National - Event Notice
Thursday January 01 1970

Grassroots Gathering 2012

national | miscellaneous | event notice

Wednesday September 12, 2012 12:05

by J - Grassroots Gathering - Grassroots Gathering

grassrootsgalway at gmail dot com

Community struggles - campaign strategies - developing networks

Grassroots Gathering
Community struggles - campaign strategies - developing networks
Galway, October 12 - 14
The Grassroots Gatherings return this October in Galway. This one will have particular sessions for communities resisting fracking and drilling and for movements against austerity, as well as an open stream and a radical arts stream. Details will be posted here as they are finalized. Also see the Grassroots Gathering page at https://www.facebook.com/GrassrootsGathering

Grassroots Gathering 12th-14th Oct Galway

A grassroots gathering is a one-off event run by a local group bringing together people involved in different community campaigns and social movements to learn from each other's experiences, talk about what works and what doesn't, develop networks and make alliances. There have been a dozen of these in different parts of the country over the last eleven years and they have helped support all sorts of different campaigns and movements - resisting Shell in Erris, campaigning against cuts, supporting women's right to choose, challenging neo-liberalism in the EU, creating free space for young people, opposing incinerators, community gardening, protecting natural and national heritage, highlighting US military use of Shannon, challenging racism and more. This one will have particular sessions for communities resisting fracking and drilling and for movements against austerity, as well as an open stream and other activities.

The Gathering isn't about famous speakers or Great Experts telling us how to do things - the idea is to bring together campaigners, people in communities, people organising at the base in unions, experienced activists and people just starting out to share their experiences, discuss what way they think things might go, ask questions of each other, make connections and have a good chance to chat and meet new people and old friends. It's not for profit (and we all get to muck in with washing up, passing the hat and generally helping out), it isn't run by any political party and nobody will try to recruit anyone.

Over the last few years more and more people have seen just how corrupt the system is and how little faith we can have in the people who claim to represent us and "see us right". For this reason the Gatherings aren't for people who want to make a name for themselves, make a career out of other people's activism, get a leg up politically, make money out of campaigning, appear on TV etc. More formally we have the "Grassroots Principles" which say that we want to work together as equals, run things in an open and democratic way and try not to talk down to each other or over each other's heads. Rather than rebuild the old mess we believe in communities being able to decide for themselves, workplaces controlled by the people who actually work in them, a sustainable economy and an end to neoliberal bodies like the IMF and World Bank which have helped to create the crisis. To read full principles of Grassroot and more about the gatherings go to http://grassroots.pageabode.com

If this sounds interesting, please get involved and help us make it happen! We're going to need practical help on the weekend (food, childcare, beds etc.); workshops; one-off things like poster design and fundraising help; and you might just want to be kept up-to-date. For any of these please email [email protected]

You can also follow the Grassroots Gathering page at https://www.facebook.com/GrassrootsGathering and join the Facebook event - http://www.facebook.com/events/338782336211364/

*PROPOSALS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR THE PROGRAMME - we would like to hear from you...*

FRACKIING/DRILLING RESISTANCE STREAM
We will have sessions for community groups resisting fracking and drilling and If you are part of a group involved in campaigns related to this stream, please get in touch as we need your input to make this part of the gathering useful and relevant to your groups. You can send ideas or a proposal for a workshop or session to the following address - [email protected]. If you have an idea but would need support or facilitators, please contact us as there may be others who want to work with you on it.

ANTI AUSTERITY STREAM
As above, if your campaign/community group has a proposal for a workshop or session related to this stream please contact [email protected]. If you have an idea but would need support or facilitators please contact us as there may be others who want to work with you on it.

OPEN STREAM
There is stream of sessions left open for proposals on any topics people feel are important. There are some suggestions already (GM, Choice activism and more) but nothing fixed yet. If you or a group of people would like to propose a workshop or session please contact [email protected]. If you have an idea but would need support or facilitators please contact us as there may be others who want to work with you on it.

COLLECTIVE DISCUSSION SPACE (Saturday afternoon)
We want to leave some time for people attending the different streams of workshops to come together for collective discussion. If you have suggestions for this discussion space please contact us before the 1st of October at [email protected]

PLENARY (Sunday)
If you have ideas of what we could get out of the weekend as a whole, and what could be the focus of our closing plenary session please contact us by the 1st of October.

RADICAL ARTS (Art, theatre, poetry, music and video)
As part of the weekend of events, there will be workshops,performances and readings in art, theatre, music, poetry, writing and film taking place at the Cube theatre space in NUIG.. If you have any workshop or performance ideas related to the ethos of the grassroots gathering, or have suggestions for documentaries/films that could be screened, we would love to hear from you. We also hope to have a forum for discussion about the arts and activism and are open to your suggestions on any particular discussion topics that would be of interest. Please submit your proposals to us before October 1st.

KIDS/ALL AGES ACTIVITIES
We hope to have plenty of inspiring activities that will be fun for kids and adults alike running during the course of the weekend. Let us know if you have any ideas for workshops/performances/screenings in art,music, theatre, puppetry and film. As above, please let us know by October 1st.