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.
Friday, 11 November 2011
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.
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.
Tuesday, 1 November 2011
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
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
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Day 5: Global Youth Work, Subverting the Centre and City-Zen Synergy
I still haven't fixed my bike and need to get a few miles across town in less than 30 minutes so begrudgingly I order a taxi. Today is going to be a very big day. I've got Global Youth Work training from 10 til 4 and have to be at the waterfall with megaphone, flyers and courage in tow by 5pm. I've been losing sleep about today all week and a part of me just wants it over and done with. I arrive at JET on Normanton Road, say peace to Karnage and Ruth before sniffing out the coffee. I display some of the M.A.D solidarity leaflets and then take my seat in the circle with the rest of the staff.
Ruth begins with an Icebreaker called Fruit Salad, which I renamed Stand & be counted, where you have one person in the middle of the circle who makes a statement such as “Stand & be counted if ever you've ever been on a protest.”. Anyone who has been on a protest has to get out of their seat and find another seat, which inevitably leaves someelse stood in the middle of the circle as one chair has been taken out of the arrangement. This is an active fun and interesting way to get people identifying common ground and seems to work every time. After we played Stand & Be Counted Ruth gave a presentation about Global Youth Work and the Back From the Edge project which she is running over two years with Baby T School staff and Kingsmead Staff. The aim being that we start to embed Global Youth Work into our practise more. Global Youth Work is basically an approach that aims to help young people connect with the issues that impact upon their lives and understand the links between the personal, local, national and global. It aims to help young people understand that there lives are interconnected with the lives of others globally and be aware of the far reaching ripples that are daily decisions make. It aims to help young people become active global citizens that take action to create a more just, sustainable and equitable planet. The training was really good as we did a variety of activities that helped us to explore various issues from racism to inequality, sexism to peer pressure and various issues inbetween as well as what action we could take to make a positive difference. My heart started to beat faster and my adrenaline started flowing as the clock got ever closer to 3.30.
I got my things and marched up Normanton Road towards Ruths house where I got ready. I put on my black trousers, white shirt and orange tie. I found the white Speedo swimming cap and squeezed my head into it before embarking upon the delicate process of painting my face like a skeletons. I checked my camcorder, made sure I had the M.A.D solidarity flyers, the clipboards, notepads and pens, packed my megaphone, picked up my keys, phone, quids and camouglage cap and headed into town with Ruth. Walking through town dressed like an alienated office working skeleton was surprisingly good fun. The reactions from people were mixed but it added a little spice to the day. Once we arrived at the waterfall some good friends started to show up who had kindly offered to help out with filming, taking photos, handing out flyers, talking to passers by and showing support by spectating. Stevie Lonestar kicked things off on the megaphone whilst we were waiting for Johnny by singing some of his classic covers to the good people of Derby. Johnny arrived dressed in a black suit, black tie, white shirt, black hat and dark sunglasses as he was giving birth to a new character, an MI5 agent that rumour has it may actually be behind the murder of the beard man. Some people even say that he is the beard man reformed. That the bearded man was hunted down by the MI5 due to his anti-authoritarian activities, captured, his beard forcefully shaved off and dealt with room 101 style. Who knows? I picked up the megaphone, took a deep breath, climbed the winding steps up the back of the waterfall, looked over the city, lifted the megaphone to my lips and began. I intended to make a simple public announcement regarding upcoming events such as that evenings City-Zen, the Love Music Hate Racism event and the Spending Cuts workshop yet couldn't resist laying into RBS, Natwest, Barclays, Bradford & Bingley and expressing my disgust with the current redistribution of wealth from the poor to the rich which is currently being conducted. It felt good to declare such important truths so publicly and made me wonder why we hadn't been doing this sort of thing sooner. I passed the megaphone over to Johnny climbed back down the steps and enjoyed his hilarious antic from afar with everyone else. “Don't listen to him, he's a benefit scrounger, an anarchist, a hippy... keep your eyes to the floor, keep on walking and go about your day” He then went on to recite the lyrics to Crass songs as we took it in turns utilising the megaphone for about an hour. We had loads of fun, shook things up a little bit and thanks to K, M, C and others handing out the flyers managed to raise awareness about some really important events happening in Derby. This was us dipping our toes into the spectacle and are both aware that it was far from ideal. We hope to do something again soon with more people involved in performing, speaking, spectating, handing out flyers, etc, but ultimately we want to make it more participatory and less of a spectacle. It was what it was and we felt good so at least it was a step in the right direction.
