Lang Rabbie - at last, someone who knows what they are talking about.
Synergy Communities, and the Synergy Centre, are both companies limited by guarantee, a structure that specifically forbids the distrbution of profit, but requires it to be spent on the furtherance of the objects of the organisation.
For people to sugest that we are doing this for the money is just laughable, as anyone who knows me would know, as I've been doing this for years, having spent thousands of pounds supporting the work. If I wanted to earn loads of cash I could have done so, believe me, by going into law or some other job for which my education qualifies me.
We hope one day to get a decent wage for our work, but at the moment I make £250 for putting on a party with a £14,000 budget and a crew of over 100. This is for about 4 weeks work which if paid anything like what I could make elsewhere would make maybe 10 times that.
But you don't know this, so you make all sorts of ill-conclusions informed more by your prejudices against 'business' or even 'profit' which are not relevant to our world. Is it wrong to pay people for their work ? In the past, say in Ecotrip, which was run on different principles, people were not paid and the money was siphoned off to support the political career of the charismatic leader. People felt exploited and left. The organisation died. This is the way that structureless organisations, run by a charismatic leader unaccountable to anyone, are run. Synergy is strutured to protect and respect the effort of the people who do the work, not the self-appointed leader interested only in his self-glorification.
This is why Synergy succeeds and why so many previous projects in Brixton, led by this unaccountable charismatic leader, keep on failing. I know you don't like me saying it, but we are more than happy to put it to the test. Synergy is so much more harmoniuous than Ecotrip ever was, specifically because we have learned the lessons of the past and are conscious of the need to strike the right balances. We are open and, to a certain extent, democratic, but feel that these concepts cannot be applied to an extreme, ideologically driven, degree. We have an inequality of experience, effort, energy and skill within our crew and the hierarchy of decision making relfects this. Ecotrip was structured in a more egalitarian fashion, but in practice it was hi-jacked by the charismatic leader who used his considerable yet superficial charm to manipulate others to achieve his own parochial goals. One of the reasons Synergy was set up in this way was to prevent this from happening again.
Tomorrow night, there is a meeting for all the people who put on the party. The directors of the company will present the accounts for approval. This includes the payment of the people putting on the party.
Why do we not publish our accounts ? I honestly don't see why it's any of your business. If you want to come along and contribute constructively, then we will welcome you in, as we have done so to many people since launching last year. But if all you want to do is have a go because we don't subscribe to ideologies we think are naieve and ineffective, then you exclude yourself, something I am sure will not cause you to lose any sleep any more than it will us.
As to the suggestion that the NGOs fund the parties, that's similarly ill-informed. With Oxfam, for example, we are training their VJ in how to get their messages across in our environment. Even Rising Tide, who are at the more radical end of the spectrum, come along and do an excellent stall, as they think it's a good way to reach out to new people. So, our relationship with the NGOs is one of symbiotic partnership, they benefit and we benefit. Only those as cynical as the self-styled 'Urbanites' could have a problem with that.
As for the issue of who is the mysterious organisation who shared their list with us ? Hatboy was quoting me incorrectly when I said it was a local organisation.
For Mike to imply I might have got it from Laurence Merrit is the biggest joke of all so far. I hope he meant it as such, for otherwise it would just go to show, yet again, how little he knows, despite how much he thinks he does.
If you don't like the fact that I cite previous experience in Brixton with the 'charismatic leader', that's too bad. The way Synergy is structured is a direct response to his methodologies. I respect your right to organise yourselves in the way you chose. I and others have the right to participate or not. Same goes for Synergy. If anybody wants to, I can post questions on the Synergy e-group about whether people invovled in Synergy feel exploited or that we are insufficiently unaccountable or undemocratic. I am sure no-one will. A lot of effort is spent managing the group dynamics, with all the experience seeing how not to do it informing our choices.
I, on the other hand, can real off a long list of names who have worked in the structureless environments preferred by the charismatic leader and who go away feeling exploited and used. No matter how many times this happens, he refuses to change his ways, which is why all his efforts to build a strong organisation in Brixton have failed because talented people, who will invest their time for little financial reward if treated properly, just end up feeling used.
A lot of thought and experience has informed how Synergy is structured and simple and ill-informed conclusions that because we are a limited company we must be profiteering, undemocatic exploiters do not move the discussion forward. Because we are structured the way we are, there is less exploitation than previously, which is why Synergy is thriving in the way it is.
Incidentally, the party was a huge success and the feedback was all really positive.
Here's some :
the synergy was without doupt the most wonderfully decorated party i had ever been to..in london!
my overall view on the synergy project is that it is the only party in london that collaborates creativity, music,
politics, global issues, education, light, smiles and the most highest of production standards...
when we went to go back in...the bouncer...this massive guy...stopped us both...and i thought oh dear here we
go...usual shitty bouncer vibes...but then he look at us both directly...and just smiled...and softly said...its
wondeful to be in love isn't it....we just smiled and looked at him and said "yes"..he then moved out of the way..and
said..."i'm in love to..and it's great"....we just smiled at each other...and went inside the club...
good to see that the venue has actually employed some people who talk to you like a human being!
generally the most productive, creative, inspirational crew i have ever work with...
synergy project = best party in london - by far, in my opinion...
creativity, spirituality, art, music, community and the best production without a doupt!
Markinside, Psy-Forum, 1/3/04
i would describe this party as a cross between the enchanting vibes of mindscapes & the most magikal spiritual bits of glasto festy over the years. as soon as i walked in i felt a warm welcoming energy...
Indiska, Psy-Forum 1/3/04
