[ Interview with IMZ (Iniciativa mestni zbor) in Slovenia about
the citizens assemblies movement, vision, & strategy]
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IMZ: 10 YEARS OF CITIZENS ASSEMBLIES  
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Alexandria Shaner
December 5, 2022
ZNet
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_ Interview with IMZ (Iniciativa mestni zbor) in Slovenia about the
citizens assemblies movement, vision, & strategy _

Newly established self-organised assembly Od Tezno District, 2018,

 

Citizen assemblies are valued and promoted by a wide spectrum of
advocates for increasing grassroots participation, democratization,
diversity, solidarity, inclusion, sustainability, public health,
community resources, transparency and many other benefits to society.
They are a favorite social prescription from prominent activists,
academics, and organizers, yet are rarely actualized and sustained.

I spoke with representatives from The Initiative for Citywide
Assembly (Iniciativa mestni zbor – IMZ)
[[link removed]] about the non-partisan, self-organized
municipal assemblies in Maribor, Slovenia that have now been active
for 10 years. IMZ shares their rich experiences, offering insights
into organizing and facilitation, organizational structure and
culture, community, diversity, intersectional activism, vision for the
future, and more… 

WOULD YOU INTRODUCE US TO THE CITIZEN ASSEMBLY MOVEMENT IN SLOVENIA?
HOW AND WHEN DID IT BEGIN? WHAT WAS THE CONTEXT IN WHICH THE PROJECT
WAS CONCEIVED AND LAUNCHED?

The Initiative for Citywide Assembly (Iniciativa mestni zbor – IMZ)
[[link removed]] are a group of citizens whose aim it is
to promote non-partisan political self-organization at the city
district level in the Municipality of Maribor, Slovenia.

The initiative was formed in turbulent times at the end of 2012, when
people, deeply unsatisfied with local as well as state governance,
took to the streets. Civil unrest, which erupted here in Maribor and
spread over Slovenia, resulted in two resignations. The first one to
step down was the mayor of Maribor, Franc Kangler, followed by the
Prime Minister of Slovenia, Janez Janša.

We were convinced that the civil revolt and various actions of civil
disobedience must be followed by new, creative and far-reaching steps
towards a kind of development that would empower us to effect change
in our streets, districts, local communities, cities, the country and,
finally, the world. The People should play the primary role in shaping
and influencing development policies in our cities and nationwide,
rather than leaving them in the hands of city councilors and
parliamentarians. Since politicians obviously understand their role in
society quite differently, it falls to us to put them in their place
and present to them our positions and demands, and in doing so take
over the responsibility for the functioning of our communities, the
municipality and the entire country.
 

2013: Self-organised assembly of Nova Vas District carried out
outside, in front of community hall. Why? Outside in the cold?
Municipality officials demanded that people pay a fee for using their
own community space that they helped build in the past. This went on
for a few months, until the assemblies managed to change the edict so
that community spaces are free for use. This situation was again
repeated in another district in 2018, and again the assemblies
succeeded in their struggle.

DESCRIBE THE STRUCTURE AND VALUES OF IMZ AND OF THE CITIZEN ASSEMBLIES
THEMSELVES… DOES IMZ DRAW ON CERTAIN THEORY OR ORGANIZING
TRADITIONS? ARE YOU ROOTED IN ANY POLITICAL OR SOCIAL VISION?

Our aim is to regain the co-determination and co-management that was
taken away from us at the local, municipal, and national levels. This
is achieved by exerting pressure on the ruling structures in various
ways – but most effectively through direct democracy.

We believe that the solution lies in self-organizing, debate, sharing
information and education, which enables us to critically, directly
and creatively respond to the degeneration of our political and social
system.

The initiative (IMZ) and citizen assemblies are both structured the
same way. They are both horizontally organized, without directly
appointed leadership. Participation in both the initiative and/or
citizen assemblies is voluntary. Neither IMZ nor local assemblies are
a formal organization of any kind.