The City-Zen that evening, despite being a bit thin on the ground, was beautiful. The atmopshere was so positive, fun and friendly and everyone contributed their own bit in their own way making it a kaleidoscopic evening full of weird and wonderful things. There were City-Zines, stickers, a free shop, some beautiful vegan food, board games were being played, there was spoken word, comedy, a question time slot, short films, visuals and live music. Everyone seemed to be having an enjoyable time and loads of people expressed to me how much they enjoyed themselves. All in all a significantly good day. One to remember. x
Ruth begins with an Icebreaker called Fruit Salad, which I renamed Stand & be counted, where you have one person in the middle of the circle who makes a statement such as “Stand & be counted if ever you've ever been on a protest.”. Anyone who has been on a protest has to get out of their seat and find another seat, which inevitably leaves someelse stood in the middle of the circle as one chair has been taken out of the arrangement. This is an active fun and interesting way to get people identifying common ground and seems to work every time. After we played Stand & Be Counted Ruth gave a presentation about Global Youth Work and the Back From the Edge project which she is running over two years with Baby T School staff and Kingsmead Staff. The aim being that we start to embed Global Youth Work into our practise more. Global Youth Work is basically an approach that aims to help young people connect with the issues that impact upon their lives and understand the links between the personal, local, national and global. It aims to help young people understand that there lives are interconnected with the lives of others globally and be aware of the far reaching ripples that are daily decisions make. It aims to help young people become active global citizens that take action to create a more just, sustainable and equitable planet. The training was really good as we did a variety of activities that helped us to explore various issues from racism to inequality, sexism to peer pressure and various issues inbetween as well as what action we could take to make a positive difference. My heart started to beat faster and my adrenaline started flowing as the clock got ever closer to 3.30.
I got my things and marched up Normanton Road towards Ruths house where I got ready. I put on my black trousers, white shirt and orange tie. I found the white Speedo swimming cap and squeezed my head into it before embarking upon the delicate process of painting my face like a skeletons. I checked my camcorder, made sure I had the M.A.D solidarity flyers, the clipboards, notepads and pens, packed my megaphone, picked up my keys, phone, quids and camouglage cap and headed into town with Ruth. Walking through town dressed like an alienated office working skeleton was surprisingly good fun. The reactions from people were mixed but it added a little spice to the day. Once we arrived at the waterfall some good friends started to show up who had kindly offered to help out with filming, taking photos, handing out flyers, talking to passers by and showing support by spectating. Stevie Lonestar kicked things off on the megaphone whilst we were waiting for Johnny by singing some of his classic covers to the good people of Derby. Johnny arrived dressed in a black suit, black tie, white shirt, black hat and dark sunglasses as he was giving birth to a new character, an MI5 agent that rumour has it may actually be behind the murder of the beard man. Some people even say that he is the beard man reformed. That the bearded man was hunted down by the MI5 due to his anti-authoritarian activities, captured, his beard forcefully shaved off and dealt with room 101 style. Who knows? I picked up the megaphone, took a deep breath, climbed the winding steps up the back of the waterfall, looked over the city, lifted the megaphone to my lips and began. I intended to make a simple public announcement regarding upcoming events such as that evenings City-Zen, the Love Music Hate Racism event and the Spending Cuts workshop yet couldn't resist laying into RBS, Natwest, Barclays, Bradford & Bingley and expressing my disgust with the current redistribution of wealth from the poor to the rich which is currently being conducted. It felt good to declare such important truths so publicly and made me wonder why we hadn't been doing this sort of thing sooner. I passed the megaphone over to Johnny climbed back down the steps and enjoyed his hilarious antic from afar with everyone else. “Don't listen to him, he's a benefit scrounger, an anarchist, a hippy... keep your eyes to the floor, keep on walking and go about your day” He then went on to recite the lyrics to Crass songs as we took it in turns utilising the megaphone for about an hour. We had loads of fun, shook things up a little bit and thanks to K, M, C and others handing out the flyers managed to raise awareness about some really important events happening in Derby. This was us dipping our toes into the spectacle and are both aware that it was far from ideal. We hope to do something again soon with more people involved in performing, speaking, spectating, handing out flyers, etc, but ultimately we want to make it more participatory and less of a spectacle. It was what it was and we felt good so at least it was a step in the right direction.
