This page will be updated right up till the start of the festival, so please keep checking back to see the complete list of events. There are still more things planned than currently posted here!
THURSDAY 30TH MAY 2019
AUTONOMY NOW PRESENT:
‘The Anarchist Imagination: Anarchism Encounters the Humanities and the Social Sciences’
with Carl Levy, Constance Bantman, Ole Birk Laursen and Carne Ross
Thursday 30th May – Free entry
Venue: Housmans Bookshop, London Accessible space.
Our panel discuss the continuous role of the anarchist imagination as muse, provocateur, goading adversary, and catalyst in the stimulation of research and creative activity in the humanities and social sciences, including anthropology, art, feminism, geography, international relations, political science, postcolonialism, and sociology.
At the event two books will be launched:
The Anarchist Imagination
Anarchism Encounters the Humanities and the Social Sciences, 1st Edition
Edited by Carl Levy, Saul Newman
https://www.routledge.com/The-Anarchist-Imagination-Anarchism-Encounters-the-Humanities-and-the/Levy-Newman/p/book/9781138782761
The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism
Editors: Levy, Carl, Adams, Matthew (Eds.)
https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783319756196
Carl Levy is a Professor of Politics in the Department of Politics and International Relations, Goldsmiths, University of London. He is currently writing two books, ‘Anarchists and the City’ and a biography of Errico Malatesta: ‘Errico Malatesta: The Rooted Cosmopolitan, the Life and Times of an Anarchist in Exile’.
Constance Bantman is Senior Lecturer in French and Director of Teaching and Learning and author of ‘The French Anarchists in London, 1880-1914: Exile and Transnationalism in the First Globalisation’
Ole Birk Laursen is a literary critic and historian of Black and South Asian people in Britain and Europe, researching and writing about race, resistance, and revolution, focusing particularly on Indian anticolonialism, nationalism, and anarchism, as well as the contemporary legacies of colonialism, racism, riots, and human rights.
Carne Ross is best known for once working as a British diplomat before leaving the civil service in disgust over the Iraq war, and testifying against the government at the Butler Review. He has gone on to become an advocate for anarchist organising.
FRIDAY 31ST MAY 2019
‘Cooperation Jackson: The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black Self-Determination in Jackson, Mississippi’ with Kali Akuno
Friday 31st May, 7pm – Tickets in advance from here
Venue: Housmans Bookshop, London Accessible space.
On a rare visit to London from Mississippi, we are delighted to welcome a co-founder and co-director of Cooperation Jackson, Kali Akuno, to discuss the inspiring work they have been undertaking to create sustainable community development, economic democracy, and community ownership, within the confines of a historically structurally racist state.
Mississippi, the poorest state in the U.S. with the highest percentage of Black people, and a history of vicious racial terror and concurrent Black resistance is the backdrop and context for this programme of community organising. More details at http://www.housmans.com/events.php
Anarcho Agony Aunts LIVE with hosts Rowan and Marijam
Friday 31st May, 6pm-9:30pm
Venue: LARC, London (Upstairs)
Anarcho Agony Aunts is a sex and dating advice show, covered from a feminist, antifascist, anarchist perspective. Hosts Rowan and Marijam are reclaiming space from the alt-right in giving people (mostly men) a space to ask tricky questions in a judgment-free zone. The session will include a live taping of the Anarcho Agony Aunts, with people being able to submit their burning questions before the show.’ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKq20e5nPDEok0loksTqEyQ
Radical Pedagogy Reading Group
Friday 31st May, 7pm-9pm
Venue: LARC, London (Main Hall)
An introduction to anarchism and the role of education in the modern state through historical examples, pedagogical practices and theories. We’re reading two sections from Anarchist Pedagogies: Collective Actions, Theories, and Critical Reflections on Education (2012), edited by Robert H. Haworth. //
• Introduction by Robert H. Haworth (pages 1-10) // • Chapter 1 Anarchism, the State, and the Role of Education by Justin Mueller (pages 14-31) // Robert H. Haworth’s introduction considers the contradictions of neoliberal reforms in education against a backdrop of anarchist and egalitarian pedagogical theories, practices and philosophical perspectives.
