Grassroots Gathering 9: Report Back

national | miscellaneous | news report

Tuesday April 05, 2005 10:58

by sovietpop - wsm/dgn

sovietpop at hotmail dot com

The 9th Grassroots Gathering was held in Dublin at the weekend, seventeen workshops, three gender groups, two plenary’s, one speech, one video, one great night drinking, four meals later and we all are totally exhausted yet re-energised.

Naturally there were problems; we couldn’t show all the videos we wanted, some of the workshops had to be changed at the last minute.

Throughout the weekend, people talked about the problems faced by activists and also the problems with the way we act as activists. In the closing circle people spoke about the need to be more inclusive, to be aware that the language we use (all those three letter anronyms) can be off-putting, that we need to look at why there weren’t as many women as men at the meetings, at our need to create safer communities.

For me, grassroots is a work in progress. At each gathering we experiment, we look at how we might try to do things differently, we learn from each other.

And in this spirit of experimentation, it was decided that the next grassroots should be in a rural location. Galway grassroots (with the help of Cork grassroots) agreed to organise this, details to follow later.

It was impossible to go to every meeting, so perhaps others who were there can report on the meetings they attended.

I did manage to attend the talk on Friday night by Dave Doughlass miner, num official and anarchist. I would guess about 80-100 people attended. For reasons of time it wasn’t possible to show a video about the miners strike (but it should be possible to show this later).
Dave Doughlass spoke for an hour about his experiences. He grew up in a mining community. He described how these were communities you were born into. People became miners because their fathers and their grandfathers were miners. Miners had ßmixed feelings about the job they did, on one hand they were proud of to be miners and to belong to mining community, on the other hand they hated the work that they did, which was dirty, dangerous and difficult. In his speech he described how different mines paid different rates, so that miners in Wales for example, could be paid much much less than miners in Nottingham. Some mines were easier to work than others, had better technology than others.
He also described how the NUM was organised around autonomous branches; it was a very de-centralised organisation. A lot of his speech addressed the issue of whether or not the miners should have had a ballot about the strike and the issue of donations of money from Libya.
I think that younger people in the audience perhaps might wonder why so much time was spend on issues that, with the passage of time, seem relatively unimportant. But for those of us who remember the strike, remember the media onslaught which consequently used these two issues to attack the miners.
Dave Doughlass said that Libya did indeed donate money. Yet the story doesn’t end there. The Libyan government also said that although they raised money to give to the miners, it was stolen and they never deposited it in miners’ bank accounts. This is strange, because money did arrive in this bank account (and is still there to this day). Dave Doughlass asked the question, if the Libyans didn’t put the money there, who did? He believes the British state did, so that they could then use the link with Libya to discredit the strikers.
He also spoke about the about the poverty and hunger felt by the strikers. He said he couldn’t talk too much about this, especially about the miners children, because he found it too upsetting.
He concluded that in his opinion the defeat of the strike was never inevitable. Thatchers autobiography and the autiobiographys of some of the coal board leaders both say that if the miners had managed to hold out for days longer, they could have won.

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Comments (18 of 18)

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Report back on Defendent support workshop

by Joe

Tue Apr 05, 2005 12:02

I'm going to give a limited report back on this as we know the Gardai and Special Branch (Irish secret police) read indymedia.ie

---

The workshop started with a detailed report from someone arrested on the 'Bring the Noise' march and subsequently held in prison over the next days. This was very useful in highlighting areas where more could have been done with the very limited resources that DGN had. Also it seems clear that we were somewhat naive in expecting the state to play things by the book rather then in effect locking people up and losing the key for a number of days (until the High Court forced them to intervene). So although for instance we had given a legal support number to many of those arrested the Gardai refused to allow anyone to contact that number.

It has also become clear that a lot more people were arrested on the day than those who were held in Cloverhill and Mountjoy. We suspect some were simply dumped out of police vans on the motorway or at other out of the way spots to walk home (useful to hear from people that this did happen to - we're you taken away but let go before you got to Cloverhill?). We know that some people were arrested and so badly beaten by the Gardai that the Gardai were embarassed into releasing them without charge (at the time) - specific details were heard but I'm not posting them here as that would identify them.

We have also heard of at least 3 people who were released on the day but have been charged in recent weeks. If this has happened to you and you have not had contact with DGN legal support email [email protected]

Someone from Ploghshares talked of their case and the need to build support for the re-trial period and in particular better links with the libertarian movement. The need to overcome the 'fear that they were about recruiting to the catholic church' was noted as one apparent barrier.

