On Thursday 24th 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
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.
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.
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