Justin Mueller’s chapter situates education within anarchist theories of human nature with examples of situated practices, free schools and free spaces. He critiques the hierarchical authority and disciplinary oppression of state schools and unpacks the relationships between learning and the values of liberty, equality and solidarity. //
DOWNLOAD Robert H. Haworth (2012). Anarchist Pedagogies: Collective Actions, Theories, and Critical Reflections on Education. Oakland: PM Press. (http://rebels-library.org/files/anarchistpedagogies.pdf) //
The Radical Pedagogy Research Group is a forum and research project on alternative art education, radical pedagogy and self-organisation, with the practical aim of informing the development of an alternative art school. The reading group meets on the last Friday of every month, we plan to organise additional workshops, screenings and other events that will emerge from our research. Please book your place and download the reading.
BRIGHTON
Anarchist Festival 2019 at the Cowley!
Events happening across all three days
Venue: Cowley Club, 12 London Rd, Brighton BN1 4JA
The Cowley Club is taking part in the Anarchist Festival 2019! We haven’t finalized the programme yet, but it will include:
Talks, Gigs and a Pub Quiz
This will also be the launch of the Cowley Club Crowdfunder.
For most up to date info please check the facebook event
https://www.facebook.com/events/373989866546275/
SATURDAY 1ST JUNE 2019
OCTOBER BOOKS IN SOUTHAMPTON
Radical Foundations: Educating, Agitating and Organising around Housing
Saturday 1st June, 1pm-3.30pm
Venue: October Books, 189 Portswood Rd, Southampton SO17 2NF
Bad landlords, poor housing conditions, crappy student lets, bedroom tax, sky-high rents, discrimination. The list of problems in the rental sector is endless, but what’s to be done? Come and chat about your experiences and opportunities for fighting back!
Featuring:
Housing Action: What Works? A talk on radical resistance by Brighton Solfed
Open discussion on housing experiences in Southampton with representative from Hamwic Housing Co-op
Refreshments for donations
Access: One step with handles either side. Ramp available on request. Venue all on one level. Accessible toilet available.
MAYDAY ROOMS EVENTS
Take over the city! A day of practical workshops on resistance to gentrification, redevelopment, and community struggles about land!
Saturday 1st June, 11am-4pm
Venue: Mayday rooms is not wheelchair accessible with a flight of stairs up to the rooms.
Take over the city! A day of practical workshops on resistance to gentrification, redevelopment, and community struggles about land!
Last year Mayday Rooms created an archive of housing struggles around London during the last ten years, which includes material produced by a large number of housing campaigns, rent strikes, and a collection on the history of organised squatting. Taking this as our point of departure, we are organising a day of workshops on housing coops, squatting, and community organising. We hope that this day of workshops will create a space where we’ll share practical skills and discuss resistance and alternatives, meet with others involved in similar activism, as well as explore the materials in the archival collections to get inspired.
There will be a crèche going on. Please email fani@maydayrooms.org if you’re coming with kids with details about their age to make sure we have enough people available.
https://www.facebook.com/events/677400616022668/
11-1pm Squatting in London: Publication re-launch and practical workshop
Join us for the re-launch of the publication ‘Squatting Is Part of The Housing Movement: Practical Squatting Histories from 1968 to Now’. This publication is the outcome of a residency in MayDay Rooms, and is part of our Housing Struggles Archive that we compiled last year. After an extensive research and a gathering of materials from different archives, including 56a Infoshop, there is now a three box collection of materials on squatting history in the UK. This publication will put the material in context. The launch will involve a short discussion on the issues the publication is covering and you’ll get the chance to grab a pamphlet.
The re-launch will be followed by a workshop on the practicalities of squatting, ie opening a squat, and dealing with the police and evictions.
Organised by: 56a Infoshop
https://www.facebook.com/events/437341143499977/
12-2pm How to set up a Housing Co-operative
What’s it like to set up and to live in a housing co-op? We’ll look at types of properties and living arrangements from co-housing, to trailer parks to communes and find out what folks round the country are up to. We’ll aslo have a detailed look at the nitty gritty of setting up a housing coop
Organised by: Radical Routes
https://www.facebook.com/events/389955871605551/
‘Save the community’, ‘Support from the community’, ‘The community thinks’, ‘Community Land Trust’ are just a few of the references to ‘community’ that we us when are involved in a range of struggles such as housing, saving a library or getting access to land. However, to what extent does this ‘community’ exist? In this meeting, drawing on many practical examples of organising, we will discuss problems such as the impact of capitalism and divisions within localities. We will then hope to discuss how we can create genuine community based on working class struggles.