The City-Zen that evening, despite being a bit thin on the ground, was beautiful. The atmopshere was so positive, fun and friendly and everyone contributed their own bit in their own way making it a kaleidoscopic evening full of weird and wonderful things. There were City-Zines, stickers, a free shop, some beautiful vegan food, board games were being played, there was spoken word, comedy, a question time slot, short films, visuals and live music. Everyone seemed to be having an enjoyable time and loads of people expressed to me how much they enjoyed themselves. All in all a significantly good day. One to remember. x
Saturday, 25 June 2011
Day 4: A turbulent day seeking masters without slaves
After updating my blog I managed to drag my sweaty face into the shower and begin trying to make sense of what the day entailed. The hangover was so intense and resulted in a constant headache lingering in the background of what was a plateau of confused thoughts that kindly accompanied me throughout my day. As we have a teeny tiny postbox that is so teeny tiny the postman can only just fit the post cards through it that tell you he can't fit your post through it, I thought I'd take a walk to the central post office on midland road and pick up my packages that were awaiting for me. I bought a carton of fair trade orange juice on the way and began thinking about the looming debate with the SWP regarding Automism and whether or not we need leaders. A friend from the Free Association in Leeds very kindly sent over some copies of Turbulence which is an excellent newspaper about anti-capitalist social movements that may be described as being written from an Autonomist Marxist perspective, which is what I picked up from the post office.
On the way home I popped into sound bites in order to pick up the 500 A4 solidarity pamphlets that dominated the first two days of this week. It was well worth it. I gave some to Sophie and Elaine who were upstairs in Yaffle Cafe eating soup and left some with James before heading home where I crashed into bed and tried to get an hours kip before getting myself ready for the debate at the West End Community Centre. The debate was in a small room and a few people had already arrived. I was introduced to Tom by Sue and took a seat. I was feeling really rough and hungover and could hardly think never mind string an articulate sentence together. I noticed that my man had some typed notes in front of him and had clearly done his preparation. I didn't really see the necessity to go to such lengths. That we don't need leaders seems so inherently evident to me that I felt comfortable talking naturally about the issue. About 15 people turned up which must have been a record for a Derby SWP meeting and the atmosphere was positive and respectful. Tom took it away. I don't want to misrepresent his argument so wont attempt to explain the key points he made or what stood out. 10 minutes later he finished and I declared that 'I agree completely and have nothing to add', which was met with concern from some and laughter from others. 'Only joking'. I explained I hadn't prepared anything so wanted to talk naturally about the issue and more importantly would like to open the debate and hear more voices from the floor. I explained that I thought it necessary to define what we mean by 'need' as well as 'leaders' and then put forward some of my own thoughts, ideas and opinions on the matter. I wont go into these now as what I think isn't necessarily that important. However I would like to ask you some questions. If we want to create a world of freedom and equality where people manage their own lives without being oppressed or exploited by others then what means should we use to achieve those ends? In what ways do hierarchical and authoritarian organisations affect those involved in them? Why is that some people think they need leaders? Do we need leaders?
On the way home I popped into sound bites in order to pick up the 500 A4 solidarity pamphlets that dominated the first two days of this week. It was well worth it. I gave some to Sophie and Elaine who were upstairs in Yaffle Cafe eating soup and left some with James before heading home where I crashed into bed and tried to get an hours kip before getting myself ready for the debate at the West End Community Centre. The debate was in a small room and a few people had already arrived. I was introduced to Tom by Sue and took a seat. I was feeling really rough and hungover and could hardly think never mind string an articulate sentence together. I noticed that my man had some typed notes in front of him and had clearly done his preparation. I didn't really see the necessity to go to such lengths. That we don't need leaders seems so inherently evident to me that I felt comfortable talking naturally about the issue. About 15 people turned up which must have been a record for a Derby SWP meeting and the atmosphere was positive and respectful. Tom took it away. I don't want to misrepresent his argument so wont attempt to explain the key points he made or what stood out. 10 minutes later he finished and I declared that 'I agree completely and have nothing to add', which was met with concern from some and laughter from others. 'Only joking'. I explained I hadn't prepared anything so wanted to talk naturally about the issue and more importantly would like to open the debate and hear more voices from the floor. I explained that I thought it necessary to define what we mean by 'need' as well as 'leaders' and then put forward some of my own thoughts, ideas and opinions on the matter. I wont go into these now as what I think isn't necessarily that important. However I would like to ask you some questions. If we want to create a world of freedom and equality where people manage their own lives without being oppressed or exploited by others then what means should we use to achieve those ends? In what ways do hierarchical and authoritarian organisations affect those involved in them? Why is that some people think they need leaders? Do we need leaders?
Thursday, 23 June 2011
Day 3: Asking questions, cooking soups whilst pursuing our truths
It's 13.02 Thursday afternoon, sat cross legged in bed writing about the day before. What a wicked day. Despite the Valarian tea bags I had absolutely zero sleep, instead a dominating cloud of thought looming inside my mind regarding Autonomism and the great debate, which kept me awake all night. I opened up the studio at 9.30am caught up with the young people there, listening to their varying trials and tribulations, asking them relevant questions at relevant moments but generally aspiring to allow them to explore being themselves, helping them help themselves where necessary and generally emphasising the importance of everyone being happy. Had a good chat to Baby J about the EDL, Love Music Hate Racism and the Global Youth Work training before locking up the studio at 2.30pm and embarking upon my day.
