The Big Blether is a biennial gathering for scottish activists, to bring together the many threads that we are weaving for social change. It is a space to move ideas around and create action out of inspiration. This year we wish to follow a theme of support and cross-pollination, to see how metaphors and practical ideas can be linked across the many approaches that we take, and to provide a space for us to discuss and nurture our ideas in a safe and nourishing environment.
9th - 11th May 2008, this year hosted by Talamh Life Centre, South Lanarkshire
Edinburgh - Glasgow Socialist Party Day School Saturday 10 May, 1pm to 5pm Community Central Hall, 304 Maryhill Road, Glasgow
Why Capitalism Can’t Go Green (1.00pm till 2.15 pm)
Speaker: Paul Bennett (Manchester Branch)
Are you interested in finding out more about Anarchism or on how you can get involved in Anarchist activity around Glasgow?
If so please feel welcome to join us this Saturday at the Phoenix Centre @ 201 St. James Road, Glasgow between six and eight p.m. We'll talk about the various projects that anarchists in Glasgow are currently involved in as well as different ways of getting involved in these projects.
There will also be an infostall full of information on Anarchism and Libertarian Communism/Socialism as well as a short film on the uprisings of 1968 (if the editing is finished in time!)
Hope to see many of you there and we hope that all those who attended May Day this year had a great time despite the sporadic showers of rain.
The Glasgow Anarchists
The Big Blether is a biennial gathering for scottish activists, to bring together the many threads that we are weaving for social change. It is a space to move ideas around and create action out of inspiration. This year we wish to follow a theme of support and cross-pollination, to see how metaphors and practical ideas can be linked across the many approaches that we take, and to provide a space for us to discuss and nurture our ideas in a safe and nourishing environment.
9th - 11th May 2008, this year hosted by Talamh Life Centre, South Lanarkshire
A talk on the Fife Diet - 7.30-9pm Monday 12th May 2008
The Fife Diet is not about dieting, it is about a diet consisting of only food grown or reared in Fife.
Could you ditch the supermarket trolley and spend a whole year eating only food grown or reared in Fife?
Join an audience with Mike Small talking about the 'Fife Diet' and find out.
For more information on the Fife Diet see http://fifediet.wordpress.com
Venue: St. Bryce Kirk, St. Brycedale Road, Kirkcaldy, Fife, KY1 1ET. Near the bus and railway stations.
All welcome. Suggested donation, to cover costs: £1.
"We are doing this because our current food system is completely unsustainable and we need to explore ways of living in a way that is survivable... it is about embracing the aim of eating local, boosting the local economy and reducing your food miles and carbon footprint."
- Mike Small
Under pressure from bosses, dole snoops, landlords, rip-off fuel firms, debt collectors?
Together we can handle it.
Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty is an organisation by and for victims of this exploitation. We offer help to people struggling with benefits claims, and have a phone tree so that when things get bad, you won't be alone.
Monthly open meeting: All welcome.
Tuesday 13th May, 7:30pm at the Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh
This saturday May 17th Pearce Institute Govan. Glasgow (15 Min by tube from city centre)
What's the Reshuffle
We can never convince folk to take up the gauntlet and to fight the many social ills that tend to consume our time without first creating or repairing a social base in which to work from. one of the ways to do this is to create small events and projects that are achievable and winnable that people can see work, that will give them confidence to try the next thing.
The Reshuffle helps to offer a platform for these kind of activities. In order that folk can feel purpose in what they do and try to achieve, they need to feel good about themselves first, so as well as focusing on the repressive issues we also need to celebrate cultural fulfilment and enjoyment.
So bringing some fun and enjoyment to the community can be part of the building blocks that strengthen the social base and can also even help to socialise some of the important tasks in community activism.
Full Programme:
This bookfair event is in collaboration with the May Reshuffle - a cultural community event for all - please click here for other info... reshuffle
A peaceful demonstration is planned to assert our right to freely protest without fear. It will be held at 12pm on the 18th of May at Parliament Square, as a response to the campaign of harassment and intimidation which Lothian and Borders Police is directing at peaceful protsters in Edinburgh.
More info: http://scotland.indymedia.org/node/10345
Glasgow Grassroots Event with Variant Magazine
Uisge Beatha - 232 Woodlands Road - Glasgow G3 6ND
The Uisge Beatha is a pub just up from Kelvinbridge Underground
OVERIDENTIFICATION AND/OR BUST?
Public discussion with Stevphen Shukaitis on issues raised by the publication: Cultural Activism Today - The Art of Over-Identification
Uisge Beatha - 232 Woodlands Road - Glasgow G3 6ND (Kelvinbridge U)
If, as claimed within the autonomist tradition, capitalism derives its lifeblood from attempts to negate it, where does this leave the position of the subversive artist? Of the aesthetics of resistance? Instead of succumbing to society’s demand for small creative acts, should artists over-identify with the ruling, post-historical order and take the latter’s immanent laws to their most extreme, dystopian consequences?