Organised by: London Anarchist Communist Group
https://www.facebook.com/events/682294735532473/
2:30-4pm Organising practical solidarity, collective support and action on housing and homelessness.
Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth celebrated our 6th birthday in April. Come along to our discussion on 6 years of organising in south London to hear and share experiences of organising together.
We support each other with housing problems including overcrowding, unsuitable temporary accommodation, high rents, dangerous conditions, gatekeeping and poor treatment at the housing office. We learn our rights together, support each other and fight for good quality council homes for everyone.
Organised by: HASL (Housing Action Southwark & Lambeth)
https://www.facebook.com/events/2279422435471543/
FREEDOM BOOKSHOP EVENTS
Reclaiming the Hides – a radical bird walk
Saturday 1st June, 11.30am-1pm
Walk begins at Freedom Bookshop
“This talk will take the form of a led bird walk around Whitechapel, but instead of identifying as many species as possible or hunting down a migrating rarity, the objective will be to explore the radical examples set by birds, and to reframe birdwatching as an act that, while not revolutionary in itself, is one worthy of anyone who wants to build a better world (or just turn their back on the one we have already messed up).
For all recorded history people have projected their hopes, fears and existential rubbish onto birds, and sought to crowbar out of them a profound understanding of the human world. As flawed and whimsical as this outlook undoubtedly is, the premise of this walk/talk is that radicals, utopians and truck-burners can do the same.
The precise content of the walk will be based (very) loosely on the wildlife we typically encounter in our parks and countryside, but it will more than likely include references to Peter Kropotkin, the disestablishment of nation states, polyamory and direct action tactics. And as the walk/talk will be firmly participatory, I would welcome others’ contributions/interjections, too.
Knowledge of British breeding birds is not required. To be honest, I’d prefer you forget any you have as it will probably interfere with my own half-baked hypothesising.
And I cannot guarantee that the content will be what most would consider suitable for children.”
Anarchist Federation Introduction to Anarchism
Saturday 1st June, 2pm-3pm
Venue: Freedom Bookshop 84b Angel Alley, London E1 7QX. Held upstiars and so not wheelchair accessible.
Members of the London Anarchist Federation will discuss anarchism as a political philosophy, its history, key thinkers and modern currents as well as an anarchist FAQ. This talk is aimed at those interested in learning more about anarchism and will also include an overview of the many anarchist groups you can get involved with.
DIY Investigating Companies Workshop with Corporate Watch
Saturday 1st June, 2pm-4pm
Venue: Freedom Bookshop 84b Angel Alley, London E1 7QX. Venue is wheelchair accessible but no accessible toilet.
Want to investigate a company but don’t know where to start? Come along to this practical workshop led by Corporate Watch https://corporatewatch.org
World’s End book launch and discussion on the radical politics of climate change Saturday 1st of June, 3pm – 5pm
Venue: Freedom Bookshop 84b Angel Alley, London E1 7QX. Venue is wheelchair accessible but no accessible toilet.
Join us at Freedom bookshop for the launch of Worlds End, a comic
produced by the Mycellium Collective and published by Corporate Watch.
Worlds End aims to help people understand climate change and capitalism,
and tackles the huge, complex challenges they pose. As well
as a presentation from the collective that produced the comic, we want
to bring people together for a discussion on the radical politics of
climate change in the context of the recent explosion of Extinction
Rebellion and Climate Strike. What can we learn from the successes of
these movements? How can we constructively engage with a new wave of
climate activists? How can we strengthen ecological movements’
commitment to radical systemic change and social justice?
F**k it, mask on. A Netpol workshop on wearing masks at demos
Saturday 1st June, 4pm
Venue: Freedom Bookshop 84b Angel Alley,London E1 7QX. Venue is wheelchair accessible but no accessible toilet.
