STANDING UP FOR OUR LOCAL COMMUNITIES AND OUR INTERESTS
- how best to organise and take action?

For all radical, community-orientated local groups and individuals throughout the country.

- Which issues should be our main priorities?
- How do immediate practical concerns link to the need for fundamental social change?
- What is our relationship with local residents’ groups and broad-based campaigns?
- Are we having the effect we’d like?

This event aims, through workshop discussions, to:

· share information, local experiences and views about some of the key issues affecting our communities
· establish better links and communication channels among radical, community-orientated local groups and individuals
· promote collective and non-hierarchical, open and horizontal forms of organisation
· promote anti-authoritarian, anti-state, anti-capitalist and pro-community, pro-working class grass-roots politics - that is, the interests of people rather than of governments and corporations!

The aim of the event is to share information and experiences, and exchange our views as local activists. Obviously, there’s only so much that we can do at one event. But we hope to work out how to promote the concept of community action effectively, to establish better links and communication channels among local groups, and encourage new ones to flourish all over the UK. That way we will be more effective and be able to make a real difference in our communities.

The full Agenda and workshop themes are set out below. An informal social event is also being planned for the Saturday evening at the Sumac Centre .

Contact:  communityactionnetworkuk@googlemail.com
Updates: http://communityactionnetwork.wordpress.com/

Note 1: Feel free to join the list! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CommunityActionList When doing so please let us know your name and where you live.

Note 2: Also in Nottingham on Saturday 27th March 2010, 11am - 3pm. Building a working-class anti-racist and anti-fascist network. A conference to organise against the EDL and the BNP, initiated by Notts Stop the BNP. @ Queens Walk Community Centre, Queens Walk, The Meadows, Nottingham. It is hoped to arrange a joint feedback session between this and the concurrent Community Action Network Gathering. Delegates to each event are urged to bring colleagues to attend the other!
View & download leaflet from: http://nottmstopbnp.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/organisingagainstracismfascism.pdf
Full details: www.veggies.org.uk/event.php?ref=1692

PLANNED AGENDA

11am Arrival / refreshments. Discussions about the agenda.
12 noon Introduction to the event. Brief introduction and very brief reports from each group present.
1pm First workshops/discussions session [See list below]
2.15pm Break for refreshments
2..45pm Brief plenary
3pm Second workshops/discussions session [See list below]
4.15pm Report backs from discussions. Plenary on how activists can work together better to support our communities and local struggles… How do we promote the concept of community action, and develop and expand our network?
5pm End and clear up

Evening Informal social

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

COMMUNITY ACTION - WORKSHOP DISCUSSIONS

FIRST SESSION - issues
1. Fighting for the local services and facilities we need
2. Our neighbourhoods - improving our streets, our local environment and community spirit
3. Decent and affordable housing for all
4. Regeneration, gentrification and planning
5. Local workplace struggles and issues

SECOND SESSION - strategies
6. Community centres and social centres
7. Interaction with residents and existing residents’ groups
8. Councils - how should we relate to them?
9. How to set up local groups
10. Communication techniques and strategies (newsletters, mailing lists, leaflets etc)

For all discussions

- what are our long term aims and what can we do in the here and now to work towards them?
- What are the existing struggles, campaigns and grass-roots groups which show the way forward?

1. Fighting for the local services and facilities we needHow do we put pressure on those controlling community resources and services to get the improvements we need - education, healthcare, leisure facilities, parks, playcentres, community centres, council services etc? Should our communities take them over? If so, how? What is the role for user groups? Can people set up their own services?

2. Our neighbourhoods - improving our streets, our local environment and community spirit
What kind of neighbourhoods do we want? How do we get safer, greener and friendlier streets? How do we get rid of ugly and oppressive features (billboards, speeding traffic, mobile phone masts, too much concrete etc)? How can we build up community spirit and neighbourliness, and ‘take ownership’ of our areas?

3. Decent and affordable housing for all
How can we ensure decent housing for all. Can homelessness be countered by occupations of empty homes and buildings? How can council house residents defend public and ’social’ housing against privatisation and gentrification, and fight for more control over their homes? How can private tenants and mortgage-payers stand up to landlords and money-lending institutions etc. What are the pros and cons of housing co-ops?

4. Regeneration, gentrification and planning
Can regeneration and ‘urban development’ benefit our communities? If so, how can people ensure their real needs are addressed? Is regeneration often a cover for gentrification and undermining working class areas and facilities (threatening established housing, green spaces, pubs, community centres, small shopping parades etc) - if so what can be done about it? How are communities resisting private developers and unwanted mega-projects?

5. Local workplace struggles and issues
How do workers and workplaces link into community issues and struggles? How can communities directly link up with and support local workers, and vice-versa (eg. community boycotts and industrial action etc)? Should we work with trade unions or encourage independent workplace self-organisation?

6. Community centres and social centres
What kind of meeting places do local communities need? What are the pros and cons of existing community centres? Where else can people get together (clubs, pubs, cafes, parks, playgroups, church halls etc)? How can radical, self-organised social centres really make a difference in local areas?