We'd a good discussion along the lines of what went wrong and how it can be done better next time. Lack of resources was identified as a very real problem but also that we are on a very sharp learning curve over the last 3 years when something like 160 have been arrested on protests in Ireland that grassroots people have been involved in. We also failed to note/realise all the work that had been done including that by many who had little involvement with the grassroots in particular the family and friends of defendants.

Finally it was noted that it would be a good idea to have a big 'debriefing' session to talk about what happened on the day - maybe something that could be organised for Mayday this year?

Clarification

by Terry

Tue Apr 05, 2005 13:42

"Galway grassroots (with the help of Cork grassroots) agreed to organise this, details to follow later."

Clarification - I, an ex-member of Galway Grassroots, volunteered to help get it together provisionally and pull some people together to do it. Galway Grassroots hasn't existed since September of last year.
This could easily get lost in translation as I wasn't actually at the GG! So I'm not upset or anything just figured I had better post up this clarification before other ex-galway grassroots people read this.
All has to be discussed further on national Grassroots discussion list anyways.

C'mon folks

Tue Apr 05, 2005 14:30

Lets have some more report backs - just write a paragraph or two on one of the sessions you were at.

It's a real pity we didn't do this for previous grassroots as there is very little record of what actually happened / was discussed at them.

media workshop

by Vx (Ax->Bx)

Wed Apr 06, 2005 11:40

the media workshop was very well attended and focussed on the problems facing activists who try and use the mainstream media to get their message across. It was led by members of the MayDay 04 media team who talked briefly on their experiences. They emphasised the positive aspects of media work and talked about the necessity for support for spokespeople from other activists. They also remarked that although it was inevitable that distortion and hysteric vilification would occur the potential for getting out a message to a much bigger audience than possible through our channels was worth it, as this distortion would occur anyway.
This led into a general discussion about the problems of talking to the media which unfortunately left little time for what I considered the best part of the workshop. We were split up into groups of about 5 or 6 people each group representing a particular theme, including the Dissent Network and the Save Tara campaign. One of the speakers then went to each group and asked them a question. The group then had to consult among itself to produce an answer.
The group aspect led to some interesting perspectives and was very helpful. However we had to end this session quite shortly to make way for something else.

Addition to Defendant's Workshop-re: Pit Stop Ploughshares Trial

by Ciaron - Pit Stop Ploughshares (personal capacity)

Wed Apr 06, 2005 15:14

087 918 4552

The Pit Stop Ploughshares go to retrial Oct 24th. 3 weeks have been set aside by the courts for the trial.
Bail conditions have mellowed a little.

The trial support scene went largely very well, with a lot of the resources and energy coming form the 80 folks who travelled from Sweden, England, Scotland, Australia and largely from the U.S.

Many thanx for the locals - Food Not Bombs, individuals from the anarcho scene, WSM newsletter, red Ink, extended DCW network, YCW, Red Jade, Paul O'Toole, Banda Zingara, Rossa, Cuban band, St Catherines, & others who carried us through.

Media censorship was extreme - long interviews with Bishop Gumbleton (longest serving Bishop in the U.S.) by the Irish Times and a Catholic Weekly resulted in no publishing. Other high profile folks around the trial - Voices in the Wilderness Kathy Kelly, former Assiistant Un Sec Gen Dennis Halliday, Gulf War Vet Kelly Doughert, Nobel Peace Prize Winner Marriead Corrigan McGuire - with the exception of The Village - were largely blanked by the mainstream media. Censorship went way beyond the hyper Irish interpretation of sub judice laws. This seems to be in keeping with the general irish mainstream media conspiracy of silence around Shannon (eg. pretend it isn't happening "All power to denial!")...so we won't takeit to personally!

What would have been good from the general libertarian movement before the trial - and before the next one - would be an evening similar that accured before May Day 2004 when a discussion was held on blac bloc. Where we could present the phenomenon of Ploughshares (maybe with the 20 minute vid of the Seeds of Hope group) inform folks about the tradition have a question, answer & discussion - where fears, stereotypes, what kind of support the defendants want, alternatives to show solidarity if folkscan't adopt the defendants gidelines, general clarification could be addressed.

Only four people attended the defendant's workshop, this is the first time May Day 2004 was debriefed....this may point to a general weakness in our movement about looking after casualties. Maybe it doesn't...dunno?

