Cymraeg On the 15th – 17th October 2021, the Landworkers’ Alliance held its first ever UK-wide Organisers’ Assembly. The Assembly was an opportunity to bring together regional and Branch coordinators, as well as representatives from the Woodland sector, the LGBTQIA+ working group and the youth wing of LWA, FLAME. The 25 delegates from these internal structures of the LWA met in Gloucestershire, along with three representatives from the LWA UK Coordinating Group and six members of the LWA Membership staff team, in order to discuss their work as organisers within the union, how to strengthen our internal democracy and their perspectives on the vision and direction of travel of the LWA.
This process was seen as really crucial as the LWA grows and changes, reaching 1700 members and 400 supporters and 42 part time staff members. The Assembly served multiple purposes, including bringing together key organisers within the LWA to meet each other, creating another space for member input within the union and strengthening the organising happening in geographical, sector and identity-based groups.
The Assembly mostly took place on the Saturday throughout the day, with most people arriving on Friday evening, and an AGM planning workshop and closing mystica on the Sunday morning. We started off the Assembly reflecting on the big picture vision behind the LWA so we were rooted in the values of the movement we are a part of. During the day, some of the key questions we asked in the Assembly were “in a time of massive change for the LWA, what needs to change and what should stay the same?”, “how can we better support the work of region, sector and working group organising?”, and “what are the strengths, opportunities and challenges faced by the LWA right now?” We also discussed how the Organisers’ Assembly could grow and develop to become more accountable to the internal membership structures of the LWA going forward. We also had a beautiful opening and closing mystica, shared lots of delicious food together and sang songs and told stories around the fire in the evenings.
In the future, it would be great to see the Assembly grow with more representatives from the sectors and identity-based groups across all three Branches. We are also working on developing the processes for how the Assembly feeds into and shapes LWA work, sitting alongside the AGM, membership surveys and the ongoing work of internal membership structures as crucial pathways for the membership to drive the work of the LWA.
If you want to find out more about the Organisers’ Assembly, how to be involved in the LWA’s member-driven Branches, regions, sectors and working groups, and what next for the Assembly then get in touch with the UK Membership Outreach Coordinator, Natalia: natalia.szarek@staging.landworkersalliance.org.uk.