Join us for a meander through the 'Creative' think-wonkery of structural maladjustment, from the urban deployment of the Rebel Clown Army to the perverse counter-play of The Yes Men, and beyond...
all welcome - For further information, please see: http://www.variant.org.uk/events.html
A meeting for Open Discussion
Movement for Justice in El Barrio
"Best power to the people movement in NYC"
Grass-roots democracy, community and solidarity.
As part of The Other Campaign, Movement for Justice in El Barrio is a grassroots immigrant organisation fighting against gentrification and for justice in New York City. We are an organisation committed to being truly rooted in our community base of El Barrio. For many years, the Zapatistas have consulted their own community base for organisational decisions and direction. Movement for Justice in El Barrio also believes it is of utmost importance to integrate community led democratic principles within our own organising efforts.
- The campaign to defend Aamer Anwar
- The campaign against the Counter Terrorism Bill and 42-day detention without charge
- The campaign against rendition flights
7:30 pm Friends Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh
Influential author of No Logo and the essential The Shock Doctrine touring the UK but with one date only in Scotland.
University of Dundee
New Teaching Block
Old Hawkhill
Lecture is free and all are welcome, but tickets are required. Tickets are available from the online store, Borders Dundee, the University of Dundee Tower Reception or by calling 01382 384768.
Everyone welcome
Councillor Gordon Munro; Liz Elkind (STUC, pers. cap.); Colin Fox (SSP); Word Power Bookshop; Communist Party of Britain, Edinburgh branch; Communist League.
Projectile is a major political and cultural event in the anarchist calendar. Now in its fourth year it promises to be bigger and better than ever.
Whats on?
Films, discussions, practical workshops,panel debates, Q and As, music, poetry and art installations will be squeezed like veritable sardines into the four days. We'll be watching, talking about and listening to: Chiapas, Ethel MacDonald, class war, punk rock, situationism, queer politics and memories of 1968 from a Geordie working class perspective.
Projectile is a major political and cultural event in the anarchist calendar. Now in its fourth year it promises to be bigger and better than ever.
Whats on?
Films, discussions, practical workshops,panel debates, Q and As, music, poetry and art installations will be squeezed like veritable sardines into the four days. We'll be watching, talking about and listening to: Chiapas, Ethel MacDonald, class war, punk rock, situationism, queer politics and memories of 1968 from a Geordie working class perspective.
Glasgow Zimbabwe Vigil
* Saturday, 24th May 2008, 2 – 6 pm.
Venue: Argyle Street Precinct.
For more information contact: Ancilla Chifamba, 07770 291 150, Patrick Dzimba, 07990 724 137 and Jonathan Chireka, 07504 724 471.
Projectile is a major political and cultural event in the anarchist calendar. Now in its fourth year it promises to be bigger and better than ever.
Whats on?
Films, discussions, practical workshops,panel debates, Q and As, music, poetry and art installations will be squeezed like veritable sardines into the four days. We'll be watching, talking about and listening to: Chiapas, Ethel MacDonald, class war, punk rock, situationism, queer politics and memories of 1968 from a Geordie working class perspective.
Projectile is a major political and cultural event in the anarchist calendar. Now in its fourth year it promises to be bigger and better than ever.
Whats on?
Films, discussions, practical workshops,panel debates, Q and As, music, poetry and art installations will be squeezed like veritable sardines into the four days. We'll be watching, talking about and listening to: Chiapas, Ethel MacDonald, class war, punk rock, situationism, queer politics and memories of 1968 from a Geordie working class perspective.
Using a 'Trojan Horse' ID card, in the guise of a pensioner's bus pass, the government have tricked around a quarter of the population into carrying the unpopular 'entitlement cards' which are linked to a database so intrusive it would be banned in Germany.
Public meeting to discuss this - and another sneak ID-card, Young Scot - and the future of ID cards in Scotland.
7pm, in the Library, Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace
Tuesday 27th may
Tue 27 May, 7:30pm at the Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh
Room L13.18, 13th Floor, Livingstone Tower, Strathclyde University
19:00 Pre meeting coffee and biscuits in Room L13.18, 13th Floor, Livingstone Towers, Department of Computer & Information Sciences, University of Strathclyde. A chance to get to know other people at the meeting.
19:30 The official meeting starts at 19:30 in Room L13.18, 13th Floor, Livingstone Towers, Department of Computer & Information Sciences, University of Strathclyde. This part of the meeting is used for talks, presentations, Q&A sessions and the occasional trivia quiz.
Peace News co-editor and author of War Plan Iraq and 7/7: The London Bombngs and the war in Iraq, Milan Rai is speaking in Stirling at the Argyll Centre, Princes Street, Stirling at 19.30 on Thursday 29th May at a public meeting jointly organised by Stirling CND and Stirling Campaign for Justice not War. All welcome.
