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Take over the city! A day of practical workshops on resistance to gentrification, redevelopment, and community struggles about land!
June 1, 2019 @ 12:00 pm - 5:00 pm BST
Last year Mayday Rooms created an archive of housing struggles around London during the last ten years, which includes material produced by a large number of housing campaigns, rent strikes, and a collection on the history of organised squatting. Taking this as our point of departure, we are organising a day of workshops on housing coops, squatting, and community organising as part of the Anarchist Festival 2019. We hope that this day of workshops will create a space where we’ll share practical skills and discuss resistance and alternatives, meet with others involved in similar activism, as well as explore the materials in the archival collections to get inspired.
There will be a crèche going on. Please email fani@maydayrooms.org if you’re coming with kids with details about their age to make sure we have enough people available.
- 11-1pm Squatting in London: Publication re-launch and practical workshop
Join us for the re-launch of the publication ‘Squatting Is Part of The Housing Movement: Practical Squatting Histories from 1968 to Now’. This publication is the outcome of a residency in MayDay Rooms, and is part of our Housing Struggles Archive that we compiled last year. After an extensive research and a gathering of materials from different archives, including 56a Infoshop, there is now a three box collection of materials on squatting history in the UK. This publication will put the material in context. The launch will involve a short discussion on the issues the publication is covering and you’ll get the chance to grab a pamphlet.
The re-launch will be followed by a workshop on the practicalities of squatting, ie opening a squat, and dealing with the police and evictions.
Organised by: 56a Infoshop
- 12-2pm: Radical Routes on Housing Coops
What’s it like to set up and to live in a housing co-op? We’ll look at types of properties and living arrangements from co-housing, to trailer parks to communes and find out what folks round the country are up to. We’ll then have a detailed look at the nitty gritty of setting up a housing coop.
Organised by: Radical Routes
- 1-3pm: The Myth of Community: The Challenges of Organising Locally
Save the community’, ‘Support from the community’, ‘The community thinks’, ‘Community Land Trust’ are just a few of the references to ‘community’ that we us when are involved in a range of struggles such as housing, saving a library or getting access to land. However, to what extent does this ‘community’ exist? In this meeting, drawing on many practical examples of organising, we will discuss problems such as the impact of capitalism and divisions within localities. We will then hope to discuss how we can create genuine communities based on working class struggle.
Organised by: London Anarchist Communist Group
TICKET LINK:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-myth-of-community-the-challenges-of-organising-locally-tickets-60390892786
- 2:30-4pm: Organising practical solidarity, collective support and action on housing and homelessness.
Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth celebrated our 6th birthday in April. Come along to our discussion on 6 years of organising in south London to hear and share experiences of organising together.
We support each other with housing problems including overcrowding, unsuitable temporary accommodation, high rents, dangerous conditions, gatekeeping and poor treatment at the housing office. We learn our rights together, support each other and fight for good quality council homes for everyone.
Organised by: HASL (Housing Action Southwark & Lambeth)