Members of IMZ must not be holding any leading positions in any
political party. Political preferences and ideologies of people
attending assemblies are never a point of discussion, since they hold
no bearing in the process of building evolved, more equal,
solidarity-based community. It is often what sets this process back.
The same goes for positions and functions people hold in their
professional life – they should be left at work and not be abused to
overpower a discussion at assemblies. The power of the argument should
always prevail, not the argument of power.

Problems are widely debated to ensure an array of views, opinions and
information. Decisions are then formed through consensus rather than
voting. We believe it is worth investing more time to reach a decision
which is acceptable for all (levels of acceptance may vary, but it’s
still acceptance) than take a shortcut and let a majority win over a
minority by voting.

We also find the “direct action principle” (which we understand to
mean that when someone proposes some action they have to help carry it
out) to be an important method in community engagement. This principle
prevents situations where people try to get others to solve their
problems. Instead, it engages them into solving perceived problems
with the help of others.

 

FROM THE EARLY DAYS OF THE PROJECT THROUGH THE FIRST 10 YEARS, WHAT
WAS THE DEVELOPMENT LIKE? HOW MANY CITIZENS PARTICIPATE? WHO
PARTICIPATES IN THE ASSEMBLIES, AND WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR THEM? WHAT
WERE SOME NOTABLE EXPERIENCES, CHALLENGES, AND ACHIEVEMENTS?

The assemblies started to happen in the times when there was a general
feeling (in Europe) that everything was possible. After the economic
crisis, municipalist movements came to life and older ideas of
different political and economic systems (socialism, communism) became
a possibility again. People suddenly realized that representative
democracy really doesn’t work and that alternative ways of decision
making closer to communities are needed. This new optimistic wave of
democracy was extremely strong in Maribor, which meant that a lot of
people wanted to be part of the change. This resulted in a really high
level of participation at citizens’ assemblies at the beginning.
However, it must be said that even then mostly older generations, who
still remember how self-management (at the workplace and at the
municipal/city districts level) worked in Yugoslavia participated. In
the first year, turnout at the assemblies was mostly between 20 and 60
people per assembly, taking place twice a month in 11 out of 17
Maribor city districts. Through the years and the realization that the
assemblies fight the long fights that need a lot of stamina, the
numbers have reduced to between 5 to 30 participants per assembly in
each city district (now there are assemblies in 10 city districts).
Still mostly older generations participate and it depends on the
assembly, but the number of older men and women are approximately the
same. This is probably the result of two things:

-remembering the self- management in Yugoslavia,

-assemblies are also considered a form of socializing outside your
circle of friends or family (or maybe you do not have a close family
or that many friends anymore and the assemblies are your connection
with the outside world).

In 2016 social researchers from University of Ljubljana came to
Maribor and did a study of the effects that self-organizing had on
participants. They specifically focused on the ones that participated
in the struggle that resulted in participatory budgeting being
instituted for the first time in Slovenia in 2015. Their research
found that the participants developed skills important for acting as
part of a community, including active listening, improved
argumentation, etc., as well as had some of their values changed in a
way that made them respect the needs and opinions of other people
more, put stronger faith in community solutions to problems. The
research showed that the participants even increased their overall
life satisfaction and even on average doubled the number of friends
they had.

What the assemblies have managed to achieve and what is quite an
important achievement at that, is that Municipality of Maribor has
become more responsive to inquiries of the citizens and is even a
little bit afraid or annoyed (depends on the municipal department)
when they get a letter from an assembly requesting answers (which
happens quite a lot). What is also an extremely important achievement
of the assemblies is the introduction of participatory budgeting to
Slovenia in 2015. Assemblies have also achieved many improvements in
their direct living environments and have influenced a lot of
municipal politics and strategic documents.

