How We Work
Structuring a global movement of change
In its early stages, The People Yes! Network works through four venues:
The TPYN Office, located in Brussels, searches for progressive grassroots organizations from around every part of the world in order to bring them into active involvement in the Network and its projects.
The Member Organizations. Rather than trying to impose a structure or agenda on the thousands of disparate groups the world over, TPYN offers grassroots organizations an infrastructure, a resource-rich network in which participation is voluntary and non-hierarchical. Our partners decide on their level of engagement. They may use our network merely to find other like-minded organizations. Or they can actively share their issues, analyses, initiatives, and materials with others. Or they can join in on campaigns initiated by TPYN or its member organizations. TYPN’s main role, then, is to provide logistical coordination for campaigns that focus on global issues and break through the limitations of siloing.
Activating the Infrastructure. As much as possible, face-to-face contact (in person or through video conferencing) characterizes TPYN governance and agenda-setting. Every two years representatives of TPYN member organizations meet in a General Assembly hosted in another regions of the world. Here a Steering Committee is elected representing the different regions and issues, which will provide oversight to TPYN’s activities. Here, too, TPYN members set their priorities and develop joint projects, all while keeping the focus on building towards an effective global movement of systemic change.
Finally, a Resource Center provides TPYN’s infrastructure with the critical analysis and material support that any movement requires. In particular, the Resource Center addresses the debilitating disconnect between grassroots activists and intellectuals.
In its initial phase the Resource Center features two keystone programs. A Country Called Global: A Journey Into Transnational Capitalism And Beyond, a web-based “portal” into the complex working of global capitalism, presented in visual an accessible ways. The portal is both a resource for activists and a source of outreach to the wider public. And TPYN is initiating an Institute for Strategic Activism to bring together activists and academic analysts.
TPYN’s four-fold structure may be depicted simply as follows:
