CITY-ZEN workshop Cuts, Anti-Capitalism and Movements for Change

On Thursday 24^th November CITY-ZEN ran a workshop upstairs in the Brewery Taps pub titled Cuts, Anti-Capitalism and movements for change. About 12 people turned up and took part in a handful of participatory activities to pool their knowledge and ideas regarding the problems with capitalism, what an alternative society would look like, examples of alternatives as well as what we would like to do to move towards an alternative, how it should be done, who should do it and any other questions we have.

For the first activity there was a large piece of paper on the table that said “The problem with capitalism is...” and as people arrived their wrote down their ideas on the piece of paper. What follows is some of the suggestions. The problem with capitalism is it sucks your soul away, is totally unsustainable, it concentrates wealth into the hands of a few by stealing a portion of the workers wage as profit, it demands infinite growth and therefore always needs more resources and new markets and therefore creates wars, imperialism and colonialism, the rich will always get richer and the poor poorer, things will get steadily worse and destroy the earth at the same time, it profits the few at the expense of the majority especially those in the global south, it encourages competition, individualism, nationalism and racism, it focusses all the attention onto the bottom line not a community of production, it measures things by money ignoring so many other more important values like health/fulfilment, etc, it isn't regulated, it creates wage slavery, depression, poverty, debt and is also at the root of issues such as sexism and racism.

We then introduced ourselves whilst stating why it was that we were motivated to attend todays workshop before having a group discussion about some of the things we'd written down. People were then asked to split up into pairs and discuss what their ideal world would look like before feeding back and then forming larger groups of 4 and creating an image of their ideal world. We fed back the key characteristics, values and aspects of our image. We then discussed examples of alternatives including the Paris Commune, Spain 1936, the Zapatista autonomous communities in Chiapas, Mexico, the Argentinian response to the economy collapsing in 2001, Critical Mass bike rides, the Clockworks social centre and various other examples.

Finally I introduced the final activity which entailed giving everyone 4 post-it notes and helping to take part in a collective writing project that aimed to give answers to the following four questions: 1)What would we like to see happen? 2) How would we like to see it happen 3) Who would you like to see make it happen 4) What other questions do we have? The responses were written on to post it notes and stuck on a piece of flip chart paper that was divided into 4 grids. The answers are as follows:

1) What...?
- Love
- Creating the community now
- more actual projects, if you want to start something, tell people, find allies, try it out
- Socialism
- Get involved with local decision making structures to improve and develop democratic accountability
- A group called 'Grow Our Own' or something? A shared community allotment
- Guerilla gardening as well as seed planting to help bees.
- mapping growing in Derby area i.e. who has land/skills/knowledge
- I like the idea of the critical mass bike ride in Derby
- Corporations take their responsibility to their local community seriously. Enforcing tax laws and closing loopholes

- Occupation of Westfield by Unions on 30/11/11

2) How...?
- Revolutionary Vanguard
- Everyone taking part in a Derby bike ride
- Educational and community workshops
- Community allotments/gardens, engage lots of people and grow our own food
- Attend/join your local neighbourhood forum/board, impact upon on local decisions on housing, transport, policing, youth facilities, etc.
- People working on an individual basis to help everyone else, maybe by producing their own food or offering a service.
- Permaculture


3) Who...?
- International Solidarity
- You, your neighbours, people who live locally. Go to www.derby.gov.uk to find the dates of your forum
- People with the right attitude and an educated gardener to guide
- Everyone
- The government, they get their power from us and now they should hold up their side of the bargain.

4) Other questions?
- I want to paint positive slogans on buildings. How do I get permission? Who else will help?
- If we want corporations to act properly does criminal behaviour lead to contradictions?
- Are we all just reformers? If so should we all embrace? How would a revolutionary behave?
- What's a realistic alternative to the car?

If you would like to help out with any of these ideas or you would like to add any suggestions of your own then please email cityzinederby@gmail.com and we will be in touch and keep you in the loop. If you would like to facilitate or run a workshop of your choosing then City-Zen would love to help you make that happen as well as promoting it.

Resistance & Creativity.

Asking the questions, spreading the word, taking the actions for change.

The last 2 weeks have been really positive yet I've been so busy that I've not found the time or the motivation to update this blog. Thought I would just jump on quickly to summarise some of the exciting bits and bobs that have been popping over thanks to some of the amazing people floating around Derbados. There has been stuff going on each week and I feel as though I've learnt loads from being involved in different projects with different people. I helped to facilitate a visioning day for Global Education Derby which was positive. An outcome being that G.E.D is going to try and reach out more to different community groups and collaborate more with existing alternative organisations. The following Thursday we ran the first CITY-ZEN film night @ The Brewery Tap, which was a real success. About 12 people came and we discussed the relevance of the film afterwards. It was a really nice atmosphere and there were some really interesting opinions being expressed. The question of the evening for me being: How do we create change? Some of the ideas inspiring. The following evening, Friday 18th, The Sound Track Derby project that was being ran by PS culminated in a performance on the market square in collaboration with Surtal Asian arts as well as a finale event upstairs in QUAD, which was a great success. Word on the street was that people involved had been discouraged from mentioning the £23 million pound cuts to the arts. As a result I added the following lyric to my Sound Track Derby piece: "It's the scribble of the pen when you sign the petition, to save Derby arts from illegitimate decisions/ It's the silence of my censors when I speak without permission, because these are the sounds of our lives" I think the sentiment was appreciated by people involved in the organisations that were discouraged from speaking out and it was met with a light ripple of applause from certain members of the crowd. The other Sound Track Derby lads smashed it too and if they keep working hard and being creative should have a successful future ahead of them. The following Tuesday was the G.E.D management committee meeting where numerous issues were discussed regarding the future of Global Education Derby and how best to move forward. In my opinion critical pedagogy or popular education or global education or education for global justice or whatever you want to call it is one of the most powerful tools there is to create change. Traditional formal schooling is responsible for the wide spread ignorance, apathy, competitiveness, submissiveness and obedience to authority that exists in society, alongside the hierarchical family and the consumer culture ideology that permeates the ether. To help people critically explore the issues that matter to them whilst empowering each other to create social change is a crucial process in our personal and social development and it is because of this that I am the chair of Global Education Derby and eager to see it succeed. Wednesday night myself and AR attended a Trade Union meeting to work out what is happening on STRIKE day, November 30th and how CITY-ZEN can do our thing at the Market Square in harmony with what the Unions have planned. I then attended what was possibly the least productive City-Zen meeting in time immemorial. Last night CITY-ZEN ran it's first workshop in the Brewery Tap called Cuts, Anti-Capitalism and Movements for Change, which was a reasonable success with about 13 people attending and everyone participating their ideas regarding the problems with capitalism, what an alternative world would look like and our ideas of what we could do, how we could do it, who should do what and any other questions we think should be asked. There was definite room for improvement but ultimately it was a more than worth while critical and creative learning experience. A highlight was that a gentlemen attended who found out about the workshop from picking up a copy of the RamPAGES in a launderette. Nice one. Tomorrow is a big day as we have the Shop Less, Share More, CITY-ZEN special on the Market Square, there's gonna be a FREE SHOP, INFO STALL, Sound Bites providing FOOD & DRINK, Social Change Library, OPEN MIC plus entertainment from GEO FEST, BARNABY THOMPSON and JODIE PINCHES. Please come along, bring some stuff for the free shop and spread the word. Dont forget to STRIKE November 30th. See you on the streets. x

Resistance & Creativity

Roll up, Roll up, for ya regular radical read the RAmPAGES...

Saturday was such an inspiring day and every one had worked so hard to make it a success that Sunday was all about chilling in bed, eating yummy food and taking it easy. I had a meeting on Monday morning with Oaklands Community Care about a new job doing 10 hours a week working with my man BP and then I spent the rest of the day helping to tidy up the house whilst preparing for my job interview with the Lyric Lounge which was the next day. My dearest friend RR was feeling down about a few things that had not gone so well that day so I tried to cheer her up before hitting the sack and visualising a successful job interview. I got up bright and breezy and arrived in Notts half an hour early for the interview. I was rehearsing a piece that I was going to perform. I was going to ask them to think about what they thought was the point of the word, the spoken word and then ask them to imagine that they were a super hero who had a magic power which enabled them to plant a single idea into everyone's heads. What would that idea be? If you had to boil it down to the single most important word, what would that word be? Anyway, it was part of a wider presentation but they didn't ask me to perform in the end, which I thought was a shame. The interview went quite well but the standard was so high that I'm not going to hold my breathe about getting the post. If I do it'd be great but if I don't I'll just crack on and try to learn something from it.