Iraq/Palestine workshop

by Ciaron - DCW (personal capacity)

Wed Apr 06, 2005 15:51

Ok someone did take notes in this meeting and it wasn't me...so hopefully their will be an additional report. But things move down the newsire and their seems to be a call for rapid feedback...so here goes.

About 15 folks at this workshop - some from Workers Solidarity Movement , Dublin Catholic Worker, Irish Socialist Network & Irish Palestine Solidarity Commitee.

*Quite a few folks had been to Palestine and that was the focus of the meeting.

*The focus was the Ireland V Israel football match in Dublin June 4th. as this will be the time in which is the issues of Israel and Palestine will be most present to the Irish citizenry this year.

-it was noted that the Israeli state had used the recent away game in Israel for political mileage (eg. lots of TV footage of Irish away fans waving Israeli flags, brought a bunch of Israeli & Palestinian kidz to a football training camp in Ireland the week prior to the recent match - official interviewed celebrating that one of the Palestinian kidz no longer want to become a suicide bomber after this experience but not a recipricol declaration that any of the Israeli kidz were going to move on to draft resistance etc, Chelsea's Manager Mourinho did a similar gig in Israel that week (maybe that's mutual rehabilitation there!!!)

-their was a lot of Israeli media in Dublin leading up to the recent away game - this is likely to be heightened around the June 4th. game

ACKNOWLEDGED
- that there will be a few thousand (one would assume pretty nationalistic) Israeli away fans in Dublin around for June 4th

- because of this the Irish state will probably treat the game as a natinal security issue (see May Day 2004, Bush visit 2004)
- that solidarity activists should not come across as "anti-footbal killjoys" in their outreach to the public. egcalling for a fan boycott of the game would be setting oneself up for failure.

-that there are issues concerning human rights for Palestinian football players (see link) that Irish football fans can immediately relate to and given the response to the recent DCW/IPSC vigil at the Irish Embassy (seelink) during the away game that Irish football fans will be immediately sympathetic if the issues are pitched right.

- this is a tight World Cup qualifying group with France, Ireland, Israel on similar points this is not a dud game football intensity and interest will be at a height

SUGGESTIONS
- the potential for solidarity actions in the days leading up to the game away from the ground

- leafletting club football games leading up to the june 4th. match

-leaflettng the game itself - one side being specifically addressing human rights of Palestinian football players issues (see Guardian article on link) flipside of leaflet addressing more general issues surrounding the war on Palestine

REAL DEAL
-at present the Irish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign is the only group working on campaigning around the June 4th. match
-more stuff may appear before kick off

WORKSHOP DISCUSSION ON IRAQ
-acknowledged that Shannon is the most significant issue in relation to Ireland and the war on Iraq
-call for solidarity wih folks who are confronting the Irish state on this issue eg. Ed/Tim et al at Shannon, Pit Stop Ploughshares on trial at Four Courts Oct 24th.

LINK BELOW VISUALS AND REPORT FROM VIGIL AT ISRAELI EMBASSY DURING RECENT IRELAND (AWAY) v ISRAEL GAME

DIY workshop

by seoidin

Thu Apr 07, 2005 12:23

On Saturday at 10 am the DIY fashion workshop was held. This involved spray paint stenciling, t-shirt fabric painting, head gear for critical mass and clothes sewing. The workshop was not that well attended and seemed to divide itself into boys spray paint, girls sew. It was fun and colourful and has a lot of potential. Creativity and colour (red and black is boring!) is what the grass roots need more of. The 2 young girls had great fun dressing up and painting so there is potential there for children and adults to work along side each other in future workshops. A craft workshop has been organised for wednesday 13 so nice to see that the DIY workshop has been carried over to what may become a more regular event.

'The only limits are the limits of our imagination.'

diy

by rodney sparkles

Thu Apr 07, 2005 14:29

true enough, there was a bit of a gender imbalance with the fashion being only ladies and the spray painting all fellas. However, it's worth noting that spray-painting also got the younger folk involved, being both creative and radical. Anyone interested in spray-painting should check out banksy.co.uk for inspiration and www.stencilrevolution.com/ for some very good tutorials.

A cool workshop, hopefully we'll put it into practice...

Here is a Stencil.........

by Noise Hacker

Thu Apr 07, 2005 15:47

made by a young girl at the spray painting workshop.

more stencil resources...

by redjade

Thu Apr 07, 2005 16:00

archived here...
http://del.icio.us/redjade/stencils

New directions for activism workshop

by gramsci fan

Thu Apr 07, 2005 18:45

Richard Moore ran this using a technique called Dynamic Facilitation which is geared to identifying problems and disagreements within a group and helping it move on. There weren't a huge number of us there (7 or 8 in all), with fairly similar views so it was interesting as a field test more than anything.