In the workshop we will talk about the law on covering your face, discuss creative ways of hiding your identity that moves beyond the traditional black bloc aesthetic, and interrogate popular assumptions around the act of wearing a mask. Further Reading https://netpol.org/2015/05/13/cover-up/ https://netpol.org/2015/05/22/why-cover-up-the-case-for-protest-anonymity/
Dog Section Press: Subvertising film screening
Saturday 1st June, 5pm
Venue: Freedom Bookshop 84b Angel Alley E1 7QX. Venue is wheelchair accessible but no accessible toilet.
Film screening of excellent new short documentary (21mins) about subvertising, ad hacking and creating an advert free world
Antiuniversity Present:
Political keywords: what do we mean when we say….
Saturday 1st of June, 5pm
Venue: Freedom Bookshop 84b Angel Alley E1 7QX
Wittgenstein said “The limits of my language means the limits of my world”. Certain words repeatedly appears in books, articles, flyers and even chants. We all assume we mean the same thing when we use them (or pretend we know what they mean, then quietly google them) but then spend hours arguing the definition.
Join the Antiuniversity organisers crew for a collective exercise in making sense of radical language, where we will identify contested terms and work together to examine, clarify, reference and demonstrate what we mean when we use them. At the end of the session we will have the beginning of a glossary of movement terminology, to be continued and expanded on.
BOOK LAUNCH: Our Masters Are Helpless: The Essays of George Barrett
Saturday 1st June, 6pm
Venue: Freedom Bookshop 84b Angel Alley, London E1 7QX. Venue is wheelchair accessible but no accessible toilet.
To mark the launch of Freedom’s next book, Our Masters Are Helpless: The Essays of George Barrett, editor Iain McKay will talk on the importance and influence of this key anarchist organiser and theorist. Barrett was active at a crossroads in history, as a firebrand and writer whose clear head and accessible style drew considerable attention through the Great Unrest of 1910-14 and on into the first world war. Mckay is best known as the lead author of the Anarchist FAQ, and has edited seminal collections of work for figures such as Pierre Joseph Proudhon and Peter Kropotkin.
MAYDAY ROOMS EVENTS
The Myth of Community: The Challenges of Organising Locally
Saturday 1st June, 1-3pm
Venue: Mayday Rooms, 88 Fleet Street, London EC4Y 1DH. Venue is not wheelchair accessible.
Save the community’, ‘Support from the community’, ‘The community thinks’, ‘Community Land Trust’ are just a few of the references to ‘community’ that we us when are involved in a range of struggles such as housing, saving a library or getting access to land. However, to what extent does this ‘community’ exist? In this meeting, drawing on many practical examples of organising, we will discuss problems such as the impact of capitalism and divisions within localities. We will then hope to discuss how we can create genuine communities based on working class struggle. Organised by London Anarchist Communist Group TICKET LINK: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-myth-of-community-the-challenges-of-organising-locally-tickets-60390892786
Take over the city! A day of practical workshops on resistance to gentrification, redevelopment, and community struggles about land!
Saturday 1st June, 1pn onwards
Venue: Mayday Rooms, 88 Fleet Street, London EC4Y 1DH. Venue is not wheelchair accessible.
Last year Mayday Rooms created an archive of housing struggles around London during the last ten years, which includes material produced by a large number of housing campaigns, rent strikes, and a collection on the history of organised squatting. Taking this as our point of departure, we are organising a day of workshops on housing coops, squatting, and community organising. We hope that this day of workshops will create a space where we’ll share practical skills and discuss resistance and alternatives, meet with others involved in similar activism, as well as explore the materials in the archival collections to get inspired.
There will be a crèche going on. Please email fani@maydayrooms.org if you’re coming with kids with details about their age to make sure we have enough people available.
LARC EVENTS
FairCoop: From Local to Global to Local
Saturday 1st June, 12-1pm
Venue: LARC, London (Main Hall)
FairCoin is an alternative cryptocurrency which is loosely governed by FairCoop. FairCoop is an international cooperative movement that has adopted FairCoin as a radical ecological and social currency outside of the capitalist banking system. FairCoop is a visionary project founded on anarchist principles and operates at both local and global levels. In this session, we will hear from different participants in the FairCoop ecosystem across Europe who use FairCoin, and discuss the goal of building a cooperative ecosystem as an alternative to capitalist fiat currency and the state.
Facebook event
Such A Discomfort!