In the afternoon I had an awesome meeting with the RamPAGES collective regarding the distribution of the newsletter before meeting with RR to help plan her workshop on Human Rights before heading home to spend the evening eating an amazing meal prepared by SR and CD. The next day myself, RR and PS went to Derby Uni to do a a Global Education Derby, City-ZEn, Swap Derby, RamPAGES and City-Zine stall as a part of the volunteers fare. It was really positive and loads of interest was shown by different students. I also managed to hand out about 100 copies of the RamPAGES whilst experimenting with different ways to engage people by saying different things about what it actually is. “Derby people  taking action against the spending cuts” seemed to gain the most engagement which is a great sign. That evening we had a City-Zen meeting at Forman Street studios with RR, AR, PS, TK, SJ, DL and BJ. We reflected on the amazing event that had taken place and discussed how it could be improved before agreeing to do another one on Saturday November 26th which is Buy Nothing Day although we're calling it Shop Less, Share More, City-Zen. This shall be followed by another on Saturday December 3rd. We'll look forward to seeing you there. X

CITY-ZEN, GEO FEST and DERBY UNCUT AGAINST THE CUTS...

It's been over a week since I last wrote for the blog. Things have been so busy and really positive yet it feels as though I've not really had a minute to chill and reflect. The most important and inspiring thing is undoubtedly the City-Zen Against the Cuts event that we organised on Saturday at the Market Square. Myself and RR started the morning packing stuff for the free shop into a suit case and loading her car up with placards, banners, drapes, zines, pamphlets and other bits and bobs needed for the day. We decided to set up underneath an overhang outside where Santanders used to be in case it rained and PS who had worked her socks off all week for this event procured some tables from QUAD. SJ, MG, RR, PS, myself and the GEO FEST crew set up the stalls, displayed the banners, placards, and buntin and set up TB's small battery powered pa system. SR arrived with the food and drink contribution from Sound Bites which was later added to by Bls amazing soup which was consumed in moments.The set up was visually stimulating and engaging and their was more than enough to do to keep everyone happy. There were so many people that were just walking through that stopped to check out the free shop, often baffled by the concept of people giving things away for free. Kids were getting their faces painted, everyone was drawing on the floor with chalk and every now and then an announcement was made regarding the Spending Cuts as well as what we were doing there and what has happening.

An exciting part of the day was when Derby Uncut met by the Waterfall to take action against Primark. No one had a megaphone so we borrowed the small pa from City-Zen and before heading towards Primark with about 7 of us we informed the City-Zen crowds that we were about to take action against Primark and a small group of teenagers decided to join us which was excellent. The action was unplanned so not particularly effective yet it definintely highlighted the potential there is for us to do more creative and engaging actions in the future. SV did an excellent job singing about the injustices we're facing which captivated the attention of the punters, all of whom seemed to react very positively. Back at the Market Square the creativity, information, food and entertainment unravelled in a really positive way and again highlighted to all of us how much potential there is to significantly engage with the public in a way that is fun, friendly, inspiring and effective. Watch this space. There is much more to come.

Prepering for the future past...

November 3rd
I'm about to walk to Derby train station, meet CJ and travel to Leeds in order to perform upstairs in the Packhorse pub and hopefully see some friends of the MA in Activism and Social Change that I'm currently on temporary leave from. Since last writing things have been full on yet ultimately positive and exciting. On Tuesday I hung out at CJ house to rehearse. His writing is incredible. He has written a piece about a friend of his who inspired him when he was younger called Live Like A Lion For A Day. His friend lived fast and died young but was a huge inspiration to CJ. He was an artist who lived by his own rules and did things his own way, refusing to conform to societys expectations or the pressure of his peers. Our whole set is dedicated to people like that. It's dedicated to the outcasts, the misfits, the activists, the free thinkers, that part of all of us that rebels, that holds on to our dignity and says 'Fuck that I just want to be free', 'Fuck that I just want us all to be free'. But yeah, we'll see how tonight and tomorrow night goes. After that I headed home, made a soup of out of veg, seeds, nuts and a few other bits and bobs, watched Food Inc documentary whilst making a placard for Saturdays City-Zen before hitting the wooden hill and having a completely sleepless nights plagued by surreal and vivid dreams. That's what happens when you take the Bow out of the equasion. Guess I need to get used to it.

