principles of PMA

Political Guidelines & Principles for Successful Assemblies

To download full Faciliation Guide go to www.pma2010.org/resources

1) PMAs are a political and popular education governance process that connects analysis-building to action-based decision making process

2) Create an agenda that provides for rigorous, informed discussion and spaces that encourage principled debate, disagreement and cohesion

3) Seek out context: include historical, political, and cultural perspectives

4) Move beyond just describing the conditions. One purpose of the assemblies is to engage groups to move past the ‘laundry list’ of problems and into deliberating the visions for fundamental shifts in our reality.

5) Determine realistic opportunities for strategic interventions & organizing breakthroughs

6) Facilitative leadership provides a strong sense of direction and prepares to lead the group through the goals of the assembly, including discussion and decision-making processes

7) Create an agenda with discussion questions included and give to small group facilitators in as much advance time as possible in order to prepare

8) Allow for imagination & creative space in order to develop clear political vision. Facilitators need to create spaces to re-connect with our creativity, our cultural realities, and our common purposes

9) Anchor the commitments to action with organizations and coalitions so that organized groups move the process forward and participants build strong power blocs in between assemblies and social forums.