Some people at the workshop were interested in building coop networks as an accountable alternative to the state, others trying to build global connections to bring about change. There was a lot of discussion of how to get "beyond the choir" and whether bottom-up organising processes alienate people. We were never going to reach consensus on these issues in an hour's time, but these are clearly things that deserve more attention as we gain confidence in our ability to make things happen.

feedback / closing circle

Thu Apr 07, 2005 18:51

At the end of each Gathering there's a closing circle which lets everyone say what they felt and decides where the next Gathering is going to be held.

Taking the last point first, Terry offered provisionally to explore the possibility of holding the next Gathering in a rural area, and there was a lot of support for this from participants (with some comments on weather issues!) Transport was also mentioned as a concern.

More general feedback:

- Importance of nanotechnology issue
- Should plenaries have more of a focus on short-term practical possibilities?
- Optimistic feeling
- Need to link issues, talk to each other
- Too male-dominated
- Need to keep things simple (vs jargon)
- Good to see people goingo ut of themselves and outside smaller circles
- Need to document workshops (OK, we're doing that here!)
- Who doesn't come back?
- Better links with the gay community needed
- Do workshops with children
- Attention span issues around the plenaries
- Need some body work to give people a shared activity
- Important to keep on looking at gender issues
- Positive feedback on the counter-partnership event
- Need for a Mayday 04 debrief, maybe this Mayday
- Are local sessions appropriate to be having during a national gathering?
- Need to create a safe space, with equal authority

Death of partnership plenary

by Laurence Cox - DGN

Thu Apr 07, 2005 19:04

The plenary had 3 short talks, from Miriam Murphy, Michael Murray and Sean Regan, followed by general discussion. There were about 70 people in the room at the height of the discussion.

Miriam Murphy spoke about her research on partnership, indicating that it represents co-optation to a neoliberal project. Since neoliberalism is committed to inequality, partnership is problematic for anti-poverty groups. Over the 6 partnership agreements, competitiveness appears as the dominant theme in the documents. Education turns up primarily as "successful adaptation to change". She concluded that the social partners were buying into unequal societies.

Michael Murray talked about social partnership as a model of governance for communities. Issues like bin tax, incinerators or superdumps are top-down processes, and "consultation" fills the democratic deficit - yet some partners are more equal than others. Because of this structural inequality, consultation focusses on end-of-pipe solutions that do not question existing power relations. In the waste area, social partnership is becoming a replacement for democracy. From a community viewpoint, it's important to look closely at how much real power communities and citizens are given in decision-making.

Sean Regan (Community Workers Coop) said that the only sustainable way to address poverty is to redistribute power. CWC had a long-standing commitment to participation and "voice", but social partnership can either be an access route for voices that weren't previously heard, or a strategy to achieve industrial piece without social change. Some community groups confuse access to power with power itself.

He discussed the experience of the Community Platform, and its attempts to achieve change. Poverty, participation and refugee issues were all excluded a priori from the last round of partnership negotiations. Those who dissent are themselves excluded, such as CWC who have lost their funding, the National Women's Council who were excluded from the equal opportunities monitoring committee, or traveller and asylum-seeker groups excluded from committees on their issues.

Sean concluded by saying that the community sector needs to engage more with other groups working for social change, such as environmental groups. He called for the establishment of local groups of activists from different movements, and suggested that there might be a counter-event held parallel to the next round of partnership negotiations.

The discussion following these contributions was quite detailed, toucihng on issues such as the relationship between the trade unions and partnership; the cooptation of the mainstream peace movement; alternatives to social partnership; the right to dissent; the effect of social partnership on activist groups; the relationship between partnership and local emocracy; and whether the goal for activists should be the end of partnership or a different model of partnership.