Wednesday morning I decided to piss about with the camcorder on my phone and make a little clip that's bigging up the City-Zen Against the Cuts events that are coming up throughout November and try to upload that on to facebook. I've been a bit hesitant to do anything like that before but thought that it'd be a good idea to use as different mediums to promote what's happening as possible. Rather than being hesitant and doing nothing I decided to just do it. As long as it's informative then hopefully it's done it's job. I then walked to Baby People PRU where I work with young people that have been kicked out of school and helped to support R who was delivering a session with CP. CP is 14 years old and we were both talking about our ideal future before writing a Grime track about it. It was good to question our answers, digging deeper into our motivations and justifications for wanting certain things out of life. 'Yeah, but why?', 'but why', 'and why is it that you want that? Is it that you really want that or that having that will make you feel as though you have this?', 'What other questions should we be asking about the future?'. It was a wicked session and CP wrote and recorded some really positive and thoughtful lyrics. Once we'd said peace and gone our seperate ways I sorted a few things out on the internet, including printing a copy of the RamPAGES to leave lying around the office and then headed home.

Remember, remember: to wash, cook, eat, tidy, organise then get drunk in December!

Hello my friends.

Hope you're well and are having a positive, productive and socially progressive day. I've been hungover again due to drinking five cans of strongbow last night whilst chilling in bed watching shit hollywood horror films. Stranger things have definitely been known to happen. This is the point.
With it getting towards the end of the year  and with November having just begun I thought I'd try and take one last opportunity in 2011 to make some changes. Changes both personally and politically, adopting new habits, letting go of old ones as well as reflecting critically upon the collective action taken with others with our aim of creating cultural, social and political change. Lets be honest, December isn't going to be the month within which to do embark upon such a grand, disciplined and deluded experiment so here we are, November it is.

It seems like there's loads going on this month too so thought it could be a chance to really push myself and find the motivation and commitment needed to evolve a little bit. Myself SR & HJ have been working hard on the RamPAGES peoples paper which is being launched this week, I'm performing with CJ in Leeds on Thursday evening and Nottingham, supporting Chester P on Friday evening. We have the significant CITY-ZEN AGAINST THE CUTS shennanigan happening by the waterfall near the Market Square with GEO FEST and loads of happenings including a Derby Uncut action this Saturday 5th November.
The following week I have an interview for Lyric Lounge Shake The Dust project, there is a CITY-ZEN social, a Human Rights Workshop I'm co-facilitating being ran by RR from Global Education Derby, our final rehearsal for the Sound Track Derby performance and fingers crossed, thanks to MG who is laying out the final design, we'll see the launch of the long awaited City-Zine 15. On Thursday November 17th CITY-ZEN are hosting a film showing of the Shock Doctrine documentary, based on the book by Naomi Klein, upstairs in the Brewery Taps, the next night we shall be performing at the Sound Track Derby finale at QUAD and over the weekend I'll be seeing my long lost, amazing friend WA who I went to Leeds Uni with before preparing for my final week trying to smash being super productive and disciplined before I start to chill out and wind down December style.

Thursday 24th CITY-ZEN are facilitating a popular education workshops titled 'Cuts, Anti-Capitalism and Movements for Change', then I take a deep breath, chill the fuck out for a couple of days and look forward to spending 3 days in Leeds checking out one of  the most important and relevant critical social theorists still kicking about, John Holloway. John is giving three lectures based around the title of his work in progress 'Rage Against the Rule of Money', the final one landing on Wed November 30th, which is a hugely important day as there's going to one of the most significant strikes that I've lived through. That's assuming I'll live through it and don't instead end up having a seizure due to withdrawing from the Strong Bow and shit hollywood horror flicks for too long.

On top of this I'll be facilitating weekly creative writing and critical thinking workshops with the inspirational, generous, funny and talented young people that attend Baby People pupil referal unit (PRU). The staff are alright too. Sometimes. I shall also be working 10 hours a week as a support worker with BP who will most likely be required to support me more than he requires me to support him. I shall also be striving, like every other sinning human bean floating through space on this odd little sock of ours, to drink water, exercise, read, reflect, meditate, cook, clean, tidy, organise, not be a complete cock to the people who get caught in the cross fire of my existence and generally try and be reasonable company for those I love the most. Right then. What's the chuffing point of all this? I'll shed some more light on my hopes and motivations in a day or two. I hope your week as panning out as you planned.

Vision, Action, Reflection, Repeat

J