contrary, when individuals within the Church worked on local mediation and peace building efforts, the Church hierarchies frowned upon their activities. Trade Unions too were unable, initially, to focus on peace building efforts, bound by the inevitable sectarian split in the workplace. A few business figures tried to advocate change and compromise, but again, the collective organisations of business did little to intervene.
For much of the seventies and eighties these various sectors worked on their own issues, independent of the overall political context. Many community groups professionalised into the voluntary sector in the eighties. In the contract climate of the Conservative government, they worked with the government in delivering a range of social and economic programmes, in return for more access to resources, and policy formulation. By the nineties, the voluntary sector now sported some 5000 groups. Thematic and geographic networks developed, and on regional, all-island, inter-island and European levels. The government decided that it was getting good value for money from the sector, and in 1993 designed a strategy for mainstreaming funding. In 1997 New Labour initiated a Compact with the voluntary sector.
The 'golden era' of the sector came with the dispensing of the EU peace package from 1995 onwards. The EU wanted to bolster the peace process by providing large sums of money, but stipulated that it had to be distributed through a district partnership model. NGO's had one third of the seats, proportional with public representatives and statutory and private bodies. Additionally, the district partnerships had to apply for money from Intermediate Funding Bodies. The NI Voluntary Trust co-ordinated one such IFB: it was the final legitimisation of the sector. NGO leadership was recognised on both levels-as equal members on partnership boards, and as distributors of funds.
The IFBs interpreted the EU criteria and set autonomous policy priorities for applications. This amounted to an unprecedented role in decision making, a role unfettered by electoral considerations. Projects that would have been politically unpopular for some parties, and politically impossible for others to fund were able to be resourced under the IFBs, such as funding ex-prisoners groups and the new flood of victims groups.
The Trade Unions too had also been looking at the political situation, establishing the Counteract programme to equip workers with the tools to combat sectarianism in the workplace. They also organised a massive rally in November 1993 which drew together ordinary people and organisations in different sectors of civic society. This was much more political than any that had been held before, asking politicians to talk. People's attendance at the rally demonstrated that they were ahead of politicians at that time, something that was noted by the government.
Both the political process and political representatives were still at arms
length from this and other civil society sectors. The relationship between
civic society and political elites had generally been fraught, though it
must be noted that some political parties-Sinn Fein, the PUP and UDP drew
closely on community groups for their membership and workers. Civic society
was becoming more confident in itself, but was still staying outside the
constitutional-political realm. |