I'd invited the City-Zen collective as well as a few other close friends round our house for dinner and drinks. Thought it would be a fun and enjoyable thing to do as well as a wise way to mix up the formality of meetings which don't always meet everyone's desired way of sorting things out. Before getting ready I did some reading about the Socialist Worker Partys conceptions, ideas and thoughts regarding Autonomism thanks to the resources provided to me by my friend at Leeds University. We'll see how the debate goes come Thursday evening (Tonight at time of writing). I headed down stairs, chucked some music on and started cooking a super soup. Onion, red onion, 4 cloves of garlic, courgette, 4 carrots, 2 tins of tomatoes, tin of beans, lentils, broccoli, mushrooms, whole red pepper, whole green pepper, spring onion, sweet chill sauce, 2 cubes of vegetable stock, mixed herbs, salt, few pints of water and left to boil for half an hour whilst I got things ready for peoples arrival.
Laura, Fan, Sophie, Glenn, Paul, Johnny, R Kelly, Perry, Joe, Joe, Todd, Amit, Dave, Ruth and a few others came, ate food, drank smoothies, lots of alcohol, listened to music and conversed amidst a variety of other lesser practised human activities. It was great to see everyone, connect, share, learn from and enjoy. This is a significantly important part of what all of it is about. It's about us here and now. It's about how we come together, who we are and what we do, together. It's about enjoying each other, benefitting from each other and understanding the collective potency of each other. It's about being free, happy, together. Fuck knows what time I dragged my sorry shit pipe to bed and fuck knows what sort of state the kitchen and garden are in. Time to make the long walk to the post office pick up the solidarity pamphlets from Sound Bites, come home, tidy up and prepare for this evenings debate. It is what it is. But what do you think? Do we need leaders?
I'd invited the City-Zen collective as well as a few other close friends round our house for dinner and drinks. Thought it would be a fun and enjoyable thing to do as well as a wise way to mix up the formality of meetings which don't always meet everyone's desired way of sorting things out. Before getting ready I did some reading about the Socialist Worker Partys conceptions, ideas and thoughts regarding Autonomism thanks to the resources provided to me by my friend at Leeds University. We'll see how the debate goes come Thursday evening (Tonight at time of writing). I headed down stairs, chucked some music on and started cooking a super soup. Onion, red onion, 4 cloves of garlic, courgette, 4 carrots, 2 tins of tomatoes, tin of beans, lentils, broccoli, mushrooms, whole red pepper, whole green pepper, spring onion, sweet chill sauce, 2 cubes of vegetable stock, mixed herbs, salt, few pints of water and left to boil for half an hour whilst I got things ready for peoples arrival.
Laura, Fan, Sophie, Glenn, Paul, Johnny, R Kelly, Perry, Joe, Joe, Todd, Amit, Dave, Ruth and a few others came, ate food, drank smoothies, lots of alcohol, listened to music and conversed amidst a variety of other lesser practised human activities. It was great to see everyone, connect, share, learn from and enjoy. This is a significantly important part of what all of it is about. It's about us here and now. It's about how we come together, who we are and what we do, together. It's about enjoying each other, benefitting from each other and understanding the collective potency of each other. It's about being free, happy, together. Fuck knows what time I dragged my sorry shit pipe to bed and fuck knows what sort of state the kitchen and garden are in. Time to make the long walk to the post office pick up the solidarity pamphlets from Sound Bites, come home, tidy up and prepare for this evenings debate. It is what it is. But what do you think? Do we need leaders?
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Day 2: A derailed day, getting to grips with the cuts and insomnia
What a day! I couldn't find my valarian tea bags and due to how much on my mind and not drinking any alcohol I didn't sleep a wink last night. I think that because I've planned myself a relatively full on week the universe has decided to teach me a lesson about letting go of expectations and adapting to unforseen circumstances. In preparation for Fridays shennanigans I had to hit town and buy a load of shit, which immediately got me thinking about means, ends and alternative ways of acquiring, making or doing without certain things. Black trousers, sun glasses, face paint, eyeliner, swimming cap, flourescent pink spray paint, printer ink, 2 small clip boards, 2 small note pads, a veggie breakfast from Panorama in the Guild Hall Market and a red pepper, courgette and some mushrooms from the fruit and veg stall. I asked the woman who worked there why she'd moved and she explained that the rent was cheaper and that everyone was struggling in the market and fearing the worst. Why is this? Recession? spending cuts? Osbournomics? Anyone?