Saturday 1st June, 12-1pm
Venue: LARC, London (Upstairs)
To take seriously the desire for destroying the prison society, we need to find new ways of holding ourselves and others accountable for our actions and inactions. A panel discussion followed by a workshop in search of practical steps we can take. In the past years there have been many discussions around the failure of accountability processes. Meanwhile there has been an institutionalisation of safer spaces, from universities to squats. Its discourse is being used to strengthen a racist, transphobic and neoliberalist prison society, rather than destroying it.
Radical organising often uses the tactics of disruption and direct action against those who are upholding the existing status quo. Smashing the state and its system is not meant to feel comfortable for those in power. So let’s take back the radical notion of care and not compromise to address abuse of power even (or especially) when it involves people we are organising with.
Facebook event
Peer Listening Group
Saturday 1st June, 2-4pm
Venue: LARC, London (Upstairs)
There is nothing wrong with our minds. Get together, listen to each other. This is a taster for a weekly drop in to start in London from September. Capitalism is designed to drive us mad. We fight back together.
Indonesia solidarity, talk & film screenings
Saturday 1st June, 2-5pm
Venue: LARC, London (Main Hall)
Talks and film screenings focussed on the current situation of Indonesian DIY collectives, and and their actions in Indonesia, mainly focused on Java and Bali.
“Special Land” As an area that is said to have ‘special’ land with enormous agricultural and tourism potential, the Special Province of Yogyakarta is facing agrarian and land problems, namely the imbalance of land distribution for the people in the form of agrarian reform due to the sticky feudal culture and self-government claims to lands which the people of Jogja had worked on for decades, even though feudalism and self-government had been abolished from Indonesia for so long after independence.
As a strategic field for mega-megaproject and business development, agrarian policies affect the livelihoods of many people. Given that agrarian is about the right to living space and sources of livelihood, then land rights are nothing but human rights and must be used and distributed for the greatest prosperity of the community, not a handful or a small group of private parties. In this film residents are affected by development policies that are detrimental and tell people to give opinions while redefining what the meaning of “special” really is?
“Kala Benoa” 2016 Kala Benoa is a documentary film on the experiences of the Balinese in facing the looming reclamation of Benoa Bay in the island province of Bali. The case of Benoa Bay is one of the many struggles of local residents in facing land reclamation plans in Indonesian cities. Most of these reclamation plans, including the one in Bali, are framed as revitalization for the well-being of the majority. The film documents the potentials of environmental degradation and livelihood threats that come along with the reclamation project by developers and government actors.
Benoa Bay reclamation plan covers 700 hectares of reclaimed land for mostly real estate development. According to the proponents of the project, which includes local government, central government and the developer, the development would bring economic benefits and job creation. Kala Benoa captures the struggles of local communities in Bali and their active role in responding to and in resisting the reclamation plan // also: Yogyakarta Needle and Bitch distro stall (Anarcha – Feminist and DIY Handmade crafts Collective) https://www.instagram.com/needleandbitch/?hl=en
Working Class Anarchism versus Middle Class Identity Politics
discussion with Lisa McKenzie & Martin Lux
Saturday 1st June, 5-7pm
Venue: LARC, London (Main Hall)
An unprecedented political vacuum has appeared as the main parties disintegrate and implode. Anarchist attitudes and ideas should be gaining traction yet this is failing to materialise. Why? Could it be the abandonment of class politics? Or the prevalence of identity politics?
News from the Calais border
Saturday 1st June, 5-6pm
Venue: LARC, London (Upstairs)
‘Calais will never finish’. After the destruction of the big ‘jungle’ in 2016, there are thousands of people surviving in the most terrible conditions. Despite massive police repression and daily destruction of people’s tents and belongings, people are still there, and going to England. There are thousands of migrant people all along the coast, not just in Calais but also in Dunkirk, Zeebrugge, Dieppe, Le Havre, Caen, Cherbourg, St Malo… as far as Bilbao in the Basque Country. Others try from Paris or Brussels. The ‘jungle’ has spread everywhere. All people are waiting for a ‘chance’ – hope is keeping them alive and fighting. How can we support them?
