n.V3-4.06 | THE POLITICAL ARM

01| Assume the best case. The model works, results are beyond reasonable doubt, the barrio is visibly better. There will still be groups with specific interests that will not cooperate. Appealing to a moral code of solidarity will have roughly the effect of asking a hungry bear to leave the salmon alone. So IkoCiti has to be able to play the power games — by every legal means — in the fight to rebuild the barrio.

02| That is what the PI Movement is for: the political arm, organised from the global platform, acting as the support system for local initiatives raising their voices against whatever is blocking progress. It is run by the Kikundi themselves, who organise the mobilisation of the Barrio Bamboka. The platform supplies the framework — a ready-made grassroots organisation, so a local group does not have to clear the start-up hurdles before it can be effective.

03| The rule that governs all of it: the initiative rests with the local Maveriqs. However obvious the local injustice, if local people do not come together to act, IkoCiti does not act for them. Ever. A movement that has to be started from headquarters is not a movement; it is a campaign, and everyone can tell the difference.

04| The mandate is unromantic. Secure joint ventures with governments — a business deal in which government and its ambitious people work directly together — and reallocate serious money toward the Peoples' Impact Markets as perpetual buying power on the demand side. Government as a buyer, not a donor.

05| Which requires being honest about what moves a politician. Government is run by politicians, and politicians need votes more than a shark needs oxygen. In that pool, the average politician is not easily swayed by moral arguments; self-interest responds to campaign funding, payola, or votes. We do not do campaign funding and we do not do payola. That leaves votes. So the Movement brings votes — rallying and registering the Barrio Bamboka, alone or with other registration initiatives. Votes are power, power is funding, funding is opportunity, opportunity is income, income is economic activity, economic activity is a better barrio. That is a great deal of leverage from something people do only occasionally.

06| Non-partisan by design, and the mechanism is transparency rather than good intentions: every political contact is published. It will not prevent enemies. Government budgets are more or less zero-sum, and anything allocated to us is not allocated to someone else. Nothing manufactures opponents faster than a zero-sum game.

07| Their first move will be to delegitimise the concept, and it is an effective move, because deep down too many people — including poor people — have little faith in the capabilities of poor people. We are all conditioned by the expert syndrome, which in this domain favours the traditional social sector establishment. Expect that attack. Answer it with delivered projects rather than with rebuttals.

08| Being selected for the Movement is an advanced assignment and carries real credits, because the work is hard: inspire and recruit, collaborate with other activist groups in the city region, and negotiate with government. It runs on communication, supported by the communication specialists, following a planned negotiation strategy that reinforces the authentic voice of the barrio. Who makes the case for Peoples' Impact better than people who know poverty from the inside?

09| The Movement is subsidised at the start so it can be effective immediately, but it must run funding campaigns among the Barrio Bamboka — many people contributing small sums. This is deliberately a test as much as a budget. If the campaigns fall short, we read it as a clear signal that the barrio does not see the problem as urgent. And if they do not see it as urgent, why should we? Urgency is measured in actions, not statements. If they are in, we go all the way.

10| The machinery sits in the Activist District, part of the Barrio Borough, framed globally and run locally. The social research sector is the brain trust — turning theory and best cases into guidelines for setting up local initiatives. The local issue sector is where Maveriqs formulate the pain, choose a strategy, identify the resources and pick the people who will lead: an action plan becomes a project like any other. The joint-action sector handles collaboration with outside activist groups, which multiplies impact and multiplies risk — who leads, what the end game is, what the other party's real agenda is. The kick-start sector makes the go/no-go call, organising the collective decision of the Maveriqs; approved actions are listed on the Exchange for funding like any other project.

11| Funded actions get an action management team, which supervises execution and the quality of the leadership and otherwise stays out of the way. If the execution drifts substantially from the agreed strategy they intervene amicably first, and can escalate — to the Barrio Execution Team, or by putting the project on hold and calling in Global Leadership.

12| Their brief is dual: remove the obstacles that slow local progress, and protect the IkoCiti brand at all costs. The second is not corporate vanity. The brand is the confidence factor that funds Peoples' Impact projects. Damage it and the money decelerates fast — for every Kikundi, in every barrio, including the ones that did nothing wrong. Even the most advanced car needs fuel to make the mileage.

13| Which brings the real tension into the open. A justified action presented badly can antagonise exactly the people we need in order to rebuild. There is no clean way around this. IkoCiti is politics. The belief that a laudable purpose lets us stay above the fray of local politics is not helpful and not available. Politics is life, and life means dealing with a universe of people and organisations carrying substantially different agendas, some of them hidden. Whoever manages that nest of piranhas best has the edge in the power game called social progress.

14| Every Maveriq takes part. Which initiative is their own choice.