Whilst out and about I got a call from Footprinters who for some reason still hadn't received the solidarity pamphlet flyer that I had spent an absurd amount of time trying to send the day before. I started to head home, whipping out 20 lengths in the pool and my mind chi meditation madness on the way before sitting down to resend the file. Whilst swimming I got a call from Baby J who was asking where my OCNs were, which I'd completed but not burnt to disc. I tried to stay chilled and accept that what I'd planned for this afternoon wasn't going to happen and that it's good to be flexible and accept how the chips fall from time to time. I got home and logged on to my gmail account. No connection. If I didn't get the flyers there today then they wouldn't be ready for Friday which would be a disaster as a major part of the action is handing out the flyers and raising awareness about the events coming up. I headed to Baby T School, on foot my I add after yesterdays back tyre incident, and sent the file to Footprinters before walking back home. Job done. Back to the plan.
The main thing I wanted to do today was get my head around the spending cuts so I went on to the UK Uncut website and checked out the resources there as well as searching around the net for a few other facts, figures, stats, opinions and analysis. What seems evidently clear is that these spending cuts are completely unnecessary and are a part of a neoliberal class war that is redistributing wealth from the poorest members of society towards the top. Our government has an AAA credit rating and is the 4th biggest economy in the world and therefore has absolutely no need whatsoever to implement any of these spending cuts. Not to mention the extent to which the deficit could be paid off by clamping down on tax evaders, reforming the tax system generally as well as a myriad of other mainstream measures. This still isn't getting to the root of the problem of the Capitalist economic system which inherently creates poverty, inequality, environmental degradation and more due to its logic of infinite growth on a world with finite resources. The list goes on.
I also tried to write some lyrics for the pre-City-Zen street performance but due to the lack of sleep I couldn't really get my head round it so spent 2 hours staring at my notepad whilst being semi-aware of season 4 of the Wire playing in the background. Ruth returned from her two week holiday away so it was great to catch up with her and she kindly cut my hair so that I can pull off my costume on Friday. I then spent the rest of the evening making J30 Strike stickers and UK Uncut spending cut stickers as well as starting to make a stencil which I fucked up at the last minute. I'm shattered. I've knocked back a pint of Valarian tea so hopefully get some sleep tonight.
Whilst out and about I got a call from Footprinters who for some reason still hadn't received the solidarity pamphlet flyer that I had spent an absurd amount of time trying to send the day before. I started to head home, whipping out 20 lengths in the pool and my mind chi meditation madness on the way before sitting down to resend the file. Whilst swimming I got a call from Baby J who was asking where my OCNs were, which I'd completed but not burnt to disc. I tried to stay chilled and accept that what I'd planned for this afternoon wasn't going to happen and that it's good to be flexible and accept how the chips fall from time to time. I got home and logged on to my gmail account. No connection. If I didn't get the flyers there today then they wouldn't be ready for Friday which would be a disaster as a major part of the action is handing out the flyers and raising awareness about the events coming up. I headed to Baby T School, on foot my I add after yesterdays back tyre incident, and sent the file to Footprinters before walking back home. Job done. Back to the plan.
The main thing I wanted to do today was get my head around the spending cuts so I went on to the UK Uncut website and checked out the resources there as well as searching around the net for a few other facts, figures, stats, opinions and analysis. What seems evidently clear is that these spending cuts are completely unnecessary and are a part of a neoliberal class war that is redistributing wealth from the poorest members of society towards the top. Our government has an AAA credit rating and is the 4th biggest economy in the world and therefore has absolutely no need whatsoever to implement any of these spending cuts. Not to mention the extent to which the deficit could be paid off by clamping down on tax evaders, reforming the tax system generally as well as a myriad of other mainstream measures. This still isn't getting to the root of the problem of the Capitalist economic system which inherently creates poverty, inequality, environmental degradation and more due to its logic of infinite growth on a world with finite resources. The list goes on.
I also tried to write some lyrics for the pre-City-Zen street performance but due to the lack of sleep I couldn't really get my head round it so spent 2 hours staring at my notepad whilst being semi-aware of season 4 of the Wire playing in the background. Ruth returned from her two week holiday away so it was great to catch up with her and she kindly cut my hair so that I can pull off my costume on Friday. I then spent the rest of the evening making J30 Strike stickers and UK Uncut spending cut stickers as well as starting to make a stencil which I fucked up at the last minute. I'm shattered. I've knocked back a pint of Valarian tea so hopefully get some sleep tonight.
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