7. Interaction with residents and existing residents’ groups
How can activists communicate better with our neighbours and our local communities? How do we interact with community-based groups of all kinds (especially residents associations and others who are committed to their communities)? What kind of activities can bring people together in a positive way - eg. single issue campaigning, public meetings and discussions, local festivals and street parties, informal sports, picnics, pub quizzes etc? How can such activities help build up a culture of local independence and resistance?

8. Councils - how should we relate to them?
What attitude should community activists have towards councils? Councils exercise huge influence over how resources (etc) are allocated - how do people work towards real local control and self-management over all decision-making and resources? Is it possible to support local pro-community and pro-working class election candidates and at the same time emphasise the limits of municipal democracy? Or is it better to lobby Council officers and councillors from the outside, or just ignore/boycott them and rely on direct action? In the absence of mass-participation how does a local group gauge its support in the community?

9. How to set up local groups
Is there a fundamental difference between local ‘political / radical’ groups and local ‘community’ groups, or are they complementary forms of self-organisation? How can such groups spread to every locality, especially in predominantly working class areas? Can community-based single issue campaigns lead to permanent local organisations? How do we ensure that such groups are independent, inclusive, accountable to their communities, take up a wide range of relevant issues, and promote mutual aid and solidarity?

10. Communication techniques and strategies (newsletters, mailing lists, leaflets etc)
What practical methods are the best ways of spreading information, building up communication channels, and encouraging and inspiring people to get involved in the life of their community and to join in with local groups and campaigns? What are the benefits of leaflets, public meetings, newsletters, minutes, email lists, websites, door-to-door visits/questionnaires, notice boards, posters, phone trees etc?

The meetings are a forum for existing groups to support each other and exchange ideas, as well as give a helping hand and encouragement to anyone wanting to set up something new in their area.

It is open to anyone interested in setting up a local anarchist/libertarian group in London. If you would like to come along, please email Radical London for venue details.

Currently involved are groups from Camden, Hackney, Haringey, Islington, Newham & Tower Hamlets, Walthamstow and Whitechapel. With the possibility of a new group starting up in Lewisham.

A handful of existing groups, including Action East End and Hackney Solidarity Network, started meeting every couple of months to swap ideas and support each other, before formally launching at the Anarchist Bookfair 2009.

The meetings are positive affairs of mutual encouragement, as well as taking forward an achievable plan of publicising the network and the importance of pro-working class resistance groups.

We provide practical advice and support to groups that are having trouble getting going or are at some difficult stage of their development.

For everyone who cares about their community, environment and workplace and wants to change them for the better. Discussions, workshops, stalls, films, socialising and refreshments. Kids welcome and free crèche throughout the day.

A grassroots gathering for local change

Unhappy with the way things are?
Want to see things changed for the better?
Worried about local services being carved up for private profit?
Fed up with government attacks on civil liberties?
Think people should fight back and organise for themselves?

Then Haringey Independence Day is for you. It’s a day of independence from party politics, religion and government agencies, where individuals and groups in Haringey can organise collectively, exchange ideas and make their own decisions that affect their lives. So come and get inspired, share news, and celebrate the good things happening in the community.

After the success of last year’s event, a number of groups have taken on planning an event for 2009. The emphasis this year will be on how to develop more effective campaigns in Haringey.

We celebrated the traditional workers’ day of May the 1st in true Whitechapel style. Instead of going on the usual boring A to Z trudge from Clerkenwell Green to Trafalgar Square we decide to hold our own anarchist rally in the Green, relax in the sun and have a few Pimms.

The first meeting will be to nail down the Hackney Newspaper project.. “Hackney Heckler” .. which was delayed due to illness and then the Visteon dispute! While we have most of the copy, layout and printer provisionally arranged if anyone wants to get more involved in this project, who is either on this mailing list or someone who you know, please try to get, or get them, involved and to this meeting. To have a independent Hackney newspaper representing and reflecting the Hackney campaign community is long overdue

We have also joined up with Reel News to arrange a monthly newsreel and film event also at the MOTH but in the Hall downstairs (with a bar) .. the first date for this will be Tuesday 9th June

As the world economy heads deeper into an unprecedented recession, the spectre of social unrest is again spreading across Europe and the World. In the UK we have experienced an extended holiday from wide-spread class struggle as social democracy and capitalism worked hand in hand to maintain social peace. But as the guarantees of the banks have gone, so too have the guarantees that the state can manage the emerging social conflict, which could potentially turn into social rebellion unseen in the UK for decades.

So, where does that leave the Anarchist Movement? Are we relevant? Do we exist in a form coherent enough to actually be called a movement? Are we progressing? The Anarchist Movement Conference is a chance to put our ideas on the table and rebuild ourselves. The barriers that exist need to be broken down, the experiences and ideas of those involved in anarchist politics need to be shared, discussed, critiqued and debated. The task is urgent, practical and necessary - are we as a movement mature enough to face the challenge?

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