Community Gardening: how to do it

by dunk

Thu Apr 07, 2005 20:21

@ 20 people left the st nik hall and walked the "10" minutes to the choosen site which is a large derlelict piece of land on the banks of the grand canal, across from dolphins barn public library. it seems to be owned by the factory it fronts, it is about 200+ x 20 metres (@6000m.squared)
alongside the choosen space is another longer green space which is fully planted in communal alotment type garden

we took a bit longer than expected to get there, more pre organisation should have happened, it dident- sorry
when we arrived most of the group went onto the allotment to view the impressive garden, others went to check out the "derelict land"
a couple came out of their house with a wheelbarrow to do some gardening and they had what seems to have been a very pleasent chat with the garden workshop crew. 3 years ago the people from the houses decided to occupy the then derelict land and use it as a community garden- they squated it.

the others came back and joined in the discussion in the garden, by this time the couple had left

elinor from cork mandala community gardens talked about their experiences in cork, they have 6 gardens now up and running. they work very much with existing communities, they are growing and with many communities now asking for their assistance they have recieved some money, due to cork being "culture" capital i think, so they have some full time workers now.

darren and tom talked about their experiences with their squat garden in belfast which was a year old on paddys day. this was a piece of waste land that they cleaned up and turned into a fine garden, they talked abou the learning curve that went with the year and how the garden acts as a social space which has worked very well for the welbeing of their activist group

pears talked about the community garden he has just set up in st agnes community school in crumlin, he talked about how doing volunteer work with an "organisation" can be difficult in some areas but in others how it is very good, ie- a lot of money for purchase of tools, trees, seeds and other equipment

photos of the different gardens were passed around the group

we then had a talk about where to go from here.
at this point we knew that we were well late so we headed back while continuing the discussion en route

next tuesday we will have a tree planting ceremony in the garden at 7pm, this is part of the "tree walk", come along, bring some spades, some seeds, some plants, some energy

on the following thursday there will be more garden work and a get together in seoidins shopspace

thanks to all for input, stories and ideas
very enjoyable workshop, looking foreward to getting my hands dirty

Grassroots Gathering website
http://flag.blackened.net/infohub/grassroots/content.php?article.12.255

Open Invitation to use a small space (seoidín's shop)
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69116&search_text=seoidin

greening the city
http://easa.antville.org/stories/960542/#1054312

Cork Mandala of Community Gardens,
http://www.corkcommunitygardens.com/

direct action against apathy
Guerilla Gardening A-Go-Go
http://www.geocities.com/directactionagainstapathy/ggardening.htm

grassroots gatherings - past links
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=68675#comment101500

grassroots community garden

Workshop with Dynamic Facilitation

by Richard Moore

Sat Apr 16, 2005 17:12

richard at cyberjournal dot org

Quay Largo, Selskar Street, Wexford, Ireland

011 353 5323961

Thanks, Laurence, for arranging the DF session, and thanks to the folks in the collective and Food Not Bombs for the excellent food & arrangements. The whole affair had a festive atmosphere, and it was great to have the lively energy of children in the environment.

After the rousing Friday evening session, not too many folks showed up for the first sessions Saturday morning. We had about six for our discussion re/ "Making a Difference".

Dynamic Facilitation is a process which enables a group to work creatively and effectively on difficult problems. In order for the process to work, a considerable amount of time is required to get everyone's relevant ideas and viewpoints out on the table. Two four-hour sessions on two different days is probably the minimum requirement for the process to develop to the creative stage, where it becomes possible to get "outside the box" in the group's thinking.

Our one-hour session was very much an experiment, to see what might happen in such short time, and also because I had never attempted this kind of facilitation before. As it turned out, I felt comfortable in the role for the hour, and I'm glad I didn't need to swim any longer than that, my first time in the water!

DF works by "following the energy" of the group. Often this means sticking with one person for a while, helping them express what's on their mind. In our group there was one fellow who clearly had some strong ideas about "more effective activism" - he had obvious urgency / emotion in his voice. Most of our hour, quite appropriately I think, was devoted to drawing out this fellow's thinking and ideas, with others offering contributions from time to time as well.

Below is a summary the points that I recorded on the flip charts. There's a list of "Problems" facing activism, a list of possible "Solutions", and some "Observations". Quite a variety of ideas and issues were raised, and with more time these would have been expanded by other participants. You can begin to see the "size of the canvas" of the potential dialog. My overall conclusion is that this kind of process could be very productive for a future grassroots gathering, if a few people wanted to devote the better part of two days to the process. (It's not the kind of thing that works if people drop in and out.)

Thanks again to all,
Richard Moore
Wexford
http://cyberjournal.org

-----------------------------
* PROBLEMS

(1) Problems re/ "getting beyond the choir"
- How to involve the general public?
- How to break out of identity politics?
- How to connect with working class groups?
- Some of our processes alienate newcomers, or are too time-consuming.
- How to make connections globally?

(2) Problems re/ "greater effectiveness"
- How to escape from ineffective "loops"?
- How to become more efficient?
- How to set goals and strategies responsibly?
- How to achieve socially-conscious income for activists and activism?
- How to build bridges between movements?
- How to affect the "global situation"?