Hosted by One World: OPEN the borders
Facebook event
LARC Film Club film screening & sober social
Saturday 1st June, 7pm onwards
Venue: LARC, London (Main Hall)
LARC Film Club Anarchist Festival special: Salvador (Puig Antich) (2006) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0445691/ About the last person to be executed by garrotte in Spain, in 1974 under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco: the anarchist and bank-robber Salvador Puig Antich.
The LARC Film Club is an alcohol, drug and smoke-free space. Please only attend if you are willing to respect this. Vegan snacks and soft drinks will be available, with discussion – and social – time after the end of the screening.
——————-
Antiuniversity Present:
Political keywords: what do we mean when we say….
Saturday 5pm at Freedom Bookshop
Wittgenstein said “The limits of my language means the limits of my world”. Certain words repeatedly appears in books, articles, flyers and even chants. We all assume we mean the same thing when we use them (or pretend we know what they mean, then quietly google them) but then spend hours arguing the definition.
Join the Antiuniversity organisers crew for a collective exercise in making sense of radical language, where we will identify contested terms and work together to examine, clarify, reference and demonstrate what we mean when we use them. At the end of the session we will have the beginning of a glossary of movement terminology, to be continued and expanded on.
BRIGHTON
Anarchist Festival 2019 at the Cowley!
Events happening across all three days
Venue: Cowley Club, 12 London Rd, Brighton BN1 4JA
The Cowley Club is taking part in the Anarchist Festival 2019! We haven’t finalized the programme yet, but it will include:
Talks, Gigs and a Pub Quiz
This will also be the launch of the Cowley Club Crowdfunder.
For most up to date info please check the facebook event
https://www.facebook.com/events/373989866546275/
PRESTON, LANCASHIRE
‘Anarchism and the City’
Saturday 1st June 2019 at 11 am – 5 pm
Venue: The Birley Art Studios and Project Space, Preston, PR1
The Birley will be hosting an event entitled ‘Anarchism and the City’ on Saturday 1st June 2019 at 11 am – 5 pm. This will be a day of talks, discussions, workshops, art and activities that will introduce and consider contemporary anarchist philosophy and practice.
This will include talks and discussion on anarchist criminology and its understanding of law, crime and crime control in relation to Preston, and wider themes of urban development, regeneration and the city; Anarchist pedagogies – the anarchist argument for the creation of spaces outside and within the formal education system that allow for situated, creative, playful, self-determined, non-coercive, questioning and collective learning; Mental health and capitalism – How experiences of social isolation, inequality, feelings of alienation and dissociation, and even the basic assumptions and ideology of materialism and neoliberalism itself are seen today to be primary drivers of the epidemic of mental illness in capitalist society.
Facebook event
NEWCASTLE
NEAnarchistGroup and Canny Little Library Present:
North East Radical History Day 1
Saturday 1st June, 12 Noon -4PM
Venue: Star and Shadow Cinema, Warwick St, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 1BB
As part of the Anarchist Festival 2019, the North East Anarchist Group and the Canny Little Library join forces to organise a two day event about the Radical History of the North East in the Star & Shadow cinema.
1 June 12:00-16:00: Storytelling session
2 June 13:00-16:00: Film, discussion & collective mapping
Saturday we start off with an open storytelling session. Come and share your story about the radical history of the North East. Stories can take different forms: poetry, spoken word, a song, a performance, an artwork, a section from a book, you name it! Themes can cover different aspects of the North East’s radical history: workers’ struggles, black history, feminist activism, environmentalism, queer/LGBTQ*history et cetera.
On Sunday there will be a film screening (tba) and a creative mapping activity in which we will collectively reconstruct what events took place when and where.
The weekend will also be an opportunity to connect past and contemporary struggles, to network between different initiatives and to get involved! The library will be open on both days with a special collection of books and zines covering the radical history of the North East. The Star & Shadow café will be open, providing hot drinks and cake.
Questions? Send an e-mail to cannylittlelibrary@gmail.com
CAMBRIDGE
Cambridge SolFed at Strawberry Fair 2019
Saturday 1st June, 12 Noon -7pm
VENUE: Strawberry Fair, Cambridge
Cambridge Solidarity Federation will have a stall in
SCARECROW CORNER https://www.facebook.com/events/815435718813158/
at this year’s STRAWBERRY FAIR https://www.facebook.com/events/261517101061210/.