What we did not manage to achieve so far is to include Roma people in
the assemblies or other groups of people who really live on the edges
of the society. However, the assemblies proved to be a potent
political space to defuse some of societal antipathies towards the
marginalized groups. One strong example of that was in 2014, when it
was announced that the first Roma restaurant in Slovenia was to open
its doors in Maribor. The mere announcement triggered racist protests
of several hundred people, as well as smaller counter protests. The
mayor organized a citizen assembly where the participants were
overwhelmingly against allowing the restaurant to open. Two days later
the IMZ assembly was carried out and even though a lot of the same
people (who fervently opposed the restaurant) attended, it
nevertheless after 2 hours of debate reached a unanimous decision to
support the opening of the restaurant.
 

Action Zebra Crossing: Organising this intervention led to the
participatory budgeting idea. For 30 years people have asked for
additional pedestrian “zebra” crossings for child safety, to no
avail. So, people decided to draw zebra crossings themselves. In order
to execute this intervention, a whole lot of bureaucratic maneuvers
had to happen. Firstly, it was a lot of fun. Secondly, pedestrian
crossings were painted on the next day. And finally, as longer term
result we now have participatory budgeting.

 

DID IMZ AS AN ORGANIZATION GO THROUGH ANY SIGNIFICANT CHANGES OR
ITERATIONS OVER THE YEARS? HOW HAVE YOU MAINTAINED A RESILIENT AND
EFFECTIVE ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE?

Organizing and moderating citizen assemblies is a major part of
IMZ’s efforts, but not the only thing. Still, what continues to need
most of our availability is assembly moderation and administrative
help to assemblies. Administrative help isn’t something people would
likely give their free time for, and moderating assemblies can be very
tricky for those who can’t exempt themselves from debate. It’s a
tough job and it’s understandable that after a while one needs to go
do different things. In the past, when we were searching for new
volunteers, we didn’t stress enough that moderation of assemblies
was just one of our possible activities, that there’s loads of
different things that could be done and various experiences to be
gained. The truth is, a lot of people left, and not many new ones
came. So, the reason that IMZ still exists is probably just our
stubbornness and a firm belief that this activity is necessary. It
needs to be said though, that most former IMZ activists, even though
they left, are still responsive to IMZ’s needs and do help when
it’s urgent or contribute in activities they find interesting.

The funny thing is that in the past three years, when assemblies were
off and on and off again, we have thrown ourselves into planting trees
and bushes in order to help our city deal with the consequences of
climate change. Two projects – planting a Miyawaki tiny urban forest
and planting a part of a bare stream bank raised quite a lot of
interest. The project implementation connected us to various people
and organizations that now try to copy our actions in other cities and
some of them probably don’t even know that citizen assemblies are
our main activity.
 

2015: Participatory Budgeting (PB) as pilot project in Maribor
district Radvanje. IMZ volunteers inform the visitors of Saturday
farmers market about the new possibilities of citizens’ direct
participation within municipality budget by way of suggesting projects
(and then deciding on which will be implemented) for PB. We have tried
to make people understand the importance of this participation
instrument through a board game we have created ourselves. Through
this board game you kind of live through the experience of trying to
get something done through municipality channels – the experience
that is more often than not painstakingly long and demotivating. In
this game, you create your specific path by throwing the dice. Also,
you have to act according to situations written on cards you are
obliged to uncover when positioned on a certain field. Experience is:
player is sent back to Start or is “stuck in situation” far to
many times not to lose one’s mind … it is therefore much more
efficient (and healthy) to make use of participation instruments such
as PB.

HOW DID THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AFFECT THE PROJECT? HOW DID IMZ AND THE
ASSEMBLY PARTICIPANTS HANDLE THIS DISRUPTION?

Essential for citizen assemblies is an open, safe space where people
who live in the same community (city district) meet face to face and
debate about good and less good aspects of living in that community.
The Covid-19 pandemic shut all that down and forced us to move to the
internet. Online assemblies were less visited, the level of debate or
willingness to debate sunk, politicians started showing up on zooms
and we felt that the online assemblies were not fit for our purpose.
During the two years of the most severe pandemic period, live
assemblies were discontinued, and the online assemblies were carried
out less frequently and eventually discontinued.