* SOLUTIONS

- co-op enterprises and locally-based organizations
- co-op networks for education, and to "reclaim state functions"
- Create alternatives to the state.
- A local, autonomous basis supports activist energy.
- Somehow connect local grassroots activism to global structures.
- Provide "digestible articulations" for the "rural concerned citizen"
that suggests actions and shows "global relevance"

* OBSERVATIONS

- In the 1930s there were 1500 co-ops in Ireland, now only 150.
- The WTO attacks co-ops.
- The land movements in India and South America provide
emerging models
- Corporate methods "get things done".
- External threats bring people together
- In Cork, the legal process "radicalizes".
- "Grassroots" happens without central organization.

-----------------------------

a wasted opportunity

by - - -

Wed Apr 20, 2005 11:32

i didnt want to post sytraight away because i wanted to let the weekend sink in but nows it been a fortnight i thought this GG was a real big wasted opportunity. around the same time RAR had been organising the campaign to bring home Kunle Elunhale and the SP wree doing work with the GAMA immigrant builders, what were we doing? sitting around making clothes, painting, plating trees and talking about ways of organising, without actually doing very much practically. i dont buy the analysis that our language puts people off, the swp have no probklem getting new people in, both men and women, and then they leave!, they use language similar to us, but why dont new people come to us? i think ist because we dont have enough 'public' events, all the stuff that people at the grassroots organise is very cliquey, you have to know someone to get involved. we never talked about why we rolled over and died after mayday and why its only now we are getting to do prinsoner support gigs and mayday rreports backs nearly a year later. the only campaign that people seemed enthusiastic about just from talking around during the breaks is the g8, because the english roadshow heads were over. there was no enthusiasm for trying to get inbvolved in other local campaigns around ireland we werent already a part of oursleves. i also think all the gender stuff is really forced/contrived, a bit narcissistic and so... painfully american. there wasnt many more people than the first GG in dublin about four years ago either in the teachers club, which seems to me like we're going nowhere. i think that having ther next one down the country is a bad idea on reflection beause only people that are in the know will come along, maybe we should look at oter urban spots we have nobody working in like waterford, sligo, etc. we need to focus more on a specific campaign or two for six months or so befcause at the moment i think we're floating in the water without a liferaft.

(I'm sorry for posting anonymously but i still want to work with people but dont want to have my head bitten off)

communicating better

Wed Apr 20, 2005 12:16

firstly glad to see more feedback, but perhaps bettter if more and got to see a critical argument for self analysis of gg

as part of gg we did workshop to make a community garden, its moving on nicely and is, amongst other things, the start of the process to connect dgn with existing communities......
planting a few trees has been productive, come along and do some gardening on thr with us:
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69380&condense_comments=false#comment105149

i couldent get to all gg, but was very disapointed to see no workshop with indymedia, an opportune moment for them/it/us to reach out etc....
esp as there was a "how to deal with the media" workshop
but from that theres imc-ie events on next sat and tuesday
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69468
and
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69451

also while on media, other media stuff:
Free Speech Radio News

http://www.fsrn.org/news/

FSRN documentaries

http://www.fsrn.org/specials.html

democracy now

http://www.democracynow.org/

The Life and Times of Noam Chomsky: A Brief History of America's Leading Dissident
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/26/1936241&mode=thread&tid=25

http://www.democracynow.org/static/IMIATOW.shtml

A New Documentary featuring Amy Goodman! - "independant media in a time of war"

dublin city stuff (vids, audio, photos) c/o IMC-Éire Kev
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=65045&search_text=red%20archive#comment105233

re: anonymous

Wed Apr 20, 2005 12:27

Anonymous I don't know how long you have been involved with the gatherings but the decision was taken after the 3rd that they are not decision making bodies or an ongoing organisation. They are _just_ the weekend. They are not something that people can be recruited to.

By tradition the final session is one where people can make specific proposals to initate organisations etc. That is where GNAW came from. If you had an idea in relation to RAR or GAMA you could have put it forward there and maybe something concrete would have emerged. Or you could have asked for a workshop to put forward a proposal out of which a group might also have emerged. This probably needs to be explained better at/before future gatherings.

BTW I don't think anyone would 'bite your head off' for the remarks above. But given the long history of trot and/or cop indymedia posts pretending to come from people involved in grassroots stuff giving people a clue to who you are would mean they would give your comments more serious consideration.

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Grassroots Gathering 9: Report Back

Comments (18 of 18)