In between enjoying the music and the beer tent, call in and see us for some lighthearted anarcho-syndicalist banter.
We are happy to publicise other campaigns and organisations of a libertarian anti-capitalist disposition on the stall. Please message if interested.
SUNDAY 2ND JUNE 2019
LARC EVENTS
The Kurdish Freedom Movement & Rojava Revolution: An Introduction & Short Video with Discussion
Sunday 2nd June, 12-2pm
Venue: LARC, London (Main Hall)
The Next Revolution Reading Group (NRRG) started at last years Anarchist Festival, is co-hosting with the Education working group of the Kurdistan Solidarity Network (KSN). We’ll be introducing the Kurdish Freedom Movement and the inspirational feminist and ecological revolution in Rojava, as well as screening an informative short video (23 mins long) on what is happening on the ground with the radical democracy in action in Rojava. Followed by discussion & give info on NRRG our collective reading/discussion process, once a month in London. Also KSN, talking about its work, and how we can engage with it.
Boycott Workfare: Understanding & Challenging Universal Credit & Conditionality
Sunday 2nd June, 2pm-4pm
Venue: LARC, London (Main Hall)
This training workshop covers the following key areas: • UC in the context of the broader social security structure • Similarities & differences in claimant conditionality between UC & the system it replaces • Types of conditionality under UC & how different groups – such as single parents, disabled people, carers, migrants & low paid workers – are affected • Relevance of the UC ‘claimant commitment’ • Practical resistance to UC conditionality & compliance • Sanctions under UC & how to effectively challenge these • Strategies for dealing with common tactics used by the DWP to enforce the UC system. It also gives participants the chance to discuss/ask questions and empower themselves practically against UC and its inherent injustices.
The DWP is, as usual, relying on lack of knowledge and confusion about the new system of social security to block claimants from receiving our rightful entitlements. The media and political narratives surrounding UC are also in need of fact-based clarification. UC uses new ways of making receiving social security increasingly punitive and difficult, while at the same time, obstructing claimant challenge and dissent. Our training will help to prevent the DWP from achieving these aims and fights back against the overall ideological intention of UC – the eventual destruction of welfare state provision.
Facebook event
Green Anti-Capitalist Perspectives – A Panel & Discussion
Sunday 2nd June, 4-6pm
Venue: LARC, London (Main Hall)
Speakers from Anarchist Federation, All African Women’s Group (AAWG – struggling for asylum seekers & refugees; and against forced “voluntary” returns, and protesting the theft of resources & wealth from Africa & countries of the South), the Kurdish Freedom Movement (with its feminist, ecological and democratic confederalist revolution), and speakers talking security culture & the police (& getting arrested), and speakers talking about fossil fuel extraction and the resistance against it (including anti-fracking), all in relation to green anti-capitalist resistance.
Green Anti-Capitalist Front (GAF) had its first assembly last year, had a mobilisation on the first day of the XR Int Rebellion (“phase one” light sabres away kids), where instead of wanting to get arrested GAF did a tour of The City, sound system on the streets at the Stock Exchange and Banks on the way. We also set-up a People’s Assembly at the XR Marble Arch site on the Sunday of the 11 day occupation, giving a workshop and having debates on green anti-capitalist perspectives.
MAYDAY ROOM EVENTS
Write Here, Write Now – An Anarchist Media Gathering
Sunday 2nd June, 11am-6pm
Venue: Mayday Rooms, 88 Fleet Street, London EC4Y 1DH. Venue is not wheelchair accessible.
Write for your local anarchist rag?
Time to start a blog talking about your local politics?
Need to skill up to make a better stream?
Join speakers from Libcom, Freedom Press, Schnews and the Anarchist Federation to develop your skills and make links with anarchist media outlets. Alongside training sessions covering writing, the law, video production and much more will be talks from special guests including Ian Bone and leading anarchist YouTuber Emerican Johnson (NonCompete).
As publishers and anarchists we aim to develop our collective skillset to better share our politics and provide commentary on the fast-moving events happening around us.
This event is inclusive of all gender expressions, sexual identities, creeds and a general safer space policy will be upheld.
Please note:- The building MayDay rooms is housed in was built in 1902 and, due to the physical constraints of the building, has limited access. It is compliant with ‘ambulant disabled’ and provision for broader access is currently under review.