Through all this time we tried to stay connected with people and keep
them informed with periodical e-news releases, which provided people
with fresh relevant local news, important basic topics (environment,
workers’ rights, housing, etc.) and interesting content for
relaxation and fun.

Once Covid-19 became manageable, we were quite worried whether the
participants would return to the assemblies once they restarted. We
feared that a 2-year break in the routine might cool the ardor of some
or even all of the participants but we found that the people did not
forget and have returned in similar numbers, though the complexity of
the activities (topical work groups, multi-assembly cooperation work
groups, etc.) has been reduced and most of the built up self-organized
structure will need to be reformed. We have noticed however, that more
people aged between 25 and 40 have started attending the assemblies.
 

2017: another urban intervention, this time in the city centre. One of
the most important touristic places in Maribor is Piramida Hill, an
archaeological site and sports/recreation area. The touristic route
uphill had been neglected for a long time, so citizens, together with
a wine-makers cooperative, decided to clean it up.

ARE THERE ANY ORGANIZING LESSONS OR OBSERVATIONS ON HOW CITIZENS
RELATE TO PARTICIPATORY CIVIC PROJECTS THAT YOU WANT TO SHARE? EITHER
DURING COVID OR GENERALLY?

Firstly, we find it is important that assemblies are carried out at
the same physical space, always at the same time. Our current assembly
dynamic is once a month, at the same day and at the same hour. This
opens up a possibility for people to get used to this certain date as
the date for community work and they eventually don’t need reminders
anymore.

Secondly, a community agreement on how the assembly is going to
communicate, reach decisions, and form actions must be the first thing
people at assembly create together and agree on. This agreement is
their own agreement and not something someone else forced onto them.
Therefore, people are more likely to stand behind it and respect it.
Community agreement is then revised at the beginning of every assembly
and attendees are free to change some of it or all of it, if they
agree on it. And that form of agreement is then valid for that session
of the assembly. Alongside agreement on tolerant, nondiscriminatory
and productive discussion, there are three points that are a part of
every community agreement of every citizens assembly in Maribor. We
have mentioned all of them before. (1) All participants at assembly
are just citizens, no political or professional functions or statuses
are mentioned. (2) All decisions are reached via consensus of all
present. (3) The principle of direct action is the _modus
operandi_ for all actions.

We feel that the three principles are very important in practice. (1)
We find that debate is much richer when people do not try to flaunt
whatever positions they hold or have held as to bolster their
arguments. That gives room for the best arguments to prevail, not the
best people making the arguments. (2) We feel that consensus decision
making makes participants much more constructive, respectful and even
polite in the discussion as they are aware that anyone could block a
decision. Surprisingly, over the years and thousands of decisions we
have had very very few problems trying to reach consensus. (3) We feel
the principle of Direct Action, which in our context means that people
proposing some action have to help carry it out, is essential. We
found that other people’s time is quite worthless when people are
judging whether some action should be carried out or not and any silly
proposal is good enough when people expect other people to carry it
out. But with Direct Action, when the person making the proposal has
to help carry out the action then suddenly people put a lot more
thought into formulating a proposal which raises the quality of
discussion, improves the effectiveness of the actions and fosters a
better mood for the assemblies.

We believe community is best described as a circle, therefore
conversation on matters of community is best held sitting in a circle
with no barriers between people. It gives everyone an equal position,
the same overview, there’s nothing going on behind anyone’s back.

It is also important that assembly moderators do just that –
moderate debate, strive towards forming conclusions, and nothing else.
They do not impose their own opinions or suggest what is to be done.
That’s why it is best if moderators moderate assemblies outside
their home districts and participate at “home assembly” like other
neighbors. Having said that, moderators are allowed, of course, to
inform or share experience and good practices used by other
assemblies.

