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

AGITPROP NOTES

Camera Forward!

The Antihistory Tabloid

Squatting Is Part of The Housing Movement

Pandemic Notes Workbook

Little Red Blue Book

Upcoming & Recent Events

July 15

😎 Summer Closure: 15th July -13th August

MayDay Rooms will be having its annual summer closure between 15th July -13th August. During this time we won’t be taking archival bookings or room bookings. If you would like […]

July 18 @ 7:00 pm

ARCHIVAL GATHERINGS with Moushumi Bhowmik

Following on from two sold out performances, a Kolkata-based Bengali singer, composer and practice-led researcher Moushumi Bhowmik is back in London to present on and perform her archive of songs […]

July 11 @ 6:30 pm

Big Flame: Scanathon and Cataloguing Session

In anticipation of the upcoming book on Big Flame from Merlin Press, we will be having an evening of scanning, cataloguing, and searching through our favourite revolutionary-socialist group, Big Flame. Come […]

July 3 @ 7:00 pm

‘Calling-in’ les petroleuses – an improvised performance by Polimprov

This multimedia performance by collaborative artist-improvisers, Gillian Whiteley and Geoff Bright, forms the final phase of the current exhibition at MayDay Rooms. It reactivates the names of women activists in the 1871 […]

June 13 @ 2:00 pm

Scrittura di Esperienza Writing Workshop with Lucia Farinati and Eleonora Bottini with Alessia Arcuri and Sara Ortolani (Autocoscienza Writing Group)

What is the role of co-narration in feminist practices of consciousness-raising? In what way is it possible to develop new feminist practices through writing? Scrittura di esperienza (experiential writing) is a […]

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.

As we enter our tenth year, 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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