All-Day All-Ages Benefit Gig (Bank Holiday Sunday) 1st June
PJ Molloys (7 Canmore Street) Dunfermline Fife
Fighting for our communities!
Learn the skills to defend and improve our lives, and our communities.
3PM, Sunday 1st June, at the Woodside Halls, Glenfarg St / Clarendon Street
Glasgow Residents Network, together with an assortment of friends from the Scottish Tenants Organisation, Praxis, Maryhill SSP, and others, have put together a community training day to develop the skills and confidence of community organisers to take the fight to the enemy.
Come along and learn about:-
- Forming a community plan
- Meeting your neighbours and building for community action
- Tackling the Glasgow Housing Association
- Fighting for a safe community
3PM, Sunday 1st June, at the Woodside Halls, Glenfarg St / Clarendon Street
Download the flier:
http://snipurl.com/creativecommunity
Interested? Get in touch today: glasgowresidentsnetwork@gmail.com
COMMUNITIES - WE ARE STRONGER WHEN WE STAND TOGETHER
3PM, Sunday 1st June, at the Woodside Halls, Glenfarg St / Clarendon Street
EAT TO THE BEAT 3
in aid of North Glasgow Community Food Initiative
Balgrayhill Community Centre, Balgrayhill Road, Springburn
Food *Live Music * DJ Peaches* Creche *Licensed Bar*
Tickets £5 /£2
Book now: 0141 558 2600 or email volunteer [AT] ngcfi.org.uk
Bus - pre book only - Royston and Red Road
meeting Friday June 6th 7pm Behind the crisis in Zimbabwe at second floor, 105 hanover Street, edinburgh speaker Kyle Bellamy,organised by Militant labour Forum.
Langside Halls, Glasgow, 1pm
A national rally being organised by the Defend Tommy Sheridan campaign /Defend the Sheridan 7 on Saturday June 7th in Glasgow's Langside Halls at
1pm. Speakers invited include Bob Crow, Janice Godrich, Kenny Ross, Gerry Conlon, John McManus and Ricky Tomlinson.
I hope you can attend the rally as we clearly want a large turnout so that we can expose yet again the witchhunt being orchestrated by Rupert Murdoch.
More details can be found on
www.defendtommysheridan.orgJunctionBar, Queens Street. Free Entry
Music food, films and a friendly introduction to campaigns in Glasgow.
Think that the most productive part of the meeting is the informal chat afterwards?
Want to get involved with making Glasgow a better place but don't know where to start?
Got a project you need help with?
Or just nothing to do on a Sunday now that the footy season's over?
Then join us this Sunday for an informal get-together with fellow subversives. We're planning on showing films, playing music and having speakers introducing some of the projects they are involved in.
Leave dogma at the door and let's discuss what we can do.
Benifit film night for the Diaz and Bolzaneto survivors.
The films being shown are:
"OP Genova 2001. Public Order during the G8" and "The Diaz raid Genova 2001"
Followed by a Q&A session about the latest devolpments and the trials. Speakers from the Genova Legal Forum and Activist Trauma Support.
Free Event at The Forest Cafe - 3 Bristo Place, Edinburgh
For info see www.theforest.org.uk or email activist_trauma@riseup.net
Genova Legal Forum and Activist Trauma Support
Films: 'OP. Genova 2001. Public Order during the G8' & 'The Diaz raid Genoa 2001' & local activist shorts
Followed by a Q & A session about the latest developments in the trials and discussion regarding the implications of Genoa for our wider movement and the 2009 G8 Summit in La Maddalena, Italy. Speakers from Genova legal Forum & Activist Trauma Support
Sunday 8th June 2008
7:00pm start
The Forest Cafe
3 Bristo Place
Edingburgh
EH1 1EY
Free event
Protestors at the 2001 G8 in Genova faced massive police brutality. The trials of the police involved in the Diaz and Bolzaneto cases are nearing their conclusion. At the end of July the judge in the Bolzaneto trial will deliver his verdict, while the Diaz trial will enter it's closing sequence. Around 150 of the survivors of Diaz and Bolzaneto will gather in Genova to mark these events.
Activist Trauma Support are planning to be in Genova to offer support to the survivors during this period. This benefit will raise money to enable this support to take place.
'OP. Genova 2001. Public Order during the G8'
Produced by the Secretariat of the Genoa Legal Forum.
OP is a detailed examination of the events of the 20th of July 2001, when marches and rallies around the red zone were heavily attacked by the police. Through maps, recordings of police radio communications and other evidence gathered in the course of the trial against 25 demostrators, the film exposes the way the police forces turned the streets of Genoa into a
war zone. Who was the real threat to Public Order at the 2001 G8?