If we ask ourselves what kind of individual is likely to participate
in matters of community, we feel that people who understand community
space and its content as a crucial part of their quality of
being/living are most likely to participate. Those individuals need no
extra incentive to get involved and don’t stray from “common” to
“individual”. On the other hand, those same “community aware”
individuals happen to be the ones who recognize tough individual
concerns and offer help even though there’s absolutely nothing in it
for them. People like that are sadly not a majority, not surprising in
these highly individualistic times, but we can say there is a common
characteristic most of them share: they remember how it used to be (in
Yugoslavia). The majority of attendees are driven to assemblies by
individual problems, to be more exact – something outside their
home, in community, is causing them problems. They will participate in
solving this particular community problem because it also solves
theirs, but they will need more incentive to participate on matters
that don’t directly connect to them. Debate can help them make that
connection. If they can’t, they probably won’t come back, as
won’t those who falsely believe problems will be solved without
their own engagement.
 

August 2014: cleaning surroundings of Pekre stream, the beloved
walking path. Work action put together by self-organised assembly of
Nova Vas District.

I UNDERSTAND THAT IMZ HAS JUST RELAUNCHED THE ASSEMBLIES, AFTER 2
YEARS OF ON AND OFF LOCKDOWN. WHERE DOES THE PROJECT STAND TODAY? WHAT
IS THE CURRENT AND LONG-TERM AGENDA OF IMZ?

True, since lockdowns are no longer planned, we relaunched assemblies
this fall in their original form. All ten citizen assemblies produced
audiences larger than usual, due to the fact that we have invited
people with posters to come and participate. So, all assemblies
started with a number of “standard” participants and people, who
joined for the first time. All but one, where sadly there were no
newcomers. But the fact that all relaunched assemblies produced
participants gives us the motivation to continue to work towards our
long term goal concerning local assemblies:
(1) to open spaces for citizen assemblies all over the Municipality of
Maribor (the urban area we have covered, the city surroundings, not so
much);
(2) for local assemblies to evolve from “the project” into an
accepted standard form of communication and collaboration amongst
people living in the same community, participation within community
and cooperation with local authorities – all to the benefit of the
community and everyone in it.
 

Workshop for Everyone: How to read and understand the municipality’s
budget, led by active citizen, retired head of finances at
Municipality of Maribor. The workshop had been held for a few
consecutive years when municipality budget was discussed.

HAVE OTHER TANGENTIAL PROJECTS OR INITIATIVES ARISEN OUT IMZ AND ITS
MEMBERS? OR LIKEWISE FROM THE ASSEMBLIES THEMSELVES?

The idea to implement participatory budgeting as a form of direct
participation in the matters of municipality came to life from the
assemblies. It evolved from a civic action which took way too much
time and effort to implement, considering the weight of the problem it
was trying to solve. Today around 41 municipalities in Slovenia
execute participatory budgeting processes, including Maribor, some
municipalities and schools also use participatory budgeting to
establish valid communication around the needs of youth/students.

A few former or occasional moderators joined the struggle for
workers’ rights and are quite successfully strengthening up unions
of workers in retail and in personal assistance. They’ve helped set
up the first ever union of workers in creative professions, mostly
independent workers and artists.

Before the last mayoral election (2018), assembly participants
suggested people should turn the table and, instead of listening to
what candidates are offering people, people should face candidates
with their demands. So, we organized a series of workshops.
Participants were divided into workgroups, based on content. Content
in general was no different from debate at assemblies, so main demands
had to do with problems present in all districts. Participants joined
whichever debate they wanted, probably where they felt they could
contribute the most. Each group had a moderator and expert help for
additional information and overview. All groups came up with a list of
demands concerning specific problems/content. At the end of each
session all groups met together and reviewed all finished work. At the
last workshop, the whole list of demands was reviewed, debated and
finalized. And then delivered to candidates. At this time 19 of the 61
demands have been realized and we are confident that number will rise.