BRIGHTON
Anarchist Festival 2019 at the Cowley!
Events happening across all three days
Venue: Cowley Club, 12 London Rd, Brighton BN1 4JA
The Cowley Club is taking part in the Anarchist Festival 2019! We haven’t finalized the programme yet, but it will include:
Talks, Gigs and a Pub Quiz
This will also be the launch of the Cowley Club Crowdfunder.
For most up to date info please check the facebook event
https://www.facebook.com/events/373989866546275/
NEWCASTLE
NEAnarchistGroup and Canny Little Library Present:
North East Radical History Day 2
Sunday 2nd June, 1PM-4PM
Venue: Star and Shadow Cinema, Warwick St, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 1BB
As part of the Anarchist Festival 2019, the North East Anarchist Group and the Canny Little Library join forces to organise a two day event about the Radical History of the North East in the Star & Shadow cinema.
1 June 12:00-16:00: Storytelling session
2 June 13:00-16:00: Film, discussion & collective mapping
Saturday we start off with an open storytelling session. Come and share your story about the radical history of the North East. Stories can take different forms: poetry, spoken word, a song, a performance, an artwork, a section from a book, you name it! Themes can cover different aspects of the North East’s radical history: workers’ struggles, black history, feminist activism, environmentalism, queer/LGBTQ*history et cetera.
On Sunday there will be a film screening (tba) and a creative mapping activity in which we will collectively reconstruct what events took place when and where.
The weekend will also be an opportunity to connect past and contemporary struggles, to network between different initiatives and to get involved! The library will be open on both days with a special collection of books and zines covering the radical history of the North East. The Star & Shadow café will be open, providing hot drinks and cake.
Questions? Send an e-mail to cannylittlelibrary@gmail.com
MONDAY 3RD JUNE 2019
Bristol Radical History Group present
Behind the Myth of Peter the Painter: separating the fact and fiction of anarchist violence
Monday 3rd June, doors from 7.30pm, start at 8pm, ends by 10.30pm
Tickets £3/4
Venue: The Cube Cinema in Bristol
Bristol Radical History Group are pleased to host the UK book launch of: “A Towering Flame: The Life & Times of the Elusive Latvian Anarchist Peter the Painter” (Breviary Stuff Publications).
The author and anarchist historian Phillip Ruff will be talking about the book as well as signing copies available at a discount to attendees.
Please note this event may be filmed for a Latvian documentary.
The Houndsditch murders of 3 City of London policemen in late 1910 and the ensuing ‘Siege of Sidney St’ on 3rd January 1911, in which Latvian anarchists took on Winston Churchill and the British army, have entered into East London folklore. But no one ever accounted for the mysterious Peter the Painter, popularly supposed to be the leader of the gang and to have escaped the burning house during the battle.
This book solves the mystery. Here for the first time is proof of the real identity of Peter the Painter; the amazing story of his life and revolutionary career; and the hitherto unknown history of Latvian anarchism. The violent events in London are revealed to be part of a much bigger story which lay behind them – the 1905 revolution in the Baltic and the armed resistance to Russian state terrorism which followed it. This is a story of class war, revolution and survival; and that of a small nation striving to assert it’s identity. A story that in the context of a resurgence of Russian imperial ambition aimed at the Baltic states has a particular resonance today.
About the author
Anarchist historian Phillip Ruff was born in Birmingham in 1952 and during the 1970’s and ’80’s Phillip was an active proponent of revolutionary anarchism as a member of Anarchist Black Cross. He has also been a prolific contributor to a wide range of anarchist publications. These included Black Flag, Anarchist Review, and Anarchy magazine. These activities have brought him into contact with well known anarchists such as Albert Meltzer and Stuart Christie.
Today Phillip describes himself as a “retired Anarchist”, and since 1986 has specialised in researching into Latvian social history, with a special emphasis on the 1905 revolution and Latvian anarchism. He first visited Latvia in 1988 and lives in London.
Please note that although this event runs from 8.00pm to 10.00pm the doors to the venue will be open from 7.30pm.
Further info from;
Links: https://www.brh.org.uk and https://www.breviarystuff.org.uk/
Facebook event https://www.facebook.com/events/617977075274298/
Friday 1st to Monday 4th May 2020 