Programme

We run a public programme including archival projects, publications, film screenings, “scan-a-thons” for digitising archival material, workshops, talks and discussion, reading groups, and social nights, all of which encourage active and collective engagement with history of social movements.

Publications

UNCHARTED: Histories of Migrant Health and (In) Access in the 1970s

AGITPROP NOTES

Camera Forward!

The Antihistory Tabloid

Squatting Is Part of The Housing Movement

Pandemic Notes Workbook

Little Red Blue Book

Upcoming & Recent Events

February 27 @ 7:00 pm

Archival Film Night for LGBTQ+ History Month: The Archivettes (2019)

When a group of women in the Gay Academic Union founded the Lesbian Herstory Archives in the mid-1970s, they did so in explicit recognition that lesbian herstory ‘was disappearing […]

February 26 @ 6:30 pm

Archiving from Below Discussion Series: All Knees and Elbows of Susceptibility and Refusal: Reading History From Below

In All Knees and Elbows, published in 2012 Tom Roberts and Anthony Iles attempted to recover and politically and critically survey the work of historians contributing to practices of reading and […]

February 25 @ 6:00 pm

Listening Event: No Fear! An oral history project on the Student Movement (2010-2012) with MayDay Rooms and On the Record.

Celebrating our newly trained Oral Historians! Over 8 sessions, the No Fear! cohort were equipped with archival resources and oral history training to build a new archive representing the experiences […]

February 7 @ 7:00 pm

‘FEKS’ performed by New Factory of the Eccentric Actor

We are thrilled to welcome The New Factory of the Eccentric Actor back to MDR, following their wonderful performance of The Blue Blouse (Синяя блуза) in 2019. First staged by The New […]

February 5 @ 7:00 pm

Pirate Care: Acts Against the Criminalization of Solidarity

We are very excited to welcome longtime friends and comrades of MDR, Valeria Graziano, Tomislav Medak and Marcell Mars, to discuss their new book Pirate Care: Acts Against the Criminalization of […]

MayDay Rooms Projects

All Projects

Archiving from Below

Since its inception, MayDay Rooms has been built on the principle of archiving from below, challenging the conventional institutional methods of gathering, shaping, and disseminating the history of struggles.

After over a decade of archiving, we are launching a reading and discussion group to address the practices of archiving from below and strategies of activating the histories of resistance.

The group is open to archivists, researchers, historians involved in both past and present organising, and anyone interested in radical archives. Our aim is to share our own approach, learn from each other, and collaboratively develop counter-archival practices that extend beyond mere critique.

For Peace!

We are collecting materials and stories from live and historical campaigns working for peace. We want to create an inspiring open-access archive showing a wide range of campaigns and movements.

Peace groups, demilitarisation activities, anti-militarist campaigns, feminist responses to war, anti-war mobilisations, pacifist education are just some examples of what we’re looking for. We want leaflets, interviews, oral histories, newspapers, videos, films, banners, stencils to be made available online and in a touring exhibition.

No contribution is too small! We will favour campaigns active within our lifetimes, but would be happy to consider materials dating all the way back to the opposition to the First World War. The geographical focus is Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but we are also interested in international and transnational campaigns.

Uncovering the Archive

The programme offers a free series of workshops & screenings with an aim to engage young people (18-25) from marginalised backgrounds and/or those who have not engaged with archives before or are not currently in higher education. The intention is to introduce the archive as a resource and archiving as a mode of storytelling available to, and representative of, those who are normally excluded from history- making practices.

The programme offers a free series of workshops & screenings with an aim to engage young people (18-25) from marginalised backgrounds and/or those who have not engaged with archives before or are not currently in higher education. The intention is to introduce the archive as a resource and archiving as a mode of storytelling available to, and representative of, those who are normally excluded from history- making practices.

The Cost-of-Living Crisis and Histories of Direct Action

The current cost-of-living crisis has incentivised a number of strikes in workplaces and sectors all across the country. However, the sphere of production isn’t the only place where a revitalisation of struggle is emerging. Struggles in the sphere of circulation, from energy bill refusal to mass shoplifting, have re-emerged as proletarian responses to our ongoing crises. From Marius Jacob’s ‘night workers’ to the ‘proletarian shopping’ of 1970s Italy, from the Poll Tax federations to student rent strikes, there is a historical precedent for this activity that must be explored and analysed if we wish to push these contemporary struggles further.

Seize the Media

Indymedia was a global network of Independent Media Centres (IMC) which saw its heyday in the first two decades of the 21st Century. Self-organised networks of local activists covered international resistance to capitalism, ecocide, neocolonialism and many other local and international struggles. Indymedia became synonymous with the issues taken up by the Global Justice Movement. Powered by the internet and built on IMC servers, Indymedia embodied the ethos of DIY journalism and autonomous media. It is a vital part of the pre-history of social media and digitally-enabled activism.

New Architectural Movement Digital Archive

A unique collection of documents from a significant activist movement that challenged the established order of architectural practice both in the private and public sectors goes online in November. In the mid-1970s the New Architecture Movement (NAM) gave a voice to progressive and inclusive initiatives that encouraged people to promote social change and greater equality through their work in the built environment.

The launch of NAM’s archive provides both a new resource for historical research and also a challenge to present and future generations in the field to reinterpret and apply NAM’s radical ideas to current issues. NAM brought together young idealistic architects, engineers and planners from across the UK seeking ways to reform working practices and the planning and development process. In an intensely productive period from 1975-80 the movement ran workshops, campaigns and seminars on a range of issues – professional education and governance, workplace structures, feminism, public sector design, worker unionisation – to create an alternative vision that put the priorities of people and communities ahead of developers,corporations and officials.

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