As mentioned above, two bigger projects addressing adapting Maribor to
climate change have come to life. IMZ members planted a tiny urban
forest with approximately 870 trees and bushes in one of Maribor city
districts using the method of Akira Miyawaki, a Japanese botanist and
an expert in plant ecology who specialized in seeds and natural
forests. The forest was planted in November 2020 in the area of an
urban heat island. In 2021 we collaborated with the Society for
Observation and Study of Birds of Slovenia and the Slovenian Society
for the Study and Conservation of Bats and have added nesting boxes
and bat houses to the tiny forest. In December 2021 we planted
approximately 300 trees on a bare stream bank in another city district
again to adapt the city to climate change and to boost biodiversity.
As an educational momentum, we have been organizing with the
above-mentioned societies and the Slovenian Odonatological Society
guided tours along the stream to emphasize the importance of all the
animals living next to or in the stream. Both projects heavily
influenced other collectives and NGO’s around Slovenia.

Additionally, some of the assembly participants formed non-party,
independent political groups to run in local elections and managed to
win a number of district council seats.
 

2020: assembly moderators (IMZ) and volunteers planting a mini urban
Miyawaki forest at the location of a heat island.

2021: a year after we had planted a tiny urban forest, we turned our
attention towards one of streams that flows through our municipality.
The banks of Radvanje-stream were partially bare. We have planted the
banks with bushes and trees indigenous to the area, in hope to boost
biodiversity. We have also taken on some educational activities, like
the one in the photo, where attendees were able to get to know bats
which live at the Radvanje stream. All education activities were and
will be carried out by our partners (societies of bird watchers, bat
watchers, students of nature sciences society).

CITIZEN ASSEMBLIES ARE VALUED AND PROMOTED BY A WIDE POLITICAL
SPECTRUM OF ADVOCATES FOR INCREASING PARTICIPATION, DEMOCRATIZATION,
DIVERSITY, SOLIDARITY, INCLUSION, SUSTAINABILITY, PUBLIC HEALTH,
COMMUNITY RESOURCES, TRANSPARENCY AND MANY OTHER BENEFITS TO SOCIETY.
FOR READERS WHO ARE INSPIRED TO ACTION BY YOUR WORK THUS FAR IN
SLOVENIA, WHAT DO YOU RECOMMEND? HOW CAN OTHERS DEVELOP AND SUSTAIN
CITIZEN ASSEMBLIES IN THEIR COMMUNITIES AROUND THE WORLD?

For us it has always been really important not to take over the
assemblies with our own agendas or to try to steer them in the
direction of our own political ideology/beliefs. People can otherwise
feel used and mistreated, and it also just ruins the idea of
self-organizing.

It’s important not to give up and not to become disillusioned for
the wrong reasons. There were times and there will be times when no
one showed up for the assembly. One could feel discouraged by that. At
that time, as an organizer and moderator, you have to remember it is
most important that such open spaces exist, that it is all voluntary,
and that you are here to give support. But the pace of work,
willingness to dig into certain challenges, decisions for action –
that is a decision of the people at the assembly.

DOES IMZ DO ANY INTERNAL ACTIVITIES OR PRACTICES TO HELP KEEP
MOTIVATION AND SPIRITS UP?

Not much really. One practice we instituted years ago was that we
start every moderators’ meeting by each person telling one good
thing that happened to them the previous week to start off the
meetings at a positive note. But mostly we get motivated by the people
coming to the assemblies and witnessing them achieve their goals.

ARE THERE FURTHER RESOURCES AND/OR CONTACTS YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE?

Always good to read Edvard Kardelj
[[link removed]], the main creator of
the Yugoslav system of workers’ self- management. We have learned
about moderating a horizontal group from the anarchists. Also, the
concept of participatory society
[[link removed]] connecting economy, polity, kinship and
community developed by Michael Albert
[[link removed]] and Robin Hahnel
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reflected in the assemblies. Otherwise, we much admire other
municipalist/community movements in Europe and around the world who
have managed to organize around the housing problem, collectivizing
care, etc.

* Citizen Assemblies
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* Slovenia
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